Chix12

I know exactly how I'm gonna write this! I even have one of those back-cover excerpt-thingies!

“Siena? Are you all right?”

I shook myself from the dreamy state I had been in. “Yeah. Just a little tired.” Shuddering, I stood up and wobbled my way to the teacher’s desk. My friend Koa and I were in detention with Mrs. Westerner. “Mrs. Westerner?” I asked. “May I go to the bathroom?” Once the graying lady had nodded, I grabbed my agenda and left the stuffy, claustrophobic classroom.

In the hallways, I began to slow down. I had a few precious minutes of freedom before I was forced to return to that room—that disgustingly hot, horrid room. Mrs. Westerner was a sweet woman, but even that hadn’t stopped her from giving Koa and me detention for talking too much in class. It hadn’t been our fault, though. Casey Barnett had been yakking away about her latest date, and when Koa and I leaned over to tell her to shut up, we got busted.

After going to the bathroom, I was forced to return to my after-school prison. Fortunately, however, Mrs. Westerner soon became “too bored for words”, and we were free to go.

“What was up in detention?” asked Koa as we rode the bus home.

“Huh?”

“You went all psychic on me again. That’s the third time this week. What’s up with you?”

I shrugged and yawned. “Sorry, Koa.”

She looked at me. “Oh, no,” she laughed. “You can’t just get away with an apology! Now you have to tell me what was going on.”

“I was just thinking about Casey Barnett and her boyfriend.”

“Ew. Why?”

I shrugged again, and looked away. “I just wondered what it was like to have a boyfriend,” I said in a small voice. “I know that they don’t really love each other or anything. I know it’s just an act for popularity,” I added quickly. “I don’t want anything like that, though. I want someone who actually respects me and cares about what I think.”

The bus was silent as Koa thought. I was uncomfortably aware of the silence; she and I were the only ones on the bus today, seeing as how it was a Friday. At last, she looked at me. “That’s really deep, you know,” she said calmly and frankly. “But I can see what you mean about the boyfriend part. I wish I had one too.” She shifted her body on the seat. “I mean, we’re already fourteen. Everybody else has a boyfriend.”

“It kind of makes me feel—oh, I don’t know—unwanted.” I looked up at her. “At least you already had a boyfriend,” I grinned ruefully.

“You mean Ross? We were really just good friends. There was never any chemistry between us. We only went out because we wanted to test our relationship. Besides, we broke up after a week.”

“That’s longer than Casey and Rob have been going out,” I laughed. Koa smiled. “But seriously, Koa. What’ll we do about the boyfriend thing? We can’t just go to the dances together like we did all the other years, or just skip out on it altogether. I’m tired of rumors saying that we’re lesbian, but I want to have all these memories of middle school.”

Just then, Carlos, the bus driver, called back to us, “Here’s your stop.”

We got off the bus, and walked towards Koa’s house to finish up our homework. As we did so, Koa’s neighbor, Ross, looked out the window. We were only wearing tank tops and shorts, the day being too hot to wear a t-shirt. He wolf-whistled and called down, “C’mon up to my bedroom, ladies, and I’ll treat you right!” We all laughed. Ross was a bit of a pervert, but he was actually really sweet and nice. To add to his words, he began to do a slight striptease by slowly taking off his shirt.

Koa rolled her eyes. “Bye, Ross,” she called up, and, giggling, we went into her house.

“Are you sure you don’t want some of this?” Ross yelled in a last-ditch attempt to get us to turn around. We just waved our hands back at him and locked the door.

The back-cover excerpt-thingy:

Meet me tonight at Bicentennial Park.

--Chix12

That was what the note said. I couldn’t believe it. Who was this Chix12, anyway? He sure had nice writing. Or was it a she? I didn’t know, that was for sure. And I wasn’t sure how to sneak out of my house at midnight. My parents were mega-strict. Besides, how long was it going to take? What was it about? My head was swimming with questions, with, oh, say, about ZERO ANSWERS!!!


I'm still debating about the end, though. I might just have it turn out to be Koa who was pretending to be Chix12 because she didn't want Siena to feel bad about not having a boyfriend. But for the prom, Ross asks her to be his date because he actually does like her. In that way, it leaves room for a series. Or should it just be Ross throughout? GAHHH I don't know!