Bottled Up

The Match

The Match

The nurse let me lie down on one of two cots in the far corner of the nurse's office. I took the time to try and tell myself all that had just happened wasn't real. None of it had actually just happened; it was all in my head. I was still lying in bed, waiting to be woken up by my alarm.

But as the clock ticked on, and the nurse got impatient with my faux disease, the reality was staring my straight in the face. I tried to act squeamish and wobbly as I retreived my nurse slip, but she bought no more and sent me on my way. The hallways were empty as I grabbed my backpack and made my way back to history.

History was twice as long as other classes, since there were so many more students. I slipped through the door into the cavern of a classroom and tried to disappear into the wall as I made my way to my seat. Mr. Brinken cleared his throat and looked at me expectantly as I sat down. I quickly jumped up and gave him my slip before tried to melt into my seat, embarrassment no doubt turning my cheeks bright pink.

Nate sat behind me to the right. I could practically feel his icy blue eyes boring a hole in my head. When I turned around to grab my book from my bag, I refused to make eye contact.

The class ended not long after I arrived, and after sorting out my notes situation with Mr. Brinken, I walked to my locker before being intercepted.

"What was that?" Nate demanded. "You punched me in the stomach!"

"You-" I lowered my voice. "You kissed me, you dork."

He grinned. "Get used to it, cocoa. You are my match after all."

My face burned. "Cocoa?"

"Of course. It's my mushy nickname for you. I couldn't use sugar... I suppose I could use brown sugar, but it has less of a ring to it."

I balled my fists, my body shaking with anger. "I swear, you make one more crack at my skin color, Nate Williams..."

"Or perhaps chocolate..."

I took another swing, my punch landing square on Nate's jaw this time. But instead of storming off, I simply turned and waltzed to my locker, putting away my History book and grabbing my science textbook like nothing had happned.

When I passed back by, Nate was holding his jaw, wiggling it around with an open mouth to see if it still functioned. I stopped right next to him and rose way up onto my tip toes to be able to whisper in his ear. This kid was a giant!

"I could care less that we're a match. As long as I'm able, I'll refuse these stupid sand patterns."

I dropped back down to my feet and kept walking.

~

I whispered the whole story to Lizzie, her face getting more awed by the minute. When I had first told her who my match was, she had screamed "WHAT?!" and gotten yelled at by our strict science teacher. Now she had remained quiet, but her face said a thousand words.

"You punched him twice?!" she said, incredulous. I nodded. She gave me a fist bump.

"Did you mess up his face a ton?"

"I tried. He basically spit on my ethnicity, and he had only talked to me for fifteen seconds!"

"Lizzie and Trinity! Quiet!" hissed my snake-like science teacher, Mrs. Vallor. We both snapped our mouths shut and hunched over our paper like we were working. Seconds later, we kept on whispering under our arms.

"That's horrible! He deserved it." Liz said, nodding. She had pasty white skin that practically glowed in the sunlight. Sitting next to her, Liz either looked white as a ghost, and I was practically a shadow.

I bit the end of my pencil, not really paying attention to the paper, but at the same time, working out the questions furoiusly. Liz tapped my arm with her pen.

"You're doing it again."

"Doing what?"

"That weird multitasking thing, where you're working and talking but not really doing either. It's creepy - cut it out! You're doing it right now!"

I looked up from my paper and silently laughed. She fake sighed in releif and got a harsh shush from The Witchy One. I laughed even harder, having to bite my tongue to stop the noise from coming out.

"You'd better get started on this." I whispered as I stood and gave my paper to the One Who Kills With Her Glares. On my walk back to my seat, where she couldn't see my face, I faked passing out to Lizzie. She put her head on the desk and just about died of laughter. I smiled and pushed my hair from my face.

"Stop giggling and do your work." I said nudging her. Her body shook with laughter, her face still pressed onto the worksheet. I rolled my eyes and pulled out my book to read, glad there were no prying eyes of my 'match' to stare at me.