Marvelous Things

Callie was placing her books into her Captain America logo messenger bag when she saw Jessica lean against the locker beside of hers. She could feel Jessica stare her down and she waited for the long speech that Callie knew she was going to receive.

"I can't believe it." Jessica said in disbelief as Callie closed her locker and clicked the combination lock back in place. Sighing, Callie turned to her tilting her head to the side waiting for the speech to begin.

"Believe what, Jess?" Callie asked, deciding to play dumb. She started to walk toward her next class as Jessica tagged along beside her.

"I can't believe that you turned down Adam Lane! I mean that boy is FINE! And you turn him down for what? Dante Ontero? Seriously Callie, he's weird and gross. I've seen him wear the same clothes for like a whole week! Ewww!" Jessica said, scrunching her face up in disgust, while trying to knock some sense into her friend.

Rolling her blue eyes, Callie replied "Whatever, I think Dante's pretty cool. Besides, I think Adam's a jerk and his defiantly not my type."

"Oh come on, Callie! You can't be serious! You're really going to go meet Dante after school? I can accept if you don't like Adam, though I think you should give the guy a chance, but are you really going to go through and talk about video games with Dante?" Jessica ranted looking at Callie expectantly as she followed her to class.

They walked into art class together taking their normal seats pulling out their supplies. The class was currently working on paintings. Jessica was painting a scene of a forest clearing. While Callie, on the other hand, was painting a banner for her band.

"For your information Jess, I actually am meeting Dante after school. We're going to meet at Baer's Super Star Diner. He's going to show me some online game that he plays. I think it will be pretty sweet." Callie told her with a smile while dipping her paint brush into her paints.

The two friends stayed silent while working on their works of art. Callie was putting her finishing touches on her painting but every few minutes she couldn't help but let her mind wonder to Dante. She wondered what her time with him will be like. She shared several classes with him but they never had much interaction with each other. From what she knew of him though he seemed to be a nice, funny guy.

'Besides,' she told herself, 'anything has to be better than spending time with Adam.'

"Oh, Calliope" Mrs. Turner, the art teacher, began as Callie cringed at her first name, "that's a very interesting painting." She criticized as Callie rolled her eyes before turning to face her.

Mrs. Turner was a middle aged woman who was slightly on the heavy side with specks of gray showing in her black hair that was always pulled up into a tight bun. She also happened to be the only teacher that Callie had that didn't like her. Callie and Mrs. Tiller just didn't seem to see eye to eye on art work. Mrs. Tiller preferred classic art such as; paintings of scenery, people or a vase of flowers while Callie liked things more imaginative and unrealistic.

"Why thank you, Mrs. Turner," Callie began in a sarcastic upbeat tone, "you know your opinion of my artistic ability means so much to me."

"Oh well, I do know my art. I must say though Calliope, I was hoping the students would choose more challenging pictures. Something like Jessica is doing of here," she said with a big smile gesturing towards Jessica's forest painting.

"Yes, well, as challenging as it is to pick a picture out of a book and copy it is, mine came from my own imagination." Callie replied in the same upbeat voice staring up at her with a sweet smile on her face.

Callie watched as Mrs. Turner's face started to flush with anger but Callie had to stand up to her. She wasn't going to just sit there and be criticized. It was true most of the students had picked a photo out of a magazine or book to paint while Callie did something she thought of herself. Her painting might have been a little simple- a rainbow background surrounding a shadow of a couple kissing under a umbrella and in large, curvy letters read 'Abstract Rainbow'.

"Miss Mosley, I suggest you watch your tone while in my classroom or next time you will get detention. Do you understand?" Mrs. Turner asked her smartly.

"Of course Mrs. Turner," Callie said before turning back to her painting with a frown forming on her face.

As soon as Mrs. Turner had moved on to comment on other paintings Jessica started to snicker quietly. Callie turned and glared at her making her stop immediately but Jessica still had a large smile upon her face.

"I can't believe you said all that to her. I almost couldn't hold my laugh in." Jessica said letting out a few more giggles.

"Well, she deserves it;" she began angrily, "she criticizes everything I do in her class just because it's not her way. She asked me to do a painting so I did one." She finished her rant with a frustrated huff and crossed her arms over her chest.

Callie slid down in her seat glaring at the clock across the room that stated they still had fifteen minutes of class. Callie tapped her pink Converse clad feet absentmindedly on the tile floor to pass the time and watched the other students work. After what seemed like forever the bell rang singling the end of class. Callie was the first to jump out of her seat, shove her supplies in her bag, and put up her painting before rushing out the door.

"Callie! Hey, Callie! Wait up!" She heard Jessica shout from somewhere behind her. Callie stopped and waited for her to catch up. "Gosh, for such a short person you sure are fast." Jessica said while trying to catch her breath.

"Yeah, well, I just want to get this day over with. Last class of the day here I come." Callie said with a smile as she linked arms with Jessica to walk to their next class- talking and giggling the whole way.

Their last class of the day was English with Mr. Anderson. English was Callie's favorite subject and she exceled at. When it came to being creative it was right down her alley. Callie and Jessica took their seats beside each other while being joined by Kyle, Damien, and Patrick behind them.

"How are our two favorite girls today?" Damien asked with a smile.

"Yeah, has our bubble gum princess driven you crazy yet, Jess? I know how she is when she has to cancel practice," added Kyle while messing up Callie's hair with his hand. He stopped when she slapped him on the shoulder while giving him a death glare.

"Well, she did stand up to Mrs. Turner today. It was pretty hilarious! But other than that she's behaved." Jessica told them.

"Just because you get out of practice today does not mean you can escape the weekend. We have a party to play at next Saturday and I want us to sound perfect." Callie told the three boys as all of them groaned. When it came to Abstract Rainbow and practice Callie meant no funny business.

"Ah come on Callie, we always sound great. Besides I have a date tomorrow!" Damien wined.

Callie rolled her eyes and patted him on the shoulder and turned to face the front of the class while replying, "Good for you Damien… just make sure the date is AFTER band practice."

"After band practice" he mocked, "evil, little, pink haired witch." Damien grumbled under his breath while opening his English book.

"I heard that, expect to help put up the equipment with me." Callie said without turning around. She could practically feel Damien's glare on the back of her head as the rest of the group snickered.

English class passed by quickly and before the students knew it the bell was ringing to signal the end of the day. Callie grabbed her Captain America bag from under her seat and started loading her books in it before heading out of the classroom with the rest of her group.

"So, uh, Callie the guys have been dying to ask you," Patrick began with a large smirk on his face, "are you really going on a date with Dante?"

"Okay, guys it's so not a date. We're just going to go to the diner to hang out." Callie replied.

"Uh huh, sure, whatever you say princess." Patrick said while putting an arm around her shoulders as they walked outside the school. "You know Callie; if you have a crush on Dante you can tell us. We're you friends, your band mates you can tell us anything."

Shacking off his shoulder she replied, "Okay one don't ever call me princess again and two I don't have a crush- I barely know him. Also the last time I told you guys anything you blabbed it to the whole school." Callie told the three boys while searching around the entrance of the school for Dante.

She spotted Dante at one of the tables outside with Wyatt and Lyle. Waving a goodbye to her friends she made her way over to him.

Dante was freaking out on the inside and a little on the outside. Lyle and Wyatt were trying to calm him down and give him some advice; well Lyle was giving him advice.

"Dude, just calm down, it's not even a real date. You're just going to go to the diner and talk about Conquer of All Worlds. You can do that." Lyle said reassuringly.

"Right, totally." Dante said taking a deep breath when he saw Callie making her way towards him. "Oh, okay, here she comes." He told them trying to calm himself down.

"Hey guys, ready for the weekend?" Callie politely asked them.

"You know it," Lyle replied while nudging Dante in the ribs.

"Oh, uh, yeah, no school- yay!" Dante nervously smiled at her while showing of his braces.

"Uhhh, yeah. So you ready to get some food and show me that game?" Callie asked as she bounced on the balls of her feet feeling awkward as Dante just stared at her.

"Yeah, we should go." Dante said. "See you guys." He waved goodbye to his friends, grabbed his backpack and his skateboard and the two were off. They walked side by side as they walked to the restaurant.

"So, um, do you play a lot of video games?" Dante said breaking the silence as he skateboarded slowly beside her.

"I play when I have the time. What about you? You a big gamer?" she asked him while watching him board beside her.

"Yeah, I'm a huge gamer!" Dante told her and with that the silence was broken and they talked about random things till they made it to the diner. Making their way inside they found an empty booth and they put their bags underneath and sat themselves in front of each other.

"So, I borrowed Wyatt's laptop so I could show you the game. If you like it I can show you where you can buy it and stuff." Dante told her as he turned on the computer.

"That's cool. Oh I wanted to thank you for helping me out at lunch today. I really didn't want to spend the afternoon with Adam." Callie told him.

"It's no problem. Hey, would you like something to eat or drink?" Dante asked her as he watched her put her short hair in a tiny pony tail.

"Yeah, I can go for some food." She said.

"Cool, what do you want? I'll go order. I'm starving," He told her.

"You don't have to get it for me. I can get my own food." She insisted.

"No, no my treat."

Sighing in defeat she told him she'd take a burger and fries with a strawberry milkshake. She watched him get up and go stand in line. Callie found herself staring at Dante longer then she probably should have but she didn't care. She never really thought much about Dante until now. Callie couldn't help but let her mind and her eyes see how good looking he actually was. He was wearing a pair of grey skinny jeans with a purple shirt and a pair of black Converses. Dante, she realized, was quite good looking not to mention funny and nice. Callie was snapped out of her daze when Dante set her food and milkshake in front of her.

The two chatted about music, games, and other random things while they ate. As the time went by Dante found himself becoming more comfortable talking to Callie. After they were done eating Dante pulled up the game on Wyatt's laptop and proceeded to show her Sir Bickle in action. Callie asked him question after question about the game her curious nature shining through and Dante was more than happy to answer them. The spent hours talking and Dante showing her around the town of Newport with Sir Bickle. It was a little past seven when they decided they should be heading home.

"I had a lot of fun Dante but I guess I should probably head home or my parents well start freaking." Callie told him as she grabbed her bag.

"Yeah, I should probably get going. I don't need Barbara jumping all over me." Dante said as he packed his stuff back up.

"Barbara?" she asked confused.

"Oh, uh, my mom." Dante told her and Callie just nodded her head. "You want me to walk you home?"

"You don't have to but I'd like the company." Callie said with a smile as she felt her checks flush.

"Cool, guess we should get going them." He said when he had everything packed up.

The two chatted away until they reached Callie's house where they stood on her porch awkwardly staring at each other.

"Well, I guess I'll see you around. We should hang out again soon. You still need to show me how to get Conquer of All Worlds remember?" she reminded him.

"Yeah, totally! Just you know whenever you have time just hit me up and I'll set it up for ya. Once you get a character we can play together." He told her scratching the back of his head.

"Sounds like a good plan." She told him with a smile. "We definitely have to hang out again soon. I had a lot of fun."

Before Dante could say anything else he was struck speechless when Callie stood on her toes and kissed him on the cheek. After saying a quick goodbye she slipped inside her house leaving him alone to process what had happened on her porch. Dante shook his head and smiled widely. Jumping onto his skateboard with a 'WHOO' Dante happily road home. On the other side of the door Callie leaned against it with a smile on her lips. She couldn't believe it. She had a crush on Dante!