This is a story I'm writing that is, obviously, entitled Kodiak, and I thank you for coming to check it out. I'll post certain sections/chapters as I get time, so it might take a while for the next segment to show up if I have to type it.
Prologue: Steel and Strangers
A collar of steel.
Why, why, why did they collar me? But I would just as much of an answer out of asking why they collared themselves with the metal of society. Perhaps it was rooted in the humans’ hatred of difference. Perhaps it was based in their fear of power besides their own. Perhaps it was started by their obsession with dominance. Perhaps... And yet, many humans talked of coexisting, but for every one that spoke peace, 100 screamed war, and, of course, the loudest ones won. And even because of just simple disagreements, neighbors turned on neighbors, husbands turned on wives, brothers turned on sisters. It was the age-old human story; that of betrayal and hatred and bloodshed, and I was a living example, a creature they chose to punish in prime hominid fashion.
I sat down on a bench outside my high school, Elizabeth High School, feeling thoroughly down and having nothing better to do than wait for the rest of my friends to show. Hearing footsteps approaching me, I turned to see Alexa and Evan, my two very best friends, behind me.
“What’s the matter?” Alexa’s amber eyes shone with worry at my bad mood, while Evan seemed rather bored with the ordeal. I had been down for a while, so Evan seemed to be tired of asking since the answer would be eternally the same.
“Ah, nothing. I’m just depressed as usual.” I gave a wan half-smile, shifting my eyes back down to stare at my feet. Ever since my dog had gotten out and been run over, I had been forever pessimistic, and nothing could shake me from my grim state of mind.
“Ok, we need to get you a boyfriend,” Alexa told me firmly. “Being in a relationship would probably boost your spirits, so it’s not just an option anymore, it’s a need.”
“And what boy in this school would ask me out?” Alexa’s pep talk was not working, as my mood was going down, not up.
“I’m sure there’s someone.” It was the first time Evan had spoken since she walked up with Alexa.
“Yeah, that boy is Alec,” I chimed in, and we all burst out laughing, even though my grin was one of necessity and desperation rather than true happiness. It was common knowledge that Alec, the smartest and most formal boy in school, had had a crush on me since eighth grade or maybe even before then, but I would never be his girlfriend because he was just too formal and talked like a scientist all the time. Shivering slightly, I drew my jacket closer around my body, the frigid January air snapping at my face with vicious teeth of frost. Suddenly something caught my eye. A boy I had never seen before, about 6’5” and looking like a senior, wearing nothing but a hoody, jeans and a DC brand hat to keep him warm even in the 20-degree weather, was walking up to the door with no backpack or even anything in his hands.
Alexa followed my gaze and told me, “Ooh, he’s hot, and it looks like he’s a senior and there’s no girl next to him, so he’s probably single too. He’d be perfect for you.”
Yeah. Great. The only problem with that plan was that he, whoever he was, didn’t even know I existed.
Chapter 1: The New Kid
I strode into the classroom, feeling very out of place in this holy house of learning that I seemed to be desecrating by existing on its grounds. The teacher jerked her gaze up from a piece of paper in her hand to stare intently upon my face, making me feel even more unwelcome.
“So you are Kodiak Johnson?” Her voice rung around the room, carrying the weight and strength of an elephant on its monotonous pitch, and I could sense her amusement at my odd name.
“Yeah.” I was very, very intimidated by this seeming drill sergeant of a woman, and I lowered my eyes to the floor, searching the carpet for an answer to my predicament.
“All right, you sit over there by Ellise.” She pointed to a desk next to a very pretty sophomore, and immediately my mood improved. Ellise regarded me with a cautious eye, and I returned her evaluation with a slight grin. I walked, almost swaggered, over to my new spot and pulled up a chair, enjoying the proximity to a girl that didn’t treat me like a soldier that needed to be commanded.
“Class, this is the new student, Kodiak Johnson.” I got many double takes at, undoubtedly, my alias, and I noticed most of the girls giving me interested looks. Every female except for Ellise. She remained as silent and emotionless as stone, and the sadness radiating off of her tall frame was almost intoxicating. It made me wonder why such a beautiful creature was so horrendously despondent, but maybe I didn’t want to know if her story was, almost impossibly, sadder than my own.
“You look really pretty,” I whispered, screwing up my courage to try to socialize with Ellise, but she still ignored me. Was there anything I could do to get Ellise to warm up? Shaking my head at the apparent hopelessness of the situation, I turned my attention back to teacher, who I had very fondly dubbed Ms. Hitler after a minute in her class.
“So, as all of you know except for Mr. Johnson, this is homebase...” She droned on for the rest of class period, allowing my mind to wander. I scanned my surroundings, getting smiles and even kisses blown at me from the girls I happened to make eye contact with and looks of venom from the boys. I didn’t really care about either gender though, for Ellise was the only one I would react to, yet she was the only one who wouldn’t even look at me.
Knowing I was probably pushing my luck but that it was worth a shot, I leaned over and muttered to Ellise, “So, even though we just got introduced by Ms. Hitler, my name’s Kodiak.”
I gave her a small smile, trying to charm her into talking and rather taken aback by her radiance.
Hoping it would shut him up, I whispered back to Kodiak, “And I’m Ellise, Ellise Lech.” But when I turned to look at this extremely annoying and cocky new kid, I found myself gazing into his eyes, pure, golden amber pools brimming with intelligence and humor and kindness. I had to physically force myself to tear away from his face, a true grin dancing across my lips at the boy sitting next to me. Alexa gave me a thumbs-up and an almost jealous look at Kodiak, and I smiled back, feeling, for the first time in almost two years, attraction to a boy, even though I only knew his name and that he was the hottest boy I had ever seen. Suddenly I realized he was the kid I had seen walking up to the door in a hoody and jeans in 20-degree weather. That just made him even hotter.
“It’s nice to meet you Kodiak,” I murmured, turning back to him, perfectly content to stare into his eyes for eternity. “You’re a senior, right?”
“No talking!” our teacher, Ms. Cronwell, barked. I almost burst out laughing at how Ms. Hitler fit her so perfectly, and clearly my amusement slipped through to my face, as Kodiak grinned back at me, his light brown hair complementing his tan skin.
“She’s a real disciplinarian, huh?” His words were so quiet I could barely hear them, even though his face was about a foot from mine. “And yeah, I’m 18, so I’m a senior.”
“Yeah, no husband or children or anything besides her job.” Occasionally I felt bad for Ms. Cronwell, but currently it was more fun to snicker about her pathetic life, or rather, lack of one.
“Ooh, ouch, that sucks for us,” Kodiak muttered, removing his hat from his head and running his fingers through his hair, making it even fluffier only to flatten it by putting his hat back on. I silently vowed to never try to understand the hair habits of teenage boys.
“Yep, but it gives us lots of entertainment when she’s not listening.” I turned to keep my gaze on Ms. Cronwell as I spoke, and, of course, she didn’t suspect a thing. I really had too much practice at deceiving teachers, but at least it was knowledge I used every day, even if not with the most benign intentions.
I heard him chuckle quietly to my left, then, when the bell rang moments later, he told me softly, “I look forward to sitting next to you for the next 5 months, Ellise.”
Maybe this new kid wasn’t so bad after all.
It turned out Ellise and I had gym together too.
“Hey stranger,” I greeted with a grin as I saw her radiant face again. She was so pretty... Wait, what was I thinking?! I didn’t even know if she was single!
Apparently my thoughts and the grim mood they bore slipped through to my face, as Ellise questioned, with concern rising in her shimmering brown eyes, “What’s the matter?”
She was soooo pretty when she was worried... Heck, she was beautiful any time. After all, facts didn’t depend on whether there was another boy in the picture or not, because I could think all day long about her elegance, but not say anything about it and not get in trouble with her possible boyfriend.
“Nothing. Nothing at all.” Hearing the gym teacher announce that we all needed to get changed, I sauntered into the boys’ dressing room, my change of clothes in hand, and quickly stripped and redressed into a sleeveless shirt and basketball shorts. As I walked back out into the massive gymnasium, many girls stared and pointed, which concerned me greatly. Was I not supposed to be wearing what I was?
“Um, is my shirt inside out or something?” I muttered to Ellise as I walked to stand by her. I had been the subject of much segregation and ridicule and malice during my time, so the apparent not-so-benevolent attention I was currently getting was nothing new but still disliked.
“No, it’s just… you have really good arms.” Ellise blushed slightly, her voice sinking to an embarrassed mumble.
“Oh… ok.” I did do one-handed pushups and pull-ups everyday, but I didn’t think it was really anything that special, but apparently all of the girls did and it was already very annoying. I ran a hand through my hair, wishing I hadn’t left my hat on the bench in the dressing room. “Well, it’s not that big of a deal, but whatever.”
Suddenly the teacher barked, “10 laps around the gym, no excuses!” and we all knew she meant business, and that we didn’t want to cross her and face the scorching wrath of Ms. Coach.
At least she wasn’t as bad as Ms. Hitler-Cronwell, because I would much rather run than face that woman. As soon as we were all lined up and ready to run or get whipped, the whistle blew, and while the other kids surged ahead, I started off with a nice, easy jog, saving my energy for the last lap or two. I had figured Ellise would do the same thing, but apparently she liked leading the pack the whole time. She turned around a few times to give me odd looks, as though asking, “What are you doing?” but eventually she just gave up and kept her focus on staying well in front of everyone else, where she – and her speed – belonged.
After the second time I lapped Kodiak, I decided he must be all muscles and no speed. I had kind of hoped he would be able to keep up with me so we could talk while running, as usually I was about a half a lap to a full one ahead of everyone else and therefore had no one to chat with, but oh well, his lack of acceleration couldn’t be helped. As I found myself lost in thoughts of Kodiak shirtless and Kodiak kissing me and Kodiak kissing me shirtless, someone flew by me with incredible (speed), snapping me out of my zone and causing me to accelerate as well. I wasn’t used to being second in running laps, and I didn’t intend to stay there for very long. However, much to my great surprise, I found the speed demon that had passed me was none other than Mr. Johnson himself. A slight playful smile crossed my face at the friendly competition and as I saw Kodiak’s calves ripple as he ran… Focus, Ellise, focus. You have a really cute boy to beat, so think about passing him and making sure he doesn’t pass you, not about his face. Picking up my pace, I surged ahead, coming within a few feet of Kodiak before not being able to sustain that kind of speed anymore.
“Just great,” I muttered to myself. “Now he gets fast. Couldn’t he have done that at the beginning?”
“Well, I could have Ellise, but then it wouldn’t have been very fun,” Kodiak called over his shoulder, his eyes meeting mine and seeming to light up even more.
Darn it; those thoughts of me being his girlfriend came flooding back in, and I blushed slightly then set my jaw, determined to catch up and angry with myself for being so weak in the extremely hot face of Kodiak. I extended my stride as much as I could and increased my (pace), but it was still not enough, for Kodiak passed me again, which meant we were now on the same lap and he was leading me. No one lead Ellise Lech for very long, no one, and Kodiak would not be the first. I threw my whole weight forward along with my mind and heart, determined to not get beaten, and I quickly gained ground. Along the last stretch, I caught Kodiak, my long legs finally succeeding over his. However, he didn’t let me accelerate beyond him, and our unofficial race ended in a dead tie, my foot crossing the line at the exact same time his did. Since we were about two laps ahead of everyone else, we got time to cool down, which I definitely needed, since, for the first time ever, I was tired from warming up.
“You’re pretty good Ellise,” Kodiak told me as we went to sit down on a bleacher and wait for everyone else to finish. “You’re one of the fastest I’ve ever unofficially raced.” He gave me that signature brilliant smile of his, and what was my name again? I seemed to have lost it in Kodiak’s white teeth.
“You’re not bad yourself Kodiak.” I gave him a grin of my own, hoping it wasn’t obvious as to how badly I was crushing on him. I barely knew Kodiak, but I knew him well enough to see that he was my dream guy – along with every other girl’s. “This is the first time I’ve actually been tired from warming up.”
“Yeah, it really doesn’t look like they work us that hard in this gym class,” he commented, his amber eyes scanning the surroundings, taking in every basketball hoop hanging from the ceiling and every painted line on the polished wood floor. “It’s a pretty nice gym, spotless and completely organized and everything.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, feeling stupid because we were talking about the gym for lack of a better subject.
Kodiak shifted his hand slightly, so much that it happened to rest on mine for a second, and immediately my heart started pounding far more than any run would make it, and I glanced over at Kodiak, wondering if he cared or even had known.
“Sorry about that; I didn’t mean to touch you,” he told me respectfully, removing his hand from mine. Well, Kodiak had known, but apparently he didn’t care that much, he just wanted to make sure I wasn’t taking it the wrong way. What a gentleman, but I definitely would’ve preferred that he cared in the way I did.
Ellise and I also had Colorado history together.
“What is this, the third class in a row?” I commented to her as I walked inside the door and found her talking with her friends.
“Yeah, I guess.” I got many odd and then interested looks from the circle of girls I was now standing in, so Ellise introduced me. “Guys, this is Kodiak, the new kid in some of my classes, and Kodiak, these are my friends.”
“Well, I’m pleased to meet you, but I’m sure you all have better names than Ellise’s friends, so may I ask what they are?” I gave a smile, and many of them seemed even more charmed.
“I’m Alexa,” one tall blonde girl replied, grinning back, “and this is Hannah, Evan, Courtney, Kenzie and Lizzie.”
“See, I knew you guys had better names than Ellise’s friends; I’m like a psychic or something.” This brought giggles and a smirk even from Courtney, who up until then had seemed as cold as ice and very bored. Lizzie, who looked very familiar, still stood just contemplating me, her golden eyes scanning my body like an X-ray. There was something odd about her, that was for sure. Suddenly I remembered that I had seen her on TV many times.
“Wait, you’re Lizzie Lightning, leader singer and bassist of Lunar Pull and ESPN-featured athlete, right?” I asked her, genuinely interested.
“That’s me,” she replied, still not done sizing me up. She was about five-eleven, the tallest of the group of girls, and I certainly didn’t want to pick a fight with her; she had a very lean, muscular – but curvy – figure and she just radiated toughness. Despite this, she was utterly and completely stunning. A little longer than shoulder-length blonde hair framed a positively radiant face, out of which two proud, calculating and intelligent golden eyes stared. She wore no makeup – she didn’t need any – and just an ASU T-shirt, basketball shorts and flip-flops but she still would put cricks in the necks of all the boys she passed. I had fallen in love with Ellise though, and I already knew that she was everything I could ever want or need.
“All right class, please go to your seats,” the teacher announced as she glided through the door, then asked “And who might you happen to be?” upon seeing me standing there with no seat to go to.
“Mrs. Burkhart, he’s Kodiak Johnson, the new kid,” Ellise piped up, and I gave her a thankful smile, happy to have her do the talking to this rather intimidating but sort of friendly professor.
“Well I’m happy to have you in my history class Kodiak.” Hey, she was the first teacher who didn’t start at my odd name and actually addressed me with my first name; I liked Mrs. Burkhart already. “And I’m going to have you sit over by Meghan right there.” She pointed to a spot next to another sophomore, this one not as tall as Ellise, with stunning dark blue eyes and wavy shoulder-length brown hair framing a thin, calculating face. I seemed to having pretty good luck with the people I got to sit by.
“Hey,” I greeted as I sank into my chair next to Meghan. I hoped she would at least talk to me, unlike Ellise at the beginning.
“Hi.” She was talking, a very good start, and as I looked over at her I found myself attracted to her incredible eyes, as deep azure as the night sky with hints of lighter blue in the center. “So where’d you move from?”
Ooh, a question about my past; what lie would I make up? “Um, I just came from home schooling; I didn’t move or anything.” The truth was I had spent the last ten years up until September of last year in captivity being treated worse than an animal and that this was my first year of formal education, but no one needed to know that.
“Ok, cool.” Meghan turned her gaze up to the front of the classroom, where Mrs. Burkhart had taken front and center sitting on a stool and apparently preparing to give a lecture, oh joy.
“So, this is Colorado History, and I have you lovely kids in my class for the next semester, so we should get to know each other, even though that might be a bad thing.” Mrs. Burkhart actually had a sense of humor and sarcasm and she called me Kodiak instead of Mr. Johnson; she was my new favorite teacher at this school even though I only knew three.
During the lecture I kept on glancing over at Kodiak, trying to get his attention, and I finally did about halfway through Mrs. Burkhart’s talk.
Ripping a paper out of my notebook, I wrote, “Hey Kodiak, it’s Ellise,” then whispered to Alexa, who was sitting next to me, “Pass this to Kodiak.”
Alexa nodded, then passed the note with an explanation to Evan, who reached over and handed the paper to Kodiak. He gazed at me curiously upon seeing me looking at his reaction, then scribbled something and passed it back.
“Hey Ellise, how are you?” it read. I smiled to myself, then scribed, “Pretty good, but this class is really boring.”
The note again went down the passing train, and Kodiak smirked slightly at my response. He was sooooooo cute when he smiled…
The rest of the class period went like that, me writing him a note and he writing something witty or funny or nice back. I know Mrs. Burkhart saw the piece of paper we passed around, but she didn’t really care since we were being quiet. That was another advantage Kodiak had over all of the other boys in the school – he didn’t talk way too much but he didn’t talk way too little either, and generally he had good or funny things to say instead of the perverted comments that came out of most guys’ mouths. Yet another thing that just made me fall even more head over heels for Kodiak. As if everything else about him wasn’t enough.
About five minutes before the bell rang, Mrs. Burkhart finished her first-day-of-class talk, and she let us talk “quietly.” Yeah, like that would ever happen. My friends and I formed a little group in the corner and talked about nothing until Kodiak came over and stood by me.
Upon hearing us discuss the weather, he commented sarcastically, “Boy, you guys have such interesting conversations.”
“Well, you can always go over and talk to the guys.” What was Courtney’s issue with Kodiak? She seemed to hate him with a passion even though she had only met him at the beginning of the period.
“I could, as the guys do talk about things besides the weather, but they also say lots of things that would scar five-year-olds for life, so no thanks.” Kodiak returned Courtney’s coolness, accompanied with an intense, almost questioning amber gaze in her direction.
“Yeah, they have a tendency to be perverted like that.” At that moment, Alexa was my hero because she was the only one of the circle who didn’t act coldly towards Kodiak.
“Boys will be boys I guess,” I added, feeling the staleness of my words and the conversation hanging in the air afterwards. Just after that, the bell rang, and I muttered to myself, “Saved by the bell.”
As I was walking out the door, destined to my locker which conveniently happened to be right next to Kodiak’s, Kaylyn Radtke, not a close friend but someone I at least liked, whispered to me, “Stay away from Kodiak ‘cause he’s mine.”
So much for that liking thing; I had a new enemy, one that I had actually trusted before, on my hands.
Chapter 2: Closer and Closer
As the days and weeks went by, Ellise and I became friends, nothing more, as we got to know each other better. Every day we would snicker about Ms. Cronwell’s lack of a life during homebase, try to beat each other unofficially at whatever we were doing in gym (Ellise usually won), and then pass notes and occasionally pay attention in Colorado history, while talking at our neighboring lockers whatever chance we got during passing period. I found myself thinking increasingly about how I would like her to be my girlfriend, about how great it would be to not have to hide the fact that I like her, although I probably wasn’t doing a very good job of it anyways. I also noticed that the kid named Alec Saville seemed to be as attracted to Ellise as I was, and the fact that I had competition sort of worried me, even though Alec didn’t strike me as a ladies man or even Ellise’s type. Finally I succeeded in getting her phone number, then spent many nights texting Ellise about all sorts of things, like the test we had tomorrow in history or how the school lunches were gross, and mildly to moderately flirting with her, like commenting on how pretty I knew she looked even though I couldn’t see her at that moment. School was easy for me; I had a photographic memory and a pretty high level of common sense so I didn’t really have to study at all, and good grades I didn’t have to worry about either. I joined the varsity basketball team even though the season had already started because they were sort of desperate for players, and the wrestling team I made easily too. My life, in general, was a breeze. The only thing missing was Ellise as my girlfriend, and I just needed to work up the courage to ask her out. Except for Ellise, almost every girl that was single and some that weren’t seemed interested in me, but Ellise was the only one I cared about yet the only one who didn’t seem to want me to be more than a friend, and so sometimes I wondered why I even hoped, but I knew that I would not quit until I got a definite answer. Finally, after however many days of debating and planning what I would say, I found the guts to ask Ellise out.
“Hey Kodiak,” I greeted as I waited by his locker so we could go to homebase together.
“Oh, hey Ellise. You look beautiful today.” He gave a smile, and instantly my heart melted. Why was he so perfect?
“Thanks. You know, you tell me that every day.” And every day it made my day, to have someone like him compliment me.
“Yes, because it’s true every day.” Kodiak shut his locker with his hat still on his head, which puzzled me. He knew we weren’t allowed to wear hats, so why did he?
“Um, you’re still wearing your hat.” I would have made a law saying Kodiak had to leave his hat on if I were running the school because he looked even hotter with it on, but hey, that was just me.
“Yeah, and?” We started walking down the hallway side by side, and I heard many whispers about how we were going out. If only that were true.
“Well, it’s a school rule that you can’t wear hats, and you know how Ms. Cronwell gets when you purposely don’t follow a rule.” It was actually sort of funny to see that vein in Ms. Cronwell’s neck stand out when she was mad, even though it meant whomever she was fuming at or even the whole class had lunch detention. You would think that would be enough to discourage us from ticking her off, but it was just too fun to mess with old Ms. Hitler.
“Yeah, but it’s fun to mess with Ms. Cronwell, and I am not going back to put my hat away.” Kodiak smirked slightly, probably at the thought of Ms. Cronwell’s reaction to his rebellion. “After all, no one likes being a perfect goody two shoes and doing what they’re told all the time; that would just be really boring.”
“That’s true,” I agreed. “After all, homebase can actually be interesting because of the little rebellions we start in the far corner of the classroom and all of the paper airplanes and stuff that you guys throw.”
“Yeah. You know, Ethan almost hit Ms. Cronwell with a paper airplane one time, but since she couldn’t figure out which one of us threw it, she didn’t do anything about it except get really unpleasant. We sat silently laughing about it for the rest of the period.”
When I gave Kodiak a curious gaze, as we sat right next to each other and I wouldn’t have missed something like that, he explained, “You weren’t there that day.”
“That must have been really funny.” Of course, the one day that I was gone, I missed all the good stuff.
“Yeah. It would have been even funnier if he had actually hit her, since I know Ms. Cronwell still wouldn’t have been able to figure out who did it even if they literally hit her in the face.” Kodiak’s face took on the unmistakable air of nostalgia as he remembered all the other stuff we had done to Ms. Cronwell.
“And then, there was that one time when-”
“No talking!” Both of us almost jumped out of our skins as we realized we had just entered the lair of the beast itself. Apparently our bodies had been on autopilot to take us to our first class, and that was where we found ourselves; in the cheerful, nice room of the cheerful, nice Ms. Cronwell.
There was a more rowdy silence than usual during homebase, if that was possible, as there were more silent mutterings and actions against Ms. Cronwell than normal. Ellise and I, however, just whispered to one another and tried to not do anything to provoke our teacher’s wrath. She didn’t even notice I was wearing a hat for all of her beady-eyed staring at the rest of the class.
“You know, that vein in her neck is almost purple now,” I murmured to Ellise, keeping me eyes on Ms. Cronwell and my body facing mostly forward so she didn’t suspect anything, a trick I had learned from Ellise herself.
“Yeah. It’s even grosser than usual, if that’s possible.” Ellise looked so repulsed I almost burst out laughing in the middle of the deathly silent classroom. Oh God, I loved that girl, as comic relief and romantically.
“That was a great look you had Ellise, it just made my day,” I told her, the humor her strange expression had imprinted upon my face still lingering.
“Well just I tried so hard on that.” Ellise’s sense of sarcasm also added to her overall appeal; she truly seemed to be the other half of me, minus two years. I really wanted to ask her out right then…
“Um, Ellise, there’s something I want to ask you.” I had never done anything like this before, so what would I say?
“Yeah?” Ellise didn’t seem like she was paying that close of attention, but maybe that was a good thing in case I made an idiot out of myself.
“Well, I was wondering if… If you would-”
The fire alarm cut me off, and we both jumped, myself more violently than Ellise because my ears were 10,000 times more powerful than hers. A burning pain pierced my brain due to the shrill shrieking of the alarm, and the courage I had worked up to ask Ellise out slunk back into the remotest reaches of my heart, only to show its elusive face again in many minutes or hours.
“Everyone outside!” Even through the ruckus, we all heard Ms. Cronwell’s shrill bark and immediately flocked towards the door.
It was all I could do to stumble out of the door, away from the terrible, maligning menace that deafened my ears and penetrated my brain with the growing, burning disease of agony.
“Are you ok?” Ellise asked worriedly, looking over at my probably pained expression. I wondered dully how she wasn’t being tortured by the sound being emanated from the fire alarm, then remembered she was human and had ears 10,000 times less powerful than mine.
“Yeah, I’m fine; this alarm’s just giving me a serious headache.” I breathed an audible sigh of relief when we finally got out of the school and into the open air and freedom for my ears, then noticed the extreme change in temperature but felt nothing due to my almost impervious resistance to weather. “Better now, but it’s definitely colder out here.”
As we were lining up by classroom so attendance could be taken, it happened that Ellise was right behind me.
“Well, that was fun,” she commented dryly, kicking the stones on the ground near her feet, and wrapping her arms around her body, shivering with cold in the nearly 20 degree weather.
Turning around and knowing I could get very serious repercussions if I was caught but risking the possibility of lunch detention for Ellise, I replied, “Yeah, it was just awesome. At least it wastes class time. Um, you look cold, are you ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine; it’s just a little chilly out here.” Ellise suddenly got a sneaky look on her face, and I became wary, watching her very intently to make sure she didn’t-Suddenly she lunged forward, almost tackling me, and drew away just as quickly as she had struck.
“Hah, got it!” she exclaimed, victoriously holding my hat. Ellise gave me a teasing look, then slipped the hat onto her head. I was amazed – it actually looked really good on her. I mean, generally you don’t expect guys’ hats to look good on girls, but I guess Ellise was just the exception; she was so pretty it didn’t matter that it was a boys’ hat and not hers.
“You look really good.” I knew I was probably staring, but I didn’t really care – Ellise was too beautiful to not.
“Well thanks.” She gave a small grin that lit up her face even more. “And here’s your hat back.” She handed me the DC-branded cap and then asked, “So what were you going to ask me before we were so very loudly interrupted?”
My courage had not crawled out of the hole in my heart it had burrowed, so I knew I wouldn’t be able to repeat the words I had almost said. It was sort of a right-moment thing, and standing out in the bitter cold after just being very hastily evacuated for a fire drill was not very romantic. “Ah, nothing. Ellise, you’re making me cold just looking at you, so I feel the need to do something about it. Would you me to give you my shirt to keep you warm?” I wouldn’t be surprised if she refused altogether, but it was at least worth a shot, and she really was looking like a Popsicle.
“You’re serious?” Ellise was very stunningly and frozenly skeptical.
“Yeah, I’m serious. It would be ungentlemanly to let you freeze.” Why did Ellise have to make being nice so hard?
“But if you take your shirt off, won’t you freeze?” At least she was sort of interested in the idea now, but there were still no guarantees.
“Na, I’ll be fine. So would you like me to?” I crossed my fingers behind my back, hoping almost desperately she would say yes because I couldn’t stand to look at her frozen form for much longer.
“Well, since you threw out the idea, yes please.” Her body was starting to quake even more violently now, although some of her shaking may have been dramatization.
I quickly pulled off my shirt, the wind biting at my bare skin with furious frosty fangs but failing to induce a reaction, and handed it to Ellise, although she almost dropped it due to staring at my chest. She reddened when she realized I noticed she was staring, and put my shirt on, the added warmth taking effect almost immediately.
“You better?” I gave her a smile, already knowing the answer due to the return of color to her previously pale face.
“Yeah, thanks Kodiak.” Ellise returned my grin, looking a whole lot more beautiful now that she wasn’t frozen. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, I’ve been in a whole lot colder weather and, as a gentleman, I am required to keep you warm rather than myself,” I told her, folding my hands across my bare chest and ignoring the cold that seemed to be defeating everyone else. Around me, mutters of, “It’s too cold out here!” and “When will we get to go inside?” swirled.
Suddenly Ms. Cronwell hollered, “All right, we’re going back inside now!” and I heard her whisper to herself, “Too bad we can’t just leave you monsters out here.”
Thanks. I loved you too Ms. Cronwell.
I still had Kodiak’s shirt on when we reached the safety and warmth of the classroom, and I didn’t really intend to give it back anytime soon not because I was cold anymore, but due to the fact that Kodiak had the best abs I had ever seen. His shirt also smelled really good because of the cologne he wore, so I would maybe give him it back at the end of school. Maybe.
As we sat down at our assigned seats, Kodiak whispered to me, “Um, can I have my shirt back now, unless you still need it to warm up?”
“Well, I’m still sort of chilly.” I still wanted some time to admire him shirtless, so no way would I give it back. That’d be defeating part of the purpose for taking it to begin with.
“Oh, ok.” He doesn’t suspect a thing. Good. I never knew I was so good at lying, but maybe Kodiak was just playing dumb to be a gentleman. Nah, I was just that good at lying.
Ms. Cronwell swept into the room and looked at all of us warily, with a hint of disappointment in her stature. Maybe she was disappointed that she didn’t get to leave us outside to freeze, because we all knew she thought us to be monsters and we all thought, no, knew her to be a disciplinarian who defied the rule “Teachers don’t want to harm their students” and wanted corporal punished to be legal still. Yep, that must have been what happened, because I couldn’t think of anything else that would chagrin her.
Her beady eyes soon picked out Kodiak’s bare torso and she barked sharply, “Where is your shirt Mr. Johnson?” Much to my surprise, Cronwell didn’t even react at the sight of Kodiak’s very well-toned chest. Was that woman blind or something?
The bad part was all eyes were now on him, and all of the girls were very obviously interested in my Kodiak. How dare they!
“Well, I gave my shirt to Ellise to keep her warm since she didn’t have a jacket.” Kodiak remained polite even though Ms. Cronwell was anything but; a far cry from what almost any other high school boy would have done.
“How admirable, but according to school dress code, you are not allowed to have your shirt off, so you should put it back on before we meet with the principal to discuss your punishment.” Ms. Cronwell was coldly and maliciously teasing Kodiak with no respect for him and the fact that he had done the right thing even though school rules forbade it at all. But perhaps she didn’t know he had done the right thing, because as far as I could tell Ms. Cronwell had no conscience or even a heart.
“And now it’s an offense to be a gentleman and show some chivalry to a lady?” Kodiak replied angrily, rising from his seat to tower by at least a foot over Ms. Cronwell. “Now it’s a crime to do the right thing? Screw the school rules, put in me in detention or even suspend me for defiance, but I know I did the right thing, because the wrong thing would have been to let a lady like Ellise freeze.”
“Well, Mr. Johnson,” Ms. Cronwell replied icily, her voice full of frost, “you have just earned yourself an even greater punishment due to speaking disrespectfully towards a teacher. And you do have the right to remain silent, so I would suggest you use that.” Her blue eyes were full of satisfaction and her mouth was upturned in a pleased smirk. She was relishing in her victory over Kodiak, and it just made my blood boil with hatred for this woman that was supposed to shaping our minds for the better but was instead exhibiting a perfect example of the kind of situation none of us wanted to be in.
“Yes, I do, but according to the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, I also have the right to freedom of speech as a legal citizen of the United States.” Kodiak returned her coolness with a piercing edge of venom in his words, and I found an even greater respect for this not-so-new-kid that I wanted desperately to be my boyfriend. “And the truth that I spoke is not hurtful or disrespectful, it’s just something you don’t want to hear so you’re trying to use your power to shut me up, therefore dropping to the level of the Chinese government, although that might almost be an insult to the Chinese, because at least they do it successfully.”
The whole class gave an “Ooh,” at this, egging on the argument between teacher and pupil.
“Mr. Johnson, you should keep your mouth shut lest you incur any more punishments as you are already suspended for defiance and showing disrespect to a teacher.” There was no pleasure at Kodiak’s suffering now, only annoyance clouding Ms. Cronwell’s voice. Apparently the game of torturing her student lost its fun when he showed intelligence to rival and overcome hers. It was unfair and unjust, we all knew it and secretly hoped Ms. Cronwell would die from a heart attack, get fired or get a life and realize her students hate her, but that hadn’t happened yet and it didn’t really look like it would occur anytime soon.
“Fine. You know what, fine.” Those were the very last words I would have guessed to come out of Kodiak’s mouth in a moment like that. “I give up, because fighting for justice in such a worthless place for such a worthless cause will achieve nothing except undeserved and avoidable punishment. I think Mr. Washington, Adams and Jefferson would be appalled at this violation of the United States Constitution, but they’re just a bunch of old dead guys, aren’t they? It’s not like they founded the nation and its principles or anything.”
I understood about a quarter of that, but it sounded smart, smarter than anything Ms. Cronwell had ever said, so I was just going to go with it and say the guy I loved with all my heart also happened to be a genius.
I was escorted down to the principal’s office by Ms. Cronwell, still shirtless and ironically still disobeying the law that had got me into all of this trouble to begin with, although this time it was her eagerness for punishment rather than my sense of chivalry to blame.
“You wait here until Mr. McMullen is able to see you.” She pointed tersely to a chair just inside the office door, and I sat down, giving a sigh a relief once the Wicked Witch of EHS was gone. The office staff directed me many curious glances, as it probably wasn’t every day that they saw a shirtless student waiting to see the principal. I yawned, knowing Mr. McMullen was much more reasonable than Ms. Cronwell and that I probably wouldn’t get in any serious trouble, just a talking-to or maybe a phone call to my older sister Nymeria. When the great wooden slab finally swung open and a voice inside called, “Come in!” I couldn’t wait to just get the lecture over with and move on with my life. After all, me being shirtless wasn’t going to kill anyone so why did Ms. Cronwell have to make it out to be some sort of federal offense?
“So why are you here Mr. Johnson?” Mr. McMullen leaned forward and looked me in the eye, his blue ones searching my brown ones. Him calling me Mr. Johnson wasn’t nearly as bad as Ms. Cronwell because he at least showed me some respect while she did it just to annoy me.
“I’m here because I gave my shirt to a girl to keep her warm during the fire drill and then got yelled at by Ms. Cronwell.” Somehow he could tell I wasn’t telling the complete truth, as he raised an eyebrow at me and made it clear that he wanted the whole story. “Ok, well I did argue with Ms. Cronwell after she yelled at me for disobeying the dress code ‘cause I knew I did the right thing even though it was not following the rules.” Underneath the table I crossed my fingers, hoping he would just brush it off and let me go.
“Well, it is against school dress code to have your shirt off in class,” he gave me a piercing, calculating look, “but I do agree with you on the fact that you did the right thing.” A sigh of relief escaped my mouth and Mr. McMullen smiled slightly. “However, being defiant towards a teacher, no matter what the situation, is unacceptable, so…”
“So what?” I really hoped there wouldn’t be any sort of implications regarding my behavior, even though it was technically the grounds for a referral or even suspension.
“…So as long as you stay here for the rest of the period and let Mrs. Cronwell cool down, then I won’t punish you.” The words came almost methodically, like I wasn’t the first offender.
“I take it you have experience in dealing with Mrs. Cronwell’s wrath?” I could certainly imagine her sending many students down, maybe even dozens a day, since I certainly wasn’t the worst one in the school.
“You have no idea Kodiak.” Mr. McMullen shifted in his chair and ran a hand over his short, trimmed tawny beard. “You have no idea.”
“Yeah, but I can definitely guess that the Wicked Witch keeps your office pretty darn busy.” Mr. McMullen and I seemed to be kindred spirits – at least on the topic of Mrs. Cronwell.
“They still call her that, huh?” He seemed mildly surprised but also amused. “I guess some things never change.” Maybe they called her that when he was in high school.
An awkward silence hung in the air for nearly a minute due to the lack of a subject until Mr. McMullen asked, “So which girl did you give your shirt to?”
“Um, well…” Did he really have to ask that? No, he didn’t; his slight smirk gave his true intention of amusing himself with high school romance away. “Well, it was… Ellise, Ellise Lech.”
“And I take it that you find her attractive?” Did I really have to have this conversation, with the principal of all people? Maybe I owed him for not writing me up when he should have, but did he really have to start this instead?
“Well… Yeah.” I was trying to give as little information as I could get away with since I wasn’t exactly comfortable with my current situation. I still couldn’t believe I was having this conversation to begin with, much less with the Mr. McMullen.
“How nice. You know, I met my wife in high school.” Finally we got off the topic of Ellise and me, but this was still about as awkward.
“That’s cool.” There was really nothing else for me to say or do, so I just went with it and tried but failed to reduce the ungainliness of the conversation. The air was still with want of a subject that wouldn’t induce a feeling of incompetence to the conversation for many seconds.
“So how are your grades?” Mr. McMullen finally asked, ending the long silence that we both suffered through.
“I have all As and, in a couple classes, my grade is higher than 100 percent.” My grades were something to be proud of, especially since this was my first year of formal schooling.
“Good. And how’s wrestling going?” At last we came to a topic that I actually would talk about; what a concept.
“Pretty good. I’m first in the state for my weight category and I’m undefeated so far.” I really didn’t think I was going to become defeated anytime soon, as I had already faced the second-best in the state and beat him handily, but I didn’t want to sound pretentious, so wisely I kept my mouth shut.
“That’s great! I hope you bring home a first place for us Kodiak. It’s been a long time since we’ve had one of those.” A kind of weariness filled Mr. McMullen’s voice, as though he was used to failure in athletics.
“I will.” As the bell for second period rang and I left the office, I had a feeling Mr. McMullen and I were going to become very good friends over the next half of the year.
“Where is he?” I muttered to myself, hope for a glimpse of Kodiak as I wildly glanced around. A shirtless guy as attractive as Kodiak should be easy to spot even in a crowd of a thousand, so I began to worry that he really had been suspended, and, of course, it was all my fault. Anxiously I peered at the clock, noting that the time was 9:31, then continued to scan my surroundings for a sign of Kodiak. Finally I spotted him coming down the hallway towards me, and, even though I was relieved, my heart began to pound even faster in my chest due to his attractiveness. Why did I have to fall so hard for him? Why couldn’t I be like Courtney, who seemed to hate everything about him? Then I wouldn’t have to deal with that feeling in the pit of my stomach that I got every time he looked at another girl or worry about how I looked every time I was around him. But I knew I could never hate Kodiak; if anything, I fell even more in love with him every second I spent around him.
“So you didn’t get suspended?” I fell into step with him as he came beside me and gave him his shirt back, and I saw a twitch in his arm, as if he had wanted to put it around me. No, I must have just been daydreaming.
“Nope, I didn’t even get in trouble,” Kodiak told me as he slipped his t-shirt back on. Taking his hat off and running a hand through his hair, he looked down at me, and for an instant I was captured in his mesmerizing eyes, their amber depths so perfect… Just like everything else about him.
“Then why’d you take so long?” I hoped I didn’t come across as pushy, but if some stupid reason kept me from my Kodiak, then someone was seriously going to get slapped.
“Mr. McMullen told me that he wouldn’t punish me if I stayed in the office for the rest of the period to let Mrs. Cronwell cool down, so I did.” We had arrived at our lockers, so I opened mine and threw my books in to pull out my bag of gym clothes.
“Well that’s cool. You’re not in trouble and you got to skip class.” Turning back down the hallway, I waited for Kodiak to catch up then started walking again.
“Yep.” A silence of a few seconds hung in the air before being broken by Kodiak. “ Ellise, there’s something I want to ask you.”
“Yeah?” I turned to look up at him and he stopped to look down at me, taking both of my hands in his and making my heart nearly jump out of my chest.
“Well, I wanted to ask you if… If you-”
Alec suddenly appeared out of nowhere, ruining the moment with his rapid speech and overuse of monstrous words. “Salutations Ellise. Have you completed the composition Mrs. Burkhart delegated us to write last week?”
Now it was my turn to look down, because Alec was about three inches shorter than me. “Um, yeah, I finished it last night.”
“Good.” Alec bustled off as quickly as he had come and I was relieved to have him gone.
Turning back up to Kodiak, I asked, “So what were you going to ask me?”
“Nothing.” A cold air emanated from Kodiak now, and he refused to look at me. I thought I saw pain in his eyes before tears that I wouldn’t let fall filled mine so much that I couldn’t see.
Why did rejection have to hurt so much? It felt like I had been stabbed in the heart with a steel knife, plunged into my chest by Kodiak’s hand. Well, if he wanted to play a game of blades then I might just have to draw a sword.
Why hadn’t Ellise told me she was going out with Alec? Why hadn’t she? There had been plenty of times when she could have told me, like when we were talking at our lockers or even we were texting one another. But why would she tell me? It wasn’t like it was my business who she dates. But I still couldn’t stop the feelings of pain and betrayal and jealousy that ran rampant through my veins. Sighing, I stepped into the boys’ locker room in the gym to change and appeared back outside about a minute later. Weren’t boys supposed to be the heartthrobs, the ones that girls fell for? Weren’t boys supposed to be the ones to get liked, not do the liking? Apparently not, because I disobeyed both of those rules every time I set my eyes on Ellise. I found Ellise talking with her group of friends, probably about me, on the opposite side of the gym, and she met my gaze with a cold, pained one of her own. Her eyes were slightly red, like she had been crying, and suddenly I realized how much of a jerk I had been to her in the hallway over there. Maybe she wasn’t dating Alec if she was crying just because I got angry with her, or maybe she was and just was upset that her friend had been so cold to her, but either way I knew and I had been a stuck-up idiot and had made her cry for no reason at all. I would have to find a way to say sorry.
During the first lap of five that we had to run, Ellise got ahead of me at first but I soon caught up to her and tried to apologize.
“Hey, um, I just wanted to say-” was as far as I got before she took off sprinting in front of me. Apparently she wanted to make it difficult, but I wouldn’t give up until she had heard my confession of guilt. For the second time around, I slowed down, all the way until I was dead last, waiting for Ellise to lap me so I could run next to her.
When she did finally pass me, I ran into step beside her and was able, yet again, to only say, “Hey, um, I just wanted to say-” before she took off. I cursed under my breath at the fact that I was having to do all this just to apologize, then started dashing after her.
My long legs ate up the distance between Ellise and me and I was reminded of how beautiful she looked when she running. Within a few seconds I was right beside her and pleading with her, “Please slow down and listen to me for once!”
“Why should I?”A venom I had never known Ellise to have filled her voice and anger mixed with pain flared in her eyes as she turned to look at me. Oh well; at least I had her attention even if it wasn’t the kindest.
“Because I want to apologize for being such a jerk in the hallway.” She paused long enough for me to catch up and then looked up at me with a little less contempt. “And so I just wanna say I’m sorry.”
A relieved smile flitted across her face and kindness that I felt was long overdue returned to her expression. “No problem Kodiak. And thanks for apologizing, although I’m probably the one who needs to apologize since I seriously overreacted.”
“Well, your apology is accepted, and thanks for accepting mine.” I returned her grin with one of my own, happy she wasn’t mad at me anymore, but still internally upset at the fact that she was dating Alec.
I wondered why Kodiak had even been cold with me to begin with as we walked back to our lockers after gym, but soon put it out of mind when I remembered the test we had in history that I forgot to study for.
“Did you study for that test we have next in history?” I asked Kodiak as he bent down to put his books in his locker.
“Yeah.” He looked surprised that I had even asked. Of course he had; he probably wanted to maintain his 105 percent or whatever degree of A-plus he currently had. “You didn’t, did you?” A smirk crept across his face as he rose back up to his full height and shut his locker.
“Nope.” Kodiak knew me almost too well. “If you don’t mind me asking, why were you mad at me before gym?” Hopefully he would answer, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he didn’t. Boys were almost as bad as girls about that kind of thing.
It was a few seconds after we had started walking that Kodiak finally answered. “Why does it matter? We’re fine now, so I don’t see why it does.” Of course, a typical boy answer; it avoided the question and therefore the consequences.
“Well I’m just curious.” Couldn’t he just answer the stupid question?
“I’ll tell you later,” he told me quietly as we walked through the door of Mrs. Burkhart’s history class to take a test that I was destined to fail.
“So, this is your 1800 through 1950 history test; I hope you all studied.” Mrs. Burkhart settled herself down upon a stool in front of the class and watched as the tests were handed back through the rows. “And if you didn’t, well, just cross your fingers and hope you get lucky.”
“Thanks for the encouragement Mrs. Burkhart,” I muttered to myself as I was handed my test, but I did cross my fingers under my desk and started praying to some unknown deity.
The test really wasn’t as hard as Mrs. Burkhart made it seem, and even without the night of studying that everyone else had I still was pretty confident that I passed or maybe even got a good grade. As I checked over my work, I looked up to see Kodiak gazing at me. He quickly glanced away when he realized I had noticed, but this unusual behavior puzzled me. Maybe it had something to do with what he had tried to ask me two times but had never been able to say. Hopefully he would re-ask that question soon so I wouldn’t be left wondering the whole day. Bringing my eyes back down to my paper, I soon became immersed in the question I had been undecided on about which National Park was the oldest in Colorado. Finally I remembered that Rocky Mountain National Park was the tenth-oldest in the nation, then bubbled in that answer and rested my head on my hands. Glancing round, I let my mind wander and my eyes gain a mind of their own as I scanned the room aimlessly, the surroundings and the people as familiar to me as the back of my own hand. My gaze rested upon Meghan, the girl next to Kodiak, who was diligently triple-checking her test. I envied her position on the seating chart and also her looks; she sat next to Kodiak and she was extremely pretty, far prettier than I thought myself to be. The odd part was she had never shown any interest in any guy, even Kodiak, though she probably had guys asking her out left and right. Actually, she was probably being the smart one, like she always was, by avoiding guys, because trouble and dating seemed to be synonyms, although I wouldn’t know much about that what with my one-time experience going out with someone. However, during those six days of not being single, I did learn something: Reiley Davis certainly lives up to his reputation as a player. But my one unwise dating adventure wouldn’t deter me from going out with another guy; my awkwardness around members of the other gender that I found attractive did that all on its own. Every time I was near Kodiak I seemed to act as unattractive as possible, as I tripped a lot, even though my feet really weren’t that big for my five-foot-ten frame; I knocked a lot of things over, including a bottle of iced tea all down Kodiak’s front one time; and I found it difficult to say what I meant because my tongue would always tie itself in knots due to nervousness. No wonder I hadn’t been asked out since eighth grade; those qualities weren’t exactly very endearing. Oh well; it seemed to me that the only guy I actually wanted to ask me out never would, so if any other guys would have liked to was irrelevant in my view.
I gave Ellise a slight smile as I took her test from her and placed it upon Mrs. Burkhart’s desk, along with the rest of my row’s.
“So how do you think you did?” Her confession of not studying hadn’t left me in the highest hopes of her getting a good grade, but Ellise did take good notes, so she probably remembered a lot of the things on the test. I hoped.
“Pretty good for not studying.” She returned my grin with a radiant one of her own, her brown eyes shimmering and her beauty very distracting.
“Cool.” I never seemed to have good things to say when I was around Ellise. I could talk and talk and talk all day long about almost anything when I wasn’t around her but her presence reduced my vocabulary to one-and-two-word sentences.
“Yeah. I’ve got an A in this class anyways, so I’ll still be passing unless I got like a 20 percent or something.” She grabbed her binder and pencil bag off her desk and waited for me to get mine, a shadow of tiredness haunting the fine contours of her face. Turning quickly, she paused for a moment to let me get into step with her and then walked out of the door with me at her side. As we fought our way through the crowded hallway, Ellise asked, “So, since you never answered me before, why were mad at me during gym?”
Oh God, how would I explain? “Are you dating anyone?” blurted out quickly, leaving me in an embarrassed and wary silence.
“No.” I breathed an inner sigh of relief as Ellise looked over at me curiously, a humorous look upon her face. As we struggled through the crowd with our binders held up like shields, we looked rather like medieval soldiers pushing through a battlefield decorated with Aeropostale, DC and Nike logos. “Do you know of anyone that would even want to go out with me?”
“Well, that Alec Saville seems pretty interested in you.” I may have been a boy and perhaps not the most observant one at that, but it was flamingly obvious that Alec really liked Ellise, and that, combined with his showing up at her side a lot, made me think that they actually were going out.
“Oh, yeah.” Ellise gave a slight giggle, her long brown hair falling around her face and framing her beauty like a halo. “He’s been like that since seventh grade, and I’ve noticed but never really cared.”
“Oh, ok.” Somehow an awkward silence managed to consume us even though the hallway was nearly as loud as an elephant stampede. Not knowing what to say, I looked down at my feet and let them guide me to my locker. The courage that had been bottled up all day and never used began to creep back up my throat as I fumbled over my combination. “I know someone who would want to go out with you though.” Somehow, I was able to keep my voice understandable and pretty firm.
“Who?” Ellise was genuinely interested; this was my chance. As my heart raced and began to work its way from my chest up into my esophagus, making it rather hard to breathe, I prepared myself to say one little two-letter word that would either make or break my heart.
Opening my mouth, I wasn’t able to even make a sound before Kaylyn Radtke, a pretty obvious admirer of mine, walked up in between Ellise and I and told me, “Hey Kodiak,” completely ignoring and shunning Ellise behind her.
“Hey Kaylyn,” I replied, trying to be as polite possible without revealing my frustration at having another moment to ask Ellise out taken away from me. Shooting a lethal glare at Ellise as she passed, Kaylyn strode off, clearly just dropping in to interrupt my conversation with Ellise. What a typical jealous high school girl.
“She is so jealous,” I muttered after Kaylyn had left, getting a nod and an exasperated sigh from Ellise.
“I know! I can’t even have a conversation that lasts more than two words with you that she doesn’t give me a death stare!” Ellise slammed her locker, clearly annoyed at the extent that Kaylyn would go to disrupt Ellise’s and my exchanges. Calming down a bit, Ellise questioned, “So who wants to go out with me?”
Great story! I can't wait to see the rest!
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