Operation Beautiful

“Jessica?” I ask at the dinner table. She looks up and smiles.

“Hm?”

“Who read that post-it note on the announcements?” I hold my breath and wait for her answer. She freezes for a moment.

“It was the funniest thing, actually. The principal’s secretary randomly walked in and handed me this post-it so I read it over the intercom. It didn’t make any sense at all.” She cocks her head to the side innocently. “Why do you ask?”

“Oh, just curious,” I say with a shrug. Either the secretary or Jessica is lying to me. Considering the secretary is in her 50s, I’m willing to bet that it’s Jessica. And considering that the girl is a junior...it must have been one of the girls from the sleepover. I sit there and construct a mental list of the girls who were there.

* Jessica
* Emmaleigh
* Rangler Twin Freak 1
* Rangler Twin Freak 2
* some blonde chick with a large mouth
* at least 11 other girls

My mental list sucks. All I know is that if its one of the Rangler twins, I will die. But come to think of it, making me go through hell to deliver the notes is just their style. Except, of course, they would have managed to bring their bra size into the conversation by now. So I think I can safely say its not one of them.

“Corey?” Matt’s voice brings me back to reality. Jessica is looking at me strangely.

“Hmm?”

“We were talking about the party tomorrow night,” Mrs. Hansen says with a smile. As reward for watching over the girls at Jessica’s last sleepover, Matt has convinced his parents to spend another night with that newborn baby a few hours away and let him throw a party.

“Ah, what about it?” I ask.

“Well,” says Mr. Hansen. “We’ve decided that you can hold the party on the condition that you watch over Jess and Emma.”

“What?” Matt says in annoyance.

“Matt, you will be watching Jess. Corey, keep an eye on Emma.” Jessica sinks down in her chair a bit and stabs at some peas on her plate.

“Okay,” I say, not really caring. Matt just rolls his eyes and goes back to his food.

After dinner, Jessica comes and sits next to me on the couch.

“It’s not fair that you guys have to watch over us tomorrow.” I just shrug. She’s a bit too close. It’s making me nervous.

“I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.”

“You’re too nice, Corey,” she says with a smile. “Anyway, I’ll have Emma with me the whole time, so you don’t need to worry to much.”

“Oh, okay. Thanks.” Yeah. That’s me: Corey the Conversationalist. We sit in silence for the next few minutes, watching the figures on the TV.

“I think I’m going to go finish my homework,” she says. I think I scared her away. A few minutes later my phone rings.

“Hello?”

“Yo, it’s Spike. Wanted to go skateboarding. You in?” I look outside.

“It’s kind of dark.”

“Is that a no?”

“All right, I’m coming.”

“Nah, I’ll pick you up. See if Matt wants to come.”

“I doubt it.”

“Me too. Ask anyway. He can be such a girl sometimes.” I laugh.

“A’ight. Whatever. I’ll see in you in five,” I say in an exaggerated American accent. Spike laughs. I hang up and go upstairs, passing Jessica’s room as I do so.

“Emma, please!” I hear her yell. I stop and pause outside the door. “Come on, okay? I really really like him. And you owe me. Please?” There’s a pause. “You’re the best friend ever. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

Ugh. Girl stuff. I keep walking, popping my head into my and Matt’s room.

“I’m going skateboarding in the dark with Spike. Wanna join?” He shakes his head.

“Have fun.” I nod. He usually does this when Spike and I go skating.

“All right, bye.”

We don't talk much while we're skating. We talk a little over a midnight snack at some fast food place, but it's mainly skating.

I get home at about midnight and fall into bed, asleep before my head hits the pillow.

***
“You ready?” Haley asks in fourth period. I nod. I have a fortune cookie I spent the majority of this morning squeezing green food dye over and inside is a crumpled up note.

Well, no. My hair does not fall at or above my ears. Does this mean you already know what all the people on that attendance sheet look like? Because that’s kinda creepy. Especially considering that I don’t know who you are at all! Well, I guess my current question would be...are you friends with Jessica who does the announcements?

The back has rather mellow delivery instructions.

You win, okay? You win. I have no idea how to get more wacky than that without insisting that you deliver it via my batman boxers. So...let’s just go with that poster again okay? I’ll pick it up during break.

I enter the cafeteria with Haley in tow. I am, for no apparent reason, extremely nervous. Everyone at the table knows of the plan, too. Janice thinks it’s stupid, but that doesn’t stop her from asking,

“Do you have the green fortune cookie?”

I nod. Haley goes and buys her lunch and then, a few short moments later, yells, “EWWWWW!” Everyone turns to stare at her. “My fortune cookie is green!” She yells in disgust, holding the offending object out in the palm of her hand. There’s a small stampede as a bunch of students decide to come check it out.

“Is it really green?”

“Oh my God, that’s disgusting!”

“Please tell me you’re not going to eat that!”

I try to keep track of who approaches Haley but then remember the rules: I can’t spy on the delivery spot. So I set my sights on the ceiling and wait until the noise dies down.

“Well?” I ask Haley, not moving my gaze from the ceiling.

“Will you look?” she asks. I look down at the palm of her hand. A small, pink fortune cookie is sitting there.

“Did you see who it was?” I ask, my heart beating rapidly. She shakes her head.

“It was a guy. He said he was told by someone random to trade the pink for the green. I didn’t ask any questions because I figured you wouldn’t have wanted me to?” I nod.

“Yeah. That’s better.” I reach for the cookie and crack it open.

Brilliant delivery. Don’t worry. No matter what you throw at me, I’ll be able to deliver tomorrow. I shake my head sadly. I wonder if she’ll be disappointed when she finds out its just the posters.