Alex ran all the way to the parking lot. She bent forwards with her hands on her knees.
‘That was so close…’ she thought. She really didn’t need more people knowing about Xandra’s existence. It had troubled her long enough.
A few meters ahead was her aunt’s car. She had borrowed it since she already wasted time by going home to change. She discarded the idea of changing somewhere nearby since that had the risk of being seen. Her aunt didn’t look particularly happy with the idea but gave her the car keys nonetheless.
Alex drove out of the school campus and headed home. Her racing heart calmed down along the way. The whole thing was finally over.
Maylin greeted Alex as soon as she stepped inside the door. By greeted, the cat merely wanted some food and Aunt Lilly was already sleeping.
She poured her some milk to drink and Maylin lapped on it happily.
Alex walked up the stairs, removing off her wig and yawning. The rush of the moment left her tired. She pulled out everything in her pockets to change into her pajamas.
When she reached into her back pocket, her hand came up with her prized phone.
When she reached into her front pocket, her hand came up empty.
Dread trickled down the back of her neck. No way—she did place her new phone in her pocket, right? Alex patted down all her pockets and even down her leg in case the pockets were actually ripped on the inside but the phone didn’t appear.
She dashed to the stairs, retracing her steps but still no phone. She went out to the car to check the seats and the floor of it. The phone still wasn’t around.
Alex closed the car door. She looked around the neighborhood, her chest rising and falling quickly.
‘Okay, okay… no need to panic’, she chanted in her mind. She only need to recall the events that had happened and maybe she can remember where the phone went.
As soon as she came home, she ran up the stairs to change. She had removed all of the items in her jean pockets and placed them on her night table so she’d remember to take them with her—especially her phone so she couldn’t have left without it.
In the locker room, Alex didn’t hear anything clatter to the floor. Since the floor had been slippery, she kept her eyes on it a lot to avoid tripping.
Tripping…
Alex gasped in horror and covered her open mouth with her hand.
“No… No way…” she whispered, tears forming at the corners of her eyes, “No… no, no, no, no!” she started to pace around the driveway, “Why did it have to be that phone? Why couldn’t it have been the other one? How am I supposed to claim the phone as mine when it was freaking Xandra who dropped it? Tell them I was cross-dressing?!”
Alex sat on the pavement and pressed the heels of her hand against her eyes. She lightly sniffled. Did she do something bad? Was she such bad person that she actually lost her phone this time? She just bought it… what was she going to tell her parents? Oh, she lost the new one but don’t worry! She got the old one back!
Alex leaned her head against the car door and slammed a fist on the ground. She gazed up at the sky and took a deep breath.
It was over… she had enough.
==
Come Monday morning, Alex attended school in a brooding mood. Aunt Lilly had been nice enough to check for her phone at school last Saturday but… she came back unsuccessful. The ‘Lost and Found’ didn’t have it. None of the janitors saw it. It meant someone else took it just as she anticipated.
Free time for English class had been dedicated to the presentation according to the substitute. Ms. Smith had been unable to come due to personal matters. Some of the students looked over at her and Logan. They whispered and snickered to themselves. No doubt they waited for new gossip to talk about.
“Hey, Alex? Alex, you there?” Logan poked her shoulder. Right,she also had other things to worry about.
“Uh, yeah” she cleared her throat, “Sorry about that.”
“Nah, it wasn’t your fault. We both didn’t know Ms. Smith was going to pull that on us” He explained, thinking it had been the attention bothering Alex.
She blinked a few times at him, “Huh? Oh, right. The project. Haha.”
Logan’s thick eyebrows scrunched together, “Are you sure you’re okay?”
“Yeah, dude. I’m fine. Just still sleepy is all.”
Logan laughed, “I feel you, buddy. Let’s do this slowly, huh?”
To stay out of earshot, they moved their chars to the far corner of the room and spoke their lines softly. Both of them asked the other for opinion and both voiced out any critique they had, explaining the emotion and thought process the characters could be having in the scene which affected their manner of talking.
“Aw, look at that. How sweet. You’re already kissy-kissy.”
“Buzz off, Peyton” Logan rolled his eyes at Max and released Alex’ hand.
“Or what, Parker?” Max smirked.
“Or I’ll reconstruct your molecules in the science lab to create a new pesticide against dissosteira carolina” Alex interrupted.
Logan held back a snort but based on his amused eyes on her, he knew what she meant. She continued to stare blankly at Max as if the conversation was a mere casual one.
“Aw” Max cooed, “Don’t do that, Alex—whatever that was.”
“Clearly something your brain can’t comprehend.”
Just when Max came up with a retort—hopefully a better one—Logan beat him to it.
“We’ll settle this at gym, Peyton. If I win, you have to dye your hair like a unicorn’s mane for two weeks.”
Oh, he’s baiting him, Alex thought and as they expected, Max quickly jumped onto the bandwagon, “You’re on, Parker. If I win, you guys have to kiss in your project.”
“What?” Alex hissed but both parties ignored her.
“Deal” Logan answered with conviction. Max left them alone after that. She directed her raised eyebrows and her wide eyes at Logan but he didn’t seem worried, “Relax. I’ll win, you’ll see.”
“I do want to see Max with unicorn hair.”
“You will.”
