Love Soars

Chapter 4

Recap: After dinner, I finished up a couple more problems and then put my homework away. I grabbed a sweatshirt from my closet and pulled it over my head. I slipped my phone into my pocket and grabbed my house key. I walked downstairs and out the front door, locking it behind me. It was 7:50, I had 10 minutes to get to Grant Park, so I took off flying rather slowly. Right around 8:00, I started to descend into Grant Park, and I could see the outline of a person standing by the largest tree in the park. From the long hair, I deduced it was a girl, and as I got closer, my eyes widened in surprise.

Victoria’s POV

Standing underneath the large tree was the last person I expected to see. Patricia was leaning slightly against the trunk of the tree, and she smiled slightly when I landed on the ground. My eyes were still wide as she straightened up, and I looked around slowly to see if anyone else was around. I didn’t see anyone else; McKenna, Angela, or Sandra were not with her. What was she doing here?

“Hey,” she said in a quiet voice.

I had never heard her speak before. McKenna’s voice tended to drown out everyone’s conversations, and Patricia usually just kept quiet. She didn’t laugh as often as the other girls in the group, I’d noticed, and, as I thought about her a little more, I realized she had never actually done anything to me. McKenna, Angela, and Sandra were the sources of my torment; Patricia was always on the sidelines. She never participated.

“Hi...You left me the note in my locker?”

She nodded and then said, “Yeah, I have some stuff that I needed to talk to you about, privately.”

I must have looked confused, so she continued, “It’s nothing like boy trouble or stupid high school drama. To get to the point, I want to talk to you about McKenna.”

For the second time, my eyes widened in surprise. “McKenna? What about her?”

“Well, you and I both know she’s a bitch. She’s obnoxious, condescending...”

“I know all these things Patricia. Out of anyone in this whole town, I know that firsthand. Tell me something I don’t know.”

Patricia looked a little shocked, but she regained her composure quickly and said, “Alright. Did you know that McKenna is afraid of baby corns?”

I burst out laughing and shook my head no. Patricia smiled at me and said, “I figured not. Only Angela, Sandra, and I know about her fear of baby corns. It’s funny to watch her freak out when she comes into contact with one. Anyways, enough about baby corns. I actually have something I need to talk to you about.”

My laughter had subsided by this point, and I looked at her expectantly. “Go ahead, I’m listening.”

“Well, prior to this year, McKenna targeted you for her own reasons. She’s jealous of you actually.”

The look on my face must have been hilarious, because Patricia started laughing. “Jealous? Of me? How does that even make sense?”

“What do you mean?”

“McKenna’s pretty, she has a boyfriend, she’s popular...she has all that going for her, and she’s jealous of me?”

“Yep,” Patricia replied, popping the ‘p’, “she wanted to make you miserable.”

“What have I ever done to her? I don’t have many friends, I don’t have many enemies either, except your group. I mostly have acquaintances. Why me?”

“You’re modest aren’t you? Victoria, you’re gorgeous. You’ve got natural beauty that surpasses McKenna’s by far. She’s jealous of that, first and foremost. She’s also jealous that you can fly.”