The Trouble with Joy

“Damn! Man! Three of them?” Jamus said the next morning at the bus stop. “How did you get away?”
I was just about to finish my incredible and intriguing when the bus pulled up; we walked in and sat next to Pat. Before she could even ask about my cheek, Jamus began to tell her the whole story about three football players jumping me on my way home and how I managed to blooding up two of them before I got away.
Pat didn’t look impressed. “Really? Which players were they?”
I looked away. “Um, I don’t know. I don’t think they went to our school.”
Pat shook her head and went back to her book.
The whole bus ride to school Jamus insisted that if we do see those guys again I be sure to point them out if he couldn’t already tell who they were from their injuries. I embarrassingly agreed.
“So here we are”, Jamus announced once we had arrived at school, “our first day of senior year.”
“Which was actually yesterday”, Pat added. Something was wrong with her today she seemed so down but I didn’t know why.
Jamus ignored her comment and continued, “And how are we going to spend our last year in this hell-hole of a high school, my dear Jamie?”
I shrugged. “Leave quietly.” I liked that idea.
“No! We are going to leave with a bang!” Jamus jumped in front of Pat and I, grabbing us by the shoulders and shaking us slightly, “I have been waiting for this my whole life, for this year, for this moment, I have created the most incredible senior prank ever created, EVER CONCIEVED!”
Pat and I exchanged looks scared of what our fellow companion has cooked up in that crazy head of his, we knew it could not be good.
“I bet you want to know what it is, don’t you.” Jamus hinted.
“Well, not-“ Pat began.
“Well you’ll just have to wait and find out because I am not letting anyone know. Not even you two.” He said smugly.
Pat didn’t look amused or even interested, but honestly I was a little worried for my life, there was no telling what this guy could cook up. But for now I wouldn’t think about it, my thoughts were on getting through this day, unfortunately for me I only had Pat in one class and Jamus in another so the majority of the day I was by myself, and I wasn’t particular the social type. It was okay as long as I managed to get the corner way in the back that no one even noticed but me.
My first class was fortunate to have that spot open along with my next two classes. Lunch came around and of course I ate with Jamus and Pat. Pat seemed to still be distracted and down, I wanted to ask her what was wrong but Pat was never really one to talk about her emotions or her situations, so me and Jamus learned to just leave it alone and if she wanted to talk she knew we were here, but something seemed really off today I had never seen her like this. It was almost scaring me.
After lunch I had managed to catch her before she ran off to class, Jamus had already left.
“Pat”, I said. She half looked at me and half looked at her schedule. “Are you okay? You seem a little down.”
“Yeah”, she said turning her full attention to me, “I’m great. “She smiled, but I could tell it was forced.
“Okay”, I said smiling back, “I’ll see you 8th period.”
“Okay”, she said walking off looking down at her schedule again.
I walked to my next class, Social Studies. Not many were in the classroom yet, but we still had five minutes, so I found my seat in the back hoping no one had already claimed it yesterday. I sat down and pulled out my phone, put in my ear buds and began to drift to another place. I was almost there when I suddenly felt a soft tap on my shoulder; I jumped at the surprising touch and almost fell out of my seat. I must have looked ridiculous because the person who tapped me was laughing very hard. I unplugged my ear buds and looked up, surprised at what I saw.
“Pyro?” I gasped, trying to recover from my embarrassing incident. It was no use.
“Hi James, I was scared you wouldn’t remember me”, She smiled, “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
I blushed. “It’s okay, I scare easily anyways. What are you doing here?”
“I go to school here.” Duh, what else would she be doing here, idiot. “My family and I just move here this summer, so I’m new here. Do you mind if I sit next to you?” She motioned to the empty desk next to me.
“Of course not, go ahead.” I said nearly stumbling over my words.
“Thanks”, she said sitting down.
I couldn’t help but stare a little as she sat in her sit and fixed her hair so it fell just right and outlined her face, It almost seemed impossible, but in her tight, dark blue jeans and her vintage looked band-tee that fit all in the right places, she looked hotter than she did yesterday.
“How are your classes going?” I asked.
“Good, but I sure could have used your help yesterday; I must have looked like a dunce wandering around not knowing which classroom was which.”
“I’m sorry, yesterday was one of me and my friends’ many senior skip days.”
She giggled. “Think I can ever be invited to any of them?”
“Are you a senior ready to get out of school?”
“Yes”
“Then yes, I will be sure to invite you to our next one” I smiled trying to add a bit of charm, “I will most likely be tomorrow.”
She was about to add something, but just then the teacher came in and began class. God, couldn’t the teacher have waited a few more minutes? I was flirting and it was actually working. Once class was over, I tried to talk to Pyro some more but she had to hurry to class and told me to call her.
My other class was with Jamus and I told him everything that had happened and he seemed all too ecstatic to tell me to call her as soon as I get home. Pat was not the same way, I told her the same story and she just merely nodded. She was really beginning to worry me, but she had said she was “great” so I didn’t ask her anything about it.
“Did you notice anything weird about Pat today?” I asked Jamus on the way home.
“No”, he answered.
I had figured he would answer as much, Jamus was one of the most clueless people I had ever met, but still he was a good person.
“Is she okay?” He asked.
“I don’t know, she said she was great, but it was an obvious lie.”
“Think maybe her folks are fighting again?”
“I don’t know”, I replied, “but just make sure you keep an eye on her. We don’t want her to bottle up her emotions again.”
“Yeah”, Jamus agreed.
We stopped in front of his house and looked at each other a moment. Then Jamus finally said something, “Has your mom been getting the gifts I’ve been sending her?” Jamus winked.
I glared at him.
“I’m kidding man; I haven’t sent your mom anything since 7th grade, but man I’ve wanted to.”
Jamus dodged my punched and ran up to his front door, “Don’t forget to call that chick tonight.”
“I won’t.” How could I?