SPECIALS

Chapter Four: Scarlet

 It was actually kind of hard to keep my face straight after seeing the dumbfounded expression on Jett’s. I took a careful breath. Expression was everything. Still, it was hard sometimes for a girl not to suddenly bust out laughing at how dumb the new guy looked with his mouth kind of parted open like a fish, and his head tilted to the side like he was staring at two crazy people.

Us, crazy? Please.

Well, Maryanne, sure. She’s plenty crazy. But I’m an actress. There’s a difference.

“Um...” Jett said slowly, like he wasn’t sure if we were both a few McNuggets short of a Happy Meal or what. I took his puzzlement as a chance to peruse his features, see if he was Romeo and Juliet material, the usual. His hair was kind of long, falling partly into his eyes. I briefly wondered if that messed with his vision or something, wondered why he didn’t just chop it off. Then again, my brother’s hair was getting pretty shaggy too, and the girls around here seemed to like it that way. Beauty is definitely in the eye of the beholder.

Jett was pretty lanky, and kind of tall, for a freshman. His fair skin made his unique eyes stand out even more. They were actually amber-colored. As in orange-ish, yellow-ish, gold-ish. Cool.

I decided I’d better stop ogling him, or he’d think I was checking him out. He was good-looking, I guess. But a freshman. Younger guys? Definitely not my thing.

But with that unique look he had, he’d probably be an excellent addition to our play... too bad Russell Braxton was playing Romeo already. The guy was 75% ego, 10% talent, and 15% hair gel. In other words, g-ross. But he was the only guy in Drama Club anywhere near attractive enough to play Romeo Montague- attractive is rather a strong word, coming to think of it- and the only one willing or talented enough to memorize all of those lines and facial expressions. So… our drama coach, Mr. McFarrah, was rather resigned to let him take the spot.

Jett blinked his eyes slowly, looking between me and Maryanne. “Uh…” He said, looking a bit uncomfortable at our stares, “You’ve been expecting me?”

I nodded, and Maryanne copied me. “The stars foretold your coming, young grasshopper.” I told him, waving my hands in the air, trying to be as ‘creepy old gypsy hag’ as possible. I think it was working.

Maryanne raised her slim arms into the air, wiggling them around all wild-like. “Yessss…” She hissed. “The stars! The staaaaars foretold your coming, Jett Stone! We see all! We can see your future!” She sounded like a crazy person with asthma. I stifled back my laughter.

I glanced at Jett, seeing how he was reacting to this. Ray was looking between me and Maryanne and shaking his head. I could practically hear his half-Spanish thoughts from the way his dark eyes rolled upwards toward the ceiling light. Ben pushed his wire-rimmed glasses up his long nose and squinted at us. Probably wondering if we were on drugs of some sort. Eli didn’t even look up from the metal thingamajig he was messing with in his hands.

Jett leaned back, his dark eyebrows knitted together, his mouth open slightly and moving, though no sound was coming out. Finally, after a minute or two of this, he finally broke the awkward silence.

“Are you retarded or something?” He blurted out loudly.

After a second of surprised quiet, Maryanne was the first to burst into laughter. I joined her right after, shaking on the hard lunch bench. Ben smiled and rolled his eyes, and Ray snorted a small spray of chocolate milk out his nose. Eli glanced up briefly, clearly missing the entire exchange, looking confused. Of course he would. Eli was the oldest in our group- Ray’s brother- an eleventh grader, always was buried in some project or another, and seemed to miss most of our jokes. He muttered something quietly in Spanish, and then fiddled with his little copper contraption with the screwdriver.