Complications

Ch 6 How I burn down a classroom

"I have the greatest news ever!" Joni told me the second I stepped out of my car. I was in a great mood since yesterday, and I had told Joni all about it over the phone last night. She had something to share with me too, but she wanted to wait to tell me in person.

"Yeah?" I asked smiling at her enthusiasm. She was all smiles and giggles right now. This must be something pretty great.

"You know Bradley?" She asked sighing dreamily.

“Bradley Cooper?" I asked unsurely. She shook her head annoyed. She usually would have said something about my bad guessing skills, but she looked distracted today.

"Bradley Hughes!" She practically screamed in my ear. She wasn't even looking at me. She was looking into space as if any second now an alien spaceship would appear at the spot she was looking at.

"Yeah," I said finally. Bradley Hughes was a junior like her and I were. I had seen him in the hallways a few times and had a class with him back in seventh grade. I didn't really remember much about him at all.

"He asked for my number!" She announced. This time she actually did scream in my ear. Looks like I would turn deaf earlier than I had planned. Thanks Joni.

"That's great!" I exclaimed. I was really happy for her despite her being the reason I would need a hearing aide.

Her last boyfriend had been about six months ago, and he had left her heart broken. They had been together for almost two years and then he went and cheated on her with some girl at a party he had gotten drunk at. That wasn’t even the bad part; after the party he continued to cheat on her with this girl for almost two months before Joni found out. It took almost a month and a ton of ice-cream for me to get her out of her depressed state.

I just hoped whoever this Bradley guy was would treat her right if they did end up going out. Right now, if they were only in the exchanging numbers stage, then it would take a while to get serious. I knew this because of Joni's chart.

She had actually created a dating chart a while ago, and I had to admit it was pretty accurate. We were people watchers sometimes at lunch, so we liked using the chart to see how serious a couple was. I know it was weird, but it was kind-of fun.

We went inside the school as Joni talked on about Bradley. I was happy to listen since she always listens to me whenever I talked about boys, which until recently I never did unless it was to tell her how some boy had tripped me or made fun of me. The weird thing is that this year, no one had been giving me any trouble. I usually got tripped by some jock at least once a week.

We started walking to the end of the hallway where my locker was. Unfortunately I saw Logan there too making out with someone I didn't recognize that well. Going to my locker had just gotten five times more awkward than it was before.

Joni nudged me and sent me a look as if to ask me if I was ok. I smiled a bit and nodded because I really was for the most part, if I ignored the sensation in my stomach that made me want throw up. I really don't know how to go about this. Logan's body was blocking half my locker which meant I couldn't open it unless he moved. I looked at Joni asking her with my eyes what I should do. She shrugged.

I looked at the clock. 8:05, in exactly five minutes, I needed to be in my first period classroom. I waited for another minute. They were still going at it! Didn't they need to breathe? I looked at Joni and made a puppy dog face. She sighed then took a step forward. She swung her foot back then forth right into the locker making a loud sound.

"Ouch. The things I do for friendship," she said limping back to me. I gave her the sweetest smile I could conjure up. Finally they stopped and looked to see where the noise had come from. The girl glared at Joni and me. I felt myself shrink under her intense gaze.