I went to him, and tapped him. He seemed a little shocked to see me.
"Hi hi." I said, with a smile, and he looked away with a sigh.
"You should tell that I'm really not in the mood for jokes." He said, and looked around.
"Could you lend me some money?" I asked, and he looked at me, furrowing his brows.
"I know it's weird, but tomorrow's Christmas. It's night already, and my money's at home. My cousins will never let me leave the house at this time, and it means I'll have no gifts for them."
"Why's that my problem?"
"Alright. It's my favor. Remember I won when we ate spicy noodles? You're to go with me to get gifts for my cousins, and pay for it." I said, smiling, and he rolled his eyes.
"You're ridiculous." He said, with a sigh, but still hailed a cab.
We got into the cab, and drove to the supermarket.
I could tell something was really wrong with him as he didn't talk much. He didn't even reply when I tried to annoy him on purpose.
I ended up picking a makeup kit for Mera, two little teddy bears joined together for Val to hang on her phone, and a cool looking sunglasses for Chris.
And when we were about to leave, he suddenly hailed a cab, and tried to shove me into it.
"What's…" I started to say in alarm.
"I paid back your favor, now go home. It's late." He said coldly, and left.
"To where, Young lady?" The driver asked in a gruff tone.
"Winton street." I said, in a hurry, and looked back as he started to drive.
Freddie was standing alone with his hands in his pockets, then he waved. Thereafter, I saw Calby, smiling, and walking towards him. He had pushed me away just so he could talk to her.
I scoffed, and turned away from the sight, feeling angry.
I got in through the backdoor, so I could hide the things I got, then went back through the front door.
"Why were you so late?" Mera asked, then took my arm to show me our outfits.
They were matching outfits. Green suit with a white shirt, and a weightless, red scarf designed with white snowflakes which was going to serve as a tie.
But, instead of suit pants for us girls, we had bum shorts, and net stockings.
Crazy, our legs were going to freeze tomorrow.
"Will these be warm?" I asked, and Mera turned the suits inside out.
"They're padded with a material that keeps us warm, our legs might freeze a bit, but at least we got net on them." Mera replied.
At first, I didn't think it was too fashionable until the next day when we dressed up.
Mera had her white shirt in a half tuck, and tie loosened, while Val had her white shirt in a full tuck, with some buttons loose, and her scarf hanging on her neck, but Chris and I were tucked out fully giving us the bad vibes.
Our knotted ties hung low, and we also had a few buttons loose, and our jewelry was enough to start up a little jewelry shop.
I, and the girls, put on green high-heeled boots, and when I checked myself in the mirror with the others. We looked like the bad cousins.
We played with our perfumes, spraying it on each other, and giggling as we mixed perfumes.
But, as we walked into the school, it was another thing. I guess the clothes gave me a cool feeling because a hand was dipped into my pockets, while the other dangled free.
Everyone stared at us as though we were celebrities. We were dressed up in a style no one expected. Almost everyone was in dresses, and pretty winter clothes.
But we had decided our legs were going to freeze.
Although, Chris' outfit was slightly better as his suit pants were long.
Everyone was gathered in a giant circle as the sendoff party was about to start, and we found our seats among them. Of course, when our perfumes cut through the thick winter air, more stares followed.
Shortly, after we settled down, and started giggling among ourselves, the host came into the middle.
"Hey y'all Archville high! Merry Christmas. Kindly hug five people you've never seen before! " He said in a cheery voice, and everyone stood up.
I found some girls, hugged them and went back to sit.
"Good, good, great! Now, can we all shout Merry Christmas?"
"MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!" Everyone shouted and burst into laughter as the enthusiasm was well felt.
"Now, I'd like to spread the Christmas spirit with the most awesome and amazing Archville choir." He announced, and everyone let out a long, and loud applause.
Then, the Archville Choir in white tops, red skirts, and shorts and green bow ties came to the center.
The ones playing the violin stood on one side and a piano was wheeled in.
They arranged themselves, and a guy took his place behind the piano, then a beautiful girl held the Mic.
"If you know it, kindly sing along." She said, in a velvety kind of voice.
Then the song started, and the guy at the piano took it first. Singing in a voice that made the girls coo.
They took turns in singing, and sang songs like Sweet home Alabama, Fast talking lover, I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus, I need you Christmas…' and some other popular songs that we all sang to.
And all the while I was smiling because I caught the guy at the piano staring at me more than eight times. Oh yeah, I counted it.
After the choir, the next activity was to break a piñata while blindfolded.
The host looked around since no one wanted to volunteer. He looked my way, and I instantly tried to make myself smaller. There was no way I was breaking a piñata while being blindfolded with everyone staring at me.
" You there!" He said, and my heart leapt.
Me?
"Go on Val." I heard, and there were whoops, and noises of encouragement.
Ahh. I was relieved I wasn't called.
She walked up shyly and allowed herself to be blindfolded. Then she was given the stick to break it.
"Your Christmas present is in there." the Host said, and Val started moving.
She looked so funny as she moved awkwardly.
"Val to the left!"
" Move further!" Everyone who knew her, started to give her directions.
" No you've passed it idiot!" Chris shouted as Val went past the piñata.
She kept on moving, and when she touched it with the stick, everyone shouted.
Val swung hard in that direction, and almost hit the host, making everyone crack up in laughter.
"Oh my God, break the piñata, not my head!" The host exclaimed, and we all laughed again, including val.
After some painful minutes of watching her, she located it again.
"Can anyone there get out of the way please?" she asked, with a smile, and the host immediately left her side.
Chris held up his phone, ready to capture the moment when the candies fell on her if she managed to break it.
Val swung hard, and the piñata broke, showering candies on her.
She took off the blindfold and laughed in glee as everyone laughed.
Val shared the candies around, then the Host took the mic once more.
"Okay guys. We prepared a place for you all. We actually swept all the snow there, but what do we do? More snow coated it. We're going to move there, and have some fun before the next thing comes up." He announced, and we all stood to our feet.
As I moved, my boots became buried in the snow, and it became hard to walk.
Then we spotted Sam and went towards him.
"Merry Christmas, buddy" Chris said, to Sam.
"It's been a long while." Sam said, ignoring Chris, as his eyes came to rest on me.
"Yeah, kind of." I replied, shyly.
"Merry Christmas buddy." Chris repeated, looking at Sam.
"Hey Mera, you doing okay?" Sam asked, ignoring Chris once more.
"Merry Christmas!" Chris repeated strongly, and I tried hard not to giggle.
"Hey Val, got some of those sweets?" He asked, but Chris, who lost his patience, pounced on him, and they both rolled in the snow laughing.
I immediately took a photo of them.
It was genuine. Boys' life with no worries, no girls, no love… just joy.
After regaining their breath, they stood up.
"Hey guys, let's do a snowball fight" I said, immediately, as I really wanted to have one.
They looked at me like I was speaking Spanish, then Sam started to dust off the snow on his jacket.
"I'm a grown guy. I don't do childish things." he replied, and I scoffed.
"It's not a childish thing." I retorted, and he, and Chris started saying stuff in low voices, and laughing.
It was probably about me.
I bent down and started making snowballs in a frenzy, and when I made about eight, I started throwing it at them.
"Hey!" They said at once, trying to fight back the balls, and stop them from crashing into their bodies.
" Throw them back! You idiots" I said as I threw the snowballs at them.
"Oh come on, stop." Sam said, and Chris hid behind him to avoid the balls, but I accidentally threw a particular hard snowball on Sam's…. You know.
My bad.
"Oh my God!" Chris exclaimed, and burst into reckless laughter.
"I'm swear down, I didn't mean…" I was saying, but Sam already made a ball, and threw it hard, but I ducked, and giggled.
"Let me help you, man." Chris said, and made snow balls.
The first one hit my face, and jeez, it was so hard and cold.
"Do you have to hit it that hard?" I asked, holding my nose.
"You asked for it" Chris replied, and they began to throw snowballs at me.
I ran and bumped into Peter.
"Hey!" I said, and they didn't even give him time to respond, they started throwing snowballs at him.
"You guys are ganging up?" I said, and forced Peter into throwing snowballs at them as well.
Thereafter, we all turned on Sam…
"Aww, I'm with Chris!" I shouted, running over to Chris side, and using him as a shield.
"I thought you said you were with me?" He accused when he saw I only used him as a shield.
"I am with you!" I replied, then it began to snow, making it even more fun.
"I'm with Sam." I suddenly said, and jumped over to Sam's side.
"Aaaaaah!" I screamed.
"What?" They all asked, looking ready to stone whatever made me scream with snowballs.
"It's just so cool!" I said, and they scoffed in amusement.
"She looks like a kid!" Sam said, referring to me, and I frowned.
"Hey let's drag that sadist over here." Peter said, pointing at Mike, and they laughed before he and Chris left to drag him.
"Mike!" I called, but before he could answer, Chris and Peter had dragged him over and thrown him to the ground, using snowballs to color him white.
"Hey!" He said, before they started exchanging balls again.
A snowball landed in my mouth, and melted coldly.
I became so frustrated that I started throwing off snow instead of snowballs, and while I was laughing, my eyes fell on someone familiar.
I recognized her immediately…
Summer.
I waved at her and she waved back.
"Let's make Christmas angels." I said, to distract myself from further thoughts.
"What the hell is wrong with you, childish freak?" Sam asked, making everyone laugh.
"Let's do it for the big baby." Peter said, pushing them all to the floor.
I giggled delightfully, as it was so funny to see the cool guys of the CKH making Christmas angels. I immediately joined them, so they wouldn't gang up on me.
When we got tired of making Christmas angels, we stopped and let the snow fall on us as we giggled about the different outfits we saw.
"I think Pris should try her luck with Freddie, he's been really moody." Sam suddenly said, and I looked in the direction he was staring at.
I watched Freddie as the boys discussed him.
He was sitting at the huge yellow table with his head on it.
He had on a red jean jacket, a white T-shirt and white joggers.
I felt a bit worried.
Although, I was still mad about the way, he acted the night before but seeing him that way melted all the anger I felt in me.
"Try talking to him." Peter said, nudging me slightly.
"Why should I? He's rude" I said, immediately.
"That's quite true, he might snap at her and tell her to leave." Chris said, with a sigh.
I looked at Freddie again, Calby was sitting right next to him with her hand on his back.
"He's got Calby, I don't need to." I said, and finished my sentence with a scoff.
"I bet he feels like yelling, and telling her to leave, but of course, he wouldn't." Peter said, then Sam stood up, and dragged me with him.
"What?" I asked, as he put his hand round my shoulder, then pushed me in Freddie's direction.
"Okay, okay, I'll go… just don't push me." I said, holding my chin up.
"Okay." he said, and I went to sit with Freddie on the opposite side of the table.
Calby looked at me, and I waved, though she took a while to wave back.
I looked around and saw a book with a pen next to it, then I looked around before tearing out a page from it.
* Is there something wrong with you?* I wrote, and passed it to him with the pen under the table, and when he took it, it felt like I was Ronaldo scoring a goal.
Haha…
I saw him writing, then he stretched out the paper without looking up, and I enjoyed the curiosity on Calby's face.
I read it.
*Nothing.* He had written in return.
*Are you sure it's nothing? I saw you running yesterday.* I wrote.
*I was exercising.* he wrote back.
*You're a pretty good liar, you know* I wrote.
*Who's this?* He wrote in return, and my smile went down.
*Guess.* I wrote roughly.
*I guess it's Pissie, seeing how the handwriting changed from bad to worse* he returned.
I smiled when I saw it.
"Pris! Calby! They're calling us for the dance! We need to practice in our outfits!" Jasmine called, and I let out a little groan.
"Coming!" I said, and leaned towards Freddie.
"Freddie, I'll be right back." I said, even though I knew he probably didn't need me.
I looked around, and saw that Mike had slunk back into the shadows.
What if summer was the reason they were both this way? I remembered Peter saying she was the reason they weren't friends.
Then I wrote one last sentence.
*You being happy makes people happy, even though it's really hard, can you not show it right now?
I'll be available, even if you don't want to talk.* I passed it to him quickly, then ran to practice.
We all changed into our outfits, suddenly they seemed gorgeous.
Maybe because it was night, but the white stars on the green overall shorts really stood out, and our one-armed red hoodie made us seem like bad asses.
They started to share jewelries, and even with the one I had on me, I still had to wear more.
The bracelets, and anklets all had one or two Christmas colors, and were really shiny.
I looked at myself. The jewelry I was putting on made me feel like an Indian.
Then we styled our in a flip. The hair flip looked quite gorgeous on me, and I decided to keep it even after the dance.
Everyone started to put on their net stockings, but I didn't need to since I already had one on me.
Then Mike called, and I picked it.
"Hey Mike." I said, happily.
"You're practicing, right?" He said, and I looked around to see if he was anywhere near.
"Yup." I replied.
"Oh. Didn't see you anywhere, so I got curious, good luck." he said, but didn't even sound like he meant it.
"Thanks." I replied, and he ended the call.
"Practice babes! This is our night!" Maine shouted, with enthusiasm.
We practiced twice before we heard them announcing our entry.
"The dance team!"
"Everyone… where are your Archville jackets?" Britney asked, and we all took it out. " Good, wrap it round your waists and make sure Archville shows on it." she added, and we all did that, then in a line, we all walked out.
"Woah, our Archville dancers turning heads with their outfits, here are the hot babes at school." the Host said, and I blushed, as though he was talking directly to me.
"Don't tell me you're blushing at the host's words." Whitney asked, teasingly.
"Hey" I said, nudging her slowly with my hand.
Then, we all took our positions with our legs wide apart.
As the music started, we bent slowly into a split, then one after the other, we got up as we had practiced.
My heart was pounding in my chest as it got to my turn, and I felt I would ruin it all, but I did it just fine, then the dance kicked in and the whole school cheered.
We were moving our bodies like electricity, and our hair flipped from every direction as we used them as effects.
I had never imagined dancing as hard as that.
"Just look at them moving those body, they're incredible." The Host commented.
I danced with all I had, feeling like a girl group performing at a concert.
And when the song had almost come to an end, we all disarranged to form Archville, and one after the other, we formed the letters of ARCHVILLE, and that got the audience cheering.
Thereafter, we cartwheeled out of the stage and I could hear the applause…
It was thundering.
Everywhere I turned, I received congratulations, and for the first time, Maine was smiling with her full teeth.
Yvonne, and Zenith, were taking selfies, and I joined them.
After all the selfies, I tried to find an isolated place to change back into my clothes, and although it was hard, I found one.
I had already worn my bum shorts, and was buttoning my white shirt when I saw Mike approaching, quickly.
I hurriedly buttoned up the rest.
"Hey." I said, anxiously, hoping he hadn't seen a thing.
"I did it…" He said, breathlessly.
"You did it???" I replied, with a huge smile.
Finally! So he was going to be back to all smiles.
"Finally… I did it… I broke up..... With Whitney." he said, smiling brightly, while my smile ran down like the rainbow.