Chloe & Chleo

Chapter 4: Heal the Wounded One

HEAL THE WOUNDED ONE

Graphite Pencil on Paper (12in x 16in)

  This drawing depicts a pair of hands covering a bandage around somebody’s wounded hand.

“You should really talk to her,” Chloe said to me in the classroom while our Math teacher was delivering a lecture.

  During the lunch break a while ago, I had told my sister about Brenda not coming with us in the field trip the previous day. Since then, she kept on insisting me to talk to Brenda.

  “The person who should talk first is her,” I whispered, while jotting down notes of the lecture. “I didn’t do anything wrong to her. She just started not talking to me. Just get over it, Chloe.”

  “Yes, I know. But Brenda is your friend, isn’t she? You know, most girls are not outspoken with their feelings, because they tend to wait for the boys to make a move.”

  “But you girls often show intention to boys. I said get over it.”

  “That’s what I’m talking about. Brenda did not only show you her intention; she told you.”

Out of the blue, we heard knocking on the chalkboard. When our heads turned to the front of the classroom, we noticed that our teacher was scowling at us. All of our classmates were also staring at both of us.

“We’re very sorry, ma’am,” Chloe and I said simultaneously.

“I told you to get over it, Chloe,” I whispered.

The following day, our class adviser demanded me to interchange seat with Clayton. She reasoned out that she wanted him to get closer with our classmates, which he couldn’t do at the back of the classroom. And for all the persons in the class, why me? I didn’t believe in such crap. The real reason, I believed, was to prevent my sister and I talking again in the middle of a lecture.

  I wasn’t comfortable sitting in the back corner of the classroom, especially when your seatmate was the topnotcher of the class who had the potential to graduate as the valedictorian. My new seatmate was the brainiac Leroy. All of our teachers admired this boy, always telling that he was a role model. I literally could see that Leroy’s ears were flapping like butterfly’s wings whenever the teacher said that.

  However, this boy didn’t have any free time to talk with anybody. He only devoured his time reading books. Even in the canteen, when everyone was just busy filling their stomachs, he was in one corner busy filling his brains too while reading a book held up in front of his face.

  Nevertheless, he was an annoying guy. Whenever we had examinations, he would use his hands and arms and probably his whole torso just to cover his test paper. As if I had any intention to cheat him, duh! That would never happen. Chloe would scold me if I did that. My sister and I used to be seatmates but we’d never tried to cheat each other.

  But if there was one thing you might want to know about Leroy is that – he liked Chloe. My sister never liked him, though, because she thought that he was bossy. It was all because of what happened one morning. When we arrived in the classroom, Chloe found a bouquet of red roses on her seat. At first, she thought that whoever gave it was very thoughtful. But when she read the note, she saw a line there saying ‘Intelligent people should only mingle with each other.’ Well, that was a very romantic love letter.

  Because of that, Chloe went mad. She got even more enraged when she found out that the flowers were from Leroy. She took out her pen to cross the word ‘Intelligent’ on the note and wrote ‘Arrogant’ above.