A Cliché Love Story

Secret Santa

Today, at the end of the day, I was reminded of something very bad. An ex-machina, perhaps...

The tradition the school repeats every year for Christmas... Secret Santa.

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During the last period of the day, the intercom system beeped to life. I could barely hear the words: "All students, please report to the gym." Everyone in class scooted back their chairs with a very soft squeak and quietly filed to the gym... if quiet compares to a volcano eruption.

After being pushed around in the halls, I finally entered the gym. And, just my luck, there is only one seat left. Any guesses who it is by? That's right. Anthony. Fate is so kind to me.

And of course, John sat directly behind my new spot. Man, I swear I'm living in an awful movie. I plopped down and sat my bag between my legs. I tried not to make any contact. I found this to be difficult because I was surrounded by John and Anthony. Anthony slid me closer to him, and laughed. "Here, let's give John some room to your left."

John shifted down to spot next to mine. I sat there, cheeks feeling hot, as the too-peppy cheerleaders bounced up and hair-flipped to the microphone.

The head cheerleader, Melanie of course, stepped to the front of her pack. "Hello Westward High!" she squealed. Cheers of impatient teenagers ready for school to end greeted Melanie. Besides me, John clapped half-heartily. I kept my hands in my lap.

Anthony grabbed my hands and forced  them to clap together. Childishly, I stuck my tongue out at him and pulled my hands back into my lap.

Anthony feigned sadness. Out of the corner of my eye, John stiffened up with an annoyed look upon his face. I looked back at Melanie, currently waving and winking at John. She even blew him a kiss.

"Okay, eager students! As you know, today is the day we all pick our Secret Santas. Remember, you will get called up here. And you must pick from your grade. Otherwise, you may not know the person picked."

"Before we pick the Secret Santa, however, the cheerleaders and I decided to add more fun to today. To throw in the towel on fall and get into the spirit of winter, we are hosting a snowball fight!" Hollers of excitement filled the gym. A smile actually grew on my face.

Two of Melanie's minions entered the gym pulling faux snow walls and set them up. Two more minions came in, each with a wheelbarrow that was filled with Styrofoam snowballs.

The students were split into teams and the cheerleaders hung off to the side. Their job was to push stray snowballs out of the middle. I was numbered onto John's team; Anthony stood on the other side of the gym because he was too cool to throw Styrofoam and camps out on the wall instead.

Everyone took their spots. The cheerleaders screamed into the microphone,"Ready, set.....go!" 

Soon Styrofoam was flying all over the place. People were laughing and screaming. I hit quite a few people and yet to be hit myself.

After a couple minutes, I watched a younger student throw a white ball my way. Trying to avoid the throw, I stepped to the side onto a snowball. I fell backwards and knocked someone over in the process. I tried to catch myself, but my face squished against someone's shirt. I sat up and my eyes grew wide.

I landed on John!

He was laughing at me. I raised my eyebrows in question, and he could only continue to laugh. That's when I noticed I was straddling him. My cheeks burned. Before I could stand up, someone ripped me off of John with a firm grip of my ponytail.