(sorry this is so late! enjoy the last chapter everyone!)
The next day, final class before end of day mentor assembly….
*********************************************************************
Twitty walked to his seat very slowly, tossing his backpack by his desk as he sat down and despondently dropped his head into his hands. Louis and Tawny moved next to his desk, looking at Twitty with worried expressions.
"Dude, are you sure you want to do this?" Louis asked.
Twitty looked up and shrugged. "It's not like I have a choice, Louis." He gestured to the front of the room, where Principal Wexler was shaking hands with Mr. Nichols. "He's coming back here later to listen to my essay, the big "success story" of the whole mentor program. Unless I want to get detention for the rest of my life, I think I'd better read the stupid paper."
Tawny tried to manage a smile. "You know, maybe Ren will like………….…"
Twitty looked at Tawny and sighed. "I told you guys that I don't want to talk about that anymore." He pulled the folder with his essay out of his backpack and placed it on his desk. "After this is finished, I don't ever want to talk -- or think -- about how I feel about her again."
Mr. Nichols cleared his throat to get the class' attention as the bell rang. "Class, we will be having some guests today. You all of course know Principal Wexler."
Principal Wexler smiled as several members of the class offered half-hearted applause. Louis looked at Twitty and rolled his eyes goofily.
"Principal Wexler will be coming back later this period to hear Mr. Twitty's brilliant essay." As Principal Wexler smiled and turned towards the door, Mr. Nichols nodded to the class. "Everyone please pick up your copies of Pride and Prejudice so we can discuss pages 30-50."
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About 45 minutes later………..
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"Ah, Principal Wexler, you're just in time," Mr. Nichols smiled. "And I'm sure most of you know…." Mr. Nichols's smile disappeared as he looked around the room. "Ren Stevens?"
Principal Wexler looked around the room nervously. "It's not like Ren to be, to be…" he could barely manage the word, "t, t, tar…."
"Tardy?" Mr. Nichols finished as he looked at Principal Wexler sympathetically. "I'm sorry sir but we only have 4 more minutes left of class, and we simply can't wait for Ms. Stevens to arrive." He waved Twitty towards the front of the class as Principal Wexler sat down, nodding but still looking disconcerted.
Twitty slowly got up, clutching his folder as he walked over to Mr. Nichols' desk. "I have to say that the change in Mr. Twitty's writing skills in the past week has been the most extraordinary I have seen in all my years of teaching," Mr. Nichols said proudly. "Mr. Twitty, will you please read your paper to the class?"
**************************************************************
At the same time, in the 8th grade hallway….
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"Ren!" Ruby hollered, bolting out of study hall and racing towards Ren.
Ren looked nervously at her watch. She only had 45 seconds to get to Mr. Nichols' classroom, although part of her secretly hoped there was some other emergency that only she could solve and would take her away from having to be around Twitty, much less having to hear the essay she had helped him write. Being around Twitty was just too confusing -- and more than anything (even Louis!), Ren despised being confused.
Ruby finally reached Ren. "Tawny – told me – about – what – happened on -- Thursday," she managed in between breaths.
Ren feigned innocence. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Come on Ren," Ruby said. "You know exactly what I'm talking about."
Ren put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot in impatience.
"Ren, for someone who is so smart, you're pretty dumb," Ruby said irritatedly as she narrowed her eyes and walked away.
"What?" Ren demanded at Ruby's retreating figure.
Ruby turned around and sighed. "I said for someone who is so smart, you are being really dumb about this."
"About what?"
"Alan Twitty!" Ruby declared. "Even Louis can tell that he likes you. And as your best friend I can totally tell that you like him too."
Ren forced an amused laugh. "Are you kidding me?"
"NO! I am not kidding! Why would I kid about something like that?" Ruby asked impatiently. "Look Ren, maybe you being tardy for like the first time in your life will help you to figure out how you feel, but I have to go." With that, Ruby gave an exasperated sigh and raced back down the hallway towards study hall.
Ren closed her eyes, trying to rid herself of her feelings. I don't have time for this right now, she thought. I'm going to be late! She spun on her heel and ran towards Mr. Nichols' classroom.
************************************************************************
Ren burst into the room to complete silence. Mr. Nichols looked at her questioningly, as Principal Wexler looked towards her with a slight hint of disapproval on his face.
"I'm sure there is a perfectly good explanation as to why you are late, Miss Stevens," Principal Wexler intoned in a rather flat voice.
"Of course sir," Ren declared in an overly happy voice. "I was – uhm – finishing up a psychology project with Ruby." She looked at Louis, who was looking back at her with a stunned expression on his face. His sister, trying to pull off a con, on PRINCIPAL WEXLER? He was SO not going to fall for that!
"Very well," Principal Wexler nodded. "You can pick up your official excuse notice from my office after the assembly."
"Thank you sir," Ren sighed in relief as she sat down at an empty desk in the front row.
"Now Mr. Twitty," Mr. Nichols said, "please continue where you left off."
"Uhm sure, okay," he said, then, after a nervous glance towards Ren, looked back down at his paper. "The main reason I personally really feel a connection to this song is because I feel exactly the way the songwriter does about…………." He hesitated, quickly looking at Ren again then looking back down at his paper, his face reddening, "…………….…..about the girl he……………...uhm…………………....loves."
Ren blinked in surprise at the second part of Twitty's paragraph. She'd known all about the meaning he felt the song had, but the fact that it applied to him personally sparked her curiosity in spite of herself.
"Anyway," Twitty stammered as he struggled to maintain his normally cool composure, "The only problem is, the girl is both amazing and annoying at the same time, but he doesn't care, because the annoying parts are worth having to get through to get to the good parts, and he tells it to her in the first person. He basically says….."
Ren saw a sudden change come over Twitty's demeanor. He dropped the paper to his side and looked straight at her. "You can be really annoying, bossy, and close-minded, and sometimes even try to mess up my life, but your beauty, kindness, self-confidence and heart transform you so much that it's like the negative things don't even exist."
Louis shot a sideways glance at Ren, whose face was getting red.
"In conclusion," Twitty finished, his gaze leaving Ren and his voice getting smaller, "the point of this song that I think should apply to every one of us is that both physical and personality appearances can be deceiving, and that it's worth the time and effort to see someone for all of what they are, not just all of what you think they are."
The class burst into sporadic applause, clearly enjoying the essay but unsure how to respond, as a depressed-looking Twitty returned to his seat.
The final bell rang. Twitty leapt up and strode quickly out the door before either Mr. Nichols or Principal Wexler could compliment him.
"That's odd," Principal Wexler said to Mr. Nichols. "I thought it was a fine essay, but Mr. Twitty raced out of here as if he had gotten an F."
Ren looked at the doorway, then slowly turned to look at Louis and Tawny. Tawny gave her a sympathetic look, but Louis's expression was livid.
"Ren?" Principal Wexler asked as he turned to face Ren. "We had better hurry, the assembly starts in 5 minutes."
Ren nodded dumbly at Principal Wexler. She sniffed and quickly wiped her eyes. She was so immersed in her emotions that she wasn't able to think, or feel, what she should do, or say. For some reason she couldn't quite fathom, Ren instinctively turned back to Louis, shrugging in confusion.
"What are you waiting for Ren?" Louis yelled. "GO!"
Ren jumped up and raced out the door.
Principal Wexler raised his eyebrows as Ren disappeared. "Where is she going?"
He glared at Louis.
"STEVENS!!!! Do you mind telling me what is going on here?" he howled.
Louis rested his head on his hands and looked out the window dreamily. "True love, sir. True love."
**********************************************************************
"Alan! Wait!" Ren yelled as she ran out the side door and across the lawn towards Twitty.
Twitty stopped, sighed, and slowly turned in Ren's direction, his eyes downcast. "You're going to be late for your own assembly."
"The assembly can wait," Ren said impatiently. "I have to ask you something."
Twitty forced his eyes back up to look at Ren, fixing his expression into something he hoped would look as apathetic as possible.
"I was wondering if you could tutor me."
"Huh?"
"I said," Ren said, taking a step closer, "I was wondering if you could tutor me, since you're the expert at letting people know how you feel in such imaginative ways, I was hoping you could help me figure out how to tell someone that they are right about something."
"It depends on what they are right about, I guess," Twitty responded, confused. What was she getting at?
"What if they wanted to say that someone was right about them, exactly, about how they know that they can be really, really annoying, bossy and so close-minded they can't figure out how they feel until maybe it's too late?" Ren looked worriedly at Twitty.
Twitty finally realized what Ren was saying and smiled. "Well, in my experience it's never too late to tell someone how you feel."
Ren smirked. "Do you want a song or an essay?"
"Neither," he grinned as he stepped closer to Ren, put his arms around her, and kissed her.
This is just like that movie with Drew Barrymore, Ren thought happily, when she was a writer who pretended she was in high school, and how when she kissed that perfect guy, everything stopped, except there was no Beach Boys song, and they weren't at a baseball game, and there wasn't any.....
Applause?
The sound of clapping and cheering suddenly jolted her out of her thoughts and both of them out of their kiss. Turning to look at the source of the noise, Twitty and Ren laughed as Louis jumped up and down, whooping and hollering, as Tawny and Ruby clapped loudly and smiled.
Ren smiled shyly at the attention and then turned to look at Twitty. "Alan, would you like to go to the Spring Formal with me tomorrow night?"
He shot her a lopsided grin. "I thought you'd never ask."
Ren playfully raised an eyebrow. "Now, what was it you were trying to tell me before?"
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot," he said as leaned forward, drawing her into another kiss.
"This is so – so -- beautiful!" Principal Wexler cried as he blew his nose into his handkerchief.
Louis turned around to look at him, his arms outstretched. "Sir, do you need a hug?"
Principal Wexler looked at Louis and rolled his eyes. As he started to turn around to go back inside the school, he smiled. "Tell you sister and Mr. Twitty to wrap it up soon, Stevens, we have an assembly to start."
"Will do sir," Louis saluted as Tawny chuckled at him.
"You know," Louis sighed as he looked at Tawny. "Somebody better go to the dance to keep an eye on those two, to make sure they don't mess up things between each other again."
"Louis, what are you saying?" Tawny asked, with one eyebrow raised suspiciously.
"Well you know I just think it would be a really good idea if you went with me to the dance you know, in case anything goes wrong, because we'll need to fix it and stuff…" Louis trailed off as he looked expectantly at Tawny.
"Tawny would love to go to the dance with you, Louis," Ruby said as she moved right next to Tawny.
Tawny shot Ruby an exasperated look, then turned to look at Louis.
"Great!" he said, rubbing his hands together. "Pick you up at 7?"
"Sure, no problem," Tawny said.
"Excellent!" Louis said, giving Tawny a thumbs-up as he bounded away towards Twitty and Ren.
"See? That wasn't so bad was it?" Ruby smiled as they started to walk back into the building.
Tawny turned to look back at Twitty and Ren, chuckling as she watched Louis pop in between Twitty and Ren, manically hugging them both, to Ren's eternal disgust. "I guess you can never have too many happy endings."
The End
The next day, final class before end of day mentor assembly….
*********************************************************************
Twitty walked to his seat very slowly, tossing his backpack by his desk as he sat down and despondently dropped his head into his hands. Louis and Tawny moved next to his desk, looking at Twitty with worried expressions.
"Dude, are you sure you want to do this?" Louis asked.
Twitty looked up and shrugged. "It's not like I have a choice, Louis." He gestured to the front of the room, where Principal Wexler was shaking hands with Mr. Nichols. "He's coming back here later to listen to my essay, the big "success story" of the whole mentor program. Unless I want to get detention for the rest of my life, I think I'd better read the stupid paper."
Tawny tried to manage a smile. "You know, maybe Ren will like………….…"
Twitty looked at Tawny and sighed. "I told you guys that I don't want to talk about that anymore." He pulled the folder with his essay out of his backpack and placed it on his desk. "After this is finished, I don't ever want to talk -- or think -- about how I feel about her again."
Mr. Nichols cleared his throat to get the class' attention as the bell rang. "Class, we will be having some guests today. You all of course know Principal Wexler."
Principal Wexler smiled as several members of the class offered half-hearted applause. Louis looked at Twitty and rolled his eyes goofily.
"Principal Wexler will be coming back later this period to hear Mr. Twitty's brilliant essay." As Principal Wexler smiled and turned towards the door, Mr. Nichols nodded to the class. "Everyone please pick up your copies of Pride and Prejudice so we can discuss pages 30-50."
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About 45 minutes later………..
************************************************************************
"Ah, Principal Wexler, you're just in time," Mr. Nichols smiled. "And I'm sure most of you know…." Mr. Nichols's smile disappeared as he looked around the room. "Ren Stevens?"
Principal Wexler looked around the room nervously. "It's not like Ren to be, to be…" he could barely manage the word, "t, t, tar…."
"Tardy?" Mr. Nichols finished as he looked at Principal Wexler sympathetically. "I'm sorry sir but we only have 4 more minutes left of class, and we simply can't wait for Ms. Stevens to arrive." He waved Twitty towards the front of the class as Principal Wexler sat down, nodding but still looking disconcerted.
Twitty slowly got up, clutching his folder as he walked over to Mr. Nichols' desk. "I have to say that the change in Mr. Twitty's writing skills in the past week has been the most extraordinary I have seen in all my years of teaching," Mr. Nichols said proudly. "Mr. Twitty, will you please read your paper to the class?"
**************************************************************
At the same time, in the 8th grade hallway….
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"Ren!" Ruby hollered, bolting out of study hall and racing towards Ren.
Ren looked nervously at her watch. She only had 45 seconds to get to Mr. Nichols' classroom, although part of her secretly hoped there was some other emergency that only she could solve and would take her away from having to be around Twitty, much less having to hear the essay she had helped him write. Being around Twitty was just too confusing -- and more than anything (even Louis!), Ren despised being confused.
Ruby finally reached Ren. "Tawny – told me – about – what – happened on -- Thursday," she managed in between breaths.
Ren feigned innocence. "I have no idea what you're talking about."
"Come on Ren," Ruby said. "You know exactly what I'm talking about."
Ren put her hands on her hips and tapped her foot in impatience.
"Ren, for someone who is so smart, you're pretty dumb," Ruby said irritatedly as she narrowed her eyes and walked away.
"What?" Ren demanded at Ruby's retreating figure.
Ruby turned around and sighed. "I said for someone who is so smart, you are being really dumb about this."
"About what?"
"Alan Twitty!" Ruby declared. "Even Louis can tell that he likes you. And as your best friend I can totally tell that you like him too."
Ren forced an amused laugh. "Are you kidding me?"
"NO! I am not kidding! Why would I kid about something like that?" Ruby asked impatiently. "Look Ren, maybe you being tardy for like the first time in your life will help you to figure out how you feel, but I have to go." With that, Ruby gave an exasperated sigh and raced back down the hallway towards study hall.
Ren closed her eyes, trying to rid herself of her feelings. I don't have time for this right now, she thought. I'm going to be late! She spun on her heel and ran towards Mr. Nichols' classroom.
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Ren burst into the room to complete silence. Mr. Nichols looked at her questioningly, as Principal Wexler looked towards her with a slight hint of disapproval on his face.
"I'm sure there is a perfectly good explanation as to why you are late, Miss Stevens," Principal Wexler intoned in a rather flat voice.
"Of course sir," Ren declared in an overly happy voice. "I was – uhm – finishing up a psychology project with Ruby." She looked at Louis, who was looking back at her with a stunned expression on his face. His sister, trying to pull off a con, on PRINCIPAL WEXLER? He was SO not going to fall for that!
"Very well," Principal Wexler nodded. "You can pick up your official excuse notice from my office after the assembly."
"Thank you sir," Ren sighed in relief as she sat down at an empty desk in the front row.
"Now Mr. Twitty," Mr. Nichols said, "please continue where you left off."
"Uhm sure, okay," he said, then, after a nervous glance towards Ren, looked back down at his paper. "The main reason I personally really feel a connection to this song is because I feel exactly the way the songwriter does about…………." He hesitated, quickly looking at Ren again then looking back down at his paper, his face reddening, "…………….…..about the girl he……………...uhm…………………....loves."
Ren blinked in surprise at the second part of Twitty's paragraph. She'd known all about the meaning he felt the song had, but the fact that it applied to him personally sparked her curiosity in spite of herself.
"Anyway," Twitty stammered as he struggled to maintain his normally cool composure, "The only problem is, the girl is both amazing and annoying at the same time, but he doesn't care, because the annoying parts are worth having to get through to get to the good parts, and he tells it to her in the first person. He basically says….."
Ren saw a sudden change come over Twitty's demeanor. He dropped the paper to his side and looked straight at her. "You can be really annoying, bossy, and close-minded, and sometimes even try to mess up my life, but your beauty, kindness, self-confidence and heart transform you so much that it's like the negative things don't even exist."
Louis shot a sideways glance at Ren, whose face was getting red.
"In conclusion," Twitty finished, his gaze leaving Ren and his voice getting smaller, "the point of this song that I think should apply to every one of us is that both physical and personality appearances can be deceiving, and that it's worth the time and effort to see someone for all of what they are, not just all of what you think they are."
The class burst into sporadic applause, clearly enjoying the essay but unsure how to respond, as a depressed-looking Twitty returned to his seat.
The final bell rang. Twitty leapt up and strode quickly out the door before either Mr. Nichols or Principal Wexler could compliment him.
"That's odd," Principal Wexler said to Mr. Nichols. "I thought it was a fine essay, but Mr. Twitty raced out of here as if he had gotten an F."
Ren looked at the doorway, then slowly turned to look at Louis and Tawny. Tawny gave her a sympathetic look, but Louis's expression was livid.
"Ren?" Principal Wexler asked as he turned to face Ren. "We had better hurry, the assembly starts in 5 minutes."
Ren nodded dumbly at Principal Wexler. She sniffed and quickly wiped her eyes. She was so immersed in her emotions that she wasn't able to think, or feel, what she should do, or say. For some reason she couldn't quite fathom, Ren instinctively turned back to Louis, shrugging in confusion.
"What are you waiting for Ren?" Louis yelled. "GO!"
Ren jumped up and raced out the door.
Principal Wexler raised his eyebrows as Ren disappeared. "Where is she going?"
He glared at Louis.
"STEVENS!!!! Do you mind telling me what is going on here?" he howled.
Louis rested his head on his hands and looked out the window dreamily. "True love, sir. True love."
**********************************************************************
"Alan! Wait!" Ren yelled as she ran out the side door and across the lawn towards Twitty.
Twitty stopped, sighed, and slowly turned in Ren's direction, his eyes downcast. "You're going to be late for your own assembly."
"The assembly can wait," Ren said impatiently. "I have to ask you something."
Twitty forced his eyes back up to look at Ren, fixing his expression into something he hoped would look as apathetic as possible.
"I was wondering if you could tutor me."
"Huh?"
"I said," Ren said, taking a step closer, "I was wondering if you could tutor me, since you're the expert at letting people know how you feel in such imaginative ways, I was hoping you could help me figure out how to tell someone that they are right about something."
"It depends on what they are right about, I guess," Twitty responded, confused. What was she getting at?
"What if they wanted to say that someone was right about them, exactly, about how they know that they can be really, really annoying, bossy and so close-minded they can't figure out how they feel until maybe it's too late?" Ren looked worriedly at Twitty.
Twitty finally realized what Ren was saying and smiled. "Well, in my experience it's never too late to tell someone how you feel."
Ren smirked. "Do you want a song or an essay?"
"Neither," he grinned as he stepped closer to Ren, put his arms around her, and kissed her.
This is just like that movie with Drew Barrymore, Ren thought happily, when she was a writer who pretended she was in high school, and how when she kissed that perfect guy, everything stopped, except there was no Beach Boys song, and they weren't at a baseball game, and there wasn't any.....
Applause?
The sound of clapping and cheering suddenly jolted her out of her thoughts and both of them out of their kiss. Turning to look at the source of the noise, Twitty and Ren laughed as Louis jumped up and down, whooping and hollering, as Tawny and Ruby clapped loudly and smiled.
Ren smiled shyly at the attention and then turned to look at Twitty. "Alan, would you like to go to the Spring Formal with me tomorrow night?"
He shot her a lopsided grin. "I thought you'd never ask."
Ren playfully raised an eyebrow. "Now, what was it you were trying to tell me before?"
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot," he said as leaned forward, drawing her into another kiss.
"This is so – so -- beautiful!" Principal Wexler cried as he blew his nose into his handkerchief.
Louis turned around to look at him, his arms outstretched. "Sir, do you need a hug?"
Principal Wexler looked at Louis and rolled his eyes. As he started to turn around to go back inside the school, he smiled. "Tell you sister and Mr. Twitty to wrap it up soon, Stevens, we have an assembly to start."
"Will do sir," Louis saluted as Tawny chuckled at him.
"You know," Louis sighed as he looked at Tawny. "Somebody better go to the dance to keep an eye on those two, to make sure they don't mess up things between each other again."
"Louis, what are you saying?" Tawny asked, with one eyebrow raised suspiciously.
"Well you know I just think it would be a really good idea if you went with me to the dance you know, in case anything goes wrong, because we'll need to fix it and stuff…" Louis trailed off as he looked expectantly at Tawny.
"Tawny would love to go to the dance with you, Louis," Ruby said as she moved right next to Tawny.
Tawny shot Ruby an exasperated look, then turned to look at Louis.
"Great!" he said, rubbing his hands together. "Pick you up at 7?"
"Sure, no problem," Tawny said.
"Excellent!" Louis said, giving Tawny a thumbs-up as he bounded away towards Twitty and Ren.
"See? That wasn't so bad was it?" Ruby smiled as they started to walk back into the building.
Tawny turned to look back at Twitty and Ren, chuckling as she watched Louis pop in between Twitty and Ren, manically hugging them both, to Ren's eternal disgust. "I guess you can never have too many happy endings."
The End