Four weeks passed and the leaves began to change, yet things didn't get much better than the first three days of school. In fact, they hardly changed at all. I still hate Tate with a burning passion. We haven't said a word to each other since our argument on the third day of school. I'm starting to believe that Jackson and I's friendship will never be the same. I still don't have an opinion on Connor except 'player' because he's been with more girls in four weeks than guys I have in my entire life. The only thing that is really different is my friendship with Josh.
"Josh," I whined as I joined Josh at our usual lunch table. "Marie ditched me yet again to go and eat lunch with them."
"She never said that you couldn't sit with her. Jackson is her friend too. He would be your friend as well if you let him. If anything, you are ditching them." He told me, taking a bite of his cheeseburger.
"Hey!" I protested. "You are ditching them too then."
He arched an eyebrow. "I just don't want to have to choose between my friends and they won't get mad at me for sitting with you instead of them."
Guilt slammed into me. These past weeks I've been a bit possessive over my friends, and by friends I mean Marie and Josh. I know that I've been driving Marie crazy, but Josh doesn't seem to mind. He's not afraid to tell me when I'm wrong, yet he won't ditch me even if I'm being ridiculous. I know that it isn't fair for me to take him away from his friends. He tells me every day that I'm being stubborn and everyday I blow it off, but maybe he's right. Do I really want to spend the rest of my senior year alone? It's not like I have to become Ms. Social Butterfly, hell, I don't even have to talk to anyone, but it is getting kind of old sitting with only Josh every day. Marie is my best friend and I'm distancing myself from her. That's not fair to any of us.
"Fine." I pouted. "We can sit with them."
Josh smiled at me, surprised. "Things with you and Jackson won't fix themselves. Ignore Tate and claim your friends back. I don't like seeing you so miserable."
I grabbed my tray and stood up. Josh followed me to Jackson's table. Marie told me that Jackson always made sure that two seats were empty for Josh and me if we ever wanted to sit with them. I sat in the seat next to Marie and Josh sat next to me. Unfortunately, Tate was sitting right across from me.
"Oh, the princess is gracing us with her presence. I guess, she's finally deemed us worthy." Tate sneered at me. "Should I bow, your Majesty?"
"Oh, shut it, Tate." Marie sighed and shook her head.
"Yes. Bow down, my bitch." I spat at him. "I'm not going to deal with your crap, Wall-e."
He rolled his eyes. "Stop calling me that stupid name."
"It's not my fault that you aren't significant enough for me to remember your name." I retaliated.
"You really want to start on who is more significant? If you disappeared and no one but Josh would notice." He narrowed his eyes at me.
"This is not ignoring him." Josh elbowed me.
"He started it!" I whined and Josh just put a finger over my mouth and made a shushing sound.
I groaned, but didn't say anything.
"You tamed the beast." Tate pretended to give Josh an impressed look. "Didn't think that it was possible."
I moved Josh's finger from my face. "I thought I was a princess. Make up your mind."
"You are like the Beast from Beauty and the Beast. I would suggest that Josh is your Beauty, but he hasn't been able to turn you human again." He shrugged.
"Hey." Jackson interrupted. "Be nice."
"Whatever." Tate mumbles.
"Aw, don't tell them to stop. It's entertainment." Connor smirked.
The rest of lunch was easier. I tried to stay out of the conversation, but I kept getting dragged in. As the lunch period ended I felt a little stupid for avoiding them. I can deal with Tate. I'll just figure the rest out as I go. Despite Tate and I's little spat, that was probably the best lunch that I've had in a very long time. Marie is a great friend, but I guess one friend is never enough. That doesn't mean that we are all going to be having a big sleepover or braid each other's hair any time soon, but I don't think I'll mind hanging out with them that much.
Plus, it's selfish to keep Marie and Josh from their other friends.
*
As I was walking with Marie to her car at the end of the day, I could tell that she had an idea.
"You know how we haven't had any bestie days in a while? You know, just the two of us?" She asked.
Yes, I know. You have been ditching me all month. "Yeah." I answered nonchalantly.
"I was thinking, you know how we're seniors?" She continued.
"Just spit it out." I joked.
"We should do a senior prank!" She jumped up and down excitedly.
I sighed. I'm so going to end up in the principal's office. "Aren't senior pranks done at the end of the year though? It's only October."
"That's the beauty of it." She smiled brightly. "No one will be expecting it."
We reached her car and she unlocked it.
"Nothing that's going to get me in jail." I relented.
"You are no fun." She pretended to sulk. "I was thinking of something like filling up hundreds of cups of water and covering the entire main hall with them."
"That sounds like a lot of work. We would have to get it all done overnight. There would just not be enough time for it." Plus, it sounds lame.
She started the car and pulled out of the parking lot. "Okay, do you have any ideas?"
I thought for a minute. When we passed the park, I smiled. "We could release ducks in the school!"
"Isn't that kind of cliche?" Marie took a piece of gum out of the glove compartment and popped it into her mouth.
"It'll still be funny, and it would take less time. I mean, how hard could catching ducks be?"
*
It was eleven o'clock at night, and I was exhausted. I've been at this stupid park for over an hour.
It was Marie's idea to try to put the ducks into cat carriers to transport them to the school. Sounds simple enough, right? It's not.
Ducks bite.
Ducks run.
Ducks fly.
We only have five cat carriers, so we figured that it would only take us ten to fifteen minutes to get the ducks.
"This is hopeless." I sighed.
"Be more positive, Lulu! The harder it is for us to catch them, the harder it will be for the janitors to catch them tomorrow at school." She had a point.
"Okay, but we need a new plan of attack." I sat down on the ground and thought. "Bread!" I shouted, making Marie jump.
"Jeez, you scared the crap out of me."
"Bread, Mimi. We can put bread in the cages. They will walk right in." I smiled at myself, proud of my idea.
"I have bread in the trunk of my car!" Marie jumped up and started running back to the parking lot.
"I didn't know if they would like whole grain or the white kind better, so I brought both." She said as she ran back with the two loaves.
I just gave her a look.
"What? My mom told me to pick up groceries on the way home after I dropped you off. I forgot about them. I think the ice cream melted." She made a face.
I just took one of the loaves and opened it.
I threw the first piece at one of the ducks. When the duck realized that it was food, it quacked. The other ducks looked at Marie and I.
Everything was silent for a minute and then they charged. There were at least twenty of them all running at the same time. It was the scariest moment of my life.
I grabbed pieces of the bread and threw it into the cat carriers as Marie did the same with the other loaf.
We trapped the five ducks that we needed to and threw the rest of the bread as far as we could. The ducks followed the bread. It took only five more minutes to load the ducks into the car.
I like to think that the ducks enjoyed the car ride. They quacked in what I think was a happy tone.
By the time that we got to the school it was midnight. I used my all access card that I got from the librarian, long story, to get inside.
I released three ducks while Marie released the other two. We stood at the door and watched them waddle down the hall. All of the classroom doors were closed, so they would wondering the halls until morning.
Marie and I looked at each other and grinned.
"This is going to be great." I said hearing the faint quacks of the ducks in the distance.