Junior High

Just a Hug.

'Oh Canada' sounds and we do our best to stand still, though we are not in a class. We still respect our land, but not so much our teachers. From the corner of my eye, I notice Dennon playing impatiently with his fingers. I whisper to him a couple times, which only makes him laugh.

Once it ends, I shush him and slap his shoulder lightly. "Are you crazy? Someone's going to hear you!" I groan, hiding behind a bookshelf. 

"Relax, if anyone asks, we'll just tell them we're making a poster." He points to a sheet of paper and markers. Dennon doesn't seem the least bit concerned, and that relaxes me a bit. My mind shoots back to the beginning of the year, when I was left with him to colour in Izzy's drawn lilacs. 

"Y-yeah." I smile. I look away, biting at my lip.

"Just like last time, right?" He smiled sweetly to me.

I try to reply, but I can't seem to find my voice. As I choke out, my chest starts to heave and my eyes lightly water. Images of different memories flash before me and my mind goes blank. Dennon must notice this, because he holds out his arms and hugs me. His golden hair smells like cinnamon and it calms me slightly. Slowly, I start to wrap my arms around his waist, and I sigh as a salty tear falls on his shirt.

I manage to whisper a slight, "Sorry," muffled by his neck. I can feel the smile forming and his warm breath on my shoulder.

"Sh, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up," He muses, and then pulls away, gripping my shoulders lightly. "I'm just going to have to make up for it, right?" Smiling brightly to me, I can't help but choke out a giggle. 

"Um, yeah." I smile to him. We take one look at ourselves, and we burst out into laughter. Wiping the tears from my red cheeks, I quiet down, grabbing a marker. 

"What are you doing?" he asks as I grab a sheet of paper.

I raise a sharp brow. "Aren't we supposed to be making a poster?" I acknowledged, twirling the fat marker between two fingers. 

Dennon sighs, ruffling his hair and grabbing another marker. "So, Zoe, what cause are we colouring for, anyway?" he smirked, sitting down at the single table in the room next to me. 

I bit my lip, rolling my eyes to the ceiling, pretending to be in deep thought. "How about the *Ladybug foundation?" I grinned to him, containing a swoon.

"Sounds about right."

Taking the top off of the coloured marker, I place it onto the large sheet of paper and trace a shaky outline of a ladybug. Trying to make circles, they turn out to be warped ovals on the Ladybug's tattered wings. The antennae end up looking bent, damaged. But Dennon doesn't seem to notice this, as he starts colouring in the red wings. Calmly spying on him, I spot a giddy smile on him, almost like he were a child with a new toy. Ah, what am I talking about? We still are children. I should be happy that I'm doing something like this. So far, I've only been daydreaming over Dennon, and worrying about getting caught. I should enjoy it. So I grab a white piece of paper and cut it out into different sized moon shapes, like reflections. I put one on the left of a tattered wing, the other one on the black as night head. and we proceed to colour, Dennon with his red marker, me with the black. 

Once we're done, we take off the coloured paper moons and reveal the white reflections underneath. It looks beautiful, except for the rigid edges. Now for the title. "Will you do the honours of writing the title, sir?" I blush to him, handing over my black marker. He nods with a grin, leaning over the table and writing in big letters at the top.

"Ahem, what are you two doing here?" The voice of  Mrs. Gluetard echoes through the small room, causing me to jump. Dennon looks up with a cool look to his brown eyes to her cold gray ones, whose are staring at the poster.

"Well, Cheryl, Our class has told us that we have to make a poster in honour of the ladybug foundation." He says coolly, like he's done this a million times.

She glares daggers to him before stating, "Call me by my last name, you're still a student." She looks around the room, stopping at the poster, gasping. "Oh my! Has Izzy drawn this? She's really outdone herself on this one!" she sings, holding up the picture of the rugged ladybug. 

I gulp. "What- what do you mean?"

"The way the broken ladybug symbolizes the homeless man, warmth arising from it, it's just lovely! You two are brilliant also, bringing her work to life!" She muses, kissing both of our foreheads. Then as soon as she came, she left. The bell rings soon after, and the two of us sneak out of room 30, to our lockers where we grab our things and head out the back door. According to the principle, we aren't even at school.

"That was exciting, wasn't it?" Beams Dennon, the old childish self he is. 

I look at him like he's insane. "exciting isn't exactly the word I'd call it." I blushed, looking down. It was a terrifying experience on my part.

"But it's true. God it's freezing," he mutters, breathing at his knuckles. "Come on, give me a hug." he says after a while. 

My heart seems to stop. "Excuse me?" I ask, choking down excitement. 

"Come on, it's just a hug. It's cold out and I only brought a sweater. Now hug me!" He smiles, holding out his arms. After long debates in my mind, I decide that it is only a hug, and that it wouldn't matter anyway. Rushing into him, I take in his scent and smile, probably squeezing the life out if him. His body, though skinny in stature, is strong and I love every second of it. Slowly, his arms wrap around my waist and the butterflies come back to me. I bite my lip, stifling a scream. 

"You're soft," I barely hear him whisper against my ear.

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*The Ladybug foundation is a foundation that helps homeless people in Canada.

I hope you found this chapter well!

i know, Zoe is a little hopeless and clingy. But she's my friend.