I marched firmly over to Jake, in all his six foot one, hundred fifty pound glory and yanked on his upper arm. I'm proud to say that I managed to pull him back a few feet, even with my four foot eleven, hundred pound self being alarmingly insignificant compared to Jake. However, it paid off to see Will's face relax.
It was rather disconcerting to see Fay's round face relax with it, though; I had never fully approved of her "undying and never ending love" for Will. In all honesty, it disgusted me. I could deal with Rose and Brett because a) they didn't gush every second of every day. Once in a while, they would have to, but it was sweet and honest, not... Fay-ish, and b) because their relationship was tough and funny to observe.
Fay, on the other hand, was the epitome of love sick. For a while, I had had to switch seats in theater because I was going to straight on murder Fay if I had to hear another "I just want him to notice how I feel!" or "Oh God, he's so perfect!", or God forbid one more "Oh my God, I love him!". The whole unrequited love deal did not work for her. At all. Insert shudder here.
After my brief reverie (I had those quite often), I quickly struck up a conversation with Rose, making sure to bring both Brett and Nero into it. Might as well kill two birds with one stone. Of course, when Rose was talking, Fay was talking.
Make that three birds. Go me!
Anyway.
I glanced across the classroom. My gaze landed on Seth, who was talking casually to... Helena.
My eyes narrowed. Helena Zulio was arguably the most beautiful girl in the grade. Slanted almond shaped eyes, the color of milk chocolate, thick, wavy, black and scarlet hair, flawless skin, slender, funny, sweet... Every girl in sixth grade had reason to envy her.
Including me.
I strangled a growl and slunk away from the cluster of people discussing the different ways to steal a bike (I tried not to think of why that was the topic of choice). I dropped onto Emma's desk and swiveled around to face Helena and Seth.
"What're we talking about?" I asked, calling on Personality #2: Ultra bubbly. I added a sweet smile and made doe eyes. This was where having big, blue gray eyes came in handy. Seth blinked; it wasn't often I was this... girly.
"Um, just that it's going to be weird without Kahla." he said, rubbing his upper arm. I stiffened.
"Yeah. Weird." I managed to choke out. Kahla had done me no good for as long as I had known her. She was a drama magnet, and could never pass up an opportunity to make her name known, whether it be for being cruel or catty or flat out twisted. She was all of them, so it was no trouble to do so.
"I guess I won't really miss her. She sort of scared me." Helena said, walking over and absentmindedly pulling my hair into a half ponytail, then proceeding to braid it. For a moment, I pitied her. Kahla had once been Helena's "friend" and if Helena so much as made a sarcastic comment, her physical well being was in danger. I patted her arm.
"I don't think any of us will miss her," I laughed. Then I saw the puppy eyes Seth was making at Helena, and my jaw clenched. I ducked out from under Helena's hands and retreated to my seat, muttering, "Need to check something." I sat down and twiddled with a pen, letting the tip bounce off my palm. Soon, I had a series of inky dashes across my hand.
I zoned out and my vision blurred. My mind wasn't blank (I was pretty sure that was impossible with my brain), but rather consumed by a metallic buzz of activity that I didn't commit much to; mindless brain chatter opposed to serious pondering.
I didn't notice it whatsoever when Mrs. Emmet closed the door behind her and told us, "Happy last day of school!" My head dipped, my eyes still round and wide, this time bleary rather than sweet. I only registered a faint twinge when Rose pinched my arm.
"Codi. Codi! Dang it, Codi, snap out of it!" she hissed. With a jolt, my head lurched up and I blinked rapidly.
"Right. Sorry. What'd I miss?" I whispered, twisting my head slightly to the right.
"Nothing much. Sort of a free day. Here, when the bell rings, we're all basically holding a giant chaotic parade in the halls." she answered, handing me a roll of blue streamers, with a straw stuck through the hole as a handle. i shrugged and tossed it in my lap.
I dropped my head onto the desktop with a groan. I was swept into a tidal wave of exhaustion and, with another moan, wrapped my arms around the base of my head. Rose jabbed my back.
"What's wrong?" she asked, glancing around alertly in case Nero or Jake were acting on some stalker-ish whim. I shifted my head to the side.
"Tiiiirrrred." I said, drawing the word out as far as it would go.
"But you didn't even do anything!"
"Tell that to my body."
I knuckled my eyes. On instinct, my leg shot out to the side and struck Nero firmly in the shin.
"Shoo." I said, my voice slurring a little.
"Uh, Codz? You okay?" he asked.
"No, she's not." Seth said behind me. He wrapped a hand around the half ponytail Helena had braided and tugged on it, bringing my head up. I snarled weakly.
"There, there, O Purple One, relax. Just waking you up a little." he crooned. I hit his chest with the back of my hand even more weakly than the snarl I had attempted.
"Mneh." I said with a pout. Then I saw Seth's encroaching hand, and I started to panic.
For those of you who don't know, I'm extremely ticklish, to the point where even just a hand near my body will send me over the edge. So when Seth started brutally tickling my stomach, it was no surprise that I yelped, then burst out into wild hysterical laughter, then twisted over the arm of the desk and fell to the carpet in a desperate attempt to escape.
With my heart hammering against my ribcage, I scrambled backwards behind Brett, hoping that since I was his girlfriend's friend, he would protect me.
"Are you awake?" Seth asked, his voice muffled by my burying my head in Brett's jacket. I raised my thumbs-up above Brett's shoulder.
"Good, 'cause the bell's about to-" Seth was cut off by an almost joyful beeeeeep! I ran and picked up my roll of streamers and ducked into the crowd of people racing into the halls.
I held the streamers above my hand and let them unfurl and catch in the wind. I glanced over my shoulder and laughed in surprise. Nadia was pedaling down the hall on her bike, leading an entire procession of bikers... and Axela the chestnut rat terrier. Several others, including Seth, had blue and white (our school colors) streamers rippling overhead. Rose ran beside me, handfuls of glitter being swept from her palms into the wind.
Soon, floods of people joined us from all the other halls. Together, we ran a victory lap of sorts. We streamed into the Front Foyer and stopped dead. We stood in a layer of glitter and streamers and bubble residue (some had held bubble wands out behind them) and all whooped with joy. I lost my breath for a moment; this was practically a scene out of a movie. I silently congratulated Rose for her planning and her spreading the word around to every single student.
Smack dab it, our school was awesome.
