Free Love Letters by Jane Larry Page A

be it for her
to deny it. Lisa was quite aware of her stubborn side. And even those she did
not know well recognized that she was an authority figure in her own right and
should not be messed with. But this has not translated well for her social life
in school as it was quite limited. However, Lisa was mostly to blame for the
disconnection as she was not the type of person who was keen on establishing
random ties. Hanna was not even someone she considered a true friend as she had
the tendency to withdraw herself around her. And by far, the only ones who
really knew her were her parents. But they were no longer there to remind her
to open up.
    Her aunt said the
guard she displayed might have stemmed from being an only child and losing her
parents too soon. But most of the time Lisa just credited it to her fondness
for freedom, which she experienced fully in solitude. It wouldn’t be surprising
to find her in the library in between and after classes or up on the bleachers
alone, with a book in hand. However, with Spring Break just around the corner,
it seemed inevitable that her days of predictable calm would be interrupted by
the unnecessary activities her adoptive family was going to organize.
    Fortunately, when
she got home that day, there were no talks of vacations or part time jobs. Her
aunt was out accompanying the kids at their dance recital and her uncle was on
the phone with a client who had concerns over the website he had built. She
took some time to attend to the dog, who was the only one aware of her arrival.
And after feeding him, she went immediately upstairs to settle her affairs and
make plans for the next fourteen days.
    *            
*             *
    About five hours
earlier, her Literature professor took the liberty of assigning their final
paper which involved writing a 4,000 word short story on any genre, using any
of the narrative structures he had discussed during class. Mr. Kallum emphasized that they were individually going to be
scored according to originality, creativity, vocabulary/grammatical accuracy,
registry and delivery, which would comprise a third of their grade for the
year. And that he expected outputs to be given by the time everyone got back.
This was, of course, met with resentment and petition but Mr. Kallum was enjoying the tortured reactions too much to show
any leniency.
    So for the next two
hours after the last class, Lisa browsed the library for short stories of
previous students that Mr. K had bound and displayed in the archives. And in
addition, she picked up a few Coelho and Garcia-Marquez novels since they were
known to be the professor’s favorites in contemporary literature. She took The
Alchemist , Eleven Minutes and Love In The Time
Of Cholera ; even pondered on getting either One Hundred Years Of
Solitude or Chronicle Of A Death Foretold , but eventually settled on
the latter to give some variety to her stack. By 5 o’clock, Lisa left and
headed off to Riddell’s for dinner with Hanna and a few other friends. And in
the two hour long affair, they went into details of their impending holidays.
    “I can’t believe
you’re going that far,” Jodie cooed after Hanna narrated the details of her
scheme.
    “I know right?! But
if I don’t do it now, when will I ever get the opportunity to live out that
fairytale romance. When he goes off to college, I won’t be able to see him
anymore. So I’m taking my chances,” Hanna retorted.
    “But what’s the
point? It’s not like anything’s going to change if you did. The best case
scenario would be he’d finally know you exist…but that’s after you embarrass
yourself,” Melissa unsympathetically interjected.
    “Well, YOU ONLY
LIVE ONCE!” said Hanna, which Melissa appropriately scoffed at.
    “Sure, that’ll get
you deflowered by a jerk!” And they all laughed. 
    Lisa was pretty mum
to the whole idea and kept her participation in the conversation to a minimum
with soft laughter and