~ Two ~
A Secret Agreement
Chloe quickly turned the dial to the right—24, then twice around to the left—14, and finally back to the right—38. “Come on”, she thought, “I’m running out of time.” She glanced down at her watch and saw there were only two minutes remaining until the tardy bell rang. Frustrated, Chloe grumbled to herself, “Why do I have a locker which is so hard to open?” She pressed the handle up and pulled hard this time. “There! Finally!”
Chloe grabbed her Spanish book and English literature text, slammed the locker shut, and began making her way through the overly crowded hallways of Lincoln High School. As she sidestepped between the clusters of students, ducked here and there, and elbowed a stranger once or twice, Chloe managed to slide into her desk just ten seconds before the bell rang. Her Spanish teacher, Señor Escobar, stood at the front of the room, tapping his pencil, waiting to catch any tardy victims. Chloe quickly readied herself for the intense lesson, which was about to take place, but she scanned the other side of the classroom for her best friend, Amanda. Although it was quite irritating that Señor Escobar made the students sit alphabetically, thus separating the two best friends, Chloe knew if she sat next to Amanda, they would be tempted to talk incessantly.
As the irritating high-pitched bell rang for seemingly endless seconds, Chloe’s eyes caught Amanda’s and they smiled. Although Chloe secretly wished they had more classes together, it was good to have at least two which were the same—Spanish and yearbook. As Señor Escobar began scribbling the lesson on the whiteboard, Chloe thought about how incredibly fast the first few weeks of school had gone by. It had seemed as though it was only yesterday when she was sitting by her lagoon and anticipating high school. Returning home from the beach, registering for classes, trying out for the tennis team, shopping for bargains on school clothes, and mentally gearing up for the big transition into high school had quickly eaten up the rest of her summer vacation. A