"Can I have your attention boys and girls" came the voice over the intercom to all the classes. Students quieted down to hear. "It is time to announce the winner of the Booth Theme for the State Fair." There came the sound of a mock drum roll and the kids laughed. "The winner is Jamie Bennett for his Winter Wonderland in the Spring idea. Congratulations Jamie."
Jamie was grinning from ear to ear as his friends and classmates patted him on the back and shook his hand. (f/n) a, his best friend gave him a big hug. "Of course, you are going to let me and Katie do the popsicles and candy right?" she said.
"Of course!" The teacher finally got the class back in order and they talked about what they were going to sell and what things needed to be done. They divided up the decorating tasks between the grade levels and assigned the building of the snowman to the kindergarteners and four of the sixth graders to help.
Later, after school, (f/n) and Jamie were leaving the building when Jim, the bully came up with his followers. "Hey Bennett, congratulations on the win," he said with sarcasm.
"What do you want Jim, we both know you couldn't care a less whether or not I won the contest."
"You are right, I don't care but since you won over my kissing booth suggestion, I think you owe me," Jim said with a smirk.
"Owe you what?" Jamie said cautiously. Just then, Ravyn came up to the group.
"Hey yall, what's going on," she said and then squealed as Jim grabbed her and planted a kiss right on her mouth. "Yuck," she said wiping her mouth with her sleeve. "What was that for?"
"That was what I wanted," he declared. His friends were laughing hysterically at Ravyn's look of disgust and Jamie's look of barely controlled anger. Jamie looked as if he were going to blow up.
"I think we should leave," (f/n) said
"Yeah let's go Jamie before you end up doing something you will regret" Ravyn added as she grabbed Jamie's hand and pulled him away from Jim and his annoying friends.
Ravyn was still trying to compromise what had happened "Why do I feel as though I walked up at just the right or wrong time depending on what side of this battle you are on?" Ravyn asked
"Because you did, I mean you could not have timed it better if you knew what they were saying." (f/n) then told Ravyn what had happened before she arrived and Ravyn turned to Jamie.
"Is that why you were so mad, because he challenged your win?"
"No!" he sighed "No Ravey that is not why I am mad. It is that he did something to you that made you seem like a prize and I would never try to hurt you like that! He had no right to treat you like you were an object!" he said. Ravyn smiled lightly "well Jamie, you are a very brave boy and I think you do deserve a prize" she said as she gave Jamie a kiss on the cheek which made him blush madly. (f/n) laughed out loud. She couldn't help it his face was priceless! "okay, if you two are done can we keep on track?" she asked. The two nodded and (f/n) turned to Jamie and said, " so I was thinking, we could do character pops for a special event sale like for an hour or two right after lunch. We wouldn't have to make enough to last all day, just for that hour."
"(f/n)," he reminded her, "don't do so much that you get overwhelmed and can't finish." (f/n) smiled at him. He knew her well, of course, they had been friends for absolutely forever and had pretty much grown up together.
"You are right," she admitted. "It would be cool but, without some grownup help, I don't think I would be able to pull it off. Do you two have a special flavor that we should have?" (f/n) and Ravyn grinned to themselves as they knew what he was going to say. "Well, we could have pizza flavored pops."
"You are so predictable, Jamie." They all laughed and spent the next few minutes remembering some of the ways Jamie decided to bring pizza into their lives at every possible time.
"Ok, ok," he said after a bout of hysterical laughter when they talked about the time he tried to make pizza cookies; pepperoni! It was so gross that even he couldn't eat them. But to their amazement, his German Shepherd loved them and they discovered that they made an amazing doggie treat and were very successful in selling their entire stock.
"Despite the almost failure, we actually did pretty well on that one. But, pizza ornaments on the tree were just wrong in so many ways. I mean, who wants to smell pepperoni and sausage while they are singing about peppermint and holly?" Ravyn quickly put her hand over his mouth and said, "besides you."
"Yeah, I think that was about the time that mom finally had enough of that obsession. She swore that if she ever saw another pepperoni she was going to commit herself into an institution and they would put me in a foster home. Whew! What a drama queen, really, it isn't like I had it three times a day, seven days a week," Jamie then put his hand over both of their mouths with a warning look. He could see them laughing anyway.
They talked for a little bit longer about what flavors they would have and if they would have any specials. They decided that maybe they would do a poll and ask the students in the sixth grade what flavors they would like to have and go from there.
"Hey," (f/n) squealed as a snowball hit her shoulder spilling cold wet snow into the top of her coat and down her back. "That was mean and cold." She took her coat off and shook it out before quickly putting it back on. "Who threw that?" she demanded.
"There is no one here but us (f/n) and we were right here," he said as he looked around for the culprit. (f/n) then brushed the snow out of her (h/l) (h/c) hair as she continued to complain as the wet snow melted around her neck. "Ugh!" she whined. "I am going to have to go home and get dry."
"I will wait for the others and meet up with you later if you still need more input," he told her.
"I need to go home and get ready brb" Ravyn said. Jamie nodded and watched his best friends run home before he turned to investigate the mystery. He walked slowly around and kept his eyes on the direction that the snow ball had come. Sometimes he would see or almost see something but he wasn't sure if it was something or just his imagination.
He saw Ravyn coming back across the playground just as he saw a hand scoop up a ball of snow and aim it at her. He quickly picked up some snow and threw it in the direction of the invisible attacker. Thump!
"Hey," said a voice and then right before Jamie's eyes he saw a figure appear. It was or rather he was almost completely white. No wonder they didn't see him before.
"Hey, Jamie," said Ravyn as she got nearer. "Who did you throw that snowball at? If you were aiming at me, you were so off." She looked at Jamie who was staring off in the direction his snowball went like he was mesmerized. "What are you looking at?" She looked over at the place where the snowball fell and to her amazement she saw a figure, a boy, all dressed in white and he had white hair. He was looking at them with a look of surprise like they were the odd ones instead of him. He had the most amazing blue eyes she had ever seen.
"Can you see me?" he said like that was the most amazing thing in the whole world.