#1 Double Trouble: Chapter Twelve
The background music for this chapter is "Misere Mani" by Era:
Secrets
Chris found Chloe sitting on the school steps, contemplating whether or not to walk home on the first severely raining day of the year and wondering what the chances were of her being struck by lightning in the thunderstorm that was brewing. The horrible, gloomy weather matched exactly how her day was turning out.
Chris sat down quietly beside her. Chloe instantly jumped up and started walking out into the rain.
“Hey, hey, hey -” Chris interjected quickly, pulling her back to shelter by her wrist. “I’m driving you home, but first I want to talk to you.”
Chloe looked at him ominously, as though expecting the absolute worst reaction.
“For starters, thank you for your card,” he said. “I really liked it.”
“Really? When I heard you got about four other cards today, not to mention a rose.” Chloe buried her head in her hands. "You don't have to tell me you liked it just to be polite, I'd rather you just stay silent and say nothing at all."
“I really liked it,” Chris repeated again. “None of the other cards were handmade. None of the other cards were from students who really know me at all. Yours was different. . . . Though I have to ask about whether or not what was written on it was really all there was to say?”
“No, you don’t have to ask,” Chloe answered abruptly, folding her arms protectively across her chest once again and shaking her head vigourously.
“See, I was going to give a girl a Valentine’s Day poem, but because I’m not as brave as you it was going to be anonymous. And when things are anonymous, you can be a lot more honest about how you feel.”
“Which girl? Did you give her the poem?” Chloe asked curiously, trying to calm her heart down at the prospect of Chris having a love interest that was very unlikely to be her.
“Not yet . . . I did give her a rose though,” Chris answered.
“So you gave out at least two roses today?” Chloe asked, barely daring to breathe.
“No . . . just one.” Chris took a deep breath. “Just the one to you.”
“You wrote the girl you gave the rose to a poem, and you gave me a rose . . . does that mean you wrote me a poem?” Chloe couldn’t see any flaw in her logic, but it still seemed unbelievable.
“Quick thinking, ninety-nine,” Chris replied with a smile.
“You wrote me a poem?” Chloe asked again, for clarification.
“Yes,” Chris answered.
“Where is it? Can I see it? You saw my card! You have to show me the poem! It apparently has my name on it!” Chloe rested her hand on his knee without even thinking about it.
Chris grimaced at the way her face had lit up and her eyes were now sparkling. “It’s only fair, isn’t it?”
“Show me!” Chloe practically yelled.
“Let me just warn you that I’m horrible at poetry. And I had no intentions of giving this to you, especially not with my name on it. What if my bad poetry changes my hero status with you?”
Chloe blushed. “I doubt it . . . Chris, please?” She put on the cutest imploring expression and looked up at him.
Chris handed her a folded piece of plain lined paper.
Chloe eagerly unfolded it.
I think I’m going crazy.
I know this is out of line.
I think you’re truly beautiful.
I wish you could be mine.
You cause rainbows when it rains,
even when the sun can’t shine.
So sorry I didn’t dance with you,
I promise I will next time.
But even if I’m crazy,
and even if I can’t rhyme,
it doesn’t mean these words aren’t true ...
I want you to be my valentine.
Love from,
your secret admirer.
“What does it mean?” Chloe asked, having finished reading it and hardly daring to think about it in case her imagination took things further than it should. The weather had stopped raining as she was reading it.
“See, I warned you my poetry was bad,” Chris replied. “C’mon, let’s go to my car, I’ll take you home.” Chris got up, and offered her his hand to pull her up.
“No, I understand the words . . . but what does it mean? You admire me?” Chloe ignored his hand.
Chris offered her his hand again, Chloe accepted it, and abruptly dropped it straight after he helping her to her feet as for some reason it was sending shivers through her body.
“Cold?” Without even waiting for a response, he removed his overcoat and put it around her shoulders, then placed a hand on her shoulder to guide her forwards.
“I asked you a question. Do you really admire me?” Chloe deliberately walked slowly, refusing to let him speed up her pace.
Chris changed his focus from straight ahead, to sideways down at her and grinned. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Fishing for compliments are we?” (Chloe blushed, and pulled his coat closer around her body.) “Because you’re smart, because you’re entertaining, because you’re kind . . . because you’re crazy.” He winked at her.
“I thought you were the crazy one!” Chloe responded, only pretending to be offended.
“Yeah, and I like people who are like me.”
“So what does it mean?” Chloe demanded again.
“I think you’re crazy, and I like you.”
“You like me?”
“Yes. What’s not to like?”
“You just like me.”
Chris was silent.
“Chris?” Chloe implored.
“I like you.”
She sighed slightly. “How much?” she asked, half of her not particularly wanting to find out.
“A lot.”
Chloe decided to spell out the obvious question for him. “Valentine’s day is a romantic occasion. You apparently want me to be your Valentine. Does that imply you like me romantically?”
“Maybe . . . it might . . . what do you think?” Chris answered infuriatingly, internally noticing how immature he was acting and wondering why a freshman was having this effect on him. Was it because she was immature and he was just responding at her level, or was it for some other reason? He'd wanted to believe she was more mature than some of the other kids her age.
Chloe seemed aggravated. “You wrote it! So tell me how you meant it!”
Chris paused, turned around to face her, and put his hands on her shoulders, looking directly into her eyes. “I can’t tell you. As I said, I’m crazy . . . I didn’t even plan to give you the poem, even just anonymously, because I didn’t really know what it meant. You're on my mind and in my thoughts a lot - but I guess that's just because I bump into you all the time - probably far too much. And I did want you to be my Valentine today. I know I think you’re very pretty externally, and beautiful internally. I know I love hanging out with you. And I do still hope to dance with you sometime, I think we'd have fun together. But my position dictates that I'm definitely not allowed to develop any romantic feelings for you. Sorry.” He turned around again and started walking towards his car.
Chloe hurried to catch up to him, feeling crushed. “OK,” she said, not knowing what was OK nor why she said it.
“I’m sorry, Chloe. We can’t ever be more than friends, even if I wanted to.”
“Do you want to?” Chloe asked, despite herself.
Chris smiled mysteriously, keeping his eyes and focus forward through the windshield. “If things were different, I’d consider giving it a try . . . but I doubt I’ll ever have that chance, which is probably for the best, anyway.” He shrugged. “Probably the best thing to do here is for both of us to not think about being anything more than just friends. I really appreciate your friendship, so I don’t want unrequited feelings to spoil it.”
“Unrequited from whose side?” Chloe demanded.
Chris glanced at her in the mirror and raised his eyebrows, then shrugged.
Chloe’s cheeks went a deep crimson color. “What, you think I like you romantically?”
“As you said, Valentine’s day is a romantic occasion.”
“I never said I wanted you to be my Valentine! You said that!”
“OK, fine . . . whatever.” Chris tried to ignore the immaturity that was rising to the surface in their conversation. He must be crazy, how had he ever found a freshman momentarily attractive?
“Whatever,” Chloe agreed, sinking down into her seat, feeling a depression start to crawl over her whole body.
The rest of the car trip was spent in silence. Chris dropped her off in front of her house, and got out of the car with her.
“What are you doing?” Chloe asked him.
“Walking you to your door.”
“Fine.” Chloe stormed off ahead.
Chris grabbed her wrist before she went inside. “Thank you for your card, it was very cute. I hope you have a good evening. See you tomorrow.” Then he kissed her forehead briefly (so lightly that she wasn't even sure whether or not it had really happened), and walked back to his car before she could respond. Chloe’s heart sank as she knew she’d definitely see him the next day - they had an Oracle meeting first thing that morning.
When Chloe walked into the office, Chris was already there sitting next to Elizabeth and helping her place the finishing touches on her column. He was still wearing his overcoat for some reason (Ellen, Michael and Elizabeth had questioned and teased him about it [the sun shone bright and warm that morning], but he didn’t want to mention that the true reason was that it reminded him of Chloe. He imagined he could smell the faint scent of her on it from when she’d worn it the day before.) “Hey Chloe, I need your help - are Amy and Todd broken up permanently now, or are they just taking a break?” Elizabeth tried to remain casual, though she couldn't help thinking that even if they were just taking a break, a break was over halfway to becoming a break-up.
“From the little that Amy said about it, I get the impression it might actually be permanent,” Chloe answered. “But I know for definite that my brother, Luke, wants to be with Katie and he tried to give her a rose yesterday.” Chloe looked carefully at Chris’s expression at hearing that his ex-girlfriend had someone else interested in her. Chris seemed surprised, but almost pleased at the information.
“Really?” Elizabeth asked. “Wow, that’s a big help because Ellen had the idea of trying to construct a chart showing who gave Valentines to whom in the school. It will give us a good idea of what new relationships might start. Ellen’s helped me figure it out for most of the seniors and juniors, and Jessica’s helped me figure it out for most of the freshmen and sophomores, and Michael told me about the rest of the juniors and sophomores. Did you give or receive any Valentines? I asked Jessica but she said it was better for me to ask you personally.”
Chloe winced. “Josh gave Jessica and I some chocolate each.”
“OK, but I know that already. Anything else? . . . Chloe?”
Chloe seemed to be experiencing physical internal agony. She couldn’t seem to choke her words out.
“Chloe gave me a valentine,” said Chris. “And I happened to give her one back.”
Michael and Ellen both raised their eyebrows. “Really? That’s a bit unconventional, a senior giving a freshman a valentine. . . .” said Ellen.
“It’s a new tradition,” Chloe explained, her heart sinking as she wished she was brave enough to declare that she’d gotten more than just a rose. “The student president must at random select a student to give a Valentine to.”
“Out of a hat,” Chris supplied helpfully, unable to stop himself from grinning.
“Wow, that’s lucky Chloe was randomly selected then,” Michael answered. “It would have been harder to have to give a Valentine to someone you’d never talked to.”
“I thought you said you couldn’t remember the names of all the people who gave you Valentines,” Elizabeth questioned him.
“I can’t really remember any of the names except Chloe’s, because Chloe was the only girl out of the whole lot that actually knew who I really was. The rest of the girls have never even tried to talk to me. And I was considering giving Chloe a valentine anyway. I’ve never developed a friendship with someone so fast before, even if she is a freshman. So Elizabeth, you can write that Chloe made me a card, and I in return gave her a rose and wrote her a poem.”
“This world’s going crazy,” Ellen murmured, more to herself than to anyone else.
Chloe kept her head bowed, hoping no one would notice the fiery crimson of her cheeks. She was grateful that Chris had saved her from looking like a foolish desperate freshman with her pathetic crush on the student president.
Elizabeth looked too stunned to write. Until now, she’d thought Chloe was definitely silly for liking Chris, but now it seemed that Chloe had more reasons to like Chris than she’d initially realized were present. Of course, it was obvious that if Chris loved her, then he only loved her like a little sister, but still . . . Chris actually seemed to care about Chloe more than the way he cared about all the other freshmen.
“You know what this chart suggests?” Chris asked Elizabeth, changing the topic as he examined the possible conclusions that could be drawn from the layout.
“What?” Elizabeth asked.
“That you gave Todd a valentine, and that he gave you one back.”
Now it was Elizabeth’s turn to blush.
“Yeah!” agreed Chloe, relieved that the spotlight was finally off of her. “I know for a fact Amy didn't give Todd a valentine, nor did she receive any from him.”
Jessica was waiting in the hallway outside of The Oracle office, hoping to copy Elizabeth's Math homework. Todd walked past, then backtracked a few steps. "Uh, sorry about yesterday, Jess," he said, still temporarily in the habit of bravely confronting people instead of avoiding confrontation.
"That's OK," Jessica answered. "Sorry that you and Amy broke up because of what I said." But she wasn't really sorry at all. At the end of the day, her loyalty still lay with Elizabeth, not Amy, as far as Todd was concerned.
"Amy and I would have broken up regardless," Todd corrected her. "Don't feel bad about it."
Jessica hadn't been feeling bad at all, mostly because experiencing guilt was rarely her style, but she nodded anyway.
Todd glanced through the large glass windows that separated them from The Oracle office. "Your sister really is beautiful, you know that?"
Jessica turned to examine Elizabeth - her twin's hair was gathered back in a messy ponytail by a green scrunchie (ruffled from subconsciously raking her hands through it due to stressful thinking), ink marks from her pen on her lips and fingers, not a trace of makeup and frowning in concentration. Today her twin was wearing one of her usual boring outfits: green fitted polo shirt with a little brown embroidered horse on the pocket (the pocket would usually have Elizabeth's favourite pen in it, except that she had taken it out to use it), and neat tan khaki shorts. Her earrings were barely-noticeable tiny gold-star-shaped studs.
Jessica felt irritated. Here she was, standing next to Todd, looking awesome (she was also wearing green today, but in a far more interesting way than Elizabeth), and Todd still thought Elizabeth was more attractive (Jessica was not in a logical enough mood to be able to extrapolate his comment to mean that she, too, was beautiful seeing as she looked identical to the girl of his dreams). Jessica wore a green scoop-neck T-shirt with sequins around the hem, collar and cuffs. She had teamed it with her blue denim miniskirt (not the dark denim one she had mutilated in honour of Valentine's day), fastening a silver belt low around her hips. She wore the silver sandals that Chloe had borrowed for the party, which lengthened her legs and accentuated the curve of her calve muscles. Her earlobes featured dangly silver chandelier earrings with green stones, which matched the elaborate pendant of her silver necklace. Once again she had been unable to stop herself at just one silver bangle (three different types jangled on her left wrist - one plain and rounded, one twisted, and one flat with floral engraving). Today she had also decided to plait a long thin braid on either side of her head, weaving in two thin silver ribbons and fastening each with a tiny green hair tie.
Jessica did not want to stand there with Todd for another moment longer, even if it meant jeopardising her homework situation. "Well, anyway, I have to go," she said, and hurried off.
She then bumped into Aaron Dallas. "Let me guess, you stopped smoking?" she asked him, warily.
He grinned and nodded proudly. "Yep."
"And it was just that simple?" Jessica asked him skeptically.
"It's always that simple," he answered. "I just stop doing it. And do something else instead during that time. Though I admit that contrary to popular opinion, I was quitting a four-a-week habit - and by that I mean four single cigarettes not packets - that hadn't even gone on for a whole month yet, in fact I still haven't finished the first pack I was given. Same with drinking - for all the rumors of my alcoholism that Caroline Pearce and your sister in her column probably had a field day with, Luke's party was only the third time I'd ever gotten drunk. I'm glad I stopped all that behaviour while it was still easy to quit though."
"Hmm," replied Jessica uncertainly.
"So, is there going to be a third condition I have to meet in order to win back your heart?" Aaron folded his arms across his chest.
Jessica desperately searched her brain for another possible excuse to delay the inevitable answer she had to give him. "I noticed when Mrs Baxter called the roll that you're meant to be in my biology class, but you never turn up, so how about you turn up today? Anyway, it's not like you actually have to pay attention. Lila and I don't."
"If I do, will you save me a seat?" Aaron asked.
"Sure, I guess I could do that," Jessica agreed. "Anyway, I have to go now."
"See you in biology," Aaron called, waving.
Jessica went into the nearest bathroom as she desperately needed to puzzle out the situation. She'd definitely liked Aaron in middle school, but everything felt so different now in high school. She could see he was still the great guy that he'd always been, even if Lila couldn't, and if she kept making it difficult for him she sensed that he'd soon give up and move on before they'd had the chance to see whether or not a relationship between them would have worked out. The truth was, she wanted to try dating Aaron and see what happened between them, but she was almost crippled by fear of what Lila might have to say about it. And she didn't want to screw up with either of them.
Todd had been going to ask Elizabeth to the dance, but just as he saw them all getting up at the end of the meeting, he chickened out and hurried off. The worst thing was, he knew that Elizabeth had never been the type of girl to make the first move, so sooner or later he'd have to corner her and ask her. However this proved harder than he'd expected, as she appeared to have thrown herself into the academic pursuits of school this year and was always rushing off somewhere. Part of him subconsciously didn't want to find the quiet moment where he could ask her, as he knew he owed her some sort of an explanation for how he'd ever ended dating Amy instead. Would she believe him that he'd never meant to hurt her, and that she had been the one for him all along? Did she still even have feelings for him, or were they buried along with their past? They'd both sensibly agreed that at twelve-years-old they were too young to commit to a real official relationship, but now that they were fourteen it was actually a possibility, and something about that was confronting - more confronting than what somehow stumbling into a confused dating scenario with Amy had been. What he'd had with Amy felt fake, like they were pretending or playing a game. Just imagining a relationship with Elizabeth felt more real to him than anything else he'd experienced so far.
Continue on reading . . . Chapter Thirteen
Click to viewSecrets
Chris found Chloe sitting on the school steps, contemplating whether or not to walk home on the first severely raining day of the year and wondering what the chances were of her being struck by lightning in the thunderstorm that was brewing. The horrible, gloomy weather matched exactly how her day was turning out.
Chris sat down quietly beside her. Chloe instantly jumped up and started walking out into the rain.
“Hey, hey, hey -” Chris interjected quickly, pulling her back to shelter by her wrist. “I’m driving you home, but first I want to talk to you.”
Chloe looked at him ominously, as though expecting the absolute worst reaction.
“For starters, thank you for your card,” he said. “I really liked it.”
“Really? When I heard you got about four other cards today, not to mention a rose.” Chloe buried her head in her hands. "You don't have to tell me you liked it just to be polite, I'd rather you just stay silent and say nothing at all."
“I really liked it,” Chris repeated again. “None of the other cards were handmade. None of the other cards were from students who really know me at all. Yours was different. . . . Though I have to ask about whether or not what was written on it was really all there was to say?”
“No, you don’t have to ask,” Chloe answered abruptly, folding her arms protectively across her chest once again and shaking her head vigourously.
“See, I was going to give a girl a Valentine’s Day poem, but because I’m not as brave as you it was going to be anonymous. And when things are anonymous, you can be a lot more honest about how you feel.”
“Which girl? Did you give her the poem?” Chloe asked curiously, trying to calm her heart down at the prospect of Chris having a love interest that was very unlikely to be her.
“Not yet . . . I did give her a rose though,” Chris answered.
“So you gave out at least two roses today?” Chloe asked, barely daring to breathe.
“No . . . just one.” Chris took a deep breath. “Just the one to you.”
“You wrote the girl you gave the rose to a poem, and you gave me a rose . . . does that mean you wrote me a poem?” Chloe couldn’t see any flaw in her logic, but it still seemed unbelievable.
“Quick thinking, ninety-nine,” Chris replied with a smile.
“You wrote me a poem?” Chloe asked again, for clarification.
“Yes,” Chris answered.
“Where is it? Can I see it? You saw my card! You have to show me the poem! It apparently has my name on it!” Chloe rested her hand on his knee without even thinking about it.
Chris grimaced at the way her face had lit up and her eyes were now sparkling. “It’s only fair, isn’t it?”
“Show me!” Chloe practically yelled.
“Let me just warn you that I’m horrible at poetry. And I had no intentions of giving this to you, especially not with my name on it. What if my bad poetry changes my hero status with you?”
Chloe blushed. “I doubt it . . . Chris, please?” She put on the cutest imploring expression and looked up at him.
Chris handed her a folded piece of plain lined paper.
Chloe eagerly unfolded it.
I think I’m going crazy.
I know this is out of line.
I think you’re truly beautiful.
I wish you could be mine.
You cause rainbows when it rains,
even when the sun can’t shine.
So sorry I didn’t dance with you,
I promise I will next time.
But even if I’m crazy,
and even if I can’t rhyme,
it doesn’t mean these words aren’t true ...
I want you to be my valentine.
Love from,
your secret admirer.
“What does it mean?” Chloe asked, having finished reading it and hardly daring to think about it in case her imagination took things further than it should. The weather had stopped raining as she was reading it.
“See, I warned you my poetry was bad,” Chris replied. “C’mon, let’s go to my car, I’ll take you home.” Chris got up, and offered her his hand to pull her up.
“No, I understand the words . . . but what does it mean? You admire me?” Chloe ignored his hand.
Chris offered her his hand again, Chloe accepted it, and abruptly dropped it straight after he helping her to her feet as for some reason it was sending shivers through her body.
“Cold?” Without even waiting for a response, he removed his overcoat and put it around her shoulders, then placed a hand on her shoulder to guide her forwards.
“I asked you a question. Do you really admire me?” Chloe deliberately walked slowly, refusing to let him speed up her pace.
Chris changed his focus from straight ahead, to sideways down at her and grinned. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Fishing for compliments are we?” (Chloe blushed, and pulled his coat closer around her body.) “Because you’re smart, because you’re entertaining, because you’re kind . . . because you’re crazy.” He winked at her.
“I thought you were the crazy one!” Chloe responded, only pretending to be offended.
“Yeah, and I like people who are like me.”
“So what does it mean?” Chloe demanded again.
“I think you’re crazy, and I like you.”
“You like me?”
“Yes. What’s not to like?”
“You just like me.”
Chris was silent.
“Chris?” Chloe implored.
“I like you.”
She sighed slightly. “How much?” she asked, half of her not particularly wanting to find out.
“A lot.”
Chloe decided to spell out the obvious question for him. “Valentine’s day is a romantic occasion. You apparently want me to be your Valentine. Does that imply you like me romantically?”
“Maybe . . . it might . . . what do you think?” Chris answered infuriatingly, internally noticing how immature he was acting and wondering why a freshman was having this effect on him. Was it because she was immature and he was just responding at her level, or was it for some other reason? He'd wanted to believe she was more mature than some of the other kids her age.
Chloe seemed aggravated. “You wrote it! So tell me how you meant it!”
Chris paused, turned around to face her, and put his hands on her shoulders, looking directly into her eyes. “I can’t tell you. As I said, I’m crazy . . . I didn’t even plan to give you the poem, even just anonymously, because I didn’t really know what it meant. You're on my mind and in my thoughts a lot - but I guess that's just because I bump into you all the time - probably far too much. And I did want you to be my Valentine today. I know I think you’re very pretty externally, and beautiful internally. I know I love hanging out with you. And I do still hope to dance with you sometime, I think we'd have fun together. But my position dictates that I'm definitely not allowed to develop any romantic feelings for you. Sorry.” He turned around again and started walking towards his car.
Chloe hurried to catch up to him, feeling crushed. “OK,” she said, not knowing what was OK nor why she said it.
“I’m sorry, Chloe. We can’t ever be more than friends, even if I wanted to.”
“Do you want to?” Chloe asked, despite herself.
Chris smiled mysteriously, keeping his eyes and focus forward through the windshield. “If things were different, I’d consider giving it a try . . . but I doubt I’ll ever have that chance, which is probably for the best, anyway.” He shrugged. “Probably the best thing to do here is for both of us to not think about being anything more than just friends. I really appreciate your friendship, so I don’t want unrequited feelings to spoil it.”
“Unrequited from whose side?” Chloe demanded.
Chris glanced at her in the mirror and raised his eyebrows, then shrugged.
Chloe’s cheeks went a deep crimson color. “What, you think I like you romantically?”
“As you said, Valentine’s day is a romantic occasion.”
“I never said I wanted you to be my Valentine! You said that!”
“OK, fine . . . whatever.” Chris tried to ignore the immaturity that was rising to the surface in their conversation. He must be crazy, how had he ever found a freshman momentarily attractive?
“Whatever,” Chloe agreed, sinking down into her seat, feeling a depression start to crawl over her whole body.
The rest of the car trip was spent in silence. Chris dropped her off in front of her house, and got out of the car with her.
“What are you doing?” Chloe asked him.
“Walking you to your door.”
“Fine.” Chloe stormed off ahead.
Chris grabbed her wrist before she went inside. “Thank you for your card, it was very cute. I hope you have a good evening. See you tomorrow.” Then he kissed her forehead briefly (so lightly that she wasn't even sure whether or not it had really happened), and walked back to his car before she could respond. Chloe’s heart sank as she knew she’d definitely see him the next day - they had an Oracle meeting first thing that morning.
When Chloe walked into the office, Chris was already there sitting next to Elizabeth and helping her place the finishing touches on her column. He was still wearing his overcoat for some reason (Ellen, Michael and Elizabeth had questioned and teased him about it [the sun shone bright and warm that morning], but he didn’t want to mention that the true reason was that it reminded him of Chloe. He imagined he could smell the faint scent of her on it from when she’d worn it the day before.) “Hey Chloe, I need your help - are Amy and Todd broken up permanently now, or are they just taking a break?” Elizabeth tried to remain casual, though she couldn't help thinking that even if they were just taking a break, a break was over halfway to becoming a break-up.
“From the little that Amy said about it, I get the impression it might actually be permanent,” Chloe answered. “But I know for definite that my brother, Luke, wants to be with Katie and he tried to give her a rose yesterday.” Chloe looked carefully at Chris’s expression at hearing that his ex-girlfriend had someone else interested in her. Chris seemed surprised, but almost pleased at the information.
“Really?” Elizabeth asked. “Wow, that’s a big help because Ellen had the idea of trying to construct a chart showing who gave Valentines to whom in the school. It will give us a good idea of what new relationships might start. Ellen’s helped me figure it out for most of the seniors and juniors, and Jessica’s helped me figure it out for most of the freshmen and sophomores, and Michael told me about the rest of the juniors and sophomores. Did you give or receive any Valentines? I asked Jessica but she said it was better for me to ask you personally.”
Chloe winced. “Josh gave Jessica and I some chocolate each.”
“OK, but I know that already. Anything else? . . . Chloe?”
Chloe seemed to be experiencing physical internal agony. She couldn’t seem to choke her words out.
“Chloe gave me a valentine,” said Chris. “And I happened to give her one back.”
Michael and Ellen both raised their eyebrows. “Really? That’s a bit unconventional, a senior giving a freshman a valentine. . . .” said Ellen.
“It’s a new tradition,” Chloe explained, her heart sinking as she wished she was brave enough to declare that she’d gotten more than just a rose. “The student president must at random select a student to give a Valentine to.”
“Out of a hat,” Chris supplied helpfully, unable to stop himself from grinning.
“Wow, that’s lucky Chloe was randomly selected then,” Michael answered. “It would have been harder to have to give a Valentine to someone you’d never talked to.”
“I thought you said you couldn’t remember the names of all the people who gave you Valentines,” Elizabeth questioned him.
“I can’t really remember any of the names except Chloe’s, because Chloe was the only girl out of the whole lot that actually knew who I really was. The rest of the girls have never even tried to talk to me. And I was considering giving Chloe a valentine anyway. I’ve never developed a friendship with someone so fast before, even if she is a freshman. So Elizabeth, you can write that Chloe made me a card, and I in return gave her a rose and wrote her a poem.”
“This world’s going crazy,” Ellen murmured, more to herself than to anyone else.
Chloe kept her head bowed, hoping no one would notice the fiery crimson of her cheeks. She was grateful that Chris had saved her from looking like a foolish desperate freshman with her pathetic crush on the student president.
Elizabeth looked too stunned to write. Until now, she’d thought Chloe was definitely silly for liking Chris, but now it seemed that Chloe had more reasons to like Chris than she’d initially realized were present. Of course, it was obvious that if Chris loved her, then he only loved her like a little sister, but still . . . Chris actually seemed to care about Chloe more than the way he cared about all the other freshmen.
“You know what this chart suggests?” Chris asked Elizabeth, changing the topic as he examined the possible conclusions that could be drawn from the layout.
“What?” Elizabeth asked.
“That you gave Todd a valentine, and that he gave you one back.”
Now it was Elizabeth’s turn to blush.
“Yeah!” agreed Chloe, relieved that the spotlight was finally off of her. “I know for a fact Amy didn't give Todd a valentine, nor did she receive any from him.”
Jessica was waiting in the hallway outside of The Oracle office, hoping to copy Elizabeth's Math homework. Todd walked past, then backtracked a few steps. "Uh, sorry about yesterday, Jess," he said, still temporarily in the habit of bravely confronting people instead of avoiding confrontation.
"That's OK," Jessica answered. "Sorry that you and Amy broke up because of what I said." But she wasn't really sorry at all. At the end of the day, her loyalty still lay with Elizabeth, not Amy, as far as Todd was concerned.
"Amy and I would have broken up regardless," Todd corrected her. "Don't feel bad about it."
Jessica hadn't been feeling bad at all, mostly because experiencing guilt was rarely her style, but she nodded anyway.
Todd glanced through the large glass windows that separated them from The Oracle office. "Your sister really is beautiful, you know that?"
Jessica turned to examine Elizabeth - her twin's hair was gathered back in a messy ponytail by a green scrunchie (ruffled from subconsciously raking her hands through it due to stressful thinking), ink marks from her pen on her lips and fingers, not a trace of makeup and frowning in concentration. Today her twin was wearing one of her usual boring outfits: green fitted polo shirt with a little brown embroidered horse on the pocket (the pocket would usually have Elizabeth's favourite pen in it, except that she had taken it out to use it), and neat tan khaki shorts. Her earrings were barely-noticeable tiny gold-star-shaped studs.
Jessica felt irritated. Here she was, standing next to Todd, looking awesome (she was also wearing green today, but in a far more interesting way than Elizabeth), and Todd still thought Elizabeth was more attractive (Jessica was not in a logical enough mood to be able to extrapolate his comment to mean that she, too, was beautiful seeing as she looked identical to the girl of his dreams). Jessica wore a green scoop-neck T-shirt with sequins around the hem, collar and cuffs. She had teamed it with her blue denim miniskirt (not the dark denim one she had mutilated in honour of Valentine's day), fastening a silver belt low around her hips. She wore the silver sandals that Chloe had borrowed for the party, which lengthened her legs and accentuated the curve of her calve muscles. Her earlobes featured dangly silver chandelier earrings with green stones, which matched the elaborate pendant of her silver necklace. Once again she had been unable to stop herself at just one silver bangle (three different types jangled on her left wrist - one plain and rounded, one twisted, and one flat with floral engraving). Today she had also decided to plait a long thin braid on either side of her head, weaving in two thin silver ribbons and fastening each with a tiny green hair tie.
Jessica did not want to stand there with Todd for another moment longer, even if it meant jeopardising her homework situation. "Well, anyway, I have to go," she said, and hurried off.
She then bumped into Aaron Dallas. "Let me guess, you stopped smoking?" she asked him, warily.
He grinned and nodded proudly. "Yep."
"And it was just that simple?" Jessica asked him skeptically.
"It's always that simple," he answered. "I just stop doing it. And do something else instead during that time. Though I admit that contrary to popular opinion, I was quitting a four-a-week habit - and by that I mean four single cigarettes not packets - that hadn't even gone on for a whole month yet, in fact I still haven't finished the first pack I was given. Same with drinking - for all the rumors of my alcoholism that Caroline Pearce and your sister in her column probably had a field day with, Luke's party was only the third time I'd ever gotten drunk. I'm glad I stopped all that behaviour while it was still easy to quit though."
"Hmm," replied Jessica uncertainly.
"So, is there going to be a third condition I have to meet in order to win back your heart?" Aaron folded his arms across his chest.
Jessica desperately searched her brain for another possible excuse to delay the inevitable answer she had to give him. "I noticed when Mrs Baxter called the roll that you're meant to be in my biology class, but you never turn up, so how about you turn up today? Anyway, it's not like you actually have to pay attention. Lila and I don't."
"If I do, will you save me a seat?" Aaron asked.
"Sure, I guess I could do that," Jessica agreed. "Anyway, I have to go now."
"See you in biology," Aaron called, waving.
Jessica went into the nearest bathroom as she desperately needed to puzzle out the situation. She'd definitely liked Aaron in middle school, but everything felt so different now in high school. She could see he was still the great guy that he'd always been, even if Lila couldn't, and if she kept making it difficult for him she sensed that he'd soon give up and move on before they'd had the chance to see whether or not a relationship between them would have worked out. The truth was, she wanted to try dating Aaron and see what happened between them, but she was almost crippled by fear of what Lila might have to say about it. And she didn't want to screw up with either of them.
Todd had been going to ask Elizabeth to the dance, but just as he saw them all getting up at the end of the meeting, he chickened out and hurried off. The worst thing was, he knew that Elizabeth had never been the type of girl to make the first move, so sooner or later he'd have to corner her and ask her. However this proved harder than he'd expected, as she appeared to have thrown herself into the academic pursuits of school this year and was always rushing off somewhere. Part of him subconsciously didn't want to find the quiet moment where he could ask her, as he knew he owed her some sort of an explanation for how he'd ever ended dating Amy instead. Would she believe him that he'd never meant to hurt her, and that she had been the one for him all along? Did she still even have feelings for him, or were they buried along with their past? They'd both sensibly agreed that at twelve-years-old they were too young to commit to a real official relationship, but now that they were fourteen it was actually a possibility, and something about that was confronting - more confronting than what somehow stumbling into a confused dating scenario with Amy had been. What he'd had with Amy felt fake, like they were pretending or playing a game. Just imagining a relationship with Elizabeth felt more real to him than anything else he'd experienced so far.
Continue on reading . . . Chapter Thirteen