Chapter 23 : The Book Of Letters (Part One)
"I'm sure Mr. Gregory will let you slide. You are the smartest person in the class and teacher's pet." Kelly teased, but I couldn't oppose to that sentence since I was too busy dying on the inside.
What if someone got a hold of my bag and didn't act like a good human being and return it? What if the wrong hands connected with my books? My books. Not just some of my school textbooks that weren't in my locker. Oh, no. But the book that could be the death of me. Makes me wonder how foolish I was to carry it around, but that wasn't the point now. I had to find it. And fast.
"My books were in that bag." I managed to choke out from all the unbalanced emotions coursing through me.
Kelly squints her eyes at my sentence before finally catching on. "Oh." She said as her eyes widened
"What am I going to do?"
"You remember that time I gave you one of my uncle's special candy?" She asks not bothering to look up at me as she starts bulldozing through her messy book bag.
Yeah, I did. Kelly's uncle Mark worked for some weird candy testing company. I didn't even know what to call it. She brought some red tiny gumball like candy to school and made me try them. When I say those are the most pepper candy I have ever tasted, I mean it. My whole face was red as a tomato and my cheeks were as big as a chipmunk's. Okay, I'm exaggerating on the cheek thing, but they were somewhat poofy.
"I am not eating your uncle's devil candy."
She shifted her weight on her left leg and groaned "You wanna find your bag or not? "
I didn't know where she was going with this, but I did want to find my bag, but I also didn't want a detention for missing class. And English was a class I loved since Mr. Gregory didn't tolerate the morons that I was seated with.
"What do you have in mind?"
The moment those words left my mouth the red gumball entered. To think she promised never to bring them again.
"You lying pigeon." I said with the gumball in my cheek. I could already feel the tension rising in my mouth.
"Just follow me and play along." She whispered, opening the classroom door that we were standing in front of.
The second the door creaked open all eyes beamed on us, but mostly me. That's when I knew the candy was doing it's job. I resisted the need to fan my mouth as Mr. Gregory stopped writing on the white board. He adjusted his long black tie carefully as he rest his marker on the desk.
"Miss Willis. Miss Brookes. You're late." His dark brown eyes glowered from beneath his spectacles as he turned to face us. It took him a while to realize my change of color and when he did he nearly forgot about my tardiness.
"I'm sorry, but I think Cerise here is allergic to something." Kelly said sympathetically. She was one heck of an actress.
"Is that so?" Mr. Gregory examined me which felt so uncomfortable as he circled us as if he knew we were up to something. After a few seconds he then let out a weary sigh. " Fine. Just get the missing notes from one of your classmates if the bell rings before you're back. You can take her to the nurse's office."
Kelly smiled in relief. "C'mon, Reecy." She patted me thoughtfully as we made our exit. (Still not feeling that nickname) I could feel some of the eyes of the students on us. Some even laughing their heads off at me. When we were completely out of sight and around the other hall, I grabbed a tissue out of my sweater pocket and spat the candy out.
"I am never doing that again." I coughed as Kelly handed me a full water bottle that she retrieved from her bag.
The liquid enlightened my sore burning throat as it entered. I don't think no one could understand the relief I was experiencing right now. When all was finally gone I tossed the empty bottle in the recycle bin, glaring at my wonderful best friend who was laughing her head off.
"At least you're no longer a chameleon," She teased before clearing her throat professionally. "Okay. Where was the last place you had your bag?"
"After the library we split up this morning. I went to first period, but then ditched second period-"
"To go with Carter." She finished with a wink
"Yeah, whatever. " I grumbled ," And then we went on the field."
"So let's check there." She suggests, "Come on."
*
When we arrived on the field the sight before us almost made me dropped to my knees. Sean, Luke and Mike. Sean had the strap of my bag in his hands dangling by his fingers as he conversed with the idiots around him.
"You see it yet?" Kelly asked, looking under the bleachers.
I tapped her shoulder. "Look." I pointed to the three boys not too far away.
"Follow me."
I followed behind her. We approached the three who still hadn't noticed us because they were talking. Why weren't they in class like normal students?
"If you wanted to borrow some makeup you could have just asked, Sean." Kelly growled, capturing their attention.
"I knew this bag looked too familiar." Sean chuckled, twirling my bag easily around his finger which I found so impressive because I had a good amount of items inside.
"Just give it and no one gets hurt." Kelly smiled, reaching out for the bag but he pulled away.
"What? We can't get any gum?" He asked, putting his hand to his chest as he feigned hurt.
He reached into my bag and pulled out a packet of juicy fruit gum throwing one to each of the boys surrounding him. How dare they eat my gum?
"Check this out., Sean. Didn't know nerd could draw." Luke called out. I realized he was flipping through my drawing book and I could feel my toes on the verge of sweating like they normally did when I was nervous.
"That's because you guys were too busy boo-ing in the gym to even know what we came in there for." Kelly said.
Luke gave a carefree shrug as he continued to flip through the pages. Mike went to his side and started scanning my art as well.
"If you ladies are done here; you can go now." Sean waved with that evil smirk on his face just like his sister's.
"I'm not leaving until I get my bag." I said grimly, taking a step closer to him. We were two feet away from each other.
"Then I guess you won't be leaving. We wouldn't mind the company." He said stepping a closer which called for me dropping back a step at our closeness.
"So help me Sean I will publicly castrate you if you don't give Cerise her bag right now." Kelly swears as she steps in between us. But he only chuckled as if it was a joke which if I knew my best friend correctly; it wasn't.
"Give me my bag." I repeated, but more slowly for his peanut sized brain to comprehend. Just as I thought he was handing me it; he flung it to Mike who caught it in one shot.
I guess we call them football players for a reason.
It felt like my heart swapped places with another organ of my body when Mike's hand plunged into my bag. It was a good thing it wasn't my time of the month or he'd be getting a huge surprise.
"What's this?" Mike asked, his voice filled with curiosity as he took out the familiar small dark purple notebook.
The hunger games symbol sticker that was on the cover of it was still there. The black strings that kept the pages together and the dark blue sharpie still laid in between a certain page.
The book of letters.
"Diary? I thought this was high school." Sean snickered, making his way over to Mike's side. "Open it."
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