Pippa

The next morning, I got up at usual.  I took a shower, brushed my teeth, and combed my hair before breakfast.  After grabbing some food, I sat down to eat.  I had grabbed a little extra since, these days, I never felt full.  I tore off a piece of pancake and dipped it in a plastic cup filled with syrup.  While I munched, I happened to hear the girls talking at the table next to me.

            “Yeah �" didn’t you hear?  The new girl �" you know �" with really puffy, red hair �" she pulled the alarm last night,” one girl said excitedly.

            “What?  Why would she do that?” the other girl asked.

            “I don’t know.  She probably did it as a prank.”

            “Well, that’s stupid.”

            “I know!  I was having such a good sleep last night too,” whined the first girl, “I can’t believe she did that!”

            I dipped another piece of my soft, fluffy pancake into the syrup and watched the caramel colored syrup slowly ooze off the tip, thinking of an answer to the last girl’s comment.

            Neither can I…

***

            That day, in my science class, something changed.  For an activity, we counted off by twelve’s to pair off.  I mumbled my number five and the students continued the count down the next row.  Then everyone slugged over to their non �" chosen partner.  I looked about the room for my number five who I had not listened for.  Between the moving bodies, I spotted a small hand holding up five fingers.  The students cleared out of the way, and there stood the red head.  Oh wait �" her name was Pippa.  I sauntered over to her.  She looked up at my movement and nearly jumped out of her skin.  Her eyes widened in fear and she began to scrunch up like a turtle.  

I stepped in front of her. “Hi,” I said, stuffing my hands in my sweater pockets.  She bit her lip, and I waited for a response, but she offered none. “Okay…” I hummed awkwardly and shuffled around until I sat in a seat near her. “Let’s get started.”  She inched back to her desk (which wasn’t very far away considering she barely even moved) and sat down with her hands in her lap and head low as always.  I took out my notebook and held my pencil ready.  “So, the first question: what did we gain from doing the lab activity?” I read off the worksheet, and glanced up at her.  Her eyebrows were narrowed to the extreme as if she were thinking awfully hard.  She nibbled her bottom lip. “Pip,” I cut off her thoughts, in which she flinched. I sighed melodramatically and said, “I don’t think you did it.”

            And that was all it took.  She finally looked at me, her eyes wide and watering like crazy.  The stare was so intense I felt I might melt or burst into hysterical laughing if I didn’t melt.  Her lips curved a little upward, and she glanced down at the table, and back at me, and then back at the table as if she was suddenly embarrassed of looking at me directly. 

            “I thought the lab activity was interesting,” she said in a little voice.  She started to smile some more. “But a little boring,” she admitted.  To my surprise, I snickered.  She gaped at me. “D-did I say something wrong?” she gasped.

            “No,” I laughed again.    

            She had an endless supply of facial expression.    

***

            After science class, Pippa went to her locker to grab her backpack before following me out to the side of the school where the buses came to pick the students up.  We stood outside in the chilled air, arms crossed and shivering, waiting for the bus.  She kept bobbing up and down.  I flipped my sweater hood over my head and looked down the street at the oncoming yellow buses.  They drove into the parking lot one at a time, parking in an orderly fashion.  I joined the line going onto my bus.  Pippa hopped on the bus after me, and I picked a seat in the back, which she happily stole half of.  I glanced over at her, waiting for her to say something �" whatever was on her mind that was making her so jumpy.  To my dismay, she just kept swinging back and forth.

            I cleared my throat. “So, what really happened the night of the fire alarm?” I asked.

            Her spine grew stiff and her eyes widened. 

            “You don’t have to talk about it,” I said, worried that I might have triggered her terrible hidden personality.

            She huffed out air, slouching over. “No, no, no,” she said. “I was just a little surprised that you brought it up.”

I guiltily perked my lips to the side.

“That night was just a prank, basically,” Pippa began. “During free time, the girls told me to pull the fire alarm in the middle of the night.  They took away the picture of my mom and said they wouldn’t give it back until I did it,” she said, her eyes down. “I had to �" because that’s the only picture I got to take of my mom.  So, in the middle of the night, I got out of bed and pulled the alarm.  Then I snuck out with the other kids, hoping that I wouldn’t get caught, but, I didn’t know there were cameras in the hallway.  After Sydney told Teresa that I did it, the parents watched the video and saw me…  So, I got in big trouble.  I have to stay inside during free time for today and tomorrow,” she said and smiled. “But I don’t really mind because Madelyn them will bully me if I’m wandering around.  As long as I’m grounded, I’m safe.”

“Why don’t you just stick with me?” I suggested, surprised by my own words.

She looked up at me in awe for a moment before her face screwed up into uncontrolled happiness. “Really?” she asked.

I smiled, “sure, why not?”

She squealed and threw herself on me, squeezing me with her small arms. “You’re too nice,” she said.

“Um, sure,” I said, my hands up in the air.  Then I peeked down at her. “By the way, do you know my name?”

She stared baffled up at me with her big, green eyes. “Oh,” was all she said.

I snickered. “It’s Rena,” I said.

She smiled. “I’m Pippa.”

“I know.”

“Oh.”

We laughed.