High School Mayhem

~~~~84~~~~

Chapter 84: Smile

~Zane~

"Why are you forcing me to do this?" I stare at the park in front of us.

"Because you're grumpy and I'm bored. Come on, it'll be just like when we were kids." Zerenity giggles and rushes onto the playground. I am not going. I begin walking home but some grabs my hand. "Zane, the park is this way," Zerenity says and drags me to the park.

"I don't want to." I groan.

"Well, you have to! It's not that bad! It's just playing around! You'll forget about your grumpiness in no time."

"I'm not grumpy."

"Come on! Let's swing!" She forces me over to the swings.

"Are you even listening to me?" I raise an eyebrow as she pushes me onto the seat.

"Here, I'll push you!" She runs behind me.

"I told you, I'm not--" I'm cut off by her pushing my back and the swing starts to move. My eyes widen and I grip the swing tight. "Are you trying to murder me!"

"It's just swinging, relax a little bit." She laughs and pushes me higher.

"I don't like swinging!"

"You used to love it when we were kids!"

"That was before I fell off and landed on my face!"

"Come on! It's fun and you know it." I just scream in response. "Zane, it's not that bad! You're literally kicking your legs and swinging by yourself." I look around to see she's on the swing next to me. I scream again. "Let's have a swinging contest."

"No!"

"Yes!"

~*After The Ice Cream Truck Comes~

I pout as I lick my ice cream. "See, wasn't that fun?" Zerenity squeals.

I lick the ice cream once again and hide my face behind it. "Yes..."

"Yay! I knew I could get you to have fun! Now we just have to work on you not being super grumpy!"

"I'm not grumpy."

"You are too! You just got ice cream... from an ice cream truck! Why are you not smiling your face off!?"

"Why are you smiling your face off?"

"Because it's fun to smile."

"It's sickening."

"Ugh! Why are you so grumpy!?" She folds her arms. Suddenly, she jumps on my back, grabs my hair, and starts shaking me. "STOP BEING SO GRUMPY!"

"Ah! GET OFF OF ME!" I topple over onto the ground. Turns out it's a hill. We both scream as we begin to roll and roll down the hill.

Once we stop, we both scream, "MY ICE CREAM!"

Suddenly, Zerenity starts laughing. "Why are you laughing?" I glare at her. "This isn't funny."

"The grass on your mask is making a smiley face." She points out and goes back into a fit of laughter.

I brush it off. "You owe me more ice cream."

"Only if you smile."

"No."

"Then no ice cream." She begins walking off. "Or cupcakes. Or the use of my one-of-a-kind tea set."

"Okay! Alright! Fine! Okay! I'll smile." She instantly turns around and I smile even though my mask is up.

"I'll let it pass, only because I know you're smiling because your eyes sparkled." She beams and skips off. 

"Wait, so that's it? That's literally all I had to do? I didn't even have to pull my mask down?" I wonder.

"Yeah, I just wanted to know that you were happy." She turns back around and smiles. "It's hard to know if someone is happy if they don't smile. I knew you were genuinely happy because of the look in your eyes, not the smile itself. That's I wanted."

I squint my eyes at her but she just keeps her smile. I will never understand her.