“Ariane Laker, please come to the office as soon as possible,” a voice through the intercom said. Cameron raised his eyebrow.
“Are you in trouble again?”
“You never know,” I replied, playing around with my pencil. We were sitting in the most awkward room this school had – the library.
I wanted Cameron to help me with my homework (hopefully tricking him into doing it for me in the process), and he insisted on going to the library.
The librarian – I swear it was hate at first sight. She kept telling me to ‘shush’ whenever a word came out of me, and that I had an extremely loud voice.
“Well?” Cameron asked, “Aren’t you going to go?”
“No. Why?” I asked.
“They wanted you to go to the office,” he stated, like it was obvious, “So …. Well, this isn’t hard to understand. Why don’t you … go?”
I found myself tapping the desk with my pencil again, and the librarian gave me another one of her murderous glare.
It suddenly occurred to me what it could be.
“Oh my god, my test scores,” I exclaimed, jumping up from my seat. The librarian gave me a rather loud ‘shush’. I smile sweetly at her, but she just turned away and went back to sorting the books.
“Test?” Cameron asked.
“Never mind,” the voice through the intercom quickly said, just as I opened my mouth to reply, “You can just stay where you are, Ariane.”
I slumped back into my seat, “Awww.”
“Well, let’s get back to the math worksheet, shall we?” Cameron asked, pushing it towards me, “Try to do the ones you can.”
I looked at it for a second, and then pushed it back towards him, “There.”
“You didn’t do anything,” he said, confused.
“I know,” I tried to look sincere, “You told me to do all the ones I can. And I did.”
He sighed, moving his attention back to his homework, “I know what you’re trying to do, and it’s not going to work.”
“What am I trying to do?” I asked him innocently.
“You’re trying to make me do all the work for you,” he replied without glancing up, “I can help you understand it, Ariane, but I have loads of homework too, you know.”
I let out a loud sigh, “Great. Who am I supposed to ask then?”
Looking around, I caught sight of Mackenzie making her way towards the door.
“Mackenzie!” I yelled, getting her attention.
“This is your last warning, young lady,” the librarian suddenly appeared with a stern look, “Another loud peep out of you and you’re banned from the library.”
There was a brief second of silence.
“Peep,” I said, as loud as I dared, hoping it wasn’t loud enough to get me kicked out. She glared at me again, and walked away, whispering something about younger generations being disobedient.
“You’re not supposed to yell in a library,” Mackenzie said in a whisper,walking towards me. She was smiling though.
“I know,” I smiled, “I was just wondering if you could help me with homework.”
“You’re doing homework?” she looked surprised.
“Yes,” I replied, “Surprising, huh? If I don’t pull my grade up, I won’t be able to go to the city with you guys next time.”
“I would love to help you, but I can’t right now,” she said apologetically, “I’m helping Max with a prank.”
“Max? Prank?” I asked, pretending to look insulted, “He asked you and not me?”
Mackenzie shrugged and smiled, “You could ask Caden to help you though.”
“Nah, it’s fine.”
“Why? Didn’t you guys get along just like, two days ago?” Mackenzie asked.
“Yeah …” I said half-heartedly.
“What happened?”
“Ah … just ... some complications,” I shrugged.
“And where does your relationship stand?” she said.
“We’re not in a relationship,” I said quickly.
“No, I meant, are you guys friends? Enemies?” she gave me a funny look, like she suspected something else.
“Friends, I guess,” I said, cracking my knuckles, which was a bad habit of mine.
“Just friends?”
“Did you get that from Max?” I asked suspiciously.
“No,” a smirk appeared on Mackenzie’s face, “I can tell when people are in love.”
“I am not in love with Caden,” I lied, but I could feel my cheeks start to flush.
“Mhm,” she said, not believing me.
“Look, if he wants something to happen, he should speak up,” I was so irritated that I wasn’t aware of what I had just said until it was too late.
“So you do want something to happen,” Mackenzie smiled.
“I never said that,” I denied.
“I have to go right now,” she said, quickly glancing at the clock, “But I just wanted to let you know, if you want something to happen, you shouldn’t wait until he makes a move. Use some of that girl power, Ariane.”
With that, she waved goodbye and walked away.
I returned to my seat across from Cameron.
“What was that about?” he asked as he finished typing some numbers into the calculator.
“Girl power,” I mumbled, burying my face into my arms.
“Girl power?” Cameron asked humorously, “Are you going to ask him out?”
“Him?” I asked, without glancing up.
“Caden,” he replied simply.
“Why Caden?” I moaned. Seriously. Why did everyone think I liked Caden? They weren’t wrong, but was it that obvious?
No, no, I shouldn’t like Caden. I’ll use some of that ‘girl power’ and get over him. I didn’t need him.
That probably wasn’t the kind of girl power Mackenzie meant.
I was fine with living a lonely life … with thirty cats …
Who was I kidding? I didn’t even like cats. I’ve always been scared that they would scratch my face off. Well, not ‘off’, cause I don’t think that’s possible.
“Because you like him?” Cameron stated.
“Bleh,” I told him.
“Funny,” I could hear an unmistakable smile in his voice, “Look who just walked in.”
Please be a jumping whale, please be a jumping whale.
“Why don’t you go use some of that girl power?” Cameron laughed.
“Because I don’t have any?” I asked hopefully, glancing up.
And there he was, walking in like some freaking king. With his freaking attractive smile and freaking brilliant eyes. Now, where was the freaking queen so I could just go through with my plans of getting over him?
“He’s coming over here,” Cameron whispered, like I hadn’t noticed.
Stupid girl power.