What [Not] to do Around Someone you Love

Three years have passed since Summer's last crushed crush and she was now entering Ms. Latte's fourth grade classroom. Besides her little speed bumps in first grade and beyond, she was doing fine and was loving all her teachers' spunky personalities. While she was mostly upset she got Honey Latte and not Crystal Harp, another fourth grade teacher that her old friend, Skyfire, had scored, she decided to suck it up and be happy with what she got.

Besides, she had just met someone new during Teacher Introductions last year and was looking forward to chatting with Hazelbean even more. The seating chart on the board showed that she and Hazel sat together. She beamed with overwhelming joy and dumped all her books and binder on her desk; unfortunately making them spill all over the place, onto the girl who was sitting across from her's lap.

"Oh my freaking..." the girl started. Summer halted mid clean up; she hadn't heard that voice since first grade. "Summer?! Ugh, I shoulda known it was you once this trash fell on my perfect body." She held up Summer's current book; The Chocolate Touch, by a single corner using her thumb and index finger as if it were toxic waste.

"Semmie, stop!" Summer cried, "you're gonna ruin it."

"Good." She smirked, but laid it down gently nonetheless and slid it over to the young girl's side. By this time, Summer had everything back in place and Hazelbean was settling down as well. "Hey, Summie," Hazel smiled, "how was your summer?"

"Good, y--" Summer stopped mid sentence as a rather cute blonde-haired, blue skinned boy sat down next to Semmie and started flipping through his binder. She looked up at the seating chart again and saw who he was.

"H-hey, Nille," she tried.

He looked up at her, raising an eyebrow. "It's pronounced Ne-lay," he informed snootily, then continued back to his important binder work.

Semmie and Hazel snickered while Summer tried to ignore what just happened.

Now, in mid-February, Ms. Latte was having the students all make hand-made Valentine's for their parents. They got to choose where to sit on this very special of days and Hazel, Summer, Semmie, and Nylie all found themselves sitting together, as before. Summer's cheeks burned, still remembering that semi- traumatic moment at the beginning of the year.

And it's not like Semmie let her forget about it.

"So, baby, who are ya gonna give your Valentine too?" Semmie cooed as soon as Summer was in earshot. The two had hooked up near Christmas and Semmie was constantly rubbing it in Summers face, making her crazy. She wasn't sitting next to Nylie as she usually did, though. Instead, she was sitting across from him and Hazelbean was sitting next to her, leaving the only open seat at the table....next to Nylie...

But Summer was feeling playful and mischievous that day, so this little quirk didn't exactly faze her. She was actually estatic to be sitting next to her crush instead.

"Probably you, babe," Nylie finally responded, "two special valentines for my special valentine."

Summer felt her heart sink; he hadn't even acknowledged her, as he had grown used to doing--much less realize she was there.

A sharp yet gentle poke interrupted her moping; she looked up to see Hazel trying to hand her scissors and motioning at Nylie with her eyes. "What?" Summer whispered.

"Get his attention," Hazel whispered, "get him to actually notice you instead of a simple head nod."

Summer took the scissors, confused. She opened them wide then closed them lightning fast. Repeat, repeat. "Uh, do you mind?" Semmie scowled, the noise had prevented them from continuing their conversation. Nylie got distracted easily.

"Dude, I bet you could hack a finger off  by doing that!" Nylie exclaimed at the same time. "Do it to me. I bet I can move my finger away fast enough!"

"Uh..." Naive Summer looked across to Naive Hazel, who was giving her two thumbs up and Semmie looked particularly annoyed. "OK, I guess." She opened the blades wide again, letting Nylie hover his pointer finger in the middle.Squeezing her eyes shut, she closed the blades quick as a flash, half expecting a disembodied finger to land on her lap. She looked up to see Nylie beaming at her, waggling his finger at her almost tauntingly.

"Again?" Nylie asked, adrenaline making his voice shaky.

"I'mm cut you this time," Summer declared confidently. Hazel laughed at her choice of words and Semmie got up, angrily excusing herself to the bathroom. They did the whole process again, but this time Summer held her eyes wide open. "I'mma cut you when you least expect it."

"Oh, really?" Nylie smirked.

"Yes, really," Summer responded with as much attitude as Nyles. She wiggled in her seat and, when he pulled his finger away, she followed. Surprised by this, he pulled it away even further so Summer had to stretch to get him. Her chair tilted under the sudden shifted weight and gave way. She shrieked and closed her eyes, waiting to hit her head on something and get knock unconscious and get stitches yet again--it had been a while since she had them.

"Uh, Summer?" Nylie asked. She opened her eyes and...

...found herself in his lap, curled in upside-down tortoise position, her right hand (which held the scissors)  dangerously close to his man-parts. Unfortunately for Nylie, innocent little summer had no idea that boys had different genetic parts than girls, and so she placed all her weight on her right scissored hand (her left hand was off of his lap) to jump off of him as if he were made of fire.

He groaned and curled up in his seat slightly as soon as Summer was up and halfway across the room. She turned around due to the noise to see if he was okay; he gave her a mischievous smile through his pain. A shudder ran through her, quickly followed by a dreaded feeling that the smile he gave her was meant to be taken as more than friendly. She dashed out of the room and made her dad come pick her up, insisting she felt like was was going to hurl at any minute (which was technically true).

She stayed at home for nearly two weeks after that and, when she got back to school, she learned Nylie had broken up with Semmie. "I'm all yours, Summer," he had said, then winked.

Somehow, Summer couldn't shake the feeling that, if she started dating him, things would turn real bad, real fast. "I can't date 'till I'm 16," she had told him, which was, for the most part, true. "So, we can get together in, like, five years, if you want."

He began to throw a gigantic string of cuss words at her all in one go. She wasn't sure how he had learned his choice of words so quickly, especially for a fourth grader. Maybe his parents swore all the time? was a thought that constantly popped into her head, even to this day.

He got sent to the principal's for such language and was suspended for a week. When he came back, he got together with Semmie and all was right with the world.