To Taste the Fruit by Lorelei Sutton (desktop ebook reader TXT) 📖

done both. I have never understood the crazy lady.

I glance away from Derek to the board, where Mrs. Chapman had gradually made her way towards the front. It looks like she is going to try and teach a new lesson today... that means it is dozing time. Without looking like I am dozing, of course. I have mastered the art of falling asleep with my eyes at least partially open.

I feel a strange thump against my forehead and turn quickly to see a small, scrunched up paper ball that is falling on the floor. Cautiously I bend down to pick up the paper, while looking to try and make eye contact with the person that threw it. Jake, lounging in the back, shoots me a wink through his brown mane of endlessly flippable and impossibly glossy hair. Inwardly I shudder, but return the smile anyways.

Many people would consider Jake to be very handsome, but I just don't see it. He seems at times to be the best support for evolutionists, being the missing link between an orangutan and a real human being. His mouth is pretty, I will admit, but it's only there for decoration. His hair as well, which hides that pea-shaped brain ever-so-nicely.

Turning to the front, I spread out the paper and try to decipher the handwriting. It is a struggle, I will say, because each letter looks almost exactly the same. Eventually, I make out the words "No homework please let me copy". Ha. 

Today is going to be a very long day.

 

***

 

It is a long, arduous journey—or at least it seems like it—through four periods of agonizing lectures, but somehow I get out of there alive. While waiting for Ana at the doorway, I survey the large doors upon which the word LUNCHROOM is printed. It seems like the gateway to heaven. 

My stomach growls like a lion as Noel reaches me. "How was your morning?" She asks, smiling from ear to ear.

"Nothing much to talk about. I only got four homework requests today, and I have to help this girl clean up the Art classroom after school because her friend is sick. Oh, and I heard they were having difficulties with the vote counting."

"Yeah, I heard that too..." Ana sighs, "I'm sure you are dying of impatience." We walk to the lunch line to grab napkins.

"Well, yes. I will admit that. But hopefully everything will be resolved before advisory period." Taking a seat in a small table instead of by our normal group of friends, I let myself vent about stupid Jake's reaction when I told him I wouldn't let him copy the homework, Mr. Bunns's horrifying confession, and Rachel's pitiful plea for answers on the test. She listens patiently, and my anger subsides within a few minutes.

"It is because everyone knows you always have the right answers and the homework, and that you are nice enough to consider giving it to them," Ana says patiently. "You should be a little more firm. Tell them some of the stuff you just told me."

"Maybe one day. But not today." I take a bite of my apple, the sickly sweetness temporarily distracting me. "I have an election at stake. Although that witch over there probably won." I glare over at the long table stretching across the middle of the lunchroom, where the popular people sit.

"She isn't a witch, and you know it." Ana laughs, and I tentatively smile back.

"Yeah..." I stab my food ferociously. "It's just that she doesn't even fit the position. Even though she is pretty much perfect in every other way." The candidate in question raises her head to look straight at me, and smiles prettily. She also has the nerve to give a regal wave.

Wendy Fallon and I are like frenemies. We act like we love each other in person, but in reality I know she dislikes me just as much as I do her. She isn't like the queen bee of our school or anything, but she is a pretty well known crony, so to speak, a b-list celebrity that caters to the true royalty. And even though she is one of the servants in the castle, she is uncharacteristically nice to everyone and has a pretty interesting habit on not treating the supposed low lifes of the school like dirt. The problem is, the blond haired, blue eyed, and model-like girl wants the same thing I want.

Just to clarify, I am not popular, but I do enough to not let my name fall into obscurity at this school. There isn't any juicy gossip about me on any given day of the week, but people conveniently remember that I'm always the one to act if they need something. And people always need something.

"You're perfect too, Noel, which makes this whole thing pretty awesome. The battle of the Perfects!" Ana says in her best announcer voice. "It's kind of like the Hunger Games of SGA."

"Oh please," I shake my head, "I'm not perfect. This goes back to the superwoman thing."

"But you are!" She whines, making me blush. "And you have this long, beautiful red hair to boot. I would die for this hair." She picks up a strand of my straight hair and stares at it with a strange wistfulness. And this is the same hair that I have been wanted to cut off for months.

"I keep meaning to take this unkempt, messy mop to the hair salon," I mutter, "it's too high maintenance." Yes, when combed and blow-dried and straightened it looks decent. But it is too much of a hassle and the red catches too many people's attention. I swear it is almost an Ariel shade of red. People always think that I dyed it.

"Don't you dare, Noel! I will kill you if you do." Ana responds, still playing with it absentmindedly. "If you do it, I'll have nothing to braid in advisory."

"Okay, Ana. Just so you can braid my hair, I'll keep it," I laugh, then shovel the last bit of my sandwich into my mouth. My heartbeat is slowly accelerating as the clock ticks towards advisory. The moment of truth is almost here. "By the way, what happened with you today?" I ask her genially.

"Oh nothing much. I broke up with Brandon." She stares into the crowd as she replies, probably hoping to get a glimpse of him. 

"Ana, you are going to have to stop that!" I rebuke her jokingly, "you have to let him have at least a full day before casting him off into the dirt." Brandon was a pretty handsome fellow–if a little brain dead—this time, I figured she would keep him for at least a few days. 

"I didn't like him. He asked for a chance and I gave it to him, but our date last night was just... eh," she yawned. "I didn't feel like stringing him along."

"You are insufferable. It's like every day that you are casting aside poor boys after agreeing to go out with them." I sigh in exasperation. "You know I only want the best for you. Someday all of these boys will get together and come for you to get revenge." 

"I'm just looking for the right one, you know?" She murmurs with hopelessness. The bell rings as she speaks her next words. "I have to give them all a chance, because maybe they could be the one." She looks really unsatisfied, and I touch her arm gently. We stand up as the masses of people start to move to their next period, and walk slowly together. 

Ana is a boy killer, which isn't surprising considering her careless personality and beauty that would probably rival Aphrodite's. And I don't say that in a jesting manner, either. The rest of the school would agree with me in a heartbeat. But believe it or not, she is one of those boy killers that actually has good intentions. I can't help but worry about her when she has become so easily unsatisfied with all her plethora of boyfriends over the past few years.

"I think maybe you haven't fully forgotten him," I whisper softly in her ear. She whips her head around to face me with an expression of alarm.

"I have," she asserts quickly. Too quickly. Her eyes blink once, twice, three times in rapid succession. 

"I don't mean to upset you. I'm guess what I am trying to say is that I don't want you, in your quest for the right one, to pick the wrong one by accident. The most exciting person is not necessarily the most wise choice. But I'm sure you already know that." 

"Yeah..." She shakes her head. "Sometimes, I feel like I could never forget him. And maybe it is that excitement, or lack of, that makes me so uninterested in these other guys. But I promise, I won't make that kind of decision again. You know, to date someone like him."

We reach the door of advisory, and my hands are shaking like they always do when I am nervous. "I'm sure you wouldn't, I just wanted you to be aware that maybe you are expecting more out of some of these guys than you think." Wendy passes us with a few of her friends to confidently glide into the room, but I am more than a little hesitant.

"Come on." Ana tugs on my arm, leading me into Mr. Fouse's classroom. The walls bare of posters and any sort of decoration, the room matches the rest of the school perfectly. "At least Sebastian will get to witness your glory moment," she whispers in my ear as we sit down in desks. "He's here today. Lucky you."

I glance up quickly and sure enough, she's right. Just as I look up, he makes awkward eye contact with me and I return my gaze to Ana, probably with a deer-in-the-headlights expression. She watches with a smile on her face. "You have it so bad..." She whispers tauntingly, "it's hilarious. I have never seen you, in all my years of knowing you, like this over a guy before."

"Shut up," I darkly mumble, red blossoming on my cheeks. I would never admit it, but part of the reason why I want to win the election so badly is because of him. And I'm not the type of girl that stalks her crush anywhere and everywhere. 

The thing about Sebastian is that he has never, ever asked me for help before. I don't know why that is such a major factor in me liking him, but it somehow is. I guess I have been so used to people asking me for things that I only noticed him in the first place based on that fact. It also helps that he's extremely tall, with broad shoulders and big, dark chocolate eyes. And that he's a genius... probably more so than I am. 

He's running for Student Council too, but unlike me, he has no contest. Everyone knows he is the best man for the job, and since junior year he has served as President. I don't think anyone has even attempted to run against him this year. 

It feels so shameful that I like him, and I tried to keep it a secret from Ana and the rest of the world. Unfortunately, Ana knows everything, and what she doesn't know she will soon force out of you.

"I will admit that your dream man is pretty hot," She whispers, mainly to make me flush even a brighter red. "It's just that he's a clone of you. Wouldn't that be kind of like liking yourself?"

"No!" I respond fiercely, "It's not like that!" At my frenzied words, many people turn their heads. I bow my head, waiting for the other conversations to go back to normal. 

"You really should talk to him more." She winks slyly. "In fact, you should go up and say hi right now."

"Ana, I will kill you." I glare at her as she keeps that evil grin on her face. I know what that grin means.

"Hey, Sebastian!" She calls, and I instinctively duck my