Author's Note: hey, guys, i kno this chapter might desperately confuzzle—look at the chapter title to get a bit of a clue—some of you, but bare with me! i'm goin on vacation for the rest of this week, so i figured this'll at least keep you guys a little busy...i'll reply to your reviews for the previous chapter in the next one, as well as any for this one. hope you guys stay kool, and hopefully you'll have an update from me next week sometime. until then, TOODLES!
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the characters in the Teen Titans show or comics.
The bell pierced the lazy, sun-filled afternoon, waking daydreaming students of Jefferson High School out of reveries, stopping teachers in mid-sentence explanations of grammar rules or chemical reactions, and causing a dark-headed girl wearing huge goggles that made her look bug-eyed and an oversized white lab coat to inelegantly drop the beaker she was holding delicately between three fingers with a horrifying crash. As the glass shattered on the tiled floor and the beaker's bronze-colored contents splattered all over the cabinets and backpacks around it, everyone in the chemistry classroom turned and glared at her with an exasperated air, hinting that this wasn't the first or last time beakers had and would have to be replaced. A squat, bald man pushing coke-bottle glasses up on his bulbous, rosy nose, let out a particularly infuriated groan while the rest of the class scrambled to gather their papers and turn off their Bunsen burners. The girl blushed furiously, her face and neck turning hot as her lab partner, a rather tall and well-built boy who she had had a desperate crush on since the seventh grade, snickered quietly.
"Melina!" the bald man exclaimed frustratingly at the girl. She flushed an even darker color of beet-red, if that was possible. Her lab partner wasn't even bothering to hide his amusement now, openly laughing now. "That was iodine! Should I remind you of its staining properties?"
"I'm sorry, Professor Zacht!" Melina wailed, bending down to start cleaning up the liquid that was slowly seeping into the white tiles.
"You're sorry every other day for dropping a different chemical!" Zacht rolled his eyes, then turned to glare at Melina's lab partner, whose shoulders were still shaking. "And if you find this humorous, Mr. Logan, you can help your partner clean up the mess she so graciously made…" Zacht began collecting safety goggles from students as the filed past his desk, Melina's lab partner shrugging, unable to form words in his mouth.
Soon enough the shards of glass and most of the iodine was up off the floor, though a mild yellow stain remained etched into the tile. Most students and even Professor Zacht had left already, and the campus's air conditioning had been shut off to preserve energy, making Melina grateful for the gray tank top she was wearing. She was presently folding her lab coat dutifully, all her books and papers stacked and ready to go as soon as she was through. Then without warning, she convulsed violently, laughing but trying to look angry as she continued to be tickled
"Mark!" She shrieked, lab coat lying on the floor, forgotten, as she tried to fight her friend off. "Stop! You know I'm ticklish!"
"That's exactly why people tickle one another, you forget, to laugh at those who're ticklish." The tickling did halt, however, and an out-of-breath Melina turned to face an impishly grinning Mark.
The two had known each other for almost all of their lives, sticking together even though they were 'as different as black and white', as Melina's mother liked to say. Melina was dark-skinned and dark-haired; with her raven-black hair and hazel eyes, her dad's nickname for her had been long ago determined as Pocah, short for Pocahontas. Stupidest idea on earth according to Melina, but she didn't get into it with her father. She was also slight of build, petite yet one of the strongest girls in her physical education class. The school's track team was always after her, but in vain—Melina was the reclusive, academic type. She was extremely shy around anyone of the same or opposite sex, doubly so for the latter. Her slim, curvy figure was usually hidden behind baggy jeans and jackets, or whole-piece bathing suits in the summer.
Mark Logan, however, was the entirely reverse matter: he was an outgoing young man, his forest-green eyes full of mirth and his messy, short-cropped brunette hair reflecting his slapdash attitude, plus his odd way of thinking. He wasn't ever shy around anyone, and could most likely have had any girl in the high school he wanted, if it wasn't for his frustrating genius and lack of any interest whatsoever in romance. Mark had always been the type of guy who'd rather be discussing the end of the world by nuclear war in a humorous and tilting way than letting a girl have mood swings on his shoulder. Maybe it was the fact that Melina wasn't the type of girl to have mood swings or the uncanny way they seemed to think the same way but in different manners, but she had had the feeling that she and Mark Logan had been made for each other, and their long-lasting friendship had done nothing to discourage her dreams. But Mark didn't seem to have any idea about Melina's feelings for him, and being the timid person she was, she let it be, not minding dreaming about the day he might ask her out instead of living it at all.
Mark went over to gather his stuff as Melina picked up her lab coat and placed it where it belonged. Swinging his bag over his shoulder, he waited for Melina to get all of her things into her arms at the door. When she finally was ready to leave, he let her walk out the door first, then closed the door behind them.
"So, you got a lot of homework to do tonight?" Mark asked casually.
Melina glanced back at him they walked towards their lockers, which were mysteriously next to each other. Melina was ready to accept it as a sign. "Not really. I finished my English paper last night, and that's really all that I actually have to turn into tomorrow." She sighed happily as they approached the line of lockers where theirs were. "Can you believe it?" she asked dreamily. "Only two more weeks to go, then we're graduating! Isn't it amazing?"
They came to their lockers, and Melina began wrestling with her lock. At no reply or sound of a turning lock from Mark, she peered over at him to find him gazing at her, an odd, longing look in his green eyes. Her heart thumped heavily against her chest. "Mark?" she asked softly, not wanting to interrupt his thoughts but wondering what those thoughts were at the same time.
He shook his head, as if snapping out of a dream. "Huh?" he grunted unintelligently, causing Melina to let lose a little snort of laughter. He looked at her, confused, but she just grinned at the lost expression on his face.
"I was talking about it being the end of the year. Only to more weeks and we're off to the wonderful world of late-night coffee meetings and neck-breaking work at America's beloved universities."
Mark smiled at her, and then added something that made Melina's hear stop for at least five seconds. "Yep. And only four more days until our senior prom. Time flies."
Her mouth felt very dry as she shoved some textbooks into her locker. "Certainly does. Do you…er, do you have a date yet?"
There was an awkward silence, punctured only by the rustlings of Melina struggling with some of her papers while her face grew hot. She prayed to God she wasn't blushing too horrendously. Then a strong hand came out of nowhere, reaching across her face and helping her get the rest of her papers into the locker. Melina gulped as she felt Mark's warm body press against hers as he helped, her heart thudding faster than ever. He was much too close. But as suddenly as his presence had come over her, he backed off again like he had read her mind. She shut her locker, and turned to see him leaning against the row of lockers. He watched her as she leaned herself next to him, though a good distance away.
"Nah, not yet," he answered abruptly. Melina forced herself not to jump at the sound of his voice. "I don't even know if I'm going."
Melina did jump up at this, facing him anxiously. "Oh, you should definitely go! My mother says if you miss out on senior prom, you miss out on high school." Mark's eyes stayed on her, and she wished she hadn't been so quick to comment like that…
"How about you? Do you have a date?"
"Me?" Melina squeaked, and she knew she was blushing this time.
"No, the janitor over there," Mark retorted sarcastically, pointing at a particularly old and decrepit janitor making her way across the other side of the hallway. He grinned again at Melina's discomfort and his own joke. "Of course you."
"Um, no, I don't," Melina replied shyly, trying to keep herself from blushing more.
"You don't want to miss out on high school, though, do you?" Mark teased her. She smiled a little and shook her head, which made Mark's grin grow wider.
Suddenly the speakers placed systematically around the school cackled to life, the voice that sounded over the intercom bored and weary. "Students, the administrative reminds you that you must leave the building by three forty-five this afternoon due to the health inspection of the school at four thirty." After a slight pause, the bored voice added, "That means you have fifteen minutes to get out."
The squeal that usually defined the end of an announcement sounded, causing both Melina and Mark to screw up their faces as it echoed throughout the whole campus. After the noise faded off, Mark immediately resumed their conversation, giving Melina hardly any time to process what he was saying by the time he had said it. "Listen, I was wondering, I want to go to the prom, but seeing as I don't have a date…well—"
Melina's heart stopped once again and soared, a beautiful, elated feeling filling her up as she assumed Mark was asking her to the prom…her, the science-geek who never wore make-up, as opposed to the beautiful cheerleader squad captain Gwen Smith, who had been all over him when he stepped through the doors of high school for the first time! She wasted no time in giving him her answer: "Absolutely, I'd love to!" she blurted breathlessly, beaming.
"Really?" Mark questioned, eagerly. "So you've heard of the plans? Mel, you're the best, we never thought that a decent girl would want to go with a bunch of guys—"
The smile slowly faded from Melina's face. "Guys?" She felt and sounded faint. "Which guys?"
"Oh, then you must've not heard about who's going," Mark suggested excitedly, obviously missing the put-off expression Melina had swiftly adopted. "It's me, Nick Carter, Cody Rilestone, Michael Hudson, Ryan Delver, you know, all the guys that we hang out with sometimes at lunch. We're too…cowardly, I guess, to ask anybody out, you know, and so we'd figure we'd just go as a bachelor group, but now we think that'd look strange, a whole bunch of guys going to the prom together, so if we have a couple girls…you could ask around, see if any girls you know want to come…hey, Mel, you okay? You look kind of pale…"
The walls had begun closing in on Melina the moment Mark had started babbling, her breathing becoming shallow and sweat popping out on her palms. She felt ashamed and embarrassed for even considering that Mark would ask her out; it had been, was, and would be only a fantasy. Nodding her head, she looked up Mark, who was looking back at her with a hint of concern in those…gorgeous, green eyes…well, at least he had called her a decent girl.
Mark smiled again. "Great. Do you need a ride home? If we don't get going, I'm pretty sure they'll kick us outta here…no, you sure? Okay, then, see you tomorrow!"
Melina watched him as he jogged off, an empty feeling replacing the blissful one she had had minutes before. As she turned to go the opposite way down the hall so she could walk home, she pondered on whether or not it could be her hair that put boys off…she'd read somewhere guys loved blondes, or even redheads. She heaved a sigh. Maybe she'd just dye, and her problems would leave her…