by Chloe Smith
"Wait!"
I looked down at where he was holding me captive then up at his face. "Didn't I tell you to keep your hands to yourself?"
"D-um, uh...I-well...Y-you forgot your food." He said, releasing me and looking away.
For a moment, what he said didn't process in my mind.
"What?"
"Your food." He gestured to my tray, but kept his face towards the window.
My lowered eyebrows rose. "Oh." I picked up my tray and walked away from him.
Gaya and Martin rushed towards me. "Are you alright?" "Did he do anything to you?"
I smiled. It seemed like it had been weeks that I knew these two, when in reality, I'd only known them for a few days.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Don't worry about me." We passed by Percy. He was smiling, but not just a happy smile. It was an approving smile, and it seemed like it was exactly what I needed. And maybe by gaining his approval, I felt like what I did to his roommate was exactly what I was supposed to do.
That breath I hadn't known I was holding, I let out.
Gracìas, Mother Maria. I said silently as Martin led me by the hand to a table outside the cafeteria. For once I didn't mind his outrageous flirtations, almost glad he was holding on to my hand, because it seemed I was hanging on by a thread.
Gaya was talking excitedly next to me. Although the words themselves didn't register, just hearing her voice seemed to ease me a little.
For some reason, I felt like I was in a mood where my life was about to take it's lowest level, when in reality, things just weren't going my way.
Maybe this was how it was supposed to be. Maybe I just need to start accepting it instead of resisting. Maybe that's what was making me miserable this far into the first week.
The corner of my mouth lifted.
Yes, exactly what I needed to do.
"Monica?"
Until then, so lost in my thoughts, I hadn't realized that we had stopped and Martin had let go of my hand.
He was sitting at the table. And so was Gaya.
I looked at Martin. "Hm?"
"Are you alright."
I smiled. "Now I will be."
A slight cool breeze took the edge off the sun's heat, and the miniature waterfall next to the table threw off a rhythmic sloshing of water. It was relaxing and soothing, as well as these sitting with me.
For once I felt like everything would be alright even if it wasn't what I wanted.
"Let's eat."
Chapter 22
There was one thing I had forgotten at lunch, with all my ready to face anything feeling. What about Denzel? The way he had totally ignored me and then acted like he didn't know me. How was I supposed to face him? I almost hesitated walking into the classroom. If it hadn't been for my pride, I would have backed away.
I walked towards my seat, taking notice that Denzel was already seated.
When spotted me, he flashed a smile at me that threw me off. It wasn't one of those sneaky smiles, but a genuine happy-to-see-you smile. I think the façade I had set up had fallen. I stopped and stared at him like he was an alien.
His smile faded and he looked concerned. "Monica? Are you alright?"
That snapped me from my shock. I returned the façade and smiled back. "Never been better." I walked to my seat and sat down.
He scrutinized my face, my actions. "Are you sure?"
I sighed. Might as well get it out of the way. "Well, I did pass by you after class yesterday."
Denzel's eyebrows rode low over his eyes. "You did? Are you sure?"
I nodded. "Your hair was different. It was slicked back."
Now he looked surprise. "Yeah?"
"Uh huh. When I tried to say hi, you acted like you didn't know me. Then you tried to claim that...What's so funny?"
Denzel, who had been covering his mouth with one hand to stop the sound from coming out of his mouth, let go, his whole body shook with loud deep laughs.
He laughed so hard, he clutched his sides. Every few seconds he drew a deep wheezing breath, stuttered, then lost himself again in waves of laughter.
I watched him repeat the process with my anger mounting. "What's so funny?"
"I-it's just-ahaha!" And then he went into another fit of laughter.
He must have seen how irritated because he tried to control his laughter, sucking in deep breaths. Although his lips twitched even then.
"I really don't know how to say this." A laugh hid behind those words. "T-that really wasn't me." He chuckled.
"Like heck it wasn't!" I said. "He looked just like you!"
He laughed again as he said, "B-brother! My Broth-ther! Ahahaha! He's my Tw-ahaha!" And he collapsed again.
I blushed with embarrassment. Brother? Why didn't I think about that. Was it physically possible to even fix his hair that fast?
And come to think about it, he did have a different tie on than his brother.
The teacher finally arrived, quieting the students, even Denzel's laugher, and started his lecture.
I took out my notebook, and scribbled on the corner of a fresh sheet before sliding it towards Denzel.
Was it really that funny?
He took a look. From the side of my eye, I saw his shoulders shake, and I knew he was suppressing yet another laugh.
He finally pushed the notebook back to me.
Well, people don't mix me and my brother up at all. It's kind of funny that you see the similarities between us two. That's all.
Kind of? I smacked my lips and looked back up to the teacher. Heck if I knew what we were learning. And I knew I was going to need a lot of Denzel's help.
Great!!! And now he probably thought I was a total airhead. Another tally mark for my loser reputation. Way to go Monica!
Chapter 23
"Oh, My Monica! How was your class? Did you enjoy it? Is there anyone I have to beat up for you?" I swear Martin had too much enthusiasm for his own good. But I couldn't help but smile back when his flashed bright.
"No Martin, class was...exceptionally interesting." I said, thinking of how it was too interesting...for someone else.
"Biology? Oh dear! Gaya, we're going to have to rush her to the nurse!" He felt my head, as though I was sprouting a fever.
I laughed with Gaya as Martin mimicked someone pulling out their hair.
From the corner of my eye, I saw a big hulking figure walking by.
I took a sidelong glance, and sure enough, it was the twin. "Ah, Um guys, I gotta go...do something. See you guys after school!"
I didn't even wait to answer any questions, just zoomed off. "Hey! Jackson!"
The twin looked around for the person who called his name, and I waved my hands wildly. "Over here!"
He saw me, the rolled his eyes, then walked faster.
"Wait!" I ran and caught up to him. "Wait!" I said and stopped in front of him, making him stop too. "I just want to say I'm sorry for yesterday." He didn't look down, but looked over my head.
"Yeah?"
"Your brother told me you guys never get mixed up. I'm sorry. That must have been an insult to you for mistaking you two."
This time, he did look at me with his dark eyes filled with surprise. I wonder why I didn't notice the different eye color before.
"I was wondering if we can start off new."
He didn't reply, just looked at me with his disbelieving expression.
I smiled up at him, determined to win him over. "Hi, I'm Monica Suarez. "I held out my hand. "Nice to meet you."
"Ah..." His olive-toned face seemed to get red. But before I could ask questions, the bell rang.
His face changed, and he cleared his throat. "Excuse me. I have to get to class."
He walked around me, heading down the opposite way I than the way I had to go. "Jackson." I turned. He stopped, but didn't look back. "I really hope we can be friends."
His head bowed for a split second before raising back up again. Then he walked away.
My shoulders slumped. Well...that didn't g
o as I expected...
I sighed and walked to my last class. Of course, nothing was going the way I wanted it to...
Chapter 24
From that day that I spoke so harshly, although justly, to Clinton, I didn't see much of him. Not that I was complaining.
But the reason being simply that he avoided me…or, more unnervingly, ignored me. He didn't go out of his way to try to embarrass me.
I don't know what happened to him, or what it was I said that pulled the trigger, but he didn't sneer at me anymore…unlike his fan club(yes, the Ice King has one), who sent me many more to make up for it. But those, I could definitely ignore. Either that, or my glare sent them scurrying away. Why, I wonder. Was it because I was a commoner, and they were scared that it was contagious? Or was it because they were too spoiled to actually fight back?
But the reasons didn't matter. I had more important matters to attend to.
For one, I tried to get along better with Jackson. I felt so bad that I mistook him for Denzel. Seriously, if I hadn't been so eager to befriend someone in this unnervingly Nicko school, I would have noticed that Jackson did have his own look that told you he was Jackson, and not his brother. Like Denzel said, it was relatively easy to tell them apart.
So I guess I wanted to get closer to him as an apology. Don't ask me why I felt that way, I just had an urge to make me better in his eyes, to show him my good side, opposed to what's stuck in his mind of our first meeting.
So every time I saw him, I would say hi. He still treated me the same as the first time I talked to him, and rarely did I see him act like he did when I apologized. I didn't take his harsh attitude of pushing me away to heart after the first few times. If I observed closely, I felt more like he was embarrassed with my actions rather than he was looking down on me. Like he wanted to be by himself more than anything.
Heh. I knew that feeling well, to want to escape from judgmental eyes. I couldn't blame him, with myself being in that position right now where I just wanted to be invisible. I tried explaining to Hilary how much didn't belong here, but all she did was giggle, wave it off, and say, "Oh, you'll get used to it."
Speaking of whom, I always had an every-other-Wednesday box to put in front of Clinton's dorm door. After this last delivery-the third one-I have to become more stealthier, maybe wait for a later time, because I almost got caught. Not by Clinton-thank God- but by Percy. I almost strolled right over there with the box in hand. I'm so glad I heard his voice before I turned the corner. He sounded as though he was on the phone, so I left, putting the box in front of the door extra early the next morning.
And now, here it was, Friday, with school just letting out when Martin jumped me, and Gaya looking pissed, not at all shy around Martin or I.
"Martin! I'm going to kill you!" She seethed.
Martin ran behind me, wrapping his arms around my torso from the back. "Eek! Monica! Save me! The raging Chihuahua's coming to get me! Who's a Chihuahua, you hound?"
I sighed, but laughed. "What did he do this time?" I asked.
I tell him to make the presentation boards for Business class, and he doodles, all over them. Not to mention his handwriting was too sloppy and small!
This time, I laughed for real. Gaya looked so cute, with her short stature and her baby face puffed up in anger. "So you guys got stuck in that project together? So both get the same grade, huh. Let's hope it's an average C." I said, walking toward the cafeteria for a light snack…well, pick from a variety of snacks…I still can't get used to buffets for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
"Monica!" Gaya whined.
Martin still clung to me, no matter how many times I pushed his head away.
I shot Gaya a lopsided grin. "Well there's nothing you can do about it."
She looked about ready to protest, but let it out with a sigh. "I guess you're right."
She sighed again and followed me, and monkey-clinging Martin.
Chapter 25
Clinton leaned back in his desk chair, folded his hands behind his head. Feet crossed at the ankle, they both shook absently as a pencil-lead point facing away-bobbed up and down from his mouth. Glassy copper eyes looked beyond the carpeted floor they stared intensely at. Ten seconds later, he shook his amber head a little roughly, cursing to himself.
His mind had drifted back to that.
It had been a month and a half since then, and yet he still couldn't douse that fiery, rebellious look stuck in his mind.
He looked at the alarm clock sitting on Percy's bedside table. Five till seven.
He sighed. It was too quiet. Too boring. It did seem that way since he started off the school year pretty rowdy.
And then his mind was back on that again. He still couldn't quite come to terms with her boldly spoken answer.
Looking back, he didn't even understand what froze him. Was it how mad she got when he purposely provoked her?
He didn't even understand why he continued that conversation when he had an idea about her answer already. Was it because of what she said about him, or was it because he really didn't believe what he thought when he brought up the conversation again?
He cursed. Why did he stupidly stare at her though? That dumb look was the reason he was now trying to stay away from her. He still hated himself for when he saw her today with that idiot blonde boy clinging on to her like a baby holding on to his mother. It was sickening. But ignoring the baby, what he was concerned about was soon as he saw her, he headed for the closest exit as fast as he could. It was like a reflex-without-thinking kind of thing.
He sighed. Got up. Sat back down. He didn't know what to do with himself. Sighed once again. No matter how he looked at it, he ran away.
With a frustrated yell, he threw his pencil at the door. Too bad for Percy, who just happened to walk in at that same time.
He barely dodged it in time, but that resulted in him losing his balance and meeting the floor.
"Damn man, are you trying to kill me?" He got up, rubbing his arms and the rest of his body that had broken his fall. "Okay, I understand that you don't like me as your roommate, but do ya really have to kill me?"
Clinton scowled. "I wasn't trying to kill you." Was all he could think of saying.
He threw himself on the bed face down as Percy made his way to his designated side to retrieve some more comfortable clothes than the uniform he was currently wearing.
"So what's wrong?" He asked, taking off his jacket, which was followed by his collared shirt and the white T-shirt he used as an undershirt.
Clinton didn't lift his head.
Percy paused in lifting a grey T-shirt over his head to look over at Clinton's depressed figure. "Come on man, you can tell me."
Clinton turned his head until he was looking at what he could call his best friend. "No, I can't."
Finished with changing his top, be quickly changed into black sweats before sitting on the bedside. "Don't be like that, Ice King, come on, tell your roommate everything! I've seen those horrid "Love Boxes" What could be worse than that?"
Clinton sighed loudly, then mumbled, "Ice King, eh? She called me that too."
Realization dawned on Percy. Then he laughed. "You still have that on your mind? No wonder you've been acting weird."
Clinton grimaced and turned the other way. "That's why I didn't want to tell you in the first place."
"Oh, don't be like that. The girl's got fire! Did you hear what people call her now?"
"Agh. Don't remind me!" Clinton rolled over and covered his face with a pillow.
Percy laughed again. "Oh come on, she's the Fire to your Ice!"
Clinton lifted one side of the pillow just enough to glare at Percy. "There is NO WAY I would ever go out with her!"
One side of Percy's mouth lifted. "Wanna make a bet?"
Chapter 26
"Hey Monica, did you hear about the Dance?"
"Dance?"
"Yeah! Well, not really dance. It's called the "No One Knows No On Masquerade Ball."
"A ball?"
"Yeah!"
"Oh." I looked at Gaya over her plate of spaghetti. "Are you going?"
Gaya squealed. "Of Course! And please don't say you're going to skip out of it!" She hadn't even touched her small, simple salad.
I darted my eyes back and forth. "Ummm."
