Chapter 3

The weekend had come and gone, and it was Monday sooner than Bryan had expected. He wasn’t ready to go back to school yet; the confrontation with Katrina on Friday had left him very confused and he hadn’t been able to concentrate on his AP Euro homework. On his way to school that morning, Bryan had trudged along at the slowest pace he could possibly go without being late.

He hadn’t even been able to get much sleep last night, thanks to Ms. Rivera’s weekend task. Bryan hadn’t been in the mood to read his history book or outline the assigned chapter, so he had kept on slacking and putting it off—until the night before it was due. For the first time ever, Bryan had pulled an all-nighter. The entire assignment took him until three-thirty in the morning to finish, and he had gotten only about two and a half hours of sleep.

By fifth period, Bryan was completely exhausted. To make matters worse, fifth period was Ms. Rivera’s class. The high school sophomore felt as if there was no way he could stay awake during her class, through her monotonous voice. Bryan felt himself nodding off nearly every other minute, only to catch himself before he fell asleep.

Aw, to heck with it, he thought in frustration after nearly falling asleep for the tenth time in twenty-five minutes. Ms. Boredom won’t notice if I decide to take a little nap … With that thought in mind, Bryan picked up his binder, opened it to the middle, and placed it upright. With his folder shielding him from Ms. Rivera’s sight, Bryan dropped his head down on his desk and fell asleep immediately.

Later that period, he woke up feeling completely disoriented and groggy. Rubbing at his eyes to brush the last remnants of sleep away, Bryan glanced back at the clock hanging on the wall behind him to discover that it was five minutes until the end of class. Also, Ms. Rivera went on droning away as usual. If she knew that Bryan had fallen asleep, then she wasn’t showing it. With a sigh of relief, Bryan grabbed his textbook out from the basket under his seat and started leafing through it to keep himself awake for the rest of the period.

“Hey, that’s mine,” Sojung Kim, who sat at the seat to his left, whined at him in a soft voice. “Give it back!”

“Your book?” the Japanese teenager repeated, a quizzical expression on his face. He slowly lowered the textbook and queried, “If it’s yours, then why was it in my basket?”

Sojung stared at him as if he were an idiot for having to ask that and she answered, “Uh, because I put it there? Duh?”

“Will you knock it off?” Joey snapped at her irritably, kicking the backside of Sojung’s chair. “Who cares?”

“Wait … when’d you put it there in the first place? And why’d you put it there anyway?” Bryan, choosing to ignore Joey, asked Sojung.

She sighed irritably and slapped her forehead. “That’s my textbook from home. I brought it because the school copies are all horribly vandalized and stuff. I don’t have a basket, there’s no room on my desk, and I don’t want to put it on the floor. So I put it in your basket while you were sleeping and not paying attention.”

Alyssa poked him in the back with her pencil. Bryan leaned back toward her and she said to him, “Bryan, you really were asleep?” When he nodded in response, she exclaimed, “You were? Oh, I can’t believe you missed it!”

“Missed what?” he inquired confusedly as he craned his head back to face her.

“Well,” she began in a deliberately slow voice, “a lizard had found its way into Sean Ellis’ backpack. He found it while he was looking for his notebook.”

Bryan gave her a dumbfounded look. “A lizard?”

She nodded in confirmation. “Yeah! It was sitting on his notebook, looking right at him! So Sean dropped it—the notebook—in surprise and the lizard started crawling all around the class!”

“That’s got to be insane,” Bryan remarked.

“It sure was, but that’s not the best part!” Alyssa continued excitedly. “You see, this lizard is darting around everywhere, and most of the girls are looking like they want to freak out! Tanya Mackenzie actually shrieked out loud! But when Ms. Rivera asked her what was the matter, Tanya replied that her arm went numb. Nice cover, don’t you think?”

“The teacher actually bought that excuse?” Bryan exclaimed in disbelief, making sure to keep his voice low.

“She sure did!” Alyssa exclaimed. “Anyway, so this lizard is scurrying around for nearly a whole minute, and all the boys and Meng are trying to catch it—except you; you were asleep—and Daniel Ryan finally caught it! So when Katherine asked him what he was going to do with it, Daniel jumped out the window!”

“Seriously?” Bryan questioned her, incredulity written clearly on his face. The Japanese teenager glanced over at Daniel Ryan, who sat farthest away from the door but closest to the only window in the room. He was staring down at his book with a blank and bored look, but the window was open. It was always open. Bryan glanced back at Alyssa and told her, “I’d believe it! Ms. Rivera never shuts that window during class.”

“No, and she’s so inattentive that she doesn’t even realize when somebody decides to jump out of it!” Alyssa added gleefully. “Well, anyway, Daniel jumped out of the window with the lizard in hand, then he jumps back into the room about a minute later without it. And Ms. Rivera never noticed a thing!”

“… Sounds like you guys have had an interesting class period,” Bryan responded after a brief moment of silence.

“Sure did!” Alyssa replied to him in her normal cheery way. “But that’s okay, more weird stuff will happen for sure! I know it!”

“Oh … great.”

Just then, the bell signaling the end of fifth period rang. The students quickly gathered their belongings and headed out the room; some whispering to each other about the lizard incident between giggles, others complaining about the upcoming unit test that they had to take in two days.

Yawning once again and massaging his throbbing temples, Bryan trudged down the hallway at a snail’s pace. Unmindful of the fact that he was falling behind the rest of his schoolmates, his thoughts drifted back to last Friday. Katrina had said that she wanted to officially—well, not officially, since she didn’t want anyone else to know … but that’s not the point—have him as her boyfriend.

Maybe I imagined it, Bryan suggested to himself. After all, it’s not impossible … nah, I’m not crazy, he dismissed the thought soon afterwards. It really happened. Well, I guess all I really have to do now is to let this thing play out the way it wants to. Oh, great.

Both Shigeru and Meng had other distractions during lunch that day, so that was one less thing that Bryan had to worry about. He didn’t want to lie to his two closest friends in school, but he wasn’t supposed to tell them the truth, either. Bryan figured that staying quiet and avoiding the problem for the time being would be an okay solution.

Now, Bryan thought, she said that she wanted to meet me here … right? He glanced around the abandoned lot that he and his friends usually spent lunch at, only to find it empty. Well, if she wasn’t playing with me, I can see why she’d want to meet here. Nobody ever comes up this place.

Slipping the strap of his backpack off his shoulder and dropping it to the ground, Bryan let out a deep sigh and sat down on the cold, rocky concrete. Looking down at his watch and deciding that he’d give Katrina ten minutes to show up, he yanked a paperback book out of his bag and started reading.

Only about a minute later, a tall shadow suddenly loomed over him and blocked the light that he was using to read. Without pausing to wonder whom it was, Bryan glared up at the person who would dare interrupt his reading. Much to his surprise, Katrina Peterson, in all her glory, was standing in front of him. She had an arrogant smirk tugging at her lips, arms folded across her chest, head cockily titled to the side.

Bryan was at a loss for words. “Uhh …”

“I know, you’re speechless to see me,” Katrina replied for him, her tone dripping with sarcasm. She sat down next to Bryan and latched onto his arm. “What are you thinking right now?”

“…I’m surprised that you were serious after all,” Bryan finally managed to say after a long stunned pause. With his free hand, he shoved his novel back into his backpack and ran his fingers through his hair nervously.

With a scoff and a roll of her eyes, Katrina snapped at him, “What? You thought that I wasn’t going to show up? You were doubting my feelings? And I thought you were a nice guy, Bryan Kunishige.”

“Well, it’s not every day that I get attacked by some popular girl who claims to like me and makes me her boyfriend, so yeah, I think I’ve had enough reasonable doubt,” he retorted.

“Reasonable doubt,” Katrina repeated disdainfully. “Just what kind of nonsense are they teaching you in that … advanced class of yours?”

“They don’t teach us anything!” Bryan muttered to himself quietly. In a way, that wasn’t too far from the truth. Almost everything that he and his classmates had learned throughout the year, they had taught themselves at their homes and study sessions because Ms. Rivera couldn’t keep her students’ attention long enough to teach them.

Furrowing her brow in confusion and a perplexed look in her eyes, Katrina decided to ignore Bryan’s musings. “Ah, who cares about that weird class, anyway?” she said. “I don’t, and I don’t see why you do.”

Once again, Bryan was at a loss for words. This time, it was due to the disbelief that he was feeling about Katrina’s indifference towards higher learning. But then, he remembered: nobody except the AP kids cared about the distant future.

But just as he was starting to overanalyze his thoughts again, Bryan felt something soft brush against his cheek and brush a strand of hair out of his eyes. Katrina released his arm and brought her other hand to the back of his head. “Stop thinking so much about stuff,” she whispered to him in a low voice. “And loosen up a little.”

“Ha, easier said than done,” Bryan replied quietly, an onslaught of unfamiliar feelings washing over him. Never before had he felt the way he did right now. It was just something that he could describe. A slight frustration rose up from the very core of his being; he didn’t like things that he didn’t understand. But the frustration lasted only a moment before Bryan became aware to the fact that he didn’t care. Maybe not everything in the world was meant to be pondered over and scrutinized in excruciating detail. Slowly, without realizing it, he and Katrina started closing in on each other for a kiss.

“Hey, Bryan, what’s up?” somebody called to him just then, interrupting the intimate moment between them. It was none other than Shigeru, who was making a beeline for Bryan. Meng was walking beside him, her arms crossed and an unreadable expression on her face.

“Oh … hi, Shigeru,” Bryan responded to his friends with an awkward wave. “Hey, Meng. What’s up?”

Katrina scowled unhappily and pouted. “What are they doing here?” she hissed at Bryan. “They just interrupted our romantic moment!”

“Shigeru and Meng happen to be my friends, and we’re always here,” the Japanese student replied to her. His mind was reeling with many different thoughts; he found it impossible to concentrate on anything. But though the chaos of his muddled brain, he could still think clearly, I almost kissed her … she almost kissed me. What does this mean? Could I … I mean, is it possible that … that this might actually work out between us?

Bryan was too busy trying to make sense of his feelings to consider how he was going to explain the situation at hand to Shigeru and Meng. But before that thought even crossed his or Katrina’s minds, Meng and Shigeru had already noticed their unwanted company. They stopped cold in their tracks. Meng narrowed her eyes in Katrina’s direction, then she turned to Bryan and asked him flatly, “What is she doing here?”

“Yeah, man, what does Miss ‘I’m-Too-Popular-For-Everything’ want with you?” Shigeru agreed in an emotionless voice. “Let me guess. She’s too good to do her own homework and she wants you to do it for her.”

“What?” Katrina exploded indignantly, her sapphire eyes burning with fury. “How dare you talk to me like that!”

“Talk to you like what?” Meng inquired, fed up with Katrina’s constant usage of her status as a justification of her actions. “Like the way I talk to everyone else whom I don’t like? Well, tough nails, Peterson, I’ll speak to you however I want! And there’s nothing that you can do about it! So, what do you want from us, hm?”

“I think Little Miss Popular wants to take over our spot,” Shigeru remarked coolly. “Sorry, missy, but us losers need a place to ourselves as well. Otherwise, we’d have to invade the popular spot so we can have a place to stay.”

Nobody had ever dared to speak to Katrina Peterson in such a matter. She was glowing with rage and seething, barely able to string together a single coherent sentence. Her vision was tinted with red and a murderous intent radiated from her. But as soon as she finally managed to find her voice, Katrina threw her head back in outrage and cried out, “I don’t need to take this! I’m leaving! And you, Bryan, are coming with me!” She wrapped her fingers around his arm tightly and started dragging him along behind her.

“Hold it!” Meng ordered, steeping in front of Katrina to keep her from leaving. “Who do you think you are, telling Bryan what to do? I couldn’t care less even if you were the most popular person in the universe! You’re not the boss of him!”

“Yeah, you don’t own me,” Bryan agreed with his friend, tearing his wrist out of Katrina’s grip. “Seriously.”

For a brief moment, Katrina was hurt and confused that Bryan was siding completely with his friends. But she soon remembered that nobody was to know of their secret relationship. Quickly regaining her composure, she scoffed and folded her arms across her chest. “I don’t think you know your place, you, uh, person.”

“My name is Meng, thank you very much!” she shouted, infuriated with the lack of respect that the popular kids like Katrina had for anyone that they considered beneath them.

“Whatever,” Katrina snapped in response. “Nobody cares. People like you don’t even exist on the social ladder, so it doesn’t matter what you think.”

“That was a cold burn,” Bryan muttered in disbelief. Of course he knew that most people who were high up on the social pyramid didn’t have much compassion for others. But to actually hear the words coming from a person’s mouth was what stung the most. And this from the girl who claimed that she liked him? Maybe his first thoughts were correct and they really weren’t meant for each other.

Shigeru, who had remained mostly silent throughout the argument, chose to speak up. “Well, if we don’t matter at all,” he began slowly and deliberately, “then why were you all over Bryan when Meng and I got here?”

Katrina’s eyes nearly bugged out of her head. “Wh-what?” she sputtered in shock, her jaw dropping clean open. Behind her, Bryan choked in surprise and fell into a coughing fit. “Y-you’ve got to be kidding me!” Katrina fumed, her face turning red from both embarrassment and anger.

“Oh, I don’t kid, especially not about stuff like this,” Shigeru replied calmly, his brown eyes closed to avoid making eye contact with anyone. “So, if you don’t mind, I’d like to hear the truth.”

Meng nodded in agreement, her expression still one of fury. “If there’s something going on between you and Bryan, then we have every right to know about it,” she stated evenly, trying hard to keep her temper in check.

Enraged by the callous and nonchalant demeanor that Meng and Shigeru were carrying around her, Katrina burst out defensively, “I don’t have to explain myself to the likes of you! I don’t have to explain myself to anyone!”

“If you won’t answer, then we’ll just ask someone else. Bryan, care to tell us what’s going on?” Meng inquired to him, turning to her friend with a questioning look.

He dismissed her question with a quick wave. Bryan wasn’t in the condition to answer to anyone, still not having recovered from his near choking.

“Well, that’s a bust,” Shigeru remarked with an exasperated sigh. “But I still demand an explanation from one of you.”

That was the last straw for Katrina. “Look,” she growled, immediately regaining her usual, unflustered conduct. “Who are you to question my actions? If there is anything going on between us two—and I’m not saying there is!—then it’s none of your concern. So buzz off!”

Shigeru crossed his arms stubbornly and retorted, “Well, I disagree. Bryan is my best friend, and I won’t be satisfied until I know for sure that he’s not going to be brutally mauled by jocks or something.”

“So, either way, we’re going to find out what’s the real deal with you two,” Meng added as she gestured to herself and Shigeru. “Now spill.”

“Why don’t we just tell them?” Bryan suggested to his girlfriend in a strained voice. “They’re not going to leave without an answer.”

“Bryan! Whose side are you on?” Katrina roared at him.

“I’m not on anybody’s side,” he responded indignantly, holding his hands in front of his body and edging away from her. “But I’d like to move on with my life. So can’t we just let Shigeru and Meng know?”

But Katrina was unwilling to give in to his idea easily. She glowered at him furiously while he returned the glare with a tired look. The two of them continued their staring contest for nearly a minute until Katrina finally decided that she wasn’t going to lower herself to Bryan’s standards. “Fine, then!” she snarled, breaking eye contact with him first. Katrina turned to Meng and Shigeru with a scowl and told them, “If you really have to know, then here’s the deal. Bryan is my boyfriend. He’s mine.”

“Huh?” Shigeru and Meng exchanged a surprised look with each other. “Bryan is your boyfriend?”

“Yes, he is! And if you ever tell anyone about this, then I’ll get both of you ousted from the school!” Katrina shouted at the top of her lungs, her anger boiling over. Bryan’s friends had to be the most infuriating people on the face of the planet.

Meng scratched her chin ponderingly, giving the impression that she was thinking hard about her answer. “Okay,” she finally replied.

Katrina gawked at her incredulously. “Excuse me?” she stuttered, unable to believe that Meng hadn’t put up an argument. Everyone knew that Meng was probably the most confrontational, quarrelsome, and disagreeable person in school. For her to agree to something without so much of a complaint was—was simply unheard of!

“I said that I was okay with it,” Meng repeated slowly, as if she were speaking to a little kid. “It’s about time that Bryan got a girlfriend anyway.”

“Hey!” Bryan grumbled under his breath.

“But you have to take good care of him, all right?” Shigeru picked up on where his friend had left off. His expression was one of utmost seriousness as he went on, “Like I said, Bryan is my best friend. And I’m not going to let him get hurt by you, or anyone else.”

“Just for the record, though, who approached whom first?” Meng queried to Katrina and Bryan. She scratched the back of her head before answering her own question. “Katrina, right?”

Bryan groaned and rolled his eyes in response. “Oh, brother. Is it that obvious?”

“Well, you’re not exactly the most forward guy in this school, you know?” Shigeru commented to him with a casual shrug. When Bryan turned to him with a glare, he simply shrugged and defended himself, “Besides, I didn’t think that you would try to approach a popular girl on your own. You’ve got a bit of an inferiority complex in that department.”

“Oh yeah? Well, inferiority complex this!” Bryan snapped at him. He grabbed his paperback book out of his backpack and started smacking Shigeru over the head with it.

“Hey! Knock it off! I feel ridiculous!” Shigeru whined, throwing his hands over his head to protect it. “Come on! I don’t want to get a bad grade on Wednesday’s test because you killed off some of my brain cells!”

While Shigeru and Bryan fought with each other, the two girls stared at them in exasperation. After a long period of silence, Meng turned to Katrina and said to her, “Ha, boys can be so stupid at times, right?”

“Uh-huh,” Katrina muttered distractedly and nodded in agreement, but she soon realized what she had just said. Her left eye twitching reflexively, she turned to Meng slowly and asked the Chinese American, “D-did I just agree with you?”

“… Yeah,” she responded stupidly with a blank look on her face. “So what?”

Still feeling a bit disturbed about sharing the same opinions as Meng, Katrina shook her head furiously and thought to herself, So who cares if some losers and I think alike about some things? It doesn’t change a thing. Out loud, she cleared her throat and remarked, “Well, look at that! It’s time for me to leave. Bryan, get over here!” she yelled at her boyfriend.

“What do you want, Katrina?” he complained to her, reluctantly making his way over to where she was waiting for him.

“I’ve spent more than enough time around you weirdoes, and I’m leaving now,” she replied matter-of-factly. “Just so you knew. But first, I need to ask you something.” Without waiting for Bryan to ask what her question was, Katrina queried to him, “Are you doing anything tomorrow night?”

“We’ve got a history test on Wednesday,” Shigeru answered for his friend. “So whatever it is, he can’t do it then.”

“In that case, what about Thursday night?” Katrina suggested, sending an irritated scowl in Shigeru’s direction.

“Uhh …” Bryan scratched the back of his head contemplatively and answered, “Err, I’m not sure. I don’t have anything planned right now, but I could have a last-minute test on Friday. Or something unexpected could happen sometime before then. Why?”

Katrina frowned at him a little, wondering why he had to make everything sound so complicated. “Well, if you weren’t busy that day, then I was going to ask you if you wanted to have dinner at my house that day.”

“Ooh!” Shigeru and Meng sang teasingly as the two broke into hysterical laughter. “Bryan and Katrina are going on a date!”

“Would you two shut up?” Bryan hissed at his friends, blushing furiously in embarrassment. “U-um …” he stammered, trying to find the right words to say. “I—I don’t—this Thursday—uhh—that sounds great!” he choked out at last.

“Good!” Katrina nodded in satisfaction. “Then it’s not a problem with you, is it?”

“N-no! Not at all! Unless something comes up,” Bryan mumbled, his speech still incoherent from his flustered state. “I … I guess I’m free that day.”

“All right, then, Thursday night it is,” Katrina confirmed, a pleased grin finding its way onto her face. “I’ll tell you all the details tomorrow.” She grabbed the collar of Bryan’s T-shirt, pulled him towards her, and planted a firm kiss on his lips. About ten seconds later, she drew back from Bryan and called to him as she walked away, “See you later.”

Bryan waved to her stiffly and awkwardly, trying to make sense of what had just happened. The moment Katrina was out of sight, though, Meng meandered over to him and exclaimed, “Wow, Bryan! Little Miss Popular likes you! Way to go!”

Shigeru snickered at his friend’s predicament and remarked cheerfully, “Face it, Bryan. One way or another, you are screwed.”

“Thanks, guys, that makes me feel so much better,” Bryan told them sarcastically. He then lowered his head with a despondent sigh and thought, This is a fine mess I’ve gotten myself into. There’s no way I can be the right person for someone like Katrina Peterson. It’s just not possible.