Out of This World

Andy

It was morning, and Andy hopped off her purple bike, locking it onto the rack next to Jim's blue one. She yawned, pulling off her helmet.

"Hey! Andy!" she heard Krel's voice yell.

She turned, groggily. "Hm?"

"Oh, you still look like you have yet to wake up," he laughed.

She shrugged. "I mean yeah, kind of. Didn't sleep too good last night."

"That's a real shame," he said. "Sleep is good for humans, you know."

"Yeah," I laughed. "I would know. I'm a human, dorkus."

"Yes, yes, I knew that," he said. "Dorkus..." he said, softly to himself, as if trying out the word. "I like that word."

"Yeah, me too."

The two of them walked together as far as they could, before they had to go their separate ways. He had Spanish first period, and she had Home Ec.

She walked into her Home Ec class, and sat down next to her friend Claire Nunez. "Morning Claire," she yawned. Darci and Mary Wang sat behind them, and stopped gossiping as soon as they saw her sit down.

"Good morning Andy," Claire said, smiling. "Long night last night?"

"Kind of. Just had trouble sleeping is all."

"I heard she had Krel over last night," Mary Wang whispered to Darci, purposefully loud enough for Claire and Andy to hear.

"OMG, you had Krel over last night!?" Claire squealed. Shit. Andy knew immediately where their minds all went with that.

"Wait what!? No no no I- I uh.. I did! But uh... not like that!" she protested, gesturing. "Not like that at all!"

"Then what exactly was it like, Andy? Spill!" urged Mary.

"He's my math tutor! He was helping me with my homework!"

Darci raised an eyebrow. "Your math tutor?"

"Yeah? The guy's really smart," she said nervously.

"We know you like him!" Mary Wang said, pointing a finger.

"As a friend!" she said, putting her head down onto my desk.

"That's what Claire said about Jim," Darci said to her. "Now I'm fairly certain they're going to get married after high school."

Claire turned to Darci. "A lot can happen in two years, Darce. A lot."

"Oh, is Jim not your one and only?" Darci wiggled her brows antagonistically, with a shit eating grin on her face.

Claire sighed. "No, he is. You guys are right."

"Well, for all it matters, I do not have a crush on Krel," Andy said. "He is my friend. That is all."

"You two have been sitting together for a few weeks now, right?" Mary Wang asked. "You two eat lunch and stuff?"

Andy nodded. "Yeah," she said.

"How bout his sister? She seems cool," Darci inquired.

Andy again nodded. "Aja is very nice."

"Isn't she dating Steve Palchuk?" Claire asked.

Andy nodded. "Yeah, she is. They're a really cute couple too, always holding hands and being adorable. Krel hates it."

Mary Wang giggled. "Staja certainly is a cute couple. You know what else would be a cute couple?"

"What?" Darci asked.

"Kandy," she replied. "You know, like Krel and Andy? Kandy?"

Andy rolled her eyes. "Give it a rest, Mary. I don't have a crush on Krel."

Andy lay awake in bed in the middle of the night, unable to fall asleep. All she could think about was her new friend Krel. He was smart, funny, kind, witty, and- oh no. She did have a crush on Krel. She had to tell someone, somebody else had to know. Someone, anyone.

She looked over at the clock to see what time it was. Was 12:30 too late to call someone? She opened up her messaging app to see who was online. Darci, Mary, and Shannon were all asleep, but Claire was awake. She always seemed to be awake in the middle of the night.

She dialed Claire's number, and her friend picked up. "Hey Andy, what's up?" She sounded wide awake, as if it were the middle of the day.

"I kind of realized something," she said. Andy heard a couple of voices talking in the background. She recognized one as belonging to Jim, and heard a shout that she knew belonged to Toby, but there were two deeper voices Andy didn't know. "Wait, who are you with?"

"Uh... a couple of Jim's relatives," Claire said, in a way that didn't exactly sound like the whole truth.

"Okay...." Andy said awkwardly.

"You realized something?" she said, after a period of awkward silence. Andy heard Jim say something to her, and she pulled away from the phone. She heard a muffled "In a second, babe," before she returned to the receiver and said, "Okay, I'm back."

"Okay, right," Andy said. "So remember how Darci, Mary and you were um... teasing me?"

"Yeah?"

"About liking Krel? The new kid?"

"Yes."

"Well turns out I was wrong."

"Okay...?"

"I do in fact like him."

Claire squealed, and Andy held the receiver away from her ear, wincing in pain. She heard Jim and Toby talk to Claire in a questioning tone, and she replied. What she told them, Andy did not know. "This is so exciting, Andy!" she exclaimed, coming back to the receiver. "OMG!"

Andy sighed. At least she hadn't called Mary Wang; if Mary Wang knew, so did everybody else. At least she could count on Claire to keep a secret. "You can't tell Mary Wang though," she hissed into the receiver.

"Right," Claire said. "If Mary knows, so does everyone else." There was a brief pause before "...can I at least tell Darce?"

"I suppose," she conceded, shrugging (despite the fact that Claire could not see her shrug.)

Claire squealed again, causing Andy to yet again hold the receiver away from her ear. "You gotta admit," Claire said, "Kandy is a pretty good ship name."

"Okay okay, none of that," she admonished. "He doesn't even like me back. We aren't even a couple."

"You should ask him out!"

"What!? No way!"

"Come on, it's a new world! Women can do a lot more in the realm of dating these days."

"Mary would rip your head off for that."

"Oh, I am fully aware, trust me."

"What's the ship name she gave you and Jim again?"

Claire made a noise of slight disgust before saying, "Jlaire. It's terrible."

"Yeah... it's not great! Doesn't quite roll off the tongue as well as Staja does."

"Or Kandy."

"Shut up," Andy laughed, flopping over in bed.

The two voices she did not recognise came within the range of Claire's phone's microphone, both sounding a bit urgent. "Fudgeknuckle," Claire spat out. "Sorry Andy, I have to go."

"That's okay!"

"Talk tomorrow at school?"

"Sounds good!"

"Alright Andy, keep it crispy," she laughed into the receiver.

"See you later, dorkus," Andy chuckled. Claire hung up, and Andy set her phone on her nightstand. Now that she had gotten that off her chest, she might be able to fall asleep.