A: Act Your Age

“Act Your Age”

“Grow Up”

“Stop being so immature”

Now, I know that you guys have heard that before. In fact, I can probably guess that when you were reading those three phrases, you were thinking about the times that you have heard it being said. Or you said it to someone that was getting on your nerves. Or you were one of those hyperactive, annoying kids when you were young, and had one of those three phrases shouted at you on a daily basis. Unfortunately for me, I was the one that had to say one of these phrases a lot, all because of one reason.

Elijah Fletcher, commonly known as Ely.

But to me, he’s commonly known as my follower, my stalker, my loser-boyfriend.

Now, the last one isn’t true, I don’t have a boyfriend and I never plan on having one. Having boyfriends are stupid, I mean, it makes girls act like they’re mindless idiots that would freak out if they don’t talk to their boyfriends for more than five minutes .They can’t even spend two minutes apart. You should see it at my school; it’s the grossest thing ever. And I was thrust into all of this at a young age. When I was seven and in second grade if I remember correctly.

This is what happened: I was minding my own business on Valentine’s Day. Because it was Valentine’s Day, my mom made me dress up to look extra special. I wasn’t the only one, everybody in class fell to the epidemic that was their parents dressing up for Valentine’s Day. The girls were comparing their frilly dresses and the boys were tugging at the collars of their shirts, wishing that they could be in more comfortable clothes to run around in. Me, my mom made me put my hair up into pigtails and she forced, yes I said forced, me into wearing a frilly pink dress. Not like the pigtails weren’t enough, I hated the color pink. Looking back, it was probably the fact that my mom was trying to get me to dress a little girly; maybe I wouldn’t be the tomboy that I am now.

Anyway, we were passing around cards and stuff, ‘because back then you were supposed to give one to everybody so they didn’t feel left out. I was rifling through my cards to see if I had gotten any candy, when Ely had walked over to my desk, looking embarrassed and nervous about something.

“What do you want?” I asked in my high-pitched voice. Back then, I had followed the trend and thought that boys had cooties, so I didn’t want to risk catching it. I wanted to get this boy away from me as soon as possible.

“This is for you.” He said and held out a store bought card.

At this, everybody started to crowd around, because getting a store bought card is so much better than getting a handmade one. I mean, you only saw your parents give them to each other; you never thought that you would get one yourself.

“What does it say, Fiona?” My best friend and partner in crime, Ashley asked, peering over my shoulder. “What does it say?”

I looked over at Ely, and by this time, he looked as if he had just gone to the bathroom in his pants. I opened the card and read the message out loud. It was short, sweet, and to the point. “I love you.”

Some of the girls gasped and some of the guys laughed, causing Ely to turn even redder. I looked over at him and I was sure that I saw some tears gathering in his eyes. It wasn’t long until that ill-fated song came warbling out of fifteen other second graders’ mouths.

“Fiona and Ely sitting in a tree. K-I-S-S-I-N-“

Their song finished with a collective gasp as I shoved the card into Ely’s chest, causing him to fall to the ground at the same time. He looked up at me, his lower lip trembling as I stared down at him in disgust. “I don’t love you and I never will! Stay away from me, you have cooties.”

With that, Ely got up and ran out of the room, crying his eyes out. Something that no boy wanted to do, even if he had just gotten turned down by the one he loves. Unfortunately for him, after that he was labeled as a crybaby. Unfortunately for me…I got put into time out and had to miss recess.

Now, that was my first brush with having boy problems.

The next was in fifth grade.

We had a new student named Heath Carol and we became best friends instantly. You can’t help but be friends with him, with his wacky personality matching his wacky hair (black/brown with random chunks of blonde) he was really fun to be around. Now, that wouldn’t be a bad thing, if Ely wasn’t still completely head over heels with me. It got so bad that I had to threaten him with a restraining order. I’m not joking. One day during recess, Heath and I were sitting on the swings playing with Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Now, I know that a lot of you played with Pokemon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards when you were younger, and in fifth grade I loved Yu-Gi-Oh. I played against Heath all the time and could win most games.

Well, one recess, we were playing Yu-Gi-Oh and Heath made a comment about the kids that were going out in our grade. Of course it was the populars and of course the relationships only lasted from a few days to a week. A week being the record set by Perri Anderson. She’s the most popular girl in my grade, I wouldn’t’ say that we’re friends, but we’re civil towards each other. Anyway, Heath asked me what I thought about the relationships that were going on and how long they were going to last. I made some sort of a crude comment about it and he finally asked if I had ever had a boyfriend. Now, I thought that was a weird question, because Ashley was sure that Heath had a crush on me, although I wasn’t sure.

“I think I’m going to wait until we get into high school, I mean, what’s the point of rushing, we’re only kids.”

“So, does that mean that you haven’t gotten your first kiss?”

I looked up from my Blue Eyes White Dragon card and gave Heath a teasing smirk. “Does that mean that you have?”

“Yes.”

That threw me for a loop. I never thought that my best friend would have had kissed someone before me. And the way that he was looking at me showed that he thought that it was no big deal. So I didn’t need it to be a big deal either. But I was kind of curious about it.

“What was it like?” I asked hesitantly, brushing my thick blonde hair out of my face as a gentle wind blew.

“I could show you.”

Now, before I could do anything else, before I could even blink or breathe, Heath was lying on the ground, with Ely straddling him, shouting in his face and hitting him over and over again. That made me mad on two counts. One; that he had been listening to our conversation and two; that he had the audacity to go and punch my best friend. With that, I jumped off of the swing that I was sitting on and pushed Ely aside, hauling Heath to his feet.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I shouted in Ely’s face. He glared at Heath beside me but didn’t say anything. “I can’t take it anymore Ely, you’re suffocating me! Don’t be surprised if you find a restraining order in your mailbox.”

With that, Ely looked scared and he ran away. Now, keep in mind that we’re in fifth grade and I barely know what a restraining order is. I only heard about it after my mom and dad were mulling over someone named Britney Spears during breakfast that morning. And from the way they were speaking I knew it was a bad thing, so I decided to throw it into his face, not really expecting it to work. Luckily for me it did. I looked over at Heath and saw that his nose was bleeding.

“Let’s go to the nurse.”

Now, those were the two major times that I had to worry about boys liking me to the point that it was almost obsession. Ok, so I wouldn’t go that far, Ashley would.

Flash forward about eight years and that’s where we are now.

We were sitting at our usual lunch table, by the window. Ashley chose that window…just so she could stare at the football team as they practiced during lunch. There are two different lunch periods during the day, one at 12:00 the other at 1:00. Being seniors, you were able to go off campus, but we decided to say in the cafeteria most times.

‘We’ is me, Heath, Ashley, Carrie, Vicky, Jazzie, and Catherine. Heath is the only guy in our group because…well…because he can act like a girl sometimes. Jazzie constantly tries to prove that he’s gay, and that’s a running joke between all of us, but I can almost say for certain that’s he not gay. And when I saw almost, I mean the fact that he can be so preoccupied by his clothes in a girly way that that would be the only time you would think that he was gay.

Today, we were talking about what we were going to do after school. Go to the beach or go to the mall. Well, that’s what they were talking about.

I was doing my English homework. You can sympathize; all my friends do, because English is the class that we always procrastinate in. The teacher is old and has been at our school for years, so we don’t take her seriously. Well, we didn’t at first, not until we learned that she was sexist. That’s a cool thing for us girls, but for Heath, he has to work his butt off for a C. We tease him about it, and he says that he’s going to get all of the guys in our grade together and do something about it. We haven’t’ seen anything yet.

This was a lot of English home and it was something that I probably should have done before, but was too busy looking after my little brother. Most people would think that at my mother’s age, it would be a bad idea to have another baby. I think that sometimes too, no matter how much I love Joseph, it’s just the fact that he keeps me away from my homework and I have to use lunch and my free periods and study halls to rush to finish it. Free periods that should be used by goofing off with my friends, before we go to college and never see each other again. Today for example, I’m finishing up a analysis paper that’s due next period and I still have a page to go.

I was in the zone, writing up a storm when Ashley slapped her hand on the table and snapped “Fiona!”

That instantly got my attention as no one calls me Fiona anymore, unless I’m in trouble. Not since fifth grade have I been called Fiona. My nickname is Fly and that’s all I ever go by. I bet you’re thinking, ‘what kind of a nickname is Fly’. Well, being a Californian, I love to surf and I surf as much as possible. Apparently I’m so fast on the waves that I ended up being called Fly and it stuck.

“What is it?” I asked as I put my long braid over my shoulder. Having long wavy hair isn’t an easy thing to manage, especially if you surf as much as I do. So I just leave it in a plain long ponytail and stare enviously as the other girls can actually do something to their hair to make them look attractive.

“Surfing or the mall?” Jazzie repeated in a tone that let me know that she had asked me that question numerous times before.

“Do you really have to ask her that?” Heath asked as he raised an eyebrow and gave a smile, letting his dimples form in his cheeks. “She’s going to choose surfing.”

“That depends on what the trip to the mall is for.” I said in a warning tone as I pointed my pencil at Heath’s face in a silent warning. He made a face of mock-fear and laughed, biting into his bean burrito. He spit it out almost immediately and the rest of us laughed. “Didn’t I tell you not to buy the school lunches?”

“Little Fly, you always have to be right don’t you?” Heath shot back in reply as he wiped his tongue off with a napkin. I made a face. He knew that I hated it whenever he called me ‘Little Fly’. It wasn’t only because I was 5’2, one of the shortest in my class, but it was the fact that I’m the youngest in my class. Being born premature and in September does that to people.

“Don’t forget Heath, I have a deadly weapon.” I reminded him, brandishing my pencil.

“I’m so scared?”

“Hey, quit flirting and answer my question!” Ashley got impatient easily, and unfortunately, we have seen it countless times.

“You didn’t answer mine,” I replied with a cocked eyebrow. “What are we going to the mall for?”

“Just to shop for clothes and such.” Vicky replied as she mixed her salad around. Already a twig, Vicky tries to keep her weight down as much as possible, we think she’s crazy, but she’s so into sports that she always tries to eat healthy and to keep her flat stomach.

“I’m in then.” I replied with a nod. “What about you, Heath?”

“Oh gee, I’d love to go with you guys on your giggling shopping trip, really, I would, but I have better things to do.” Heath replied, probing his burrito. He winced and started picking again. “I think something moved.”

“Oh really, and do you have better to do than going to the mall?” Catherine asked in a challenging tone. Heath looked up and grinned.

“Anything else.”

Ashley, Carrie, Vicky, Jazzie, Catherine, and I balled up our napkins and threw it at his face. I went back to finishing my homework, seeing that I only had about five minutes left to finish it. I was interrupted yet again when I heard Carrie talking about someone.

“Oh my god, there he is.”

“There who is?” I asked, lifting my head and turned around to see who she was talking about. “All I see is Ely and Jared.”

“That’s who I’m talking about.” She replied.

“Jared?”

“No! Ely!” I stared at her, trying to figure out if she was serious. Then seeing the defensive look on her face, I knew that she was.

I looked over my shoulder again and studied Ely. He had grown up a lot since we were in fifth grade, and I have to admit that he had gotten a bit good looking. His brown hair had grown out so it was resting on his eyelashes, threatening to hide his green eyes. He had good cheekbones and a toned body from playing soccer so much, but other than that…well, I’m not sure. I don’t even know if he still likes me or not, not that it would bother me or anything. But it would be funny to know.

“Are you serious?” I asked, turning back to her.

“Look, just because you threatened him on a daily basis back in elementary school doesn’t mean that the rest of us can’t drool over him.” Jazzie replied.

“Literally.” Catherine added as she handed Jazzie a napkin.

I jumped when the loud bell rang. The only bad thing about out table, apart from the fact that we’re right next to the smelly trashcans, is the fact that we sit right under the bell.

“God!” I cried, rubbing my temples, instantly getting a headache.

“Aww, does wittle Fly have a headache?”

“Knock it off with the Little Fly comments, alright!”

“Having a lover’s spat?”

I looked to the side and saw Jared Manning and Ely standing by our table. Ely looked apathetic and Jared was smirking. I never liked Jared; he always thought that he was better than anyone else. And he thought that he had to be in everyone’s business. What annoyed me the most was the fact that he always spoke to me in a condescending tone, as if his being a foot taller than me gave him the right to be mean. Jared and I first met when we first got into high school. We were at the fall carnival that we have every year at school and he was in the dunk tank. I decided to give it a try, and right when I was about to throw my first ball, he started to shout belittling, no pun intended, phrases at me.

Mostly the stuff that was like,’ you’re a girl you can’t throw’, ‘you’re so short that you won’t reach the button when you’re standing next to it’. Stupid stuff like that. And because of that I was able to dunk him three times in a row. We haven’t really had a ‘good acquaintanceship’ since then.

“Knock it off, Jared.” Heath said in a weary tone as we picked up out trays and walked towards the tray deposit box. He followed us. “What do you want?”

“Nothing,” he replied in an innocent tone and turned to me. “I was just wondering...do you need a step stool to reach a worm’s stomach?”

It was a lame joke, and we all knew it, but Jared and Ely laughed as if it was the funniest thing in the world.

“That’s so funny, but I have a question for you.” Heath jumped in. “Do you need a magnifying glass to find your balls?”

I grinned as Jared threw Heath a glare and walked away. That’s what I loved about Heath being my best friend. He had my back and I had his. Whenever someone was teasing one of us, we knew that the other would always be there to help whenever they needed it.

“Wow, Heath, you probably just dug your own grave.” Vicky spoke up as we went to our lockers to go to English class. “He looked really mad.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.” Heath replied as he rolled his eyes. I blinked sympathetically, he was probably thinking about his bad grades. Heath, as fun as he can be, is also very lazy. He often comes to school late and doesn’t usually finish his homework, or projects, on time. He has C’s, almost D’s in every class and his parents get mad at him a lot. “Come on”

“Class, today, we’re going to do something easy, considering last night I know a lot of you started and finished your analyzing papers.” Mr. Myner said as he walked around the room, his hands behind his back. He beamed when he heard cheers from some of my fellow seniors. “It’s going to be something that’s going to help you later in life, too.”

“What, are you going to teach us how to hack into someone’s computer?” Stan, the class clown, asked jokingly.

“If I knew how to do that, I wouldn’t be a teacher.” Mr. Myner replied.

“What do you think it’s going to be?” Jazzie whispered to me. I shrugged in reply, and kept my eyes on Mr. Myner as he wrote something on the board, waiting in anticipation. “I hope it’s something really cool.”

“What’s this?” he asked, pointing to a row of letters that moved across the board. We looked at him in confusion.

“It’s…the alphabet” a girl replied as if it were obvious.

“Yes and no” Mr. Myner replied with a mischievous smile.

“But…it is the alphabet.” Heath spoke up, a confused look on his face. “We learned this back in like, second grade.”

“Well, the alphabet can stand for more than one thing.” Mr. Myner replied. “Think of it this way, the letter ‘A’. What can you say about it?”

“It’s the first letter”

“It’s probably the most common letter in words?”

“Uh, it’s the best grade you can get?”

Mr. Myner laughed at the suggestions and shook his head. He waited for a few seconds and then finally spoke up. “The alphabet is different. You shouldn’t judge it as only the alphabet. Each letter can represent a word that can describe each of you. Like Antsy, Beautiful, Cocky, Dumb,” The class tittered and tried to figure out what this had to do with anything. “Now, you next assignment you’re going to do is in partners. What you’ll do is you’ll pick one word that will describe the person that you’re partnered with. I bet you’re wondering about this too. How much would you bet against me when I say that you don’t know each other very well?”

“I think by now we should know each other perfectly.” One of the shy boys in the class spoke up.

“Is that so?” Mr. Myner raised an eyebrow and walked over to my. “When’s Fiona’s birthday?” he turned to Heath and Jazzie, the only two of my friends who were in my class. “You two can’t answer because you will obviously know.” There was silence until Ely slowly raised his hand. “Yes, Mr. Fletcher?”

“It’s September 8th.” He replied quietly.

“That’s right” I nodded in reply, catching his eye. He looked away and slid down in his seat, messing with a pencil.

“I noticed that not a lot of you know her birthday and you have been in the same grade for…what…eight, nine years?” our classmates nodded. “This is what the project is for, to finally get to know each other in the classroom. At the end of the year, you’re going to get a surprise. Now, your partners. Heath Carol and Cheryl Hunter.”

Heath looked around the room and saw Cheryl, a pretty Asian-American, who smiled back at him and waved a little bit. Heath grinned back and I rolled his eyes. I could tell from the look in his eyes that he had a crush. He usually fell for girls just by how they looked, and then ended up doing something stupid to cause them to dump him.

“Jasmine Martin and David Trent.”

Jazzie and David locked eyes and nodded towards each other. I hated to admit it, but Mr. Myner was right. David’s been in our grade since eighth grade and we still didn’t know him well.

“Fiona Wattson and Jared Manning.”

I let out a heavy sigh as I looked over at Jared. Great, now I was going to be stuck with him. The worst part is that he and Ely are best friends, and I’m going to have to be around the guy that professed his love for me in the second grade as much as I don’t want to. Jared smirked back at me before turning to Mr. Myner with an innocent expression and raised his hand. “Yes, Jared?”

“Could I have a partner who is closer to my height?” he asked, cocking his head to the side. “It would be easier for me when we work, because I wouldn’t have to look down all the time.”

I felt my cheeks heat up out of anger, but snapped to attention as Mr. Myner sighed and spoke up again, a teasing smile on his face. “I already have a letter for you, Jared. P for Pain in my ass.”

Exactly what I was thinking.

A/N: So what did you guys think? I decided to a story that was more lighthearted than the others that I have written before. What did you think? Constructive Criticism is welcome. ^-^