Valentine's Day

A Little Act of Revenge

Crystal's idea really came through. I let Sophie, Lori and Paola in on the plan and ever since, we've been ignoring Christopher. It all started a week after the break-up.

It was lunch time and we were walking down to the cafeteria. Christopher walked by me and said "Hey." Why he said hi to me? I don't know, but I do know he was a bit confused when I didn't answer. He stopped walking and I started talking to Lori. Christopher said "Hey," again, but we simply walked inside the cafeteria. That wasn't much, but that's how it started.

One day, after school, I was walking around with Sophie. Out of nowhere, Christopher appeared. He started calling Sophie and waving at her as if they were the best of friends. I just stared at him confused and when he started getting closer, I walked away.

"That was weird," I told Sophie. When she didn't answer, I looked back to find out she had stayed behind and Christopher was talking to her. WHAT THE HECK!!! What happened to the 'Ignore Chris' thing? I wasn't about to go back and grab her hand and pull her away. So I sat in the gazebo and waited impatiently. After ten minutes, Sophie walked over.

"That was awkward," she said once she sat down next to me.

"What did he want?" I asked.

"He heard I liked a Paramore song and he asked me if I had their newest cd and if I could make a copy for him. I told him I had only heard two of their songs. Then he started telling a whole bunch of facts about them. He just kept talking. I told him I had to go and he said bye," Sophie explained.

I just stared at her. I doubt that's why Christopher wanted to talk to Sophie, but I knew she wasn't lying. "Ok then..." was all I said.

"Your ex is weird," she said. I nodded in agreement.

Ever since then, he has been talking to my friends. He talks to them before school, and after school. Even sometimes at lunch. I always walk away whenever he comes close, but my friends don't. At first, they would, but he would catch up to them or grab them by the hand. I'm not mad at them anymore, he'll talk to them whether they run off or not. I still don't know what he wants from them. Everytime I ask what he wanted, they say he asked about some band, or if they needed help with their homework, or if they watched a movie, or if they read a cool book. I get annoyed every time, because I am always left alone. He comes, I run off, my friends stay. I just sit close by and wait for him to finish talking to them. But not today.

It's been a long day and school is finally over.

"That math test was so long!" Paola complains.

"I know! And I was stuck on the same exercise for half of the period," I say.

"I'm glad it's over."

"Me too," I say agreeing with Paola. After we go to our lockers and switch books, we meet up with Sophie and Lori. Then we walk to the gazebo together.

"We should go to the movies," Sophie suggest.

"What movie?" Paola asks.

"I don't know. What movies do you guys want to watch?" Sophie asks.

"I'm not interested in the movies that are now playing," I say.

Lori starts to suggest a movie, but I'm distracted. At the end of the concrete sidewalk, a copper skinned boy walks out and locks eyes with me. His dimples disappear, and I can feel my face getting hot. I stop in my tracks, my heart beating fast like it always does when I lock eyes with him. Paola notices and she looks to where I look. She grunts.

"Oh no, not him again." She whines. I shake my head, confused at her reaction.

"What? You don't like him?" I stupidly ask.

"NO!" She says forming a wide 'O' with her mouth. "He won't shut up AND he has a big head. He is annoying. I'm sorry, but I don't know what you saw in him." I don't know either, but I push that aside.

"Then why do you keep talking to him?"

"I don't! They do," Paola says pointing to Lori and Sophie. "I wish I could escape, like you do."

"You could come with me," I say.

"You're too fast and I never know where you run off to."

I look foward again, and see Christopher walking towards us. Time for me to go.

"See you later." I run to the right, where there is a patch of grass between the highschool building and the elementary building. When I arrive at the end, I look back too see Christopher talking to Lori. Sophie listens to them, but Paola's eyes roam around. She sees me and sticks out her tongue while poking her mouth, acting like she is puking. I laugh and turn left.

I walk next to the pre-k through first graders classrooms. The doors and walls are decorated with drawings of stick figure lions and dogs and... I think those are elephants. I search for my little sister's drawing. I look at the kindergardeners' drawing and find the one that belongs to her. Her name, Rain, is written in blue and the drawing consists of many stick figures and a house. I can tell who is mom, me and my dad because Rain likes to draw older people taller, and younger people shorter.

I suddenly hear a loud laugh coming from my right. I turn to see Crystal with Eli, a girl who is just ending her first year at this school. I haven't really talked to her much, only a couple of times to learn that she loves princesses and rock music. Crystal sees me and waves. I wave back and join them.

"Hi there," I say.

"Hey, Eli was just telling me about this guy at her old school," Crystal informs me.

"It's so lame," Eli adds.

"What happened?" I ask.

Eli tells me the whole story. She was walking into class with her books in hand, because she forgot to bring her bookbag. Then the guy came running behind her because he thought he was late. He tripped and fell on her and dropped all of his belongings because his backpack was open. He kept on apologizing while he helped Eli pick up her books. She got annoyed and told him to shut up because it wasn't a big deal. Later that day, Eli couldn't find her pink, tiara pencil, when she looked over at the guy, he was using it. Eli tried to tell him he had her pencil without anyone in the class noticing, but when he realized, he said 'Oh sorry' really loudly and everyone noticed. Everyone made fun of him for that.

"Aw. Poor dude," I say. So what if he had someone else's pink pencil? It wasn't on purpose.

"He was so embarrassed," Eli says. I really don't get why people make fun of things like that. It was a mistake, and besides, what's so funny? That he has a pink pencil? So what if I have a spongebob pencil? Who cares, anyways.

"Where is Paola?" Crystal asks me.

"Stuck with Sophie and Lori who are talking to Christopher," I make the last word sound like venom burning my tongue.

"Who is Christopher?" Eli asks, noticing the negative emphasis I gave his name.

"Her ex," Crystal says. "Why is he talking to them? What happened to the plan?"

"In the beginning, they would ignore him and walk away, but he would follow them and talk to them. Like it wasn't obvious that we didn't want to talk to him. It really doesn't make a difference if they walk away or not. And I hate it. Everytime he comes, I walk away and end up alone."

"Next time, come find me. I'm always around," Crystal says. It's true. I smile and thank her.

"Maybe he is doing it on purpose," Eli says.

"What?" I ask.

"You said you and your friends were ignoring him. Maybe he noticed and he is doing this on purpose to get you jealous. This is his revenge," Eli explains.

I can't believe I never thought of that. It's so obvious, yet I never saw it. My mouth opens and my eyes widen. That clever, clever Chris.