Miss Taken by Sue Seabury

“Her name is
Sophie.”
    “Close enough,” I replied lightly.
    He dropped my hand. He did not look
amused.
    I returned the glare. Why does he care so
much about what the skinny little nun’s real name is?
    He opened his mouth to say something but the
bell interrupted him. It was imperative that neither of us got
detention on such an important day as this.
    “I have to get to class. You too,” I said
pointedly. I really wanted to give him a squeeze on one cheek or a
kiss on the other, but Sofagirl was still there. I had to settle
for a sassy wink.
    Ned nodded, but something told me he was not
in the best of moods.
    I hightailed it out of there so I wouldn’t
get stuck walking to bio with Sofagirl.
    There was a cute little fuzzy animal of
indeterminate species holding a big heart waiting on my desk in
biology. I did kind of wonder why Ned hadn’t given it directly to
me since I had just seen him, but I was impressed by his effort and
the appropriateness of leaving it in my bio class.
    Feeling full of goodwill toward others, I
broke out the second-rate chocolates and handed them out to
everyone, even the kids I don’t like at all. Sofagirl snuck up
behind me as I was distributing them. I generously held out the
foil. She sniffed and hesitated. Some people have no manners.
    Finally she selected the tiniest one and then
proceeded to take a nibble so small it was hard to even see an
indent on the thing. She winced but quickly composed her face.
“Thank you,” she said with a heavy accent. It sounded French. She
took another miniscule bite. “They are not bad, but the whiskey is
a bit strong. I prefer Kirsch, cherry liqueur, you know?”
    She pronounced it, “cheery” and the retort
was on my tongue that I thought all alcohol made people feel
cheery. I figured it out at the last second and merely smiled.
Discreetly waiting until she had moved away, I pointed out the
similarities between Sofagirl and a stick insect to Kyle. He would
have shown better judgement if his laughter had been as soft as my
whisper. She turned back to see what was so funny.
    Unlike some picky people, Kyle seemed to
really like the whiskey truffles. I was politely appreciative
without being overly friendly. Diana thought they were really good
too, although in my opinion she would have been better off stopping
after three.
    I glowed through the day, counting down the
minutes left until 2:35 when we would be free to set off on our
magical date adventure. It didn’t even phase me when Kyle showed up
at my locker at the end of the day. He thanked me again for the
truffles. I accepted his compliments distractedly and offered him
the last few left of the seconds, while carefully shielding the
good ones from view.
    Kyle stood there humming about the chocolate,
but my mind was humming away on a country road in Ned’s car. Then
he asked how I liked the koala bear. I looked at him for the first
time since he got there. His freckles really aren’t that
noticeable, except the ones across his nose. Freckles on the bridge
of the nose is an attractive look on a lot of people.
    “You gave me that?”
    Kyle nodded. A little smile was playing
around the corners of his mouth as he cracked his invisible gum. He
was very proud of having tricked me.
    “Did you by chance also leave me the
lollipop?”
    The smile got bigger.
    “And the card?”
    He lowered his sunglasses so he could wink at
me. Then he flicked them back into place, checked his shirt collar
to make sure it was still in the upright position and leaned
against the window sill, just waiting for the huzzahs of
appreciation to start up.
    If I could have found the word to describe my
feelings at that moment, I was have said I was nonplussed.
    But since I was so completely nonplussed, my
brain wasn’t working and so I just stood there, speechless and
unable even to continue packing the books into my bag. Kyle clicked
his invisigum a few times and then came toward me again. He said,
“So, happy