Art Geeks

Ch. 2: Math is FUN.

Hi, guys! I hope you like my new chapter... :) It's dedicated to ShowYourInnerDORK for being my first reviewer! You rock, Oreo!

So... here's Chapter 2! 

Chapter 2: Math is FUN

Mondays. I hate Mondays.

Is that cliche? Yes. Is it true? Absolutely.

This is what I’m thinking as the first bell rings for first period. Math books in hand, I’m making my way through the dimly lit school hallway lined with putrid green lockers on either side and packed with herds of teenagers who really should purchase this amazing invention I've heard of. I think it's called deodorant.

The hallway is filled with twenty different conversations at once, and a sharp laugh wafts up into the air from behind me. A shout cuts through the symphony of voices.

“Lollipop! Lollipop! Wait up!”

Crap.

There's only one person who calls me Lollipop, and her name is Cleo Redman.

I stop, exhale slowly, and swivel around on the heel of my boot. A few kids heading off to different classes grumble as I push against the tide of people so I can stop and talk to Cleo. Having spoken to this girl before, I know there’s only one way to stay away from her, and that’s to give her what she wants first.

“Hi, Cleo,” I mumble, and a super-short girl with bright red curly hair and a voice recorder in her hand skips cheerily over towards me, seemingly oblivious to the sweaty teenagers surrounding her.

“Hi, Lollipop.” She flashes me a big, white smile. And then, suddenly, I have no idea what she’s saying. Her speech is slurred together, like she stuffed a wad of paper in her mouth. “ThanksfortalkingtomeIwaswonderingifyoucouldgiveastatementtotheschoolnewspaperaboutlastfridaysartgallery?” Cleo is talking so quickly and excitedly, she’s literally jumping up and down. I smile and nod dumbly.

“Um, it’s Gum,” I try butting in as she continues to ramble on. She’s so wrapped up in her own world that she’s probably oblivious to the fact that I have a pulse, or am breathing, or am actually, you know, alive.

Cleo hits the pause button on her talk-a-thon to look at me weirdly, her toothy grin replaced with a small frown, looking at me like I have something in my teeth. “Sorry, what?”

“My name. Or, my nickname, at least. It’s Gum. Not Lollipop.”

“Oh, of course. So, um, will you do it?” She looks at me expectantly, green eyes wide.

I honestly have no idea what Cleo is talking about. “Sorry, what?”

If Cleo looked at me weirdly before, now she’s looking at me like I belong in an insane asylum instead of on my way to algebra. But luckily, this means she slows down her speech.

Like, really slows down.

“The. School. News. Paper. Will. You. Give. A. Statement. About. The. Art. Gallery?”

“Oh…” My stomach flutters at the thought of last Friday night. I spent the better part of my weekend trying to forget allabout the Art Gallery. So far it’s not really working out for me that well. “Um, why do you want to know? Do people really care?”

“Of course. I mean, now that Berkeley’s threatening to cancel prom…”

“What?!”

“Yeah. Duh. Were you not even paying attention at the early student assembly?”

Whoops. Seems like oversleeping really is a bad idea.