Chapter 8 – Wild Card

(Sc. 1)

[What in the world, you little library…weirdo?!]

Derrick Spencer, who can't help but look untouchable by the way, downright abhors it when anything, especially anything sticky and drippy, touches him and everything attached to him. So, any student of LCM who knows this, and that means everyone who goes to that school, are pretty much very careful around him.

Clearly, except her. The girl from the library who helped him without demanding to know who he was. The girl who almost refused the so-called paid taxi ride bonus from him. The girl who just kept her mouth shut regarding their secret meeting at that family library without him ordering her to do so.

Derrick is turning all red now, as his typical reaction to an incident like this, but he has to consider all of those reasons recalled. Plus, he just then naturally remembers a fourth: that this is the girl whose over-all aura seems unfamiliar to him and yet, it gives him a feeling of familiarity.

So now, seeing red paint spilt all over his very expensive shoes while knowing he has a secret past with her in it puts him in a very difficult position. And this also results in him struggling, trying to contain all the emotions inside that would normally cause him to react in a particular way that he's famous for.

"Hi, boss…" he hears her mumble nervously, with a tiny smile of awkwardness under her pixie-like celestial nose.

[How could you be so stupid?!]

Here's the thing. Derrick Spencer just wants to be left alone. That's his only request. That's the reason why he left Paris early, why he went looking for books about sailing instructions somewhere outside Manhattan, why he attended school exactly on the first day alone and why he now acts like he doesn't remember her at all.

And he is used to having his own way. So when he planned just that, he expected just that.

Instead, halfway through the week…

…he watched as his three best friends entered his bedroom without knocking the door while he's still sleeping, acting like he's already awake and there's nothing to be annoyed about. He watched as everyone's facial expression froze when he got out of that limousine to get to his first class. He watched—and chocked a bit actually which he smoothly hid from everyone, especially her—when, well, he found her in that adorable, chic LCM school uniform amongst the crowd, which he had to pass through.

[Why am I thinking of the word adorable? I was initially going for the word scruffy…or is that too much?]

He's about to ask her, in an audible tone for everyone to hear and fear: "Do you have any idea how much this pair of mocassins from Roberto Cavalli is? Obviously, no." But Derrick stops himself because of his best friend Howard Griffin butting in…

"That's her…"

As soon as Howard Griffin mouths those words close to his ears, Derrick's flashbacks come in, too. It was a conversation last night with Howard, Sjon and Aldryn:

With Aldryn's analytical tone, getting lost in his own thoughts, "They want…to carve…your face…"

As Howard sleepily browsed through the pages of his book, "Yep, they want to carve his face."

And Derrick let out a menacing aura about him, "They want to carve my face—"

"People!" Sjon felt like his brain cells were the only ones functioning correctly in the room. Derrick's art deco bedroom to be exact. "Al? They want to hurt Derrick. That's the bottom-line! Howard? We know how much you hate time…but bedtime means bedtime! And Derrick? You know how much I dread asking you this… Who did you punch again?!"

"Nobody!"

"Well, they hate and love us, so…" Howard summarized, shrugging.

Sjon had to breathe in and breathe out deeply before saying, "Okay, so…what's the plan?" that his impatience was so obvious but he's trying his best, too.

"What are you worried about, Sjon? It's not like I can't take them out." That's Derrick being normal.

"That's not the point. You know exactly what I'm talking about. You had said so yourself. Target or bait. Guilty or just slightly innocent. Aware or just acting stupid."

All four of them obviously knew what Sjon was talking about. But dwelling there was not allowed.

"But we've found ourselves a wild car—"

"No, How, just tell me what they look like," were Derrick's decisive words but after seeing Sjon's face, "…so I can WATCH MY BACK INSTEAD OF DOING ANYTHING STUPID."

Finally, Aldryn had something to say. "Wait. They want to carve Derrick's face, right? Why not just mess up his hair by throwing eggs at him?"

"Where are you going with this?" Sjon asked curiously while Howard laughed a bit at the suggestion.

"I'm not sure, but anyway I cut it, that threat is personal this time."

"Okay, we're going to school together tomorrow," Sjon declared in a tone that sounded like he's finally out of breath after being overwhelmed by Aldryn's realization. "All of us. That's final. No buts."

But Howard didn't give up, "So I take it you don't want to hear about the wild card?"

[What do you mean 'that's her?'] …as Derrick leaves his trip down memory lane and returns to real time.

"The wild card," Howard further adds in the same low volume.

Derrick stares back at his best friend and cautiously lets out the tiniest expression of surprise.

[How is definitely referring to…oh my God…]

The girl who was there with him at the fire exit and heard how those two culprits were talking about Derrick. The girl who managed to peek through the spaces in that staircase and find out who those two were. The girl who agreed to keep her mouth shut about this information.

Like how she implicitly agreed to keep quiet about Derrick's secret.

[She's the wild card?!]

As he gazes back at her in a combination of disbelief and composure, it is only now that Derrick realizes the peculiar girl's eyes are blue with lots of hazel tinges in them. And her face is not really heart-shaped but more inverted triangle-shaped. She's looking really brave, Derrick concludes—no. Awkward. But yes, brave, too.

Brave enough to call him something that only he will be able to grasp while everyone is staring and anticipating the events that are about to unfold.

But nothing.

[You're keeping two secrets now. Both of which are mine. Okay, fine... Oh man... My poor Roberto's…]

And then, something nobody expects obviously, he turns away and continues his pace in their original direction before. Away from everyone in that hallway.

Away from all that quandary. Away from her.

And perhaps, out of gratitude as well.

(Sc. 2)

[Did Sjon Wells just wink at me? Wait. That's his name, right?]

But what Briony cannot forget as she opens the glass door of the donut shop, holding a broom to do some cleaning outside, is Howard Griffin's smirk.

[What kind of smile was that? That was so telling. I kept my promise! I didn't tell anybody!]

As Briony starts sweeping, she begins to recall what happened earlier at school.

[Okay, fine. I might've reacted disproportionately. I thought they're really going to go for it. Like go after him. Attack Spencer from behind or something. Worse, I called him boss… What were you thinking?!]

Now she really feels like not going to the welcome party anymore.

"So, what am I going to tell Marianne…" as Briony silently talks to herself. "I need to babysit my brother? He's 12. Okay, my parents are going—"

A black lim—actually, no. It's not just some black vehicle.

A familiar black limousine stops before her. And once it's completely stopped, the person who gets out and doesn't wait for the driver to open the door, does it in frustration.

Briony has never imagined in a million years that she'll see him here someday. That he'll figure out where she works after school. She initially thought that was it. That any kind of interaction between them, if circumstances or he will allow, will only happen now in the school hallways. It's impossible that he has come here just for donuts. That was Howard Griffin's promise.

"Oh, crap..."

"You were with Howard in the fire exit?!" Derrick Spencer blurts out.

"Hey! I wasn't with him like-like-like 'with him' per se, but yeah, I was there! With myself! And then he-he was there, wi-with himself!"

"What?!"

"I was looking for a quiet place to read! And then…and then…two of your haters came and I heard everything and your friend was there, too, but I didn't know! I didn't go there with him!"

"I can't believe it… It's like-it's like…you're everywhere!"

"What do you mean everywhere? Do I look like a leprechaun to you?!"

"Well, with you slopping paint all over my 700-dollar pair of shoes, you might as well be!"

"I thought they were going to hurt you!"

And then, silence. But it doesn't become a wall between them. More like a bridge.

Briony suddenly finds herself stuck in Derrick's gaze—she can't get out of it. A gaze that's making her remember a memory they share.

In the library. When she returned to him after saving someone from a group of bullies and he was staring at her like her existence was that astonishing.

Only this time, his look of bewilderment is paired not with an unsure smile but with curiosity. As though he didn't expect those words from her mouth, or from anybody else for that matter.

Her grip still firm around the broom handle, Briony concludes this silence has to end sometime, "So. What…do we do now?"

He inhales deeply, looks away, lets his relaxed tongue hover above his lower lip and then returns his attention to her as he bites his lower lip this time without showing his teeth.

Briony can't comprehend the feeling that this sight of him is making her feel, so she looks down awkwardly instead, placing her stare on the front tire of the limousine behind Derrick. She feels defeated but she doesn't know how and why. When she looks back up at his face, he's now staring at the doughnut shop.

"I work here."

"I know. They told me."

[He's probably talking about his friends.]

"I didn't tell anybody…about…your love for sailing. I'm not going to. I didn't tell anybody about what I heard…in the fire exit. And I'm not going to."

"I know," he says, staring back at Briony with an uneasy yet relieved expression.

"You know, it's obvious that we don't want to have anything to do with each other. And…you're supposed to punish me or something, right? For kind of humiliating you in front of everybody? But you didn't. So, thank you. I just think that…you see me now as a…liability…for having crossed paths with me. So don't. I'm not like that. I just happened to be in that public library and I just happened to be in the fire exit. And yeah, I kind of overthought things that's why I came rushing across the hallway…to kind of…save the day."

"Yeah, I figured that's a habit of yours since I witnessed one myself beforehand."

[Oh, yeah, that.]

"Don't worry, I'm not going to be at the party tomorr—"

"I don't care about that. I just…I'm just asking you to be careful next time. You don't always need to be…valiant. Especially in places you're not accustomed to—"

"We don't need to be friends," Briony cuts him off but still in a pleasant tone.

Now she's not sure if that's surprise on his face upon hearing that suggestion but he's carefully preventing it from intensifying.

It's her ultimatum since she sees no other way to solve this without being faced with the fact that it's not her world.

"Sure, Briony Mullins," Derrick says, articulating the pronunciation of her name the most. "You're just a face I know in the hallway."

And at once, he gets back inside his limousine and leaves—leaving her with only her blank thoughts to accompany her.

But then: [I forgot to return his pen again. Good job, Bry.]