For the next few days, tension hung in the air like an old man's fart after eating a cheeseburger. Not pleasant at all as you might've guessed. Cody was out of the house most of the time despite being "grounded". Kat just lets him be and convinced herself that he'll just need time to cool down. Well, he hasn't spoken to here in days, so I'm guessing it'll take him long.
Still, Cody is a freaking drama queen, making a huge fuss about all of this. He's been dating slinky skanks since he was 14, and he doesn't see us complaining. Honestly, if Kat was dating a fucking stripper or a serial killer, he has no right to impose himself on her love life.
Now that that's out of the way, Cody should really fix his relationship with his mom. Cody and Kat are really close; they don't have a mother-son relationship but a friendship. I'm kind of one to blame here. Maybe if I didn't tell Cody she was out with Marc, he wouldn't turn into a complete maniac on a mission to hunt her down and ruin her date. Thinking back, Kat really thought Cody would hunt her down after I "convince" him, and that's what really happened. So, I felt responsible and tried to fix things, but so far, I didn't see any good results after talking to both of them. I might not be a good negotiator after all. Shocker!704Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡrsjxpQFyj8
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At lunch when my friends and I were bickering around in the school cafeteria, some girl with a bunch of papers in her hands approached me. She handed me a blue paper with some large words written on it. "Don't miss today's meeting after school. It's gonna be held at the school theater," she said.
"What meeting?" I ask, and Denise snatches the paper from my hand before I even got the chance to take a look at it.
"Nicky, I didn't know you were into acting," she exclaims. I didn't know I was into acting. Am I?
"Ms. Morgan wants to distribute the roles of the play today for everyone who signed up for the drama club," the girl explains.
"But I didn't sign up for the drama club," I retort.
"Yes, you did," she answers back, handing me a paper.
"No, I didn't," I say, taking the paper--a list of the drama club members writing on it--and sure enough, my name was written in sloppy, cursive handwriting. "Right, I did."
Only one person I know has sloppy, cursive handwriting, and he's sitting across me at the table.
"Jordan," I say with a smile, "did you by any chance sign me up for the play?"
"I don't know," he shrugs, playing dumb.
My smile fades away, and I angrily grab my spoon and attack him with my yogurt.
"Are you kidding me, Jordan? Why did you do that?!"
"You ruined my shirt," he whined. I get even more frustrated. I hate drama, and I hate drama plays even more. Damn him, he thinks he can just prank me like that. He's just a fucking idiot. I throw more food at him, and then I start chasing him around the school. People probably thought we're crazy as we passed them in the hallways and around the corridors. He runs in the boys' restroom, thinking he can escape my wrath. Well, you thought wrong, dumbass.
I enter carelessly, and I find guys looking at me weirdly, either washing their hands or doing God knows what in the urinals, but I don't find Jordan. One of the guys points at the middle cabin, and I give him a nod.
"Jordan, come out," I know hard on the door.
"I'm peeing," he calls back.
"No, you ain't--" I hear a sound of running water, and I grimace at the door. "I won't let this go, Jasshole."
"Jasshole?!"
Denice told me that I can't quit the club. Apparently, there's a play coming up, and the club was short on the members. Screw Jordan, now, I'm stuck with this.
It takes me a while to find the theater, which I just discovered our school has. Chairs were arranged in a ring, and the teacher stood in the center talking to the students. I take the only empty seat quietly, but everyone turned their eyes to me.
"Are you Nicole Shadow?" The teacher asks. She actually looked really young, like in her 20s, or something. She had brown hair that fell smoothly just above her shoulders with bangs covering her forehead. She had hazel eyes that looked like they were smiling all the time, lips that looked naturally rosy, and freckled pale skin. She wore a brown midi skirt and a green blouse. She looked like a high-class goody-goody from the 50s.
"Yeah."
"Welcome to the theater. Call me Morgan," she smiled sweetly at me. "Now, since everybody's here, let's assign the play roles."
She starts calling names and telling them their role in the play. I think we're acting some cheesy romantic story.
"Nicole," Morgan calls me. "You'll be the princess."
"Ha! I'd rather be a potato." Is this a joke? I can't be a princess. No way! Did she even look at me? I'm no princess.
"Sorry, Nicole, but there are no potatoes in the play. You're playing the princess."
"But I can't be the princess. I didn't even come here because I wanted to. My friend found it funny to prank me and write my name on the list of the drama club members, and now I'm stuck here. I hate acting, and I hate drama, and I hate princesses," I rant till I lose my breath.
"You'll still play the princess."
"Please, just put me anywhere else. I can be a tree," I try again. There's no way that I'll be put in a long dress and act in front of everyone as a princess. It'll be so embarrassing and will probably ruin my life. My friends won't ever let that go. Then again, if I were in a tree costume, they won't let that go either.
"You can't be the tree. Josh is the tree," she motions her hand toward Josh, my ex-lab partner.
I frown at him, and he simply shrugs and says, "I'm a good tree."
I didn't give up. I followed Morgan out of the theater and kept nagging till she reached the teachers' room and asked me to go home before she closed the door...and locked it...twice.
Great! I'm going to be a princess.
I'll kill that bastard.
I met Ryan outside the school. He was leaning against his Porsche, swiping through his phone. The park was nearly empty since it's now past school hours, but why was he here? He didn't notice me coming, yet he wasn't surprised when he saw me.
"What took you so long?" He asked and kissed my cheek.
"Have you been waiting for me since dismissal time?"
"No, I had practice. I knew you were in the drama club and had a meeting, so I thought I could wait to give you a ride," he shrugs.
"Oh, thanks."
He opens the door for me and I get in his luxurious vehicle. On the way home, I tell him about Jordan pranking me and that I'm now stuck in a princess dress for the play. He laughed when I told him I'll play the princess. I wonder why.
"You'll be the princess?" He said in between his laughs.
"Yeah, what a bliss," I exclaim sarcastically.
"Pardon me, Shadow, but you are no princess," he shakes his head, still chuckling.
"Of course, I'm not. I'm a queen," I point my chin up dramatically.
"Can't argue to that," he says.
He stops at my place, and I offer him to have dinner with us. He hesitates at first asking me if it was really okay with the people in the house. I know he meant Cody. That asshole will probably fight me if he sees Ryan in the house. As for Kat, she'll be more than happy to have Ryan over.
I unlock the front door and pull him inside. I returned home later than usual so I found Kat already in the house, fixing dinner in the kitchen.
"I'm back!" I announce once I close the door behind me.
Kat turns to us with a smile, "Hey," she trails off when she sees Ryan standing next to me, "Ryan?" She frowns, but the smile stays stretched across her face then it turns into a full grin that reached her eyes.
"Hey, Kat," he greets her. She unties her apron and lays it on the kitchen counter. She holds Ryans arms gently and places a kiss on his cheek. I leave them and walk into the kitchen and open the pots on the stove. The food smelled amazing, and something looked really delicious in the oven.
"I just thought it would be nice if he joined us for dinner," I say, getting a water bottle from the fridge.
"Are you kidding me? That's awesome," Kat said, "You're welcome here anytime, Ryan."
"Thanks, Kat."
"Alright, we'll be in my room," I motion for Ryan to follow me upstairs.
"Don't do anything funny," Kat calls, going back to the kitchen.
"Sure, unless you consider homework funny."
When I close my bedroom door, Ryan asks, "We're not really doing our homework, right?"
"Pfft, of course not," I kick my shoes off and jump on my messy bed. I pat my bed, and he sits in front of me. He kept staring at me for over a minute, and I stare back questioningly. And then when he didn't say anything, I ask, "What?"
"I just feel like we're drifting apart," he says, his eyes searching my face.
"What's this sudden corny bullshit?" I may not be the smoothest person, but he still surprised me with this random question.
"I don't know. It's just a feeling," he shook his head, disregarding the thought. He frowns at the bed with his head hung low, and he looked like he was lost in thought as if he was in his own little world.
"Why would you feel that?" I lean toward him and cock my head to see his face.
"It feels like we rarely talk, and I barely see you around anymore," he explains, looking seriously upset about this. I understand why he'd feel this way. It's my fault. Since that stupid kiss with Will, I've been kind of confused about everything--my relationship with Will, my friends, and even Ryan. And it's not Ryan's fault that he got dragged into my mess, so I wouldn't want him to feel upset about it or blame himself in any way.
"Hey, there's nothing wrong with us," I smile, "We're perfectly fine. You just need to stop worrying about things that don't even exist."
"So, we're cool?"
"Totally." I bite my lips, thinking of my next words. He still didn't look completely convinced, so I figured I needed a valid excuse. "I think I was just distracted lately by school and stuff. I never thought it'd be that hard to keep up with the material and all the studying, and the mid-exams are coming up, and things are getting all over each other in my head now. But I promise you, it's all gonna be great between us again, alright?"
"Yeah, I'm sure," he grins. He moves closer to me and brushes his lips against mine, softly at first. Then he pushes me gently on my bed with his hands around my waist. I wrap my arms around his neck and bring him closer to kiss him back. It was getting more intimate than ever, but Cody had to come in and ruin the moment.
"Nicole-"
"AAAH!" I grab the novel that was on my nightstand and throw it at him. "What the hell, man?!"
"The fuck's he doing here?" He yells from the other side of the door.
"Learn how to knock, asshole!" I throw my head on my pillow and close my eyes, cursing a few words. Ryan chuckles a little to himself, kisses my neck then bounces next to me on the bed. A few moments had passed when I realized that Ryan is actually lying next to me on the bed, and I tense up a little.
"You know, I never saw your bedroom before," he comments, looking around the room. My room was nothing special: it had an average-sized bed;a closet with a bunch of stickers and pictures stuck on it; my desk, which was really messy with papers and books; my bookshelf, filled with CDs of old family videos and novels I never read; and a bulletin board with a map pinned on it and pictures of my friends and family; some song lyrics I wrote on sticky notes were hung there as well. Just a bunch of random things scattered around the room, if you ask me.
"Well, now you did," I say, staring at a picture at the far distance that was pinned on the board and looked like it was about to fall. I made a mental reminder to fix it later. Someone knocks on the door, and I ask who it is. They don't answer, but rather barge in the room like it's theirs.
"I forgot to tell you to come down for dinner," Cody says with a fake smile. He looks suspicious, like he had something planned. Maybe he wants to kill Ryan after dinner, or even bury him alive in the neighbors' backyard. I wouldn't put it past Cody; he would do that if he wanted to.
"We're coming," I say in annoyance. I lead Ryan downstairs, where Kat was setting up the table. She made Spaghetti and meatballs today with salad and some Italian bread. I can tell she took extra care in preparing the food since Ryan will be joining us. It makes me really grateful to have her make sure that Ryan feels welcome as my boyfriend.
I stride towards Cody and corner him against the wall. "What are you plotting?"
"I ain't anything." he raises his hands in surrender. I narrow my eyes; I'm not buying his act.
"Don't worry, I talked to him," Kat joins in. "He'll be nice."
"I don't trust him. He looks suspicious to me."
"And don't you think it's suspicious if we stand here and whisper while he's standing right there?" Cody whispers. We look at Ryan, who smiles awkwardly.
"Is there a problem?" He asks.
"No," I shake my head with a smile. I swipe my head to Cody and point a threatening finger at him, "You try anything, and I swear I'll shove a meatball up your ass."
"So what? I'll shit red sauce for the rest of my life?"
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