A Surprising Request

As the next day started, an uneasy feeling had been building up in my stomach. Going through the first three classes of my day were hell, but as soon as 4th period started I felt sick. Noticing it, Nik and Troy asked me what was wrong, unable to explain what I was feeling, we got to work on today's assignment. As we gathered all the tools we needed I saw Valerie coming near me, being nervous I look down. As she approaches me, she says "Hey Mark grab me a ruler will you." As I hand it to her she says thanks and walks away. All the thoughts running through my head worsen as I feel I ruined any chance to get to know her. So I vowed to myself that if she ever tries to talk to me again I will not run.

However I did not have to wait too long, a little after we started on the assignment, Valerie comes up and asks me for help on a problem she didn't understand. I happily help her, and ask her to sit with us if she wanted. After I said this, Troy and Nik sit there shocked, while Valerie has her beautiful smile on her face and accepts my offer. As we all work together we finish the assignment right before the bell rang.

While packing up our stuff, we hear Nik ask the same pre lunch question, where do y'all wanna eat today, instead of blurting out what we want Troy and I look at Valerie for an answer.

"I actually can't go today, I have some more homework I have to do before next period." Valerie said sounding disappointed. As she said that I respond with "Yea I actually don't have money for today." Understanding that I was going to try and hangout with Valerie, Nik and Troy left for the sandwich shop, but before leaving they had to give me a mini heart attack. They left a note and two dollars, saying 'Never forget protection ;)', flustered, I tried to sneak the note into my hoodie pocket. As I snuck it in there feeling safe, Valerie stuck her hand in to grab it out. Ready to die at any second, I notice that she started to blush.

"Quite some friends you have there." As she pauses, she tosses the note in the trash but keeps the money. "Jokes on them though, Now we have enough to go get some drinks."

Frantically I start apologizing for their little joke. "I'm so sorry for tweedledee and tweedledum, I never would have expected them to do this." I fight the feeling of wanting to run and ask her “So what homework do you gotta do.”

“I have Biology to work on. Why are you any good at it?” she asks. Knowing that Biology is one of my worst subjects I tell her “Oh man I’m the best at Biology! Would you like any help?”

“Yea that would be awesome, I’m struggling with labeling all the right organs of the human body.”

As we head to the library we talk and laugh with each other. All I can think about now is how am I gonna help her out. We find ourselves a table and get everything we need out.

It didn’t take too long for Valerie to figure out that Biology was not my strongest subject. “You suck at this more than I do! I thought you were supposed to help me out!” she says while smiling at me.

“Yea, about that, I lied. I’d fall asleep in Bio class if it weren’t for a friend keeping me awake in class.”

“Wait, you have other friends than Nik and Troy?” With an expression of shock she continues, “How many friends are you keeping secret from me?” she said sarcastically.

Laughing I answer her, “See I have at least one friend in all my classes. But the reason why I’m so different with Nik and Troy is that they’ve always had my back since we first met.”

“Tell me about it. I’m curious what makes you guys so close.” Valerie says enthusiastically.

“Well the first day I met them was back 3 years ago in 7th grade. Some guy was giving this girl some major problems all because he wouldn’t let her cheat.” As I start the story to see if she really cared, I see her face smiling at me. “Well he ripped up her assignment once the teacher left. I got so angry that I told him I would make him regret it after class.”

As I finish this part Valerie looks at me and says “Wait, it's possible for you to get mad? What’s it like? Do you turn into this inhumane monster?”

“Well I just get mad. Like everyone else. It just takes me a bit longer to reach that point, but to continue where I was so rudely interrupted, the kid just started talking like he owned the place and as I got close to him the teacher came in.” Once again I am interrupted.

“So what happened? I don’t see how Nik and Troy are involved.” Valerie pauses for a moment, then continues, “Did they fight the guy for you?”

“No, the kid started crying and telling the teacher that I was threatening to hurt him. However, Troy stood up and said that he was lying and all I was doing was making sure that he didn’t tear up the girl’s paper again. Then Nik explained that it was him who was calling me worthless and stupid to think I could fight him.” I pause thinking if I’d scare her off. Only to realize she was giving me the sign to continue. “Afterwards, I thanked them for sticking up for me, but they said the only way I could thank them was to go get ice cream with them and pay. Ever since then, we have always had each other’s backs. Kinda like destiny we met.” Realizing what I said is a little embarrassing, I turn to look and she is stuck speechless.

“Uh, Valerie, are you ok? Oh I get it, you were just wishing you were the girl I saved huh?”

“You wish!” she says immediately. “I was just wondering how different you were before you met them. It seems that you put a lot of trust in them.”

“Do I trust them? Yes. However, they get on my nerves every now and then with their little ‘jokes’. They do not understand how to be relaxed. They actually hate relaxing.” Realizing how sidetracked we’ve gotten I bring us back to the homework. “Hey we gotta finish this, Lunch is almost over.”

“Oh shoot you’re right! Alright help me out.” she says jokingly.

As the lunch bell rings we let out the biggest sigh.

“Man, I can’t believe we finished that. That was a lot of labeling. Thank goodness for the internet.” I say exhaustedly.

“Oh I’m sorry, I wasted your whole lunch.” She says.

“Don’t worry about it, I’m sure I can handle it without lunch. Besides, I don’t have any money for the cafeteria.”

As we make our way out of the Library we meet nonother than Nik and Troy. They are standing there with two Cheesesteak sandwiches and hand them to me and Valerie.

Before accepting it Valerie says “Ah that's so sweet of you guys! I can’t take this though, I’d feel awful.”

Before I can respond Troy proudly interrupts. “Don’t worry about it! Believe it or not we owed Mark lunch and thought this was the time we could pay him back.”

Hearing this Valerie looks to me for approval to take the sandwich. I nod.

Nik, Troy and I walk with each other until the point where we separate to go to our next classes. “Hey I’ll see y’all later, I gotta go to my baseball meeting.” Troy sprints away. Nik, getting ready to leave says, “Hey man you owe us 20$. Pay up.”

As I reach into my wallet I pull out a 20 dollar bill and show him my thanks. “Thanks man, you really came through. But how did you know I actually had money?” However, with no response, only a smirk, Nik leaves for his class. Only saying “See ya after school.”

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As the last bell of the day rings, I head to the spot where Nik, Troy and I meet everyday before clubs. As our conversation comes to an end we all head off.

As I arrive in the band room, I once again am brought in by the sound of a gorgeous piano sound. As it plays I can only stand to listen to the beautiful tone.

As the playing ends I start the conversation by saying “I didn’t think it was possible but your playing has gotten even better overnight.”

“Thanks! I only wish I could play for more people though.” As Valerie expects me to tell her she could do it all she is met with snickering at me snickering. “What are you laughing at Mark, please tell me what’s so funny.”

As I end snickering I go back to the door and wave. “Alright guys come in.” In walks a few of my band mates and they all tell her how wonderful her playing is.

Embarrassed, Valerie looks at me and says “What is this? Did you get other people to listen to me play? And you say that Nik and Troy are pranksters”

“What do you mean? I just wanted to give you an audience to play for. If you can do it with complete strangers in a band room, what’s gonna stop you from performing from anything” I say with a smile on my face.
Before we can even start a real conversation, Valerie is bombarded with questions. As I can tell that she is still a little startled that she was eavesdropped on, I decide to step in. “Alright everyone that’s enough, now please leave the room so I can get scolded.”

As they leave one of the members yells across the room, “Mark you make sure that she enters the school talent show. If you don't, I'll let her know your little secret.”

Worried that she is going to snap at me I slowly turn around to look at her.

Jokingly I say “Wow, what a compliment, they want you to perform at the talent show. See you can play for people. Just ignore the fact that they are there.”

As she looks at me I notice a tear slowly rolling down her face. As I freak out looking for tissue paper she says “Don’t worry these are happy tears. I’ve always wanted more people to hear me play, and today there were about six of them. This feeling, this rush, is amazing.”

Relieved at both the fact that she wasn’t mad, and didn’t hear the threat issued at me, I happily tell her “Yea, once you get over your original fears of playing, you start to really enjoy yourself during performances.” I continue, “You know it wouldn’t be a bad idea for you to enter in the talent show. Surprisingly a lot of the major local symphony bands come to scout high school students who enter competitions like these to see the upcoming talent.”

In response to this, Valerie said something that made my heart skip a beat. “I’ll tell you what, I’ll enter the talent show under two stipulations. One, you play a duet with me. I’m sure we can find a peace that will match us perfectly.”

“Done” I said immediately. “You know, I wasn’t gonna enter the talent show, but if that’s the only way for you to enter then I’ll do whatever I can to help you.”

“Hold your horses cowboy, you haven’t heard my second stipulation.” As I heard this, I tried to think about what else she’d need to enter.

“Ok! Anything, you name it.” I tell her.

“I’m going to need to know what that secret was. You tell me, and I’ll enter.”

As my smile quickly turned into a frown I gave her a counter proposal. “I’ll tell you if we win the talent show. I don’t tell losers my secrets so quickly.”

Her face brightened up, as if I was issuing her a challenge. “Ok then, don’t hold me back.”

As I head to the band bulletin board I grab the Talent Show’s poster. “We have 2 weeks to practice, but we only have one week to enter what song we play.”

Valerie says, “Since you have the ear for music, you choose the song, and from now on, don’t be late to the band room for the next two weeks. We have gotta practice a lot.”

As our talk comes to an end, we realize it was time to leave. As Valerie walks out the door she says a few last words. “Thanks so much Mark! Now go listen to a lot of songs and pick out which one works best.”

As I head out to the meetup spot, I tell Nik that I would walk home because I had a lot of stuff I needed to do before next week. As we say our goodbyes, I put my earbuds in and pull my hood up to keep them in place. Playing a playlist of all the famous duets I knew of.

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