Happy Valentines

Chapter One: Will You Be My Girlfriend?

The day Deanna Ong entered my life was simultaneously one of the best and worst of my life. On the one hand, Sofia, her sister, was the best friend I could ever have asked for.
We'd been practically inseparable since the very first minute we'd met.

But on the other hand, Deanna was such a pain in my ass I'd sell her to the corner store for a packet of sour worms and a Mars bar if they'd take her.

I'd known them for about ten years. Sofia and I were seven at the time, Deanna was eight, and my Sister Mattie was nine.

The Ong's had just moved in, and my mother, being the busy yet neighbourly person that she wanted people to think that she was, decided to send me over with a home baked apple pie, to welcome them into the neighbourhood.

Good thing I wasn't part of a Grimm neighbourhood.

A small child and an apple pie would be as good as home delivery to an evil witch. I'd never get out of there alive.
So, despite the obvious stranger danger, I headed on across the road to deliver my pie.
Before I'd even had a chance to ring the doorbell, the rudest, loudest boyish girl I'd ever come across bounded out of the door, stopping on her way to pull my braids and knock me down the stairs. The pie, thankfully, stayed intact, and even more thankfully, off my new dress. That small consolation didn't stop the tears springing to my eyes, though.

And so began my feud with Deanna Ong.

Sofia came out to see what the fuss was about. Like I said, it was friendship at first sight. She helped me off the ground, introduced me to her mother – Katherine, and father – Bob, relieved me of my pie, and pulled me into her room for a gruelling game of Barbies.

Mattie and Deanna bonded over their love of all this creepy boyish thing, just like me and Sofia bonded over the girlish thing wonders of the world. This arrangement worked out well for me – on the frequent occasions that Deanna had done something to irritate me or destroy my life, I'd hide out at Sofia's.
When Deanna's influence finally reached Mattie, and she started to do the same to Sofia, she'd hide out at mine. It was a regular war of the sexes, until Mattie found better things to do with her time and left Sofia alone. If only I could say the same of Deanna.

"Hey, beautiful."

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes as Sofia's girlfriend, Zoe, joined us for lunch. She was everywhere these days.

"Hey yourself," she responded, her blue eyes glittering as she leaned in to kiss her.

"Hey Jess," Zoe nodded at me once she'd separated herself from Sofia's face.

I managed a small smile. "Hi Zoe." In my head, I referred to called her as 'Puke', on the account of that's what I wanted to do every time I saw her and Sofia together, but I refrained from using the nickname out loud. Or at least when she was in earshot.

"So what's going on?" she asked us. "Anything interesting?"

"Nope," I told her. "Unless you count the contents of this so-called 'lunch' interesting." I poked at the thing with a fork, watching it jiggle. Giving up on the cafeteria food, I pulled a muffin out of my bag.

"Valentine's Day is Saturday," Sofia reminded her slyly. "What are we doing?"

Zoe just grinned secretly, her brown eyes giving nothing away. "You'll just have to wait and see," she told her. "But trust me, it will be great.
What about you, Jessie? You got a valentine?"

I scoffed. "Nope. Not this year."

"Well that's not entirely true, is it?" Sofia said, ignoring my glare. "What about that girl? The secret one?"