Friends Or Enemies? Love Maybe...

CHAPTER 23

23

That.Is.Not.My.Job

 

            I wake up early, just to make my body feel fresh and dressed into my tracksuit. I walk down the stairs and I can hear the sound of pans dropping on the floor. Hmm, Mom is cooking breakfast today. “Hey Tina, you woke up early today. A great start for the day. Do you want to have some of these pancakes I’ve made?” I peek to see the condition of the pancake and I can see some burnt spots. Okay… “Mom, I’m sorry, I just want to have an apple for my breakfast today. I want to start a healthy day I would say.I’m going out for a short jog. So, I don’t want to lose some fats then gain them back. I promise, I’ll eat breakfast next time, alright?” I hope Mom does not feel offended. “I’m alright. But don’t be out for so long, you might be late for school.” I put a towel on my right shoulder and reach the doorknob. “Okay mom.”

 

            I jog around my housing area and I’m feeling uneasy. I’m feeling kind of awkward cause I’ve been noticing those stares from my neighbours. Okay, I admit it. I’ve never been wandering around my housing area since last year. Maybe they didn’t even recognize me. I’m too busy. Actually the word is too lazy. Nevermind, the point now is that I want to have a good start. I don’t have to care about them. There’s Mrs. Helna with her dog, and that’s Mr. Johnson, cutting some trees and that’s Alson, he’s the paperboy. Hey, I do know all of them. Maybe I can create this scrapbook about our neighbourhood. They’ll recognize me again and maybe they’ll award me for the “Most Caring, Loving, And Greatest Neighbour in the world.’

 

            I think about the idea of the scrapbook and jog about 30 minutes before I reach home.  Suddenly Tucker calls me. “Hey Christina! Having a healthy start, huh?” What else am I doing then? “Yeah.I’m sorry Tucker but I can’t have a nice conversation with you right now cause firstly, I’m smelling bad. And secondly, I need to be hurry to go to school.” “Well, okay. We shall meet at school then.” I run up the stairs and have a quick shower. Then I open my closet and choose the clothes I’m going to wear today. Okay, that khaki jeans is just nice if I pair it up with this floral stripe blouse. Alright, I’ve made my choice then.

 

            Mom drops me off and without kissing goodbye, she rush to work. I walk through the ally and all that I can see is there’s a group of students gathering at this one locker. And most of the students are in the 12th grade. So I just walk past them and trying to know why are they gathering there. Then I see that it’s Mike, entertaining the herd with some stupid jokes. I walk as fast as I can try not to make him see me, but guess what? He calls my name out and makes everyone around him to stare at me. “Hey Tina, wait for me.” Mike says something to them then all of them continue their routine. “Mike! I’m not shocked to see you here. What do you want? Please make it fast.” “Hmm, Tina, don’t you think that’s quite mean? I’m an innocent newcomer just wishing someone nice would want to guide me around the school.” He is doing this innocent smile and then I give him a sarcastic smile in return. “Mr. Ross, I’m not a tourist guide or something. But I’m not a mean cheerleader as all the movies always describe. I’ll guide you.”

 

            So Mike just follows me at the back while I walk to the library. “So, this is the library, you can access to the internet and search for any books of your interest here. Do I sound like a tourist guide?” I think I said that quite in a fluent voice. Haha, I’ve said to Sam I can be professional. I just need someone to turn that mood on. And believe it or not, Mike is the ‘someone’. “You do sound like a tourist guide. But I think you sounded a lot more like the woman in the GPS.” “Whatever Mike.” I continue my steps to the main hall and actually,we’ll reach there in about 5 minutes. We talk about some stuff. Actually, some stupid stuffs.-just to avoid awkwardness- For instant, Mike accidentally hits a junior girl-who actually fancies him- and then he complains about why juniors are so over him. He said actually everyone are over him. We argue about that then. He said this and I said that. And some moments after that, I get two text messages, one from Mom, and one form Mrs. Fischer.-why did I ever gave my private phone numbers to teachers? So, I read the text from Mrs. Fischer first. It says that there’s an ‘unwanted’ meeting for all the dance club members today after school, and please inform Mike. Why can’t she do that by herself? Okay, never mind. I’ll inform him. I open the second message-that was from mom- and she says,

 

Honey, I just have a call from your teacher and she said you have to stay back, right? However, I can’t pick you up at that time, I’m serious, this time, it is not because of Ed. I’ll pick you up but maybe one hour late. I’m so, so, so sorry. Love you always, Mom. XOXO.

 

            Great!2 different messages yet giving me one BIG problem.I don’t want to wander around school again! I hope I have my own car but mom is afraid that I’ll join some kind of racing tournaments.-cause I have a really big heart in racing since I’m a kid! I mean, mom can’t be serious when she say, “I’m not going to even touch a single steering and land that feet of yours on even a single pedal!”But I’m going to bring this subject on if we’re having a debate about a single slip of license in the future.

 

            I can see that Mike gives a puzzled, innocent, yet curious face to me then he says, “Christina, what are you reading because the message seems to have made you worried. Let me have a look on it.” So I just give him the no-way-you’re-going-to-know-about-this look. Then Mike just grabs my phone from my hands and tries to read the message. So, for about 2 minutes, I’m jumping and hopping to get my phone off Mike’s hand. “Mike, give me back my phone!” I wish I had my Vincci high heels on so I don’t have to feel that I’m so short right now. Then we hear someone clearing his throat behind us, so we stop what we’re doing and turn our body. It’s Tucker and his girlfriend, Ivy-at school, they’re like tied with an invisible rope to each other, whenever you see Tucker, there’s Ivy- Then when I actually starts to overcome my hatred feelings about Ivy, I realize that Tucker had actually seen us struggling and we look like we were…hugging! Oh no! What am I going to say to him about this?

 

 

            Then Ivy laughed sarcastically and does a he’s-with-you? face and rolled her eyes at me. Tucker look at Mike and say, “So, are you the new guy that everyone in this school have been talking about? You just registered yesterday but it seems that everyone knows you well. Are you someone famous or something?” I don’t know why but I just feel that the wind blowing around us now is full of hatred and a little bit cold. “Yeah, I’m new here. I don’t know how they know me but, I love being known. That’s me. And I’ve been told you’re a well-known student too. Is that right? Cause all I can see is an ordinary student in a 'serious relationship' with a mean cheerleader girl as all the movies had always described.” Hey, that’s my words! It’s getting colder here. I don’t think this conversation will go on well. So, I interrupt them just to make sure no one is going to the sick bay today. “Hmm, Mike, I think the bell is going to ring in less than 10 minutes and there’s so many places I haven’t shown you yet. Come on. Nice to see you Tucker. And, yes, nice to see you too Ivy. Have a nice day, both of you.”