It had to be a surprise.
If it were not, she would probably duck out of the way and spoil all his perfect plans. All that brainstorming wasted if she saw it coming. He could already picture that victorious look on her face, and he was not looking for things to haunt his memory for the rest of the month. That would suck.
A lot.
He was determined to win this round. With a barely audible grunt, Chase Turnleaf tugged the rope attached to the low ceiling. The bucket moved with it, making a loud clanging noise echo in the nearly empty Courtyard behind him. If he could, Chase would ask for assistance from his friends. But no. Doing so may spoil the surprise as well, not to mention it would waste precious time. Besides, the Triplets and Adelaide were just on their way from school.
He had to do everything himself.
After five hard minutes, the bucket was perfectly in place. He slipped through to the other side of the red door to inspect it. The innocence of the doorway made Chase want to smile. She would never expect a thing.
Chase wiped the sweat off his brow. He whispered a short incantation that made the golden coins disappear once they hit her. Well, they wouldn't really disappear. They would just teleport to his room. He couldn't do that magic yet unless he was willing to faint right there, and that was not very knight-in-shining-armour-like.
Just then, familiar voices drifted down the hallway. A whole trio of them.
"...ask me where he is. All he ever does is follow her."
Chase slowly peeked through the tiny gap by the door to the Courtyard. The three brothers were most likely leaning against the wall beside the door, but Chase could barely even see their shadows.
"It gets annoying, actually," said a low voice that was surely Kevin Zipes'. "He's always blabbing about this devious new girl."
"Right! Like, what, is the new girl more worthy of his time than us?" Kyle Zipes said.
"She has a name, you know. Rory Landon," Connor Zipes said, a hint of an eye roll in his voice.
Kevin scoffed. "Yeah, okay, so this Rory Landon comes in and steals all of his attention. Why?"
"Because she's awesome."
Both Kyle and Kevin turned to Connor, eyebrows raised.
"You know it's true. How many other girls can take out a dragon's eye on her first day with a sword she's never used?" He looked around at them. "Come on, guys. Don't give me that look. We were too afraid to even speak about dragons on our first day! She didn't even know magic was real until, like, two minutes before! Both her parents aren't even Characters!"
Kyle thought for a bit. "Oh. That explains it then."
"Explains what?" Kevin asked them suspiciously.
Connor nodded. "Right? And she's not too bad looking either."
"Wait, what? Explains what?"
"Why Chase is so interested in Rory," said Kyle.
"Why?"
"Because he likes her."
Chase choked on his spit. He? Liking Rory? Uh, no. He couldn't believe that his friends would come to such ridiculous conclusions like that. The reason he was following Rory all the time was because he wanted revenge. Obviously.
Indignant, Chase tilted his head more to listen to the Triplets' conversation, as if he was hearing everything incorrectly.
"Ah. That does explain it."
"See?" Conner laughed. "He's obsessed with her, actually. Almost as much as Kyle with Lena. Maybe even more."
"Hey! I'm not obsessed!" Kyle reddened, causing the other two to snort.
Kevin chuckled. "Whatever you say, Romeo." Then, he said, "It's funny, actually. Chase's always trying to bully her into giving him her attention."
"Right? And did you see the way he was looking at her when she first arrived?" Conner asked excitedly.
"Yeah! As if he was struck by lightning or somethin'!"
There conversation continued on, sadly. Back and forth they went, all seeming to support the idea that Turnleaf had a serious crush on Landon. It totally didn't bother him, of course. She just looked like someone from his dream...
The Triplets were just being stupid. Rory was annoying. A huge show off. Nobody likes those people. She was careless, stubborn, introverted, fierce, courageous, strong, adorable, and weird. But maybe if he impressed her or something, she would actually be nicer to him. Show him some well-deserved respect.
For now, pranking her would be okay.
"Huh. I always thought it would be him and Adelaide," Kevin said.
Chase had to restrain himself from punching their faces.
"Really? It's obvious that he doesn't like her," Conner said.
"But it's obvious he likes the new girl."
No one ever heard the Triplets' squealing rather girlishly, so Chase found that this was quite odd.
"Well," Kyle sighed. "I'm hungry. Let's go get something to eat before Chase and Adelaide come o'er here."
The footsteps and voices grew softer and more distant.
Chase, right then, smacked his forehead. His friends actually believed he had a crush on someone. Well, he would just have to prove them wrong. So instead of hiding himself after the coins fell, Chase would be there. Smiling mischievously. Yes.
His feet quickly carried him to the Tree of Hope. By leaning on the trunk and folding his arms, he would look awesome.
Wait, no. One more thing.
Chase ran a hand through his thick blond hair, hopefully causing it to appear fluffy. This was his awesome stylishly messy look. Rory would definitely notice him now. He put on a smirk and waited. And waited. And waited. And-
"Hey, Chase!"
Adelaide Radcliffe smiled at him, her eyes sparkling.
"Hiya, Adelaide," said Chase, without changing his position on the Tree.
"So is everything ready? Bucket and all?" asked Adelaide.
Chase nodded slightly.
"Okay. Great." From the corner of his eye, Chase could see her rocking back and forth on her heels, as if on the fence between saying something or not.
Even with that warning, it surprised him when she said, "Do I look okay in this dress?"
"I think so." Chase kept staring at the ruby red door. Rory could come through any minute, and he didn't want to miss it when she did.
Adelaide sounded annoyed. "You're not looking at me. Look at me!"
Chase flickered his eyes to the right then back again. "I did," he muttered.
With a grunt of annoyance, she stomped up right in front of him. "Chase," she whined. "How do I look?"
He shrugged, then said, "Okay," before looking around her to see if the red door was being opened.
Adelaide opened her mouth in protest. "How-ugh. Never mind," she sighed.
"Okay."
She sighed again as she took her place beside him again.
Two minutes passed in silence before they spoke again.
"Chase."
"Eh?"
She cleared her throat before answering, "I need to tell you something."
"Uh huh."
Adelaide seemed to be staring right at his face. "You...have great hair."
Chase risked another flicker of his eyes at her. "Okay," he said awkwardly.
She sighed two times in a row. "And, um, your shirt really brings out your eyes."
"Okay," repeated Chase. He knew these things already.
She stared at him, then sighed. "Chase, y-"
"Do you have asthma? Why do you sigh so much? Is it hard for you to breathe or something?" asked Chase curiously.
"Wh-What? No! Ugh. You don't get it, do you! Oblivious, much?" she muttered furiously. Adelaide calmed herself and sighed. "Chase-"
"What?"
For (hopefully) the last time, Adelaide sighed. "Chase, I have a crush on you."
He blinked a few times in surprise. "Heh?"
An angry, confused expression appeared on her face, but before she could answer, the ruby red door swung open, and out of it came the new girl. Thick, wavy brown hair tied back in a ponytail, resting on her left shoulder. The dark blue shirt that stated "Living in My Own World" in white letters looked pretty on her pale skin. Her hazel eyes wincing in surprise and in pain as the heavy golden coins fell on her head. Her mouth open wide in anger and shock.
Yep, this was Rory Landon.
For a second, Chase's eyes lingered on the hand she was clutching to her head, as if it hurt. Did it hurt too much? Did he injure her? Pfft. Probably not.
Then she looked up. He prepared a playful smile. He would not show any guilt on his face. It would make him appear weak.
He put a hand on his chin, and when she spotted him through the crowd of high school students, he sent her a wave. Now he would look innocently mischievous.
Rory didn't look too happy, however. She was staring him down. And...was that her eyes tearing up?
Craaaap.
He had to keep up the smile, though.
Rory snatched the bucket rigged above the door and stomped over to him.
"Don't you have anything better to do?!" yelled the new girl.
Right then, the plan to get simple revenge on the girl failed.
"Rory," Chase tried, cautious of her teary eyes, "you're taking this a bit hard-"
She shook the bucket in her hand furiously. "No, I'm asking you. Do you think you're impressing anyone?!"
From beside him, Adelaide piped up, "I'm impressed."
"You don't count!"
"Why not?"
Chase wanted to make Adelaide shut up more than anything.
Rory shook the bucket again. Was she going to hit him with it? Or was her hand shaking from the pain? Or was she going to cry?
Then Rory's friend, the bookworm with thick glasses materialized beside her. "Because it doesn't take much to impress you. You would probably be impressed if he sneezed."
That hit Chase quite hard. Was it obvious that Adelaide always had a crush on him? They better not think that he liked her too. They're all stupid. He didn't want to look vulnerable.
Rory glared at them. "So, what's it going to take to get you to stop bugging me all the time?"
"Maybe," Chase muttered, "if you'd just talk to me friendlier and pay attention to me more often, then I would stop!"
But whole thing was left unheard by the girl who did not like him when the girl who did like him let out an ear-splitting scream. As Evan and his Companions appeared out of nowhere, the current dilemma quickly slipped out of their oblivious little minds.
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THANKS!
-May V :)