Page 17 of My Fake Date With My Childhood Friend
I held the paper on my lap so my teacher wouldn't see it and unfolded it.
Joseph's been staring at us all class. Smile and pretend I wrote you a cute note if you want to make him jealous.
I didn't even have to pretend to smile as I read it. Alexander was smart, and he knew how to play people. I toyed with the edge of the paper for a second before I folded the letter back up. I bent over to put the letter in my bag, and as casually as I could manage, I looked down the aisle. Where everyone else was focused on the board or on their notes — or at least pretending that they were — Joseph was making no effort to hide the glare he was sending my way. He gripped his pencil so tight that his knuckles were white, and he looked ready to challenge Alexander to a fight. I sat back up and faced forward, doing my best to hide my smirk. A moment later, Alexander's hand closed around mine and squeezed gently. I smiled at him. He was taking this seriously. It was sad to think, but he was putting more effort into being my fake boyfriend than Joseph had put into being my real one. He winked at me, then released my hand and turned back to the teacher.
I felt oddly cherished by his actions and to be receiving this kindness and attention from him. I didn’t even expect that much effort from him. Man, if this was what fake dating him was like, I wondered what a real relationship would be like.
A paper ball hit me in the back of my head. I frowned and looked over my shoulder. Joseph raised his eyebrows at me and pointed at the paper ball, which had landed at my feet. If I understood his expression correctly, he wanted me to open the note and read it. I considered it for all of one second before deciding that I didn't want to give him the satisfaction of doingwhat he wanted. I flipped my hair over my shoulder and turned back around the face of the front, ignoring the paper by my foot.
A minute later, another one hit the back of my head. I sighed deeply but did my best not to react at all, not even flinching visibly. Same with the third one. When the fourth one hit, I finally picked it up. But instead of reading it myself, I raised my hand.
“Penny!” Joseph hissed from behind me. I ignored him.
“Yes, Miss Owen?” My teacher asked
“Joseph is passing notes, sir,” I said. I held up the paper ball. “I'm finding it very distracting to my learning.”
“Ah.” Mr. Maddox walked up the aisle and took the note from my waiting hand. “Mr. Key, I'm disappointed in you. You're well aware that passing notes is strictly forbidden in my classroom?”
“Yes, sir,” Joseph mumbled. The bell rang.
“We can discuss this more in detention this afternoon,” Mr. Maddox said sternly to Joseph.
“Well played,” Alexander whispered to me. I smirked at Joseph one last time before I sauntered out of the room.
“Penny, will you please get off the couch and help your family?” Mom snapped. She was trying to wrap tinsel around the Christmas tree with the help of my younger brothers and sister, but even on their tiptoes, they were way too short to help with the pieces at the top. If anything, they were actually just getting in her way.
“Why?” I asked. “So, I can celebrate some stupid holiday that I don't even like, anyway?”
“But you love Christmas, Penny!” My little sister, Florence, said. “And Dad said that Santa doesn't bring presents to people who don't help out.”
All my siblings who were home were significantly younger than me and still full of Christmas spirit. I hated to ruin it for them, but I didn't have it in me after this long day to pretend for them. I would have preferred to just go upstairs and let them decorate in peace, but my mom insisted that I stay downstairs and “be a part of the family,” whatever that meant.
“Well, Santa?—”
“Penny!” Mom snapped, interrupting me. I sighed deeply and stopped talking. I guess she was right that I shouldn't say anything about Santa to my impressionable eight-year-old sister, but that didn’t mean I was happy about it.
“Fine,” I said, getting up from the couch. “I'll help you for a little while, but I'm going to go upstairs and watch TV when it's all over.”
“That's the spirit!” my mom said. It wasn't, but I didn't correct her. I helped my mom pull the boxes of ornaments out of the closet at the top of the basement stairs, grumbling under my breath.
It wasn't that I didn't like Christmas—far from it. I usually loved the excitement of getting everything ready for Christmas day and opening all the presents. But this year... well, let's just say that everything seemed to be going wrong in the lead-up to the day. My mood had sunk so low that all I wanted to do was go to bed early and avoid Christmas altogether.
I helped my mom hang ornaments on the tree and put up the lights, but I was really just going through the motions. My mind was elsewhere, focused on what I was going to do when it was all over.
The doorbell rang.
“I'll get it!” I said, seizing any chance I had to get away from this. I ran to the door and threw it open. “Oh, hi, Francine.”
Francine was my mom's best friend from university. She lived a few streets over, but she and Mom both spent a lot of time at each other's houses.
“Hey, Penny! It's so nice to see you,” Francine said, giving me a warm hug.
“You too,” I said, returning the hug. We pulled away and smiled at each other. “Mom's just in the living room. Come in.”
“Oh, perfect. Thank you.” She took off her jacket and followed me inside. “So, how are you? Alexander tells me that school is really busy right now.”
“Yeah, it is,” I said. I was a little on edge by her mention of her mention of Alexander. Did she know about our “relationship”? Alexander hadn’t mentioned whether he told her yet. Based on the way she was talking about him so casually, though, I guessed she didn’t know, and I didn’t want to tell her right then. “We’re all just waiting for Winter Break.”
