Why would Harrison want to know about my sleeping habits?
I wonder if he had considered the uselessness and weirdness of his questions.
I could expect that from Darryl, because Darryl tells me multiple times that the amount of sleep you get is crucial to how awake and focused your brain is and all that useless information.
But useless information from Harrison? What happened to all the basketball scores and fights over whether Michael Jordan was better than LeBron James?
What happened to that?
I walked upstairs to Jane’s room.
But just as I was placing my hand on the doorknob, I heard some giggling coming from inside.
“I’m so happy I made it to the swimming finals!” It wasn’t the voice of Rachel. It wasn’t squeaky enough. So who was it?
“I know right!” Came Jane’s voice, “It’s going to be so awesome Miranda!”
I bit back a gasp of shock.
Miranda Boxer was a snobby fourteen-year-old, who had repeated. I hated her so much because of what she did to Jane and me.
Before she repeated she had bullied me consistently.
After she repeated she took to 22ing Jane, claiming that this was her revenge at me for making her repeat.
She had serious anger issues.
But, all of a sudden, she was currently sitting on my sister’s bed talking about swimming finals.
Not even a mention at her boxing trophies or recent matches! No talk of fighting at all.
I was amazed!
“Hold on Miranda!” I heard Jane say. “Let me get us some drinks!”
I processed her words a few seconds too late. She opened the door as soon as I turned around.
“What are you doing Jake?”
“Um…” I said, my mind blank. “I was coming up to check if you were in here.”
“Well,” She said. “I’m here. You can run along now. Shoo!”
“Wait.” I said as she closed the door. “Who’s in there with you?”
“Miranda Boxer.” She admitted, sighing. “Why?”
“No reason.” I said. “Oh and Jane.” I added. “Don’t forget to get your guest a drink. You don’t want to be rude!”
“Urgh!” She growled, her face bunched up into a fierce scowl.
I giggled, unable to contain my laughter, her face was hilarious! And because I caused her face to be so bunched up, it was even better!
“I’ll kill you!” She said loudly, forgetting all about Boxer girl.
“Jane?” Boxer girl’s voice came from inside the room. “What’s happening?”
Before Jane could reply, Miranda came marching out the room.
“Oh.” She said, shocked. “Hi Jake! How’s it going?”
“Boxer girl.” I nodded at her, hoping to retain my cool, unbothered look.
“Hahaha!” She fake laughed. “Ha! You are so funny Jake!” She said smiling at me, and flipping her auburn hair at me. “‘Boxer girl’! I would’ve never thought of anything as hilarious as that!”
“Yeah…” I spoke with a great deal of uncertainty in my voice. A nice Miranda seemed impossible. “I’m hilarious!”
“Oh yes you are, Patterson!” She spoke with a lack of sarcasm.
I was now amazed more than ever!
“Well…” I said, once again shocked speechless. “I’ll be in my room.”
“Whatever.” Muttered my sister.
“See you later, cutie!” Miranda said, spooking me out.
“Uhh..Bye?” I said, confused and conflicted.
All of a sudden Miranda was looking a lot prettier than back in her bullying days.
She was simply dressed in a white blouse with blue jeans and sandals. Her hair was let loose and hung limply around her shoulders it was slightly curled at the bottom, light brown and golden highlights streaked her hair. Her hazel eyes shone with bright intelligence. She was almost as pretty as Carly.
Almost.
I felt her eyes burning into my back. A rise of heat rushed to my face. I shook my head, feeling strange.
The kind of strange I felt whenever Carly was near.
I shuddered. Imagine having feelings for a bully!
Now I realized why Darryl had shuddered on the day of the science fair.
It was weird that both our enemies suddenly became appealing to us.
Really weird.
I shook my head on my way down from Jane’s room. I stopped by the kitchen for a snack.
I opened the fridge to look for a chocolate bar, but there was only some stale cookies. I took it anyway.
I was starving, despite having eaten a huge breakfast only an hour ago.
Along with the cookie I also took a glass of milk.
I settled down into a comfortable position on my sofa, and opened my language arts textbook.
Idioms are a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words.
In a few short minutes I knew everything there was to know about idioms. I knew what they were used for, I knew how they were used and I had a list of idioms as examples. I was well prepared for the quiz on Monday.
After I had Language Arts in the bag, I quickly moved onto Science.
Two hours later I had studied LA, Science and Math.
I took a break and went upstairs to the living room.
Jane and Miranda were sitting on a sofa still talking about swimming.
Then all of a sudden, Miranda’s eyes glazed over and the smile faded from her face. It was replaced by a scowl.
“What am I doing here with you losers?” She asked rudely, her faced fixed with a sneer of disgust.
“Uh…” Was all Jane could say.
“I’m out of here!” Miranda said, and waltzed out of the room.
Jane and I basked in the silence of her sudden leave.
“Well that was weird.” I said.
“Ya think?” She responded, still looking a little startled by Miranda’s sudden leave.
“I wonder what happened.”
“I don’t know!” She exclaimed. “One moment we were talking about swimming, and then some kinda, I dunno, something came over her and she was back to bullying.” Jane chewed on her lip, as she does when confused.
“Well,” I told her. “You should probably keep your distance for a while, but keep on the lookout for any sudden changes in her personality.”
Jane nodded.
I turned around and was walking away when Jane called my name.
“Hey Jake!”
“Yeah?”
“Umm…” She said twisting her body in embarrassment. “You don’t think this had anything to do with,” She looked around and whispered. “powers?”