Dance to This Beat

“Hey, Claire?”

I turned around to face Hanna, Brendon’s new “parent partner”. “Yeah?”

“I was wondering if you could talk to Brendon.”

“Uh ... sure. About what?” I asked, confused.

“Why he won’t talk to me. I mean, I know he’s probably still mad about sixth grade, but seriously, that was six years ago.”

I glanced over at her. “What happened in sixth grade?”

“Very bad ‘Seven Minutes In Heaven’ incident. I wouldn’t go in the closet with him. He’s emotionally scarred for life.”

I laughed. “That’s Bren for ya.”

She nodded in agreement. “Yeah, yeah it is.”

After seeing the look on her face and thinking for a moment I had a thought (scary, I know). “You like him,” I accused.

Hanna gave me a Look. “Tell the whole school, why don’t you.”

“Oh my God. I was actually right?” I was shocked.

“Yeah….”

I bit my bottom lip. “My mouth is shut,” I said as we walked into the health room.

Hanna followed me to our table. Each sat four people and we were required to sit with our partner and another group. Naturally Brendon, Spencer, and I wanted to sit together, so Hanna joined us.

“Dude, look,” Spencer pointed behind me.

I turned around and saw Miss Chaimberlin sitting at her desk. Before the bell rang. Not normal, my friends, not normal at all.

Before I got to say something, the bell rang. I took the only seat left at our table: across from Spencer and next to Hanna.

“Class, I’d like for you to talk with your partner and the other parents at your table. Maybe schedule a play date for your ‘babies’,” Miss Chaimberlin spoke.

Brendon stifled a laugh.

“Break!”

“Is this the football team?” Spencer commented.

“So how are y’all?” I exaggeratedly asked.

“Great! How about you?!” Brendon giggled.

Yes, the boy actually giggled.

“Wonderful!” Spencer answered.

All of us broke out laughing.

“So Hanna? Still playing guitar?” Spence asked.

God, I loved that boy.

I pulled a sheet of paper out of my notebook. On it I wrote, “what’s wrong? why won’t you talk to hanna?”, then slid it across the table to Bren.

He got a weird look on his face then wrote back. “I don't know….”

“does brendon urie have a crush?”

“maybe.”

“awe. y’all would look tres cute together.”

“thanks. should I ask her out?”

“YES!”

“ok jeez.… ha”

I crumpled the piece of paper and tossed it into the trashcan.

“Two points,” Spencer claimed.

“Oh please, hold your applause. Oh, stop.”

He laughed some more. “You and Jon both seem a lot happier since yesterday.”

“Yeah,” Brendon agreed. “Did you--“

“No!”

“Okay, jeez, Claire. Bite my head off.”

“Don’t imply it, and I won’t bite it.”

“Kinky,” he and Spencer both said.

We went on with pointless conversation for the rest of class.

------

Brendon and I walked down the hall together. I was going to chemistry and he was in the next classroom in history.

“So you made up?” he asked as we walked.

“Yeah. And out.”

He made a face. “You country gals sure ain’t shy,” he said in a Mock-Southern accent (which sucked, by the way).

“No. We’re really not.” I stopped walking. “And this ‘country gal’ had better get to class.”

He laughed, and I walked in the chemistry lab.

I was greeted by a cheerful Ryan (who was wearing my pants! The thief!) and a kiss on the cheek.

“Okay….”

“I heard you and Jon made up.”

“Wow. If this makes you happy, I’d hate to see you as a three-year-old on Christmas morning.” I laughed at the thought of three-year-old Ryan running around his house in Pull-Ups excited about the new Transformers he got.

“I wrecked havoc everywhere. Spencer and I once set the neighbors’ cat on fire.” He cringed at the memory.

“Oh, my God.”

“The irony in that story is that the cat’s name was Smokey.”

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah,” he laughed some more.

“Hey, nice pants, by the way. You didn’t really think I’d let that one slide, did you?"

He looked down and had a grin on his face when he looked back up. “Thanks. I went into this really great boutique called 'Claire’s Closet'. I totally recommend it.”

“Oh thanks,” I rolled my eyes. “I’ll have to check it out.”

He continued to grin. “You should.”

“How would your momma feel if she knew you went around stealin’ your friends’ pants?” I asked pointedly.

“Ashamed at the boy she brought up.”

“Exactly.”

He shook his head.

“In other words, I want my pants back before I graduate.”

“Grad present?”

“Uh, no.”

“Good morning class.” The door slammed as the heavily built science teacher walked into the classroom. “Today we’ll be reviewing the periodic table of elements.”

------

“In other words, Spanish was very unproductive today,” Kaity said as I sat down at the table. Josh was staring at her like she was the only other person on the wonderful planet we call Earth.

“Talking about these stupid flash cards?” I asked.

“Uh huh.”

“At least we get partners.” I was being very optimistic. It was kind of scaring me.

“Yeah,” the lovebirds agreed, gazing into each other’s eyes.

Hanna, my Spanish partner (thank God she was in our class), and Brendon sat down together. When they were walking, they were holding hands.

“God, all this love is killin’ me,” I joked.

Someone covered my eyes from behind.

“Guess who?” The voice was deep and unforgettable.

I moved his hands and turned around/stood up at the same time. Jon wrapped me into a tight hug.

“Reunited and it feels so good,” Ryan and Spencer sang, joining the table.

“Shut up,” I mumbled, my face pressed into Jon’s chest.

He kissed the top of my head, ignoring the principal (infamous around the world for saying, “No PDA! You’ll get herpes!”) standing right behind us. I was surprised Mr. Griffin didn’t yell at us on the spot.

“What did you just get finished saying about love, Claire?” Brendon asked.

“Screw you?” I offered innocently. I knew he was now going to pull a prank on me; I couldn’t begin to fathom what. At this moment (in these arms) I didn’t really care.