Stars in my Sky

Star 5: Think before making decisions

“I can’t believe I’m going to school in the middle of summer vacation,” I complained as Daniel and I walked the familiar road to my school.

“Stop whining,” he said, rolling his eyes at me. “It’s not like you’re going to study or something.”

“Whatever,” I replied, still sulking. Of all the places, he had to choose school?

“I’ll buy you food later,” He said, trying to cheer me up.

“McDonalds?” I asked, widening my eyes slightly.

His lips twitched. “Yes.”

“A meal with ice-cream afterwards?” I asked, widening my eyes even more.

He smiled and nodded. “Sure thing.”

“Okay!” I chirped happily, now smiling too.

He grinned at me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders, pulling me closer to him. I didn’t mind at all and my smile grew just a little bit.

A few minutes later we arrived to my school and the familiar black gate was opened.

“Come on,” I told him as I jogged towards the gate.

“Alexia, what are you doing here?” I heard someone say and when I looked to the right, I saw one of the doormen standing there, smiling at me. He’s an old man but I love him and I’ve known him ever since I started school here which was at the age of three.

“Hello! My friend just wanted to see the school,” I said, pointing at Daniel. “How are you?”

“I’m good, and you?”

“I’m good,” I answered politely. “Do you have any idea if the doors of the divisions are unlocked?”

“Yeah, I think they are. They’re having some sort of summer camp for a few days for the elementary students.”

“Oh so we’re not allowed inside?” I asked.

“You shouldn’t be but they went on a trip to the beach today. What they don’t know won’t hurt them,” he said and I laughed.

“Thank you,” I replied, waving at him as I grabbed Daniel’s arm and we walked past the gate.

“I’ll give you a tour of the whole school!” I told Daniel, getting a bit excited to show him where I spent all the years of my life.

“It seems like the doorman trusts you,” he commented as we went up the stairs that lead to the first building in the school which is for Kindergarten and Elementary One.

“Well I’ve known him for thirteen years,” I replied and Daniel’s eyes widened.

“You’ve been going to this school for thirteen years?” He asked, shocked.

“Yeah, it all started when I was three years old and walking into this building,” I replied as I pushed open the wooden door with a small smile on my face.

“Wow,” I heard Daniel muttered as he walked behind me.

First we went to the inside playground that was still the same as it was when I was a kid except for the new wooden stage and stereo in the front.

The red and yellow circles painted on the floor were slightly faded but it was all the same.

“We used to play here during winter and out there during summer till we reached second grade,” I said pointing to the playground outside where there were slides and swings.

“The first year, though, our playground was here,” I said as we walked into a small playground inside. It had a few small plastic chairs and tables and balloons and a small slide.

On the wall, pictures and drawings done by little kids were hung.

“How cute,” he commented and I chuckled.

“I spent the best days of my life here,” I said. “I used to love it. And I loved my teachers.”

He smiled at me. “I can imagine a small you playing here.”

I smiled too and looked at the colorful chairs. After a few minutes, I took him to the nursery, KG1, and KG2 classes which were colorful on the inside with all kinds of drawings and letters on the walls.

On the second floor, the classes of first and second grade were less decorated and seemed more serious with the wooden desks and green board.

The third floor had the classes for third graders, a computer center, and two playgrounds for them. The classes were similar to the ones on the second floor and the inner playground was just an empty large room and the outside one had two hoops, a garden, and a couple of tents with benches underneath them.

“This playground seems nice,” Daniel commented, looking at the garden.

“Yeah, we used to have a lot of fun in that garden,” I said, remembering the days when I was a kid.

“Let’s go to the other division,” I said and he nodded.

We went back down the stairs and out of the building. We walked a bit before reaching the Elementary Two building.

I opened the unlocked door and when we stepped in I spoke, “This is the first playground.”

It was small but some students liked to hang out here.

“In there are the principal and vice principal’s offices for the Elementary Two,” I said, pointing to the doors at the end of a hallway.

“How many times have you been sent here?” He teased and I rolled my eyes.

“Just a few times,” I replied. “The number increases in the other divisions.”

He chuckled as we walked down the stairs to the underground playground.

“This playground didn’t exist when I was in that division. They made it last year. Personally, I think it’s scary like a prison but the kids like it so whatever.”

He nodded. “It does look scary.”

There were only a few small windows at the top and it was all closed with grey walls. I had no idea why they would even do a playground like that.

We then went up to the second and third floors where there were the classrooms and computer rooms.

After that we went to the Intermediate division which was similar to the Elementary Two division. The only difference was the additional tuck shop and one playground less.

“The Intermediate and Secondary students usually hang out outside and wherever they want around the school so they only have one small inner playground,” I said.

“That’s cool,” Daniel replied. “I think the Secondary division is the best one.”

“It is,” I agreed. “It’s my favorite out of all.”

It was the biggest division and it had a lot of better things like laptops instead of computers, a huge library, and a lot of meeting rooms.

I then took him to the auditorium and the school theater, which wasn’t that big but it was pretty.

“Wow, your school seems amazing,” he said.

I shrugged. “It’s okay.”

“Tell me some badass stuff you did around here,” he said.

“Bye, thank you!” I called to the doorman as we passed by him.

“Bye Alexia! See you in a couple of months!” He called back.

“Badass stuff at which age?” I asked, turning my attention back to Daniel and shooting him a smirk.

“One from each year,” he replied and I grinned.

“Okay, but first we have to get to McDonalds because I’m starving!” I said and he laughed.

Ten minutes later, we were seated in McDonalds with trays of food in front of us.

“Start talking,” he said and I laughed.

I took the time we had to come here to think of every year I had passed in school.

“During nursery, there was this girl who thought she was a princess and when we used to take naps during the day at school, she used to push everyone away from her because she thought that she’s better than them and they didn’t deserve to sleep next to her on the carpet. So one day, I put my pillow next to hers and she started yelling at me to leave and I yelled back saying that I didn’t want to and that she’s not a princess and then she got really annoying so I pushed her and she started crying. The teachers called her mom to come take her home because she wouldn’t shut up and let us sleep.”

“You were such a mean kid, Alexia! How could you do that to the princess?” He joked and I laughed.

“She just wishes she was a princess.”

“So KG1?” he asked.

“Jackson was a real wimp in KG1. I was manlier than him back then,” I started and Daniel snickered. “Anyway one day he was sitting on the drawing table with his pretty colorful pencils and I needed a pink pencil so I took his for a minute to color my drawing and he started yelling at me to give it back because it was his. I thought he was being really selfish and after an argument I yelled at him ‘It’s just a pencil!’ and broke it. That wimp started crying! Can you believe that?” I finished with a snort.

“You never break a pink pencil, Alexia, never,” Daniel said so seriously, I would’ve believed him if I didn’t know him so well.

I rolled my eyes at him and kept on telling him story after story that evolved from not doing my math homework for a week in grade one to the pranks I did to my extremely old Physics teacher in grade ten.

“Well,” Daniel finally said, sipping his coke. “You sure are an unforgettable student.”

I smirked. “I know.”

“And I didn’t mean that in a good way,” he added and I laughed.

“Details, details,” I waved dismissively making him chuckle.

A few moments of silence passed before I asked him, “What about you? Any badass stuff?”

An overly innocent look masked his features. “Me? Badass? Pshh no way!”

“Ah a teacher’s pet, I see,” I joked and he gave me a huge sarcastic smile.

“Definitely!” He chirped and I laughed.

“Your face!” I said, still giggling and he chuckled too.

“Okay I’ll tell you something,” he said. “The most recent one was the last day of school. Our arts teacher is a really ugly guy that will definitely stay single forever while our principal is a thirty year old beautiful woman so my friends and I typed a note that says ‘Meet me in my office at 10:00a.m for some fun’ with a wink at the end and put it in one of the school envelopes and closed it. We wrote the teacher’s full name on it and I gave it to him saying it’s from the principal. At ten in the morning, during our break time, we stood near the principal’s office, acting as if we were casually hanging out when the arts teacher knocked on her door, looking like a pervert. He went in and in exactly one minute and twenty three seconds, he was in the hallways as our principal kicked him more than seven times before telling him that if he even looks at her from now on, he’ll be fired.”

I laughed loudly and shook my head at him. “You could’ve got him fired, Daniel. Shame on you!”

“Hey, don’t blame it all on me,” he replied, raising his hands in surrender. “Tiffany came up with the idea. I just helped.”

“Tiffany?” I echoed, frowning.

He smirked. “She’s just a friend, love, no need to be jealous.”

“I’m not jealous!” I complained. “I don’t even know her.”

“Mmhmm,” he mumbled, not believing me.

Okay I didn’t like the idea of another girl liking him, so what? It didn’t mean I was jealous of Tiffany because I didn’t even know her and she might have not even liked him.

But how could she not like him?

“I already told you, I want only one special girl,” he said, stopping my thoughts. I was glad that he was the one that brought up the topic again and not me.

“And you still didn’t tell me who that special girl is,” I said, preparing myself for a heartbreak if he was going to say another girl’s name.

I should act casual when he says someone else’s name I thought to myself, I should keep my face blank.

“Stop freaking out, Alexia,” he said, amusement flickering in his eyes.

“I’m not,” I replied. “Why would you say that?”

He stared pointedly at the tissue I was holding in my hand. I looked at my hands too and saw that the tissue was now shredded into a hundred pieces.

Blushing, I threw it away. Clearing my throat, I looked intently at the table, avoiding eye contact.

I froze when his hand cupped my cheek. I swallowed and looked into his warm green eyes. He smiled at me and bit his lower lip.

“You’re a special girl, Alexia,” he said in a low voice.

I wanted to say a sarcastic or arrogant reply like ‘I know’ or ‘of course I am’ but I couldn’t utter a word with the way he was looking at me.

“I’m falling in love with you, Alexia,” he continued and my heart started beating furiously in my chest.

He loved me! Out of all the girls he could get, he chose me. I felt as happy as a kid on Christmas.

I opened my mouth to tell him that I’m in love with him too but he didn’t let me speak.

“Wait,” he said, putting a finger on my lips. “Don’t say anything.”

I frowned. “But I—”

If he thought I was going to reject him, he was so wrong!

“Think before making decisions,” he said and my frown deepened.

“I’m leaving at the end of the summer…” he trailed off and I immediately understood what he was saying.

If we were going to be together, it won’t be for longer than two months because he was leaving by mid-September.

What should I do? Do I push him away to avoid getting hurt? But won’t that hurt me as well? Too many questions, and one decision to make.

“It’s getting late,” he suddenly said. “I’ll drop you off at home and I’ll see you tomorrow?”

“Yeah,” I said, nodding and following him outside.

This way, I would have time to think tonight and by tomorrow I would have made my decision.

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