Disclaimer: I don't own HA!... Okay? :-)
Chapter 2
As soon as Rhonda boarded the school bus on Monday morning, she started to regret it. I should've faked sick, she thought. But then, the bus began to pull away from the curb, and there was no turning back now.
Rhonda looked around the bus at her fellow classmates. Arnold and Gerald were seated at the front, talking over a baseball game. Phoebe, going over her homework. Helga in the very back, scribbling in some pink journal and muttering what sounded like poetry about some "love god". Stinky was blabbering on to Harold and Eugene about "lemon puddin'".
But, no Sid.
The bus soon pulled up to P.S. 118, and all the students piled off the bus and into the front schoolyard. Sid was still nowhere in sight.
Everyone was beginning to lounge around the front steps of the school, so Rhonda decided to join them. "Where's Sid?" she asked to no one in particular.
"Well, I reckon Sid's absent from school on account 'a he's sick," Stinky piped up in his usual country twang.
"Rhonda, it's just ever so strange that you're concerned about Sid," Lila remarked. "You never really pay oh too much attention to him."
Suddenly, Rhonda remembered her promise to Sid. "Why wouldn't I, um, pay attention to my, er, boyfriend?" she said, cringing. I sound so stupid! she thought to herself.
"Boyfriend!?" everyone chorused together.
"Boyfriend!? Why didn't you tell me?" Nadine chimed in, outraged. She shot Rhonda an angry look and sat down. "Exactly how long has this been going on?"
"Uh... three days," Rhonda admitted, staring down at her feet. She rolled her eyes, grabbed her bag and started off inside.
Rhonda knocked on the Gifaldi's front door once, twice, three times. No answer.
She slumped her shoulders and started to descend back down the stoop steps, but just then, a man with a thin layer of gray hair and a tiny mustache, and a long nose opened the door.
"Yes?" he asked. "Is Sid here?" Rhonda asked him. She assumed the man was Sid's dad.
"Yes," he answered. "His room is upstairs, the second door to the right." Rhonda thanked him quickly and rushed upstairs. "SID, YOUR GIRLFRIEND'S HERE!" Mr. Gifaldi shouted. Rhonda blushed. How did he know?
Rhonda slid the door open and looked around. Sid's bedroom walls were painted pale pink, and the carpet was dark pink. What the heck? Turquoise baseball caps littered the floor. "Hi," Sid greeted his "girlfriend" warmly.
We are alone, just you and me
Up in your room
And our slates are clean
Just twin fire signs
Four blue eyes...
Sid called Rhonda's attention over to his bed, where he was lying down.
"Hi, Sid," replied Rhonda. She made her way over to him and sat down in the chair that was sitting in front of his desk. "Why didn't you show?"
"Oh... um... just a cold," he answered. "Should be over it by tomorrow."
"I made it clear to everyone at school that we're 'dating'," Rhonda said. "Nadine got all angry with me because I didn't tell her before."
"That's too bad," said Sid.
"Uh... yeah." said Rhonda. "I have no idea why I came here, by the way."
And I never saw you coming
And I'll never be the same
Rhonda got up and left, blushing all the way home.
These are the hands of fate
You're my Achilles heel
This is the golden age of something good and right and real
[A/N: Ummm... don't ask. This is an idea I wrote up for this second chapter about two months ago... I had written three or four different ways that this chapter could go and I picked this one. I hate it. I can't write! I'm a 6th grader! ... Okay. Oh, and the song used in this chapter is "State of Grace" by Taylor Swift. That song is actually kind of my theme song for this story... :-)]
