The Freshman Crush [[On Hold]]

Chapter 13

    Monday morning I opened my locker to a very unexpected, unpleasant surprise. Everything in my locker was gone, cleared out. Not a single book or paper remained. The interior of the locker looked just as it did the very first day I opened it.

    “Missing a few things?” Ben asked sarcastically.

    “Shut up.” I commanded.

    Actually it wasn’t true that the locker was completely empty. There was one thing that was there, but it hadn’t been there before. I realized that Ben and Miles spotted it first. I followed their stares to the bright green note that was folded in fours and tapped to the inside of the door. It seemed like forever that we just watched it hang there.

    “Anybody want to read it?” Ben asked as he glared at me.

    I reached out with one hand and pulled the note from the metal. Slowly I unfolded the blinding green sheet. It looked much like the purple note I once found not too long ago. My name was in huge bubble letters that were bigger than the rest of the writing. The penmanship was incredibly neat, so neat, it looked computerized. Once again there was a cut out of a rose. The flower was cut from hot pink paper and the stem cut from the same color green as the note itself. Black ink traced through the stem and flower to create a more elegant effect. All the lettering was done in a sparkly ink pen.

Dear Matt,

    Hey, we got a hold of your locker combination. You really shouldn’t write that stuff in your notebook. I have taken your book hostage as I’m sure you can see. If you want them back you either have to find them or come ask nicely for them and then do my friends and I a favor. Good luck if you are hoping to find them on your own because you won’t, even if you tried your whole life. The only option is to come to us I guess. See you soon.

    Love,

        “That girl”

    “Wow,” Miles said as he read the note over my should. “I had no idea they were this good at being sneaky.”

    “You two should turn around.” Ben mumbled.

    I looked over my shoulder. Ben was staring out across the hall. It wasn’t hard to realize what he was looking at, or who he was looking at. Brittany, Maya, Cassie, Maci, and Dana sat in a circle in their own sophomore hallway like many people did. They were all watching us and I assumed they had been watching this whole time. To me none of them had any visible expression, they were completely neutral. They didn’t have evil smiles as they usually did, specially in this situation. They stared blankly, as though staring at a plain wall.

    “What are you going to do, Matt? They completely got you before you could get them” Miles said

    I didn’t reply.

    “Come on, lets go make deals with the devils and get your dumb books back.”  Ben spoke as he began to walk away from me.

    “Ben, hang on,” I said catching him. “I got an idea.”

    “What’s your idea?” Ben shook his head with a sarcastic frown.

    “I only have five different books. You have biology after lunch and math before. So just give me your books and I’ll get them back to you before you need them.”

    Ben raised one eye brow. Much like the girls who were down the hall with blank faces, Ben also looked blank. I think a large part of him wanted to tell me to forget it and that he had no desire to help, but a larger part of him knew he had to.