Chapter Five

 Chapter Five

 

     “Shshsh,” Summer cautioned as I approached her in the hall.

     “What?” I whispered.

     “Look,” she said pointing her finger down the hall.

     I looked down the hall and immediately saw Star with that guy again.  She was casually leaning against his locker.  She was displaying all the cutesy signs of flirtation.  Every now and then she would flip her hair back over her shoulder and softly giggle.  As I watched the two of them, I began to notice the locker area.  We were standing right in the doorway of the hall leading to the cafeteria. Every class had their own locker areas. Many people switched lockers around, but generally they stuck to their own class. Junior and Sophomore lockers were upstairs. Freshman lockers were in the basement. The main level was for the Seniors’ lockers!

     “Is he a Senior?” I asked.

     “I never paid attention, but I think he may be!“ Summer replied with just as much surprise in her voice.

     “Can you two be any more obvious?” Amber said coming up behind us.

     “I’m sure we could if we tried,“ Summer said with one hand on her hip.

     “Why don’t we get going before either one of them notices we’ve been watching,” I suggested.  

     Everyone agreed and began our trek to the lunchroom.  Summer and Amber chatted back and forth, but I stayed quiet.  I didn’t feel like talking.  I couldn’t believe that Star was cheating on Chris and with a Senior and a cute one at that!  She bagged two totally cute guys and all in the first week of school.  Now I was starting to question whether I was jealous of her because she had Chris and I didn’t or if I was jealous because she had two guys and I had one big goose egg.  Oh, I did have a couple notes if that counted for anything other than annoyance.  

     Once we were in the lunchroom I got a warm pretzel and a bottle of orange juice and followed everyone outside.  Of course the conversation turned back to Star and the mystery guy.  I just couldn’t deal with it anymore.  I politely excused myself, using a sudden need for a walk as an excuse, and walked back into the cafeteria.  I stood in the doorway taking in everyone eating and talking in this mass group of noise and cafeteria food smell.  I saw everyone’s mouths moving, but just one big sound rose to the high ceiling of the room.  The smell of tater tots engulfed my nose and what I just couldn’t explain was that no one had tater tots!  Why did the cafeteria always smell like a tot?  I saw Meg sitting by herself reading a novel and quietly eating her lunch.  I didn’t think that she would mind a little company.  I walked up to her table and sat across from her.

     “Hi. How ya doin’?”

     “Oh! Hi Trinity!  I’m doing just fine.  How are you?”

     “I’ve been better.”

     “Wow, what’s wrong?” she asked as she placed her bookmark in to save her spot and set the book down.

     That was the question I’d been looking for.  I told Meg everything from the things that had been going on with Star and Chris to the “secret admirer” I had standing watch over my locker.  Poor Meg sat there speechless with sympathetic eyes.  She never uttered a word, but her expressions told me she was listening intently.  If felt really good just to unleash everything and get it off my chest.  It felt even better to have someone listen to me and not throw in an opinion or two.  

     “Do you feel better?” Meg asked sincerely.

     “You know Meg, I do.  I’m sorry to dump all of this on you.”

     “Oh, that’s okay.  If there’s one good trait I’ve got, then that’s listening.  I’m not very good with advice so I never really give it, but I can sure listen,” she said with a smile.

     “You know Meg, sometimes that’s all someone ever really needs,” I said with a weak smile.

     We chatted for a while until the bell rang and lunch was over.  Meg and I walked to our lockers.  In the light of so much negativity, it felt really good to get back to some lighthearted conversation.  We came to my locker first and guess what was taped to the front?  You guessed it!  There was another note taped neatly right on the front of my locker.  There wasn’t anything else with this one.  I pulled it off and read it to Meg.

 

                The dawn paints a blush

        Across the flower’s petals of white

        The flower stands a bit taller

        Witnessing this beautiful sight

 

     “See what I mean!?  I can’t wait until sixth period.  I’m really going to let Lester have it,” I said as I squished the note into my pocket.

     “I think it’s sweet,” said Meg.

     Meg was so incredibly positive, but her statement just made my eyes roll.  It was so amazing how she always saw the best in every situation.  I really did admire that in her.  I, on the other hand, sometimes leaned toward the negative side of life.  My mom always has to remind me that every cloud has a sliver lining.  It just takes me a while to get past the overcast shadow.

     Gym class was nothing unusual.  We got changed and indulged ourselves in physical activity for an hour.  We ran around the track three times for a warm-up.  I was surprised at how good it felt!  I purposely kept a pace that kept me in the front of almost everyone and avoided eye contact.  At first my legs itched and burned and my mind began to wander. After the first lap though, my head was clear and I was focused only on running.  Even Coach Jenkins commented on my tenacity.  I was just thankful for the distraction.  I didn’t talk to anyone during the whole class period and had just enough time to take a quick shower and run to English.

    The day had been very frustrating and all I wanted to do was go home.  I walked into class, a little earlier than yesterday, dragging my feet and glancing at the clock.  I turned at my row and proceeded towards my chair.  As I got closer I noticed something lying on my desk.  I dropped my bag on the floor beside my desk and grabbed what was lying on the desktop.  My name was carefully printed on the small square of paper.  I walked over to Lester and dropped the note on his desk.

     “Why are you doing this?” I asked him.

     “What?” he said so innocently.

     “The roses, the candy, the note... I want it to stop now.  Leave me alone!”

     “What are you talking about?”

     “Oh don’t be smug with me.  You know exactly what I’m talking about.”

     “No, honestly I don’t,” he was beginning to look a little scared.  I glanced around the room and noticed everyone staring at us and slowly sank into my seat beside him with an apologetic smile.

     “Now,” I said slowly, “You don’t know anything about the rose, the candy or the note?”

      “I didn’t say that.  I know about the note with the candy.  I admit that was me, but I swear I don’t know anything else.”

     “You didn’t give me the rose or the note today on my locker?”

     “I wish I had.”

     “Oh, please,” I said and sat back in my seat.

     Ms. Keys walked in right as I lifted my head up.  Thankfully she wasn’t there earlier to witness my self indulged embarrassment.  I was completely confused.  If Lester didn’t leave me all of those things, then that meant I did have two admirers and one is still unknown.  I unfolded the note and began to read the typed words.

  

     Dear Trinity,

          Sorry to have to type this, but I don’t want you to know my handwriting just yet.  I hope you enjoyed the rose.  I just wanted to let you know that I think you’re really nice and one day soon I’ll let you know who I am and then we can talk.

 

     I smiled a little to myself.  It was a sweet note, but it made me a little nervous to know that someone was watching me, but I didn’t know who it was.  I figured that it had to be someone in this class.  I took a look around.  There were a lot of really nice looking guys. I let my mind wander to each potential face. He is probably right here. Maybe he’s is watching me too. Boy, do I feel foolish now. My eyes fell onto Lester right as he turned around in my direction and smiled. My stomach sank and I slid down into my seat.  I told myself this wasn’t the time.  I slid the note in my pocket and listened to Ms. Keys’ lecture.

     After class Lester left immediately.  Hopefully his crush was crushed. I should have felt bad for hurting his feelings, but in a self-centered way I didn’t care.  Steve came up to me as I packed up my things.

     “Remind me never to mess with you,” Steve said.

     “Huh?”

     “You really laid into Lester.  You’re not going to jump me too are you?”

     I stood up and took a deep sigh.

     “No, I’m okay.  I’m sorry for all of that.  I’m really not like that.  It’s just been a crazy two days.  I don’t want to think about the next four years.”

     “I’m sure it’ll get better.”

     “Well,” I said as I grabbed my things and headed for the door, “It can’t get much worse.”

     I ran down to my locker and grabbed some books then sped on to the bus.  Miraculously Meg had beaten me on the bus.  She was sitting by the window waving like crazy.  I climbed on board and sat down beside her.

     “I’m so excited Trinity.  My sister will be home when I get there!”

     “You really adore your sister don’t you?”

     “Oh yes I do!  She’s the best.  Oh, by the way, does our school have a swimming pool?”

     “Gee, I don’t know,” I said as I heard someone giggling.

     “Who was that?” Meg asked looking around.

     “I’m sorry to eavesdrop on your conversation, but I just had to,” the girl in the seat in front of us said as she smiled a friendly smile that made her green eyes twinkle.

     “Who are you?” Meg asked.

     “Oops, I’m sorry again.  My name is Marissa Harris.  I live two houses down from Chris.”

     “Hi, I’m Meggie and this is Trinity.  Why were you laughing at our conversation?”

     “It was just the swimming pool comment.  That’s one of the oldest jokes around.  It’s a freshman joke.  The sophomores like to pick on us because they were picked on the year before. My brother is a sophomore and he gets people on that all the time”

     “I don’t think it’s so funny!” Meg said obviously perturbed.  “I actually got excited that we had an indoor pool here.  I suppose there’s no third floor either?”

     We all laughed and talked all the way home.  Marissa was really nice and it was great getting to know the neighborhood kids.  The bus ride home was the most enjoyable part of the day, but I was still extremely glad to be home.  When I got off the bus I said goodbye to Meg and waved to Marissa in the bus window.  Chris wasn’t on the bus.  I knew he had to be with Star.  I wasn’t going to let it bother me.  I was home now.