“Hey Sarah!” I called out, pushing through the crowd, making my way to her bright orange book bag. Grabbing on to it, I spun her around, joking with her. She squealed as she was being turned to face me, and as she came to a stop, she used her momentum to push me away. I trip and laugh, holding on to her for balance then I smile. “What’s a matter?” I ask, teasing her, and laughing still. 

“Nothing you dork!” She yelled at me, pushing me again, and smiling. 

“Oh, sure,” I laugh and look at her, her brown hair falling in her face, her green eyes flashing. Behind them I seen hurt, and pain, and I remembered something… “Oh yeah, how did asking out Carl go?”

For a moment, I seen hurt grow across her face, then it disappeared as fast as it came, “Oh, it went alright, turns out he is a douche, so that won’t happen again…” 

“Oh, I am sorry…” I reply awkwardly… I knew Carl was bad news, I just didn’t want to hurt her. 

“How does a hug sound?” I call, softly pushing her again. 

“From you? Terrible!” She says while laughing, then she reaches out, looking for a hug. 

“Oh, I thought I was terrible?” I give her a hug, and smile, hoping to make her feel better. 

The embrace last a little more than a brief moment, then we break apart, and awkwardly look around, laughing. As I look around, trying to find a different topic, I notice the time, and I gasp in fright. 

“Sarah!! It is 2:18, we are late! Hurry up, come on!” I shout at her, grabbing her wrist, and rushing to class. Today was Thursday, and every Thursday we had fourth block in the library.

As we reach the library door, we slow down, and walk in calmly, acting like we weren’t worried. The class has already begun, so we went to the shelves, and grabbed a random book, and sat down. Our teacher, Mrs. Meaks had peered at us, suspiciously. 

“Tardy, why?” she asked as she fixed her glasses. 

Crap, why does she always bother us? 

“We were using the restroom, sorry Mrs. Meaks, it won’t happen again.” Sarah promised, looking as innocent as possible. She could pull a lie out of nowhere, I swear. 

“Mhm, okay.” She said, marking on the attendance paper. 

I give Sarah a look, and we laugh quietly, then go about what we should have been doing, reading. As we take a closer look at the book, we notice strange markings, and that the book had a lock on it. We glance at each other questioningly, and attempt to pry the lock open. Upon closer inspection, we notice the lock didn’t have a key hole… What type of book gets locked to begin with? And then again, what lock doesn’t have a key hole? 

We sat quietly for a second, staring at each other, then I look around, and I slipped it into my book bag as no one was looking. Sarah gave me a look somewhere the lines of, oh, so you aren’t going to tell anyone, and smiled, wolfishly. I am a great thief, if I do say so myself. As we go to get another book, two of my friends, Hank and William, bust into the classroom, screaming about not being late, and that they weren’t tardy. I just shook my head, this is an everyday thing with them. 

After a minute or so of yelling between the teacher and my friends, they walked over and laughed. “Hey guys!” Hank and William said at the same time, smiling. 

Me and Sarah laughed and greeted them. Hank and William were twin brothers, exactly the same; short, curly blonde hair, and blue eyes, a couple inches taller than me, and more than a couple for Sarah. 

“Why were you guys late?” Sarah questioned. “Again, I may add.” She said, smiling.

“Well,” said Hank, as he looked at his brother, and laughed. 

“We saw this hot girl, and so we both called dibs,” said his brother, finishing part of his sentence. 

“Oh no, not this crap again,” I laughed, we hate when they finish each other sentences, “Hank, talk.”

“William didn’t want to talk anyways,” laughed Hank, and he proceeded to tell us about the fight him and his brother had over the girl, William throwing in his opinion every once in a while, as we went to get another book. “But in the end,” breathed William, “Our plight was in vain, she called us both meatheads.” He said, cracking up. 

Sarah and I joined in, laughing at them too. They were on the football team, and they fought anyone, and anything they could, just to show off their brute strength. Their common sense though, not present. 

We finished class like that, laughing and joking, reading the Harry Potter series, for the 100th time. Soon after we went about our work, splitting up, but agreeing to meet at the end of the day, to go hang out at Sarah’s, like we do every Thursday. We planned on opening that book, and surprising Hank and William with it, those two numbskulls would just tell everyone, and that would be an issue. So now all we have to do is wait… Just 1 more hours.

As fourth block slowly crept to an end, I kept glancing at the clock… So soon, I thought, I can feel the jitters coming on. I glance at Sarah, and she looked up at me, smirking. She knew I was ready too. Hank and William resorted to the primal instincts and started arm wrestling, yelling rude insults at each other, and laughing. Wow, the friends I got ha. 

After 5 long, trying minutes, it was 2:40, and the bell sounded, making me jump. I had been so involved at staring down the clock, I zoned out. I shoot a few looks around the room, then clipped Hank and William in the back of the head, laughing. In response they both punched me at the same time… Which hurt. 

“Come on Meatheads,” I said jokingly, as they got up, “I got some thing I gotta show you two, Sarah already knows.” 

“Of course Sarah knows,” they said at the same time, in perfect unison, “We saw you two making lovey faces at each other, just date already!” 

I sighed, trying to hide the blush from my face, as Sarah smacked them on the back of the head, in the same manner I had. 

“Get it together you two, and quit picking.” asserted Sarah, glancing at me. I could see something there… embarrassment maybe?  But it only lasted a second. 

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The bus ride went like any of the others, William and Hank owning the back, acting loud and funny, and me and Sarah sitting at the front, snickering at them, and laughing at our own jokes. Since we lived close to the school, the bus ride was relatively short. As we stepped off, William and Hank started pestering us about the secret we had been keeping, and making jokes like we had finally decided to get married and such. Sarah shot them a dirty look and said no, and to shut up. As we walked into Sarah’s house, the twins started yelling at Sarah’s mom, Jane, who looked strikingly like Sarah, for food. We stood there, waiting for them, and then made our way up to her room. 

“Okay, everyone shut up,” she said, and then took my book bag from me and opened it up, inside, the book sitting there, “This is the secret we have been keeping, this really strange book.”

“Wow,” said Hank. “A book? That’s dumb…” finished William, staring at us. 

“Oh right, you two don’t read often do you?” I joked, smiling. Hank and William then hit me again, laughing too. 

“Stop kidding you guys,” said Sarah, being serious, “I want to know what’s is so important that someone needed to lock it up.”

For an hour, we sat there, fiddling with the lock, giving Hank and William the book to try to bust the lock, and other methods that we shouldn’t mention, but it involved fire. Nothing worked. Out of confusion and frustration, Sarah threw the book, and it hit the wall, making a loud noise. 

“We are gonna go,” said the twins, shaking their heads, “If you make any headway, text us, okay?” They stood up, and left the room, yelling again at Jane, and closing the door loudly.

Then I saw it, tears welling up in her eyes. “Sarah, it is okay, we can get the book open, don’t worry about it.” I said, putting my hand on her shoulder, comforting her. 

“It’s not the book!” She yelled, wiping her eyes, and looking at me. “It’s this week, everything is going wrong...” 

I knew what she meant immediately, she was still bothered by Carl… I really hate that guy. 

“Sarah, things happen for a reason, maybe it was for the best.” I state, trying to cheer her up. 

“It just seems like no one likes me, I am just ‘one of the guys’, it bothers me…” She replied, looking at me… If only she knew that I did, but me being a chicken…

“I am sure someone does, come on, your smart, funny, and pretty, get it together.” I laugh, and hug her again, smiling. 

“Hey… I have a question,” she whispers, glancing down, and looking a little insecure, “Do… do you like me?” 

The question caught me off guard… I wasn’t ready for that, I feel my chest seize, and I stop breathing for a second, and turn red. 

“I… yeah, I do…” I mutter back, looking down as well. It took all of my courage to say that, and it took my breath away. 

I feel her arms wrap around me, hugging me softly… I felt heat rise to my face, and I hug her back. It didn’t feel awkward, it felt right. 

We stayed that way for what felt like an eternity, and then we both slowly looked up at each other. I felt this overwhelming urge rise up in my chest, and I slowly leaned closer to her, stopping an inch from her face. Before I closed my eyes, I seen her turn bright red, and close her eyes. And then I kiss her, lightly, and only for a second. I felt my chest explode, and then a snap! I jumped, and we looked over at the book. The lock had broken, in two. 

“How, what?” stammered Sarah, looking as confused as I am. 

“I honestly have no clue, I can’t even…” I trail off, then snapping back to thought. “We need to get the two idiots, and tell them the lock broke!” 

“What are we gonna tell them when they ask how?” asks Sarah, blushing… 

“I don’t even know…” I say, looking at her. I really didn’t know what to say… Did it break because we kissed, or did it break to stop us from kissing? Or did it just break because? I had more questions than when we started out. 

“Just, just tell them it broke randomly, for now.” I call out, after deep thought as she pulled out her phone. It only took a few minutes for the call, and maybe five minutes after that before they broke down her door, and charged up the stairs. 

“What happened?” They shouted, and, I stared at Sarah, looking for something.

Sarah, being quick minded, and a good liar, made up a story of her throwing it at the wall, then it snapping in two. Good one, I think, it makes sense. 

“Well, what are you waiting for?” started Hank 

“Open it!” finished William, shouting.

Sarah walked over to the book, and picked it up slowly, all of us leaning over her shoulders. It felt like time slowed to a near standstill, her hands moving slower than molasses, as she opened it up to the middle of the book, and that is when it happened… A blast of light, a huge explosion, and I felt some tingling. What had we done?