Operation Beautiful

Damn, this girl was devious. How was I going to distract the principal? And then there was no saying that it wouldn't fall off the bottom of the cup randomly.

I am pondering this dilemma on my way to third period when I bump into someone tall and blonde.

"Watch it, DuPont," Janice's harsh voice cuts through my thoughts.

"Sorry," I mutter. "Just thinking."

"Yeah, obviously you don't have much experience with it," she scoffs. Suddenly, I think of something.

"Janice, would you be willing to help me out?" She raises an eyebrow.

"No." I've learned through experience (or rather, through watching Clarice) that if I just ignore her denial, she'll end up helping me anyway. I've never actually tried it before but...here goes.

"I need someone to distract the principal for a few seconds." She looks at me oddly.

"What? Why?"

"Um...well, there's this note thing..." she holds up a hand.

"Correct answer: 'I just need some help, Janice. What's it to you any way?' Grow a backbone, you twit." And she walks away. I think that's a yes.

"I'll meet you outside his office right after 3rd!" I call after her.

I slide into my seat in the back of the room and pull out the pink sticky note with the green one attacked to the back. Who ever's been delivering the notes very kindly provides me with a green post it each time.

Yup. I do have Negrutot third. How did you guess? Hmm, a sleepover with a wicked game of truth or dare, huh?

Despite the fact that I have the sneaking suspicion this girl could be from Jessica's sleepover, I don't press the issue. If it's true, then her pool of guys will be narrowed down from Negrotot's class to either me or Matt. And then it's one more question to victory. Speaking of which...

Btw, what does the winner of this little game get? If I win, I want you to buy me lunch.

There, a classic bet move. I should probably start snooping to find out which sleepover girl she is. If she even is one of those girls. I shudder internally. Maybe I should back out now before I get kidnapped and am almost forced to play seven minutes in heaven. Like at that last sleepover.

I shudder again. I can't look at one of those Rangler twins in the face anymore.

Are you a junior? I flip the note over and think of how to get back at her for my latest delivery attempt. Over the PA system. Yup, you read correctly. Serves you right for sending me to the principal's office.

"Ready?" I ask Janice. She's standing in the front office with a bored look on her face.

"Whatever. Make it quick."

We try to walk into the principal's office but his secretary stops us as we walk by her desk.

"What can I do for you guys?" I don't know what to say.

"Uh, well, I..."

"We need to talk to the principal about our club," Janice says stiffly. "Is he in?" I see the secretary's mouth open to say that we should talk to the Student Activities' Director, but Janice cuts her off. "We have an appointment."

"He's not in right now, why don't you have a seat?" I look at Janice hopelessly and she rolls her eyes.

"I'll distract her while you pop in and out, okay?"

"Thanks, Janice. I don't know what I would have done without you."

"Failed, probably." But her face cracks into a little smile. She walks up to the secretary in such a way that to look at Janice, the woman is facing away from the door. I slowly slip into the principal's room. I look furtively around for the coffee mug and lift it to stick the note to the bottom. I fold a couple of corners down so the note doesn't show and secure one of the edges down with tape so it doesn't flap around when the cup is lifted. Then, with a furtive glance behind my shoulder, I quickly exit the room.

"It was nice talking to you," Janice says to the secretary when she sees me slip back into my seat. "I guess we'll come back for the principal." We leave.

***
“So?” Haley asks eagerly in third period. She’s about as into this note thing as I am. I show her the latest addition to the growing collection on the inside cover of my binder. She giggles in all the places I laughed and turn it over. Her eyes grow wide.

“How did you...?” I tell her all about Janice and she shakes her head.

“When she isn’t locking you into the janitor’s closet, Janice is just too cool,” she says with a smile. It seems like ages since Janice attempted to break Clarice and Matt up and ended up locking them in a closet. Looks like she needn’t have worried, seeing as they broke up anyway.

We spend the rest of math taking notes and discussing via a piece of binder paper the identity of the mystery girl and how she knew my French period.

“I mean, that’s where I had her deliver the last note, but 3rd period? How did she know?” I’m still confused as we walk to the cafeteria. Haley nods, but I know she’s not actually listening. I follow her gaze to see Christa whispering something in Trevor’s ear. He’s frowning, but it still makes Haley stiffen.

Christa. I don’t know what she was to Haley before all of this. Acquaintances, I guess. Knowing Haley they probably weren’t close at all. But whatever it was they had, Christa was quick to throw it away in pursuit of Trevor. Does she not know that he's taken now?

“You okay?” I ask Haley. She starts and looks at me.

“Oh. Yeah. Yeah, I’m fine.”

“It’s okay to be jealous,” I say slowly, watching her face. The brief look of annoyance fades almost instantaneously into a look of perfect contentment. If I hadn’t seen her jealousy with my own eyes, I would have thought she didn’t care.

“Jealousy is such an ugly color,” she says calmly.

When Trevor comes and sits next to us, Haley acts like nothing is wrong. Trevor, on the other hand, looks upset and keeps glancing between me and Haley.

“What, dude?” I ask finally. I’m kind of pissed at him for making Haley jealous. He shakes his head, but continues to look slightly stressed. I pull out my phone.

What’s wrong with your boyfriend?

Haley jumps a bit as the text goes through.

I don’t know. I’ll ask him on the way to sixth.

“Who are you texting?” Trevor asks, noticing our little dance.

“Corey,” she says. I cringe internally. She never lies to him and though that’s never bothered me before, I have a feeling that today it’ll kill me.

“Why?”

“Because he doesn’t want to ask with you around. It’s a pretty good question, though.” Her words are even, emotionless, almost as though it’s an unimportant conversation. Trevor fidgets in his seat slightly. I can see him getting agitated. Agitated and jealous, probably.

“What’s the question?” She can see it, too. She sees everything, Haley does. She changes her voice and puts an arm on his sleeve.

“You seem a bit off. Is everything okay?”

Even Clarice and Spike have stopped bickering to look at us. Knowing Janice, she’s been watching the whole time.

“We should talk later,” he says finally. She nods.

“I thought as much,” she says. Still emotionless. Not the slightest bit of concern showing on her face. To loosely quote Harvey Fierstein, I want to smack that bastard so hard his ancestors get dizzy. I whip my phone out for one final text, but this one to our 3-way emotion list.

Jealousy. Tell me, Trevor. Do you get negative points for making her feel that way?

Spike and Trevor’s heads snap up to me at the same time.

“Bathroom,” I mumble. And I get up and leave.