It's Complicated

22. Too Good To Be True

22. Too Good To Be True

"Mariela! Mariela!"

I turned around to face Riya, raising my eyebrows when I saw the crazed expression on her face. She looked like she had been sprinting as her hair was disheveled and her cheeks were slightly red. Her heavy breathing was a give away, too.

"What is up with you?" I asked, laughing when she bent over and put her hands on her knees, taking deep breaths in.

"God, I need to start working out more," Riya muttered to herself. She straightened up and flashed me a dazzling smile.

"Riya, I'm beyond confused. What's going on?" I asked, knotting my eyebrows together in confusion.

"Let's just say you are going to have a nice surprise in Spanish," she said with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes.

"Uh... okay?" I shrugged resignedly and didn't bother asking her for more information. It was clear she wasn't going to say anything else on the subject.

Luckily Spanish was third period so I didn't have to wait too long for my surprise. I loved surprises, but I hated the waiting. By the time Spanish rolled around, I was all pumped up to see my surprise.

"Que pasa, Mariela?" Sra. Silva asked me, noticing me bouncing in my chair excitedly.

"Uh, nothing," I replied, unsure of whether she knew about the surprise or not.

Sra. Silva gave me a look that told me that she was completely unconvinced by my answer, but she didn't say anything else so I didn't bother to explain myself.

Riya and Allen walked in together whispering quietly. I wondered if they were talking about the surprise, but the only word I was able to hear was "date." I guess they weren't talking about the surprise then. Oh, well. Allen's face looked slightly annoyed, but I could tell he was trying to cover it up. I wondered why he seemed annoyed. Did he not like going on dates with Riya?

I realized then that Drew and I hadn't actually gone on a real date yet. Every time we went out, we happened to meet another couple and our date would become a double date. We had never really ever been alone and I felt kind of jealous of Riya since I knew she had gone on many real dates with Allen.

Drew walked into Spanish looking distracted and worried. It didn't look like he was in on the surprise. I started to wonder if Riya had been serious about the surprise in the first place. No one here seemed to be planning anything. Disappointment clouded my face, but I quickly composed myself.

Sra. Silva passed out a worksheet to do in class and I almost cheered aloud when I noticed how easy it was. It was a vocab crossward puzzle! We hadn't done one of those since Freshman year and she had warned us that we might never get to do something that easy again.

I finished my crossward quickly and put together the code at the bottom. The code spelled out: get ready. I rolled my eyes. What a dumb message. Riya's code was: it's almost time. These were really bad codes. Usually the code spelled out something funny or clever, but this time the codes meant pretty much nothing. For some reason, though, Riya grinned at the message and looked ahead expectantly. Okay, then....

Five minutes later, Sra. Silva was lecturing us about the conditional tense and I was about to fall asleep in boredom.

"Sra.?" Riya interrupted, raising her hand though she hadn't waited for Sra. Silva to call on her.

"Yes, Riya?"

"Can I show you something outside?" Riya asked. Riya was Sra. Silva's favorite student and Sra. could never say no to her.