Darlene dragged through school that day. It was slow for some reason. Probably because she knew she was waiting for something. It was Friday and Bonnie and Bridgette were coming home with her that day.
She was sitting in third hour. There was a substitute teacher in for Ms. Jacobs and he had put in a movie and fallen asleep. Darlene tore a scrap of paper from her notebook. She sketched a bear with a black sharpie pen. Since it was Halloween, she decided to draw fangs and blood on the bear. It looked pretty scary she thought.
She caught up with Johnny in the hall later and he hopped on her back and they raced down the hall. Johnny was so small, it was no problem for Darlene to pick him up. Laughing and having a good time, they slid to a stop at Mrs. Caddell's door. She froze with her stack of OAs and looked scared to death. Darlene and Johnny had scared her because they had run up behind her with her back turned.
She grasped her chest and wheezed. She paused and drew a breath. Then she giggled. "You scared me!" She said. Darlene and Johnny laughed as they entered class.
Johnny was a new kid from Minnesota. He had been there for about 3 weeks and sat behind Darlene in 4th period. He was fascinated by Darlene's long blonde hair. It shone like spun gold in the fluorescent school lights. Darlene thought Johnny hated her the way he went on; making her sound dumb and acted like he had no part in her, but little did she know, he was in love with her. Every day, Johnny would wait until Darlene let her hair fall behind her chair. Then, he would scoot his desk up, trapping her hair so she couldn't move her head. Darlene would always make a fuss about it and disrupt class. This was her way of pleading for help.
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Ms. Caddell would always tell her to turn around, but before she did, she would sneak a mean look Johnny's way. He would simply laugh and go on.
There was almost no way to prevent him from tampering with her. She would try putting her hair up into a bun, but then he would just put pencils through it. Finally, she would pull her hood up and go to sleep. Johnny liked seeing her asleep. He thought she looked peaceful and pretty so he left her alone.
She would pretend to sleep but stay just awake enough to hear the bell to leave. When it did, she would get up and go to fifth period. Johnny would grab her hair in two fists and lead her like a horse saying 'giddy up' and 'yah' and jolted her hair like you would horse's reins. He would forget she could run faster than him, and Darlene would run down the hall to the band room.
Johnny and Bridgette both played saxophone and Bridgette would let Darlene borrow her saxophone and she would play it. She would do this thing where she bit the reed up close to the end of the mouthpiece and make a really high pitched squeak. This would instantly trigger Johnny and he would get mad.
