Chapter 5

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Torvald sighed, bored to death in geography. For some reason she did not understand, she was put in the top set, but unfortunately they had the most boring teacher in the entire school – Ms Peapod. She droned on and on, her voice like a vacuum cleaner, about something to do with the structure of a lake. Even when Torvald sat at the very back of the room she could still hear her, and it was deeply annoying.

Instead of listening, Torvald daydreamed. Usually this was her time to sort out her head, and try to resolve some facts. Like why Harry was always at the door when she came to wake them up, and why he'd just smile foolishly at her instead of teasing her like the other girls. Or why Crumbelina has a jar of peanut butter cups that no one is allowed to touch without getting their heads bitten off, and a bunch of letters no one was allowed to see hidden under her pillow.

But this time someone just wouldn't let her daydream. And that happened to be the boy sitting next to her.

"Psst! Torvald! What did she just say?" Whispered Rancis as he scribbled notes in his book. Torvald rolled her eyes. "Don't know, don't care." She replied, with about as much enthusiasm as a sloth.

Rancis laughed, making the rest of the class look at them. Torvald blushed, because Sakura was giving her a knowing smirk. She stuck her tongue out at the Japanese racer, who smirked once more and turned around.

A few days later, they were in Geography again, but they had a new seating plan. Trust Ms Peapod to mix everything up just as people were becoming comfortable with their seats.

Torvald was sat next to a girl with two buns in her blond hair, up high on her head, one with a green elastic band and the other with a brown one. She had a purple racing jacket with white accents and a blue top underneath. He skirt was striped horizontally with blue and purple, and her trainers were green and brown, whilst her leggings were brown. It was rather mismatched, but crazily, it worked. Her eyes were a clear bright shade of blue, like a sunny sky, and her skin was rosy.

Her name was Sarasweet Smarties, and she was very nice, but very quiet as well. Torvald glanced across the room to see Rancis sitting with Ricelle, and she felt very angry, but she didn't know why. She then realised that the anger was jealousy, and she felt her cheeks heat up as she blushed.

She was so lost in thought she didn't realise Sara was elbowing her. The smarties themed girl handed her a scrap of paper with a smile, and said "From Rancis" In a quiet voice. Torvald opened the note, noticing her hands were shaking. She cursed herself silently.

The note read:

Can u meet me in the common room at 6?

I have something to tell you

She grinned, shoved the note in her pocket and gave Rancis a thumbs-up.

Later that evening, she rushed up the stairs in a hurry. Typical, she was always late!

Rancis was sitting in one of the armchairs, wringing his hands nervously. When Torvald came in, he leapt out of his seat.

"Torvald, you came!" he grinned.

She smirked. "Did you think I wouldn't?"

Rancis' eyes grew wide. "NO, no, no! Of course not! I just-" he shouted, waving his arms around in front of him.

Torvald grinned. "Relax Rancis." She said, even though she was far from relaxed. "So, what did you want to tell me?"

Rancis bit his lip nervously. "Well, uh, I was wondering … Well, I really like you Torvald," Torvald could feel the rush of heat coming to her face, but she suppressed it, "So, I was wondering if you wanted to go … somewhere with me at the weekend?" He finished, eyes glued to the floor.

Torvald smiled blissfully. "Sure Rancis! That sounds great!"

He looked up with a smile, eyes shining. "Really? Ok! So, where do you want to go?"

Torvald shrugged. "I've not really seen much of this town, how about we just have a look around and go wherever we think looks good?"

Rancis nodded, and they spent the rest of the evening talking, until Julie came up to tell them they'd missed dinner.

Torvald rummaged through her drawers in a frenzy, panicking like crazy. She had been completely calm about today until Sticky had asked her what she was going to wear, and now the seed of doubt has been planted it grows and grows and grows. Torvald remembered back to when she'd first had trouble finding what to wear…

She searched through the closets, eyes watering. Her mother came into the room, shaking with silent sobs as she said "Torvald dearie, what's wrong?"

Torvald slammed the closet door angrily, screaming "Why are all my clothes yellow? I HATE yellow!" Before throwing herself face down on the bed, crying noisily into the pillow. Without uttering a word, Mentha sat down next to her daughter and wrapped her arms round her, a hug which our butterscotch girl returned gladly.

"I'm sure Bennie's got some black stuff you can borrow Torvy, go find him and asked him." Said the saddened mother with a quiver in her voice. Torvald squeezed her tightly, then ran off to find her cousin.

Torvald eyes pricked at the memory. She pulled herself together, mentally slapping herself. What would Dad think, crying on my first proper date?

Just then Summer burst into the room with all the bravado that made her the centre of attention, and hollered "TOOOORVALD! Your sis is waiting outside for you!" Torvald cringed at the loud noise, but then smiled. "Thanks Sums!" She said as she ran through the corridor and into the hall way.

Sticky was waiting for her holding a dress. She was about to speak when he felt the dress being lifted from her arms. Torvald stroked it gently, looking at it with a wondrous air. "My bridesmaid dress… the one I wore when Yuki and mum got married…" (Yuki was Sticky's dad).

"Where did you find this? I'm sure I didn't pack it…" Said Torvald, still staring at the dress. Sticky rolled her eyes. "You really think I'd let you leave without the one dress you own? Yeah right. I packed it."

"Thanks Stick." Torvald grinned, running back into the common room as Sticky yelled "You know I hate that nickname!"

She slipped into the dress, smiling at her reflection. The dress had a single strap that went round her neck, a silk bodice, and a ruffled skirt which ended just above her knees. The whole thing was a light cream which complemented Torvald's darker skin tone.

She decided that it looked a bit too formal, but being Torvald, she could fix that.

She pulled on a dark brown cardigan, and the same brown-coloured high-tops, plus a matching bow. There! Much better!

She went out into the common room at twelve, after having been forced into a makeover by her friends. Rancis was waiting for her there, and he looked great! He had an orange casual shirt underneath his racing blazer, and was fixing his hair in a compact mirror when he saw Torvald's reflection in it.

He turned around and smiled at her gently and sweetly. Torvald felt butterflies in her stomach. No one had ever smiled at her like that before. She smiled back as she said "You look great Rancis."

He tossed his hair. "Yes, I do, don't I…" he said in an obviously fake posh tone. "You do as well." He said in his normal voice, an orangey blush slowly creeping into his cheeks.

They linked arms and walked out of the common room, leaving Harry and Crumbelina there.

"This sucks." They said in unison.

On the way out they didn't meet many people, as everyone had gone to town for Saturday. The only people they did meet were Swizzle and Gloyd, the former who simply nodded at them, the latter who stared, incredulous.

"Have I missed something? Since when is Rancis dating Torvald? Torvald, of all people!" Gloyd questioned Swizzle once the couple had passed. He had forgotten that Torvald was Swizzle's cousin, and that statement earned him a well-deserved punch in the nose.

Torvald and Rancis continued towards town, just laughing and talking like the friends they were, when suddenly Rancis stopped dead. Torvald walked on a few steps, then realised Rancis had stopped, and walked back. "Rancis? Is there something wrong?" She asked, curious. "Fudge." Said Rancis, and Torvald was surprised to hear him speak such profanity.

"Marsie Chocobutter." He said, irritation obviously present in his voice. Torvald caught on, and when she looked over her shoulder saw no other than Marsie Chocobutter, and his best friend Flake Crunchitop. Thy were the two mean boys at their school, and Torvald thought of them as nothing more than mere idiots as she regarded them with contempt.

"Come on, let's go the other way…" Said Rancis, already turned around. Torvald grabbed his arm. "The other way takes twenty minutes! You're not telling me you're scared of Marsie are you?" She exclaimed.

Rancis bit his lip. He was in an impossible situation. A; have his date think he was a coward, or B; have to be subject to Marsie Stupid Chocobutter's taunting.

But Torvald wasn't giving him a choice. She kept walking and he trailed behind her uncertainly.

"Well, looks like pretty brit over here finally got himself a girlfriend, Flake!" Said Marsie with a sneer. "Wonder how long he' been courting her?" He said in a snobby British accent.

Rancis muttered something like "whatever", but Torvald stopped abruptly and turned around, scowl on her face. She marched up to Marsie angrily.

"Oh no! Looks like the tommy's girlfriend is going to shout at us! Or slap us! Quick, run aw- OW!" Our butterscotch girl punched him in the nose successfully.

Torvald rubbed her fist. Jeez, I didn't think anyone had that hard a skull…

"So, Marsie, you were saying? Oh, and his name's not 'the tommy', it's Rancis, and my name's Torvald." She said with contempt.

"Oh, so you're the one that annoyingly cheerful red girl's always on about," Said Marsie, earning him a slap in the face, "I honestly thought you sounded ok 'til you started seeing him." He finished, jerking his thumb at Rancis.

Torvald smiled sweetly and kicked him in the shin. Then she skipped over to Rancis and linked her arm through his. "So, let's go, shall we?"

He grinned. "We shall."

They went to a nice little café, and then walked into the centre. It was a beautiful day, the sun was shining, the trees were swaying gently in the late summer breeze, their leaves slowly turning russet, and the town centre was full of happy people – whether they were strolling along lazily or laughing and talking together, they made a great atmosphere for the new couple.

But the best part of the centre wasn't the atmosphere. It was the fact that a fairground had set up in the centre for a while. There was absolutely everything there, from jugglers to fire breathers, merry-go-rounds to bumper cars, candyfloss stands to ice cream vans.

Torvald looked around in awe, amazed by everything she saw. "Wow…" She said, impressed, "I've never been to anything like this before…"

Rancis grinned. "Well, I will be your host then! Let's see, what to do first… Let's go in the bumper cars!"

They ran over to the fenced off platform and paid excitedly. The guy at the entrance looked very bored, resting his head on his fist with his eyes half-closed, slurping a smoothie. The two kids snuck up on him slowly, and then jumped up with a "Hello mister!"

The unwary ticket man jumped in surprise, and growled at the two sniggering kids. "What do you brats want?" He snarled. "Well, that's no way to treat your customers…." Said Rancis with a charming smile.

"And we'd like two tickets for this ride, obviously." Said Torvald with an eyeroll.

The grumpy ticket man muttered angrily under his breath as he handed them their tickets and sorted out their change, but eventually they got on the platform and into the cars. They were talking and spinning the steering wheels, pretending to be real racers, so engrossed in their conversation they didn't realise Marsie and Flake had gotten on the ride – until the two boys sat in the cars next to them.

"So Rancy, how many hits do you think your car can take? I bet mine can take a lot, it's tough like me…" Marsie looked towards Torvald meaningfully on the last phrase.

"I reckon it won't need to take any Chocobutter. And why exactly are you following us? Jealous your date isn't going as well?" Said Rancis with a smirk. Flake glared at him. "We're not on a date, idiot." He said.

Rancis' grin widened. "It speaks! And here was me thinking Chocobutter had made his own Frankenstein's monster!"

Unfortunately, that smug remark was met with a fist swinging towards Rancis' face. Luckily, he managed to dodge, but before he could make a comeback Torvald grabbed his arm. "Rancis, don't provoke them…" She said, frown on her face, "I'm not sure if their dinosaur brains can handle the stress of sarcasm." She smiled slyly.

Before either boy could snap back, the mechanical voice began to speak.

3…

Flake glared at Rancis. Rancis glared right back.

2…

Tension was building. Marsie slowly pushed down on his pedal.

1…

The four kids were all staring daggers at each other, foots jammed on their pedals. Everyone was waiting for that fateful word…

GO!

Flake and Rancis ran head on into each other's car, and Marsie zoomed towards Torvald. But our butterscotch girl hadn't noticed, as the boy was behind her, and she started going in the same direction he was. But Marsie was quicker, and hit her car from behind.

Propelled by its own momentum, the car skidded forwards. There was nothing but a clear passage in front of her, except the barrier. Torvald lost control of the wheel and shielded her face.

The car smashed into the barrier, and Torvald flew out of the seat onto the ground, head first. She slammed into the floor, and then everything went blurry, and all she could feel was her head, screaming in pain…

She walked across candyfloss clouds, a lollipop lane spread out in front of her. She couldn't see the end, but she knew what was there. To many people this would be a dream, a privilege. But Torvald knew where she was. This was Lollifalls, the highest point in Sugar Rush – except Diet Cola Mountain. Although now there were no falls, only the cliff remained.

She skipped to the end, and the clouds thinned. She saw the sea, in all its sparkling glory. A lovely turquoise blue, it seemed to go on for miles. She saw caves and reefs, big Swedish fish to tiny chocolate shells, sugar sand and mento pebbles. And it was all beautiful, so, so beautiful…

"TOOOOORRVAALLD!"

She cringed at her sister's loud voice. "What?!" Snapped our butterscotch girl, angry at being dragged out of such a beautiful dream. She then realised she didn't know where she was.

Looking up at the white ceiling, she could make out a pipe, and some scratches. The bed she was in was soft, but the clothes were itchy. However, one thing that was obstructing her view was her sister Minty's head. "She's awake!" Minty yelled to someone behind her. "And I didn't even have to hit her with a pillow!"

Torvald heard footsteps, and then her vision was blocked even more by several people's heads. Let's see now … Sticky was there, worry painted on her face, same with Sakura, and Rancis was there, grinning with relief, but he had a big bruise on the side of his face. Summer and Lysha were there, both looking rather confused, and Swizzle was, but he seemed amused at something.

"What are you laughing at?" Torvald barked at him. He smiled even more, and then said "You just suffered a car crash. In bumper cars. Let's face it Torvie, that's ridiculous!"

A yelp rang out through the infirmary as Torvald punched him.

CAST THE VOTES! CAST THEM NOW! I NEED TO KNOW WHO TO WRITE ABOUT NEXT!

This is Sticky (aka Miss Wipplesnit) signing out for the night! Goodbye!