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Everybody moved past a display case, except for her ally.
Leslie waited for the crowd to ease into the classrooms. Lockers clinged to the zipper of binders, not quite doing very well at blocking out noise. In the corner of school halls, she watched. And waited.
But her ally still had his fists clenched. Nobody paid attention to him, neither what he was looking at. They merely blurred into one another in chaos while he stood still. After a third bell and Mr Mackey having to yell through the intercom, the hallways were finally cleared. With nobody around to stop her, she stepped out of the corner she was hiding in.
Leslie liked displays too, so she stood beside her ally. Nathan.
She guessed he had good taste too. The only person here that would also skip class to admire the trophies. The golden and platinum ones that were cherry picked to make South Park Elementary the most appealing school. Advertising to parents how academic and athletic their pupils were. Of course, that was both an approved and one of the correct methods to appeal to people. Not only containing trophies for those accomplishments, but also medals and pinned papers. Unfortunately Jimmy Valmer had a news report pinned with no sponsors. Pitiful. But not as pathetic as his 13 comedy show medals, a trophy for surfing and a couple of research papers.
His glasses reflected off them.
And before she knew it, she saw her own face in the red tint. It was so rare to see Nathan facing directly at her that she caught a glimpse of his eyes once his glasses slipped just slightly.
“The fuck you come from…?”
He sounded a little annoyed, but she wasn't sure if it was directed at her in particular.
“I saw you staring at the trophy display,” Leslie replied, “I believe it to be… Very nice and pretty. However this one in particular isn't quite as comforting as I thought it would be.”
Nathan scoffed. “It's practically dedicated to Jimmy fucking Valmer… I say we abolish the whole damn thing…”
“Yes, let's,” Leslie whispered, “I believe we can sneak in after hours and steal all these records…”
“Bitch, you can't be serious-” before Nathan could finish his sentence, Leslie took his hand and started dragging him out the back doors, “-where- where the fuck are you taking me?...”
“We need to fabricate a story on how the trophies got stolen,” she said, “if we gain people's trust, nobody would question why a whole display case is gone.” Crisp, snowy air struck them outside. Leslie dragged Nathan onto a cracked sidewalk. “This way we should be able to burn the evidence, including all records of Jimmy Valmer’s accomplishments… Therefore, I am taking you to Benny's in order for us to have a quiet atmosphere to work on the news article.”
Nathan kept her hand in his. With the two hitting a crosswalk.
“You're- you're very precise and you hate Jimmy,” he whispered, “I like you…”
As the crosswalk opened, they continued their stroll.
“Huh…” Leslie trailed off, “I like you too…”
In her peripheral vision, his face was slightly red. As soon as they got back onto the next sidewalk over, he squeezed her hand.
“You weren't SUPPOSED to fucking hear that!!!”