Platinum

Alexis

I get on the bus at seven in the morning, and see my friends, Catherine and Diego sitting on parallel seats. Cath looks at me and smiles, obviously indicating that I sit with her. Di’s looking out the window at first, but then he notices me, and raises an eyebrow, as if to say 'hi'. I realise that he’s imitating me. I smile at both of them and move to sit next to Cath, because Di’s not the type to move his heavy bag off the seat next to next him and let anyone sit. I don’t mind. I turn my attention to Cath and I notice that she’s excited.

There’s something she must have to tell me, I know, because it’s written on her face. Catherine gives away too much. It’s so easy to make out, you could literally tell if she’s won in a game of cards even before she takes her turn to play. “What is it?”, I say, eager now. “I think I have a crush on-” she starts saying, but I beat her to it.

“Arthur.”

“How did you know?”

“You were googly-eyeing him yesterday. It was so adorable!” I say, teasing her. She blushes and smiles to herself. “Oh, you’re such a know-it-all,” she whispers, almost to herself.

“Oh, you’re so cute and predictable.”

I roll my eyes.

“Anyway, did you know you’ve become the new Regina George?”

I widen my eyes at that. Wasn’t Regina George, like, the villain of the movie?

Cath looks at my reaction and quickly adds, “Not in the way that you’re thinking. I mean that you’re becoming popular.”

“Popular? Oh please, Cath. How can I be popular? I’m practically invisible.”

I’ve never asked for attention, not once.

“Well, not physically. People know you exist.”

I shake my head. “Okay, fine. What else is new?” I say, pushing aside that topic.

“I know you’re trying to change the subject, but okay. Not really. I don’t think anything else is worth discussion. You tell me about yourself.”

I shrug, and then before I know it, a one-second snicker escapes from me.

Luckily Cath doesn’t notice. She turned towards the window the moment I'd shrugged. What can the most outdated person in The Merit High School say when asked about gossip? Not much. I turn to Diego, and find him reading his notes. After a while he looks back at me. I raise an eyebrow, saying, 'I’m bored'. He nods, then takes out a pack of Hershey’s Kisses and offers them to me. I pick out three and mutter a, “Thanks.” He’s still holding them out. Oh. I take the whole pack and place it in my lap, smiling at him in gratitude.

“Don’t mention it,” he says in his hardly-used voice, smiling in return.

I dig in.

Shawn

Walking through the hallway in the time before classes start, I realise in forgot my English homework at home. Great. Where did I put it? On my desk, maybe. I guess I'll have to do it again. I jog to my locker, not caring to look at the faces of the people I pass. Which is a big mistake, because I bump into someone. Thankfully, nothing falls out of the girl’s embrace, and I don’t really stop to look at her. All I see is that she’s wearing an all-black outfit. I mutter a quick, “Sorry.”, and continue jogging. I reach my locker just in time to take out my books, when I see my assignment sitting there, complete.

It’s then that I realise the I’d already done it.

Oh well.

I mutter a silent apology to everyone I ignored and the girl I bumped into, and walk to my class.

My best friend Travis is calling. I’m still in class, so I can’t really pick up. Plus, it’s English, one of my favourite subjects. I ignore the call. He calls again. Ugh. Just because he has a lot of free lectures today, doesn’t mean he can mess it up for me. There are just about five minutes left, can’t he wait? The bell finally rings, indicating the end of class. My phone rings again. I pick up this time. “What is your problem, man? Don’t you know that you’re the only person in this entire building right now who has three whole hours of free periods, just because you're super-smart and you're ahead of the whole grade?” I half-yell into my phone.

“I’m pretty sure that that was a run-on sentence. Anyway, I’ve to tell you something,” he says, and then goes quiet. I wait for a few seconds, then I lose my patience.

“What?”

How does he expect me to keep my cool when he irritatingly switches off in the middle of a sentence?

“I’ll tell you if you do this. I dare you to bunk your Science class.”

“Forget it.”

How stupid can he be? I need good grades to get into college, you brainless little….

“Oh, come on, Shawn. Get a life! Plus, I really want to tell you.”

“Then tell me.”

“Please? I’ll treat you to Mc Donald’s. Or we could go bowling this weekend, I’ll pay of course. Or-”

“Fine, fine. I’ll do it. We’ll go bowling,” I say quickly and make my way towards the lockers to dump my belongings in. When I turn around, having closed my locker – the dumping finished – Travis is right there.

My eyes widen, but I don’t say anything.

He’s quite known to creep up on individuals.

“Now tell me. I’ve slammed my locker and am not going for one whole hour of Science!” I whisper-scream.

“Okay, okay, okay. I-” he stops and I notice that he’s smiling weirdly.

Then he finishes, “-have a girlfriend.”

I start laughing hysterically.

Alexis

“No, you don’t!” I say to my best friend, Bethany. “Yes, I do. His name is Travis,” she says, in her ‘duh’ voice.

“Travis? Travis from Biology?”

“He’s the one.”

She says 'the one', like she's going to get married to the guy and have four fat kids and live happily ever after.

“Beth, you know what I’m thinking?”

“Of course, you want to meet him.”

That was exactly what I was thinking.

Well, that, and the dreamy way she referred to this Travis of hers. How does she know? Then again, she is my best friend, the one person in the whole wide world who I can trust. Truly.

“Err, yes I was.”

I want to make sure that Travis can be trusted around Beth. It’s like I’m her mother. “Perfect, because we’re doing it right now,” she says, surprisingly. I glance at her questioningly.

“What? You were supposed to meet him right not anyway.”

“Okay,” I say.

We walk towards the other end of the hallway, where I’ve never really cared to go, since I don’t have friends whose lockers are around the area. In fact, I don't really have friends, except Beth. As soon as we reach there, I hear two male voices – one slightly deeper than the other. Maybe Travis brought someone along. A tall boy emerges from the other side of the lockers, where they were standing, followed by another. The first one has blonde hair, fair, freckled skin, blue eyes, and thin lips. The second has brown, straight hair, fair skin, and deep, green eyes.

Blonde-y looks at Beth and smiles the weirdest smile ever. His eyes disappear as he does so. Beth smiles back. And I know that this one’s Travis. I also kind of feel like throwing up. Like, the way she looks at him is the way I look at food, which is kind of gross. I’m just standing there, awkwardly staring at them, when someone clears his throat. Why didn’t I think of that? The brunette doesn’t get any attention, so I decide to give some to him. He looks at me, my clothes, my hair and I recognise him.

His eyes expand, and so do mine. He smiles then and mouths, “Sorry.” I can’t help but smile at the guy who bumped into me earlier, and shrug. This time, I clear my throat, loud enough to catch the lovebirds’ attention. They snap out of whatever telepathic conversation they were having, and look at us. “Oh, we’re sorry. We were just-” Beth starts, but I cut her off saying, “Yeah, yes, we know. Hi Travis.” Beth laughs softly. “Hey Bethany,” Brunette says. I notice that his voice is the less-deeper one.

Travis and Bethany say ‘hi’ at the same time, making Beth laugh one her embarrassed laughs, and me roll my eyes.

I look at Brunette now, raising my eyebrow as if to say, who are you?

He gets it.

“I’m Shawn,” he says and offers me his hand to shake.

“Alexis,” I say, shaking it.

“Nice to meet you,” he says in his over-polite tone.

Shawn

She gets a phone call then, and I let go of her hand. She picks her phone out of her pocket, and looks at it. Alexis shakes her head minutely, and silences her phone, letting it ring until it stops. I wonder who was calling. “Nice meeting the two of you, now I’ll just take Beth away for the whole period,” she says, flashing us boys her smile. “What? No! you go, I want to stay,” Bethany says. How rude. I can definitely see the hurt on poor Alexis’ face, but she covers it up quickly. “Fine,” she says, and walks away.

The idea of being alone with the couple doesn't really appeal to me very much, so I start walking too. I catch up with Alexis and walk beside her. “Hey Brunette.” “I could say the same to you,” I reply.

“Well, you could, but I’m getting my hair streaked in two weeks.”

“Classic Girl Drama, huh?”

“Not exactly. Classic Girl Drama would mean getting it done today,” she giggles, touching the tips of her dark brown hair.

“Classic Girl Drama,” I say again.

“No, it’s not. I’m telling you. Normal girls wouldn’t get their hair streaked blue or purple or pink. They would go for something subtler. Maybe blonde.”

“You’re getting it dyed purple?”

“I don’t know yet.”

“Don’t.”

“What?”

“Get your hair dyed.”

I’d blurted the ‘don’t’ out. “Wait, what? I’m confused,” she says, voicing her confusion. “Don’t get your hair dyed,” I decide to say.

“Okay, why?”

“Because then I’d have to stay away from you. I mean, purple? Ew,” I smile dorkily.

“How considerate of you. I’ll think about it. How about pink?”

“Not at all.”

“Why Brunette? Will you be embarrassed of me?” she says, making a puppy-face.

An adorably cute puppy-face.

“Yes.”

She punches me in the shoulder playfully hard, and then mutters an ‘ow’. I laugh. “Don’t mess with me, Brunette,” I say.

“What are you made of? Iron?”

“Nope, just strong muscle.”

“I’ve got them too, see.”

A very tiny bump appears when she pulls up her sleeve and flexes her arm.

I squeeze it to test how strong she is.

Not weak.

I notice a scar running down her shoulder, to her elbow.

She notices me staring and drops her arm.

Alexis

He almost saw it. Good thing I dropped my arm in time. I look at him now, checking his expression. He’s sort of expressionless, so I change the topic. “Uh-” I start to say, but he beats me to it. “Sight-seeing, huh?” he says, obviously amused. I just laugh. Thank goodness, he doesn’t ask about it.

“Just kidding.”

“Okay.”

“You’re in Chemistry with me, right?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Who’re you going to choose?”

Today we should choose our lab partners. Up until now, our teacher, Mr. Carl chose random partners for every single class, until a girl I’m not fond of, suggested the idea of permanent partners. “I don’t know, you?” he says, surprising me. It’s okay, though. It’s not like I was planning on picking someone else. In fact, I wasn’t thinking of choosing anyone. “And why’s that?” I titter. He thinks about it for a while.

“Let’s just say I’ll convince you not to dye your hair.”

“Okay, but what’s in it for me?”

“Well, eventually your hair will be rescued from all those chemicals, and then there’s a bonus of partnering with me.”

“What’s the bonus?” I inquire. “You’ll see,” he responds. I smile. I don’t normally talk to someone so comfortably.

“You’re funny.”

“That’s…”

“What’s that?”

“I said that that’s just the beginning.”

“The beginning? To what?”

“To the part where we become friends, Brunette.”

“In your dreams, Iron Man.”

“Sure, sure,” is all he says. The bell rings, indicating the end of Biology. That means we have a whole half hour of Chem. “We have Chemistry,” I say.

“I’m aware. Let’s go.”

“Not so fast. I need to get to my locker first.”

“Your locker is all the way on the other side.”

“So is Chem, couch potato.”

He laughs at that, and I start fast-walking towards our destination. He catches up with me. I notice that he’s jogging to keep up.

“Slow down, Polar Express.”

I walk faster. “Try to keep up,” I say, nearing my locker, slowing my pace to normal. Shawn’s panting, I notice. I smile to myself and take my books out. A note falls out of my locker.

Before I can pick it up, Shawn does.

After he reads it, which takes about five seconds, he hands it to me.

“It’s for you,” he says, a smile playing on his lips.

“Duh.”

Shawn

“Pst. Who is D?” I ask Alexis, as we’re sitting side by side and finishing our chemical equations. Her head looks up at me, and shakes, “Huh?” she says, her eyebrow raised. She’s frowning a little too.

“What? Don’t play dumb with me, I read it too, you know?”

“The question is, why’d you read it?”

“It was lying right there on the floor, waiting to be read, and you were taking too long just to pick it up. So, I did the honours.”

“That logic is so flawed. Why’d you read it?”

“Okay, I admit, I’m nosy. Now, who is D?”

“None of your concern,” she tries to dismiss the subject. “It is. I’m involved now. You jump, I jump,” I say, making the reference sound as serious as it was in the movie.

“Wait a minute. That’s Titanic, right?”

“Err, yes? Why?”

“Oh gosh, you’re so funny!”

“That’s me.”

“You realise the person who says that dies in the end, right?”

“Tell me who D is.”

“Alright! It’s Diego.”

“Diego Evans? Why does he want to meet you at lunch?” I ask. She nods, airily. “I don’t know yet. Show me question number seven,” she says. I offer her my notebook, and pull hers towards me with three of my fingers. She lets me.

“Show me what you’ve written.”

“I don’t know how I’m going to get through Chemistry.”

“There, Brunette, is your bonus.”

“Huh?”

“Chem help.”

“Are you serious?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?” I probe. I know she needs the help, I’ve seen enough to tell. What better way to get to know someone than to aid? “Well, because you’re amusing, and this could be a joke,” she says, seriously.

“I’m serious.”

“Thank you.”

“Well, this is where you went wrong.”

I stare at the colour of her eyes, for longer than I should I detect.

Navy.

I show her the point, and she corrects it, rolling those eyes of hers at the silly mistake.

It’s then when she raises her head a little I spot a scar on her jawline.

The bell rings, a smile is shown by her to me, and she leaves.

Alexis

Lunch arrives, and I do as I’m told. I leave my wolf-pack alone and venture out for Diego. I suspect he’s on the field somewhere so I go there. After I don’t find him for some time, I send him a text.

A : Where are you?

His reply is quick. Maybe he was waiting for me to ask.

D : Beside the volley ball net.

That’s all the way on the other side of the field.

A : Meet me halfway.

D : Sure, where?

A : The sitting area overlooking the whole field? The one between the broom cupboards?

Okay. As soon as I put my phone down, I start towards the cupboards. I do my ‘Polar Express’ walk. How inventive it is for a nickname, I think. I reach a point where I’m halfway between the cabinets, and my original texting-point – yes, that’s how big the school field is – when a soccer ball rolls toward me. Someone comes to get it.

That someone is Shawn. Great. Now he’ll ask questions about what I’m up to since I left the wolf-pack. He doesn’t seem to notice who I am at first, so I keep walking, but at my relaxed pace. I don’t want to seem rude. He kicks the ball away, but before he leaves, he takes me – the person who was standing beside the ball a trice ago – into consideration. “Oh, hey Brunette,” he says in his deep-but-not-weirdly-deep voice. I stop. “Hey,” I say, it comes out naturally.

“What are you doing?”

“Doing as I’m told,” I say, taking out the note. “And what’s that?” he says, looking at the vast field.

“Remember this?”

“Ah, that.”

“What is it?”

“Listen, uh-”

Meet me at lunch. Something important. -D, the note said. Shawn looks oddly uncomfortable. I really need to go, since Diego must already be there, but I don’t want to leave this unanswered.

Shawn brings his head closer, as if it’s a secret. “What is it?” I ask again. “I’ve asked about Diego. They say that he’s a little – what’s the word – a little mad,” he says, clearly solemn. I don’t believe what I’m hearing. How is this possible? How did I never pay attention? Then again, Diego was always just reading, and talked only sometimes. I still need to make sure.

“You’re kidding right, because I don’t believe you.”

“Suit yourself.”

“I should get going. Bye.”

I really need to go now, Diego will be waiting.

Shawn had considered my face for a very long time before I left.

Why does he do that?

It’s weird.

I start walking faster, forgetting about that.

After about seven steps, he says in a raised voice – because seven steps have brought me a long way – “Be careful, Alexis.”

It’s then that I realise what he said must’ve been serious.

I turn around and wave to him, in the knowledge that he didn't call me 'Brunette'.

Shawn

Travis and Bethany walk up after the little game of soccer. We get talking. Bethany asks, “Have you seen Alex anywhere?” The question is pointed at me. Should I tell them? No. “She passed by here, but I don’t where she is, maybe she’s gone back to class or something,” I say, glancing beyond Bethany to where Alexis is actually sitting on the bench. With Diego. The couple didn’t notice her, even though they came from that way, because they were too engrossed in themselves. I know nothing major will happen to her, but I keep checking on her instinctively.

It’s like I’d be responsible if something happened to her, since I read the note too.

“Oh, okay.”

I expect Bethany to go look for Alexis, but that’s all she says. She doesn’t leave Travis’ side. What a great friend. Travis and Bethany start talking among themselves. I don’t contribute much. I realise Alexis is getting up, leaving Diego settled there. It looks like Diego wanted something from her, and she isn’t going to give it to him.

His expression is contorted. She doesn’t look back, just walks forward. Until she spots this wolf-pack. She moves towards us, her lips moving. Did he hurt her? Her forehead is frowning, eyes sad. As soon as she comes close enough to Bethany to greet her, she changes her expression into a happy one. Forehead smooth and mouth smiling. Her eyes are still sad. Apparently, I’m the only one who notices that fact, because Bethany just smiles, says ‘hi’ and gives her a brief side-hug. Then Alexis looks at me, and all I can do is look back.

She looks away then, to my relief. I take it the conversation wasn’t so important. I focus on what Travis and Bethany are talking about. “We should colour coordinate for Homecoming and Prom,” says Bethany. Ugh. Homecoming’s just three weeks away. I’m not going to think about Prom just yet, since it’s a month later. Why do girls stress so much about irrelevant things? “Why are you stressing about such an irrelevant thing? Homecoming’s three weeks later,” Alexis exclaims, reading my mind.

“Three weeks is not far, you know?”

“So much could happen in three weeks.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

Now she’s challenging Alexis. “Like… you know what? I don’t have time for this. I’ll see you in class,” Alexis says, calmly, but for some reason I can hear the aggression in her voice. “Do you want to-” Travis starts saying, but Bethany cuts him off, “No. she’ll come around.” I comprehend that I’m rolling my eyes. “See you guys,” I mutter, and walk off in the direction Alexis is going in.

I need her company for now, instead of the sickening lovebirds’.

I keep a little distance between us, fifteen metres or so, and follow her.

She leads me to the secluded area of the school, and I ponder about why we’re in the second-most secluded hallway in the school.

I stop when she turns the corner to the most.

That’s when I hear it.

Someone being pushed and a voice that says, “Listen to me” dangerously.