Prank Me Love

You Are That Kind Of Girl

"What should we do now?" asked Dorothy.

"I will make a ladder," said the Tin Woodman, "for we certainly must climb over the wall."

- An excerpt from "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" by L. Frank Baum

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER SEVEN:

"What are you doing here?"

Later that afternoon, I found James rummaging through our garage, the previous items he bought from the grocery store two weeks ago, lay scattered on the floor. I watch him stand up from where he was bent down on the boxes by the back of the place, sweat dripping down his face.

"I'm trying to find some tools. This place is a junkyard," he says, only looking at me for a second before going back to searching through the stuff again.

"For what?" I asked anxiously.

"For your pretty girl," he answered shortly, jabbing his thumb to my red truck, and I frowned.

"You gonna fix her today?"

"Yeah," he sighs, giving up with the whole searching, "And it might probably take a while, so you gonna need to ride the bus starting tomorrow while I fix her here."

"Sure," I shrug, trying to hide my smile. He looks so cute there, his hands on his hips. "No big deal."

"But you need to promise me you'd take care of yourself while you ride the bus," he looks at me, giving me that paternal look. He looks a bit silly with it though. But still devilishly cute.

"Fine, mom," I mock back, smiling. "I'd be careful."

"Good," he gives me a small smile too. "Now, come and give me a hand here."

I chuckle and walk towards him picking up the old toolbox by the side of the big boxes filled with my dad's old stuff.

"Now, why didn't I just ask for your help earlier?" James sighs and laughs when he sees me gather all the things he was so troubled about finding a while ago. "I wasted two hours of my day that would have only been taken a minute if I had asked you instead."

I laugh with him, setting the last box down beside his stuff. Yeah, if he puts it that way, it really sounds stupid and funny.

"You're going to paint her white?" I said, noticing the two boxes of white car paint beside the truck.

"Yeah," James replies, "I think white would make her look hotter. Can't let our girl here lose her appeal, right?" He looks at my truck, as if it was agreeing with him, and smiles.

"She'll even meet a guy after I'm done with her," James adds, giving me a sidelong glance, "You can never be sure."

I laugh again, shaking my head at him. "She'll love you after this."

"Yeah..." he says, smiling at me.

"I already love her anyway," James says softly after a moment, and I freeze. I look up to him only to find him staring down at me. That strange expression again. And I suddenly remembered the last time he had that same look on his face and blushed when I recall how it had ended. I felt nervous all of a sudden.

Are we still talking about my truck or... something else now?

"C'mon," I give him a slight tap on the shoulder, trying to brush that look away from his face and breaking our eye contact at the same time, "Let's prep her together now."

James just grins back at me and walks to my truck, but I already knew what he was thinking that time... We're both already trapped.

"Too early to leave, honey?" Dad asks me the next morning as I rush my way to the front door. My truck is still in the process of fixing so I'm starting to ride the bus from now on. And I know that I couldn't afford to miss the early ride. It's Monday and classes start earlier than the rest of the week on this particular day. So, I should arrive at school earlier than usual.

"I'm riding the bus, dad. Remember?" I say, leaving dad in a haste. I dash outside the house, running but only to pause when I see James waiting for me at the front of our garage.

"Hey," I greet him, suddenly feeling conscious of how I looked this morning. Though I didn't bother too much on fixing myself for class today, I was still slightly picky about what I would wear. I hope he notices that I'm wearing a dress.

"Morning," James smiles at me, that cute dimples of his already showing. He looks me up and down, and I knew he noticed. But he didn't say anything, he just stared at me.

"I'm gonna go now," I say hesitantly, but still not moving from where I stand in front of him. "I don't want to miss the bus."

"Do you want me to go with you?"

Do I? "No," I say, otherwise. "It's fine. I'll be fine." I assure him and began to take a few unsure steps. Why won't I just leave now? Shane, you got a bus to chase, remember?

"Be safe," James tells me, looking hesitant too. I nodded and began walking again, leaving subtle glances behind me to look at him.

"Bye," I say for one last time when I was already stepping on the road, slowing down for a bit. I wave at James who was still watching me from where he stood.

"Bye," he waves back, his eyes never leaving mine.

And yes, I knew I was going to miss the bus if I continued to slow down more, but looking at James... With that longing look in his eyes, I knew it was worth it to miss the ride than not seeing this picture.

"You missed first class this morning, what happened?" Beth asks me this with a worried look on her face the instant she took the seat beside me on our table at the cafeteria. We had Chemistry together every morning, so I knew she was going to ask me why I didn't attend.

Unfortunately, I did miss riding the bus this morning because of my foolishness. I wasted my two minutes exchanging glances with James before leaving that it cost me two minutes of being early just to catch the bus. Yet, the two minutes of missing the bus were really not that much of a bother though. But damn, it is still so not like me to be late.

"I rode the bus but missed the early ride," I answer simply, slouching down when I remembered my foolishness again.

"Why? What happened to your truck?" Beth frowns at me.

"James fixing her," I say and Beth looks taken aback for a minute.

"Morning, guys." Evan plops down across us with a smile. He seems to be generous today. He even had his own plate of fries now, I was surprised because it was so unusual of him. "What's up?"

"You bought fries?" I stated the obvious, frowning down on his snacks.

"I thought I'd spare you today." He shrugs and Beth eventually steals his attention.

"James fixing her rusty! Did you know?" Beth exclaims, a dreamy-eyed expression on her face.

"Really?" Evan smiles at this, giving me a teasing look. "He's fixing your car. Now, that's suspiciously something, huh?"

"What are you saying?" I snort at him, "Where's my overprotective Evan, anyway? Shouldn't he be going all-no-impressing-my-little-Shane now?" I say instead.

"Oh, c'mon," Beth interjects, rolling her eyes, "The guy's so nice, you don't need protection from scrappy here." Evan quickly frowns at Beth's label at him and glares.

"Hey—"

"If anything else, James could even be your knight in shining armor. I'm pretty sure he could beat a bunch of guys just to protect you, with all those muscles..." Beth sighs dramatically with yet another dreamy-eyed expression.

"I have muscles too," Evan mutters from his seat, pouting as he bites at his quarter-sized burger. Yes, Evan does have muscles since he's a football player. It's already a given thing but Beth just likes trying to ignore it.

"Anyway," Beth brushes him off, "What I'm saying is that you two should date." She says to me instead, referring to both me and James obviously.

"Wait a minute," I tried to protest halfheartedly, "Isn't that a little bit too fast for us right now?"

"Oooh... So you're considering it?" Evan teases, sipping down his soda. I gave him a confused look and laugh.

"What?" I say, "No!"

"Oh, kid yourself as much as you want, dear," Beth tells me, diverting her attention on her salad, "But we all know you're already interested."

"Interested?" I scoff, "No, I'm not."

Beth just shrugs and smirks at me.

"If she says so," Evan adds in a "we-don't-really-believe-you" kind of response. I glare at the two of them, appalled that they're both even suspicious of me. Of course, I'm not thinking of dating him... Yet. Even if I want to somehow.

But still, no!

NO. I'm not THAT into him.

------------------------------------------------------------

"So, how is she?"

It's been already four days, but James is still struggling with fixing Bella—seems like she had already earned a name too. I've heard James calling her this while I was cleaning the front porch the other day making me smile to myself. He really could be charming sometimes, only when no one is looking though.

"Looking good," James replies to me, right from under the truck. He was lying on his back, doing something underneath Bella, with tools scattered around him. "I'm almost done with fixing her defects. She'll be changing color soon."

I watch him slide out from the truck, the muscles on his arms flexing as he sits up. He looked like one of those guys at a car shop, greasy and sweaty, but unlike those that I've seen myself, he still seems to manage to look good with all the dirt and mess on him.

"When will you be done with her?" I ask.

"Why?" he smirks at me, "Tired of riding the bus already? Missing me driving you, princess?"

"As if," I snorted. But, for some reason, he was kind of right.

"Well, I do," he says, standing up and stretching his arms out. "I miss driving you."

He looks at me with that half-grin on his lips while I just stare back at him, startled. What is he even saying? What is this now? Is he teasing? I blink for a second and decided that he was just kidding me.

"Yeah, whatever," I say, laughing at him, "just don't overwork yourself too much, you can still take a rest for a day, you know?"

"Nah," he waves me off, shaking his head, "I'm going to finish her as fast as I could. I have a feeling that her owner's already missing driving her around." He gives me a pointed look and smiles.

I smiled back. Yeah, I was already missing her... And so is my driver. I miss him already too.

"How did you find this?!"

I was too surprised to even bother the funny shocked look on my face, as I stare down at my old bicycle that James had miraculously found at our garage. I left for a few minutes this morning, to buy some groceries for our house supplies, that when it was time for me to check what James was doing, he had told me he wanted to show me something. I frowned at him, wondering what it was but when I saw him smiling at me when he showed it, I was too speechless to even say anything at first that I almost launch my arms at him to give him a huge hug.

"I can't believe this!" I say, looking dreamily at the lost treasure that I thought had been dumped years ago. Yet, I stopped myself from hugging James, because it kind of felt weird.

"I was looking for some old car pieces when I stumbled to it while you were gone." James simply says, grinning at me while he tries to wipe it clean.

"Is it still good?" I ask, wondering if I could ride it again.

"From the looks of it," James replies, "It's still pretty fine. Just needs some cleaning, though."

"I want to try it," I finally tell the both of us and he nods.

"Then, have it your way, princess," he smiles at me, standing. I approached the bike and gaze at it with amusement in my eyes. She's a beauty. And she was still the way she used to be before. I rushed and pushed her out of the garage in excitement, and parked her on the driveway.

James followed me, smiling. I rode the bike, enjoying the chill of the wind meeting my face. It has been a while since the last time I felt this thrill. James watches me drive it around the neighborhood, while he stood at the front of our house. And I never felt so happy, just enjoying the moment that I had missed for so long.

By the time I got exhausted, we both settled to sit on the grasses in our front yard, just staring around the scene before us while drinking bottled water to quench our thirst.

"Doesn't sleeping on driveways and other people's houses bother you?" I asked out of the blue, trying to bring up a conversation.

"Not at all. I'm used to it now," he says, staring down on the grasses beneath us, "I've been sleeping everywhere I could for a long time, it's nothing I'm bothered with at all."

"Yet you still couldn't be bothered to tell me the reason why?" I raise a brow at him.

"Nah," he shrugs, "It's just too much drama and I don't do dramas." He gives me a small smile, tugging at the grasses.

I stayed quiet, just studying him. This side of him is new to me. He looks troubled but still manages to make it look like it doesn't affect him. I kind of felt like comforting him but stopped. It was weird, anyway. So I tried to bother myself and put my attention towards the house across us instead.

"I wish I could be like you," I say, making James raise his brow at me this time. "I wish I could be just all carefree to do whatever I feel like."

"Then, why won't you just do it?" he says, and I snort.

"As if, that would be easy," I answered, "Me? Sleeping on driveways? Funny."

"No," James says, "Not that. But do whatever you feel like doing. Is it really that hard?"

I paused for a second. It is, though. "I just can't."

"Why?" he frowns at me.

"I'm too scared."

"What does scare you?" He asks me with a curious look, moving a bit closer. He leans down his gorgeous to my eye level with his eyes focused on me. And suddenly I found myself having trouble breathing normally. Get a grip, Shane.

"Doing what I want," I answered nervously, holding back my breath.

"Ha," James smirks, and then he moves away. Finally, I exhaled the air I had been keeping inside my chest. "I don't understand why it would even scare you doing what you want."

He wouldn't really understand.

"What exactly is this that you want, anyway?" he asks me anxiously. Those eyes gazing back at me again with interest. "Why does it scare you?"

"It's complicated." I just simply told him and shrugs. He doesn't have to know. I can't let anybody know.

"Yeah," he grins at this, "I won't push it but I'd say you should do it, though."

I gave him a pointed look.

"You wouldn't know what you're missing if you wouldn't try it. Being afraid would just make you regret not doing it in the future when it's already too late."

I thought about what he'd said that time until the night as I lay down on my bed. Will it be worth it if I do what I really want? Will it make me a better person? But then, I remember HIM, and I instantly remind myself... No, I can't. Not without him now... Not, when I finally won't get back to the way it had been before. I just can't.

"What's the reason behind that weird grin, huh?" Beth asks me the next day as we sat down on our seats for Chemistry. She's surprisingly early this day, leading me to wonder what made her so.

"Did something good happen with James?" She wiggles her brows at me, making me snort at her.

"No," I replied, chuckling, "I just rode my old bike yesterday."

"Bike?" She frowns at me, "The one you've had ages ago?"

Yeah, it must have been ages. I couldn't even remember the last time I did ride it until yesterday.

"Yeah," I say, grinning to myself as I recall the feel of the wind on my face that afternoon, "That one."

"I thought it was already gone," she tells me.

"Me too," I tell her, "but James found her yesterday."

It really was a miracle. James never knew how much he had made my day that time.

"Oh, so something did happen with James," Beth tells me, returning to her teasing grin again. I just shake my head at her, chuckling, as we watch Ms. Kinsey walks into the room to start the class.

Beth was right though. Something did happen...

And James happened.