1000 Paper Cranes

Chapter 31 - 289

When Friday rolled around, I found it difficult to concentrate in class. I was oddly excited for our sleepover at Jon's house. Did guys have sleepovers? Was there some alternative, masculine name for a bunch of guys spending the night at someone's house and staying up all night to play video games and eating junk food? I was sure there wasn't. I thought we should establish a name for that. Girls called them slumber parties. Well, girls in the 1960's called them slumber parties.

The last time I had intended to play video games with Jon and his friends had not necessarily gone as planned. Marc had ruined it by destroying my nose. But I had gotten to spend time alone with Robin for the first time, so it hadn't been a complete bust.

I was hoping this time went as planned. Especially because I was hoping to complete my most exciting crane.

#899 – Beat War Saga 4

War Saga 4 was an allegedly unbeatable video game. People had spent hours and hours trying to get through the story mode. And to date, nobody had completed it. But I knew I could. It was a series of puzzles. Granted, it was a series of puzzles during which you were being gunned down by Alien Nazis. But it was just puzzles. And if anybody could solve puzzles, it was Jonathan and me. Not to mention the support we'd have from Shane, Marc, and the others if they were any good.

We were going to win. And we were going to stream our entire play through. Jonathan had accumulated a small following of 12,000 fans on the gaming website he ran under the username SlashAndHack, a nod to both, his hacking abilities and his love for games that included comically big swords. He'd announced to his audience that we would be attempting the impossible. And the whole world—okay, a very small portion of the whole world—would be watching.

Calculus and lunch had deflated my energy, however. When I entered the calculus classroom, the air was as tense as it had been all week. Only this time, Joanna didn't even take her seat with Jonathan and me. This time, she relocated herself to the back, beside Tiffany White. One of the special things about Joanna was that she could fit in with anybody. And that day, she was using that to her advantage to intentionally hurt us. She knew that blatantly ignoring us would be a punishment far worse than anything else she could do to us. I couldn't speak for Jon, but I would rather have been yelled at than ignored.

So it came as a definite blow whenever Joanna abandoned us for the company of Tiffany White. Admittedly, Tiffany was a nice enough girl. She had very little to offer by way of conversation, but she would never intentionally wrong anybody. But it still unnerved me that Joanna chose to spend her time with her over us. Even if she was mad.

I didn't understand the grudge. We had just been concerned for her. Wouldn't she have done the same if she'd been concerned for us?

When calculus dismissed, Joanna bolted for the door before I could even speak to her. She was my best friend; she knew I had been prepared to confront her.

But I had not been prepared to do as Robin suggested and apologize. Not yet, at least. I wasn't willing to admit that I had been wrong. I hadn't been wrong.

Joanna didn't sit with us at lunch, either. When she didn't join us at our table, I went searching for her. Naturally, I assumed she would be hiding in the library; that had been my retreat and asylum, after all. But no such luck.

So I allowed myself to wander and I tried to put myself in her shoes. I asked myself where I would go if I were Joanna. So, I allowed my feet to wander and I just followed. I followed quiet hallway after quiet hallway until I found myself at the dance studio.

Tchaikovsky poured from the open doorway. Before I even peeked in, I saw the shadow of a girl gracefully sweeping across the floor. I stood outside for a moment, just listening before working up the courage to look in. When I finally did, I saw Joanna mid-leap, legs extended. Pink satin shoes caught the light before she landed. It was amazing, the way she just floated through the air. It was as if she defied gravity.