Hard To Get

Chapter 2: Moving on (2)

This was ridiculous. I couldn't stand here all day, staring at my locker. The bell was going to ring any minute. A few kids trickled into the hallway at the far end. Taking some weak comfort from their presence, I gingerly opened the door.

Several large soft objects tumbled off the shelf, landing at my feet. I jumped and stared in disbelief. Instead of the usual jumble of books, scarves, sunglasses, and random pieces of paper, the entire locker was crammed with stuffed animals, red and pink boxes of candy, and cards in big pastel envelopes.

I bent down and retrieved a stuffed polar bear from the floor. A little red tag dangled from his arm. Hey, Val, what's up? I figured out your lock combination----1-13-94---your birthday. It's my new favorite date. Hey, let's hang out sometime. Chris.

The hallway was starting to fill up. I edged closer to the locker door, trying to shield its contents from the stares of people passing nearby.

A blond girl spun her own combination a few feet away and looked over at me curiously.
I shot her a weak smile and did my best to kick of some of the stuffed animals back into the locker.

I set the polar bear down and picked up a dog wearing a cowboy hat. He stared at me with benign button eyes.

I extracted a card from the envelope strung around his neck. From Justin. I placed the dog next to the polar bear and pulled out a stack of candy boxes of various shapes and sizes, flipping through them as if they were a stack of playing cards.

Heart-shaped box of truffles from Kerth Gosdin, chocolate-covered cherries from Brian North, big bag of M&M's with VAL printed on them from someone named Marvin. Oh my God, this was just flat-out creepy. Is this what it feels like to have a stalker, I wobdered? Or a lot of stalkers?

The warning bell rang. I snapped out of my trance. I had to get rid of this stuff before anyone saw it and thought that I'd been flashing people for Mardi Gras beads or something.

A jumbo-size trash can with a fresh garbage bag stood empty just a few feet away.

I thought about dragging it over, but the second bell chimed and the halls began to empty. No time. I started cramming everything back into the locker instead. I was in the midst of trying to close the door while holding the stuff in with my foot when two people came strolling down the hall toward me. Oh, joy of joys-----it was Ron and Leah, holding hands and looking like Longbranch High's Cozy Couple of the Year.

Don't look, don't look. I concentrated on shutting the locker door, but it wouldn't close.

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see two sets of shoes approaching-----Ron's Reef flip-flops and Leah's white strappy wedges. I shoved the locker as hard as I could, but something was blocking the door. I looked down. A furry little arm was poking out of the bottom. The shoes stop beside me.

Slowly, I raised my eyes and was hit smack in the face by Leah's best beauty-pageant grin. "Hi, Val!" she chirped.

Unbelievable. Just unbelievable. I offered a tight little smile in return. "Hi. Hi, Ron," I said.

Ron cleared his throat. "Uh, hey, Val," he said comfortably. His face was patchy with red and I could see him trying to squirm his hand out of Leah's. No luck though----she had it in an impressive death grip.

Leah wasn't done turning the knife yet. "So, what's up, Val?" she burbled.

I gritted my teeth. "Nothing. Just trying to get to class." I gave the locker door another futile shove.

"I think there's nothing something stuck in there," Ron said, oh-so-helpfully. He pointed to the bottom of the locker, where the furry arm still stuck out like part of the world's smallest murder victim.

"Oh yeah." I managed to sound surprised. "I don't know what that is." I held the locker door shut with my foot. If I let go, it would spring open and reveal the bizarre collection inside. On the other hand, would that be such a bad thing? At least he'd see that I was in demand. I wavered and for an instant, released my hold on the locker latch.

"Here I can get it." Ron stepped forward and grasped the latch. I realized what he was going to do.

"No, Ron, don't, I can----" I tried to yank his hand away, but it was too late. Ron opened the locker, and once again, stuffed animals and candy boxes sprayed all over the hallway.

There was a brief, horrible pause as the three of us surveyed the carnage. Leah's eyes widened. Ron's forehead was wrinkled as if he were trying to understand a really, really hard math problem.

"What's all this stuff, Val?" Leah bent down and picked a red stuffed heart off her sandal, turning it over in her hand as if it were an archeological specimen.

I summoned my courage. This was a test of my inherent toughness, kind of like my pioneer ancestors crossing the Rocky Mountains in the dead of winter and runnning out of food and having to eat one another by the end.

I tossed my head. "Oh, nothing." My voice held just the right hint of careless airiness. "Just some presents from a few. . . . . .  friends." I picked up the cowboy-hat-wearing  dog and held him next to my cheek lovingly.

"I had no idea you were so popular," Leah cooled. I resisted the urge to put my hand on her face and push her away.

Ron stood by her side, his hands hanging like hams, looking from one of us to the other.

The warning bell chimed again. "Well, I've got to get to class,"  I said casully. I waited until they had retreated down the hall, then shoved the stuff inside, slammed the locker door, and rushed down the hall, in my haste almost ricocheting off the last row of lockers. I could feel the blood pounding in my forehead as I slid into my seat in English. A week and a half! Whatever happened to a decent period of  morning?

The classroom was filled with the soothing rustle of paper and notebooks and the low hum of people getting ready for the discussion on Hamlet. I took out my phone to turn it off for class, glanced at the screen, and then looked more carefully. Did that say twenty-five texts? I scrolled through the list fast. Marvin, Kaiz, Enrique, Jeff. Did I want to hang out; get some coffe; watch movies some night; come to a house party; hey, there's a barbeque this weekend, did I want to go?

I clicked my phone shut and laid my head on the desk. What was the deal? I mean, a couple of invites, maybe, I could understand, since everyone knew about the breakup by now. But twenty-five? And all the stuff in the locker? When had my life become so weird?

Author:
Hey, there Claridell!