Once upon a time, there was a boy. His name was Daniel, but in this we shall call him Dan-Dan. You’ll see why. He was in 7th grade, in the Manga club. He had some friends in the Manga club, but sadly they were all girls. He was…there. Yeah.
Once upon a time, there was also a girl. Her name was Hayley. She was extremely spontaneous, loved Manga, was in 7th grade in the very same Manga club, and collected nickels.
Dan-Dan and Hayley were friends, sort of.
Hayley called him “Dan-Dan,” which he hated, and often flirted and teased him jokingly, not really meaning it. Dan-Dan rolled his eyes at Hayley and said she was the most irritating person he had ever had the misfortune to meet, and that he hated her. He meant what he said, just as much as she didn’t mean it.
Or did they?
No! Of course they didn’t mean it. Hayley really was flirting with him and teasing him, except she did it as a joke because her friends were always around when she did so. Dan-Dan was completely in love with her, but firstly he didn’t want to be embarrassed in front of all the other girls, and secondly he was in denial about the whole matter.
Sigh. What a mess, is it not?
One day, they met at 5th period lunch, in the resource center, as usual, with Anne, Darcy, Lauren, and Elaine of course. They were all in the Manga club too, except Lauren, who was an honorary member and was just kind of there to add some fun to the group.
“Hi, Dan-Dan!” Hayley said, half-yelling. Anne nudged her.
“Hayley! Aren’t libraries supposed to be quiet?”
Hayley shrugged, and grinned.
“Hi, Hayley,” Dan-Dan said, the essence of boredom itself.
“Hey! Is that a NICKEL? GIMME, GIMME, GIMME!” Hayley said, quieter than last time because she was, after all, in a library.
“Um, let’s see here. Yes, it is a nickel, and you can’t have it.”
“What?” Hayley pouted, much like a 4-year-old, as the rest of the group struggled with their laughter. Then she turned angry. “I WANT MY NICKEL!”
She jumped over to him, and tried to wrench the nickel out of his hand. He fought her, not opening his grip, while all the other girls laughed as quietly as they could. In the end, she got the nickel.
She held up her prize happily. “Mine!” said Hayley.
Dan-Dan crept over, and grabbed her hand, bringing it down and trying to grab his nickel back with his own hand.
“Aww, look!” Anne said, grinning at the spectacle, and Darcy rolled her eyes. “Dan-Dan’s holding her hand!”
Dan-Dan turned and glared at the giggling girls, thinking, girls giggle too much. Nevertheless, he turned a bit red and dropped her hand. Hayley looked sad.
“Dan-Dan! Don’t you want to hold my hand?” She grinned, thinking I do! And I also want to embarrass him. Mwahahah. That Hayley would have such a thought proves that anybody is capable of having evil minds.
He blushed a full scarlet, grinning sarcastically and holding her hand. “Why, sure, my lady Hayley,” he said, “I would do anything for you.”
“How about jump off a cliff?”
“Scratch that anything,” he muttered, releasing her hand. “I can’t win here. Why do I even bother coming to this lunch period?” he exclaimed, as his scarlet face turned even redder
“So you can see Hayley, why else?” Lauren replied with a smirk. For an 8th grader, she had a lot of 7th grade evil spirit in her. Worse, she was probably right. Dan-Dan shoved that thought away.
“I repeat it– I can’t win here,” he muttered.
Just then the librarians told the group that the period had ended. They all groaned, picked up their things, and walked out the big library door. Hayley glanced over at Dan-Dan and met his eyes. Unseen by anybody else, they both stared at each other a moment as they walked, turning ever so slightly pink, before snapping their heads away. Dan-Dan hung back, feeling idiotic, as Hayley went to go irritate Darcy by poking her.
“Yeep!” yelped Darcy.
“When are you going to do it, Dan-Dan?” Anne asked the next day at lunch. Hayley had to finish a test and couldn’t be there, but Dan-Dan would come along anyway. It wasn’t like he was in the manga club simply because of her.
Dan-Dan looked at her, irritated with the use of that name. “Do what?”
“Ask Hayley out,” was the wicked reply.
“Yeah!” Lauren said, grinning.
“C’mon already!” Was Darcy’s contribution.
“Mmm-hmm,” Elaine said, nodding her head.
Dan-Dan looked up to the ceiling. “I’m not going to ask Hayley out! I don’t exactly like her, you know.”
Darcy nodded in complete understanding. “That’s right, you don’t like her at all. You love her!”
“Why are girls so obsessed with finding loopholes that don’t exist?” Dan-Dan asked the sky, refusing to respond directly.
“Oh! Look here! I just realized-” Anne said, pointing to one of the characters in the Manga she was holding. Everybody but Lauren crowded around the book to see what she pointed to. Lauren was, as usual, reading her book “Street Magic” in one of the beanbag chairs.
Looking up from her book, Lauren glanced at Dan-Dan, who also looked at what Anne had pointed out, but was clearly thinking of something else. Lauren looked back to her book, thinking.
The next day, Hayley was back. When Dan-Dan entered the library, the girls all turned to see. Hayley grinned happily. Lauren, Darcy, Elaine and Anne grinned evilly.
Sigh.
Dan-Dan entered quietly, and sat.
“Lauren! I forgot, I have to show you this NOW!” Darcy suddenly burst out, and started dragging Lauren to the fantasy section. Halfway there she looked at Anne, hoping she’d get the message she was sending her.
She did.
“Elaine! Can I show you something I found yesterday?” She said, and dragged Elaine over to the Manga section.
Dan-Dan and Hayley were left alone at the table in the corner of the library.
Hayley grinned. “Hello, Dan-Dan!”
Dan-Dan grinned, suddenly a perfect mimicry of Hayley. “Hello, Hay-Hay!”
Hayley blushed.
Dan-Dan smiled evilly.
Revenge was sweet.
They sat there a moment, each looking away and thinking, yet glancing at each other out of the corners of their eyes, silently inspecting the others.
Darcy returned, haughty and angered, and Lauren followed with a patiently irritated face.
“Lauren, I’m disappointed in you. I refuse to believe that you hated that book. I’m ashamed,” Darcy said, pushing her glasses up on her face.
“I’m ashamed of you! It’s not fantasy, it’s wannabe fantasy that shallow girls think is fantasy but it’s just a little magic thrown into a stupid little romance-girly-shallow-idiot book.”
“Okay, so maybe you have a point there. But I’m still ashamed.” Darcy was very stubborn.
Hayley rolled her eyes, thinking, saved by a few wannabe fantasy books. She was a little dense in the fact that she had not realized what they had done.
Dan-Dan thought the same thing, although he was always that dense, and it wasn’t unusual.
The next day, before they even got to the library, they were eating in the lunchroom. Hayley appeared, forcefully dragging Dan-Dan over.
“Dan-Dan’s sitting at our lunch table today,” she proclaimed, and dragged him to a seat next to her. Elaine bounced, Darcy showed Hayley an impassive face, Anne smiled contrarily, and Lauren raised an eyebrow.
It was Darcy who said it. “Hayley, did you ask him if he wanted to come? Maybe he didn’t want to.”
“Of course I did!”
Unheard, Dan-Dan muttered under his breath, “Why must they talk about me while I’m right here?”
“You mean,” Anne said, still smiling as she picked up on Darcy’s hint, “You invited him?”
“Of course!” Hayley said with a pout. Dan-Dan rolled his eyes.
The next day, Hayley didn’t even speak to Dan-Dan once, except to say “Hi!” nobody knew why, not in the least, except Hayley herself. It was odd. Then Friday’s lunch ended, and they said their “see you on Monday”s, and left.
On Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, Dan-Dan was out sick. Those three days, Hayley was still bouncy, but whenever she thought nobody was looking her face put on a thoughtful, concealing look. On Wednesday, Anne was the first to notice it, and then they all noticed it.
“You know what?” Anne muttered, when Hayley was looking at the Manga shelf all alone. “I think she actually likes him.”
Darcy was amused.
“Darcy is smiling. Why is Darcy smiling?” Elaine asked curiously, and Darcy’s grin spread even wider.
“It took Anne that long to notice, that’s why,” Darcy whispered, and they all looked dumbstruck.
“You really think-“ Anne started.
“I don’t think-” Darcy interrupted.
“We know you don’t,” Lauren said dryly. Darcy glared at her and continued.
“I don’t think she does, I know. And I know he likes her back. It’s obvious, if you look right. I expected better of all of you.”
“I had my suspicions!” Lauren argued.
“So, what are you saying? Are you proposing we do something?” Anne interrupted.
“Of course,” Darcy said.
“Ooooooh,” Elaine said, nodding.
“Oh, joy! This should be good. A set-up?” Lauren asked.
“Sounds fun. Let’s plan,” Anne replied quickly.
And so their not-exactly-evil plot began to form.
It was Thursday, and the plot of the four girls was ready to come into effect, for Dan-Dan had returned, and Hayley was happy.
“Ready to go up to the library?” Hayley asked.
Lauren grimaced. “Actually, I have to make up a test for Mr. Cooper. I missed it due to an unfortunately timed dentist appointment.”
Anne half-smiled. “I have to redo a test for Ms. Cioffi. And Darcy, you will keep me company, right?”
“You’re not giving me a choice,” Darcy muttered.
Elaine shrugged. “I have to do that English test…”
Hayley smiled mysteriously. “All of you on the same day? Oh, yay! I’ll have the library to myself! No loud voices in the room today! Ms. Halpern-Cordell will be very happy.”
“Oh, but you forgot Daniel!” Darcy pointed out.
Hayley grinned. “Dan-Dan? Even better.”
All of the other girls though, we know.
As Anne, Lauren, Darcy and Elaine made their way up to the computer lab secretly, Hayley found Dan-Dan in the resource center, all alone.
“Hello!” she said brightly, practically glowing in her pleasure.
Dan-Dan frowned. “Hi. Where are the rest of the crazy people who always tag along with you?”
“Taking tests, apparently.”
“Ahh,” he said, bored. He started to read a book.
This is a chance, he realized. There’ll never be a better time.
Hayley thought the same thing.
“Dan-“ “Hayley?” “-Dan?” They blushed.
“You first,” Hayley said, curious.
“Urm…”
“Yes?”
He scowled at her, then looked back to the image of a guy punching a wall in his book. “I would have asked you something, but now I think I won’t.”
“Oh, come on!” Hayley said, very curious now.
Get it over with, his sub-conscious told him. He obeyed.
He muttered, half-hoping she wouldn’t hear him, “Want to meet at the Panera on green-bay road later?”
“What?” Hayley replied. It wasn’t that what-did-you-say kind of what, it was the what-do-you-mean-by-that kind of what.
He just shook his head. “Never mind.”
“Oh, really?” she said. She grinned with an evil half-smile. “Actually…”
She paused, and Dan-Dan prepared himself for the inevitable refusal.
“I’d like to.”
He stared at her, and she quickly found an excuse. “I love Panera, but I never get to go. How about at four-thirty?”
Dan-Dan looked up and stared at her grin. “Okay.”
Hidden only two shelves away from the beanbag chairs where the two sat, the group of four stifled their laughter as best they could. It worked!
They met at Panera as planned, and so on.
It was Friday, and the whole group went up to the resource center again. They noticed Hayley grin and turn pink when she saw Dan-Dan, and they noticed that Dan-Dan looked at her, turned pink, and looked at his book, trying to put on a convincing frown.
Success.
You can guess for yourself what happened that day at Panera Bread. But let’s just say, they all lived happily ever after.
Of course, the story continues still, in real life. All you have to do is make the story.
Lauren, the writer
P.S. Did I hear demands for a sequel? It’s coming.
theknewblack Community Member 
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