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Chapter 6 — Check Mate!
I stood up after finishing a quick bowl of unsweetened cereal when I caught glimpse of the black car parked at the other side of the street. There was a strange familiarity about it but I couldn’t be so sure.
“Mom, I didn’t know the Robson’s were back. I thought they moved abroad,” I called out.
Her strawberry blond head protruded from the laundry room. “They weren’t. Apparently, a new family bought the house.”
I nodded before she could narrate her encounters with the Robson’s, grabbed my backpack and walked to school hurriedly, pausing a couple of seconds hoping to see any signs of life in the newly sold residence to no avail.
Class went on smoothly. It was quite tedious really, and I was so glad to hear the bell signaling lunch break, I almost jumped out of my seat before the Biology teacher dismissed the class. Becky and I strode side by side in silence. Perhaps this was one of the reasons we got along quickly. We don’t bother with the chatter and probably, like me she preferred to steer clear of small pleasantries and the awkwardness of such. There were only a few times when she got really inquisitive and when she does, she really knows how to get on your nerves.
We sat at our usual table at the back of the cafeteria, both staring ruefully at the repugnant stuff that was again, supposed to be lunch. Ricky Burns, chess club president and one of his buddies, Al Mackintosh sat with us. Birds of same the feather.
I sighed and gazed pensively at the other tables. Same went with the all the strata of students. Popular and good-looking kids stay together with their own kind. Athletes did too as well as the cheerleaders, the punks, the nerds; and there were those who did not belong to the said castes. They tend to stick together.
The world is unfair. I have accepted that a long, long time ago. Sometimes I wondered if I hadn’t worn glasses and wasn’t branded as a nerd. I imagined myself shopping or spending hours to curl my hair or put make dark makeup on my face and I chuckled at the thought. Sad to say, I would never have passed for any other category other than a nerd. I don’t even wear glasses all the time anymore and people call me Nerdy.
Becky and I parted for electives. I took Studio Art while she did Wellness. Those were the only classes we had not been together. I practically ran away when I read the course description: Cooking for Life beyond High School. No thanks.
The next period was English Literature. I wore my glasses this time, tied my hair up into an untidy bun, sticking a pencil in between the loops to hold it in place. This being my favorite subject, I wanted to focus.
Accidentally, I caught Leon glance over me for a quick while then withdrew his gaze upon noticing that I was aware. There was a hint of vagueness in his eyes. I kept on scribbling on my notes, suddenly becoming aware of my surroundings.
I could hear it as he shifted uneasily on his seat. I could see at the corner of my eye, when he pretended to rest his temples on his hands so he could look at me freely without being caught.
Perhaps there was dirt on my face. Do I look funny to him? That was a rhetorical question.
I was fighting hard to take a glance at him for several minutes but I still did it out of impulse and sheer stupidity. To my surprise, he met my eyes with his; clear as crystal, a smirk forming at the corner of his lips. With that, I scowled at him rather incredulously.
What’s the matter with this guy? First, he talked about his past, yada yada yada, then sulked and ignored me for a few weeks and just now, was he trying to annoy me to death yet again?
The period ended and left me flustered. Something was reawakened inside me. I strongly insinuated that it was nothing more than blind boiling fury.
“Sarah,” Becky revived me from the deep thoughts that submerged me. “Aren’t you coming with me to gym class?”
“Uhh… Yeah, I’ll meet you in the locker room.” I still sat there unable to stand with the strange sudden wave inside my stomach. Perhaps it was indigestion.
The next thing I knew, I felt the pencil I used to secure my hair being tugged gently by someone. I turned to who it was as my hair fell down my back and caught a glimpse of Leon holding the pencil appearing as dumbfounded as I was.
“Don’t wear it up. I like it… better that way...” he muttered more to himself as if in a trance as though someone was hypnotizing him. Maybe it was the chemicals in Bio Lab. It must be hazardous to his superstar brain.
I snatched the pencil from his hand, glowering at him. “So are we speaking to each other now?”
The invisible hypnotist must have snapped his fingers because with that note, Leon seemed to blink in a curious manner, the gap in between his perfect eye brows furrowing slightly as though he had been doused with cold water. Clearly, he wasn’t himself. His face dimmed, jaws clenched and without a word trudged his way out.
Once again I was alone in the room, left to gawk and fume at the absurdity of it all. I was not normally a violent person but I found it utterly difficult to restrain myself from the urge of toppling my chair down.
I was still seething with an inexplicable rage as I changed into my gym clothes, just to find that Mr. Myers was on leave due to a transient ischemic attack and no one was able to relieve the class from him. But as usual, we weren’t allowed to go early as the school would be held liable for whatever, if any, would happen to the students outside the school grounds when it was still a class hour.
The class automatically divided into two on their own accord—more than half joined the unofficial dodge ball tourney while others; the athletically unblessed, concurred to a game of chess. As much as I loved chess, I was in the mood to channel my newfound fury through a rough game of dodge ball. To my dismay, no one wanted to take me in their team so I crawled back moping to the chess arena.
Ricky Burns, chess club president (yeah, you have to mention that every time you say his name) had already wiped the floor with two of the geeks on the line that was formed by the people who wanted to challenge him. Ricky yawned and scratched his nose as he had beaten another three quickly with one of his ten-move or four-move games.
“You’re all no challenge for me!” He said checkmating another opponent. “Sarah!” He called me with an air of authority. I didn’t like his tone. “Won’t you play?”
“No. Too lazy to do anything.” I said dryly, seating myself beside Becky, slouched on the bleachers and leaning on the wall as if all my life-energy has been sucked dry out of me.
“You’re not afraid to lose, are you?” he taunted. He knew all too well that I would not refuse such an arrogant dare.
I stood up stormed my way to the stool opposite his and sat glaring at him. “I never lose in chess, Ricky Burns, chess club president. More importantly, I never lose to you.”
“Let’s see about that,” he muttered.
In a matter of minutes, I could see the beads of sweat forming on his wide forehead. I smiled a crooked grin and moved my queen in front of his king. He couldn’t do anything since I created a web of trap for him plus I supported my queen with the other pieces well. “Check mate.”
Becky shrieked in excitement while a hum of mutterings filled the air.
Ricky sighed and congratulated me acidly. A smile curved the corner of my drying lips. Chess was one of the very few things I’m proud about myself. I would gloat about it, but I could never compel myself to add insult to injury. Somehow I felt sympathetic for Ricky.
He scratched the back of his copper hair and adjusted his glasses on the bridge of his nose to hide his disappointment then walked to Leonard Dunn.
Ricky patted him on the shoulder pausing to mumble something to his ear as if passing an ugly secret, then thrust him toward the chess table. Ugh. Now the boys were fraternizing against me. I am so going to kick Ricky’s butt next Chess Club meeting!
Leon shook his head hesitantly as he sat in front of me and started to arrange the white pieces in their respective positions without so much as a glance at his opponent. I found myself gawping at his sudden participation. This is going to be good… and personal. I smirked.
So you’d like to be on the offensive? That’s how you’d like to go on about this? My mind raced. The fury was fueled by annoyance as I put my pieces back to their places, fingers trembling, smoldering at him.
A waved a hand to signal that he was free to start. Leon shrugged, his face unreadable, leaning forward to move his knight. The whole while I was glaring at him and this time I thanked God that I didn’t have to pretend to ignore him. I could see through his glasses and found his crystalline turquoise eyes as they flickered through his dark lashes — his slightly angular face, perfect nose, flawless complexion and lips that curved in an outlandish manner whenever he smiled, much more mesmerizing. It troubled me how easily one could see through his disguise and smirked at how dense my classmates were for buying his scheme.
But then, I marveled at his idea of pulling off the nerd cover. For us nerds, no one goes to the trouble of looking closely. We were the eyesores and the unwanted. I secretly congratulated him inside my head. Or did I just say that out loud?
“Your turn.” He averted his gaze from me as if doing otherwise would contract him some contagious disease.
I finally remembered how to breathe, then as though doused with cold water, made a hasty move with the pawn in front of my king. How long was I day dreaming? I nagged at myself silently and reminded my brain how I loathed this person. Clenching my fists until my nails dug on my palms, I chanted inside my head, focus, focus, focus! But I struggled hard to my surprise to fight the urge to scrutinize his every move. Instead of focusing on the game I was lost in deep unsettling thoughts.
We exchanged a few hasty moves for what seemed like hours to me. I was too eager to finish him but every time I pick a piece, a sneer forms on his face, taunting me, unnerving as if I was about to fall into one of his traps. I breathed nervously and closed my eyes. Whatever he was doing, he was good at it.
To tell the truth, I had no idea what I was doing now. I kept moving pieces without thinking about it.
“That’s a rook you’re holding,” he said bleakly.
“So?” My voice was supposed to be sarcastic, instead I sounded terrified.
He curbed a smirk, and instinctively pressed his fingers to his lips, elbow resting on the table. “Err… It isn’t supposed to be moved diagonally.”
Ugh. I fumbled there like an idiot, eyes still fixed on him, nearly toppling down the pieces near my trembling hands.
“I knew that.” I tried to sound like everything was under control feeling the rush of blood through my cheeks, wondering if I look as worse as I had imagined.
After a few more exchange of moves, his eyes fixed at me intently then moved one of knights then tipped my king down with a small smile. “Check mate,” said Leon with an incomprehensible tone.
The chess club members — mostly composed of dorks — rushed to Leon to cheer and congratulate him, but he continued to look at me intently with no apparent reason. I stood up blinking my eyes rapidly as if doing so would make me absorb pretty much everything that happened in that short period.
I walked up to the group to congratulate him so as not to appear a sore loser. “You’ve w-won.” That was the closest thing to a praise I could muster. Pathetic, I know.
He smiled widely. If it were not for his fake braces, the room would have lit a notch.
I shook my head gently and watched the chess club members as they hurried to the boys’ locker room and left us. I knew I was gawking again.
“And that’s supposed to be a compliment?” He sounded rather amused than sarcastic. “You weren’t even playing.”
That was not an insult. He was telling the truth as though he could tell what I was thinking.
“Yes I was,” I lied and avoided looking at him.
“Not really. You’ve spent half the time gawking.”
“Well, as you can see I have lots of free time,” I retorted, disdain evident now. “That was a meticulous way to stick out like a sore thumb for someone who’s supposed to stay inconspicuous.” I might have gone overboard, but I didn’t care at the time.
I knew it was unfair to blame him for making me miserable. That was partly my fault. Every agonizing second I spent near him should be easy without my stomach churning every now and then. There might be something wrong with me. Too much anger could be bad for my health. Again I attributed everything to the indigestion.
His eyes glowered at me narrowing into slits of blue gems. Ugh. What am I thinking? I scolded myself over and over again.
Leon stepped nearer, his tall figure casting a shadow on me and I felt a sudden wave of fear. He opened his lips to say something but paused in frustration and turned away kicking angrily. I could see his shoulders rising and falling as he breathed deeply to conquer his temper.
When finally, he composed himself, he turned to me. “Perhaps you’re right.” There was resignation in his voice. I was quite used to retaliating every time he spoke so, by force of habit I opened my mouth intending to let out a few more bickering lines that I made up quickly inside my head, hesitated, then let the matter drop.
“We should go,” I looked around noticing that everyone has left, still avoiding his eyes.
He half-nodded, half-shrugged then stepped away glumly to the boys’ locker room. I did the same and changed my clothes, almost unaware of my surroundings, as if in state of trance; deep thoughts about Leon Walden lingering, flashing in rapid succession inside my head.
Becky waited for me at the corridor near the changing room, silently observing. There were questions in her eyes, but none translated to concrete words. She knew me too well to interrogate me at this point.
I sighed, managing a smile to hide the frustration that welled up inside me. I couldn’t figure him at all. Leon Walden seemed like a blank canvass to me. “You’ve been here a while?”
“Not that long,” She smiled analyzing my face. “Are you okay?”
“Err…Yes I am.” I lied once more. I hated lying but it was inevitable.
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So please tell me if there are any erroneous element... Finally, Sarah and Leon are talking again... Hmmm... I wonder where this could lead their love-hate but mostly hate relationship? Please please vote or fan if you decide to continue reading on. It would mean the world to me :)
lotsa love,
shim~