CHAPTER 27: Dragging Days

"Best. Pizza. Ever!" I exclaimed after taking a bite.

"Yes!" Rodrick replied, raising his slice up in the air.

After our last class, Rodrick dragged me right away to my favorite pizza place at the mall to 'celebrate'. Honestly, I wasn't even thinking of celebrating until the grades for the project were out. But I'm glad we did anyway; and it's not even because we got an engaged audience and some good comments from our teacher. Being able to finish that project, after going through that one heck of a rollercoaster ride of ups and downs, and even gaining a friend along the way—that was worth celebrating.

"You probably eat often here, huh?" I told Rodrick who was sitting across me, munching his food. "You didn't even think twice on where to go when we got here."

He shook his head and started talking while chewing. "No. It's only my second time here—"

"Hey, you can talk after you've swallowed that, you know?" I pointed at his mouth.

He put down the slice of pizza he was holding and looked at me straight in the eye, leaning a bit forward just to say, "Hey, guess what? You're not my mom."

The sound of the chewing while talking was annoying. I rolled my eyes and sighed. "Where are your manners?" I muttered.

"Anyway," he continued. "Yeah, it's only my second time eating here. You ordered pizza from here before, so I figured you like it." A short pause. I noticed him look at me for a second. "And I remembered it tasted good."

I was a bit surprised he still remembered the name of the pizza shop, given the situation back then. "Can't believe you still remember that… That was when you pretended to be the delivery guy, right?"

He laughed. "Yeah. That was funny."

I shook my head. "It really wasn't." I replied, before taking another bite of my pizza slice.

"So…" He cleared his throat. "When do you plan to talk to her?"

That was an out-of-the-blue question. "Talk to who?"

"My ex-best friend."

"Oh." It wasn't totally out of the blue after all. "Uh, I don't know yet."

He nodded. "Better to give it some time."

"I think I gave it enough time already. That party feels like a forever ago," I said casually. And then he glanced thoughtfully at me, like he was having a flashback. Bringing the party up meant bringing up the crazy things that happened there. The crazy things that happened between us. I felt a little awkward inside. What more Rodrick who experienced all that with full consciousness. "And I haven't gotten the chance to talk to her since," I said quickly.

He nodded again, reaching out to take his soda, while I got my second slice after finishing my first. "Eventually, you'll get to. Don't worry." He took a sip, and then added, "Oh, and when you do, can you not mention any of the things we talked about back in my room?"

"Of course, I won't. We made a promise right? With that lame secret handshake thing." I made the hand gestures in the air.

He rolled his eyes. "Right. At least it wasn't that overused pinky promise." He grabbed another pizza. I honestly had no idea how many he'd already eaten. "By the way, did you get the e-mail from Mr. Martins already?" he asked.

I waited until I finished chewing before answering, "I haven't. I doubt he'd be able to send our grades for the project tonight though. He said within the week."

"Tonight's part of 'within the week'." He did the quote-unquote hand sign, his pizza falling on the table—not the pizza box, the table. He got it back and continued to eat it anyway.

"Well someone here's excited to know the grade. That's not something you see everyday from Rodrick Heffley," I said with a tiny smile.

His mouth wasn't full when he replied this time. "Hey, I care about school too—" I almost coughed when he said that. "—sometimes." Now that was more believable. He continued, "Well, it's not that I care. Not that much. What I'm really trying to say is… I have to pass too, you know."

"Yeah, you do care," I concluded. He was about to answer back but I beat him to it. "It's fine, Heffley. No need to hide it, you know? Admitting that you care, even a little, doesn't make you any less cool." I took a sip of soda.

His face lit up, and a somewhat suave smile formed across his face. "So… You're saying I'm cool, right?"

I choked from drinking my soda and then started coughing. It took a moment for me to recover. "What?! I didn't say that."

"You said—and I quote—'Admitting that you care, even a little, doesn't make you any less cool.' Therefore, you just admitted I'm cool." He stuffed his pizza in his mouth and then spread his arms like he just successfully ascended the throne of coolness.

I laughed nervously, trying to cover my slip-up. "I didn't say that," I denied once more, in a lower volume. He still heard it.

"Whatever. April Preston thinks I'm cool." He picked another pizza slice with a huge grin on his face.

Hey, he got my name right, I thought, but decided not to say it out loud. Annoyed and speechless, I sighed, rolling my eyes as I did. He raised his eyebrows once and stared at me while he ate his pizza slice. I think my face went a bit red that time. "Whatever. Believe what you wanna believe. I still didn't say that." I then kept quiet and went back to eating, avoiding his gaze. I probably ate the pizza I was holding way too fast. Before I knew it, I was only a few bites away from the crust.

A short moment of silence. And then a laugh from him. He decided to continue teasing me, chanting in a stupid tone, and wiggling his body like a weirdo. "You think I'm cooool! You think I'm awesooome! You think I'm—"

I got so annoyed I threw the pizza crust at him. "Stop it!"

He gasped sarcastically. "Where are your manners?!" He said, imitating an old lady's nagging voice.

I tried to hold back my laughter because I was still annoyed at him, but I couldn't help it. I laughed and I laughed. Even when he threw the crust back at me, and it hit my head, I laughed. He almost threw the entire slice he was holding at me, and I dodged, but realized he was faking it. We both laughed so hard, throwing the small crust back and forth like noisy kids during recess.

When we realized other people were already staring at us, we began to act like civilized adults again, but still snickered from time to time. We continued to eat and talk about random stuff. Rodrick probably finished like three-fourths of the pizza—he was so fast, and messy, as I expected.

"Well, that's it." I said, wiping my fingers on a tissue after I finished my last slice of pizza. He was still finishing his. "We successfully finished the project. Thanks Rodrick. It wasn't so bad working with you." I reached out to shake his hand.

He looked at it, and without even wiping his oily hand, he shook mine. "Thanks too," he said, his mouth full again.

I broke from his grasp, and looked at my hand, and then at his, with disgust. "Ew! You didn't even care to wipe your hand. Your fingers are so oily! Ugh—"

"That's not oil, that's my saliva," he said casually as he pointed at my hand.

I instantly looked up at him. "Rodrick!? Oh my—"

"Kidding! I'm kidding hahahaha!"

"Ugh, I hate you." I started wiping my hand with a bunch of tissues again.

"Same," he said while chewing.

After that mini celebration, Rodrick and I sort of went back to our lives before that English project. The rest of the week went on at a slow, boring pace. It was an endless cycle of going to school, listening to class lectures, eating lunch with my friends, having quizzes, going home, doing homework, going to school, listening to class lectures, eating lunch with my friends, having quizzes, going home, doing homework. Again and again. Nothing new happened each day. I wasn't normally this bummed about school, but for some reason, I just couldn't find enough motivation to face each day of that week.

Although I'm glad I got to have lunch and chat with my friends again, it all still felt part of a routine-we ate, talked about homework and their boyfriends, their boyfriends came over and blabbered about sports and stuff like that.

That Thursday they came over at our table. I ate silently and stared at other groups of students from different tables.

"Looking for your partner lovebird?" Matt teased.

I glared at him. "What?"

He shrugged. "You know, your dear Heffley."

I cringed hearing that. Shaking my head, I looked down at my food again. "He's not 'my dear'. And I'm not looking for him. I'm just watching people."

"Yeah, right," he replied.

I looked at the others. All of them were trying to hold back laughter, except for Olivia who smiled, but only for a second. "Guys, seriously. This isn't funny."

"Man, I was just joking," Matt mumbled.

"Yeah, okay. Stop. Change the topic," Mae said, nodding at Claire, who then started talking about something else. I think it was about her experience seeing unique birds at the zoo a few weekends ago.

I sighed and only partly listened to what they were talking about. I found myself lousily watching people from other tables again. You could tell that my energy for the rest of that week was quite low. But when a certain guy with messy hair, punk rock shirt, and skinny jeans passed by, there was a quick and brief energy spike.

I sat straighter and watched him walk with his friends. He glanced at my direction, smiled and then nodded once. I returned the greeting.

"Don't make it too obvious," Olivia whispered, leaning closer to me.

It was only then that I became conscious of my sudden change of posture, of mood. Good thing the others didn't notice because they were engaged in a conversation about their zoo experiences (don't even ask me why my friends kept talking about this).

I gave a quiet, nervous laugh. "I don't know what you're talking about," I whispered back to Olivia.

She went back to her original position, saying, "Okay. If you say so."

The following day, the two guys were busy with unfinished homework, so they just dropped by to say hi, and then left.

Matt tried to bring up that lovebird thing again before he went off but Mae cut him off before he even did.

After they left, I told her, "Hey, can you tell your boyfriend to stop teasing me about Rodrick?"

She chuckled. "Ah, give him a break. He's just kidding. No harm meant."

"But it's annoying."

"Fine, fine." She nodded. "I'll talk to him about it."

For a moment everyone was minding their own business, eating their lunch, until Claire asked, "Hey, Olivia. Is Anne coming here today?"

After weeks, it was only then that I heard someone else ask about Anne.

Olivia shrugged. "I honestly don't know."

"Now that's annoying," Mae said, pointing at Olivia with her fork.

Olivia looked at her abruptly. "I'm annoying?"

"Not you, silly. Anne. It feels like she's ditching us for good."

The aura shifted-it became more tense. We all looked at each other. No one really talked about it like this until now. Since Anne still sat with my friends before I started having lunch with them again for the entire period, I guess everyone was just waiting to see if she would come back and eat with us. But that entire week, she didn't even walk by our table.

Claire refused to accept what Mae just said. "Maybe she just has dates or something. We don't know if she ditched us for good."

"I don't understand it either." Olivia put her fork down on her plate. "I get to talk to her, say hi to her in the hallways, but she doesn't even come over." Out of the four of us, Olivia was closest to Anne, not to the point of being BFFs, but they spent a lot of time together. "I even got to talk to her this morning."

"Me too," Claire said.

"So did I. But did she mention about having a date at lunch or an appointment somewhere?" Mae asked. It felt like an interrogation.

Both Olivia and Claire shook their heads. Though it was all casual among them, they still felt it weird that she hasn't been eating with us lately.

"I still haven't gotten the chance to talk to her since the party at Rodrick's," I said.

Claire looked at me. She probably remembered when I told her the same thing almost a month ago. "Seriously. What's up with you two? Are you in a fight or something?"

I shook my head. "No. We just don't get to see each other to sit down and chat." It was partially a lie. It hadn't been 'formalized', but obviously Anne and I weren't in good terms.

"Well guess what?" Mae leaned in closer and signaled us to do the same. She whispered, "I saw her with Heather and Madison yesterday."

Claire gasped silently. "Really?"

"I saw them too last Monday," I said, leaning back. Mae shook her head as if disappointed. "Why? What's the big deal?" I asked.

"They got into a fight last year. That's why she started hanging out with us instead," Olivia said.

"What did they fight about?"

"I'm not really sure. Anne never really explained it to us." She picked her fork up again.

"If they were popular, surely word could have gotten around, right?" I guessed.

"There were different rumors, of course," Mae replied. "One was that Anne apparently stole some underwear from Heather."

"Which is just plain weird and stupid. Anne wouldn't do that," Claire added.

Mae agreed. After drinking water, she continued, "Another was that Heather fed Anne nuts, which she's allergic to."

Olivia just swallowed her food when she said, "But that was most likely untrue since Anne never missed school after their little group breakup nor showed up in school with a red face and extremely puffy lips."

"Right. And another was that they got jealous of each other's popularity. Now that one's close. But I didn't buy it." Mae shook her head. "There were more rumors, but we'd be wasting time talking about all of them."

"Wow." That was all I could say.

Claire heaved a sigh. "I kinda miss her here. I hope she eats with us again."

If I didn't eat with you guys, there's probably a chance she would, I thought.

I wondered what Anne and Heather fought about, or if they really did. They seemed fine back at Heather's Sweet Sixteen party, and now they looked like they hadn't fought at all. And speaking of that, well, I knew Anne probably didn't want to talk about the iced tea incident which was why she and I haven't gotten the chance to talk, but how come she's suddenly hanging out with Heather and Madison again, leaving my friends like that?

I tried not to linger on these thoughts any further after lunch time. It's sort of none of my business anyway. Instead, I did my best to focus on our History lesson, which was extra extra boring today. And the fact that we were having it after lunch didn't help at all-I wanted to take a nap so bad. Keeping my eyes even a millimeter open was such a struggle during that hour.

Out of the blue, I heard the sound of a chair being dragged lightly. Other students didn't care at all, and our teacher was too busy talking while writing on the board to notice it. The sound came to a stop when the chair appeared to my right, Rodrick sitting on it.

"Hey, what's up?" he greeted casually.

I was so confused. "What are you doing?" I whispered to him. "You might get caught!"

"Nah, he wouldn't care." He waved his hand as if he was making a fly go away.

I looked at the teacher, who was still writing, and then back at Rodrick, who was smirking. With a smile on the edge of my lips, I went back to copying what was being written on the board. "So what are you really doing here?"

He moved his chair closer to mine and started watching me write. "Nothing. I got bored. This class is so boring."

"Tell me about it."

"By the way, did you get the email already?" He was referring to the results of the English project.

"Not yet."

"Ugh. What's taking him so long to email that?"

"I have no idea." I put my pen down and sighed. Copying notes on the board was so tiring, or maybe Rodrick's laziness was sticking to me since he was just beside me. I leaned back. "I can't take this. I'm getting too sleepy."

Rodrick yawned, as if on cue. "Me too." I yawned too. "This class sucks," he said. And then he suddenly laid his head on my shoulder, preparing to sleep.

"Dude, your head is so heavy!" I complained.

"Sshh, we might get caught," he whispered. And just like that he was asleep already.

I rolled my eyes, and tried to stay focused again. But a few minutes later, his head was starting to slide off from my shoulder. Not to mention he might be straining his neck as well since he was taller than me and thus bent too much. I adjusted carefully, tilting and lowering my shoulder. I propped my elbow on the armchair and then held his face with my hand to support his head. I was pretty sure that my shoulder and upper arm was gonna hurt for the rest of the day.

I took a look at his face. He was sleeping for real. And it was kinda cute, honestly.

Wow, we look like a cheesy couple in the middle of the classroom, I thought. My other classmates didn't care at all. When our teacher turned around, he saw us but carried on with the discussion anyway. It was a bit weird.

Suddenly, Rodrick's phone in his pocket started ringing really loud.

I tapped his face lightly. "Rodrick. Rodrick." He didn't budge. The phone rang again and again. People started looking at us. I shook his head. "Rodrick, your phone is ringing."

He replied with a groggy, sleepy voice. "Mm? That's not my phone."

"It's coming from your pocket. It's so loud, you should go answer it."

His eyes were still closed, his voice still sleepy. "That's not my phone. That's the school bell."

I didn't understand. "The school bell?"

"The school bell. You should wake up already." The ringing became louder and louder.

I shot up from my table and saw everyone scrambling for their things and leaving for their next class.

All that happened was just a dream? The fact that Rodrick's chair wasn't beside mine pretty much confirmed it. I was dreaming about… Rodrick? Oh my goodness. I got so used to seeing him everyday that he appeared in my dreams when we haven't been seeing each other a lot.

What. Is. This.

Such were the thoughts of someone who just woke up in the middle of the classroom, confused and trying to understand what just happened.

"Ms. Preston," our teacher called, "could you come here, please."

Oh no.

I quickly gathered my things, put them in my bag, and walked towards the table whilst the last of the students left the room.

He removed his glasses and placed them on the table. "You were sleeping in my class," he said. I saw it coming. Ashamed, I looked down at my shoes. "Your head was slumped on your table—did you think I wouldn't notice? This is not something I expected of you."

"I'm sorry, sir," I said, "It won't happen again, I promise."

He sighed. "I'll let you off with a warning. Exams are coming up soon. Don't be like the other kids there who don't take their studies seriously, okay?"

"Yes sir. I'm sorry," I apologized again.

He nodded and then wore his eyeglasses again. "Alright. Off you go."

I walked out of the room as fast as I could, feeling the need to get out of his sight immediately. Once I stepped out and closed the door, I bumped onto the chest of none other than the guy who just showed up in my sleep.

"How many times did I tell you to be careful and watch where you're going?" Rodrick said smoothly, with a tone of annoyance like it was my fault bumping into him when he was the one blocking the way. Normally I'd immediately answer him, but during that moment I was out of words. He smiled and started talking in a more relaxed manner. "What happened to you back there? Why did he have to talk to you?"

"I-I... I, uh..." I stammered. Seeing him triggered everything that happened in my dream to come back and start playing in my mind-he sat next to me, talked to me, leaned on my shoulder to sleep, I thought about how we looked like a couple and how cute he was-ugh. This one-sided awkwardness was terrible. And it was all happening internally, while I'm in front of Rodrick. I barely managed to stand straight in front of him.

"Are you okay?" he asked. When I didn't answer immediately, he frowned and started making conclusions. "What did he do to you? Did he do something horrible? I—"

He almost opened the door, but I stopped him. "I'm okay. I... I was just caught sleeping in class so he gave me a warning."

"You? Sleeping? In class? That's so not you." He almost laughed. "Seriously though, are you okay?"

I still couldn't look at him straight in the eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine." I started walking, and he followed.

"Well, can't really blame you for sleeping. That class is so boring. It sucks that we have to sit through it for an hour," he said. It felt so close to déjà vu. He said something similar in my dream. He moved closer and whispered, "I was sleeping too."

I instinctively moved away when his breath hit my ear. Stepping back, I almost tripped and fell down, but Rodrick was able to grab my arm and pull me back up. When he let go, I nervously rubbed that part he held.

"What is up with you, Prescott?" he asked, obviously weirded out by how I was acting.

I continued walking and he remained by my side. I closed my eyes for a moment and sighed. It was just a dream, I thought. Don't be stressed about it too much.

"Nothing, nothing. I'm okay. Sorry," I told him. I smiled too, for reassurance.

It took a moment before he responded. He stared at me as if he was trying to detect a lie or the truth. And then he just nodded and faced forward as we continued walking.

I actually wasn't sure where I was heading, and why he was still following me. Along the way, I just decided that I needed some air, so I headed to the direction of the outdoor bleachers. It seemed like Rodrick didn't have anything to do, so he just went with me.

"Did you get that English project email yet?" he asked.

"Not yet."

"How many years should we wait til he finishes that thing?"

Just before we went out the doors, a certain poster on the wall caught my attention. I stopped in my tracks and looked at it.

You are invited to this year's Winter Dance.

Those words, plus the date and venue were printed on the poster.

"There's a dance?" I said.

"Yeah, they do that thing every year," Rodrick replied, now looking casually at the poster too.

I frowned, and then continued walking. "Why are they announcing it less than 2 weeks before the event?"

"That poster's been there for a month already," he said, pointing back to it with his thumb as he and I pushed the doors to the outdoor bleachers.

"Huh? I never noticed it."

"Wow, you're less observant than I thought you were." He put his hands in his pockets.

I wanted to justify myself. I was about to tell him that my friends never talked about it too, but I realized that over the last few weeks, I haven't been paying attention to most of the things they were talking about because the English project was constantly bugging my mind. It could have been one of those topics I didn't listen to. I just kept quiet and let Rodrick win that round.

"So are you going?" I asked him, out of curiosity. We were starting to climb up the bleachers then, the cold breeze hitting our faces.

He scratched his head. "Meh. I don't know yet. You?"

"Well, I just found out today so... I don't know." I shrugged. "We'll see." Part of me sort of wanted to go though, because it's gonna be my first dance at this school if ever. But part of me just didn't want to. It's the same week as our exams, and I don't know if I have time to get ready for it. And… also because I always stayed near the walls at social events like those, getting ignored by everyone.

We sat at our usual spot, and just watched the other kids during their P.E. class. I tried my best to put that dream aside and just act like none of it even occurred in my head. Meanwhile, Rodrick and I didn't even talk that much. We just kept each other company 'til free period was over. After four school days of almost no interaction with him, finally there was something worth remembering that week.

It took another five dragging and terribly ordinary days 'til I got spend time with him again.