The price of winning has lost me you, something far greater than playing this game.
"Wait. What? What are you talking about?" She pushed Liam backwards. He stepped back, caught off guard.
"Just what I said. I thought this is what you wanted?" His eyes furrowed, his signature look of annoyance filled his features. She knew this Liam well.
"It doesn't make sense." She looked back to the door of the art lab. "Hold on a sec, and stay here!" The last was a warning. She imagined him following her and seeing her art project. There was nothing more humiliating. It wasn't her best work. He would make fun of her, because it was Liam, and he knew all her buttons.
"Fine, but hurry up. Your backpack is getting on my nerves."
"Hey, You were the one acting all chivalrous. Don't complain about it now." She slipped through the door of the lab.
Once inside, she quickstepped her way into the classroom weaving between easels and sculptures, some were the stuff of nightmares. Wow did her classmates have frightening imaginations.
Mrs. Krupsky, their art teacher, sat on a stool at the back of the room working on her own painting. An artist in her own right, she led by example. Likely in her mid fifties, with dark curly hair highlighted by silver streaks that she never attempted to hide. Zara liked her for her confidence, living life on her own terms. That's how Zara saw it, anyways.
"Mrs. Krupsy?"
She turned on her stool in the direction of Zara's voice. Peering at her through her reading spectacles, she said, "What's up Zara?" wiping her brush, full of paint, onto her apron. She put it into a jar of turpentine and gave Zara her full attention.
"Yeah, hi, um, I was wondering if I could miss today's lab? I can make it up during my study hall tomorrow. I promise not to get in the way of your class."
"Sure. Is that all?"
"That's it. That easy." None of the other teachers were this lax, and honestly, she never asked to get out of a class before.
"Yep. As long as you finish your project, I am fine."
"Okay. Thanks" She perked up, "Bye Mrs. Krupsky." She always seemed to worry for nothing. She hated confrontation, but there wasn't an easier teacher to confront than her art teacher.
Back in the hallway Liam, while still in the place she left him, was talking to Taylor.
"Dude, it's not going to work." Taylor's back was to Zara.
"Shh."
Taylor turned around. "Oh, hi Zara. Just catching up with this fool. Oh, and hey, are you working on Friday?"
"No. Um, so what's not going to work?"
"Nothing." Taylor loved to be evasive. It would work too, if not for the pink splotches that showed up on her face, like now. Her tell.
"Right. Well, we'll talk later," and she gave Taylor a knowing look before she pointed at Liam, "but you, you need to come with me."
Taylor yelled after her, "So, can we switch for Friday?"
"I'll talk to you later Taylor." The hallway was filling up with her classmates. Taylor was lost in a crowd coming from the computer room.
She pushed Liam into an empty classroom that other teachers used for storage. It was like a Room of Requirement, but other than a dumping ground, it never turned into anything useful. Until now, now it was very useful.
"I am not going to make out with you." Liam smirked.
She responded with a slap on his arm. He didn't flinch. Instead he set the backpack down, and sat in a chair. The kind with a tiny table attached. He overwhelmed both with his size.
Grabbing her own table chair she positioned her facing his. "Tell me everything. What happened?" She leaned forward and rested her chin in her hands.
He leaned back. They were a swinging pendulum knocking each other in the opposite directions. "What is there to say really. I kind of told you everything." He tilted his chair even further back with it now resting only on the back two legs.
She crossed her arms in front of her, "No you didn't. You barely told me anything."
"Look, we are barely friends. This isn't girl talk. Besides, right now I should be studying for a test."
She sat back, narrowed her eyes at him, "I am sure you will do fine. I am, however, confused. How did Nathaniel go from hating me to--"
The door to the room opened and two sophomores, which Zara recognized from her days on the bus, fell through wrapped in a tight flurried embrace, lips locked on each other like they were stuck together with super glue.
They didn't notice their audience until the girl bumped backwards into a stack of boxes. The top box flew off, scattering human sexuality pamphlets all over the floor. One actually slid across the floor and landed at her feet.
She looked down with the image of a girl holding a baby. "Know the Risks of Sex," said the title.
Liam cocked his head to look at it too. "I think they might actually need this one."
The two, who were now brushing down their shirts, red faced, hurried out the door without saying anything.
"Where were we?" Zara slid the pamphlet in his direction like she was tagging him it.
"Look, can't you be happy that he wants to go with you to the dance? I mean, he's going to call you and everything."
"What? You gave him my number?" She panicked at the thought of him calling her, and why, she thought he hated her. Did Liam pay him? No. Why would he.
She got up and walked out the door. She sensed Liam was laughing at her. She was stupid to trust him, guessing the Darlings put him up to this. She didn't want to go back to class.
The door she just left clicked behind her. "Hey, stop. Wait a minute."
She wanted him to leave her alone, but there wasn't anywhere else to go but full classrooms. Unless she went back to the Library. She could hide in the stacks.
"Come on, don't run. Where are you going?"
She picked up the pace and turned right, ducked into a girls bathroom while waiting for him to pass. She peered through a crack in the door, and when she was sure he was gone, she stepped out in the hallway and made for the Library.
The stacks were at the back of the Library, on a second level, with a rail you could look over to see tables below. There were also 2 computers here, and they were always in use with some student doing research. She snuck up to the fiction section of the stacks, where she could still see through the shelf to the floor below, while pretending to read.
She pulled the first book off the shelf her hand reached for, "Fan Girl", by Rainbow Rowel. "I hope this isn't a sign."
A head peaked around the corner. "Excuse me. Were you talking to someone?"
"Crap. I mean, sorry, no. Just talking to myself." She wanted to die right there. It was worse than Liam. She was faced with the boy she'd been fantasizing about since May.
"Zara, right?" He stepped fully into the aisle and looked down at her.
It was awkward for her to look up in the seated position. She hesitated if she should stand, but decided that it was better to remain as she was. She would not move for this boy. She was an independent Lady.
She slid the book behind her, and though he watched her movement, her hand covered the title of the book so she was sure he couldn't see it.
"Uh huh. How could you forget?" Her cheeks heated up with the thought of their last meeting.
"About that, I am really sorry for the way I acted. Did Liam talk to you?"
"No, he didn't. She wouldn't let him." He stood at the other aisle with a bemused look on his face.
Double crap. She looked between them, wanting this horror to end.
"Oh hey Liam. I wondered where you went. You weren't at study hall." Nathanial was conversational, like this conversation was the most normal in the world.
He was also closer to Zara, and she couldn't help but lean towards him. He smelt so good, like fancy soap and sandalwood.
"Seeing as you found each other I'll just go. You are on your own with this one Nathaniel. Liam walked away, and she wanted to follow him. There was something in his look.
Maybe he was mad that he'd been keeping his promise, and she'd done nothing for him. She wanted to find out, but first, the elephant in the room.
"I'll go to the dance with you. We can talk more then. Meet here?"
He laughed. "Sure. I thought I was going to have to beg for forgiveness."
He had a dimple. She liked that. She should remember to tell him that when they knew each other better. "Maybe next time, but I gotta go."
"Okay, see you later."
"Bye." And she was off to find Liam.
He was leaning against lockers in the hallway. He hadn't gone far, that it made her think that maybe he was waiting for her.
"Sorry I mistrusted you." She leaned against the lockers too, and was next to him. She couldn't see his face.
"Why did you mistrust me?" She couldn't tell for sure, but he sounded disappointed. She hated the feeling of disappointing someone.
"I thought the Darlings put you up to it. I saw them talking with Nathaniel during lunch. I should thank you instead. You kept your promise even though you didn't have to."
"Thank you for saying it." He turned to face her, and she could feel his eyes on her. "So what about your sister?"
Her throat felt dry. "She hasn't budged." Now that she knew Liam wasn't pranking her as some minion of the Darlings, she felt bad for him. Her sister was wrong about him. "So, how did you convince him?"
"I didn't. He felt bad, and asked me how to make it up to you. The truth is, he thinks the bike fell over on its own. It wobbled when he got off and lost control of it. You were just there at the wrong time."
"Oh, and..."
"Yep, and all this time you've been punishing yourself over it. Well, looks like you don't really owe me anything. I am thinking of asking someone else anyways."
"Really?" She felt a pinch of jealousy, and she justified that it was jealousy for her sister. How could he move on so quickly. If it was true love shouldn't he fight for it. "Who?"
"You're not going to like the answer."
Just then the bell rang, and she jumped at the sound.
"Well, gotta go. Glad everything worked out for you. See you around." He pushed off the lockers and walked away.