Pumpkins and Love stories

Chapter 1- Volunteer work

POV Allie

I was talking with Shay while Mr. Johnson was trying to calm the class down. 'Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban was definitely the best in the series' Shay said. I rolled my eyes 'Yeah right! Voldemort didn't even show up in that one! First one in the series was the best, I stand by my point.' And before I knew it I got Shay starting a full blown speech about Harry freaking Potter. 

Shay and I have known each other for our whole lives. Our moms actually met at this pregnancy yoga thing. I was born one week after Shay was, and so Shay has literrally been there from the day I was born till now, 17 years later. Shay has dark skin, plump lips and frizzy hair and she is not afraid of speaking her mind. I am. Gravely. So Shay does a lot of the talking for me, which I don't mind because it makes everything a lot easier. Plus it has been like this for as long as I can remember. Shay cares for me like a big sister, even tough most of the time she's the immature one, and I have to keep her in line.

'YO!!! Y'all want to know the volunteer work list or not?! Cause I can just skip it people. No problem!!' Mr. Johnson finally said. This shut most of the class up enough for him to continue. Mr. Johnson was our English teacher, and one of my favorite teachers in the school. 'Thank you. Okay so as you all know it's that time of the year again. Time for volunteer work. As always we have things like the library, cleaning the streets, helping the elderly and of course the pumpkin patch. We also have a few new ones but we'll get to those later.' 

The class started buzzing with excitement. Every year in autumn our school makes us do volunteer work for two months, and for those months you have to volunteer one afternoon and one whole day. So we get every Friday off to volunteer. This is all a lot of fun, but it isn't if  you have to pick up trash for two months straight. Every. Single. Year. It was fun however if you're Shay and you get the pumpkin patch. Every. Single. Year.

'Okay boys and girls may I kindly request you to shut up again so I can read out the list?' The class obliged and went silent. 

'River Aaron, library.' A big sigh came from River herself. I scoffed internally. I would've killed for that one while I was scraping off chewing gum from the pavement last year.                                                              'Hunter Baker, Dog shelter.'                                                                                                                                              'Allison Cooper,' I held my breath. 'Pumpkin patch.'                                                                              oh my god.  'YES!' I screamed a little bit too loud at Shay who high- fived me. People turned around to look at me and mr. Johnson raised an eyebrow, slightly amused. 'Sorry' I muttered, feeling myself turning red, and everyone turned to face Mr.Johnson again                                'Moving on to... James Dailey, also the pumpkin patch.                                                                                      Wait. Oh god. This time it was his turn to comment. 'Oh for f*cks sake!!!' The class laughed at this, and mr. Johnson raised an eyebrow again, this time looking less amused. 'Language Dailey. Please handle this emotional crisis in your own time.' And with that he continued the list. 

The thing with James Dailey and me is that we despise each other. He is immature, disrespectful, quick-tempered, self- centered and horribly impolite. The other thing with James Dailey is that I have had an enormous big fat ugly crush on him since elementary school. I still can't stand him, but he is unbelievably cute which makes it a lot harder to hate him. I looked over at the table where he was sitting with a few friends. He had a big frown on his face and his friends were laughing at him. He was being too dramatic about this whole thing, the pumpkin patch was one of the best volunteer work you could get. Why was he so irritated?                                  Then it hit me, and I felt a pang of hurt when it did. He didn't mind the pumpkin patch, he minded me. He didn't want to work with me. Well to be honest I didn't want to work with him either, but I wasn't being a baby about it was I? And by the way, I already knew I was going to talk Mr.Johnson and convince  him switch us or something so I wasn't really worried. 

Mr. Johnson continued the list. Shay got the library, just like River, which was the second best one in my opinion. After the lesson had ended Shay and I I lingered in the classroom and saw James walking up to Mr. Johnson and him shaking his head and saying no. I also shook my head. Amateur. After they were done James turned to me. 'Don't bother asking Allie, we're not allowed to switch. Shay looked him up and down before saying 'Oh young James, trust us. This'll work.' He didn't look very impressed. 

I walked passed him and said with a sweet, sweet voice; 'Heyyyy Mr. Johnsonnnnn'. Without looking at me he responded with a 'No Allison.' I tried again, but before I could finish he interjected and said 'Listen Allie, it's either the pumpkin patch with him, or no pumpkin patch. Your choice.' I sighed in defeat. 'I just wanted to say thanks for letting me have the pumpkin patch sir.' I said. 'Yeah right, now get out before I change my mind you suck-up' he said with a slight smile. I turned to James and Shay who were now standing in the doorway and said to James; 'We have to be there at 9:00 AM on Saturday. They're closed on Fridays so we'll have every Friday off.' James looked at me with a mocking look on his face. 'Yeah okay, I'll be late.' he said with a grin. I responded immediately by saying 'James. For once in your life don't be a jerk and show up. It's a two man job.' He laughed and started to walk away, but not before he turned around and said 'You know Allison there is one thing I always liked about you...' I looked at him, confused. 'You're cute when you're pissed off'. And with that he turned around and walked away. 

This was going to be a long two months.