I put my phone inside my pocket and ran. Yes, I left with my uniform on.
I went into the garage and I got my bike. I hopped on and raced to her house. It took me ten minutes according to my cell phone, to get to her house, and once I did I jumped off the bike and onto the front yard. The sprinklers went off and I got soaked and wet. Still, I dashed to the door. It wouldn’t open, the door was locked. I knocked but no one answered. I remembered that I can go through her kitchen window.
When I got inside the house, Ollia’s Rottweiler, Steel, growled at me.
“Steel, it’s me boy.” Steel snarled.
“Heh, I guess you still do not know me well,” I looked at the stairs that were right behind him, “Look I have to go help your owner. She could be in danger. Though it’s strange how you are not protecting her…Well, bye!” I fled passed him and up the stairs. “I am coming Olli!” I go inside Olli’s room, and to my horror there they are on her bed watching me.
Jared whispers something to James. James laughs quietly. Olli is sitting on her chair next to the computer and gets up and takes my hands. “Wow, you came here so fast-and you’re wet? Anyway, thank you so much for coming. I just didn’t want to be alone with them. I mean, why would Miss. Berduez tell me at the last minute that James is my new partner? She said you couldn’t be mine because I knew you too well already and I had to meet new people.” She noticed that I hadn’t said a word, or moved, even with Steel, snapping and pulling the bottom part of my pants, like tug-a-war.
“Are you okay…Delarie?”
“Am I okay? Well, I’m fine. I just got a call from my friend saying that she needed help and for me to come quick. All I had to do was get worried, come down here, get wet by the sprinklers, go through the window, escape your dog, oh, and be humiliated in front of two guys from school.”
“If you put it that way, then it looks bad.”
“Bad?!” I stomped out of her bedroom, entered her living room, and sat on her couch. “Can I watch TV?” I asked her gently.
“Sure.” I turned on her plasma and switched to the channel 323, and the show Teen Life The Hard Five, was on. It’s a show about five greedy teenagers that get chosen to enter a contest, where they give you five hundred dollars, give them five days (no more) to spend them, but of course they need to have five dollars left, exactly on the fifth day, although, they must shop every day out of those five days.
“I’ll be right back. I’m going to get you a towel and some clothes.” Olli leaves and goes to her room. Then someone comes down the stairs and sits next to me. Through the corner of me eye, I saw that Jared was that someone sitting next to me.
Before I knew it I began sweating a little, but thanks to the sprinklers I’m wet already so you can’t tell.
“You like this show?”
He turned his head to look at me. “No.” He didn’t have to respond so depressed, it’s not like I am forcing him to watch this.
“Then why are you watching it?”
“I’m not.” He set his eyes again on the screen, or so I thought. I watched as one of the five teenagers hid behind the door, to steal the other girl’s five hundred dollars by surprise. I looked again from the corner of my eye, and saw Jared staring at me.
“What?” I asked.
“What do you mean by what?”
“Why are you staring at me?”
He pointed at the cat on top of the fence. “Actually, I was watching that cat that looks just like mine, until your big head got in the way.” My big head? I do not have a big head!
“Whatever.” I can’t believe those were the first words we said to each other. Ugh! It gets me mad.
Ollia comes down with the towel and clothes. “Here, put them on.” She hands me them and I go to the bathroom and change. That’s when I hear Olli and Jared talking. Olli and Jared!
“So?” She said.
“So what?”
“How’d it go?” What does Olli mean by how’d it go? Is she talking about me?
“What are you talking about?” He asked.
“I’m talking about-”
I opened the door and they both got silent.
“Where’s James?” I asked Olli while passing her the towel.
“He’s… in my room.” She responded. I went upstairs. She was right. James was there, typing information on the computer.
“James?”
He faced me and grinned. “Oh, hey Delarie.”
“Can I ask you something?” I said.
“Uh, sure.”
I hesitated but then I took a quick and deep breath. What if I become James’ friend? Maybe that way I can see why Jared is so mean. So what should I ask James to start the conversation? How about, how’s the project going? Or, what are your electives?
“Do you ever feel like someone hates you for no reason?” That question slipped out of my mouth. I always confuse what I should say with what I really want to say.
“Yes, everybody does.” Whoa, someone hates James? He feels that way? Wow.
I sat down on the bed. Something makes me feel comfortable about talking to him.
“But what if you care about them and you don’t want to ignore him-or her?” He was quiet for a couple of seconds.
“Then you should talk to that person to figure out the problem.” I thought about what he said and how nice he was treating me, even if I barely talked to him, yet I have known him since fourth grade, just like Olli. Yeah, I have known him for sometime but I have never really gotten to know him.
“Thanks James. For listening.” I was about to leave the room when at the doorway, James blocked my path.
“Hey, um, do you have the same lunch as me tomorrow?”
“Yes, I do.”
“So then would you like to sit with me at lunch?” Why would he want me to sit with him? Could it be that he thinks I like him? Is that what he got from the conversation?
“O-kay, but I also sit with Olli tomorrow, so…do you mind her? Because if you do I can’t sit with you, sorry.” He put his hands in his pockets.
“Nope. See you tomorrow then.” He went back to the computer.
“Bye.” Why did his mood change all of a sudden? He was outgoing, then nervous, and now he’s cool?
Olli and James walked me to my house, and so did Jared. He still had the same expression after he had said that I had a “big head.”
“Bye Del! Sorry about what happened earlier.”
“It’s okay Olli, but you owe me one.”
“Yeah, I know.”
Then James stepped next to Olli. “Bye, Delarie.”
“Bye, James.”
Jared glanced at the window where my room is. “Bye.”
“Bye.” I answered with the same lack of enthusiasm.
Once I was in my room, I decided to pick everything up, and when I was doing that I found a note under my binder. I read it and this is what it said:
“As much as I want to know you and what you do,
I can’t but I cannot tell the truth.
Though I have to say that when I look into your eyes,
I am in my only and single paradise.
I’m sorry that I make us grow apart,
But this is what’s best, for your heart.” Could Jared have written this? Was it even possible, or could I be dreaming this?
That night when I went to sleep the words repeated over and over in my head. I didn’t even have a dream just those words repeating again and again in my head.