Love, Ali

Chapter 2

After the lecture on the proper way to dissect a frog in Bio class, handled by the most boring teacher on Earth, Mr. Faber, I wait for everyone else to scurry out of the classroom before I scurry out too.

No one barely even notices me. I sit at the back of the classroom next to the reeky trash cans, trying not to get called to read a paragraph from the book or answer a question on the blackboard.

It's not easy though. It's not easy sitting alone in the lunch table next to the tray dump and being used as a test monkey for every time Kayleigh receives her new makeup products. She always asks me to try out the new products so she knows whether it'll look good on her. I still don't know why she wouldn't rather try them on her own evenly tanned face. Not only is that difficult, but also humiliating. Once, she let me try on so many makeup and hair products that I literally came to school looking like a baboon. It's only after I looked at myself in the mirror to see why everyone was laughing, when I realized that Kayleigh made me look like a baboon for her own amusement.

As I step out from the classroom, I breathe in the smell of desperation and smile because I only had to survive one more class before I go home to my comfy bed and my fridge's wide open arms. I feel like this every school day for some reason.

Another crumpled paper hits me, but this time on my chest. I pick it up and open it to read what's inside. Turns out, it was another one of my secret admirer notes that I sent to Luke. It was dated yesterday. It said:

Dear Luke,

I saw you helping out the dance club with their routine. You may not have seen me because I was just curled up in the corner. The barre left there by the ballet dancers were blocking me so I bet you didn't see me. I didn't know you were so good in dancing. Maybe you could help me with my dance routine some time, just not now, because I still haven't worked up the confidence to talk to you. Some other time maybe?

Love, your secret admirer

I let out another snort and crumple the paper, returning it to its original crumpled form. Before I throw it to the side along with all the other crumpled papers together in a huge pile, that probably are all the secret admirer notes I wrote, Luke approaches me, extending his hands out in front of me.

I feel as if in five seconds, a ball of sweat will burst from my skin and take him down.

I couldn't speak. My mouth was full of saliva and my whole body was numb. My eyes on the other hand, just couldn't stop staring at the captivating sight right before me.

"May I please have that back?" He asks.

At first, I'm just standing there. I'm just staring at him and pondering on how hot he looks in his varsity football jacket. But then, I get the slightest feeling of annoyance when I realize that Luke threw out all the notes I sent him. And in one of those notes, I literally described myself--my personality. I actually told him that I was shy and too shy to talk to him. So in order for him not to know who I am--because I don't want him to know yet--I had to talk. I had to open my mouth and talk to the most popular guy in school. Piece of cake.

"E-Excuse me?" I stutter, completely bashful.

"Can I get the piece of paper back?" he replies.

"So you threw this?" I say while pointing at the crumpled paper.

"I didn't mean to hit you. I was aiming at Derric."

"You were aiming at a person 10 feet away from me. So you mean to say, the paper ball just ricocheted at me?"

There's silence for a moment, floating in the two feet gap in between us. Luke is totally speechless. I decide to break the silence by saying, while still pointing at the paper, "What is this anyway?"

He clears his throat and stands up straight. For a few seconds, he just stares at the crumpled paper ball I'm holding then makes his move by trying to snatch it from me.

I giggle.

"Again, what is this?" I repeat discreetly.

He presses his lips together and finally says, "It's a love note from someone I don't know, okay? Now hand it over."

He tries to snatch the paper ball from me again but this time, I let him. I wait until he makes a joyous remark of how fast he is and how developed his keen eye us until I ask out of curiosity, "Do you have any ideas about who may have sent you this note?"

"Dude, I don't know. Maybe. Why do you even care?"

I stand still for a while, wondering why I even liked Luke in the first place. He's kind of a snob. I can rule out, 'displaying a good impression', on my list of great things about Luke that I love the most.

I step closer to him and tiptoe so we're looking at each other on eye-level.

"I was just curious. Why do you have to be such a high-hat about it?"

He smiles.

"Give me a break, Alison," he muttered.

He said my name. Luke O'Bannon actually said my name! He knows me, so to speak. Can this day get any better?

I smile too but make that same face you make when you taste something sour when I hear, what apparently sounds like high heels clanging on the floor. They belong to, of course, Kayleigh Radmacher.

She makes her way through the huge crowd blocking parts of the hallway while chanting French words like, "sortir de la voie". We don't understand her at all.

She walks to the narrow gap between me and Luke and pushes me to the wall. She turns to me and whispers, "Back off, boyfriend stealer."

No, this day can't get any better because it just got worse.

When she turns back to face Luke, I almost lunge at her and pull out her hair but I manage to calm myself down.

"Relax, Kay. We were just talking." Luke affirms Kayleigh.

Kayleigh smiles and does the pouty-lip-thing that most girls do when they're around guys. I still don't get the point of doing that. Then she walks away with her posse.

Luke looks at me then quickly looks down at his shoes. Then he says, "Nice talking to you."

I smile.

"Nice talking to you too." I reply.

"Let's do this again some other time."

I nod while smiling.

The bell rings and as I walk to the end of the hallway to attend the last class of the day, I squirm just like how crazy fan girls squirm when they see a picture of the superstar they most adore on the internet.