Chapter 5 : Somebody Cares

Chapter 5 : Somebody Cares

Jaslyn gestured for me to follow her. She led me into the school’s courtyard. Now would be a good time to describe the girl. Picture a tall, slender girl of around five feet nine inches, a pretty face and you’ve got Jas. She and Jaedrian are eurasians. Their mom is Chinese and their dad is British. Strangely though, they live in America.

“We’ve got a problem.” she looked brutally serious, like she was gonna kill somebody. “We do?” I asked her, feeling nervous. Whenever Jas said we had a problem, it meant she had a solution to that problem. Let’s just say her solutions usually include me and they aren’t exactly kick-a*s. Instead, they kick my a*s.

She nodded. “You know Sunday?” She didn’t even wait for my reply! “I like her. She’s feisty and she’s got attitude, that’s for sure. Different from the rest of the girls. This one’s got a brain.” “Harder for you to control,” I teased. She grinned, stretched her arms out stiffly and spoke in a robotic voice, “Your will is my command master.”

“Anyway,” her gaze turned stoic, “I think my brother has a crush on her.” “Ooookay. So?” “So? So? Paul. Have you lost your mind?” “Urm. No. It’s in here,” I tapped my head and smirked goofily. She sighed. “Why are you being so difficult?” “I’m being difficult? Ooh. Jas-girl hit a nerve. Paul’s angry now. Very angry. He’s going to turn into the Hulk, pummel Jas-girl into a pulp and kick her butt all the way to Nantucket!”

Jaslyn rolled her eyes. “Paul. Remember what happened the last time Jae went out with the new girl?” I sober up. I remember vividly, I could give you a play by play of what went down. The incident still haunts me.

“Yea,” I mutter.

“Well, I don’t want the same thing to happen again. So, I was thinking. Maybe you should go after Sunday.”

“WHAT?” I bellowed, ignoring the fervent stares I had attracted from various curious onlookers. “Look away, shoo, shoo,” I chastised them.

I faced Jas again and raised an eyebrow.

“I thing you’ve honestly lost your marbles this time Jas. You can’t be serious. Jae has the hots for this girl, and you want me to chase after her? That’s like, betrayal 101! Not to mention it’ll get me killed by my best friend in the process! I don’t even like her that way,” I gave an over-exaggerated shiver to back myself up.

“Oh please Paul?” she made gigantic doe eyes at me. Oh no! I could feel myself weakening, no, must, resist. “Oh alright. I’ll think about it.” Jas gave a squeal and hugged me tightly. “Thank you thank you thank you!” Then, as if on cue, her posse arrived and Jaslyn was swept away in a flourish, waving to me as she left.

God, I make her sound like a queen. As if. I stalk off to class haughtily. Like a king, I might add. A cool king. Cooler than Jaslyn will ever be. Muahaha!

---

Anticipation. Minutes of anxious waiting that seem like hours and hours that stretch on. The hands of the clock are ticking sadistically slowly. Come on, come on.

Bringggg!

Yes! Lunch time. Crunch time. My time. It's time for me to shine baby! I sauntered out of class casually nodding at enthusiastically waving sophomores and fellow juniors. I stopped at room 401 and scanned the area for Jae. It had become a tradition. Whomever came out first would wait for the walked out of the room and we made our way to the cafeteria.

Our table was crowded. People were surrounding it, as per usual, but this time, it seemed more packed than usual. An arm stuck out and waved at us. Cool! A bodiless arm! Then I realized said arm had a charm bracelet on it. Kinda like the one Jas had. Oh no! Her arm lost it's body amongst the crowd! Gotta go save her!

"Have no fear, Super Paul is here!"

I hopped onto a table and parted the crowd, very much like Moses, was it? Yea, like he parted the red sea. Coz I'm just awesome like that. Then I locked eyes with a certain humongous-haired freakshow, remembered my deal with Jas, and the world stopped. I was falling. Falling like the Beast fell to his death when Gaston killed him, falling like, um, like, anybody would should he fall off a cliff. I was falling off the table!

Oh, crud. This can't be good.

Everything was moving in slow motion. I could feel myself tipping off the edge of the table. The noise around me zoned out and I couldn’t hear anything. Jaedrian was rushing to my side, trying to catch me when I fell, Jaslyn was busy pushing people away, clearing the space, making way to ensure nobody got hurt when I fell.

But where was the cause of my accident? Where was Sunday Summer Shae?

Crash!

I landed in a mess of debris and flailing arms and legs. It took me a few seconds to recover. Jaedrian offered his hand to pull me up. I accepted it gladly.

“You okay dude? Nothing broken?”

“If you don’t count my ego being bruised and my dignity having possibly died, I’m perfectly fine.”

---

Sunday glared at her beeping phone. Now was not the time. The commotion in the canteen was bad enough, she didn’t need this. But of course, they wouldn’t care. She quietly left the cafeteria. The din was just too much for her to bear. Her phone beeped again. She stole a glance at the blasted device.

‘It’s time.’