Speed Dating - On Hold

Speed Dating - 1

Speed Dating

Chapter One - Queen of Hearts?

"Cerelia! What's up?" asked Mercedes as I lugged my backpack up the stairs of West Pacific High.

"The sky," I answered, completing our everyday morning ritual. "What's down?"

"The ground, sista!" she answered in her usual enthusiastic aura while hip-checking me. I stumbled and then regained my balance at the last second.

"You never cease to amaze me with your 'perfect' sense of balance," Mercedes commented, the sarcasm apparent in her voice. I nodded, like a puppet on strings, my attention focused elsewhere. The students before us were parting separate ways, like the Red Sea, making space for someone to pass.

I turned around just in time to take a step back and pull Mercedes with me, my back against the cool metal of someone's locker. All heads turned to search out the one and only, Ashton Lord. Status: star of the football team, leading quarterback, dirty blond hair with natural highlights, long enough to tuck behind his ears or hide his eyes, light shade of blue eyes, sometimes hinting silver streaks in the right lighting, perfect teeth, and taken, by 'The Queen Bee,' Autumn Heights. As he casually walked by, confidence radiating out of him like the sun's rays, his head turned to glance at me, and then he smiled his perfect smile, the one that dazzled everyone who were lucky enough to see it. For a second, I thought I imagined what I had seen, not possibly connecting that fact that Ashton Lord just smiled at me. Then, my legs turned to Jell-O, and if it hadn't been for the locker supporting me, I would have fallen flat on my face right then and there.

"Ceelee! Ceelee!" Cried Mercedes, using the nickname she came up with for me.

"Hmm? Oh, ya?"

"Check it. The Seasons are coming, 3:00," warned Mercedes.

Autumn, queen bee, Summer and Winter, her followers, walked...ahem...more like sashayed, their way over to us. Yes, I know what you're thinking. Weird coincidence how they all had names of the seasons. Well, actually, their mothers planned it. Yes, again, weird much?

"Oh, Cerelia," Autumn's snobby voice rang through my ears. "You're a size 4? I'm a size 2,"

"Very funny," I said, monotonous, as I ripped the tag of my brand new shirt.

"Anyways, since I'm founder of the entertainment committee, the Valentine's dance is coming up and I made posters that I want you to post up around the school." She handed me a bunch of pink flyers.

"Tootles!" she waved her fingers and then gave a snap, signalling Summer and Winter to follow her. I made a face at her back.

"When are you going to stand up to her?" asked Mercedes as she leaned against her locker. I shrugged in reply as I stuffed all the flyers into my locker and slammed the door shut.

"Well, as I was saying, you have to learn how to stop going into trances like that whenever you see Ashton. People will notice! And, not to be a party pooper or anything, but he's way out of your league and taken, by Queen Bee, Autumn."

"I have more important things to worry about!" I exclaimed as I threw one hand up in the air in exasperation. "I got picked as Cupid the Matchmaker for the dance! Violet wants me to pair her up with Mark, but he wants to be paired up with Eliza. Both Victoria and Macy want to be paired up with Riley. I swear the only reason teachers have Cupid the Matchmaker is because they want to make my life miserable! Plus, Autumn said she'd turn the whole school against me if I don't pair her up with Ashton."

"She wouldn't!" gasped Mercedes.

"Well, you know Dayna? She was Cupid last year and look what happened to her when she didn't pair Autumn and Ashton together. She's the laughing stock and outsider. And I'm pretty sure she moved schools, all the way to Mexico, I think."

"Oh, that bitch!" screeched Mercedes.

"Shush! If she hears you, she'll turn the whole school against you instead!" I said

"Okay," That seemed to silence her for a while.

"Hey, look at the sheet you posted up for the dance," said Mercedes when I saw the sheet, all ripped up, torn and scribbled on. It was a sign-up sheet for who you wanted to be paired with for the dance. I quickly took the crumpled paper off the bulletin board and stiffed it in my binder.

"I'll sort things out later," I said to Mercedes as we slid into our seats.

"All right class! Settle down! Now, as we all know, the Valentine's dance is coming up and every year, only a couple of girls and boys will be able to run for Queen or King of Hearts. I will give you a minute to decide whether you choose to run. Begin!"Ms. Henderson is our homeroom teacher and one of the best teachers in the school.

"Hey Cerelia, you should run for Queen of Heart!" said Mimi, a girl who sat beside me

"Yeah! You should so totally go for it! Besides, it's nice to have someone finally go against the Seasons," Chimed Scarlett who sat on in front of me. I turned to face her.

"I'm not so sure..." I said. "No one can compete with Autumn! I mean, she's been Queen of Hearts for three years straight!"

"Yes, but she's not half as beautiful as you are," said a new voice. I turned around only to be looking at Ashton's Clearwater blue eyes. Mercedes started to giggle as I quickly ducked my head, feeling the blush rush up to my cheeks. Thankfully, Ms. Henderson clapped her hands.

"Okay now. Who's running for King of Hearts?" a couple of hands came up around the classroom, including Ashton's. Ms. Henderson wrote down the names and then called out, "Who's running for Queen of Heart?"

Instantly, Autumn's hand shot up.

"And Cerelia too!" Mercedes burst out. I shot her a 'what do you think you're doing?' look but she ignored me.

"Cerelia's running for Queen of Hearts too!" she repeated, beaming with a sense of accomplishment. I sat frozen in my seat, too shocked to reject the  

sentence that Mercedes just repeated.

"All right, anyone else? No? okay, so it's only Autumn Heights and Cerelia Scarletti."

From the corner of my eye, I could see Autumn giving me a 'you think you can win against me?' look. Ugh. What have I gotten myself into? Wait, scratch that. What has Mercedes gotten me into?