"Good morning, Garroth."
Garroth's eyes dart down to me. He opens his mouth to speak, but quickly shuts it, his eyes widening in the process. When he tries to walk away from me, I can't help but to shake my head and reach out for his hand.
"That's a little rude," I start, lifting an eyebrow. "Don't you think?"
Kandi's chuckle sounds behind me. "That's not going to work. You know he's competitive," she tells me.
I turn around to meet a red heart on her chest, the name 'Dante' lazily sprawled across the center. The school day started an hour ago. How is it possible she was already winning?
"How'd you get that so fast?" I ask, pointing to the paper taped against her.
She looks down at her chest before looking back up at me. There's a sly smile on her face. We both know this game is easy for her.
"Dante was distracted and spoke to me," Kandi says, shrugging her shoulders as the two of us begin to head to our next classes. The rooms are beside each other, so the walk there isn't unnecessary. "It was quite easy, actually. Just throw a small flirt his way, and he folds like Play-Doh."
I can't help but to shake my head at this. Dante was never able to prevent giving his heart to some girl. Kandi just so happened to be the first one he ran into.
It's currently Friday the thirteenth, marking tomorrow as Valentine's Day. Every year the school provides us with paper hearts. Typically, girls go first one day, but boys go the second day. In this case, us girls were supposed to keep our hearts all day yesterday.
The object of the game is to keep your heart until the end of the day when you turn it into your last hour teacher. You originally get your heart during first hour. You don't want to talk to the opposite sex or else you lose your heart to them. When the hearts are turned in, points are produced and given to each grade. I'm unsure what exactly the points are for, but I know we didn't win as freshman last year.
Yesterday I successfully managed to keep my heart to myself, but Garroth is playing the same game. Girls' hearts are pink and boys' are red. As shown with Kandi, Dante had spoken to her and already given him her heart. There's of course times during the day when everyone can talk to whomever they want, but it has to do with class time. Passing periods and lunch are active times, and lunch happens to be the time most people lose their hearts anyway.
"I'm going to get that heart," I say, hugging my books to my chest. "I don't know how I would feel if Aphmau would get it. She'd gloat about it and then 'realize' he's my boyfriend and come up with some excuse on why it's a big deal."
"It's just a piece of paper."
I lift an eyebrow. "It's like giving it to Ivy. Garroth would hate that as much as me. Besides, you know damn well Aphmau would ask the same if she had Laurance's heart. Laurance is just more likely to accidentally lose it to her."
"Touché."
°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°•°
As I stated before, Laurance was likely to accidentally give his heart up to Aphmau. I sat down at the lunch table and heard her voice on the other end gloating about how she had gotten it and some random guy from her werewolf class. Laurance is relieved now because he can talk freely to whomever he wants without being annoyed. But because of this, he's also making it impossible for anyone to talk to Garroth.
"Garroth," I say, looking towards the blond male who now refuses to look me in the eye. "Garroth. Garroth. Garrrrroth. Garrrothhhhhhhh. GarGar. Gar. Garroth Ro'meave. Babe."
He looked up when I said babe, but he never bothered to say a single thing. Instead, he smirked and turned his attention towards Laurance and started up their own little conversation.
Annoyance builds up within me as this is most likely the only time I can get his heart. I've failed every passing period before this. "Vylad," I start, turning towards the brunet beside me. I can see him stiffen, but then sigh from his own sense of annoyance. "Garroth won't talk to me. Please tell him he's being a penis."
A stifled chuckle can be heard from somewhere at the table. I look up and roll my eyes when I realize it was from Dante.
"It's not like he'd listen to me either, Al," he says, shaking his head at me.
With a pout, I go to stab my mashed potatoes. They're flavorless anyway, and I don't know what nutritional value they could possibly provide.
I had gotten Vylad's heart earlier. He's never been one for these games, but he plays them nonetheless to see what could happen. For two years now I have gotten his heart, but I know it's because he mainly talks to me and Kandi but doesn't want to give his heart to his sister.
Garroth looks up from the conversation, looking over to his sister's lunch. Zianna packed both Vylad and Kandi a homemade lunch today, so it was a mystery what was inside the brown bag. "Hey sis, did mom give you any treats?"
Kandi chuckles at this and digs through the bag, her chuckling increasing in volume when my expression changes to offense.
"You bitch!" I call to him, glaring afterward. "You won't give your heart to me, but you'll give it to your sister?"
His eyes widen for a moment before he mumbles a quick "whoops" and shrugs his shoulders. He tosses the heart over to Kandi and goes back to talking with Laurance. I think he honestly gets a kick out of this, but he just lost his heart to underclassmen. His sister above all.
Kandi nudges the heart to me, offering it. "I don't want to walk around with his name on my chest. That's weird. You wear it. Our grade gets the point nonetheless."
Again, the points. What do they do?
I place the heart against my chest, in between both Travis and Vylad's. I had gotten a heart from Travis on complete accident. He ran into me as he was speed walking to class, and we both turned the corner at the same time. Travis was weaving in and out of people, so he turned the corner on the wrong side of the hallway. With a quick mumble of an apology, he quickly handed over his heart without the time to say anything else and quickly walked away. It was cute.
"Thank you for the pity heart, ma'am," I say to her, nodding in her direction.
Kandi rolls her eyes and stands from her place, grabbing her garbage and walking to the trash can. My eyes fall on Garroth again, and he sheepishly looks in my direction. His intent was to keep his heart no matter what. And if he lost it, he would've lost it to me.
I suppose this means he can talk to me willingly for the remainder of the day without worrying about losing a stupid paper heart.
A few minutes later Kandi comes back sporting another piece of paper.
"How the hell did you get that one? You went to throw away trash!"
