Chapter Five:
"Did you have a good weekend?"
I yelled in surprise and turned around, staring at Jamie fearfully. "Oh… hi Jamie," I said, and I grimaced. "I thought you were someone else."
We were both standing outside the school, but several students were starting to enter.
"Are you still worried about Will?" Jamie asked. "I thought you said he wasn't going to bother you unless he catches you spying on him?"
"That's what he says. I mean, can you really trust a bully?" Jamie only smiled. "Why are you smiling?"
Jamie looked over at me, not looking her cheerfulness. "Well, even if Will did attempt to do something, you should be able to stand up for yourself, right?"
I didn't answer right away. "Right?" she repeated. Again she was patient with me as I took a while to answer.
"Maybe."
As we headed into different directions, I realized that Jamie had faith in me- faith that I would stand up for myself. I didn't believe I could do it, though. Even though I got a hint of hope when I practiced saying hello to him, this was much harder. I did practice, in a way, over the weekend, but I didn't become hopeful. Didn't she know that Will would probably knock me out if I tried to stand up to him? It was like he said- even if you are a girl. Will clearly didn't care that I was the opposite sex, and it was probably because he didn't think of me as a female he'd ever be romantically interested in.
At lunchtime, Will and his friends must have been waiting for me. They were sitting where I normally sat in the lunchroom, acting as if there was nothing strange about it. They were laughing and talking, but they stopped when I approached. I stopped and stared at them a few feet away.
"What'cha waiting for? Aren't you going to sit down and eat?" Will asked with that smirk on his face again.
I glanced around the lunchroom for a few minutes without saying anything. When I was finished surveying the area, I looked back at Will and his friends and- for the first time- I looked at him in the eyes. I couldn't help it. He had such wonderful eyes…
His friends started to laugh stupidly again, and I suddenly felt a new emotion rise inside of me as the sound reached my ears. It was anger. Truth be told, I had never been angry at someone before.
His friends kept laughing as Will and I stared at each other. I never knew I could stare at someone for so long. Finally, after I was sure it had been five minutes, I broke our gaze and turned and sat at the next table. Although other people usually sat there, they weren't there at the moment.
"Hey, you don't want to sit with us? That's insulting!" Will said. He still had that smirk on so I knew he was joking. I sipped at my drink as he got up and headed over to my new table on his own.
"You didn't really believe what we said the other night, did you?" he said. "You know we were just joking. No hard feelings about the… you know…" he looked around the room as if he was checking to see if anyone was listening. "The stealing the props thing."
I took a bite out of my sandwich and kept him guessing until after I swallowed. My anger was making me feel rebellious. Maybe I should take Jamie's advice… "Well, I didn't believe that stupid 'Those pretty eyes of yours' act you pulled the other night, but about what you said after you pushed me…" I drifted off.
"You should know us by now... We like to play pranks…" he tried smiling innocently as I finally looked up from my lunch. I sighed and sat against my chair, smiling a little as we stared at each other again.
"You didn't believe my little school girl act that night, did you?" I asked, and when I noticed the confusion start to spread across his face, I smiled more. Isn't it strange what anger could do to you? I knew I was angry at his friends for laughing at me, but I was mad at Will for doing all those things to me last night, then pushing me into the dirt and then trying to do it again- in school. Well, I had news for him. I didn't feel like that school girl anymore.
"Maybe we're more alike than we let ourselves think…" he said, and he leaned on his elbows on the table. His friends were still laughing. It was as if they thought I couldn't hear them.
"Don't opposites attract?" I asked, and then I picked up my drink again. I think the boys were starting to get confused, because the laughing was starting to die down. Onlookers were also looking confused- It looked like they were waiting for something to happen. They were waiting for Will to play his prank on me.
"Well, I guess we'll have to find out." Will said, and his smirk came back.
"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked, and I put my drink back down, which was a mistake. I could see Will coming closer to me, but this time I was ready. Well, at least I thought I was. I knew he was going to try to charm me again, but not in the way he did.
"Well, we are mostly opposites, right?" Will asked, still coming closer, though he still didn't take a seat.
"Right," I said slowly. Then, before I could do or say anything, he made his move. I don't think he meant to kiss me- I think it just turned out that way by accident. I think his first idea was to act like he was going to kiss me, in front of our whole grade, and then he'd probably yell, "I KNEW IT!" again and let me face embarrassment as everyone laughed at me and he'd announce I was head over heels in love with him. He'd then watch me cry lime I had done the other night, and I'd probably run out of the school. That's what he wanted, and that's how most of it happened.
He leaned in on me, still leaning on his elbows, but I stayed put. It was only when he came too close that I jerked forward at the last minute. It was one of those moments where your body moves when you don't want it to. The sounds of his friends died out, but I realized a second later that it was because they had stopped laughing. My heart started to beat loudly again, and my anger vanished- just like that- and was replaced by nervousness. While we kissed I forgot that we where in the cafeteria, in front of everyone.
Then, of course, I suddenly remembered that this was my first kiss, and I was getting it from Will. It had to be a trick. I tried to pull back or push him away, but when I tried to I suddenly didn't want to. Liking him for so long caused that.
Even though it felt like a long time for me, I'm sure it wasn't longer than a few seconds. He was the one who pulled away, and when he did he stared down at me, looking confused yet again. I could tell he was trying to think of something so he could still go on with his prank. My heart sank when he looked as if his light bulb had gone on. He stood up straight and turned to everyone in the lunchroom who had been watching. His friends stared stupidly, and everyone else seemed to be holding their breath. "You need kissing lessons." he finally said. That was all he could think of.
The whole room burst out into laughter at that, however. It wasn't good if you weren't a good kisser at this age these days. I felt my face start to burn. I had already blushed from the kiss, but now it was much worse. Although an actual kiss wasn't in the plan, I think it worked out better for him. Now I would be in worse embarrassment now that he announced I was a horrible kisser. None of the boys would ever want to kiss me from now on, and everyone would have a long lasting reason to make fun of me. My life was ruined, and his mission was complete.
Jamie, with a smile on her face once again, greeted me when she caught up with me after school. We were walking out the door, but I didn't say anything. I was trying to fight back my tears.
Will was waiting for his final attack on the side walk. I tried to find another way I could walk home, but there was none. I had lost the anger that made me rebellious in the beginning of lunch, and there wasn't room for it. All I could feel was humiliated, hurt, cheated, and lost. I tried to walk bravely past him, but a bunch of new friends he made surrounded me before I could break through.
I stopped as the circle closed around me and I stared at my feet, and I could feel the wind blowing my hair back, only so they could see me blushing.
"Aw, is it little Blushing Beauty?" one of his friends jeered.
"Yeah, without the Beauty part." Someone else said, and they all started to laugh at me again. I didn't say anything, and I didn't move.
"What's wrong?" Will asked, pushing himself through everyone else. It was then that I noticed he was tallest of the group. "You don't have any more of that attitude you had at lunch?" he smirked again.
"Hello Maria!" I heard Jamie's voice. She had come to save me- or to try at least. She squeezed herself into the circle and smiled cheerfully. Will looked at her with a stupid and confused expression, but it went away soon enough.
"Go away," he sneered. He still didn't remember her name. "This don't concern you."
"I just wanted to join in the conversation," Jamie said. "I didn't know Maria had so many friends."
I groaned softly. Jamie should know these weren't my friends. I think she did know, but she had a plan in mind that I had no clue about. A few people started to chuckle.
"This chunk of bad news?" Will asked, pointing at me. "She has no friends," he suddenly let out a small laugh. "Expect for you." The way he said 'you' started to make me a little angry again. I wanted to tell him not to insult her.
"Maria is a very nice person," Jamie said, sticking up for me. "I'm sure she has a lot of friends. If she didn't, she wouldn't have so many people around her, would she?"
Everyone started to laugh again. "People like her don't have friends!" Will said through his laughter. "They only have friends that are bigger odd balls than they are…" he nodded at her, and I knew exactly what he meant. My heart sank even deeper, but my anger was starting to overflow again.
"Will…" I whispered.
Will kept on laughing at Jamie and me as if he hadn't heard me.
"Will…WILL!"
"WHAT?!" he roared when he finally heard me, and then he whirled around to face me as if he was surprised I said something.
"Why don't you just be quiet for once?" I asked. He only laughed at me, but everyone around us had gotten quiet.
"Who's gonna make me? You two squares?" he pointed to me and tilted his head towards Jamie. Jamie had gone silent, and was only watching me.
"Maybe." I said quietly. He laughed again.
"Yeah right."
"I'm warning you." I said, starting to get extremely angry.
"…Like you could do anything to me… You're just a-"
"SHUT UP!" it was so unlikely that someone like me would say something like that, that most people actually looked around, trying to figure out who said that. Will's eyes actually, widened, but he wasn't surprised for very long. I was so angry that I liked his surprised look, and I wanted to keep it there. Before I knew what I was doing, I pulled back my fist…
"Oh… my…" whispers erupted around the circle as I threw my fist into the side of Will's face. Jamie gasped and looked startled, but I closed my eyes before I saw anyone else's reactions. Pain throbbed in my hand, and I knew it must have been much worse in Will's head. He started to tip backwards, but the students behind him caught him as he fell unconscious. I peeked my eyes open again, and took a last look at what I had done before I let out a sigh and turned around to leave. No one followed me, and I was sure it was because they wanted to make sure Will was all right. Even the ones who didn't like him very much bent down to help him. At the moment everyone forgot about the kiss we shared in the lunchroom. Everyone but me.