Behind the Scenes of Life

Chapter 21

Chace and I frequently spoke about The Vampire Diaries and Vampires in general. He said he was Klaus from The Vampire Diaries. Klaus was a hybrid and therefore very strong, actually one of the most powerful characters, naturally Chace would’ve wanted to be him. I thought of myself as the female Klaus and Chace and I play-argued about who we thought between the two of us was Klaus. In the mornings he always had something to say regarding vampires to me. I didn’t mind. I lived for fantasy!

“You know what I would do if I was a vampire hey,” Chace began one morning in class teacher’s period, “I’d be so quick between the tables and rip people’s heads off all within the blink of an eye.”

He went as far as making a vampire hit list of people he’d get if he were a vampire. Of course this was all just for fun and games.

“I’d even do it all with my emotions on.”

I didn’t tell him that the way he treated people now, was like he didn’t have any emotions at all.

“I’d also keep my emotions on,” I said to him, “turning off your emotions takes the fun out of it.”

He laughed. “You’re evil.”

“So are you.”

“I’d get everyone in this class, except a few people. I wouldn’t kill you.”

“I’d be your partner in crime, that’s why.”

“Who’d you get?” he asked me.

I thought about it. “Nearly everyone in this class, not you of course.”

“Why not me?” He sounded suspicious.

“Do you want me to kill you? ‘Cause if it’s a problem I will” I settled for that as an answer instead.

One day we were reading our prescribed book in English. Chace had his chair next to mine since he had forgotten his book at home. The book was like a play and our sir had assigned people in the class to every character. We had to follow the dialogue in the book to know when we spoke. When it was Chace’s turn to speak I had deliberately put my hand over the text so that he couldn’t see.  I did it quickly though, but it was enough for him to lose track of where he was. He was laughing as he read his line. Chace then did the same to me when it was my turn to read. Only he left his hand on the text so I couldn’t read my line at all. I was struggling to get his hand off the page, and when I finally did, our sir had read my line and we were already by the next character. Chace was laughing. He didn’t get even, he got one up, the thing was… so did I.

On a Monday we started with unprepared orals again. This time the topics were in the book- about five topics- and our sir only told us what our topic was five minutes before we had to speak about it so we only had five minutes to prepare. Mr Steyn randomly chose people from the class list to do their unprepared oral. Chace and I didn’t go that Monday. What Chace then did at home was write an oral for all five topics. This way he was prepared and already had his oral without needing to prepare for it. When our sir read my name next to do my oral, Chace handed me one of the orals he had already written. He helped me go over what he had written and I was well prepared when I spoke. Thanks to him I got 80% for the oral.

As much as Chace was the thing you needed saving from, he could also be the very thing that saved you.

Chace and I were always up to our usual antics in English period. This meant poking each other, writing on each other, taunting and teasing each other, hi-fiving each other and also speaking to each other.

Chace was mostly the one to start. He’d write on me and then move back when I tried to write on him. The thing was, he had once told me he was ticklish so I played on that weakness. I poked him in the neck and ribs and he let out this giggle that made me laugh.

He found this new way of getting me where he hit me on my legs under the desk or wrote on it. I continued poking him and tickling him whenever I got the chance to. He always said, ‘okay I’ll stop now,’ but he never did so I stopped believing him. The thing was, I actually enjoyed our little playful acts.

Chace and I had our own way of greeting for a while- inspired by me. I said ‘good evening’, him ‘good afternoon,’ me, ‘good morning’, him ‘goodnight,’ It was also the other way around depending on who started it the greeting.

“What’s the surname of your ex?” my mother asked me one day in the car. We were on the way to my school and we had just dropped my brother off at his school.

“My ex?” I was genuinely confused. I wasn’t even aware of ever having a boyfriend.

“Yes that boy.. Cha Cha Chad I think his name was.”

“Mummy means Chace and he’s not my ex.”

“What’s his surname?”

“Lucus, why?”

“Oh no it isn’t him. I thought his father was working in the court.”

“No definitely not.”

“The guy in the court is a short thin man.”

“Definitely not Chace’s father. His father is fairly big built.”

“How do you know how his father looks?”

I realised that what I had said could have been misinterpreted.

“I saw his father.”

That much was obvious, but there was no other way to explain it. When parents picked up their children you got to know their parents.

At my next piano lesson I received my exam results. I had gotten 77% (77/100). It was an okay-ish mark, but I had expected at least an A. I felt that my performance had surpassed my mark, but I just had to accept my mark. I avoided speaking about it though.  It wasn’t good enough to be mentioned and boasted with. My parents were satisfied with my mark and even Jessie said it was good for my first time. I didn’t feel so.