Imagining Frost

(3) Message From The Other Side

I smiled awkwardly, looking around at the students in shock at our nasty teachers attitude. Why was he being so sarcastic to me?

“I…are you ok?”

He smiled kindly, his face no longer an angry red.  He winked at me and nodded as if we had a hidden conversation. “You can have a seat Heather; consider this your final warning,” he said, shaking a finger in my face.  It sounded as if he should have been stern as he said that, but it almost sounded like he was joking. “Here’s your exam, you can have extra time on Monday, since you were a few minutes late.”

My eyes widened, realizing he wasn’t joking. “Oh…?” I grabbed the paper before he could change his mind, and hurried to my desk.

As I got closer to Flora she mouthed: ‘What the hell?’

I shrugged, more confused than anyone else. That was the oddest thing I had ever seen. The only scenerios I had witnessed by that man was handing out his detentions, and watching us suffer under his evil pop-quizzes. Smiling? That just didn't happened. I looked down at my test in front of me,which had no answers I knew, then over to Mr. Callinger, to see him frowning at his computer screen. He was back to his old, bitter self I guess. My eyes seemed to drift to the window once again to see the ice patch completely gone. Not even a trace of water.

“Psst.”

I turned to my left, to see Flora leaning towards me. Her straight blonde bangs drifted into her eyes. “How the heck did you get that far? And what are we doing tonight?” she whispered, with a pout on her face. When I gave her a confused look she pointed at my test.

My eyebrows rose beyond my hairline, as I flipped the pages of my test. Every page of the long four page test was filled out, with a flawless two- page essay. I picked up the pen, drawing a line next to one of the words on the paper. It was unbelievable, and unmistakably my handwriting. The eyes were even dotted with little hearts, as I have done my whole life.

But I knew I hadn’t written it, I would have remembered if I did. When I picked up the paper to look at it, I noticed some sort of web on my desk. Instead of freaking out, I found myself leaning forward. I squinted at the small design, when something brought my head down against the desk. I clutched my throbbing forehead, looking around for the perpetrator.

“What the—“

“Did you just smack your head against your desk?” Nick Reynolds questioned from the desk next to me, with a look of disbelief over his face.

The room erupted into laughter as I blushed furiously. “Shut up.”

“Quiet or you all get zeros!” Mr. Callinger threatened, his face turning bright red once again. At least I now wasn’t the only one with reddened cheeks.

As everyone else did quickly, I returned my gaze on my test. Since it was complete, I debated whether to just hand it in. The only problem was I felt like I was cheating. Had I filled out the test and forgot? Did Flora forge my handwriting?

I moved the paper off the desk again, squinting at the ice patch on my desk. It changed into a smaller web of crystals, this time starting to edge towards me. The ice dragged along my desk lazily, etching a word into the desk. “No, no. Please stay over there freaky ice," I told it,  forcing a tight smile at the ridiculousness. It jerked closer to me at my words, as if to purposely spook me.

 I jumped out of my chair, starting to freak out. The ice moved along the desk staring to form large letters on the surface. “Um, Flora!” I whispered quickly, tapping my friends shoulder frantically.

“What?” she whispered. I motioned to my desk, to see it gone.

“But—“

“Heather? What seems to be the problem?” Red-faced teacher asked, standing up from his desk.

My face grew hot. “I um…there was—there was a--- a spider! Yeah, there was a nasty, hairy, disgusting looking spider!” I sputtered quickly.

He stared at me for the longest time before he rolled his eyes as fell like a boulder back into his chair.

I slowly got back completely into my own seat, trying to stay as far back from the surface as possible. The ice had mostly disappeared , but the word that it had obviously spelled out etched itself permanently into my brain.

Cute

*    *    *    *

As Flora, Georgina, and Kim walked with me to my locker after school, I told them all about the odd story of my morning.

“It said cute?” Kim asked, adjusting the camisole under her grey fleece. “I mean, if it’s complimenting you I don’t see what the big deal is,” she said. Her hair was a long, red color with small ringlets towards the end. Her eyes were a deep blue. Georgina had similar hair style, but with brown hair and brown eyes. Flora and I stuck out in the group, with our blond hair. We never were popular, but we like to consider ourselves above average in this school. Each of us has our own style, and personalities. Unlike the popular groups, we go with the flow and don’t care what people think.

Most of the time.

“I’m serious! This is getting really weird. At first I thought I was just going crazy, but now I think I’m really haunted!” I told them, trying to stay calm.

“We believe you,” Flora had said, as we rounded the corner to my locker. “It’s just hard to believe is all. You can’t just say your underwear is haunting you, and writing on your desk in ice. Then expect ‘Ghost Busters’ knocking on your door.”

“Wait a minute?” Georgina joined, while twirling her brown hair. “Ghostbusters are real? Does that mean like, The Cookie Monster is real?”

“Yes Georgina,” Kim, Flora, and I both said at the same time, in the blandest voice possible. She wasn’t exactly the smartest of the bunch. I broke into a smile as I reached my paper covered locker.

My hand felt the bright blue, squishiness on my lock. “Thanks for this by the way,” I told them, glaring at each one of my friends as I fiddled with my play dough covered lock, until I opened it.  They all burst into laughs watching my struggle. I glared at all of them again, putting all the books I needed in my backpack.

When I finished I turned to them with a big cheeky smile.

I was finally time to have one unforgettable birthday.