Secret Singing Superstar

Ten ~ ♫♪♫

Caitlin walked around in the store, wondering what sort of present Claire would like. A week had passed since Claire had first tole her about the small party at her house, or the 'mum stalking my friends' party as Claire called it. Although it wasn't exactly a party, Caitlin still wanted to buy something for Claire, because Claire was one of her best friends.

The week at school hadn't been so bad. Leanne seemed to be back to normal; she was chatting to Caitlin and Claire normally, as if nothing had happened the week before. But there were some times where Leanne insisted that she needed to go to the library alone. Caitlin wasn't sure why, but she didn't want to ruin Leanne's happy mood.

Caitlin had begun to suspect that something else happened around her that she couldn't see or wasn't aware of, as sometimes even Claire would disappear at the beginning of snack and lunch times, leaving Caitlin and Leanne to eat alone. Whenever this happened, Leanne stayed with Caitlin.

"Why do you go into the library?" Caitlin had asked Leanne once.

"I want to check on something." Leanne had replied vaguely. She had fallen quiet after that.

A few moments later, Caitlin had decided to change the subject. "Where's Claire gone?"

At this, Leanne looked up from her lunch. "Trust me, I have no idea whatsoever. I'm as clueless as you."

"She's probably an agent in a secret club or something," said Caitlin, grinning.

Leanne smiled. "Or maybe she's a secret murderer and wants to kill everyone in the school."

"Leanne! Now Claire will be offended!" said Caitlin, pretending to be miffed on Claire's behalf, but she knew from Leanne's smug expression that it hadn't worked.

"You started it," Leanne said, shrugging and returning to her lunch. After that, conversation between them had become considerably easy, thank god.

Her eyes drifted to the jewellery hung on a wall in the store. There were bracelets, earrings, hair clips...

She knew Claire wasn't a fan of jewellery, but a necklace caught her eye. It was a medium-sized silver heart pendant attached to a silver chain. She felt the heart pendant, and gasped when she realised she could open it to reveal two love heart shaped crevices inside.

"You can put photos in them," said a voice behind her. She spun around to see a guy leaning on the wall beside her. He looked amused. "That's what the holes are for. Didn't you know?"

"Of course I did," said Caitlin, immediately offended. "I just didn't know that I could do that with this necklace." She turned back to the jewellery and wondered why on earth a guy would be in the jewellery section of a shop. "What are you doing here?"

"I work here," said the boy calmly. "I help customers, such as yourself."

"You look a little young to work," said Caitlin. She had been always tall for her age, and so she and the boy were about the same height, but she guessed that the boy was a few years older than she was.

"I'm sixteen. That is young," said the boy. He ruffled his hair, making even more messier than what is was in the first place.

"Not by my standards," said Caitlin, taking three of the silver heart necklaces. "I'm younger than that." Then she mentally cursed herself. I'm so stupid! She shouldn't be revealing hints about her age to strangers, especially if they were guys.

The boy looked around the store. "Do you come here often?"

"Are you talking to me, or the wall?" asked Caitlin, after staring at him for three seconds. His eyelashes were extremely long for a guy, even longer than hers.

He rolled his eyes and looked at her. "You, duh. This place stays here. Do you think it can move?"

"You're a baka," Caitlin told him.

As she suspected, he looked confused. "What?"

"It's Japanese," she said. "If you learnt the language, you would get what it means."

She spun and walked towards the register to pay for the necklaces. The lady there looked about the boy's age as well. She smiled knowingly at Caitlin as she approached.

"I heard every bit of your conversation," said the lady. Her name tag read Maddie.

"How?"

"This is a small store, and you were talking pretty loudly," she said. "It was hard not to listen in. Did you tell Daniel he was a baka?"

"Yes," said Caitlin uncertainly. There was no reason to lie; Maddie had basically heard every bit of their conversation. A small part of her mind said, What the hell are you doing? Don't talk to strangers! But the other part didn't mind that much. The boy - Daniel - seemed genuinely nice.

"I learn Japanese," said Maddie, winking at Caitlin. "Daniel, can you clean up the back of the store, please?"

"Why me?" grumbled Daniel, who was standing a few metres behind Caitlin, something that she found unnerving.

"Because I'm at the register, and I'm older than you. Now go!" she said, making a shooing gesture towards him.

Daniel turned to leave, then turned back around. "See you around?" he asked Caitlin. She frowned in confusion.

"What?"

"I'll see you next week, then," he said, walking to the back of the store. It took Caitlin a few seconds to fully understand what he was saying.

"What?"

"Don't worry," said Maddie. "He acts like he's a stalker, but he isn't."

Caitlin didn't believe her one bit. He definitely sounded like he wanted to stalk her. The thought made her nervous.

"Oh, come on," said Maddie, leaning in close over the desk. "Don't be so clueless. He's cute compared to other guys you know, don't you think?"

"Uh..." Caitlin wasn't sure what to say. Should she say, I'm sort of taken at the moment, or just go along with it? She would be telling the truth; she was sort of not available. "He's okay."

But he is pretty cute, the bad part of her mind said.

Shut up, she firmly told herself. Oh, wow. Now she was talking to herself. She had definitely gone crazy.

Maddie smiled. It was as if her eyes could see right through Caitlin. "He thinks you're kawaii."

"Hang on, what?"

"You heard me. He told me when you entered the store. He said he'd seen you around before. I'm not sure where, though."

"Can I say that's creepy?"

"If I were you, I would be glad," said Maddie. She looked to the back of the store wistfully. "I like him, but obviously he doesn't feel the same way. But if you make him happy, then - "

Caitlin was so not going to stay in the store any longer just to talk about love. "Um, can I pay for my things, and go? I've got to go to other stores," she added, not wanting to sound rude.

"You get one necklace free," said Maddie, winking. "Or should I make it two? I'll make it two," she decided before Caitlin could protest. Caitlin numbly handed her the money and took the bag. She knew why Maddie had given her a discount.

"Have a good day," said Maddie.

"You too," said Caitlin. She walked away from the store as fast as she could. What had happened in there? Her emotions were all jumbled up, making her feel sick. She forced her mind to think about anything but the store. And the people who worked in it. Especially the people who worked in it. She was starting to have a massive headache.

Perhaps she needed to go home and lie down, to calm her mind.