2) The Next Jackie Chan

"You can do this Mace. It's not that hard, most girls can do this effortlessly," Zoe says trying to encourage me but instead is making me more anxious.

"I'm not sure what leads you to assume that I would be able to do this 'simple' task. I think we both know there is a very good reason why I rarely touch makeup, especially eyeliner. It feels like I'm about to poke myself in the eye. Which I will probably do in the next 30 seconds," I look at the mysterious black stick that I am supposed to use to draw on my face.

I hear Zoe huff and mumble to herself, "You're useless, you know that?" she takes the liner and applies it to my eyelids like second nature. Zoe is the only reason I don't leave the house looking like a hobo in the mornings. I'm still working out why she's kept me as a friend after all these years, my personality thankfully hasn't scared her away just yet.

I hear a groan in the background "Why am I here exactly?" I turn and realise that Charlie is currently lying unhappily on my bed with his head in Jess's lap. They have the point of braiding each others hair boredom it seems from the miniature plaits in Charlie's fringe.

"Because," Zoe says all the while throwing clothes around my room "this is Mackenzie's first date and we are supportive best friends who are going make sure she doesn't embarrass herself. More than usual."

"Thanks for all the faith guys!" I mumble under my breath. "It's not that big of a deal anyway, it's just a little going away lunch between two friends."

"Just a little going away lunch?" Zoe's head flicks around "Let's get one thing straight, watching Charlie guess what mystery meat is on his sandwich is ' just lunch'. Going to meet Jay in the library to eat cupcakes and reminisce and decide on the names of your future children is not 'just lunch' ." She waves her hands frantically in the air like it gives her point more urgency.

"Future children? Do you want me to freak him out so he blocks me on all social media?" my voice has reached an octave I didn't know existed.

Charlie shrugs "Well, you've gotten this far without completely ruining your friendship... How bad can it get?"

Sometimes I wonder why I keep my friends as moral support.

***

I look down at the note that Jay handed me this morning.

Can't wait to see you but have to change it to our free period, so we don't have to share food with friends that 'just so happen to be passing by'.   JAY

Typically I don't meet up with people in mysterious locations in my study break (I'm not even going to try to come up with a reason how he knows my timetable) but today is an exception. I really don't have anything better to do in my study period, so why not spend it eating cupcakes with good company? 

I walk into the copy room to find candles lit around the room and a table set up with plastic cutlery and plate.

Jay scares me as he walks out of the shadows saying "I'm so glad you could make it."

I am frozen on the spot, not quite sure what my next move should be. I can say with complete confidence that there is a very loud voice inside my head yelling 'RUN'. It sounds a lot like Zoe. Maybe I should have let her do a bit more internet research on Jay.

Ignoring the yelling voice in my head I take a step forward. "Yeah, right back at you. I bought cupcakes," He smiles at my response. That's a good start.

We stare at each other in an ever-expanding silence that broken with the stifle of laughter. "I'm sorry," Jay's cheeks turn flushed in our combined embarrassment. "My mind totally blanked when you walked in."

The heat in my cheeks spreads around the rest of my face while I start to sweat like there is no tomorrow. The silence is not helping so I start with a simple ice breaker otherwise we'll be here all day.

"So how was your day Jay?" I ask trying to settle my pulse.

"Well, I started off with a run, where I found a stray dog so I decided to take it to the vet. But I realised that the vet wasn't open so I took it back to my house. My mother wasn't very happy, as the dog was knocking over all our boxes."

Note to self, ask a simpler question next time, "After putting everything back in the boxes, I dropped the dog off at the vet. After all, you don't want a dog with no home. I then packed up the rest of my stuff and put it in the moving van. I rode my bike to school because it was such a lovely day, and then a car almost hit me-"

"A car almost hit you! Are you okay? Did your life flash before your eyes?"

"Yes, yes and no." He ticks his answers off his fingers

Just breathe. Calm collected thoughts.

I reach across the table to get a glass of water but Jay is too quick for me and reaches over to take the jug instead.

"Let me," As he goes to pour the water in I slowly feel my lap getting wet. That's when I notice the cup is now overflowing and is the water is about to reach the cupcake.

I will not let the cupcakes go soggy!

Without thinking I quickly stand up to grab the cupcakes but instead, knock the table which results in one of the candles falling over and setting the table alight.

Now, I've never been to a lunch date before but I have a slight feeling that this was not supposed to happen.

The events that proceed happen so quickly everything seemed to go in slow motion.

"I've got this," Jay shouts as he grabs the tablecloth pulling it off the table.

With the rest of the food which flies around the room splattering on the walls and staining the floor.

The tablecloth obviously than catches alight which at this point I'm not very surprised about. Now I don't know if it was a miracle or by the chance I was so stressed out, but I became a ninja.

As the food is flying, fire is flaming and Jay is hiding in the corner. My incoordination somehow gets thrown out of the door and is replaced by the spirit of a Kung Fu master.

I leap across the room and roll towards the fire extinguisher.
Grabbing the extinguisher and releasing the pin resulted in foam going everywhere. And by everywhere I mean the copy room looks like the set up for a winter wonderland.

I sigh in relief as there is no flame insight and coincidentally there is no Jay in sight either.

Well, this is just swell. This is definitely how today was supposed to go.

I skim my eyes over the room and look at the catastrophic mess that is in front of me and cringe at how long it's going to take to clean up.

As I take a breath the fire alarm rings throughout the school and the water sprinklers start.

That is my cue to exit.
I sprint out of the library and into the hallway which is already flooded with the rest of the school.

Maybe I can blend in and hopefully, nobody will notice I was gone.
I find myself sandwiched between two year 8's that are way too tall for their age.

"Mackenzie!" I hear my voice being shouted over the noisy crowd.

If I ignore the voice, they'll leave me alone, right? They're probably calling another person with the same name as me. That does seem to happen a lot. Okay so if I duck a bit more and move to the-

My thoughts are caught off by me being thrown into an empty corridor. I flick my head around to see Sam with his normal annoyed expression.

"Are you deaf? Didn't you hear me calling your name," he grunts as he walks towards me. I look him straight in the eyes. "I heard you; I just decided to ignore you. Now I need to go because the school alarm is going off if you can't hear the high pitch ringing noise."

My attempt at leaving is stopped by Sams grip on my wrist "Oww, you seriously need to loosen your grip."

He sighs in exhaustion "Charlie sent me to make sure you made it out of the building in one piece. Now let's go I know a shortcut," he gestures to the opposite direction everyone is going.

I straighten my saturated skirt with what dignity I have left, "A shortcut to death maybe. I can take care of myself thank you very much."

I turn to exit but somehow a table appears out of nowhere. Sadly my ninja skills are not intact at this point in time and I trip (not so gracefully) over the table leg.

This results with me going face first in the carpet while smacking my ankle on the metal leg of the table. Could this day get any worse? No don't answer that.
I look up to see Sam laughing in hysterics. "Shut it Sam. Help me up, I think I twisted my-"

He cuts me off "I remember you clearly saying something about you being able to take care of yourself. So um have fun," he winks while adjusting his bag over his shoulder. 

"Sam, can you," I can't believe I'm saying this "please help me," I struggle to get the words out of my mouth.

He stares pitifully down at be and in a swift motion I'm pulled up to my feet. Looking me quickly over he smirks "I'm more of a 'Flash' guy myself".  

Standing in confusion I watch Sam runoff in the opposite direction. It takes me a second to register to look down and see my annoyingly thin white school shirt is drenched leaving it almost transparent so you could see my superwoman bra.

I squeal and quickly throw on a jumper while reaching for my vibrating phone.

"Where are you?" Zoe yells across the line.

I deeply sigh and make my way towards the exit. This is going to be fun to explain.

Luckily my cupcakes are still in one piece.

Cupcake Theory #2
I will probably not turn out to be the next stunt double for Jackie Chan but if you do need a place to accidentally catch on fire, you can count on me.

:):):)

Just wanted to say thanks for reading
You are super amazing
I hope your day is as awesome as you

Lots of cupcakes
Theforgottonone