Scarlet Dreams

Chapter 7: Jesus Was a Great Man

Scarlet

"Morning, Scar! Don't you look like morning sunshine today," said Simon with his usual dimpled grin when he saw me walking down the corridor toward my locker.

"You mean I look like that asshole who intrudes into my room from between my curtains at five-thirty in the morning and annoys the hell out of me?" I raised my eyebrow at him in question, daring him to say yes.

"Well, I actually meant his nicer sister at 9 a.m. But just so you know – they're twins." He smirked, closing his locker's door and leaning against it. I took my things from the locker, while Simon went on.

I wasn't really in a mood for this. Even after a full night of tossing and turning I couldn't shake off the disappointment. That man had been right. Although he was nice about it, it still burned.

"By the way, we were thinking with Eddie and Ben that we should go out on Friday for bowling. You up for it? There will probably also be some other girls." He eyed me dubiously when he said it, ready to start convincing me at any sign of my usual reluctance to attend activities like this.

"I'll think about it," I told him while making sure I had gotten everything I needed from my locker and wouldn't need to run back later. I needed to get my mind off this, so might as well go out for once.

"Really?" he asked skeptically after a second to digest my unexpected answer.

I nodded, finding his unbelieving expression a bit amusing. I usually didn't really like to hang out with strangers, especially when the strangers were girls like Angela. The way she always acted like a good girl in front of guys, then eyeing me with distaste when they weren't looking, just made me want to give her a sample of my rarely used vocabulary. Instead of wasting my nerve cells trying not to flip out on her, I preferred to stay away.

There were more important things for me to do, like reading a book or attending some business related seminars I managed to get into. But I thought the idea did seem good for a change. Besides, Eddie had been skipping lunch for a week, so I hadn't had a chance to chat with him for a while.

From the corner of my eye, I saw someone with familiar dirty-blond hair. My gaze quickly turned to see, but to my disappointment, the person walking by was a random guy I didn't know.

"Scarlet?"

I snapped my eyes back to Simon, who was looking at me expectantly, waiting for an answer to a question I hadn't even heard.

"Yes," I said without thinking.

His lips turned into a small smirk at my quick answer. "That's so nice of you to lend me 900 bucks."

"Ye...Wait, what? No!"

Simon laughed and put his hand on my shoulder before dragging me along toward our History class.

"Just kidding."

The History class was going to be my doom. I felt like my mind was slowly falling into a boredom-induced coma. I wished I could have taken an extra Calculus class instead. At least that could give my brain a bit of a tickle.

My poor notebook was suffering from the affliction of excessive doodling. Strange faces were watching me from the page's corners and some weirdly shaped doodles reminded me how bad I truly was as an artist. It was hard to make out the difference between class notes and pointless scribbles that looked like I was unknowingly trying to learn Greek. Maybe it was simply the inner genius in me waking up.

The sound of the classroom door opening pulled my attention as well as everyone else's to its source.

"I'm sorry I'm so late. I got lost."