MASSIE'S OOC. I just wanted her to be suburban-like, not the Ice Queen she is. Just not nearly as sparkly or pink as Sharpay. =D
--
Doodles
by hannah
It wasn't hard for a girl to catch his eye, really. But it was hard if said girl wanted to capture Todd Lyons' attention for long.
Todd Lyons was sixteen, quick-witted, and if anything, a charmer. On his first day at that ridiculous private school though, he spotted a girl—
And he never lost sight of her.
Todd would watch her, his discreet eyes quick to dart away should she spot him spying. He was new, but he had heard of Massie Block—she was legendary throughout the halls of Octavian Country Day.
Sometimes, Massie would laugh and he noticed how she tilted her head.
Sometimes, Massie would whip out her iPhone and smile when she read the SMS, as though some one had clued her into a secret no one else knew.
And sometimes, Massie would write some boy's name, over and over and over again on the cover of her notebook.
Small block letters in black Sharpie; fun, pink, cutesie type print; discreet scribbles in the corners of her dog-eared notebook.
But her big, swirly script in purple glitter was his favorite.
He had realized it long before a prissy-looking girl decided to slide next to him at table #2, the table farthest away from Massie Block and her friends.
Prissy Girl—Audrey was her name—blinked her mascaraed eyes and pointed to a little doodle by the edge of the table.
Mrs. Massie Fisher, was there, in sparkly purple nail polish.
"This was Massie Block's old table," Audrey informed him, buttering her scone and popping it inch by inch into her mouth. "But they moved when the QBs decided to sit at table #3.
I wonder why, Todd thought dryly as loud belches could be heard behind him.
"Who's Fisher?" Todd asked, frowning.
"Who cares!" Audrey threw her hands up in the air and giggled. "I wanna know about you. Are you new? Well, duh, of course you're new; I've never seen you around but hey! We like the same bands! And oh my God, you have got to see Leah Mason over there, she reeks of…"
A half hour later, they were both trading phone numbers and emails. Smiling, Todd wondered if he had made a friend.
--
Todd didn't know how exactly he had wound up in Home Economics when he had clearly signed up for Computer Science. Audrey shrugged in a not-so-sincere apologizing way when he shot her a sharp look.
She placed a bag of flour on the table. "Oh, come on, Todd. This will be fun." At Todd's disbelieving look, Audrey hurried on, "Cooking isn't just some girl-type crap, you know," she told him witheringly. "It's a form of art, how people express themselves. I mean, it could even be a matter of life and death!"
Mrs. Kane chose the wrong moment to sweep into the room, her hands flying to her rosy cheeks as she said, "Today we'll be experimenting on frosting colorings! And I know a great way to make your cookies turn pink. How exciting!"
"Yeah," Todd muttered to a red-faced Audrey. "Life. And. Death."
Audrey abruptly turned to hid her embarrassed blush, and knocked the bag of flour over in the process.
All over Todd's pants.
"Aw, crap, Audrey!"
Audrey's navy-painted nails flew to her brown hair, her eyes widening. "Oops, sorry! I'm just gonna—paper towels. That's what we need, yeah!" She fanned her flushed face. "I'll be back real soon."
Cursing Audrey Hendricks under his breath, Todd tried to pat off the flour stains off of his best khakis.
"Excuse me… Do you have a partner?"
Todd looked up to face an angel. A real life, no joke angel by the name of Massie Block.
Needless to say, he was speechless.
"So can I partner with you? This table is empty right?"
"Um—uh, yeah. Sure." He kicked Audrey's bag deeper under the counter. All he could do was nod.
"Oh, thank God," Massie muttered as she jumped onto the stool across from him.
"Hey, Todd! I'm back with the—," Audrey stopped short, looking from Massie to Todd and back to Massie, a towel in her hand. Finally, she shrugged in a non-committal way and said, "Whatever. Cathy probably wanted to partner with me anyway."
Massie turned away from them and started examining her hair for split ends. Todd sent Audrey one last fleeting look of apology, but she shrugged it off, stomping away in her vintage boots.
Sighing, he faced Massie. But Todd had already lost her attention. She was scribbling away inside the recipe book Mrs. Kane had given her.
--
Massie absent-mindedly formed a disjointed C-A-M with silver balls in her pink icing.
Todd racked his brain, wondering if he had stumbled upon a Cam Fisher in the hallways.
--
A month later, Todd had gotten used to seeing Massie around school. A few weeks ago, she would have walked right past him in the hallways, but now, she smiled and waved, even stopped him on occasion.
Todd's palms were sweating, yet they hadn't even heated up the oven yet. Massie was smiling at him, stroking the edges of her muffin pan with an almost motherly-love gesture.
("Ugh." Todd grimaced as he yanked open the oven. "Smells like stale garlic bread."
"Won't for long," Massie sang.)
His fingers tapped against the smooth tile, subconsciously humming an off-key tune under his breath as he studied the seventeen-year-old in front of him, the painful silence stretched and awkward.
He almost didn't notice when Massie asked, "What's on your mind?"
But he did, anyway.
--
"Who's Cam Fisher?" he blurted out before his hands could slap himself on the mouth.
He expected Massie to fall silent. He expected her to giggle. He expected her to break out in a smile and tell him in excruciating pain details of Cam Fisher and her forbidden love where he climbed the vines to adorn her with attention and love and tragic, poetic… poetry in the dead of the night (he fervently hoped this wasn't the case, though).
He expected a lot of things.
What he didn't expect was for her shoulders to break out in a slight shudder and for her eyes to turn glassy as mist took over.
--
The blueberry muffins looked inviting and warm and all he wanted to do was sink his teeth into them, in the company of the one and only Massie Block.
That had, of course, been an hour ago. And the muffins had turned hard and cold, and just plain unappetizing. Like his heart, some had even collapsed from the force of which Massie had banged them down on the counter.
"Cam Fisher used to go here," Massie said suddenly, thumbing the sharp edges of her manicure. "We used to talk. A lot. And… sometimes he would discuss college applications with me, and I'd make fun of his choices. He never really bothered." She shrugged. "He chose Oxford in the end. A million and four miles away from here."
"Oh."
Massie shrugged again, frowning at the gunk of dried batter clinging to her hair. "I have flour in my hair."
Todd rolled his eyes at that. "I'm sorry I… I asked. How long has it been since you last saw him."
Massie's lips twitched, and she propped her elbows on the counter. "A while," she said softly.
"Well—we can—you can always go meet him." Todd suggested, even though his fingers were clawing under the table so sharply he thought they would bleed. "I mean, I have a car, I can drive, and we can go—,"
"You can't, Todd," Massie seemed to say with an air of finality.
"Oh. Yeah. I guess you would rather see him in private…" Todd mulled this over. "Well, forget my car. Forget I said anything. Maybe you ca—"
"No, Todd," Massie snapped. "You can't." Her eyes flashed dangerously. "You can't, because he's dead." She whispered this so harshly, her words could slice better than a paper cut.
"Oh."
--
A month later, Todd had gotten used to seeing Massie's friends walk around school without her. A few weeks ago, he would have wondered why. But now, he just didn't bother to.
--
Sometimes he'd see her hanging up her apron, getting ready to go home after baking and throwing out a cake. He noticed that she didn't invite him to come along.
Sometimes he'd see her in his Honors English class, raising her hand to answer the teacher's questions, her eyes bright, friendly, and distant. Almost as if everything was normal.
Sometimes he'd see her hanging around the soccer field after school, lingering around the bleachers.
Sometimes, he'd even thought to join her.
But he didn't.
--
He noticed that she had started laughing again.
He noticed that she had started smiling that I-know-something-you-don't smile when she answered texts again.
He noticed that she started doodling that name on the cover of her notebooks again.
Todd Lyons noticed a lot of things. Mostly concerning Massie Block. He just wished that she would start noticing him for a change.
fin