Girl Meets Him

Girl Meets Flaws

Sixth grade was ending. Significant memories from this year filled my mind as I sat in history class.

"Graduation and Awards Night is coming up. I am very proud of this class. Several of you will be recognized for your achievements throughout the year," Mr. Matthews explained.

Maya stood up abruptly. "Awards are a scam! A girl like me never had a chance, Matthews. Never had a chance." Maya looked at Riley.

"All right, I'll do it, but it's ridiculous." Riley stood up. "It's a scam, Matthews! She never had a chance!"

"Maya will be receiving the Griff Hawkins Totally Cool Award," Mr. Matthews said.

Maya sat back down in satisfaction.

"Maya, you found out you won the Totally Cool Award, yet you just sit there? Oh, you're being cool. Why won't you rub off on me?"

"(Y/n) will be receiving the Highest Test Scores Award," Mr. Matthews said.

"Farkle's getting something else, right?" I asked. Farkle and I always got the same test scores. I couldn't think of once where we didn't.

"Of course," Mr. Matthews mumbled. "And our two finalists for the Scholar Athlete award are... Lucas Friar, and Billy Ross."

"I hope you're ready for some competition, dude," Billy challenged.

"Oh, well, you know how I hate competition," Lucas said sarcastically.

They laughed quickly, then stared each other down. They repeated the action, making me confused about why they were friends in the first place.

"Hey, Golden Boys, you wanna hop down from your cloud of awesomeness?" Maya asked sarcastically. "You're making us normals feel bad."

"Yeah. Right after our handshake of awesomeness," Billy snapped.

I looked away, running my hands through my hair. Where was Farkle? He's never sick. And if he is, he texts me twenty-four hours in advance.

"Every day," Maya groaned.

"Girls should have their own handshake of awesomeness," Riley reasoned.

"What would it be?" Maya wondered.

We crossed our legs and flipped our hair. "Stop it," we said in unison.

"Farkle, you are being awarded the Joseph T. R. Epstein Confidence Award. Congratulations." Mr. Matthews finally looked behind me at his desk. "Farkle?"

"Farkle can't come to his desk right now. If you have a question for Farkle, say one. A comment, say two. Billing questions, three."

"One, where are-"

"You have selected three."

"No, I said one," Mr. Matthews yelled.

"Sorry, we are experiencing unusually high call volume. Your call will be answered in approximately..."

"Thirty-five."

"Minutes." Music played over the com.

"Representative!" Mr. Matthews demanded. "What is this? Farkle's never missed a class in his life."

The bell rang, and I got up, worried about my best friend. I walked out, texting him. He wasn't answering me. He always answered.

Always.

~~~

The four of us met in front of the janitor's closet. I held my bag tightly against my shoulder.