Chapter 6. What a day

Diana

Now that I have brought you up to speed, let's get back to where I am at.

As Martins and I arrived at the parking lot of our school, he killed the ignition of his car and turned with his arms crossed to face me. He had a brow cocked and his head angled as he stared at me. I could tell he was waiting for an explanation, but I had none to give so I stared back at him.

“What?” I asked, a vein bobbing in my temple in annoyance.

“Don't what me? I know you well, Diana, and I know you are hiding something from me. I'm not dumb. Do you have a crush on that Adam fellow like all of the dumb girls in town do?” He demanded, giving me a frown that was pretty third-degree. I slammed on my best-affronted impression before responding in Spanish.

“Absolutamente Nunca!” I tried not to yell, “That is not why I ran the way I did. You know me enough to know that I can't crush on a guy like that.”

He narrowed his eyes suspiciously at me, making me feel like I was a lab rat being watched for the tiniest reaction.

“Then you have to explain what happened because you acted weirder than you usually are.” I had no explanation to give, yet, so when the bell rang for our first class, I grabbed my bag and jumped out of his car, waving goodbye as I made my way to class.

Luckily, he didn't pursue me to demand I explain more because I had no words to describe my tumultuous emotions to anyone right now. When I got to my locker, I turned the combination that would open my designated space, shaking my head to clear the image of me crashing to the ground like a drunk clown. It was like the remainder brought on the pain I didn't feel thanks to the adrenaline rushing through my veins at the time of the fall. I made a mental note to soak my sore body in hot water later that night.

As usual, I glanced at my family portrait where my whole family, plus Walter, had gone to Disney world because I insisted I wanted to try out the rides for my thirteenth birthday. It was the first and last time I had gotten my way when it came to vacation locations. If left to them, the three of them would have taken poor me to a solarium or something equally weird.

Shaking my head to dispel memories of that day, I performed my ritual of blowing them a kiss and then took my books and slammed my locker shut. I got to class after Mr Yukino, our Japanese American English teacher. He tilted his head towards the owl clock on the wall and cocked his brow in question. Leave it to him not to come out and ask me why I was late.

The whole class was facing me, their eyes boring into me as they waited for whatever explanation I was about to give. I traced my dry lips with my tongue to make them wet while my mind whirled with what to say. Uttering the wrong thing will be the perfect ammunition for these guys to shoot me with.

“I'm waiting for your explanation. Why did I get to class before you, Diana?” He demanded in his familiar thin voice.

“I had an emergency at home. My aunt needed me.” I settled for that common excuse. Even with his thick glasses on, I saw the flash of concern cross his face at the mention of my aunt. He waved me in.

“You know the drill though. Go stand at the back of the class with your textbook.” I sighed and went to do as he instructed. After class, I was on my way out when Mr Yukino asked me to wait behind. I waited till everyone had filed out on their way to their next class.

“Please sit.” He finally directs me to sit on a chair in front of him after the last kid left. “So, I checked your work, and I have to say that I found it a bit lacking. Your edit was very sloppy and I found a lot of mistakes.” He tipped his nose downward and peered at me from the top of his glasses.

“So here you go. Try to fix it again and resubmit before the end of the week.” The extra work he was adding to my plate that had no space for anything more made me see red, but I tried to control myself so I wouldn't freak out. The thing is, Mr Yukino was trying to get me to submit an essay for a competition he made me sign up for. He had given me his version of an ‘I believe in you speech,’ telling me it would be a nice addition to my credentials for when I would go to college.

The essay he gave me back was my seventh edit which I submitted a day before the weekend and the control freak was already done checking my eight-page essay. My thoughts when I was done editing, was that I had done my best work, yet here he was trying to shoot holes into my work.

I needed to leave before I ended up saying something wrong. I should have heeded Martin's warning when he told me nobody can impress Mr Yukino. I took the paper out of his hand, trying my best not to do it without being sassy and I walked towards the door. He called my name with his nasal voice uncertain a little.

“Diana, how's...how, how's your...” I saw him visibly swallow and I knew who he wanted to ask about.

“My aunt is doing okay, Mr Yukino. Now if you'll excuse me, I have to get to my next class, sir. Don't want to be late....again.” I gave him a tight smile before turning my back on him and walking out of the classroom.

Later that afternoon during lunch break, I was seated with Martins, who had forgotten about the Adam thing and was ranting about the injustice that his maths teacher committed towards him. I tuned him out as I read through my essay, my head throbbing as I saw all the strikes and lines all done in red ink. The thought of crumbling the paper and shoving it up Mr Yukino's zit-filled butt was tempting.

Jane suddenly dropped into the space beside me, grabbing my banana like a hungry monkey.

“You won't believe how crazy training was today. I almost didn't want to return to school.” Her chest heaved as if she just left the swimming pool where they trained.

“Did you beat your old record as you planned to?” I asked distractedly when I caught sight of my cousin pushing the school's number one jock and king of homecoming, Vance, aside as he tried to loop his arm around her neck. They were seated at their normal sit with her drones and his soldiers— that was my nickname for them. The guys at their table were acting weird as they tried not to watch the two.

“I thought today would finally be the day, but I still haven't been able to manage it.” I heard the sadness in her voice and dragged my eyes away from my cousin to look at Jane. She sounded disappointed because of it, and I saw the underlying sadness that had been in her eyes after she returned from her summer family vacation. All my prodding and wheedling to get her to talk hadn't been successful, but I was not planning to give up. I was about to say something when I heard Martin's loud intake of breath. He had his eyes on my cousin, so I looked at her.

I watched as she pushed her boyfriend of nine months aside before giving him a resounding slap. Just like the rest of us in the hall, Vance was speechless. The only thing the poor guy could do was rest a hand gently on the face that had to be tingling right now.

As if that wasn't enough, Flavia yelled, “I am breaking up with you, Idiot!”

My eyes bulged out of their sockets because I heard my cousin say the words I never thought she would say.

Despite my shocked state, I heard Martins whisper, “Yes!” with a fist pump the same moment Jane spoke, “What the hell just happened?!” her tone a ball of shock.

“I don't know.” That was all I could answer.