Separated by a Fence

Separated by a Fence (26)

I was a bit anxious to run into Sam, because of where we left off yesterday. But we had to remain sane, for Marcus’ sake. And today, we were going to tell Marcus about his birthday party. And I was planning to go by his house later on, to tell his Mum about our idea. My anxiety was growing, surrounding that. What if his Mum didn’t allow it?

I spotted my takeaway cup of coffee on Jodie’s desk, and I grabbed it, then cringed. Yuck. It was now cold, and one of my biggest pet peeves was cold coffee. I absolutely hated it. At least there was still a hint of warmth in it, so I could barely tolerate it. I literally sounded like a spoiled brat when I said that. Of course, I was still grateful that Jodie had gotten my coffee.

I just wished that she had gotten the coffee a little later.

“So are you excited for yout upcoming birthday?” I questioned Miranda, striking up a conversation in the silent room.

Miranda nodded, her eyes shining. “Definitely! Do you like fairy bread? Mum will make a huge platter of it.”

My mind flashbacked to when me and Sam had been planning Marcus, and we were talking about Richard Greenweltzer’s party, and how his Mum had heaped our plates with the fairy bread. I winced, as once again, all of Sam’s words came whooshing back to my memory.

“Yeah, love fairy bread,” I smiled, weakly.

Miranda’s face brightened even more. “Fantastic! I’m really excited.”

I chewed my lip and I scrunched up my nose, tasting the artificial bubblegum flavour of the lip gloss I’d slathered on this morning.

Jodie suddenly scrambled to her feet. “Okay, that’s my meditation for the day.’

She noticed me sitting at my desk, and a smile spread across her face. “Oh hey Monty, didn’t notice you coming in!”

I rolled my eyes. “You don’t notice ANYTHING when you’re in your ‘zen’ mode or whatever.”

She shrugged, and swung over her desk to sit in her chair.

“So how’s Aaron and Heather going?” I questioned.

Jodie did the half-half gesture with her hand. “Comme ci, comme ca.”

I raised an eyebrow. “Translate to English please?”

“It’s okay,” she shrugged. “I guess I’m starting to get used to Aaron and his total geekiness. And Heather’s Heather. I love her, she’s such a little cutie. And that’s big, coming from me, you know that. I normally hate kids.”

I chuckled, nodding my head. “True. Well, I’m glad you and Ari are starting to get along. That means that decreases the amount of times we’ll be having a conversation and you two will be trying to bite each other’s heads off.”

Jodie blew me a sarcastic air kiss, and I retaliated by blowing one back.

***

It was lunchtime, meaning I was meeting up with Sam and Marcus. We were going to be telling Marcus about his birthday party.

I joined the lunch queue with Aaron and Jodie.

“So you haven’t even told Marcus’s parents yet?” Ari asked, raising an eyebrow.

I shook my head. “I’m going after school to talk to Marcus’s Mum.’

Jodie raised an eyebrow. “What if it doesn’t work? What if she forbids it from happening? What are you going to do with all the stuff that you bought?”