Fear Me P.JM

Chapter Forty: THE CLOSET ROMANTICS CLUB

I'm putting away my saxophone to conclude the last class of my day when a pair of giant shoes appears in front of me.

"You have until Jimin steps out the gates."

I shut my saxophone case and stand up, my head reaching the shoulders of Python.

"What are you talking about?" I say to her. "You guys told him everything."

"Have you tried apologizing, then?"

"Of course!" I say putting my instrument into its designated locker. "All yesterday and all today."

"You have until Jimin steps out the gates, then."

"Again," I say, giving her attitude, "I still don't even know what the third test is."

Python growls.

"Sorry!" I say immediately remembering the towering terror before me.

"Follow me."

We leave just before class is officially over and I follow Python down the hall. As we walk though, her she-man friends appear, one by one, behind her and surround me.

Do they choreograph this?

I can't see anything since I'm in the middle of the entire Hulk group, but when they finally stop, we're in a small room with a sign that says "WRESTLING CLUB" hanging on the wall. Posters of different wrestlers cover the walls. Large quotes are plastered around, too.

Python takes a seat behind a table and her group lines up on both sides of her.

Are you sure you guys aren't the Mafia?

"The deal," Python says. "Are you saying you're giving up on the deal?"

"What? No!" I say. "But you guys gave it all away! Now Jimin is just angry and I have to-"

"REPAIR!" Python growls.

Ohhhh snap.

A little jukebox in my head turns on...

I can see clearly now the rain is gone...

"Can I have more time?" I ask. "I mean, now that I get it."

Python narrows her eyes. "Is the urgency in because you want to mend the strain between you and Jimin? Or is it because you want to make the deadline about us never bothering you again?"

"Of course the latter!"

"Really?" Python says, frowning. "So, if I decided to give you more time, would you take it?"

"YES!"

"In exchange that after you do mend the strain, you don't ever talk to Jimin again?"

What?

"We won't bother you either."

Wait, never speak to Jimin again?

"Make your choice."

Never speak to Jimin again? I would have leaped at this chance when I first met him, but now...I mean, the boy went out and dyed his hair for me despite what everyone else said.

My stomach is beginning to feel unwell.

And he did dress up in that vile uniform just because I asked.

My nose is itching.

He still hung out with me after I threw up on him...several times.

I sneeze.

Duct tape.

Sneeze.

Mario Batali.

Sneeze.

SuJoon.

Sneeze.

Fireworks.

SNEEZE.

I look up at Python who is still waiting.

"I can't take the extra time..."

And suddenly, Python grins.

A she-man steps out and shouts, "He who Love touches walks not in darkness!"

HUH?

"All for love and nothing for reward!" the she-man next to her yells.

What is going-

"The heart has its reasons which reason knows not of!" another one yells out on the other side of the room.

It's official. They've gone crazy.

"You call it madness, but I call it LOVE!" one shouts out kneeling to the ground.

I finally turn my head back to Python.

Python rises out her chair.

"You see, we the Wrestling Club are secretly also..."

She slams the wall behind her and the WRESTLING CLUB sign tips over revealing...

THE CLOSET ROMANTICS CLUB

My jaw drops at least three inches.

Python holds a hand up. "As soon go kindle fire with snow, as seek to quench the fire of love with words..." She grins dreamily. "Shakespeare wrote that."

Then the she-men all around begin pounding the walls and one by one, the wrestling posters roll up and the quotations all flip over. In place are posters of books by Nora Roberts and Sophie Kinsella. Quotations they just recited are now on the walls. And all in all, I feel like I just entered a very weird Matrix.

"You know what to do now, right?" Python says to me.

I think? No, I do. I do.

"I'm going to need three things though," I say.

"Tell us."