The Fool

After hearing those unfathomably efficacious words scatter from her lips and dissipate, no, evaporate into my ears and shake me at the very core of my being, I was gone. I saw the creation of the universe, millions of years of human history, and the formation of every single cosmic entity down to its most constituent atoms flash right before my very eyes. It all lead up to-actually, went beyond this incredibly splendiferous moment. This remarkably monumental occasion in human history, will forever etch itself into each and every integrant of all cells in this corporeal form of mine. Excuse my opulent diction, but the only way to express this moment of grandeur is by utilizing such phrases.

During my escapadial fantasies I heard Mark murmur: "Well that got him excited didn't it?" as he nudged me on my shoulder.

I quickly halted my embarrassing behavior and coughed a bit, trying to hide deep breaths behind them. "Are you feeling okay Greg? And what was it you said..Mark?" Penny questioned as she slowly turned from me back to Mark.

"O-oh he didn't mean much by whatever it was he said. Something about me getting a little flustered is all" I cleaned up as I laughed awkwardly.

Great, thanks LeBron, now I'll never be able to get with Penny! She'll think I'm a freak after that horrendous display of character. What am I gonna do now?!

"So what about you Pen, what'd you do over break? Get a new boyfriend maybe?" Mark asked.

Yes! Thank you Mark, I love you for asking tha-

"Well, that's actually a secret" she replied.

Excuse me? A secret she says? Did I hear that correctly?

"Yo, hey Penny" a familiar voice said.

"Right on cue" I heard Penny mumble.

Me and Mark flipped around (well, more like just me. Mark just turned around normally) to see a very peculiar face. No, I guess it'd be correct to say that we saw a bumbling buffoon. A complete and total joke that all the guys hate (or at least most of them) and all the girls love. Remember that "certain idiot" I mentioned before? Well, this was him. Jackson Bikerson, or J.B. for short (as everyone calls him) is your typical middle school bully. He's known for picking on most boys at Royal Oak (me and Mark being one of the exceptions to that outside of light teasing, but I still find him very aggravating), and is usually found beating the crap out of other students every other day behind the school, or threatening kids for lunch money in the gym locker rooms. I haven't witnessed any of it personally, but judging from the amount of kids talking about it, as well as how they talk about it, he just causes trouble for everyone including the teachers. I HATE this guy! He's always trying to annoy me and Mark, even though we try to ignore it. Even despite that, he's still infuriating! Man I swear, I'm gonna have to put him in. his place of all the threatening and harassment he's inflicted on others, the incessant taunting he put on me, and the harm he puts on everyone else.

"J.B.?" I asked.

 Mark looked up at him (Yes, J.B. is tall, especially for his age. He's about 5'8 (172.72cm) at 13 years old. Mark was 5'6 (167.64cm) at the time, and I was about 5'4 (162.56cm). So yeah, his parents were definitely feeding him bricks or something) and said: "What are you doing over here?" In an intimidating tone.

J.B. scratched his neck. "Can't check up on my friend? Not like you two virgins would know what it's like to have friends that aren't guys"

I sighed. "There's nothing wrong with being a virgin. As a matter of fact, I'm glad I'm one" I said confidently. What do I look like taking crap from a punk like him in front of Penny? there's no way I'd do that!

Despite my valor though, I swear I felt Mark rolling his eyes at my remark. Anyways, after I told him valiantly how proud I am of my vestal (or pure) state of being, he gave me an almost disgusted look, as if he never heard anyone state anything even remotely close to taking pride in their chaste. 

"Uhh..What? Whatever, come on Penny. We're leaving these lames" J.B. stated. 

I honestly wasn't the least bit surprised by that response. It's a pretty archetypical trait for someone like him to have, not to mention that he's known for being that way via his reputation. As I was thinking all of this, Penny suddenly spoke out in retort: "Hey, quit being mean to them!" as she puffed out her cheeks.

My angel! Of course, how foolish of me to not even consider such an unblemished maiden of her moral sanctity to not speak out against this vile wretch!

To his dismay, J.B. reeled a bit confused before replying: "H-huh? Wha..whatever.."

Penny swiftly walked past us, joining J.B. as she moved to his side and began to stroll away. Me and Mark watched closely, clearly puzzled by the events that had just transpired, when Penny unexpectedly turned her head back to me slightly, whispering: "Sorry about that" as she smiled sweetly. 

I blushed for a moment at the aura Penny exuded as she smiled right then, but then quickly took on a more neutrally despondent countenance after the pair had walked away. After Mark saw my facial expression, he wryly mumbled: "They definitely got somethin' going on".

After school got out at around 3:00pm, I decided to try and go meet up with Penny at her locker. I sighed, closing my locker door as I got the last of my books and papers organized into my backpack. I pulled the straps of my book bag over my shoulder, and anxiously looked down the hall to spot Penny talking to a couple of her friends, right beside her own locker.

Okay..this can't be that bad, right? I mean what's the worst that can happen? She rejects me or something? No no..there's no way..I mean, we get along pretty well, right? There's no chance she'll say something like "Greg? Ew, get away from me you creep".

Yeah that'd be a nightmare. Alright, yeah. I can't do this, screw it all!

No, stop it! You have to go do it. You're Greg Onami for a reason yeah? It's just a simple conversation, it seriously realistically can't be that bad.

After breathing deeply a couple of times, I slowly began to walk to her direction.

Alright, let's do this.