Disclaimer (again) A/N: These characters are not mine, and stuff.
I've been really struggling with my depression over the past week... but here's to all the beautiful, love-laden, poignant complexities of this world, and Friday coming up tomorrow (yay!). If you're reading this, I hope you're in a good place and having a good day :).
7: Somebody Loves You, But Is Too Afraid to Tell You
"You have got to be kidding me, Lila." Rhonda Lloyd had both hands out in front of her as she examined her cherry-colored nail polish. The three girls sat cross-legged on Lila's lavender bedspread, drinking Sprites while the evening light splintered into the room.
"Kidding about what?" Lila returned, sounding slightly bewildered.
Rhonda sighed heavily. The notes - there were three of them now - were currently being examined by Nadine with a lighted magnifying glass, the same one she used to examine bug skeletons.
"I mean, it's all so romantic," Rhonda pouted. "How come no one's ever left anonymous love letters for me?"
Lila smiled sweetly, twirling the ends of her auburn hair around her finger. "Well, I'm oh too certain it could happen someday for you."
"On second thought," Rhonda continued. "Samuel doesn't really seem like the type. He'll probably want to tell me in person. He'll be all aggressive about it, just like he is on the football field."
She thought she heard Nadine stifle a snicker and cast her an annoyed glare.
"I do think it's ever so dreamy," Lila admitted. There was something slightly wistful in her voice. "That writing is so beautiful. It's so special."
Nadine shook her head, evidently having had no luck with her sleuthing mission. "Well, one thing's for sure," she said, straightening her back up and placing the magnifying glass at her feet. "Whoever wrote these letters is pretty smart, which in itself eliminates about half the guys at Hillwood."
Lila offered a mumble of agreement.
"Let me see them one more time," Rhonda demanded, holding out her palm for the papers. Truthfully - she already had a pretty good idea of who the writer might be, but she did not want to give it without personally scouring all of the appropriate evidence. What was that thing Nadine was always saying about her? Something about jumping to conclusions too quickly?
Nadine passed the letters along to her, glancing quickly behind her at Lila.
"Beautiful Lila," Rhonda read aloud. "Delicate, ill-illusioned flower of my despair," she paused, sighing deeply. "My god, how does this guy think of this stuff? Woman of the world, whose intelligence stops at none and kindness exceeds all else." She paused dramatically.
"You forgot to read the ending line," Lila told her innocently, clearing having memorized the poem. "Petite cupcake of youth whose bounties of sun - "
"Lila, who do we know who values kindness?" Rhonda interrupted her. Both Nadine and Lila looked at her blankly.
Rhonda clicked her tongue impatiently. "I think you know exactly who I'm talking about. Most boys don't value a girl with kindness, you know, as much as say, they value a girl with a great body or a girl with a fantastic eye for fashion," she flipped her hair behind her shoulder proudly. "But I can think of one boy who's always valued kindness, like, an abnormal amount."
She stopped again, waiting for the girls to congratulate her on her superior reasoning and analysis skills. Instead, Lila just chewed on her lower lip, looking slightly uncomfortable.
"Alright, fine, let me read the next one," said Rhonda irritably. "My opalescent, shining jewel. You are the ocean and my sandstorm, my sky and my stars. Be mine, and I will be forever faithful. You make me want to be good, Lila Sawyer."
Lila gave a high-pitched, velvety exhale. "Oh, it's ever so romantic, isn't it?"
"He makes you want to be good," Rhonda emphasized dramatically. "Now, who do we know that's good, Lila?"
Lila and Nadine looked at one another.
"Rhonda," Nadine said. "If you're driving at these notes coming from Arnold Shortman, Lila already explained that she and Arnold are just friends."
Rhonda crossed her arms over her chest, stung. "Oh, so you always have to be right, is that it, Nadine?"
"No, I don't," Nadine shot back. "I just think that since these notes were written for Lila, we should listen to what she has to say about it."
"Lila didn't say anything! Did you, Lila?"
Both girls turned to glare at the freckle-faced beauty, who looked rather alarmed.
"Well, I - no," Lila told them in a small voice. "But I don't feel that way about Arnold, and I-"
"Oh, Lila," Rhonda said, shaking her head. "Lila, Lila, Lila. I know that, of course. But just because you don't feel that way about a boy doesn't mean he can't feel that way about you."
"Well-"
"And really, who could blame him? You're pretty, smart, nice. Arnold is obviously in love with you. Has been since we were little girls. Isn't it obvious?"
"Not really," Nadine retorted, rolling her eyes.
"To those of us who know men, it is," Rhonda insisted proudly. "Let's read the third note, shall we?" She ripped the page out from the bottom of the pile.
"Ahem. Lila, my love," Rhonda read. "My heart sings when you're near. Fairy princess, essence of my being. Other girls, they cannot compare to your light. My honey bear, sweet where all else are sour. Giving where all else can never be." She waited. "Well?"
"I'm not so certain I understand, Rhonda," Lila admitted.
"Sour? He's talking about Helga! He's sick of dating girls like her. He wants to date girls like you!" Rhonda smiled luminously, waiting for her winner's praise.
There was a long silence. Nadine and Lila were both staring at her, Lila's eyes widening just slightly.
"You know I'm right," Rhonda said triumphantly. But she was interrupted then as a vibrating sound buzzed from the pocket of her light pink jeans. Extracting the phone and staring excitedly at the name flashing across the screen, she began texting Kelly back without another word to the girls in front of her.
"Well, I suppose it's possible," Lila admitted at last, still sounding uncomfortable.
"Are you gonna do something about it?" Nadine asked her. "I mean, if it is Arnold, that would mean the poor guy's liked you since we were, like, ten."
"Nine."
"Halloween party," Rhonda announced suddenly. Kelly and Emily wanted her to host one, and they were going to bring Samuel! She looked up from her phone, beaming. Her stomach was flipping over on itself. "My house. Next Friday. Lila, Nadine - I would just love it if you graced us with your presence. What do you say, girls?"
Whoever had had the brilliant idea of pairing Jack Wittenberg and his wife up as teachers in the same freaking class was going to pay for it in their next life - if karma existed. Both Jack and Tish had been high school gym instructors for a number of years now. But never had they been matched with the same damn group of students at the same damn time. And that arrangement must have been avoided for a reason, Helga thought.
They were annoying enough separately, and a nightmare together. Stepping into the gymnasium fourth period was like walking into boot camp, because every class the students were divided into two warring groups who were forced into increasing tests of strength in response to their unstable, raging messes of teachers.
Today's torment took the form of a game of dodgeball: boys against girls. The two Wittenbergs raced up and down the court, screaming at their respective students to hurry up and beat the crap out of each other.
Helga, at least - despite her annoyance at both Tish and Jack - did not have to be told twice.
"OW! HELGA HIT ME IN THE EYE!" Harold whined from the other side of the court.
"Hitting people is the whole point of the game, you idiotic oaf!" she screamed back. Jack Wittenberg blew his whistle.
"FOUL!" he yelled. "Tish, you tell your team members to play by the rules or don't play at all!"
"They ARE playing by the rules!" Tish shot back.
"Well, tell them to play by the rules BETTER!"
"I think you just don't wanna admit that my girls are a hundred times better than your boys and could kick their butts in a second!"
"You take that back, Tish!"
"YOU take it back!"
Helga rolled her eyes, muttering a few choice curse words under her breath. She was trying her hardest not to stare at the left hand side of the court, where a certain golden-haired boy was standing guard, twiddling his thumbs up against the elastic waistband of his gym shorts rather than attempting to hit anyone with the ball. He could be competitive enough - when it came to pickup games of baseball or soccer or track - but dodgeball was a different story. Of course, Helga found herself thinking against her will, her heart crashing against her chest in a firestorm of despair. You're too good, too moral, too kind-hearted for such animalistic displays of aggression, my love -
Lost in thought, she nearly missed the blue foam ball that came sailing towards her and would have smacked her in the forehead had she not whipped her eyes upward just in time. She caught the ball with one hand, laughing derisively.
"Yeah, nice try, Curly!" she screeched, offering her crazed best friend a mocking grin as he stalked off the court. Behind her, she realized, not many of her teammates were left to bear the brunt of the rest of the game with her. Only Big Patty, a bulky-armed junior, and Helga remained in the match, compared with the ten or so boys across from them.
Thinking fast, Helga backpedaled on the balls of her feet and motioned for the other girls to join her in a huddle.
"This is the strategy," she muttered. "None of that 'hold back and try to catch it' crap. Just. Get. The. Ball. And beat the shit out of them. Okay?"
Shrugging, Patty and the junior offered their mumbles of agreement.
The balls on the opposite side of the court gradually made their ways back as the boys tried - one by one, unsuccessfully - to get the girls out of the game.
Once they had all of the balls in hand, Helga gave the other girls a nod. They nodded back at her before assailing the opposing team, pelting them with the foam spheres in droves until Sid was the last one on the court and sustained a blow to his abdomen.
"Curses upon you!" Sid screeched as Tish blew on her whistle. The girls on the side of the gymnasium broke out in cheers and wolf whistles, rushing onto the court to high-five their teammates who had led them to such a glorious and unexpected victory. Jack Wittenberg was holding his temples and screaming at his team members.
"HEY, YOU THREE!" Tish yelled as Helga was making her way towards the water jug, wiping the sweat from her matted hair. Tish nodded at her and motioned for Patty and the tall junior to join her. "And you, too!" Tish added to Nadine, who had been the last one on their team knocked out with a ball. The four girls glanced at one another before shuffling over to where their teacher stood next to the basketball nets.
"Okay, I got an important mission for ya," Tish told them, pacing back and forth across the waxed floor. Helga drummed her fingers impatiently against her thighs. "Hillwood is gonna be forming its very first girls' lacrosse team in the spring, and I'm going to be coaching it," she continued. "I need you three to agree to be team members."
"Lacrosse?" the bulky junior repeated, looking somewhat bewildered.
"That's right, lacrosse. And you gotta be on the team, and we gotta start training right away. You know, ASAP. I'm talking heavy duty conditioning. I'm talking suicides, gymnasium skill sessions, the whole nine yards. None of you Hillwood kids have ever touched a dang lacrosse stick in your life. We need all the training we can get."
"Gee, Tish," Helga said sweetly. "Would we get to wear a little skirt and Spandex shorts, like they do on TV?"
"Well, yeah."
"You know, I think I'm actually busy this spring."
Tish frowned. "Well, that's too bad, Pataki, cause I need you. C'mon, it'll look good on college applications and... stuff. Besides, you haven't even tried it yet. An angry kid like you... you'll freaking love running around threatening people with a huge stick."
Helga raised her eyebrow. "More than I love sitting on my couch watching WrestleMania reruns?"
"I'll do it, Ms. Wittenberg," Nadine said, holding her hand out and shaking Tish's as though negotiating a business deal.
"Done and done," Tish told her proudly, shaking back. She turned towards Big Patty, who was rubbing her elbow awkwardly.
"Sure," Patty told her at last. "Why not?"
The junior at her side shrugged and agreed.
Tish faced Helga again, eyes round and pleading. "Come on, kid," she begged her. "This is gonna be worth it, you'll see. We'll all do it together. We're gonna prove how strong we are."
Helga found her eyes straying again towards Arnold, who was now slumped against the wall, downing a bottle of water. Sweat glimmered on his dewey skin under the hot gymnasium lights.
"Fine," Helga sighed, finally, folding her arms across her chest. "You wanna recruit me for your little experiment? It's not like I have anything better to do."
Tish smiled widely just as the first bell rang, signaling to the students that it was time for them to go ahead and get ready for their next class.