Heartbroken

Chapter 3:

"Okay," Clarissa said after 15 minutes of 'brainstorming'. "I have it ALL thought out. Hand me a paper, while the thoughts are fresh," she said to Luke, snapping her fingers as if he was a butler.

"Uh, okay." He said, fumbling in his backpack for a paper. He handed it to Clarissa, and as she took hold of it to take it, she smiled at Luke. Luke seemed creeped out by her, because when Carmen cleared her throat, disrupting Clarissa's 'moment', he let out a sigh of relief.

Clarissa looked away, then continued. "So, you Luke," she said, looking at him. "Will be playing an average 17 year old boy, Michael, who has a secret admirer. You don't know who it is until the end of the year, right before prom." She turned to me.

"You Miranda, will be playing a 16 year old girl named America, who is the shyest girl in school. You, have a crush on Michael. The day before Prom you are desperate to get him to like you back, so you do something crazy!" She lastly turned to Carmen.

"You, will be playing America's best friend, Loraine. You know there is something bad about Michael, so you do whatever it takes to get to stop her from liking him. That's all you need to know for now. Here are your scripts." She handed each of us a script, and threw mine at me, forcing me to think fast and catch it. Some papers fell on the ground, so I had to pick them up from the floor.

" 'A Broken Heart'," I read the title when I gathered all the papers. "So, I'm like this person who's so desperate for love I commit suicide or something?" I whispered.

"I couldn't hear you." Clarissa said. "But by the looks of it your asking about your character. You know, you could just READ the script," she gasped, a fake look of worry on her face. "Unless... You CAN'T read! Hmm, it wouldn't surprise me!" She smirked, and I could've killed her, and I expected Carmen to step in, but it was Luke.

"Would you just leave her alone?" He said. Clarissa looked at him as if he was crazy. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but closed it when she saw that Luke was being serious. "Can we go on with the script now?"

"Of course we can Luke!" Clarissa said sweetly, covering up her look of surprise. She shot me a glare, but said nothing more. We each read our parts.

So, my character, America, meets Luke's character, Michael. She instantly falls for him, but he doesn't know it. Her shyness keeps her from speaking to him, so they never speak to each other until he asks her to prom. She's excited, but she finds out he only asked her because he felt bad and got her confused with her best friend Loraine. Carmen's character, Loraine, sees bad in Michael, but America is blind to the truth. Loraine finds out that at prom, Michael is planning to dump America for her. Loraine tries to get America to get over Michael, but she won't listen, so she makes Michael promise to have a dance with America before he leaves her.

Finally, America sees Loraine and Michael together, but she agrees for her only dance with Michael, and kisses him on the spot to try to make him change his mind! But, Michael pulls away in fear and dances with Loraine leaving her with a broken heart.

"Oh yay!" Carmen said, after reading her parts. "I get to slap Luke!"

"Carmen..." I whispered nervously as I finished reading my part.

"You see, Michael tells my character, Loraine, about his EVIL plan, and I slap him!" She said, explaining about her reason to slap him.

"Carmen..." I whispered again

"It won't be that hard to slap him actually." She said, still ignoring me. "I can just remember about that one time we totally embarrassed me! Or that one time he bumped into me and I dropped my lunch. Or that one time..."

"CARMEN!!!" I said, louder.

"What?" She asked, snapping out of her 'private thoughts' bubble.

"I have to kiss Luke, Carmen. KISS him! What am I going to do!?" Panic rose within me as I began to shake.

"Miranda, Miranda!" Carmen said, taking hold of me. "Calm down and listen to me. We'll be rehearsing everything up to that. You'll be fine. But when we have to perform, you can hesitate or just tell him you feel uncomfortable about kissing him. I'm sure he'll understand! Besides, maybe he likes you too." She let go of me and smiled. Maybe, just maybe he does...

The bell rang, and I was more than relieved to go. The sooner I exit, the sooner I avoid Luke talking to me about that kiss. The rest of the day was okay, until lunch. Carmen and I were sitting at our usual table when Luke came around with his friends. I saw him speak to his friends then nod towards me. I ducked my head I forced myself to stop eating. If I HAVE to speak to him, it's not going to be with a full mouth.

He left his friends and approached us. "Hey Carmen, Miranda," He said. "I'm glad to hear we'll be acting out the play together." I nodded, careful of his words and my possible replies. "So... What I came to speak to you about is... that kiss." My heart stopped. REALLY? I thought. WHILE I'M eating!? "Listen, when it comes to that, you're more than welcome to stop the scene. It might be uncomfortable to kiss someone you hardly know, so I understand. But we have to act it out, eventually, so just remember, when we do kiss, I don't bite!" There was a laugh in his sky blue eyes, and I couldn't help but smile.

"I'll make sure to remember that." I whispered.

"And I'm sure you will." He whispered back, smiling. "Well, I just wanted to 'warn' you. If it's uncomfortable don't act out the scene." And with that he left.

"Well that wasn't so bad!" Carmen said with a smile. We finished our lunch and went to our last class, history.

History is BORING, but it went by fast because I couldn't help but think of the play. By the time school was out, I had already acted out the play more than a hundred times in my mind, some of which I totally embarrassed myself. Carmen walked with me on our way out of class.

But on our way out, I was cornered by Clarissa and her 'followers', Jennifer Garcia and Mary Jones. They think they're SO cool, hanging around Clarissa when they're nothing but her servants. They LITERALLY follow her, EVERYWHERE! OH GREAT, I thought. I GET TO HAVE A 'PEP TALK' WITH THE ONE GIRL WHO HATES ME...YAY. She's so determined to destroy me, she could kill me on the spot.

"Listen Miranda" she said in this type of voice that just made you want to punch that mouth of hers. I listened as Mary and Jennifer began to sneer at me. Their actions are so influenced by Clarissa's you'd think she demanded them to act that way. "You may have gotten the role of being in love with Luke's character, but in real life, he sees you no more than a person in his group. Once this little, 'project' is finished, you'll go back to being the quiet girl. Just remember your spot here in this school." And with that, she flipped her hair and left, Mary and Jennifer flipping their hair at me as well and following her.

"Wow. Come on, don't listen to her." Carmen said.

But how can I not listen to someone who's done so many things to me? How can I ignore one's words when they sting me so much? That night, I couldn't sleep. My thoughts were too crowded with Clarissa's words and my future actions.