Free Love Letters by Jane Larry Page B

considerate nods. Personally, she thought it was
nonsense. But she was not going to be the one who would point out the obvious
and make Hanna feel like a fool. First of all, Hanna was not going to let the
chance pass her by, regardless of common sense. And John Mitchell was going to
do that on her behalf anyways so she doesn’t have to wear out the friendship
cord just yet. In her head, she was hoping that the imminent failure of Hanna’s
master plan would end her desperate attachment to men and make her realize that
there’s so much more to be concerned about than a high school fling with an
over-glorified athlete.
    “So what’s your
agenda, Lisa?” Hanna asked, which prompted an awkward silence over the table.
    “Mr. Kallum’s homework?” she replied coyly to which the girl’s
again laugh, misinterpreting it as a joke.
    A few fries and
sips of milkshake more and everyone was already eager to go home. But before
they completely parted ways, Hanna asked Lisa to stay as she wanted to talk to
her about something in private. Alone, Hanna confronted Lisa about her thoughts
on the whole party crashing plan and insisted she told the truth about it. Lisa
finally fessed up and said it was a careless and immature idea. But as
expected, Hanna just took it the wrong way and walked out after saying a few
hurtful words.
    “Don’t preach to me
about immaturity when you’re the one who hasn’t grown up! At least I have. At
least I try! You know, just because you have this tragic past, doesn’t mean you
need to carry it over your present and infect everyone around you with this
grim outlook. Stop being so cynical! Go to therapy already!”
    To which Lisa
yelled back, “Well, good luck being desperate!”
    She didn’t see it,
Lisa thought. She wasn’t trying to rain down on her parade. She just didn’t
think John Mitchell was who Hanna should end up with, let alone give the effort
for. The only thing remotely redeeming about him was that he was kind when he
shot down Amber Kirsch’s invitation to the Sadie Hawkins in favor of Sophie
Valet, who was the head cheerleader. But of course, that didn’t stand for too
long because he didn’t have any problem talking about overweight Amber the
minute he got back to the popular table. He was hardly the prince everyone saw
him to be. Nevertheless, tradition made it difficult for her to prove otherwise
to Hanna.
    When she was about
to leave herself, Lisa noticed a book underneath the adjacent table and decided
to pick it up and endorse it to management, just in case the owner came back
looking for it. But having noticed that it was one of Mr. K’s compiled class
short stories from some years back, she decided to take it home and use it to
her advantage. She reckoned she could return it after a week, when she was done
with the assignment so that the person who smuggled it out of the library could
also make use of it. But given the fact that it was illegal for that copy to
have been taken out in the first place, she was confident that the culprit
would not show up and make a fuss over losing it.
    *            
*             *
    When Lisa got to
her room, she started unloading her books and flipping through her notes from
the classes she had earlier. Most of the teachers were kind, bidding everyone a
fun holiday, as if they knew Mr. Kallum’s huge
project take away by the end of the day. In her big blue notebook, which was
prescribed by the teacher for their writing activities, she scanned lectures
and read through a passage on the works of Garcia-Marquez. In his discourses,
Mr. K had emphasized Garcia-Marquez’s frequent application of realism in his
plots and his dedication to Colombian traditions and themes, making them the
rational parameters of the stories he established. Sometimes, this gave his
writings a flat and unsentimental affect. But experts viewed this as his
strength not to mention the source of his novel’s allure.
    Paulo Coelho did
the