Chapter Four: Doodles and Red Cheeks
Freddie stood silently, staring at the poster for the spring formal that was fast approaching. He needed to find someone to go with, he knew, but he never was any good at talking to girls. He noticed a girl with short, light brown hair, wearing an outfit that had more shades of pink than Freddie knew existed. He recognized her from his science class - Chelsea, if he remembered right. He swallowed and approached her.
"Hey, Chelsea…" he said timidly.
"Oh, hey Freddie!" She replied, with an unnatural amount of pep in her voice.
"So…" Freddie began awkwardly. "There's the spring formal coming up and…"
"I know! I helped plan it! It's going to be soooo amazing!" Chelsea interrupted.
"Yeah, that's great." Freddie said, fighting to not seemed annoyed by her voice. "I was wondering if, you know, you would, maybe, go with me?"
The reaction he got was not what he expected. All of Chelsea's perk disappeared as she brought her open palm stinging into the side of Freddie's face.
"How could you!?!" She scolded and stomped off. Freddie held his red cheek in pain as he watched her walk away in confusion.
"Are you okay?" he heard Carly's voice behind him, but he just kept staring. Carly walked in front of him and waved her hand in front of his face.
"Hello…. Anyone there?"
"Huh? Oh, hey." He barely regarded Carly as he went and sat down on the bench across the hall, his brunette friend following closely behind.
"Is something wrong?" she asked, her voice full of concern.
"I'm datable, right?" Freddie said bluntly. Carly froze. Had he heard the rumors that Wendy had started? She decided to play it safe.
"Uh… what do you mean?"
"I mean… well, I asked Chelsea to the spring formal and she slapped me. She didn't say no, or anything like that. She just hit me and stormed off!" Whew, he hadn't heard, Carly thought. But apparently Chelsea had….
"Well, maybe she's having a bad day." Carly tried to comfort Freddie.
"Yeah, well she wasn't until I talked to her." Freddie said, his head slumping forward. The bell rang.
"We should get to class…" Carly said, pulling Freddie up off the bench.
"Yeah…" Freddie mumbled, and Carly watched him trudge off down the hall. How much longer would it be until he found out? Carly wondered.
Sam sat doodling away in her notebook. She probably should have been listening to whatever it was Mr. Howard was saying, but then again, this was Sam. She had almost finished drawing the fork protruding from Freddie's forehead when she felt a nudge on her arm.
"Psst… Sam!" Sam looked over at the girl sitting next to her, Sara. What does she want? Sam thought. Ignoring her, Sam continued her artwork. Sara nudged her again.
"Sam!" She whispered louder.
"What?" Sam answered, figuring it would be quicker just to see what she wanted.
"What kind of dress are you wearing?" Sam stared at her like she had just asked what ham was.
"Uh, I'm not wearing a dress right now. You need to get your eyes checked."
"I don't mean right now." Sara laughed. "I mean to the spring formal."
"I'm not going to the stupid spring formal." Sam spat and turned back to her drawing.
"But…didn't Freddie ask you?" Sam's pencil dropped. She spun on Sara, a fierce gaze in her eyes.
"Why would the nub ask me to go to some janky dance?"
"Well… you're dating, aren't you?" Sam lost it.
"WHAT!?" she yelled, jumping up from her desk.
"Ms. Puckett, is something wrong?" Mr. Howard said loudly, looking rather angry.
"Yeah! This chick's got something wrong with her head!" Sam said, pointing at Sara.
"Sam! To the principals office!" Mr. Howard said sternly.
"But she…."
"NOW!" Sam shot anther quick look back at Sara, who simply shrugged her shoulders. I'll kill whoever started this rumor, Sam thought as she picked up her things and left the classroom.
Freddie was still trying to figure everything out. He had asked three other girls to the dance since the Chelsea incident, each producing the same result. His was afraid his cheek would have a permanent bruise. That's when he saw Gibby walking by and remembered their run-in at the Groovy Smoothie. Maybe he would know something.
"Gibby!" Freddie shouted, jogging to catch up.
"I didn't tell anybody, I swear!" Gibby yelped, throwing his hands up defensively as Freddie got closer. Freddie paused.
"Didn't tell anybody what?" Freddie asked.
"You haven't heard?"
"Heard WHAT?"
"Wendy started it! I told her you said it wasn't true, but she told everyone anyway! I didn't…" Gibby began to ramble.
"Gibby! What are you talking about? "Freddie said, firmly grabbing Gibby by the shoulders.
"Wendy told everyone that you and Sam are dating!" he said. Freddie froze, allowing an opportunistic Gibby to slip away and escape down the hall.
Freddie couldn't believe it. First he thinks something was wrong with him, that maybe he said something wrong to Chelsea. Then he thought that he was just not datable. But now, he had found out the even more horrifying truth of it all.
Everyone thought that he and Sam were…. dating.