by Jannat Bhat
“Maybe I should harass you instead.” Julian offered to the blonde guy.
“Uh, no thanks. Please do continue to harass her. As much as you like.” Carter did not want Julian on his case. He was a friendly guy and hated to have arguments or conflicts of any sort.
“Are you never serious, Julian?” Mia looked at the grey-eyed guy whose locker was close to Eliana.
“I used to be. Not worth it.” Julian said with a dark undertone.
They shortly went about their classes as the warning bell rang above them for the day. None too soon Eliana and Julian had passed their essays to Ava before the beginning of the lecture and now stood in front of her to hear the result. “I’ve read both of your thoughts regarding the respective books which you were kind enough to pen down and I’ve taken my decision.” She said with their papers in hand. Both the students were anxious but Ava did not let them ponder on it for long. “Mr. Rivera, though your essay is truly commendable there are still a few points that come across as emotionally aggressive as compared to Ms. Bennet’s paper which is more pragmatic and up to the point. So you’ll both be working on her selection this semester. Do I make myself clear?” Ava said looking at them.
“Yes, Ms. Diaz.” Eliana sighed in relief.
Ava scribbled a hall pass and handed it to them. “You’ll go and collect your copies from the library and please start working on it.” She said, handing Eliana the pass. Eliana nodded accepting them. “And you Mr. Rivera, I appreciate your outlook, but I’d like to advise you to not ever let your emotions cloud your judgment.” Ava looked at Julian with an understanding but it didn’t make him feel any better. “Do you hear me?”
“Yes, Ms. Diaz.” It wasn’t Julian’s proudest moment.
“Get to the library now. I want you back in fifteen minutes.” She dismissed them.
Once outside the door, Eliana turned to Julian. “Well Mr. Rivera, I’m going to go now and get a copy of LOTR, if you don’t mind.” She smiled sweetly. “Or mind if you want, I don’t really care.”
Julian remained silent. He was mad at himself for not writing a more compelling essay. He moved past her towards the library when he heard her say, “You started this ridiculous fight but I’m going to win this war.”
Julian stared her down. “If you want me to wait on you. . .”
“Oh, there wouldn’t be any need for that.” Eliana interrupted him. “I’ll find some other way for you to . . . you know, be mad.” She grinned, enjoying the deep frown that Julian gave her and then walked ahead.
As they gathered for their break, Jax groaned taking his seat, “Classes seem to be going so fast!”
“I know right. There is so much information intake that I don’t even know what’s going on.” Eliana supported her brother.
“Nothing new in that. Do you ever know what’s going on?” Julian needled her.
“I wasn’t talking to you. Don’t forget that I won the bet.” She shot back neatly wrapping her stole around her neck. “Don’t get so emotional, Mr. Rivera.” Eliana told the others of Ava’s advice to Julian.
“Quiet!” Julian raised his palm in the air in front of her face. “We shall only speak now when my picture graces the Wall of Glory.”
“Ha! Keep dreaming.” She stood up with her empty tray and made her way towards the trash can when Julian moved in front of her abruptly and bent down doing side to side hip exercise, making her stumble onto him.
“What the hell?” She retaliated by pushing him to the side where he hit the pillar. “Can you not see?” He was so muscular she had to muster all her strength to make him move.
“Of course I can, but I only see pretty things.” Julian taunted and left for his next class.
“Idiot,” Eliana muttered and left too with others following in her wake.
After classes were over, Eliana went to the parking with a clutched copy of LOTR happily to take home and start on the project when her eyes fall on Julian next to his bike. He was talking to a girl with a disgruntled expression on his face. Eliana quickly hid behind a car from his view and tried to listen in to their conversation. She needed as much ammunition against him as possible to make his life miserable.
“I can’t believe you came all the way here.” Julian was saying.
“You can’t do this. Please Julian, I love you so much.” The girl cried, clenching Julian’s shirt in her hands. She looked the same age as Eliana with strawberry blonde hair and seemed like a kid with too much makeup on. From her worn out yellow top and jean skirt she had to be a southsider too.
“You should have loved me when I gave a shit. Stop this now, Caroline. I mean it.” He said, removing her hand from his chest, looking madder by the minute.
This is what you get for fooling around, thought Eliana. It’s known as karma.
“Please Julian, we can’t be over just like this. I can’t live without you.” The girl started sobbing. “I would rather die.”
“Then go die!” Julian snapped, losing his patience with her. “Damn it, Caroline. We’re done. Get that into your head. Now leave and don’t come back here.” He made his way around the girl shaking his head and got on his bike, riding out of the parking lot without a backward glance.
Looks like Rivera is going around breaking hearts, Eliana shook her head in pity for the girl.
The next morning at her locker, Eliana was going through her schedule for the day when Julian joined her. She acknowledged his presence with a glance. It was when she felt his eyes on her that she looked up again. “What?” She asked. She wondered if she should ask him about the girl from yesterday but decided it was none of her business.
“Nothing.” Julian turned back to his locker.
“Tell me.” She insisted.
“It’s nothing.” He shook his head.
“What do you want?” She closed the schedule file and asked again as Julian continued to gaze at her.
“I said it’s nothing.” He took his book of Calculus from the locker and put it under his arm.
“Can you just say it?” Eliana was close to losing her patience.
“What’s the point? Even if I do, you’ll take it the wrong way.” Julian closed his locker.
“I won’t,” Eliana assured him.
“You just have something on your face, right here.” He pointed towards her right cheek.
Eliana patted and rubbed the area blindly as she didn’t carry a mirror. “Is it okay now?”
“Here use this. Or let me.” He took out his handkerchief from jacket pocket and she stepped back glancing at the cloth suspiciously.
“See I told you. Never mind. I don’t know why I try to help you.” He turned but she stopped him.
“No, wait. Could you please . . .” Eliana closed her eyes as he cleaned her face thoroughly.
“There. All done. Now you look amazing.” He said with barely hidden glee. “Just perfect.”
“Thanks.” She said and turned around where she saw Carter and Mia come in together. One look at her face and they screamed bloody murder. Some other students snickered and started laughing her way.
“What the hell happened to you?” Carter asked still staring at her wide-eyed. “Was your house on fire this morning? Is that soot?”
“What do you mean?” Eliana was confused. She thought Julian had cleaned her face so she looked at him but he just shrugged and bit his lip.
“Have you seen your face?” Mia asked gently. When Eliana looked blank, Mia removed her compact mirror from her locker and passed it to her.
Eliana opened it and shrieked at her blackened face. “WHAT IS THIS?” The guys could barely catch their breath as they continued to laugh. “WHAT IS THIS?” Eliana shouted again at them in shock and touched her face lightly.
“It’s on your face, shouldn’t you be the one to know?” Julian asked innocently when he could control himself.
“YOU!” She yelled at him. “I should have known better than to trust you!” She wanted to strangle him.
�
�What? Me? I wouldn’t dare do something to the Mr. Bennett’s daughter.” The bell rang above. “Gotta go, later losers.” He turned after taking a couple of steps and looked at his source of entertainment. “You finally look like your true self, Bennett. All the makeup in the world can’t hide your kind of crazy.”
“Urgh!” Eliana stomped her foot in frustration and rushed to clean up her face in the washroom before she could be late for the briefing. I will kill him, she thought furiously and Carter and Mia consoled her while they laughed simultaneously.
A few days passed by quietly between classes and home but Eliana hadn’t forgotten to get back at Julian. She was just waiting for him to let down his guard and think she was over it. So when they were in the middle of class with Ava Diaz, the door opened revealing a cleaner.
“Yes?” Ms. Diaz said sharply. She hated interruptions during class.
“Sorry, Ms. Diaz but I was asked to pass on an urgent message.” He said nervously.
“What is it?”
“It’s for a student named Julian Rivera.” Ms. Diaz redirected her iced glare at Julian, who turned to the cleaner. “I’ll find you later,” Julian told him shortly.
“I was told it is quite crucial.” The cleaner continued, despite his nervousness. Eliana felt her lips tug up in a small victory while Julian cursed inwards.
“What is this message?” Ms. Diaz snapped. “Get it over with!”
“I hope you have a great day at work.” The cleaner said.
“Is that it?” Julian asked and the cleaner nodded. Who in the world wanted him to have a good day? He wondered.
“You can leave now.” Ms. Diaz dismissed the cleaner and turned to Julian who was frowning.
“I would recommend you to not let personal messages disrupt your class, Mr. Rivera. And if you’re done, can we focus on the subject at hand so that you can have a good day?” She continued the lesson of the day which taught them writing through text to self-analysis.
Julian went in search of the cleaner as soon as class was over and asked him who the message was from. The answer didn’t come as a surprise to him. “Eliana Bennett.” Julian was coming to enjoy this little battle with Eliana immensely. Of course, he wouldn’t back off because he wasn’t one to lose when he was determined, which is why when Eliana opened her locker the next day, she didn’t find the scrubs which Mrs. Reed from administration had passed her earlier to give to Nurse Dawson on her way to class after Eliana volunteered and she’d kept it in her locker for safekeeping having gone to the washroom to make sure there was nothing on her face this time around.
She frowned thinking where they could have gone, unaware of the fact that unlocking a locker was nothing compared to the things Julian could do. She turned the things in her locker upside down several times to no avail. Jax was on his way to Chemistry when he pulled her aside. “El, why do you look so worried? What’s wrong?”
Eliana looked agitated. “Because I can’t find the scrubs I was supposed to pass to Nurse Dawson, Jax.”
“Well, where did you keep it?” He asked her the most basic question.
“I left them in my locker like ten minutes ago but it’s just not there anymore.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes, Jax, I’m sure.” Unless I’ve got selective vision.
“Well you should inform Mrs. Reed before a misunderstanding arises.”
“I know. I will.” She already didn’t want to hear the lecture she was sure to get about her carelessness. But where did it go? She thought. She entered the admin office and got an earful from Mrs. Reed as expected and cringed at hearing that she wouldn’t be treated any differently just because she was Jonathan Bennett’s daughter. Eliana despaired at the zero progress she had made of getting in the staff’s and teachers good books. Mrs. Reed was sure to tell Eliana’s father of her recklessness. Sigh. The admin staff felt bad as the young girl was being roasted but remained silent. All but the grey-eyed guy hidden outside the door who barely hid his smile.
Eliana felt her body warmup from shame and after she apologized profusely, Mrs. Reed decided she had scolded her enough. “I’ll give Nurse Dawson a call and ask her to pick it up herself. And Ms. Bennett, I will not tolerate such a negligent attitude. This is the first and the last time that you lose property here since I clearly cannot rely on you to pass on a simple scrub. You can go now.” Eliana quickly got to class. When Jaxon asked her how it went, she shook her head and gave him a brief version of it while still reeling from the shame.
Later in the day, opening her locker to check her schedule for her next class after break, she saw the file was missing. She emptied it but the file wasn’t there. “What in the world is going on here?” She murmured. “My locker is becoming a black hole.”
Carter was passing by at the time and saw her. “Hey.”
“Hey.” She said distractedly. Julian came to his locker and silently shoved his books in.
“Jax told me about what happened.” Carter said kindly. “Did you find those scrubs yet?”
“Uh, no. Not yet.” She said staring blankly at her locker.
“Is something the matter?” Carter stood next to her.
“I can’t find my schedule file. It was just here.” She said with a frown.
“First the scrubs and now the file. What’s going on? Are you being haunted, Eliana?” Carter looked at her with big round eyes.
“What? No, Carter.” She said, scratching her head. “I’m not . . . I’m not being haunted. I think.”
“Are you sure?” Carter believed in a lot of things and one of them was ghosts. “It could be the Grudge from Japan. Maybe you should call the ghostbusters?”
“I don’t understand what’s going on.” She whined looking at the ceiling. Julian who was hidden by the locker door, had to bite his lip hard to control himself so he wouldn’t burst out laughing. He found Eliana adorable as she whined.
During her break she was a nervous ball so she opted to sit outside alone. She gave a quick excuse to Mia and Naomi before she left. Jax and Carter explained why she needed space when the other two girls stared in concern at Eliana’s retreating back. How am I supposed to explain this to Mrs. Reed? Eliana thought miserably and put her forehead in her hands and groaned. She would be mad at her again in a matter of hours and that was her worst nightmare.
“Hey, Bennett. What’s up?” Julian joined her with cheerful energy.
“Go away.” She said without moving.
“C’mon don’t be like that. Just look at me. One look at my dazzling face and all your problems will disappear. I promise.” He said taking her coffee mug and took a quick sip of it. “I speak from experience, you know whenever the opposite sex takes a look at me they forget everything and everyone else.” He slid the mug back to her.
“Shut up and go away.” She dragged her words and slid the mug back to him with her index finger. “Throw this on your way out. It’s contaminated now.”
“Not until you look up I won’t.” He said, keeping her lost things on the table.
Eliana slowly curved her head upwards and found the scrubs and her missing schedule file in front of her. She eyes narrowed dangerously as she faced him.
“Why are you looking at me like that? What are your intentions woman?” He jumped up from the bench.
“You should know exactly what my intentions are.” She took hold of a fork from the tray and wrapped her fingers tightly around it.
“I don’t. But do let me know, say, tomorrow after school. I’m free then.” He said slowly backing away.
“Julian, remove yourself from my sight before I stab you with this fork and KILL YOU!” Eliana burst out and he ran away laughing leaving her to stab the table instead.
The following week, Ava Diaz had scheduled a random test on their selected novels so far. Eliana was a nervous wreck whenever any kind of tests or exams approached and that is why she yelped louder then she would have otherwise when Julian popped out from a hidden corner and startled her.
“Can you not?” She continued on her way to the locker and Julian followed in her steps.
“Why so jumpy, Bennet?”
“Don’t irritate me.” She snapped at him. “Not today when I have this test.”
“Relax.” He laid his hands on her shoulders, trying to calm her down. “You’re not the only one the test is for and you have me, I’ll help you out. But I’m sure you’ll do just fine on your own.”
“Don’t touch me.” She said, removing his hands, her body stiff. “And you don’t know that.”
