Be Free, Be You

The next morning, I got ready and trudged down the stairs, running my hand through my loose hair. A yawn engulfed my face as I shuffled into the kitchen, looking for the cereal.

Right when I was about to take my first bite of breakfast, Valarie burst through the front door. She scared me so much that I dropped my spoon into the bowl and screamed. Loudly. Probably waking our parents.

“Shut up!” Val scolded as she hurried toward me. Once she reached the table, she pulled out a chair and plopped down in it. It was only when she was close to me that I recognized the sparkle in her eyes.

“What are you so excited about?” I responded, raising my left eyebrow.

“So you know how I was over Santana’s last night?” she questioned, borderline giddy. I had no idea why she had so much energy this early in the morning, but I was about to smack her.

“No. I seem to have forgotten,” I answered, my tone verging on mean and cutting instead of the funny, sarcastic mood I had been going for.

She shot me an irritated glare before continuing. “Well, she told me that I’m probably going to be captain of the Cheerios next year.”

That didn’t exactly come as a surprise to me. I mean, Val was clearly the best and most-Cheerio-like of the juniors, and she would be the best candidate for continuing the legacy.

But still, I grinned at her and said, “Congrats! You must be pumped.”

“I was,” she snorted, “before you went all Negative Nelly on me.”

“Hey, I’ve had, like, no sleep because-”

“I know, I know. Because you were up all night working on your novel.” Val leaned over and took the cereal box from me, picking out a couple of pieces as she continued to tease me. “You might want to think about working out some kind of your brain or something so that it gives you ideas when it’s okay to have them.”

“Why don’t you take that up with my brain and get back to me?” I responded. Finally, it was quiet, and I was allowed to eat my breakfast in peace.

Soon, we were out the door, on our way to school.

The day passed by pretty quickly, and before I knew it, I was hanging in the library, waiting for Val to be done with Cheerios practice. I was completely absorbed in my book, immersed in a world so much better and more interesting than my own.

That was, until I heard some feet clomping around somewhere near me.

I tried to ignore them, furrowing my brow and bowing my head, as if that would somehow make it easier to read with the new noise trying to distract me.

“God,” someone mumbled, “it’s hard to get your attention, isn’t it?”

Finally, I put the book down, slightly angrily, just in time to see someone pull out the chair in front of me and plop themselves down into it.

Noah Puckerman.

My stomach seized and my face filled quickly with red coloring. I knew I looked the absolute furthest thing from cute, but it was completely involuntary. “Uh, can I help you?” I stuttered before clearing my throat.

“You’re Valarie’s little sister, aren’t you?”

Oh, great. So this was just some kind of stunt to go through me to get to Valarie. Well, tough luck. “I can tell you right now that she’s not into you. At all.” I collected my bag and went to stand up, but he stopped me.

“No, wait. I’m not trying to hook up with Valarie. I mean, not that I’d be opposed to it…” He grinned, and I let out a huff.

“Is there something you want? You kind of interrupted me during a really good part in my book.”

“Are you good at math?”

“Uh…not especially.”

“Well, you’re a sophomore, right?” I nodded. “So you passed Algebra?”

“Uh, yeah.” After all, Algebra was the class that freshmen had to take, if they didn’t take it in eighth grade. I was one of those that took it in middle school. “A while ago.”

“Okay, smarty pants.” He smirked, and I sighed as I settled back into my seat, getting a feel for where this conversation was going to go. “So do you think you’d be able to help me in math?”

“Sure.” Somewhere deep down in my gut, I get a spark of courage. “Stop cutting class and going to the nurse’s office, pretending to be sick, and maybe you’ll stop failing.”

There was a short silence before Puck let out a loud laugh. A librarian walking by gave us a stern look and shushed us. My normal behavior returned, and the blush returned.

“I’m going to take that as a yes. I’ll meet you here tomorrow after school. It’s not like that’ll really put you out, since you’re here every day anyway, right?”

I gulped. “How…how did you know that?”

“Oh,” he shrugged as he got to his feet and slung his bag over his shoulder, “I have my ways. See you around, Steph.”

He disappeared around the corner, and I stared in the direction where he’d disappeared.

I struggled to suppress a smirk as I realized something strange: I hadn’t told Puck my name. He’d just known.

I guess he figured that out the same place he found out I was related to Val.

My eyes locked on a nonspecific point in the distance as I ran through the scene that just occurred again and again, wondering if it had been real, that Noah Puckerman had actually noticed me, or if it was some kind of vivid daydream.

“STEPH!” Val borderline yelled (not a good idea in a library) as she snapped her fingers in front of my face. “Anyone in there?!”

My head snapped back as my eyes blinked rapidly, trying to regain some sense of focus. “Hi.”

“God, were you sleeping with your eyes open or something?” She shuddered at the thought. “Creep. Come on. We’re going home.”

Nodding, I gathered up all my stuff and scampered after her, still wondering if the encounter was real or not.