Class Clown

The final (cheesy & crappy) part

Maybe it was because he heard me calling the snowflakes pretty, or maybe it was because he knew my name meant snow, but for whatever reason, he started calling me "Snowflake". All the time. In the halls it was "Heyyy Snowflake." In the mornings it was "How you doing Snowflake?" In social studies it was mouthing "Snowflake!" to me across the room. It was torturous. But he could tell that I liked it ok. Sure, it made me sound like a pet, but it was also kind of a romantic name. Snowflake. I was his snowflake. Otherwise he wouldn't do it. He knew, somewhere in his heart, that there was room for me. It might have been because I have a special gif. I can read people for who they really are, and not just what they want you to see. You could say that I see right through them. For example, there were so many friends that I had broken up with because I knew that they were not good friends. In Ai, I saw nothing but his looks and humor, and I didn't ever take the time to look past those until it was too late, and by then I was already to deep into it. But in Piero, I saw something most people just didn't get. I saw someone who was misunderstood  too and thought that they only way people would like them was being class clown. Look how that turned out.

     He saved me. That one day at recess, I was on the big tree. At recess, the lunch ladies let us play in the woods, as long as they could see us. There was a big tire swing that everyone swung on. It was held up by bright yellow nylon anchor rope. Everyone would take turns swinging really high into the air. It had been there for years. One day, I was swinging and singing alone. The air was so nice this time of year, and there was a leafy breeze blowing through the trees as the last days of fall slipped away. The trees had really great acoustics, too. I took a big swing, about normal size. Suddenly, when I was 15 feet in the air, the rotting rope snapped. I played travel basketball, so I had great reflexes. I stuck my arm out and heard a snap as I hit the ground. Everything went black.

     I woke up a few minutes later.  My arm was caked in dried blood, and it hurt so bad. There were no words to describe the pain. Worse than spraining my finger, cutting open my face, and losing Ai all in one. It was like my arm was dying. I just can't describe it. It was like emotional and physical pain all in one terrorizing place. There was no way I'd be able to get up. I tried to call for help. I could barely whisper. I heard footsteps coming closer, crunching leaves. I looked up, barely able to lift my head. It was Piero. He saw me laying on the ground in a heap. I was kind of embarrassed that he saw me laying on the ground in a crumpled heap.  "Yuki, what happened?" He cried. "Swing... Broke...  Arm..." I whispered, each letter bringing on more and more pain. My face began to turn red. "I'm calling 911, ok? I'll also go get the lunch ladies-" "No! Please... Please stay. I'm afraid and... and it hurts. I need someone here with me. I can't be alone again." I told him, yell whispering. I was too scared. He stayed. He looked down at my arm. "Oh, Yuki," he whispered, his face and voice softening as he saw the dried blood, "Th- that must hurt. A lot... Y'know, I... I understand, in a way. I feel your pain, but I don't. It's a long story, but somehow I can just... feel it in the air. Don't worry. I'll stay with you." He looked down at me just then. It was like he understood all of my pain somehow. His eyes had a kind of warm, loving look deep inside of them. We heard sirens in the distance. He and I looked up. The ambulance had arrived. My best friend Mitsuki was directing it towards us. Typical Mitsuki, making everything into something big and putting herself in charge. I almost laughed out loud, but it hurt, so I just laughed inside. The EMTs rushed out. Piero and Mitsuki begged and begged until the EMTs let them ride in the ambulance with me. I guess they understood that they needed to be with me, and that I needed them. Piero held my hand a couple times when he thought I was unconscious, and that kept me going. I lived by one motto back then. "Physical pain is just weakness leaving the body, and emotional pain should not be felt." That whole idea changed that day.  ,,

    School seemed different on Tuesday when I went  back. My arm was in a cast, and I had broke it at such a weird angle that meant that it would take a loooong time to heal. There went my basketball season. I was the power forward, a starter, but now I had to kiss all of that goodbye. Everything that I had worked years for, disappearing right in front of me. The worst part was that there was absolutely nothing I could do about it. But somehow Piero removed that pain, or at least made it more bearable. Every time I saw him, I saw this empathetic look in his eyes. That look was for me. By this time, it was early January, and it snowed almost every day. As Piero started to call me Snowflake again, I began to notice that he somehow used that a little it differently. I don't know how to describe it, just in a more... emotional way. Life went on as normal for a while. That is, until the hole incident.
   
It was an early spring day, and the snow had just barely melted into the wet earth. School these days was boring. Ai was still single, and so was Piero. I expected that, from both of them. I had been waiting, watching, hoping for almost six months that Piero would like me, see me for who I really am. I had a backup plan, and I figured that by this point, it was now or never. Here was my plan: Mitsuki would go ahead and start spreading rumors. She was the queen of rumors. She could spread something over the school in a matter of minutes. She then?" I would spread that Piero liked me.
PIERO LIKED ME RUMOR
Hannah decided to go for it. She had her people to spread to, and her things to say. She got set and went. She began telling everyone that Kanō liked me. By lunch everyone knew...... "Who do you like then?" I asked him "I- it's- I just can't- no one can know. She'll never like me back anyways." He looked down at his feet. I felt like that answer needed me to go back to square one. Observations and notes. DONT JUDGE ME ITS10:30 PM ON A MONDAY AMD IM LOOPY AND I JUST WATCHED AN HOUR OF YOUUTBE LOL

I never did get to do more of those. That was all we had. So far. The plan seemed to work okay, and by lunch, everyone knew, or thought they knew, that Piero liked me. Piero was nowhere to be found. I thought maybe he went to extra help with the math teacher or something. Good word got around faster than boring rumors, so by recess, just 20 minutes later, the word was out that Piero had ran out of the back door of the school into the woods. The witness said he had a shovel. My mind began spinning and working to come up with what could have happened. Suddenly I got a sick feeling in my stomach. As soon as I felt it, I knew that it was true. He had tried to die in a hole. "Watch for me," I called over my shoulder to Mitsuki. She probably tried to call after me, but I didn't hear her. I was too fixed on the task ahead. I ran into the woods. I had to undo this before it was too late.

    "Piero!" I called, "Piero! Please don't go! Piero, please!" I was almost crying at this point, frantically dashing through the woods. Just then, I heard a muffled yell. "No one wants me here. Now go away. You're just like everyone else." "Piero," I called, my voice softening, "I want you here." I began running in the direction of the yell. Finally, I saw it. A hole. A big, deep hole. "Oh. No." I thought to myself. After all those times of being told to go die in a hole, he finally decided to try. But he wouldn't succeed. Not on my watch. I immediately looked down. He was laying there, on the soft, cold dirt. He looked up at me, and I caught his glance. His eyes were... there was no word to describe how sad and pitiful the look in his eyes was. I looked deep into the saddest eyes I had ever seen, and then I saw it. The tiniest bit of hope, flickering, like the last light in the day. As soon as I saw it, I knew the cause of that hope. The hope was there because of me. I had done something, something to change someone. I had saved someone. That was the best feeling imaginable, knowing I had done my part to help. "Now get out of that hole," I told him a slightly playful tone. "Need some help?" I asked. "Kinda," He replied, also in a joking manner. He looked up at me, and smiled. I looked down. Hope filled his eyes once again. He knew. He knew that I wasn't like everyone else, that I wouldn't let him down, that he could trust me. I leaned down into the hole and stuck my hand out. He grabbed it, and I pulled him out. As we walked out of the woods, he never let go of my hand, and I never let go of his.

    We arrived at the opening of the woods. Everyone looked up at us. In a matter of seconds, the entire recess was quiet. That had never happened before, ever. I was so surprised that I let go of Piero's hand. He looked up at me, sadness filling his big eyes. I couldn't bear that. So I grabbed his hand again. A few people had their mouth's open at us. For once in my life, I was at a loss for words. I could not speak, nor did I have anything to say. What could I say? "I found him!" No. "Here he is!" No. There was nothing, but I had to say something, So I said, "Uhh... hey guys?...... I...uhh... saved him. He tried to...... die in a hole?" I was probably the most nervous I had ever been. But there was still no talking. Finally, I looked up at Piero and
ENDING 1:
Raised the hand that was holding his. Everyone began cheering triumphantly. I looked from the crowd to Piero to the crowd again. We began walking towards them, letting go of each other's hands in the process. We each walked over to our closest friends. "You're a hero!" Mitsui practically squealed, "And you saved your crush, too. I think he likes you. He was holding your hand. Ohhhh, you guys are so great together!" I was only half-listening at this point. I was too busy looking over at Piero with the same curiosity that I harbored on the first day. I looked over, my head slightly cocked to one side, and at that moment, it came to me. I knew why I had seen him as something amazing that first day. It because somehow, I saw inside of him without even knowing, before I even looked. What I saw was an imperfect, adorable, misunderstood, amazing human being. Knowing that made me feel a lot better about Piero. Knowing that somehow gave me the courage to walk across the playground slowly towards Piero. He saw me coming, and met me in the middle. "Hey." He said to me, smiling. "Hey." I said back, smiling also. "Thanks for saving me. I almost made the worst decision of my life." "Why so?" I asked him. "Because I couldn't be with you anymore." Then, seemingly all at once, his face moved closer. And closer. Before I knew it, we were only a few inches apart. "Hi," He said to me again, jokingly. Then our lips closed the gap. We broke away after what seemed like eternity. I smiled. Everyone was looking at us, looks of shock on their faces. We didn't care. The lunch ladies, seemingly absent from all of this, blew the whistle. Recess was over. I looked back at Piero. I was sure I'd remember this day forever. :p