Spanish Class

Spanish Class
A short story by Linda Moss

"Lookin’ for love in all the wrong places" – Marc Almond

I can’t believe this. My teacher just gave me a C. Another C!!! What am I doing wrong? Does the world hate me? I’m sitting in my usual seat in Math class, all the way in the back corner, next to Chris Bailey and behind my best friend, Kelsey. My teacher, Mr. Warren, has had a conspiracy against me since September, when I came back to this torture hole. An inside scoop to my life: I’m 13 years old, in eighth grade, and have a not-too-horrible life. Jordan Parkinson just smiled at me. He’s the class hottie. If you ask me he’s a big jerk. He thinks that just because he’s on the football team and the soccer team and just about any other team you could imagine (except Debate Team; if he ever got the IQ you need to be on debate team the teachers would have a heart attack. Ha ha) he is exempt from being “normal”. He thinks he’s a superstar, and that it’s necessary to have a posse of at least five girls surrounding him. I love my friends, and we don’t call each other a “posse”. That’s for snerds. My friend Kelsey, a.k.a Kels, is about the smartest person I know. It’s a good thing that she lets me copy her homework; otherwise I’d fail every class in the worst possible way. Kels has long, curly brown hair and these cute little freckles at the center of her cheeks.
Anyway, back to my C. I don’t know why I can’t ever get an A, or even a B! I mean really. This stuff is so useless. Like #4: If two friends are 50 miles apart, and they want to ride their bikes to meet each other, how long will it take before they meet? You are going at 53 mph and your friend is going at 60 mph. What the heck is that?? And tell me when we’re going to use that in our life? I’m looking at the clock… 3…2…1…*RIIIIINNNNGGGG*. Thank God. Kels and I are hanging back to wait for Jason. Jason’s another one of my friends. He’s got brunette colored hair and a personality to die for. He’s so funny, and he’s smart, and fun to hang out with. We’ve known each other since like… since our baby years. Get it? In other words: forever. His twin sister, Faye, is also our friend. Faye’s pretty and she spends a lot of time doing her makeup and flirting with hot guys. None of us really get why, but that’s her prerogative. We’re walking into sixth period lunch together when we see her talking to Chad Parkinson, Jordan’s older brother. He’s not quite as obnoxious as Jordan, but he’s still got the whole jock thing going on. We’re all thinking great… she’s got another date, since Faye has the capability to get just about any guy she wants.
We go grab our usual seats at Table #3 and drop our stuff to get on the lunch line. We always get pretty much the same thing. I get the Chicken Patty with onion rings instead of fries, Kels gets mac & cheese with fries instead of onion rings, and most of the time Jason gets a double cheeseburger, but he doesn’t care about fries and onion rings. We pay the lunch lady and go back to the table. Kels and I have this sort of ritual. We always take our fries and onion rings and switch them. We’ve done it since grade school when all of our meals came with the wrong side orders. Several times our friends have asked why we do it, but they stopped after a while because they got tired of our grinning. Kels and I are all about traditions.
So we finished our lunches and went to seventh period. I have seventh period Spanish with Jason. Our Spanish class is pretty funny (although it’s not nearly as funny as Science class) because all of these dorky kids are in our class and some people make fun of them, and there’s this one kid who pronounces llevo like wevo. The teacher, Mrs. Killian, rolls her eyes every time he does. Jason and I sit across from each other and spend most of class passing notes.
I wrote, “Hey Jack (his nickname), wanna catch a movie on Saturday?”
He writes back, “Sorry Jill (my nickname, hence Jack and Jill. Get it?), I can’t. Football.” Jason’s on the football team too, but he’s not into being a jock. He says it’ll look good on his college applications and it keeps him in shape. Personally I think that he just needs something to be able to fit in. I don’t blame him.
Anyway, I wrote back, “How about Sunday? I think we could get Faye and Kels to come too if you want.”
He replies, “Sunday’s good for me, but I think Faye has a new date, what’s new, and Kels is on Debate Team.”
“Oh, so is that a no?”
“Well, we could go if you want, without them.”
“Sounds great. How about we see Shark Tale?”
“Oh come on Mel, why can’t we see The Forgotten or something?”
“Please Jase? Come on it’ll be fun. L”
“Fine Mel, but jus’ for you ‘k? Don’t tell Faye about this otherwise she’ll want me to take her to these weird movies.”
“Thaaaank you Jason. Holy crud. Who is THAT??” A REALLY hot guy walking into the classroom inspired the last sentence. Mrs. Killian strolled in after him. He looked sort of nervous, but I could already tell that just about every powder-covered, permed head had turned in his direction the moment he walked in. I could tell that he was totally the perfect guy. He was tall, had hair expertly flipped in the front, and a smile that could compete with the sun. All of the guys, especially those with girlfriends, looked in his direction and either grunted and turned back to whatever they were doing, or stared at him intensely, analyzing his every feature and move.
“Young man, plis (Mrs. Killian talks a little weird because of her accent) go to the front of the classroom,” Mrs. Killian said impatiently to the new guy. He shuffled shakily to the front of the room with his head slightly lower. “Plis stet your name.”
“Uhh… my name is Andy… Andy Pierson,” he said. I think all of the girls heaved such a sigh, we all sounded like one. His voice was like a cool breeze on a hot day. “An island of hope in a sea of sameness” as I once heard in a movie. I had never really thought much about it, but there was an empty seat behind me, and this new kid needed somewhere to sit. I took a moment to think quickly about how I would get him to sit there. Right then was my chance.
“Well, Andy, would yu plis pick a sit?” Mrs. Killian says.
Andy asks shyly, “Where would you like me to sit?”
I shoot my hand up. “Yes, Mees Madissen?”
I say as quickly and courteously as I can, “Andy could sit by me if he wants. Then I could help him if he has trouble.”
“Yes, I believe that would be a good idea. Melina is an A student, so she can help you if you need help, ok?”
“Sure,” Andy said. I blushed as he made his way through the row with his bulky backpack. I heard every girl sigh and groan, and I thought SCORE!
Apparently Andy wasn’t too great at Spanish, because he needed help with a lot, and it was only his first day! But that’s ok. Usually I work with Jason, but how could I possibly give up an opportunity to work with a really hot guy like Andy? Jase would get over it.


Part 2


Forty-five minutes wasted teaching a cute guy how to trill his r’s… what am I saying? Of course it wasn’t a waste! I even touched his knee beneath the desk with mine a few times. Oh, I’m in love. As Jason and I walked out of the classroom, I was staring at the middle of nowhere. I heard something faint and annoying calling my name. It got louder and louder, as if it was right next to my ear. “mel… mel… Mel… MEL!!!” I finally realized that Jason practically was screaming in my ear. I came back down to Earth and looked and him dazedly. He looked a little… frustrated.
“What?” I said really curtly. “Sorry Jase, I was a little… lovestruck, I suppose you could say.” Jase rolled his eyes. “Hey! What was that?” I asked jokingly.
I had asked Andy, and he said he wasn’t into any types of sports, he liked more types of things where it’s really logical and you have to think a lot. I love a bright mind. I told Jase about the whole Andy-not-liking-sports thing, and he pointed out that you did have to think a lot in football, like what kinds of plays to run and how to execute them properly. Well, so what? Chess is so much more sophisticated than football. I said bye to Jase as I split off for English.
Later on I came home and automatically smelled a pie. I don’t really like apple pie, or blueberry pie, or the things that normal people like. Nope, I like chocolate pudding pie. It is the most delicious thing on the face of the Earth. My brother likes it too. I went into the kitchen and saw my mom pouring the pudding into the piecrust.
“Don’t even bother young lady, it’s for desert tonight. We have company,” she said without turning from the counter. Company? Whenever we have company it’s usually someone from my dad’s office who is pretty much old and boring. Whenever those people come over my parents spend dinner talking to them about things from work that sound like they might as well be Japanese. I went upstairs, since asking my mom about the company is pretty much pointless.
Automatically I went into my room, dumped my bag, and grabbed my phone. I jumped on the bed and dialed a number I knew so well. *Ring… ring… ring*, “Hello? Daver Residence,” recited a honey-filled voice.
“Oh cut the recording Faye who were you expecting, the President?” I said, smiling to myself.
“Oh, it’s only you Mel,” she said, sounding a little relieved, a little disappointed.
“You weren’t expecting the President, were you?”
“No, duh. I was expecting Chad. But I guess you’re not him are you?”
“Nope, I’m just your friend since forever is all. Is Jason home?”
“Nah, he’s got football practice. I’m kind of wondering why I’m not there with him, but I guess that’s my problem isn’t it?”
“Hey do you have a date on Sunday?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Jason and I are going to the movies. No one else seems to be available.”
“Ok, well, can’t help you there.”
“That’s ok. I’m going to call Kels.”
“Have fun with that.”
I hung up. I dialed Kelsey’s number, and she picked up like this: “WHAT DO YOU WANT???”
“Umm, Kels?” I replied, confused.
“Oh, sorry Mel. Someone was annoying me. He kept calling me.”
“Who?”
“Ugh, Brian Vouller.”
Brian Vouller is this really dorky guy in our Home Ec. class. See he tucks his pants into his underwear. Nobody likes him, anyway.
“Oh, what did he want?” I asked wearily.
“He asked me out… like, ten times!”
“Bummer. Now why couldn’t it be Brad Pitt?”
“Oh, totally.”
“Kels did you get problem number five? I’m completely stuck. I tried to do it in Study Hall. It didn’t really work.”
“Yeah it’s x=5y+17”
“How on the Earth do you do that?”
“It’s a gift. A gift, apparently, that Brian Vouller loves. Ew.”
“I feel your pain. I’ve gotta go, my homework is burning a hole through my backpack.”
“Ha, ok bye.”
“Bye.”
I did my homework for a few hours, then got another call.
“Hello? Madissen house.” I said into the speaker.
“Geez and Faye told me that you told her SHE did a recording,” came the deep voice of Jason. I grinned.
“So, you have called because?” I asked.
“I felt like returning your call.”
“How kind of you. How was football?”
“Same old, same old.”
“Sounds great,” I said sarcastically. My mom yelled up the stairs to come down because our guests had arrived. “Jase I’ve gotta go. See you on the flip side.”
“Seeya Mel.”


Part 3


I hung up and shuffled down the polished wood hallway to the staircase and looked down the stairs. There in the doorway was Andy Pierson and two people I assumed were his mother and father. He had a little brother too, about Gerry’s (my brother) age. For a second I just stood there, staring down the stairs. My mom was standing near the door, looking at me. She made a hurried motion for me to come down the stairs. I lurched a little bit, because I hadn’t realized that I was just standing there, and everyone was looking at me. I felt my face go red as I trudged down the stairs. Automatically Andy smiled at me. He was wearing this red dress shirt and khaki pants. This is the guy I spent most of an hour with trilling r’s, I thought. He was even hotter in dress clothes.
“Hi,” I said timidly.
“Hi,” he answered.
My mom asked, “Do you know each other?”
“Yeah,” I said, “we have Spanish together.”
“Oh, that’s nice,” his mom said in a sweet voice. I could tell it wasn’t her real voice, but she was trying to impress my mom.
“Melina, the Piersons are new in town. They moved into the house down the street last weekend.”
“It’s nice to meet you Melina,” Mrs. Pierson said.
We all went into the dining room, including my brother and dad, and ate dinner. Afterward my parents told us to take the kids to our rooms. (I did NOT want Andy to see my room, because it was pretty much decked out in pink. I wanted it changed to blue, but my parents never had the time to redo my room, so I have pink walls, pink bedsheets, pink pillows, and just about everything else pink.)
As we walked into my room he had to blink a few times to get used to how bright my room was. I kept my head down a little bit and went over to my stereo to turn on the radio. He went over to my dresser and looked at some of my make-up. Then he walked over a little bit and saw a sanitary napkin wrapper. I looked around and saw him staring at it weirdly and I felt my face burst into flame. I rushed over and put it in the garbage. I went and sat on my bed, listening to the pumping beat of Usher. Andy decided to come over and sit next to me. My heart started a little drum solo, and I decided to pick up a Seventeen magazine and flip through the pages. Somehow between page 30 and page 49 he managed to edge his hand up onto my knee. By then my ears had joined the drumming. I tried to still pretend I was reading through the magazine, but it was almost impossible. I looked up at him and noticed these incredible gray eyes. He had such an intense gaze that I almost had to look away. Fortunately enough, this was impossible, because he had locked me into a gaze so strong that I couldn’t have pulled away if I were Superman.
Right before I thought I might explode from excitement he said in a really smooth, masculine tone, “Would you like to go somewhere on Sunday? Maybe dinner, or a movie?”
I couldn’t find any words. I thought that there was something calling to me at the back of my mind about Sunday, but I couldn’t tell what it was. “Uhh… sure, why not.”
“Great, I’ll pick you up around 6:30.”
“Sounds good,” I said, my voice cracking left and right. I smiled a little bit to cover up for it, and he smiled too. I don’t think that either of us realized how much time we had actually spent in my room. His mom called up the stairs for him and his brother (Keith) to come down because they were going home. We both got up and went downstairs together, not talking to each other at all. He and his brother left about five minutes later.




Part 4

“So you didn’t exactly tell me Mel, what happened last night??” Kels asked me excitedly. I had told her a little bit about how we had had Andy and his family over for dinner during PE, but I hadn’t gotten around to actually telling her that he had asked me out. I wasn’t sure if I even really wanted to tell her anyway.
“Well… you promise you won’t tell anyone?” I asked apprehensively.
“I swear now tell me!”
“Ok. Andy asked me out,” I said shyly.
“OH MY GOD!” she squealed.
“SSHHHH! Remember, not a SOUL, got it?”
“Whatever you say Mrs. Pierson.”
“Hahaha you’re hilarious.”
“Can I tell Faye?”
“No, Faye’s probably already gotten her eye on him. I want to see what will happen if she tries to get him to ask her out.”
Kels grinned. “Ok. How about Jason?”
I thought about that one for a minute. “Nah, don’t tell Jase, I don’t think he liked him yesterday when we first met him.”
“Fine then,” she said.
Spanish class was about the hardest thing to get through. I couldn’t tell Jase why I couldn’t work with him, and I DEFINITELY couldn’t tell him that Andy and I were going out. When we were working individually in our textbooks Jason kept looking back at me, staring for about 2 minutes and then looking back at his book when he thought I was looking. I didn’t really understand what he was doing.
“Hey, Jase! JASE!” I yelled to him. He had gone ahead of me out the door without waiting. He almost didn’t stop when I called him. He slowly turned around and looked at me, annoyed. I ran through the seas of people to catch up with him, and looked at him seriously.
“Jase what’s wrong? Why didn’t you wait for me after class?”
“I thought that you would rather be seen with your new boyfriend than me,” he said crossly. I stared at him, wondering how he found out that me and Andy were going out.
“What… what’re you talking about?” I asked, trying to convince him that I didn’t know what he was talking about.
“Oh, come on Mel, you know what I mean. Andy asked you out, right?”
“Where did you hear that?” By then he could completely tell that I was lying.
“Mel, everyone knows! How come you said yes to that jerk?” Now I could tell he was really angry with me. He was towering over me and was talking in a really loud, deep voice. I stared up at him, now confused and fuming. Why couldn’t I go out with Andy? And what was Jason my mother or something? I stormed off down the hall. I think that he tried to follow me, but by then the bell was about to ring and he had to go to class.
He tried to call me after school. The first time I picked up, and automatically I heard in a sensitive voice, “I’m sorry Mel.”
I decided to see what he wanted, so I picked up the phone to my ear all the way and started to talk. “Sorry for what exactly?”
“For telling you what to do and for judging Andy.”
“Thank you Jase.”
“But I still don’t think you should go out with him.”
“Why??”
“I’ve heard about his type. He probably won’t even like you for very long. He’ll probably find some way that he could do better—” Automatically I felt a sting in my chest at what he had said. I think that he realized right away that he had hurt me, but there wasn’t anything he could do by then; the tears were welling up in my eyes. “I mean… he couldn’t possibly find someone better than you, but he’ll think he did and make a wrong choice… and he might leave you Mel.” I didn’t hear anything after that because I hung up before he could here me sniffling. That really hurt. Why did Jase think that Andy would just find someone better and dump me? I went online to see if Andy was online so I could talk to him, and immediately I got an IM.

JJwIdE_ReCeIvEr05: Mel… talk to me Mel. I’m sorry 4 what I said b4.

I wrote back to him after a while.
LuVxnxLaFFs7: ya ok and I’m King Kong. Come on Jase, u said yourself that he would probably leave me, so why won’t u? I’m sure there r better girls out there to b your friends. Go away.

JJwIdE_ReCeIvEr05: ugh Mel I didn’t mean that. y r u takin’ this so seriously??? I didn’t mean that I meant like… people like him sometimes don’t even always use their brains on things like peoples feelings.

LuVxnxLaFFs7: there u go again w/ the whole “people like him” thing. What’s that??? You’re such a stereotype freak! I mean, if I said, ya well all those FOOTBALL TYPES are really snobby and think they’re the best thing is the world what would U say??

JJwIdE_ReCeIvEr05: OK I GET IT! U don’t like the whole stereotype thing. I’m sorry! But still… I don’t think that he’s your type. He just seems… untrustworthy. I dunno. I just don’t want u 2 get hurt Mel!
I didn’t want to hear him anymore. I signed off from the computer and spun my chair around to face my bed. I didn’t even want to think about what would happen if he were right. Being that Andy lived down the street I could have probably just walked to his house, but I didn’t really feel like it. I went over to my bedside table and grabbed my phone. I leapt onto the bed and dialed Andy’s digits. It rang a few times and then I got the answering machine. I hung up before I heard the beep. I didn’t really know whom to trust. It was Friday, so I had a day free and then I had my date with Andy on Sunday. I still had some kind of nagging feeling about Sunday, but I couldn’t tell what it was, so I sort of shrugged it off.
The next day I decided to meet up with Kels, since she was free that day too, which was amazing, since the Debate Team was very strict and took about any opportunity to practice. I think that the captain was on vacation or something, and that’s why they didn’t have practice. We were going to go to the park for a little while. When we were younger we always used to go to the park to catch the ice cream man and then go on the swings and chat. We decided to remember the good ol’ days and go back.
I was getting ready in my room when I got an IM.
JJwIdE_ReCeIvEr05: Hey Mel. Listen, I’m REALLY sorry ok? I don’t wanna fight with u. you’ve been mi friend since 4ever. Will u please b friends again???
I wrote back immediately.
LuVxnxLaFFs7: I can’t b friends with u unless u stop saying stuff about Andy. Ok?
JJwIdE_ReCeIvEr05: fine. Whatever. I don’t care I just don’t wanna fight with u anymore. I won’t say anything about Andy.

LuVxnxLaFFs7: ok then. We’re good.

JJwIdE_ReCeIvEr05: great r we still on 4 2morrow? U know, movies?
Oh my god, I had completely forgotten about the movies!
LuVxnxLaFFs7: oh my god, Jason I 4got about that! I have a date with Andy 2moro. Uhhh… I’ll give u a rain check, ok?

JJwIdE_ReCeIvEr05: oh… ok then. Sure. Whatever… that’s fine.

LuVxnxLaFFs7: great! Thank u so much jase! Ur the best friend ever!
He signed off after that, and so did I. I wasn’t sure if he was really ok with me going on a date with Andy instead of going to the movies. Anyway, I finished getting dressed up and got my bike and started riding to the park.
Kels and I spent about an hour or so eating ice cream and having jumping contests on the swings. She asked me about Andy, like where we were going for our date.
“I don’t know Kels,” I said while pumping my feet to go even higher on the swing.
“Well why on Earth would you go on a date when you don’t even know where you’re going? For all you know he could take you to a cemetery or something!”
“Yeah, but I doubt he would do something like that. Why, have you had any boyfriends who have taken you to a cemetery for your first date?”
“No, but I’m just saying, what if he does something really drastic? Like what if he tries for second base or something?”
“EWW KELS! I know that if he did that it would totally gross me out. I don’t think he would do anything that’s not okay with me.”
“Okay, just keep Jason’s opinion in mind.”
“Fine, whatever.”
I went home that night a little upset. EVERYONE was against my going out with Andy! It didn’t matter though, because I was going out with him anyway.

Part 5


The big date finally came. Andy had told me on the phone that morning that I should meet him at the Movie Magic cinema at 4 pm. I got dressed an hour earlier in a pair of faded low-rise jeans and my favorite flowered top that I wore to a lot of the dances. I had spent about 20 minutes doing my hair so that it was just right, and I had to choose from about 10 pairs of shoes. Finally, I was ready for the perfect date. I dragged my mom out the door to drop me at the theater. We arrived about ten minutes later at exactly 3:59. We waited for ten minutes, fifteen, twenty. I started getting really worried. What if he had stood me up? What if I had gotten all dressed up for nothing? What if I had blown Jason off for no reason?
After that last question occurred to me I saw a red convertible pull up to the curb and Andy hopped out. My mom kissed my cheek and got into our car. I looked at Andy, who looked pretty casual. He already had the tickets so we practically ran in and gave the guy our ticket stubs, and then went into the movie. The previews had already started, so we had to find our way down the aisle in the dark, to get a pair of seats. We did, and there were a bunch of people we had to get around, who grumbled when they had to pick their legs up to let us through. We got to the seats and sat through about fifteen minutes worth of previews before the movie finally started. Automatically I could tell what we were watching, since he hadn’t told me before. We were watching Team America. I really didn’t want to see it, but I figured at least I was on a date with Andy, so I could deal with it. About twenty minutes into the movie Andy was laughing at the completely stupid things they were doing in the movie, while I was trying to preoccupy myself. He put his arm around the back of me chair, and it was very warm. But the problem was that it was already pretty warm in the theater, so his hand was just making me sweat, but I was okay with that. Then, in the middle of the movie he decided to take his hand away, which I thanked god for, and then he looked at me. I think I sort of knew what the look meant: I had seen it in movies. Slowly, he moved toward me, but just as he was about an inch from my face, there was an explosion in the movie, and I jerked my head away in surprise. After that, the mood, whatever it was, was ruined, and we simply sat there for the rest of the movie.
After the movie was over we went outside to wait for our parents to pick us up. We were standing on the curb, waiting, when he said, in a very handsome voice (if you can imagine that), “I had a great time. I like spending time with you (I don’t know where he got that from because we really hadn’t done much together, but whatever). I love you Mel.”
I swooned. He said he LOVED me. I couldn’t think of words at first. Then I said, “I love you too.”
That was when our parents came, and we left. I swear that I floated home on a cloud.
The next day my friends were dying to know about my date with Andy.
“Well, actually, it wasn’t INCREDIBLE or anything. I mean, he took me to Team America, but it wasn’t too bad. And you know what? We actually almost kissed! Too bad the movie exploded right then.” We laughed. Jase didn’t though. “And when we left do you know what he said? He said he LOVES ME!!!!”
“OH MY GOD MEL!” Kelsey said excitedly. I looked at Jason, and I could tell that he was trying his hardest not to comment, which I half-appreciated.
“Okay Mel, now that you know it’s serious,” Faye said, “are you guys going to the dance on Friday?”
“I dunno,” I said casually. “He didn’t ask me yet, but I’m sure he will.”
I was right. In Spanish class he passed me a note, which was usually my and Jason’s forte, that said, “Do u wanna go 2 the dance?”
Of course I replied yes. He smiled when he read my note, and Jason, although he didn’t say anything, was giving Andy an incredible scowl. I still didn’t understand his great dislike of Andy, but then again, I don’t understand a lot of things.

Part 6

The days passed, Andy took over Jason’s job passing notes to me, mostly telling me that he loved me, and things like that. It was really sweet. Jason became more and more distant from me, and I ended up gossiping more and more with Kelsey and Faye. Nobody really NEEDED dates for our dances, but it was great to have one. Andy and I had decided that he would pick me up about fifteen minutes before the dance started. I was going to wear a short skirt and another of my favorite shirts. I didn’t take quite as long as I did to get ready for the date, but close. He picked me up on time, and we went to the dance together. In the car, we sat next to each other in the back seat, but we didn’t talk at all. I sat there playing around with my purse strap and he was looking out the window. When we finally got to the school he got out of the car and then came to my side and opened the door for me, which I thought was very nice. I got out and we went to the entrance together. We had already bought our tickets, so we went right in. I saw Kels, Faye, and Jase and went over to them to say hi and to introduce Andy, only to find that Andy had gone over to a group of guys and was already talking to them, so I just decided to hang out with my friends. He finally stopped talking to his friends long enough to come over and get me to introduce his friends.
“Mel,” he said, still laughing a bit from something they were saying before, “this is Mack,” he pointed to one of the guys, “Bryan, Kevin, Narrin, Garett, and Billy.” They all said hi, and I said hi back.
“Okay, now can I introduce you to my friends?” I asked after about ten minutes of listening to him and his friends talking about weird stuff and cracking up.
“Yeah, sure, just wait a minute,” he said. I waited… and waited and waited. I waited for about an hour, until I gave up and went back to see all of my friends, only to find out that they had left to see a movie, so I was alone.
I went back over to Andy when a slow song came up and asked if he would dance. He said okay, reluctantly, and we went onto the dance floor. All of his friends came over and were awing at us. I could feel my face go red, and Andy noticed and told his friends to go away. When they wouldn’t leave Andy told me to follow him, and we went outside together so that his friends wouldn’t follow us. Somehow it worked. We kept slow-dancing for a while until he just stopped and looked at me. He gave me the mushy movie look again and I knew what was coming. He came toward me and this time I knew there wouldn’t be any explosions. Finally, after my heart had started pounding so hard I was sure he could hear it, his lips touched mine, and I could have sworn that I saw fireworks. I thought that that was it and we would go back inside after that, but boy was I wrong. After he kissed me he started getting all touchy, and he started putting his hands on my arms, and then he slowly moved a bit inward, and I moved away from him, but he kept coming. He tried to kiss me again and to touch me, but I wouldn’t let him.
“What’s wrong with you? Huh? What’s your problem? What are you a baby or something? You don’t know how to kiss? Let’s go. Come on!” He came at me and I tried to move backward again but I had hit some stairs. I felt myself lose balance and I fell backwards down about ten stone steps. I felt my arms getting scraped and my legs being scratched, and my head hit a couple of the stairs before I finally hit the end. Right then and there I could have cried. I saw Andy at the top of the stairs laughing to himself, and then he went running inside. I thought he was going to get a teacher to help me, but when he came back out he was with his friends. They all came to the top stair and started laughing at me. I couldn’t stand it. I got up as best I could and ran out to the front of the school. I fumbled through my purse and found my phone, then dialed the only number I could think of.

Part 7

“Hello?” answered an annoyed boy’s voice.
“Jason,” I said, half sobbing, “can you please pick me up?”
“Oh my god Mel, what happened?” His voice had changed from annoyed to worried.
“I’ll tell you later can you just pick me up please?”
“Sure Mel, whatever you want.”
I waited for ten minutes, and then a navy minivan pulled up in front of the school and Jason practically fell out because he was trying to get out so fast. He ran over to me and sat next to me. Automatically I started crying uncontrollably and Jason put his arms around me and hugged me very tightly. Jason’s arms were very warm, but right now was exactly the right time, because I felt so cold. After a while he pushed me back to see what had happened to me and I guess he couldn’t decide which to worry about first. He decided to tend to my legs since they were still bleeding a bit, so he went back to his mom’s car in a hurry, and pulled a First Aid kit from the trunk that his mom carried in case he got hurt from football. He came back over to me and I had stopped crying a bit, so he tried to talk to me.
“Mel,” he said very softly, as if he thought my ears might explode if he spoke too loudly, “what happened to you?”
I tried remembering everything and started crying again when I did. I remembered Andy trying to kiss me and backing away and falling down the stairs and everyone laughing. It all just came in one big shocking pain and I couldn’t talk. Jason tried to calm me down again. He kept hugging me and stroking my hair in an attempt to get me to quiet down. Eventually I felt better and tried to talk to him.
“Well,” I started, tears running down my face, “after you guys left Andy and I slow-danced,” sniff, “and his friends were bothering us so he brought me outside,” sniff, “and we danced a little bit more and then… he kissed me… and I thought he was going to just end at that, but then… then he tried to… do something else… and I didn’t want him to, and he said I was a baby and he kept coming towards me, so I kept backing up.” I was starting to get a bit hysterical. “And then I backed up too far and I fell down the stairs and then he went inside and got his friends and they were all laughing at me!” I broke into hysterical sobs and I couldn’t have talked if my life depended on it. Jason hugged me yet again, and that was when I realized how muscular he was, from being a football player. He felt very strong, and I was so shaken from what happened with Andy, I almost felt secure, like nothing bad could happen. I felt him move away and he started cleaning my legs up. I realized that after this I would look like a human Band Aid, but I guess I was okay with that. He cleaned each cut carefully and then bandaged them with care so that he wouldn’t hurt me. I still felt the hot tears coming down my cheeks, but I was too busy to notice them. I was busy looking at Jase, my best friend in the entire world since forever. Jase: the non-jock football player. Jase: the perfect guy. I had never realized what a great thing I had always had right under my nose. There he sat, cleaning up my knees, even though I had been obnoxious about Andy, even though he had been right, even though I had blown him off for the movies, even though I had blown him off for date with Andy; it didn’t seem to matter.
He finished my knees and moved up to my arms. I felt the guilt rushing through me, and I didn’t even notice what I was doing. I had started running my thumb on one of his legs, where he had rested my hand. I did it over and over again. Eventually he just stopped what he was doing and looked at my hand for a minute. When I didn’t stop, because I was sort of doing it unconsciously, he took my hand and just held it to make it stop moving. His hand felt so warm, and so when he went back to cleaning my arm, I automatically reached for his hand again. It was kind of funny, because he didn’t really understand why I did that, but this time he didn’t let go. He just held my hand and looked at me.
I felt like I might faint right then and there, but of course I couldn’t. I just stared at him, looking over every feature. Deep brown eyes filled with care like tears, and an expression that said everything’s okay. I knew that this was the part where Andy would have gotten that whole mushy-gushy movie look, but I liked that I didn’t need an invitation from Jason; he just came toward me and gave the lightest touch, not like Andy, who seemed like he was trying to eat my mouth. We both moved away slowly and I could tell that years of emotion had been brought out in that one kiss. I looked straight at him, and I could see that he wasn’t unfazed, but my arm was still bleeding and his mom was getting impatient, so I sort of waved my arm in front of his face and he sort of jumped and came back to Earth. He finished up my arms and we got into the car to go pick up Kelsey and Faye, since they were still at the theater.
Jason and I were both pretty quiet all the way there, but when we got to the theater Faye and Kels automatically started asking questions.
“Oh my god Mel, what happened to you?” was Kelsey’s first reaction.
“I knew all along that Andy was no good. I just didn’t want to ruin your fun,” was Faye’s.
But out of all of this I felt that the one person I should be hanging out with right now was Jason. He and I ended up sitting in the back seat (the very back) talking about school and the movie that he was supposed to have seen. Faye and Kels told him about every second of the movie that he had missed because he had to pick me up. And when they finished do you know what he said? He said that he hadn’t missed a thing. I looked at him and he looked at me and we both started laughing. Of course, Kelsey and Faye looked at us like we were nuts, but we didn’t really care. All I cared about was that I was sitting there next to Jason, rather than lying at the bottom of the stairs looking up at Andy and his laughing friends. I knew Jason did too.

EPILOGUE

On Monday I got my Spanish seat switched so that I was as far away from Andy and as close to Jason as I could possibly be. Mrs. Killian had moved another girl near Andy and I could totally tell that they were going to hit it off immediately. I couldn’t help feeling sorry for her. After knowing what a dork Andy is I would feel bad for any girl who has to put up with going out with him. Thankfully, I now have Jason to keep me away from all those good-looking, a-hole guys. The bell rang and Jason and I walked out of the classroom together, laughing about Andy and his new girlfriend, walking hand in hand. We were going to see Shark Tale that evening… for our first date.