As Told by Ginger copyright Viacom
Chapter 6: What Love Fails to Overlook
Posted: 16 Dec 2008
"We're totally gay for each other."
Courtney snorted in disgust. "Oh please. You're so not gay."
"Of we are. We-"
"For one thing I really don't think real gay people say 'we're so totally gay for each other'." Dodie wondered if that were true. Courtney poked Chet in the chest. "And two, I've seen how you look at girls. Don't you dare try to deny it, mister."
"Oh right. That."
"Yes. That."
"Why are you so intent on not dating me that you come with such a ridiculous lie?" Dodie was truly not happy. She had waited for this moment for years. And he went ruining it for her.
What a jerk.
Tears flowed down her cheeks. She didn't know if she could ever love again. Chet had taken that away from her.
She wanted for his answer. It had better be good.
Chet looked away bashfully.
"Uhh… I can't think of anything better?" Dodie glared at him. Chet looked away bashfully. "I know that it's a lame excuse, but what else can I say?"
"How about the real reason that you won't dance with me?"
Chet looked away.
Dodie sighed. She hated it when guys simply refused to cooperate with her. It really bugger her.
Courtney clapped her hands together. "I have an idea."
"Oh? What's that, Coutney?" Dodie hoped that Courtney's idea was a good one. Dodie could really use one about then.
"You could let us go with a warning?" Chet suggested with a lame shrug.
"You care to repeat that?" Dodie challenged, grabbing onto his collar.
"Dodie," Courtney whispered into her ear, "don't you think that it's about time that you forgave him? It is Christmastime."
Dodie's grip on Chet's collar loosened. Should she forgive this rat-faced bastard for what he had done to her? Afterward he had said that he would dance with her? Which he hadn't done, oh by the way.
Well… he was kinda cute.
And, like Courtney had said, it was Christmastime.
"You're right, Courtney." She grabbed Chet's wrist and started back for the dance floor. "Come, Chet. We have a dance to get back to."
"No! I don't want to go to the dance with you!"
"Well you should have thought of that when you accepted my invitation, Chet Zipper," Dodie replied without looking back.
"But you were holding my stuff hostage."
"Details, shmetails."
Chet argued the whole way back to the gym, but Dodie ignored every single one of his protests. She was a woman on a mission. She had no time for distractions. There was just no way that this date was going to end badly for her.
That was just something she would not, could not, allow.
The dance floor was quiet when they returned. Only three couples were out there now dancing to the slow song that was being played. Dodie frowned as she tried to place it. She knew this one. She really did….
"If you keep your mouth open like that," Courtney said, "a bee is going to fly up your nose."
"A what?"
"You know. The little buzzy things that make honey."
"Right. Those things." Dodie frowned. Something was starting to bother. Why was Courtney following her everywhere? Didn't she have a date of her own? And what did her nose have to do with her mouth?
Dodie sighed. There was no time to worry about such things now. She had a date of her own to worry about. Surely nothing else could wrong this night.
The fire alarm rang.
"All right," she groused. "Who's the practical joker here?"
"It's probably a prank, Dodie," Courtney said, "but I think that they want to take it seriously."
Students were already filing out of the gym. "Yeah. I see what you mean." The music had already stopped too. It seemed like everyone else was already taking it seriously. Dodie sighed once again. "Oh well. It was fun while it lasted."
Courtney smiled. "I'm sure that the fire alarm would be called off soon and we can get back to the dance."
As they shuffled out of the back door and out into the cold, not-so-bleak December evening, Dodie began to suspect that Chet might have something to do with the fire-alarm prank. He had already had motive enough. And boys usually didn't think about the consequences about their actions.
But Dodie couldn't spot him from where she was standing, so that left only one thing to do. "Now where is he?"
"Where's who, Dodie?"
Dodie was surprised to hear Macie's voice instead of Courtney's. "Macie? What are you doing here?"
"Pardon?"
"I'm sorry, Macie. I guess I got a little excited there."
"Uh-huh." She didn't look very mollified.
Unfortunately Dodie was far too much in hurry to do much of anything about it. "Where did Courtney go?"
"Darned if I know." Macie shrugged. "Why do you ask?"
Dodie shook her head. "No. It isn't important. But have you seen Chet anywhere, Macie?"
"Yeah, Dodie. He's out here with the rest of us."
Dodie grabbed onto Macie's shoulders. "Where, Macie? Where?"
"He's standing by the pothole."
"Thanks for the heads up, Macie." Dodie took off before Macie could say another thing. "Is it important?"
"You can say that again, Macie!"
Dodie eventually found Chet where Macie had said he was. At the big pothole in the parking lot that the school had yet to fill in. It covered several parking lots actually. When were they going to fix that? The place was starting to fall down around their ears. Did they care nothing for us kids?
As Dodie approached she noticed that he was talking with some of his friends in very hushed tones, so she couldn't hear what they were saying. But she did not doubt that they were discussing doing some further mischief. That was what juvenile boys talk about when the huddle together and talk in hushed voices. It's what they did. And no doubt it had something to do with the prank with the fire alarm.
But how to catch them? No doubt they were watching out for any eavesdroppers on their little chat together.
Wait a minute. No, they weren't. They were too busy trying to out do each other with the volume of their voice to notice little ole her as she snuck in close enough to hear what they were actually saying.
With newfound determination in her veins, Dodie, as non-chalet as she could possibly manage, slowly made her way toward them. Hopefully she could find out what they were up to before they caught onto her presence. Secrecy after all was the best way to help find out what some one is up to.
"We do have the gym cleared," Mitchell, a black-haired boy with a woolen hat, said. "So when can we start?"
"Not now," Chet answered, waving his arms. "Later. When it, uh, clears up some."
Dodie couldn't believe what she was hearing. There had to be some kind of mistake in there somewhere. "You pulled the fire alarm just so that you can play some ball with your friends!" she blurted out before she could stop herself.
"Dodie!" Chet looked very surprised to see her. Her attempt at stealth must have worked. "It's not what you think!"
"I've enough of your lies, Chet Zipper. We're, as of now, over!"
She walked away without looking back.