I Like Boys Too

Chapter 4

Treanne

I take a look around to observe everyone and they are really are the talky type of people, except Glenda who's just busy with her crossword puzzles. Stephen and Icarus seem to forget they abandoned their friend with how much fun they're having right now. They're playing with a paper and familiarizing myself, it's a game they never told me before.

I glance at Mrs. Yu and she's busy pressing keys on her laptop as if she's doing something worthwhile. I put my bag over the table and lean on my left cheek. Judging my position, I'm facing Galvin who's now writing nonsense on his death note. Not only his standards are too vast to climb but his nose is really pointy. How I wish my biological parents are blessed with such nose!

I found out he's jotting down the notes written on the board. I'll just leave it to him and I'll just take a picture so I'll write later at home. This is the last subject anyway.

"No napping." I hear Mrs. Yu. I immediately pull my head up and look around to see if someone else aside me is trying to sleep this boredom. Nah, it's only me.

Since I can't do anything worthwhile, I too grab a pen and my binder to write down the notes.

"Shall we play a game?" Galvin suddenly talks to me. His voice is magnificent, I should hear it more.

"What game?" I reply without looking at him. I'm pretending to be busy! He taps on his smartwatch and sets the timer to one minute.

"Most words to write in one minute, let's start with the second part." I stare at my notebook and I haven't written anything yet. Not a single dot.

"Just leave half the page blank..." he notices how empty it is. He takes my pen and draws a mark to where should I start.

Is he this boring as a human? Most words to write in a minute?

"You ready?" I nod and lift my pen to the height of my shoulder. He does the same thing until his smartwatch started counting.

I maintain my pace since I don't want him to lose. The table's not moving crazily like I expected when someone's in a rush. It's calm and when I look at him, he's just also calmly writing. The moment goes on slow motion when he lifts his head up to copy from the board and when he goes back to writing down.

He's either not competitive or he's just really confident because I don't care about it. I go back to writing and stroke as fast as I can.

His smartwatch beeps for the last time saying the time's up. He slides his notebook to the center while I'm embarrassed to share mine. I can't understand my writing but I'm impressed to how neat is his.

"So, we stopped at the same word." He goes and starts counting to make sure I didn't cheat. I don't actually remember if I miss a word but it won't ache if I did. "112, not bad."

"So, nobody won?" I ask and he shakes his head. I don't see any disappointment in his eyes so he really isn't competitive or maybe this isn't really something he'd be serious. There's silence as soon as I get back to writing the first part of my notes.

Come on, Treanne. You might want to ask him something.

"Hey, are you going to the ball?" I slipped. I am supposed to ask him 'not that'.

"Don't know. Probably."

"Oh, okay." I release as sigh when he didn't bother asking me why am I curious about him attending an annual ritual where you either break up with your lover or found that lover.

"Are you?" He's asking me in return. There's a swoosh of cold wind covering my entire body. This is how it feels to be asked? Whether it's asking to be a date or not?

"Don't know. Probably."

Come on, Treanne. We're better than this.

Right after that awkward conversation, I decided to zip my mouth and not talk about our lives, our plans and we just stopped getting to know each other.

I run towards the soccer field after that class. There's the soccer team doing their after school practice and coach hides as soon as he sees me. He curves into a ball hiding himself beside the water jag sitting on the bench. He failed to defend me last night!

The team stops the practice and gathers like I am their boss and they have to greet me formally.

"I can't do it!" I feel my veins stretching up my neck, my blood rising up and my knees ready to bend and beg. Being with Galvin is horrible especially when I have an agenda to do. It's not even an ordinary day in Chemistry class anymore.

"No turning back, Treanne. You'll do it or we'll just remind you everyday in three months that you have to do it." It's much worse. They did it before when they wanted me to be the cheerleader for one game. They made me do it!

"Sorry Treanne, it's 13 against one." Says Coach Simon pretending he's in support of me, the opposition when he clearly approves of the idea.

I went home with my soul dropping onto my feet. It's a heavy responsibility on my back.

Baby Cakes, why did it have to be you!

-A