The Wallflower of Parkview High

Chapter Twenty Four

"Hey, Noe!"

At the sound of Alicia's voice, I lifted my head up from my knees and glanced up half heartedly at her. She was standing there looking at me with a smile on her face and I wished right now that he would go away so that I could sit behind the boy's locker rooms and cry in peace.

Easy for her to feel like this, I thought as I looked at her. She isn't the one who's sketchbook got all wet and ruined.

"What?" I murmured when I saw that she was standing there with a curious look on her face. Once she heard the tone in my voice, the curious look faded and was replaced with one of concern.

"Is this not the time...?"

I shook my head and Alicia sat down next to me.

"Noah, what happened? Why are you crying?"

"It's nothing that you'd really care about." I sniffled.

"Do you really think I wouldn't care?" when I shrugged, she wrapped an arm around my shoulder.

"Did Zander and Damien make you cry?"

"No, though they did just argue again."

"Then what-?"

"It's-It's-" I tried to say what happened but I just couldn't get the words out of my mouth.

"Noah...?"

"My-My sketchbook-"

"What about it? Did you lose it?"

"N-No, I-I..."'

I reached into my backpack, pulled out my wet sketchbook and handed it to her. She carefully pulled the pages apart, an expression of shock on her face.

"But how?!" she gasped. "I know it's raining, but I wouldn't think that water would go through your backpack and make everything all wet?!"

"I fell..." I sniffed, taking the sketchbook from her and looking at the page she had opened it to. The picture I drew of Charlotte seemed to look back at me, the colors on her shirt all smeared. The part where I drew her face was all runny, making it look like mascara was dripping down her face. I hoped that in the future she wouldn't ask to see it again; the sad look I imagined on her face once she saw it made me want to cry even more.

"I'm sorry that happened to you." Alicia murmured, gently rubbing small circles on my back in order to soothe me. It helped a bit, but then again, nothing could distract me from what I had just lost.

"Do you have another one at home you can use?" Alicia asked.

"This is the only one I have and I don't know if my dad will have enough money to buy me another one."

"Maybe you can draw on a piece of paper and staple those together into a booklet that acts like a sketchbook?" Alicia suggested.

"It won't be the same!" I huffed. Alicia sat there for a moment, probably thinking of another thing that I could do.

"Oh, I know! Maybe you can-"

Alicia couldn't finish her sentence, because at that exact moment, a huge stream of water splashed on us, making our faces and my sketchbook wet (even more so in the case of me and my sketchbook).

"What-" I started to say, looking around for the source, but was cut off by Alicia screaming.

"WHAT THE HELL, ZANDER?!"

I looked up just in time to see Zander picking up that stupid tennis ball of his which I noticed - with slight happiness - was wet. It seemed that one of his friends had probably slipped and was the one to splash water on Alicia and I because he was laying on the ground in a puddle, acting like he was dying and these were his last seconds to live.

"Hey, Will, get up, and stop acting like you've broken your leg." Zander huffed, glaring down at the boy. He glared back.

"Maybe I did break my leg."

"No you didn't. I've broken my leg several times to know that you don't land like that to break your leg. Now get up or I'll leave you here."

Will just groaned and made an inappropriate hand gesture at Zander with his finger, before turning his head and therefore looking at me. I gulped and shifted closer to Alicia, hugging my sketchbook to my chest.

"Look, Zander, it's that annoying, weak, cowardly cry baby that's in our PE class and his equally annoying girlfriend." he said lazily. I blushed a bit when he called Alicia my girlfriend.

"Noah's not-" Alicia started to say, but Will continued to talk like she wasn't even there.

"What are you gonna do, sissy? You gonna go and cry to your girlfriend and cower in the corner while she fights your battles for you?"

"I-I don't-"

"Awww, look, Zander, he's crying! I told you that you shouldn't waste your time on such a weak person who doesn't know how to stand up for himself."

"Can you please stop?" I begged, my voice shaky. I could see Alicia tense up out of the corner of my eye.

"Wow, he's even scared when he actually stand up for himself. Do you really think a simple 'please' would cut it out? You're so pathetic, Noah."

"I'm sorry-"

"Are you gonna cry even more now? Are you gonna make your stupid friend defend you?"

"I-"

"Maybe his 'stupid friend' is going to defend him!" Alicia interrupted.

I turned to see that Alicia had now stood up and was now walking towards Zander and Will with an angry look on her face.

"Alicia-" started to say, but she ignored me and started to scream at the two boys who were now staring at her, shocked looks on their faces.

"CAN YOU GUYS SHUT THE HELL UP! NOAH IS NOT STUPID AND YOU GUYS DAMN WELL NOW THAT!"

"But he's just so-"

"AND DON'T YOU DARE CALL ME STUPID EITHER!" she screamed, looking at Will.

"You-"

"BOTH YOU YOU, GO AWAY AND LEAVE US ALONE BECAUSE I'M TRYING TO COMFORT NOAH BECAUSE HIS SKETCHBOOK GOT WET!"

They didn't move and I saw Zander shift in his place uncomfortably.

"GO AWAY!" Alicia repeated.

Sure enough, the two listened and hurried away. Alicia made her way to where I was sitting.

"Sorry about them. They can be quite annoying sometimes, trust me." she said, sitting down next to me.

"I know..." I murmured, looking at my ruined sketchbook. Alicia wrapped one of her arms around my shoulders.

"Hey, if you ignore them, everything will be fine." she told me. I sighed and rested my head on her shoulder.

" I really hope so."