Silently Loud

Chapter 5

        Watching Darren grudgingly put on my old school uniform was hilarious. The length of it was fine on him, but since he had more of a swimmer’s build as opposed to my gym build it hung around him loosely. The pants were baggy though, and I had to let him borrow a belt just to make sure they wouldn’t fall off in the middle of school. I was currently watching him try to tip toe down the stairs to avoid stepping on his own pants and tripping. Once he got to the bottom of the steps, he turned to me and pouted a little. I smirked at his misery.

        “Wait ‘till my mom sees you. She used to call me a baby ducking when I was wearing that. I can only warn you about the squeals that are about to come when she sees you half drowning in my old clothes.” I cautioned we entered the kitchen and my smirk only grew wider.

        “DARREN DEAR, YOU LOOK ADORABLE! COME HERE. LET ME PINCH THOSE WONDERFUL DUCKLING CHEEKS.”

        Watching Darren try to eat cereal while having his blushing cheeks pinched constantly by my slightly obsessive mother made for a very amusing morning.

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          I sat behind the rest of my class under the large elm tree in front of our school with my forearms resting on my knees and my head dipped low in concentration. My eyes were predatory and held a dangerous glint as I glowered at the back of Darren’s head. I think he might have felt my gaze, because he would occasionally glance back at me with playful irritation in his eyes. Oh, poor kid. He has no idea that the plotting look I had in my eyes is genuine. I had claimed that there wasn’t enough space under the elm tree for the both of us and forced him to sit right in front of me instead. Why? Because once I kicked him out from my elm tree territory, he was forced to sit next to Anni. Not that he had noticed yet. He was too busy doodling.

 Our teacher had decided on taking us outside today and was currently trying and failing to teach us math. Seeing as the majority of students were doing their own thing instead of attempting to learn, I decided I should follow their lead and take the time to execute my plan now. My eyes darted between the two and assessed the situation.

They were both sitting fairly close to me, albeit Anni was just a tiny fraction farther away than Darren was. Darren was on my right, one leg stretched out in front of him while the other was bent up to hold his notebook at an angle. His upper half was bent so his back was to Anni as he fiddled around with the songs on his phone. Anni was to my left, sitting cross legged and leaning back on her left hand while she wrote on the notebook in her lap with her right. She was one of the few that had somehow managed to keep paying attention to the teacher. Wow, I applaud her. Not many kids can keep their focus on the lesson when- I suddenly bit my lip and resisted the urge to burst out laughing. Oh my god, this is too good. She’s doodling. She was never paying attention in the first place. How did I not notice this sooner? I glanced to Darren, who was on my right. Oh yes, I’m going to get them to talk.

While I waited for Darren to finish picking a song to listen to and turn to face the front once again, I gathered some of the pebbles that were scattered around the ground and placed them to my right. Once Darren’s back was to me, I took my forearms off of my knees to rest them behind my head and leaned back on the trunk of the tree. Then I flung out my left leg, ‘accidentally’ scraping Darren’s side as I rested my foot beside him. He looked over his shoulder and raised an eyebrow in question.

“Darren, scoot over to your right a little, my leg needs air.” I whispered, using all my strength to keep a straight face.

He didn’t move save for his eyebrow going up just a little bit higher.

“Darren, please. My leg, it’s suffocating.” I continued as I placed my hands on my left thigh and threw my head back while wiggling my leg around dramatically.

He still didn’t budge. I suppose it’s time to get desperate.

“Have mercy Darren. My leg is so young. He still has a life ahead of him. He can’t be amputated now just because someone wouldn’t let him breathe. Let him live life to the fullest, Darren. Don’t be responsible for leg murder.”

At this point, I was receiving his ‘are-you-fucking -serious-right-now’ face. I couldn’t take it seriously though, as the corner of his mouth kept twitching up into a small smirk. I was hoping he would have moved by now, but I guess I was going to have to go extreme measures.

“MY LEG HAS THREE CHILDREN TO FEED.” I screeched loudly.

Darren jumped and clapped his hand to his mouth to hide his wide grin, not expecting the high pitched claim that came out of my mouth. The entire class turned to look at me in absolute confusion. The teacher looked at me with distaste. I stared back expressionlessly. Then, I slowly raised my left leg into the air. All was silent as the class looked back and forth towards the current silent war I was having with our teacher. Once my leg was high up in the air, I did what any other sane student would do in that situation. I wiggled it around seductively, and winked.

With that, the teacher quickly turned back to the portable board and continued teaching as if nothing had ever happened. The majority of students did the same, trying and failing to hide their snorts and giggles. A quick glare from the teacher shut them up. Darren seemed to be busy trying not to face-palm at my actions. He settled for resting the fingers of his right hand on his temple. I smirked in victory as I noticed his jump at my screech had landed him right where I wanted him. He was so close to Anni that the fingers on his left hand were resting on her skirt. And he was still oblivious to it. Sadly, so was Anni. Oh well, that’s why I had gathered my pebbles.

I picked one up and threw it expertly, landing it right in front of Anni. She looked up from her doodle in confusion, not seeing where the pebble had come from. I waited until she was looking back down at her doodle before throwing another one, this time landing it just a little closer to Darren. Again, she looked up and peered at the pebble I threw. I watched happily as she leaned forward to pick up the pebble. At the exact moment that she grabbed it, I threw one at Darren’s ear, causing him to flinch. Anni wasn’t expecting Darren’s sudden movement in the corner of her eye and gasped, losing her balance and toppling over. She landed right where I wanted her. I smirked as she fell sideways onto Darren’s lap, sending the both of them into a blushing frenzy.

“Oh my god, I’m so sorry!” Anni whispered, flailing out of Darren’s lap as quickly as she could.

Darren was waving his hands in front of him wildly to try and show her it was fine, his face beet red. There was a moment of silence as they both stared at each other’s red faces, and I watched their profiles intensely. This better work out the way I hoped it was gonna work out. Darren hesitated a little before pointing at her notebook cautiously. She blinked, and realizing that he was asking if he could see her doodle, held it out for him while simultaneously holding out her other hand to ask for his. They traded notebooks and admired the doodle’s both of them had done during class. Then Darren took his pencil and lightly wrote something in Anni’s notebook before trading it back.

Anni read whatever Darren had written and smiled, before taking her own pencil and writing something back. The rest of class consisted of the two of them passing Anni’s notebook between them and sharing occasional smiles and silent giggles. I grinned. My mission was a complete success. Darren had finally talked to his crush.

Of course, this meant I now had nothing to do for the rest of class. Oh, boo. I should have taken a little longer in getting them to notice each other. But at least this way they spend more time talking together. I glanced down at the remainder of the pebbles I had gathered at my side. Pursing my lips, I decided that since I had them, I might as well have fun.

And that concludes the story of how I ended up in the nurse’s office after attempting to juggle nine pebbles and landing one straight into my eye. It’s cool though, because I get to be like a pirate and wear an eye patch for the rest of the day. Which is a win in my book.