Chapter 10-Secrets and Truths

            "Hey, guys!" Tiana said from behind us. Strangely, Krystal and I had gotten to school before her. Before we could reply, the bell rang and we headed into homeroom. We made a plan to meet up today since yesterday there was the big fight. Eric said that he would confirm the meet with Justin and Steve, since they couldn't be at school for three weeks.

            "Eric, I was wondering if we could hang out sometime," Tiana batted her eyelashes at him.

            "Umm..sure?" he said, "We're hanging out today, though."

            "I know..I meant, like a date," she said.

            "OH," he said loudly, "well, I'm kind of busy the rest of the week."

            "No problem, how about next next week on Monday?" she asked.

            Krystal suddenly called out, "Omigosh!! There's a HUGE spider on your desk, Tiana!" Tiana screamed and clutched Eric's shirt. I rolled my eyes. Krystal winked mischievously at me. Before Tiana could realize that there was no spider at all, the bell rang.

            "Wow, Krystal," I said, smiling, "I never thought you had it in you to do something like that."

            She flipped her hair. "I am a person of many secrets." Then she tripped over a garbage can and nearly fell into it. We started laughing like crazy, only to bump into Eric.

            "Whoops! Sorry," Krystal said, giggling. We were being jostled from all sides. Eric was pushed into me, and I was shoved into Krystal, who was pushed into..the garbage can. "AAAAAH!!" she screamed. The garbage toppled over. Good thing there wasn't much that was in it. I saw how close Eric and I were standing and immediately went over to check on Krystal while Eric righted the toppled over garbage can. I realized that the hallway was nearly empty.

            "Shoot!" I yelled, "We've got to go to class! Bye Eric!" I didn't wait for a reply. We slid into our seats a second before the bell rang.

            "That was a close one!" Krystal said, huffing.

            "Totally," I agreed. The calculus teacher, Mrs. Skavinski, was really strict and gave students detention if they were late.

            After a boring lesson of calculus, I went to physics. Eric was on the other side of the classroom talking to a blonde girl. I thought she was one of the cheerleaders. I sat down in my seat and waited for class to start. I started tapping my fingers impatiently on my desk. I soon realized I was tapping out a song. Marina and the Diamonds "Oh No!"

            "What are you doing?" Eric's voice asked me. I barely heard it.

            "One track mind, one track heart. If I fail, I'll fall apart," I said mostly to myself.

            "Eva!" Eric hissed. I blinked.

            "Yeah?" I asked curiously. He was staring at me strangely.

            "You spaced out there for a second," he said. I shrugged. It happened to everyone sometimes. Class passed by slowly. I kept wondering who that girl Eric was talking to was. He tapped me on the shoulder as I was packing up to go.

            "Don't forget that there's a meet today after school," he said. His eyes still had that worried look in them.

            "Why would I forget?" I laughed, "I don't forget things that easily."

            "Okay," he said, and smiled. It was one of those forced smiles that you didn't forget. I was about to ask if he was okay, but the blonde cheerleader showed up.

            "Hi! I'm Danielle! I've never seen you at this school before, are you new? What's your name? I can show you around if you'd like," she said. She spit out questions so fast, I couldn't get a word in. As she paused to take a breath, I quickly cut in.

            "No, Eva, no thanks," I said, astounded. How could anyone talk that fast?

            "Um..Eva, this is..my....friend Danielle," he said awkwardly.

            She giggled. "Oh, Eric is so shy when it comes to this. I'm his girlfriend," she said happily. Just then, the bell rang.

            "Umm...'kay, I have to go," I babbled, "See you guys around." I ran out of the room as fast as my legs could take me. What was wrong with me? That girl was being perfectly nice. I should go back and apologize. I thought to myself. When I was turning back, I saw they were out of the classroom. Eric was murmuring quietly to Danielle. As I watched, I saw her giggle and turn to hug him. I quickly turned around and walked away.

            I didn't say much at lunch except when Tiana mentioned Eric. She was saying how she knew Eric was interested in her and how she had a date with him. I told her that he already had a girlfriend so it was pointless trying to be his girlfriend.

            "Really? Who?" Tiana asked in disbelief.

            "It's this girl in my physics class. Danielle," I said, carefully watching her reaction. First was disbelief, shock, anger, then calm. I looked at Krystal, but she seemed as confused as I was.

            "Whatever," she said, "It's not like I was that interested in him." I could tell she was lying. If he broke up with Danielle, she would immediately pounce. I started to wish that he wouldn't break up with Danielle.

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            We met up after school at the park, since Steve and Justin were suspended from school and they couldn't walk on school grounds. It was very awkward at first, especially between Tiana, Justin, and Steve. While they were sorting things out, I climbed the spider structure. When I got to the top, I started listening to my iPod. It was playing "Lego House" by Ed Sheeran. I looked down. Tiana was using wild hand motions to talk to Steve and Justin, while glancing at Eric, trying to draw attention to herself. I rolled my eyes. Krystal had started to rummage in her backpack for something, possibly a book to distract herself. It didn't seem like we'd be getting much work done today. But where was Eric? I saw him a second ago..well I saw Tiana looking at him. But I just assumed it was him. Where could he have gone? I glanced around from my bird's eye view. I saw him nearing his car. He couldn't be leaving, could he? I remembered something he had said to Danielle in physics, "I'll meet you after school at the ice cream parlor." Was he seriously ditching our project? I climbed down as quickly as I could and told Krystal what happened.

            "You have to hold down the fort. I'll be back soon," I said. She tossed me her car keys.

            "Be careful, Eva," she said. She looked so worried.

            "It's not like I'm going into a war zone, Krystal," I said teasingly. She looked really unhappy. 

            "I didn't mean physically careful," she said slowly, "You might not like what you see." I frowned. She had a point.

            "I'll be careful," I promised, "And, I'll get my own car after this."

            That made her smile. "You'd better. Good luck, Eva."

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            I cautiously entered the ice cream parlor. I needed to be less conspicuous. I quickly ordered a strawberry bliss. I didn't feel like a chocolate vanilla swirl today. I took a cursory glance around the parlor for Eric. I saw Danielle's familiar blonde hair. So that was really the reason why Eric ditched our group. I hastily texted Krystal what I found out. I got my strawberry bliss and quickly sat down at a random table out of sight.

            I was bored out of my mind when someone sat in the seat across from me. He glanced up. He had pretty brown eyes with a dark wave of hair and looked about 16.

            "Mind if I sit here?" he asked.

            "I guess not...." I said slowly. It was so awkward. I was seriously contemplating leaving the whole "mission" behind when he spoke again.

            "What's your name?" he asked. I was starting to think he was crazy.

            "Eva," I replied, "What's yours?"

            "Bryan," he said, "I go to school at Raven Brook High School."

            "Really?" I said, awed, "I go there, too!"

            "Cool," he smiled, "I haven't seen you there before, though. I would have remembered you." I smiled and realized I was actually blushing. Suddenly, I remembered why I had come here in the first place. Speak of the Devil and the Devil shall come. Eric was coming towards us. I sighed. "What's wrong?" he asked.

            "That's my cue to leave," I said. He looked up at Eric.

            "Is he your brother?" he asked.

            "No, I'm doing a project with him, but I followed him here because he left the group," I said sullenly.

            "Why would he do that?" he asked. He looked genuinely puzzled.

            I signed. "For his girlfriend."

            "That isn't cool" he said, "I should let you go." I smiled.

            "Maybe we can see each other again, sometime," I offered my phone to him. I was surprised at my boldness. He smiled as he typed it in. He quickly texted himself with my phone so he'd have my number. I stood up, Eric was waiting for me at the door. We hurriedly exchanged goodbyes. I sighed and faced Eric.

            His eyes were smoldering. "What?" I asked, "You're the one who ditched us. I was just sent to see what you were doing."

            "You didn't have to follow me. And I had a perfectly good reason to leave. It's not like anyone was paying attention," he said.

            "Well now we have to go back, and if they aren't there, then it's your fault we have to make up a meet again," I turned and started Krystal's car.

            Luckily, everyone was still there. The bad news was that Tiana was still arguing with Steve and Justin. Seriously? Who can argue for that long? I thought myself. I checked my phone. It had actually only been about 45 minutes. Krystal looked up as I approached. She demanded to know where Eric had been. I handed over her car keys as I explained everything, while leaving out Bryan.

            Eric came a few minutes later, who I immediately stood on the other side of the circle from. He seemed like he was in a really bad mood. Krystal was angry at him, too. I didn't know why, but she probably had her own reasons.

            "Now that we can finally start, we have to do something that makes us connect. Let's play Truth or Dare,' she said. Since nobody else had any ideas, we ended up playing Truth or Dare.

            "We'll do three rounds," Krystal said, "pick a name and ask that person the question or dare." We all nodded. "I'll go first," she said. "Eva. Truth or Dare?" she asked. Of course I had to get picked first.

            I sighed. "Dare," she gave me an easy one. I had to climb to the top of a tree. I was to the top in a matter of seconds. She yelled at me to come down, so I did. It went on like that for a while. The next time I was picked, which was by Steven, I said truth. He asked me if I could have any kind of car in the world, what it would be. I said that it would probably be a silver/blue convertible. The last time I had to choose truth or dare, I said truth absentmindedly until I realized that it was Eric who would be asking me something. I tried to backtrack, but Krystal wouldn't let me. I sighed. "What's the question?" I asked.

            He gave me a real question. "Who do you like?"

            I could feel everyone's eyes on me. "Nobody," I finally said. Krystal gave me "the look". That meant, "I know you're lying but I'm not going to say anything because I want you to come to terms with your lying habit yourself."

            "Everyone likes someone," Krystal said, "In fact, I'll tell you who I like right now if you tell everyone yours."

            "But that's not fair because I'd be telling everyone but you'd only be telling me," I said, trying to stall for time.

            "Fine, everyone has to tell us who they like," she looked at everyone, daring them to contradict her. They nodded in assent.

            Tiana finally decided on saying that Eric was her crush. I don't think he knew it, but he scooted away from her a few inches. Steve and Justin both said they liked Tiana. She practically glowed. I refrained myself from rolling my eyes with a huge amount of control. It was down to Krystal, Eric, and me. Eric said he wanted to go last, so it was either me or Krystal going first. Krystal looked at me. "I told you guys I don't like anyone," I said.

            "Who believes her?" Krystal asked. Everyone but her and Tiana raised their hands.

            "Thanks, guys," I said.

            "Okay, I'll go," Eric said, "There's this girl who's really nice, funny, sensitive, and loves ice cream and music."

            "Oh, we all know it's Danielle," Tiana snapped.

            "But that's the thing," he said, "I just broke up with her." Of course, Steve and Justin were immediately on his case, but Krystal and I didn't miss the hopeful glint in Tiana's eyes. Eric looked at me as if I was supposed to understand something. I shrugged. I had no clue. 

Author's Note

What do you think Eric's trying to tell Eva? What will Tiana do next? =O!!