Falling For The Nerd

Play date with Lizzie.

I pulled my gaze away from the now-abandoned tree house and followed Melissa inside. "I'm home!"she called. Mrs.Howard came out of the kitchen with a spatula in her hand. "Honey hi! How was school?"she asked. "The usual." Melissa replied, "Topped physics and lit again. I hope you remember, we have a guest." Mrs.Howard smiled at me and said, "Of course I remember. How have you been Derek?" "Good. How are you ma'am?" I replied shaking her hand. "Good. Call me Diana. Go on with Melissa, I'll get you something to eat. Or would you prefer a large thermos of coffee?" She added, noticing my eyes drooping. I smiled and thanked her for the coffee. Then I followed Melissa up the stairs.

We climbed to the first floor and headed to the room at the end of the corridor. "Your room is at the end? Aren't you scared that no one will hear you scream if you're being murdered?" I asked her. "Haha. No. I chose the room for the sunlight. It gets really bright in here, so I rarely need study lamps."she replied as she entered the room.

She was right. A large window on one side of her room let plenty of sunlight to enter. Her walls were painted a light shade of purple. Just across the door was a study table, pushed against the wall. Her bed was on the left with its covers neatly tucked in. Above her study table was a shelf running across the width of the wall, full of novels. Her room gave a vibe of happiness and safety.

"You can either take a chair or sit on the bed. I'll come in a minute. I need to change."said Melissa. I nodded as she left the room with some clothes. I walked to the window and looked out. It faced the large tree and my old bedroom window. Although it wasn't close enough for people to talk through, it was close enough for us to look inside, provided the curtains weren't closed. I could recollect a vague memory of us pulling faces at each other through the window as kids.

I turned around when I heard Melissa come in. She had changed into sweatpants and a white Garfield t-shirt. She pulled her hair into a bun as she took the chair and opened the text book. "What do you want to cover today? I have a documentary on the Cold War. We can finish that today, if you want."she said. I agreed immediately. I found it easier to understand history through documentaries.

Half way through the documentary, Mrs.Howard (must call her Diana) brought up a tray of fresh cookies and sandwiches and an enormous thermos of coffee. The documentary was four hours long. We stopped after two hours and redid the same stuff from the text book and quizzed each other (as a proof of my improvement, I answered six out twenty right, unlike yesterday when I got two out twenty right.)

At quarter to six, Melissa decided that we had done enough for the day. We shut our books and she went to change into her jeans, so that she could drive me home. As I waited for her to come down, Remy entered the kitchen.

"Hi Derek! Long time no see!"she said as she put down her shopping bags. "Hey Remy. Congrats on getting married." I said. "Ah, that is nothing. I'm more into the shopping, to be honest." Remy shrugged. "I can see that." I replied, grinning. Her slender frame had been carrying close to ten bags, all filled with clothes and some with other smaller bags that I suspected, held jewellery. At that moment, Melissa entered. I said goodbye to Remy and Melissa and I got into the van. On the way home, we jammed to a couple of songs on the radio. I couldn't help but tease Melissa's awful singing.

Once we arrived I grabbed my bag from the backseat and said, "Goodnight, Lizzie. See you tomorrow." "Wait. What did you call me?" she said with a grin on her face. "Lizzie. Your name is really long to keep repeating, so I decided to shorten it. Why? Would you prefer Molly?" I teased. "No, no. Lizzie's fine. Goodnight Derek." She said in a hurry. "Night." I replied and headed to my room to relax.
A/N: I didn't mention this earlier but this chapter is dedicated to Charlie___Brown for voting for this story. Also, go check out her profile!!
Lots of love-D