《Diary》狸花小菜

17、homework

　　Dear Doris,
　　There are three things that cannot be concealed—cough, poverty, and love. But I perfectly hide my love until now, I don’t want to hide it any more. I have feelings for you.
　　Yours,
　　Richard
　　“Is it okay？I hope she can receive this letter.” Richard asked, while he was enveloping this love letter.
　　“No problem, I promice. But…honestly speaking, she doesn’t seem to like you at all. She has never talk with you except for quarrels.”
　　“Well, that was because we were not acquainted with each other at that time.”
　　“Neither now.”
　　“Oh, shut up. What you should manage to do is to give it to her, safely. Understand ”
　　“Leave it to me. Believe your faithful friend.”
　　That was why Charles took a letter nervously outside the classroom of Class 4. Easier said than done. He felt that the letter’s tons of weight gave him plenty of awkwardness. Fortunately, the very girl came out soon carring lots of books in her arms.
　　“Excuse me, Doris, here’s a letter for you.” He said.
　　Doris was a cute girl with a pigtail in Class 4. She had nice eyes where there was glimmer and stars. However, they hid behind glasses. She was friendly, helpful but sometimes naughty. Charles, Richard and she had been classmates the first year of senior high school and were divided into different classes the second year.
　　She looked embarrassed and confused, “Thank you for this…but you are a good person.”
　　“It is not mine! I’m just, just a postman, it’s from my friend, exactly.”His face got red gradually.
　　“Oh, well, your friend is actually youself.” She smiled naughtily.
　　“NO! NO! Definitely not me!” He became more agitated just before students increasingly gathered in the corridor to see what happened, he excaped as fast as he could, “Have a good day, bye!”
　　“A weird guy.”Doris murmured, “Oh, dear, I’d better hand the homework to my teacher quickly.”
　　Richard waited coincidentally between the teachers’ office and Class 4 and saw her come back empty-handed. Wait, wait a minute, where was the letter! Charles said he didn’t know but she seemed to have handed in their homework.
　　So the letter…was under these books on the teacher’s desk right now.

　　They decided to steal the letter at noon when teachers went to have lunch. It was the longest morning in Richard’s life. Thank for God it passed away, they crept into the office silently and rummaged the teacher’s desk. However, it was so clean that nothing was relevant to his secret.
　　“Richard, their homework has been corrected.”
　　“So it means my letter has been found But where is it It’s not in the drawer.”
　　Richard continued to look for it when Charles raised his head and caught something in his sight outside the window, “Look, what’s that in the tree Your letter”
　　It is very common that all schools have leafy trees living for some decades, as high as the third floor.
　　“Wow, what kind of wind can blow it to such high branches, hurricane”
　　“Come on.”
　　I am not sure if climbing a tree is a difficult thing for boys, maybe it is for someone but not Richard. He was thin and a beginner to climb tree. Although it was a little hard and Charles yelled at him to look out, be careful a thousand times, he managed to climb it.
　　His fingers were near to the letter but he didn’t notice a nest was also very close to it. The mother bird wasn’t at home, only left three eggs. But what was a pity was that the mother came back sooner, and she believed Richard was an enemy. So she dashed to him as a shell, pecked at his head and swang her wings beating leaves. Fortunately, he firmly grasped the branches and took the letter as quickly as he could. Unfortunately, when he got down the tree, his teacher was awaiting him.
　　“Perhaps you should stand outside the classroom for my class to run out of your endless energy.”He said.

　　After a forty-minute class, Richard went back to his seat, slightly bruised and frustrated with the shrivelled letter which wasn’t sent out. Suddenly he saw another anonymous letter on his desk.
　　Dear Richard,
　　I am happy to have been your classmate.
　　You are so charming, popular, and good at singing that I am daunted to talk to you. So I try to feign that I don’t like you, I am not attacted by you. If you are close to me seldom, I persuade myself that it’s just a coincidence. One of me says you love me too, the other says stop my daydream, impossible, I am not pretty, not smart and as common as anyone. You will meet many wonderful girls, not me.
　　As time passes, I don’t know whether I really love you nor the feeling that I love you. However, I will move to another school. I don’t want to keep the sad secret whenever I recall it, I will feel regretful. I love you but I can’t say I love you forever. Maybe in few years, I would convert. Maybe in several years, I still love you. If we may reunite, I wish we would have a new story.
　　Yours,
　　Doris
　　He rushed out, run along the corridor and got the door of her classroom. Her teacher delayed but her desk was empty.