Chapter Twenty-Eight

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Chapter Twenty-Eight

As much as I want the school day to end, art class just seems to roll by slowly. Madam Thustle tells us to draw anything we want and, fortunately, there are no catches. We don't have to draw with our opposite hand or with our eyes closed. Just draw what our imagination wants us to show. 

I, being the terrible artist that I am, end up drawing two traced pictures of my hands. In both hands were a bunch of random smaller drawings and words, most of which make no sense to me, but I felt like they belonged there. Honestly, by the end of class I just keep staring down at the hands, wishing I could actually draw. 

"How beautiful!" Madam Thustle exclaims from the back of the classroom. I don't even have to turn around to know that she's looking over Veronica's shoulder. Madam Thustle does that practically every class. 

"Thank you Madam Thustle," Veronica says and I turn in my seat along with everyone else. Might as well look at her artwork and seem like I'm just as shocked as the others. I've gotten used to her artwork already.

"Go ahead and hold it up for everyone to see,"Madam Thustle instructs and Veronica holds her paper up. In that small split second, her eyes meet mine before she looks away.

The picture she has drawn is of a person. I recognize him as me, but a different form. To the public eye it may just look like a drawing of a superhero opening his clothes, but I understand that it's Clark Parker. Clark Parker is dressed as half Spiderman and half Superman, but he's got his hands on his chest, ripping open his costume to reveal the outfit like the one I'm wearing. And beneath that layer is another one, this one most obviously my "Marcel" look. It's a complicated drawing that has everyone complimenting her, but I stay silent. What is her fascination with drawing me? 

I turn back around in my seat and rest my head on my hands. What could the picture mean? 

The rest of art class consists of Madam Thustle looking over the rest of our average drawings. By the end of class I crumple  up my own drawing and toss it in the recycling. It's literally pointless and poorly drawn. I have no reason to keep it. Veronica hangs around the classroom a little longer than everyone else when I leave the room. Part of me wants to stay and talk, but I walk away, 

After school comes around and I serve my detention punishment. Today it's tolerable as I'm sent to the tutoring center. Veronica is assigned elsewhere and she goes without a single word. Frustration starts to build up inside of me. Why do I want to talk to her despite everything she's put me through?

The kids in the tutoring center pay me no attention and don't even ask questions so I just sit in a chair and stare at the clock, willing it to move faster. I never noticed how long the after school program was. Veronica always made it seem quicker.

Veronica.

She seriously has to get out of my head. I can't keep constantly thinking about her. 

I wonder what she's doing in her punishment, Is she thinking about me? Does she wish we could fix things? 

Stop thinking about her. I groan and put my head down on a close by desk. I'm going insane. Literally insane.

Something bounces off my head and I look up. There's a wad of paper in front of me, wadded up in a paper ball. I sigh and grab it, opening it up. Might as well read it. 

Wat it feel like 2 not be kool?

I literally have to read the note twice in order to even begin to understand it. What high school teenager decides to write like that? Even in something as juvenile as a hand-written note, I think that they should be able to spell correctly. And even if the words were spelt correctly, the grammar is terrible. Well, I guess that's why they're in the tutoring program. 

I hold up the note and look at the students. One of them raises their hand, a girl who must be a freshman based on the young age look to her. I get up and walk over to her, taking a seat beside her desk. 

"Did you write this?" I ask her, holding up the note.

She nods. "You're Harry right?" She looks at me with wide eyes and I realize they're green, shielded behind glasses. They aren't the giant, blocky kind like the ones on my own face, but they were larger than normal. 

"Yes, I'm Harry," I say. There's just something about younger kids that make me want to be nice. She's got to be the smallest freshman I've come across.

"I'm Posy," she gives me a small smile. "I heard that you're the most uncool person at school."

I frown. "Well, there seems to be a lot of rumors out there today." 

Posy puts her chin in her hands. "I think that people are wrong about you. You don't look like someone who's uncool." She gestures down to my clothes and I look down as well. I'm almost shocked to see the jeans on my body and not my slacks. 

"Let's just say that I don't always dress like this," I tell her.

"Oh, I know that," Posy says. "And I think that you shouldn't change because you want to be cool. And that's the only reason people change right? To be cool? A lot of people tell me that my glasses aren't cool, but I like them. So I just tell everyone to get a life and stop worrying about mine." 

I can't help but smile at the small freshman. She's conquered something that I don't think I ever will. She's accepted the way people think about her. Maybe I could learn a couple things from her. 

"Oh and Veronica really likes you," Posy says suddenly and I gape at her. 

"Sorry what?" Likes me? I didn't hear her right. 

"I've seen the way she sticks up for you. In the hallways a couple days ago, when you were shoved around and your glasses fell. She saw and grabbed them. She handed them to me and told me to put them in a place that no one would see easily and then walked away. I waited until the hallways cleared a bit then put them on the water fountain. I think someone would only do that if they liked another person," Posy finally breathes in. She's one of those people who talk in a single breath, their sentences blending together into one giant monologue. 

"So you think that she likes me?" I ask. 

Posy gives me one giant smile. "I know she likes you." 

My heart starts racing at the thoughts of Veronica actually liking me. If Posy is right then that would mean that I am right as well about the secret between Veronica and Aiden. Veronica liking me is the secret and Aiden is using it against her. 

Now if I can only get her to see that it's okay to like me and that I'm not just some geek the world loves to hate on. 

But I still need to confirm with Aiden that I've got the secret right. And what better way than to show up at one of his parties tonight? 

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