This is based on a true story, but it's been substantially altered so I think it fits better in this forum than in Non-fiction.
Curiosum Flagrat Ut Ignis
“Notebook and folder, check, Bible, check, pencil case, che—wait, what’s that?”
Rebecca snatched the two-inch-square Post-it off the inside of her mustard-yellow locker door. She blinked as the sunlight from the window behind her struck the slip of hot pink paper.
“ ‘Dearest Rebecca,’ ” she read, and then stopped. “ ‘Dearest?’ ” She shrugged and continued. “ ‘I simply you! Your singing makes my flutter.’ What? Simply you, my flutter? Ohhh…those two hearts aren’t decoration, they’re words. Okay: ‘Dearest Rebecca, I simply love you! Your singing makes my heart flutter.’ ”
She flipped the note over. It was signed, “Ben,” with a third heart in front for “Love.”
“Oh good grief. Some crazy person tried to April Fool me. Theresa, have a look at this, will you?” Rebecca tapped her best friend on the shoulder and Theresa swung around.
“What?”
“Look at this.” Rebecca handed over the note. Theresa read it and started to giggle.
“What’s so funny?” Rebecca demanded crossly.
Theresa grinned at her. “Becca’s got a secret ad-mi-re-r, Becca’s got a secret ad-mi-re-r,” she sing-songed in a fake, silly voice.
Now Rebecca burst out laughing. “Oh shut up, you. Obviously a girl wrote it. Besides, I don’t know any Bens. I can only think of one Ben in this school, Ben Fossen, and he’s a senior. Why would he be interested in a lowly sophomore? I don’t really know him at all; I mean, I could point him out, but I couldn’t tell you anything about him. Besides, the—“
“But there’s Ben Rynda, in eighth grade.”
“Really? I don’t know him either.”
“And there’s Ben Goetske, in our grade. Maybe he has a crush on you, Becca.”
“Theresa! I don’t know him, either. Besides, I know a girl wrote it.”
“Why?” said another voice.
Both Rebecca and Theresa jumped. “Don’t startle me like that, Liz Shearer! You know I don’t like it.” Rebecca glared at the newcomer.
“Of course I know it. That’s why I do it. To make you jump.”
“What a nice bunch of friends I have,” Rebecca said, rolling her eyes. “So immature, so mean, so rude, so—” She gave up trying to find unkind adjectives and burst out laughing. “So ridiculous and so right!”
“Yeah, that’s us,” said Theresa. “Your mean friends who nevertheless know what’s happening—like, the Scripture bell is going to ring in 45 seconds.” She handed the note back to Rebecca, who stuck it in her pants pocket.
“Yeesh!” exclaimed Liz. “We better finish discussing on the way to class.”
They started off down the hall. “So,” said Liz to Rebecca, “how do you know a girl wrote it?”
“You know, this is really piquing my curiosity. Almost like a fire...” Rebecca murmured to herself.
“Rebecca?”
“Eh, what?” the girl exclaimed, abruptly coming back to herself. “Oh. Well, it’s a girl’s handwriting.”
“Maybe he had a girl write it for him,” Theresa interrupted.
“I doubt it,” said Liz.
“Yeah,” Rebecca agreed. “You’re just grasping at straws, Theresa, ‘cause you want me to think a boy wrote it. You aren’t going to succeed, so you might as well stop trying.” She returned to her original point. “So, it’s a girl’s handwriting. Besides, guys don’t use hearts to stand in for words. That is definitely a girl thing.” They were at the door of their classroom.
A melodious F# beep sounded. “Quick, quick, into your seats!” cried Liz. The three girls tumbled through the door of Room 206 and into their chairs just as Trinity School’s “bell” stopped “ringing.”
“Congratulations on a narrow but successful escape from a 30-minute detention, girls,” said Mrs. Adkins dryly. The rest of the class, the girls who had arrived much earlier than the trio, began laughing.
“Ahem,” said the teacher, raising her voice to be heard. The laughter quieted. “If you would please open your Bibles to the fourth chapter of Job…”
***
Rebecca couldn’t concentrate on Job’s discourse to his friends. She was much more interested in discussing the note with her seatmates, Becca Reinhardt and Carmen Quinlivan. After both girls vehemently denied having written it, all three girls quietly speculated as to the real culprit.
“It’s not Mary,” said Becca Reinhardt, “because I was with her the whole lunch period and I didn’t see her write it.”
“And I went to my locker before lunch, so I know it wasn’t there then,” Rebecca answered. “It couldn’t be Emily or Maggie—wacky cousins—because they would have put ‘Matt’ instead of ‘Ben.’ ” She sighed. “I can’t believe they still think I have a crush on him.”
“Do you think it might have been Julia?” asked Carmen.
“Maybe…I just need to find out, guys! The curiosity is burning a hole in my brain!”
None of them got any notes taken in that class.
***
After class, Rebecca asked all the sophomore girls, going down the locker row.
“You know, Becca,” said Meghan considerately, “No one’s going to admit to having written it.”
“I know,” Rebecca sighed. “But my fire of curiosity won’t go out til I get some water for it--meaning that someone either confesses or tells me who did it.”
***
By the end of the day, Rebecca had only one person left to ask.
“Beryl, did you write this?” she asked hopefully, producing the note.
“No--” said Beryl.
Rebecca groaned.
“--but I can tell you who did.”
“Please!” Rebecca gasped, the flames reaching their peak.
Beryl whispered in her ear.
Rebecca jumped up and down. “Those--those--liars!” she cried for lack of a better word. “They all denied it forcefully! Thank you, Beryl, for the water to put out my fire.”
Beryl looked at her, confused.
“Never mind,” said Rebecca hastily. “Now to plan my revenge.”
***
The next day, several sophomore girls each found a pretty, decorated, hot-pink Post-It in their lockers. Each Post-It bore just four words: “You devious little liar!”
The fire of curiosity was now theirs to put out.
Much telling rather than showing, I'm afraid. Crits welcome, although it won't help for the contest. Hehe. And there's a lot of dialogue. Something that needs to be altered?
