Chapters What [Not] to do Around Someone you Love
"I Dare You to Tell Him..."
Summer walked into Mrs. Xyla's first grade elementary classroom, scowling under her breath. It was her first day of not being in kindergarten and she was irritated as heck. She remembered the kids who got to stay back with Mr. Gardener, her own kindergarten teacher, and remembered the tantrum she had thrown when she found out that--suprise!--she was moving on to the next grade.
"But I don't wanna go with Mrs. Xyla!! I heard she boils kids alive and eats them for dinner and I wanna stay with Mr. Gardner cause he lets me play with his stuffed animals and read when I wanna and do art and hardly has any stuff for us to do so we can just play all day and Mrs. Xyla has a pun-men for anyone who don't work and--" her face had turned a blue/green shade and her voice got tight with each word she spoke. Eventually, Mrs. Xyla had leaned forward and told her to stop talking, or else she'd run out of air. Summer hadn't listened to her, but when Mr. Gardener told the the exact same thing, she mumbled and apology, took a deep breath, and shut up for the rest of the day.
Now that is was September and school was back in session, little Summer Melodie couldn't really do anything to prevent the inevitable. The only slightly good thing about all this was that she was in the same class as her crush, Habanara.
"Alright, class, take your seats," Mrs. Xyla sang, holding up a sheet of paper with one purple hand. She scrunched her face up into, what Summer thought, was an ugly image, then quickly relaxed it again. Not any better , Summer thought brattily as she swung her head so meadow green hair could get out of her face.
The seating chart, projected on the white board, had the little first grader sitting in the second row next to a boy named Skyfire and Habanara. Wait, next to her crush? Hopefully that didn't things uncomfortable for either of them."Uh, es'cose me?" A voice rang through the class. Everyone turned to see a light blue, white haired, piggy-tailed girl with her rock textured-hand high in the air; her huge hanging jeweled earrings practically touching the floor. Summer touched her own naked ear-lobes self-consciously; she had to be this girls friend.
"Yes, sweetie?" Mrs. Xyla responded.
"Uh, I'm a girl." Next to each name on the seating chart, Mrs. Xyla had put down whether the person was a boy or a girl with fancy signs in blue or pink ink.
"Oh. Oh!" The teacher turned a light shade of pink around her cheeks and she quickly scribbled out her Skyfire mistake with some magi liquid paper and added a pink sign on top of it once the liquid paper was dry.
The class burst out laughing, pointing to her and singing "Sky is a baby boy! Sky is a baby boy!! "
Summer watched this with shock; she looked over at Mrs. Xyla. She was drinking her coffee and not doing anything to stop the teasing--she was practically watching it ash she slowly doused her mug of joe. Mr Gardener would have never allowed something as horrible as this to happen!! The little girl stepped in front of Skyfire, throwing her hands out to block her from the insults heading the rocky girls' way. "Stop!" Summer cried, "stop it now! Or you'll get in trouble!"
The class continued to tease.
"I said stop! What if you guys were all called boys but you weren't boys?!"
"News flash, Summer," a girl that she shared kindergarten with-- said. Her name was Semmie and, while she was usually reclusive, she sometimes jumped out of her shell just to do whatever the heck she wanted for five minutes, then crawl back in. "Over half the class is boys already."
"Shut up, you jerks!" Summer screamed, finally losing control. She had done all she could before snapping, and she considered that a personal victory. But the teacher hadn't.
"Summer Felicia Melody!!" Mrs. Xyla had roared, closing the mouths of every student in the room. "There is no reason to be using that language in my classroom!"
"But--"
"No but's! Go to the deans! Now!" The crazy teacher thrust a slip of paper into Summer's face and pointed to the classroom door for emphasis. Close to tears, Summer ran out of the class, not wanting anyone to see her crying.
^-^
At the end of the day, before everyone left to go to the buses, two people approached Summer as she was busy stuffing her puke-green folder into her Flora backpack. Green wasn't left, according to Mrs. Xyla, but Summer had seen plenty of evergreen green folders beneath the pukeish greens that lie on top. When she had tried to get one, Mrs. Xyla had smacked her hand, telling her to only choose from the top.
"Hey, Summer," Skyfire smiled, placing a pebbly hand on Summer's bony shoulder. "That was really cool of you, standin' up for me like that."
Summer smiled. "No one else would."
"You're something special," Habanera added, almost ignoring Summer's quip. "Somethin' special indeed." He then smacked on on the back and told her he'd see her later as he headed for the bus. Summer practically floated home that day with her older brother by her side. When he asked her why she was acting so strange, she responded "I'm special, Storma. I'm really, really special..."
Even later that school year, around the middle of May, Mrs. Xyla's class was deserted, save for a few kids; Skyfire, Summer, Habanara, Semmie, and a new student that had joined in the middle of the school year, Lila.
Everyone else was out on a field trip and these four kids didn't get to go because they didn't get their permission slips signed on time. So Mrs. Xyla had paired them up and they were currently learning the differences between triangles, rectangles, and squares. Lila got to be with the teacher while Semmie was paired up with Summer and Sky with Haban.
"Can I have someone else?" Semmie had asked, jerking a thumb Summer's way. "This one's to strange for me. I don't really like it; she's to weird." Summer had almost gotten paired up with the teacher then, but she protested and argued so much and the teacher finally decided to go with her and made Semmie partner up with Summer.
"Jerk," Semmie scowled under her breath as she and her partner lay on their stomachs on the floor.
A smirk came to Summer's lips. I know you are, but what am I? She had thought, but had grown wise enough over the school year to keep the thoughts hidden to herself. "Let's start with triangles," she said instead.
"I wanna start with something else."
Summer held in a sigh, placing the flashcards down. "What?"
Semmie's eyes glittered dangerously under the huge fluorescent lights. "I wanna start with a dare."
"A dare?" This sounded interesting.
"Yeah. A dare. Are you up for it? Or are you to chicken?" She flapped her arms at her sides, though while lying down, it just looked like she was a weird, creepy starfish instead of a actual chicken.
"No, Imma no chicken! Dare me! What do ya dare me?" Summer challenged; anything to shove that self-confident smirk off of Semmie's little face.
Semmie raised an eyebrow and guided her eyes towards where Haban and Sky were in the same position just two feet away. "You haven't exactly been...subtle... with your crush, you know?"
Summer froze. "I haven't?" A million flashback invaded her all at once; on Valentine's Day, she gave him extra candy and when she saw his generic card in her mailbox ("I think you're sweet, Valentine!") she has nearly lost it, she was so happy. That, and she constantly stuck by his side at recess, even during the most difficult games of basketball... and... oh, grop, Semmie was right . She'd might as well written the message on her forehead, it was so obvious.
Semmie's smirk grew wider. "Not really." She shifted in position so all her weight was on her right side and her ponytail draped the filthy carpet. "So, I dare you to tell him you like him."
"But.. if it's obvious, why should I?" Summer asked, cheeks flushing a cute rosy red.
"Bawk.. bawk bawk..." Semmie started.
"Fine." Summer growled, "I have a crush on Haban."
"He can't hear you~~"
"You never said he had to hear me!" Summer pointed out.
"Yeah, well, I said it in my head, so there."
"That doesn't count!"
"How would you know? You never take any risks in your life!!"
Summer scooted closer, shoving a finger in between Semmie's eyes. "I actually have. You see this?" She jammed the finger to an ugly red bump to the right of her forehead, holding it there until Semmie actually looked at it. "This was the result of playing tag! I tripped and fell on the stairs and nearly died and had to get stitches. So, yes. I have taken risks. So there." She stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry to make sure she got her point across.
This whole time, Mrs. Xyla had been outside in the B Wing (which is where the classroom was located) with Lila, as she had had trouble catching up on their math and was getting personal tutoring help while everyone else was away on the field trip with Xyla's TA.
"Ooo, tag, so scary..." Semmie flopped back down on her stomach, only to sit up again into 'criss-cross apple sauce'.
"You know what, you little--" Summer took a deep breath, figuring she had nothing else to loose. Their whole fight started out in whispers and they were now practically screaming at each other. "Fine, you jerk!" She added, standing up so at least she could be taller than the little brat in front of her. She closed her eyes, her whole face a bright, crimson red. "I LOVE YOU, HABANARA, AND I ALWAYS WILL!"
She heard laughter. Opening her eyes, she saw Habanara and Semmie laughing so hard they were on their backs and crying. Summer felt like crying, too, but for a different reason all together. "S-Semmie dared me to.." she tried to explain to Haban, but Semmie cut her off.
"No, I dared you to say you had a crush on him. Not to say you wanna marry him." She managed to say between fits of laughter.
Summer's whole face turned purple and she sank back down in a sitting position. Sky crawled over to her, placing a rough yet comforting hand over Summer's own. "Just ignore those two brats," she instructed, helping Summer up and guiding her to the farhest table away from them. "She had her own set of flashcards, Summer noticed, and she placed them on the table, spacing them apart from one another evenly. "Why is this a triangle? Do you know? I don't get it." She finally asked, pointing to the triangle card.
Summer sniffed, wiping her eyes; she knew Sky was just trying to make her feel better; the gargoyle girl was the smartest kid in the class. But she stayed patient as Summer tried to explain why.
Over the course of the rest of the school year and beyond, whenever Habanara was in summer's line of sight or she even heard his name, the memory cam rushing back to her and she immediately went to hide behind the nearest object. One time, it was Habanara himself, and she had yelped and fled into the building.
She doesn't know if Haban has forgotten what happened that day, or if he remembers and it simply doesn't bother him as much as it bothers her. Over time, thankfully, the crush finally dwindled away and she could actually be in the same room as him without fighting the urge to bolt as soon as they made eye contact.
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.
What [Not] to do Around Someone you Love
"Holy. Freaking. Cheese."
Summer slid into a seat in between Skyfire and Hazelbean, slamming her lunch down on the flimsy table. All the seventh graders jumped and turned at the sudden noise, but Summer didn't seem to care. "Holy. Freaking. Cheese, you guys," she seethed through clenched teeth; she was still standing and had her arms tensed tighter than they needed to be to support her weight.
Her whole face was flushed pink and tiny rivers wound their way down to her chin.
"Summer, what's wrong?" Hazel asked; the last time she saw Summer this embarrassed was after the fourth grade fiasco.
"You would not believe what just happened to me in Mr. Dai's room."
"What?" The two chorused.
"Well, you know Vinero, right?" Vinero was Summer's latest crush; a tall, jokular, pale blue/teal haired fellow with an adorable stutter and a tendency to freak out/entertain the class and the teacher all at once.
"Yeah?" Hazel supplied for the both of them. She leaned forward and begun to attempt an obvious steal at Summer's pile of carrots she had snagged from the lunch line.
She shoved the plate forward, hiding her head. "Take it," she sighed, "I'm never going to eat or do anything again."
"OK, Sum," Sky sighed, realizing she wasn't just trying to be dramatic. "Spill."
It was the middle of history class and Vinero had stalled the class lesson yet again to go on his rant about knowing where Mr. Dai ived and stalking his every movements. Most kids, including Summer, just played it off as an ongoing joke; mostly because they were slightly scare of what Vinero did in his free time.
"And I swear, I know w-where others live, too," Vinero continued, "like Finn or Ginger Spice or Summer-r or--"
"Wait." She turned around in her seat and locked eyes with him. Still no good at 'hiding her emotions', she broke out into a smirk, heart a flutter. Since when do you know where I live?" The tone was supposed to be interigational but came out as light and playful instead.
He blinked. "Since I knew you had a crush on me."
The whole class ooo'd at this, looking at Summer for denial. Her blushing face and adverted eyes told them all they needed to know.
"Do not." She tried to convince them anyway.
"D-denial." Vinero announced just as quickly.
"Seriously, Vinero," Summer mumbled, "when will you get over yourself and admit not every stinking girl has a crush on you? Maybe you have a crush on me but don't want to admit it and are trying to make me look guilty." The whole class stared as she jumped out of her seat and marched right over to him; although he was at least two heads taller than her, she felt a strange sort of power as she lectured him in front of the class. "Ever think of that?"
Mr. Dais watched with interest, too, as he was that type of teacher.
"If you don't have a c-crush on me," he started, leaning down so they were at eye level, "why are y-you smiling?"
"What?" She touched her mouth and, sure enough, it was curved into a grin. She tried to force it back down but it forced her to bark out a nervous laugh instead. "Because I'm actually standing up to someone," she lied, "and it's been a while since I have."
"L-liar."
She stomped her foot in a toddler like manner. "Shut UP!"
He smirked. "A-anger."
"Just listing certain emotions doesn't rove I like you, Vinnie." Summer scowled; "we're just friends."
The class went in an uproar, making remarks to Vinero about him being friend-zoned or Summer having an ice-cold heart. "BURNED!" Came multiple remarks, but the two were in such a staredown non of them noticed.
"If you just wanna be f-friends," Vinero continued in his overly cocky way, "then you w-won't mind if I a-ask you a f-favor?"
Summer relaxed a little, hoping this whole thing was over. "Sure."
"Kiss me." He turned so his left cheek was facing her.
"W-w-w-w-what?" Summer stuttered; she wasn't sure if she heard him right. The room suddenly felt like it was closing in on her and she felt as if she were running out of air.
Mr. Dais stepped closer to the duo, trying to get past the gaggle of students that had crawled out their own desks and formed a circle round he scene. "Kiss him! Kiss him! Kiss him!" They chanted.
"Now, now, Vinero, that's enough!" Mr. Dais tried to scold over the chants; but his whisper-quiet scream was no match for the growing volume of the chant.
Summer felt extremely dizzy, like she was gonna faint. She didn't know what else to do and let her alter-viloent-ego take over, resulting in her punching his cheeks twice--hard enough for his head to snap left and right as she made contact; her Tae Kwon Doe lessons had really paid off. "Just. Friends," her alter ego commanded Even though it was loud enough in the room for them to be heard by the first and third floors in the three-story-middle school, her voice carried over all of it.
The ego slipped away, putting her back in her place. She felt as if she had watched it all as from a movie. Suddenly overwhelmed with fear and realization of what she done, she ran out of the classroom and refused to come back in.
"So what?" Skyfire scoffed, "that jerk totally deserved it."
"You shoulda kneed him in his balls," Hazel added, "for extra affect."
Summer shook her head. "I don't want everyone to think of me like that , I just... I..."
Over her shoulder, she heard a faint taunt. "Cause you love Vinero~."
She snapped her head over to see the taunter himself standing a few tables away. "So what if I do, huh? At least I try to be freakin' modest about it, YOU CREPPIN' SL**!!"
A soon as the words were out of her mouth, she immediately covered her word-hole and glanced nervously around the room. Her dad had taught her not to swear and she just had. In front of the entire school. And four lunch monitors were coming at her at once.
She stared at her friends in deadpanned disbelief; they both had shocked and amused expressions on. She blew her growing bangs out of her face and crossed her arms over her chest. "Holy. Freaking. Cheese."
