Problems With The Hierarchy

#2 Modus Operandi

“Oh. I won’t attend prom then.” I joked. But seriously, who was I going to date? A nerd? A goth? A punk? A jock? I shook my head violently at the last thought. To be frank I hated the in-crowd. In my school anyway. Look, they bully me like it was their job. Why would I want to be related to them in anyway?

Moving my watch into her vision, I began, “Look, Joey, see you in History, I’m going to be late.”

Having said that, I walked towards homeroom briskly.

When it was literature, Joey deliberately chose the seat next to James so I could sit with Richard.

The lesson started slowly, with Miss Guzman’s unique slow-paced teaching… You can see that she really makes an effort to make the lesson more interesting. She’s one of those nice teachers you would want to cherish. Importantly, she’s lenient. On our first lesson, she laid down ground rules that she allowed us to send texts in class; but not more than five. Being a young teacher, she knows too damn well that we text in class, and it was impossible to stop us anyway. Smart move.

“Class, complete this assignment for the rest of the lesson. This is your homework for today. It is graded, so take it seriously,” said Miss Guzman, trying to sound as serious as possible.

An interesting frown appeared on our Mr Smart-ass.

“Haha, have a problem there?” I joked.

“Yeah,” he shrugged. “How the hell am I supposed to know how to write a good poem?”

“Come to my house later?” I offered, although the statement sounded more like a question than a suggestion.

He nodded.

**          

“Elizabeth! Open the door.”  I heard Richard shout from the lawn.

“I’m coming!” my voice trailed off as I hurriedly walked down the steps to open the door.

Turning the door knob, I welcomed my guest with a smile. My lawn was well-maintained. The whole lawn bore bright colours such as red, pink, purple etc. Not that I had a passion for gardening, but that it was one of the rule in Watsons’ that the lawn should be well-maintained so it wouldn’t be unsightly for our guests. Looking over to Richard’s lawn, it leaves me flabbergasted. His lawn was in a boring shade of green. Since his parents are not at home mostly, and Richard was too lazy to do anything about it, looking at it was a disgusting sight compared to mine. Not that I cared, anyway. Richard only trims his garden whenever he throws a party.

Entering and settling down, Richard took out the assignment promptly. Then he took out a pen. He stared at the paper and furrowed his eyebrows. It was rather amusing to see him completely baffled by an assignment like this. I mean, it was rare. For an intelligent person, like him.

“A cookie for you?” I asked.

“Sure, your awful double chocolate, as usual.”

“Oh I’m hurt.” I replied clenching my heart a little, faking hurt.

I brought out a tray of cookies I have just baked. Besides reading, I also liked baking a lot. Richard, surprisingly, loved baking as well. Therefore, we often spend our afternoons together, thinking of new formulas. However, since we didn’t have any lessons for it, as amateurs that we are, the formulas often failed.

“So uh… how do we go about doing this assignment?” he asked, looking perplexed.

“Easy, first you have to…” I went on talking about the assignment. As he listened to me intently, he also munched the double chocolate chip cookie that I have just made. This time I followed strictly according to the recipe. Looking at the contented expression, I know it must have turned out fine.

After two hours, we were finally done with our assignment.

“Are your parents coming home, Richard?” I asked, unsure if he was staying for dinner.

“Nope.” he responded.

 “Great. Pasta for the night?” I questioned further. 

“Sure.” he agreed immediately.

We always did the cooking together, all the time. Tonight was no exception.

Walking towards the kitchen counter, I took out the ingredients needed. My kitchen was not very big, but it was comfortable. Majority of the furniture was made of wood, so the sight was a huge rush of brown. After he was done with cooking the creamy sauce, he picked up a spoon to taste the flavour.

Everything seemed so peaceful. All of a sudden, I decided to raise the taboo subject again. I need to know how he feels about it, so I could help him, perhaps. I walked up closer to him.

“Richard,” I began.

“Yeah?” he turned to face me. He did not notice that I have now walked up closer. Therefore, as he turned, somewhat aggressively, the sauce on the spoon smeared on my shirt.

“Haha.” He looked at me, amused.

I glared at him. “Be right back,” I said, as I turned towards the staircase leading to my room. “Look over the fire. Tell me when water boils.” I added.

Entering my room, I slipped out of my shirt eagerly. Tomato sauce was gross. I proceeded to search for a tee in the closet. I took a long time to look for a shirt, as I didn’t know if I should be wearing normal clothes or change into my PJs. Finally, I made do with a loose white tee. I’m going to sleep in it.

“The noodles are done-” Richard said as he entered the room, holding the spatula. He obviously just came from the kitchen because thee dumb spatula was still dripping… I hope it was plain water.  I turned my back to face him, suddenly realising that I have not put my shirt on. I watch him gawk at me as I turned to back-face him. “Get out!” I yelled with evident nervousness in my cracked voice, blushing fiercely.

Seconds after, he was no longer in the room. I quickly slipped my white tee on and walked down, back to the kitchen. Now that was totally awkward.

When I arrived, I realised that he had laid the plates out, with pasta on the plates. Boy, he was fast!

Sitting down on the table, I noticed his eyes roaming around my body. I swear I saw him checking me out.

“My eyes are up here,” I smirked.

Flustered, his cheeks began reddening.

“It’s not like I’ve never seen you just in your undergarments.” He chuckled, jokingly.

What? I felt my cheeks burning up.

Regaining my composure, I pressed, “When was it?”

“Remember Tammy’s party last year?” he started explaining, “You got so drunk. When I sent you home, your mother asked me to undress you…”

Now reddening a tinge, I cussed under my breath.