Where was Angelica? 15 minutes into the lesson and she still wasn't here. She wasn't usually late for lessons anymore and it had to be this one. I looked around at all the other desks. All the other pairs were chatting, probably not about the geography project. I was alone, like a right idiot.
"Suzie, are you okay there?" Mr. Smith asked looking over at my work.
"Yes, yes I'm okay," I smiled trying to cover the blank pages.
"Okay," he said then walked off.
I looked at my watch again, where was she? I heard the door open and my head shot up. It was Angelica.
"Finally! Girl where have you been?" I asked her after she had spoken to Mr. Smith.
"Was with Phil, some kids were picking on him," she said sitting down getting her breath back, "They know."
"What! Was he okay about it?" I asked.
"Not really, he was crying a bit, apparently Dil was getting pushed around too," Angelica said.
"Aww, people can be so mean," I said, I looked back at Angelica then realized she wasn't listening, "Angelica?" I waved my hand in front of her face, "Woo! Back to Earth!"
"Huh? Oh sorry Suzie," she said taking a look at the empty sheet of paper.
"What's the matter with you, you've been all over the place today?" I asked her.
"Nothing," she said in an unbelievable tone, "Something's been on my mind, that's all."
"Something? More like someone!" I said getting in her face.
"No," she remarked, but that was an obvious yes.
"Spill it girl, I need to know!" I said.
"I can't tell you," she said.
"That's a first!"
She didn't reply.
"Okay, I'll write down some names and you answer some questions," I said taking the piece of paper and a pen from the table. "How long have we known him?" I asked, "It is a him right? With everything going on it'd be,"
"It's a him," she interrupted, "Since we were little, about 2 or 3 I guess,"
"Okay," I wrote down the names that sprung to mind in a list 'Chuckie, Phil, Dil, Harold, Timmy, Teddy, Terry, Todd, Ty, Dean, Edwin.' She scanned through the list.
"Dil?" she said alarmed.
"Oh right sorry," I said scribbling his name out, remembering they're cousins, "Okay, has he got red hair? Like right now?"
"Red, no," she replied and I crossed out Chuckie, Harold and Todd.
"Related to me?" I asked.
"No," she said sounding grossed out. I crossed Edwin's name out.
"Is he a McNulty?" I asked.
"No way," she responded and I crossed out Timmy, Terry, Teddy and Ty.
"Oooh, is he older?" I questioned looking at Dean's name. Angelica's head hovered over the sheet of paper. She sighed.
"No," she said.
"Huh? But…but that just leaves Phil?" I said and she looked at me worryingly, "I must have left a name out…There's something weird going on in that head of yours, you can't like Phil."
"Sh. Keep that to yourself would you," she whispered.
"This is so wrong, does anyone else know?" I asked.
"No, and as my best friend it's your duty not to say anything," she said, and as she did I noticed she was scribing a P into the sheet of paper.
"Look, this…this will pass alright," I said a little worried, she wasn't usually like this over a guy; She would usually go on and on about them, not be silent. I was seriously hoping that the gay thing was the attraction and not Phil in general.
"Ladies," Mr. Smith said from behind, "I need to see some work going on,"
"Yes sir starting to write right now," I answered for us.
"That's good, okay," he said walking away.
"So which page?" I asked Angelica opening the textbook.
"Huh? What?"
"Hey Phil!" I called out, following my younger friend. He turned and waited.
"Hey Suzie,"
"So what happened today? Or don't you want to talk about it?" I asked as we headed towards the bus.
"It was just some people from my year, did the girls tell you about it?" he asked.
"Yeah, Angelica said you were pretty upset," I said.
"I didn't think people would find out so soon," Phil said stepping up onto the bus. I followed him up and was disgusted by the sudden applause and the 'Not another Gay boy' chant. He gulped and took his seat next to Lil and collapsed onto her shoulder. I sat down behind them, next to Dil.
"He can't handle this," Dil said.
"This is awful, if only I had the guts to say something," I said, as I did Angelica got on the bus, startled by the chants. She sat down behind Dil and I, but couldn't sit still for long before she bounced up and headed for the back seats.
"Would you quit that!" she yelled in Savannah's face. (Who had become good friends with the bitchy Diane over the past few weeks).
"What's this Saint Angelica? What are you going to do?" Savannah asked, getting the attention from the whole bus now that the chanting had stopped.
"I could slap you one hard slap if I was as big a bitch as you are," Angelica said, raging. I couldn't sit and watch her start a fight though; I'd gotten up and pulled Angelica away.
"Don't go pulling attention to yourself Angelica," I said in her ear.
"It was annoying me," she said rather convincingly.
"Yeah, but you've sorted it out, just sit," I said pushing her into where I'd been sat.
"Err, thanks Angelica," Phil said wiping away a tear, "I never thought I'd say that," he smiled.
"Those girls are going to get what they deserve one day," Angelica promised.