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Venice sighed when he opened the door of his locker. There was another piece of paper waiting for him. Pink this time. Venice pinched the bridge of his nose and he didn’t even want to pick it up because he knew what it was already.
It was Friday and there was going to be a school dance and Venice wasn’t a fan. School dances were supposed to be fun, but not when one was being bombarded with questions such as
- Will you come to the dance?
- Can we dance together?
- Venice, do you like dancing?
- What’s your favourite song?
Venice didn’t know what it was, but ever since Monday he’s been getting little messages in his locker room that would ask him if he was coming to the dance or not. And he ignored every single one of them. All of them were signed by his secret admirer, though he already knew how his secret admirers were. There were the three girls from his class that were nagging him for a whole week now about this school dance.
The three of them were trying to convince Venice into going to the dance. Why was it so important? It’s been a week of constant nagging and Venice didn’t appreciate it.
Venice didn’t appreciate being popular.
There were many other peers in his class that would love to go to the dance with one of the three girls, but they were there for Venice. Why? He didn’t understand it and he wished that they would stop, but he didn’t want to hurt their feelings too much, so he just tried to ignore them. It wasn’t working out in his favour.
But, all that he needed to do was to get through Friday and then he was free! Because this Friday was going to be a lot of fun!
Kit and his parents were finally going to be visiting the town and Venice was very excited, but he also needed to get ready. He needed to tidy up his room, he wanted to get the video games ready that he and Kit were going to play. He had a lot of things to do after finishing school that day and he just couldn’t wait to be finally home.
Still, curiosity got the best of him and Venice slowly opened up the piece of paper and he sighed along. It was just like he expected. The message on the piece of folded paper read; Are you coming to the school dance today?
Venice rolled his eyes, folded the paper and he shook his head – some of the guys in his class actually envied him that Venice had his own mini fanclub, but Venice wished that his so-called fanclub wouldn’t really exist. He sighed and locked his locker, slowly going over to his first period and he just chewed on his lower lip.
“Just one more day and then this will be over,” said Venice. “School dances should be illegal,” he then added on, his annoyance getting the best of him because he saw one of the girls looking his way, so it wasn’t really a secret who the ‘’secret’’ admirer was.
Venice was tried.
“Where did you get this shirt?” chirped the girl sitting next to Venice and he slowly looked at her. That day was going to be long, wasn’t it? It was only the third period, but it felt like almost an entire month passed since morning.
“In the store,” said Venice.
“It’s really pretty,” she said, Venice slowly looking at his shirt and then he looked back at her.
“It’s just a shirt.”
“It’s really cool,” she said.
“Thank you,” said Venice, staying polite even if he was a little bit annoyed and he just ducked his head down.
“I was wondering,” said the girl and Venice slowly glanced at her. Oh, there was it – the question was going to come. Venice was avoiding answering anything related to the dance in person because even if he was annoyed, he didn’t want to hurt their feelings. They were going to be sad after they learned that he wasn’t coming to the dance.
Either way…
Just as she was about to ask him, Venice bolted up onto his legs and quickly walked away, going over to one of his friends, his name was Tao. Venice swallowed thickly and he leaned closer to Tao, who arched his brow when he saw Venice walking over to his desk, but then he glanced at their classmate looking at Venice and he laughed silently.
“You have to help me,” said Venice.
“They’re still not leaving you alone?” asked Tao and Venice shook his head.
“No,” he said. “What’s wrong with them?”
“You’re popular,” he said and Venice rolled his eyes.
“I don’t wanna be, it’s annoying,” said Venice.
“Well, have you told them that you’re not going to the dance?”
Silence.
“No,” said Venice.
“Why not?” asked Tao and face-palmed himself.
“I don’t wanna hurt their feelings,” said Venice and Tao gave him a look of compassion. Venice was like that, yes – kind, he never wanted to hurt people’s feelings, but this was different. “What should I do?” he asked and Tao placed a hand on his shoulder.
“Say no for a change,” said Tao and Venice placed his hands together.
“That’s it?”
“Yep,” said Tao and Venice sighed along.
Just say no, huh? If only it would be so easy, but Venice was going to listen to his friend. He was going to end this cycle of annoyance.
“Can I please get to my locker?” asked Venice. He was in a hurry to get home, he wanted to start getting ready for tomorrow. But, the day has been long, he was happy that it was finally over. Even so, he still didn’t manage to say no properly. But, he was working up to it. Now, he was going to be determined!
“We just have to ask you something,” said the tallest girl and Venice pressed his lips together.
“Okay, but hurry up, I wanna go home soon,” said Venice. Papa and dad were probably already outside of the school waiting for him and he didn’t want to keep them waiting, trying his best not to roll his eyes, but he quickly stepped back when the other two girls looked at each other and started giggling. Venice’s theory still held up to that day – some of the girls could be quite scary.
“Have you finally decided?” asked the second girl and stepped next to Venice, who narrowed his eyes and cocked his head to the side.
“About the dance,” said the shortest of the three and Venice sighed along.
“Are you going to come to the dance?” asked the tallest girl. “It will be so much fun. The teachers have picked the best music and also if you have any song wishes, we can tell the teachers,” she said, very eager and Venice just shook his head.
Venice took a deep breath in and then he decided that he was finally going to do it. He was going to be polite, but he wasn’t going to let this continue.
“No,” said Venice, his voice determined and he smiled. There, finally!
“Why not?” she asked. “You were going to dance with me!” she said and the other two girls gave her an offended look. Venice’s mouth hung open – really?!
“He was going to dance with me,” said the shortest of the three. Venice was tired. Oh, he really wasn’t in a good mood. Venice looked over to the window and then he tried getting to his locker, but the three of them were still standing there, completely blocking his way to his locker and he groaned.
He just wanted to take his things and go.
“I was going to ask him first!” said the third girl.
“Why don’t you ask Lek?” asked Venice – he was the one who was also popular among the girls in the class, but he liked the attention, unlike Venice who found it kind of annoying and he just tucked his hands into his pocket.
“No, we don’t want to,” said one of the girls with a pout.
“We want to dance with you!”
“I can’t dance with all three, can I?” asked Venice and the tallest girl stepped next to him.
“This is why you will dance with me,” said the girl and one of her friends grabbed her hand and pushed her back.
“No, I will ask him first,” she said and Venice clicked with his tongue.
“I’m not going to the school dance,” he said again, but it didn’t really matter to them as they were already bickering. Luckily for Venice, though, they have already moved away from his locker, so he didn’t waste his time. He knew that the three of them were unstoppable, they rarely admitted defeat, so Venice just grabbed his books, quickly tucked them into his backpack, quickly got dressed up, locked his locker, but then before he managed to get going, the three of them were surrounding him and Venice gave them an unamused look.
“My parents are already waiting for me, so can you please let me go?” asked Venice.
“Maybe if you won’t come to this dance, will you come to the next one?” asked the shortest girl and Venice looked at her.
“And why does it have to be me? You can dance with someone else. You three can dance together and-” he started, but as he said that, the three of them looked at each other and started giggling. The giggles were freaking Venice out, so he just quickly ducked his head and quickly started walking to the door, but that still didn’t mean that the trio was done.
They followed Venice down the hallway.
Venice could hear that there was something else that they wanted to ask him, but instead of just asking him, the three of them were now whispering among each other and Venice felt tired. Still, he was pretending that he didn’t hear anything – ignorance was bliss.
“Venice!” finally said one of them and Venice stopped in his tracks.
“Yes?”
“Can… can we get your phone number?” she asked and Venice screamed internally.
“What’s a phone?” asked Venice, blurting out the first thing that came to his mind and the trio looked at each other. They didn’t know how to react, while Venice just pretended to-
“Stop kidding around,” finally said one of them and started laughing, thinking Venice was making a joke.
“I don’t have a phone,” said Venice.
Yes, he was lying. Of course he was lying. Lying was bad, he knew that, but at this very moment he didn’t really care.
“But I saw you texting-”
“That wasn’t my phone,” he quickly said and the girls felt deflated. Venice, on the other hand, was getting more and more annoyed. He was patient, he really was, but what were they going to ask him next – his address?
Venice was close to the entrance door of the school, so when the door opened, he slowly turned around. He didn’t really expect anyone special to step into the school, but he smiled all the way up his ears when he saw Pete stepping inside of the school and he quickly ran over to him, leaving the other three a little bit perplexed.
Vegas and Pete were there to pick the kids up from school – Paris was already in the car as she finished school earlier, so they were now waiting for Venice to join them in the car. But, it was taking him longer than it should have. Afraid that something was wrong, Pete decided to go check up on Venice, while Vegas stayed in the car with Paris.
Pete was happy to see Venice over by the door and he felt his worries melting away and he chuckled when he saw Venice literally running over to him, wondering what could be wrong. Venice looked annoyed and then he looked over to the side where he saw three girls slowly approaching the two of them and Venice rolled his eyes.
“Papa, let’s go,” said Venice quickly and Pete cocked his head to the side.
“I think they want to talk to you,” said Pete.
“I know, that’s why we need to go,” said Venice, but it was already too late as the three of them approached Pete, who was now politely smiling back.
“Are these your friends, Venice?” asked Pete and Venice just slowly stepped behind Pete.
“Are you Venice’s dad?” asked one of them and Pete happily smiled.
“Why, yes I am,” said Pete.
“Papa, we need to get going,” whined Venice, but Pete was far too polite to say anything. Besides, he thought that they were Venice’s friends.
“Can you please let him come to the school dance?’’ dared to ask one of them, while the other two started whispering something to each other and Pete looked at Venice, who firmly shook his head.
“There’s a school dance?” asked Pete. Venice never mentioned a school dance.
“No,” said Venice.
“Yes,” said the other girl.
Pete was slowly starting to understand what was happening – apparently, the girls were very excited about Venice coming to this school dance, but Venice couldn’t be less amused about it. Pete was holding back his laughter and he clasped his hands together.
“Papa,” said Venice and Pete chuckled.
“I’m afraid he can’t make it today,” said Pete and the girls sighed sadly.
“Thank you,” whispered Venice.
“Maybe next time,” said Pete and Venice shook his head.
“Doubt it,” mumbled Venice and finally now that Pete was there, he was finally free to leave, quickly walking out of the school and Pete followed him with a little smile on his face, laughing when he joined him outside and Venice looked at him suspiciously.“This wasn’t funny, papa, it’s annoying,” said Venice and Pete sighed softly.
“Why?”
“They’ve been pestering me about this dance for the whole week straight now. Since Monday,” mumbled Venice and groaned. “And today they wanted to know my phone number,” he said. “I lied, I told them I don’t have a phone,” he said and Pete found it hilarious.
“Seems like they want to be your friends?” asked Pete and Venice gave him a look of sheer disbelief.
“It’s annoying,” said Venice.
“They seemed nice,” said Pete and Venice shook his head.
“They’re not,” said Venice, quickly walking away from the school just in case. “I’m not going to the school dance today. I have a lot of work to do today,” said Venice. “Kit’s coming over tomorrow,” he said and his mood was a bit better now that he was focusing on the good things in his life, not just the stressful. “So, no time for school dance and even if I had the time, I wouldn’t go.”
Pete gave him a little nod and a smile.
“Of course not. You don’t have to do anything that you don’t want to,” said Pete and Venice sighed happily, finally relieved when he saw the car and he quickly jumped in, joining Paris in the back, Vegas sighing in relief as well when he saw Pete and Venice coming to the car.
What was taking them so long?!
“Finally, where have you been?” asked Vegas, turning around to Venice and he could tell that Venice wasn’t in a good mood. “What happened?” asked Vegas and Venice held back a curse word.
“Whoever thought of the concept of school dances and thinks that they’re fun is stupid,” said Venice, buckling the seatbelt and Paris blinked a few times.
“They were still bothering you?” asked Paris and Venice nodded.
“Who was bothering you?” asked Vegas, his voice dropping an octave lower and Pete sighed, shaking his head – Vegas was taking this way too seriously and Venice’s eyes widened when he saw the three girls stepping out of the school. He quickly ducked down, hiding.
“Those three,” mumbled Venice.
“Do you want me to talk to them? I can easily take care of it,” mumbled Paris, rubbing her palms together and Pete sighed.
“Paris, no,’’ said Pete.
“Why not, papa? They’re bullying Venice.”
“They just wanted to know if he was coming to the school dance,” said Pete calmly.
“There’s a school dance?” asked Vegas.
“Unfortunately,” said Venice.
“When are we dropping you off?” asked Vegas.
“I’m not going,” grumbled Venice.
“ Oh. ”
“It’s annoying.”
“It seems like bullying to me,” said Paris. “Why would they be asking him so much?” asked Paris.
“They just have a crush-” started Pete and Venice covered his ears with his hands, feeling his face heating up and he started talking over Pete, so that he wouldn’t be able to hear what he was going to say.
Venice knew what Pete said. But alas, ignorance was bliss.
“Okay, Venice, relax, no school dance,” said Vegas and Venice slowly lowered his hands.
“Thank you,” sighed Venice and shook his head on top of his chest. “I never signed up for a fanclub,” he said and leaned back, closed his eyes and started massaging his temples.
“You have a fanclub?” asked Vegas in amusement.
“Dad, it’s really annoying,” said Venice.
“Oh, even I didn’t have a fanclub!” said Vegas and Venice gave him another look, which made him chuckle. Pete pressed his lips together. Vegas sounded proud, while Venice was just annoyed about the entire thing.
“This is so tiring,” said Venice and Vegas laughed.
“Being popular?” teased Vegas and Venice scowled at him.
“I don’t wanna be popular, dad,” said Venice. “It’s annoying,” said Venice and Pete looked at Vegas, who gave him a little chuckle. “But, I did tell them no. And they still didn’t really listen to me, ugh,” said Venice and Paris decided to cheer her brother up.
“If they’re really bothering you, do you want us-” started Pete, but Venice just shook his head. Ah, he could handle it on his own. It wasn’t serious, anyway.
“No, no, I got this. The dance will be over by Monday and then peace will be restored,” mumbled Venice. Hopefully.
“Ah, forget about them. Tomorrow Kit’s coming,” said Paris happily. The two of them were friends as well and she was looking forward to Kit coming over as well. It’s been too long since they saw each other in person.
“True!” said Venice and happily smiled again. “Tomorrow will be so much fun. Papa, can we have a sleepover?” he asked and Pete nodded.
“Of course, Vegas and I have already discussed it with his parents because he’s been asking that as well, so of course,” said Pete and Venice happily smiled.
Good.
School week was over, the dance forgotten and now he was looking forward to the weekend.