One School Day by Zoe Zhang (drm ebook reader .TXT) 📕

only changed her purple shirt to a red and green tie dye shirt (which, I comment, looks perfect with her hair and eyes) and slipped into checkered converse shoes. We hurried outside the huge house after waving good-bye to Abby’s parents and crossing the street to wait at the bus stop. Then finally, after what seemed like forever, Mr. Brooke’s awesome car showed up while the sun was setting quickly, and Abby and I sprung up and rushed to the car.
As I jumped in the car, Abby had already tackled Kerry to his seat pinching and tickling him all over. And that was serious in our case. We had all vowed never to tickle Kerry after we found out he was ticklish last year, but now every time Abby wants to do something threatening, she starts tickling him to death. This was one of those times.
“Calm down, Abby,” I said loudly, pulling her red hair by the end. Abby got off and glared at me, sitting down and giving me the “what the heck?” Look. I grinned.
“Save some room for me!” I cried, suddenly jumping at Kerry myself, who screamed in a high pitched voice, scrambling to the far side of the car, but was unsuccessful. I started tickling him under his arms, while he was laughing like mad, crying, “Mercy, mercy! I give up!” and I finally stopped, sitting down next to him, while Abby took the front. Kerry pretended to look frightened, but failed and ended up apologizing about being late, and said he’d make it up by treating us out to Baskin Robbins on Saturday. We refused, and said we’d pay for ourselves. Just the idea of going to Baskin Robbins made me drool.
“Okay, kids, we’re here!” Mr. Brooke called from the front, alerting us to look up from our game of Slide with Abby, a famous hand game that was taught to all kids. We had gone up to 24 claps, and Kerry was betting a strawberry smoothie on me from Jamba Juice that I would be the first to lose. But sadly (according to Kerry), we had to stop playing in order to enjoy the party. Abby and I thanked Mr. Brooke as we jumped out of the car once again, while Kerry silently slid out of the car, giving his dad the cold shoulder. Mr. Brooke looked hurt and confused, but he wasn’t as confused as we were. Kerry usually gave his dad a warm felt hug, leaving with a thank you, whenever Mr. Brooke did something appreciative.
I frowned in disappointment as Mr. Brooke sadly looked away to back up the car. He waved half-heartedly, mouthing “Knock yourselves out,” and drove away. I didn’t have time to accuse Kerry of anything, because at that moment I heard a girly squeal coming from Amber’s house.
“Akira! You’re here! Oh, hi, Abby! Hi Kerry!” Amber exclaimed excitedly, waving us into her actual mansion (unlike Abby’s). After we stepped in, she allowed us to stop to look up and gape and gasp in awe at the huge palace-like home.
“And her own elevator,” I heard Abby murmur, jealousy showing in her vibrant olive eyes, as if determined to not go over to Amber and wipe that proud smile off her face. Amber was beaming with pride, happy that we (Kerry and I, at least) were impressed with her “house”.
I hugged Amber gently before she led us toward the ballroom, or so I’ve dubbed it. Amber says it’s the living room with not so many accessories—yeah, right. I wandered around the snack table; the place already filled, which was not easy since Amber’s living room could fit about 2 whole houses. And I mean big houses. I could already spot Jordan and Carter talking in one of the corners, with Nickolai, Charlie and Ben, all listening attentively to whatever the two leaders were saying. In the middle of the room, there was a humongous boom box, that looked as if it was turned up to it’s full volume blasting random hip hop, rock, slow, and rap songs at different times, one by one. It was rather disturbing when I saw people actually dancing to the rap (Kerry and I think it’s too loud, and it speaks gibberish, while Abby doesn’t really know what rap is. We’ve refrained from revealing it to her, until now). In another corner, far away as possible from the boom box, a group of giggly girls were drinking soda, a beverage that looked suspiciously like Diet Pepsi. They were talking, it seemed, as loudly as possible, as if hoping to actually drown out the most obnoxious noise made by the box. I was more then happy that Amber didn’t hire a DJ for the party… that would have been more then hectic. Several small random groups of people (who looked like the 8th graders that Amber hangs out with from time to time) were dancing and moving their heads to the beat like there was nothing better to do, with 7UP and cokes in their hands. A few were holding some already bitten pizza.
That’s when I finally saw some decent 6th and 7th graders hanging out in this one spot, my friends included. I walked over with Kerry and Abby to say hi. Teresa, Cory, Rika, Safa, Matthew, Simeon, pretty much everyone I knew and felt comfortable with were in one group, including Monica and Chencho, the 8th graders, who had squeezed their way through in the group. Shelby, Andrea, Anthony and John, my favorite 6th graders to have fun with and pick on… well, Abby picks on them… were there, too. I grinned at all of them, as Abby, Rika, and Shelby was immediately sucked into an intimate discussion about something important. Kerry and I just hung with the rest, and we also started talking about the first thing that came to mind: did this song suck, or rock? It was a rock song, so Kerry, John, Cory, Matthew, Teresa and Chencho voted for it, thinking it was one of the best songs so far. Andrea, Monica, Anthony, Safa, Simeon and I voted deathly against it, protesting that Hip-Hop was way better. We fought over it for awhile, everyone coming up with a joking comment, smiles exchanged, fake and pointless fights were made and broken up, a boring comment passed up every few minutes… the usual.
After a few boring minutes passed by, I finally felt pooped, plopping myself onto a folding chair that was strewn carelessly against the wall. Kerry and Abby followed after me, at the moment, bickering about something ridiculous. I sighed, obviously bored, until Simeon decided to walk over and bug me.
“Hey, Aki!” Simeon chirped pleasantly. I glowered at him dangerously. He had used my nickname. The only people that were allowed to use my nickname were Kerry and Abby, except only on rare occasions.
He’d better have a good excuse.
“Yeah?” I said, raising an eyebrow. Personally, I hadn’t contacted with Simeon in ages; I guess it started from when he spilled orange juice on my favorite notebook. I didn’t talk to him for weeks then.
“I just wanted to ask a favor…” Simeon said sheepishly. However, Kerry, whom was in the corner sipping (more like chugging—he likes to think of himself as “defined”… pfft, yeah, right) his strawberry punch, abruptly stopped to whirl around to face both of us. Abby, although I didn’t know it, was watching us, too, out of the corner of her eye. I love my friends, I really do, but they’re not exactly my parents. I shrugged the thought off, just accepting that they were watching out for me. Friends. Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em.
“Would you… would like to go out with me?” he said in a small, quiet voice.
I dropped my punch. Kerry and Abby were immediately at my side, Kerry cleaning up the mess I made and Abby resting a comforting hand on my shoulder. They were acting awfully sweet, but my brain was still registering from the fact that Simeon had just asked… me… out.
I might as well have fainted, but I’m tougher than that.
Not really noticing the nasty look Kerry was giving Simeon, I decided to play dumb. “Huh?”
Simeon shrugged once more. “Do you want to go out with me?” he repeated slowly, as if talking to a 3-year-old. I hate it when people do that. But of course, being the genius I am, I knew just what to do.
“No,” I rejected him slowly and kindly. When once again Simeon shrugged, he walked away, and I could’ve sworn I heard a sigh of relief coming from… behind me?
Glad that that was over, I sat back down on the back breaking folding chair. Kerry remained silent but peeved, and Abby looked a bit perturbed. I sighed. They were they best friends of my life, but they worry way too much.
“Look guys, it’s fine,” I assured the two of them. Kerry seemed to relax, but Abby still had her shoulders square.
“Why do you think he did that our of nowhere?” Abby said, asking the question that lingered in each of our heads.
Kerry smirked. “Probably one of those stupid bets. Don’t bother. Simeon’s an idiot, anyway.” Kerry was always the hero, wasn’t he? We should dub him Super K…

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Publication Date: 03-25-2010

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