Obsession

Fiction Friday

Describe a time when your character becomes obsessed with someone.

Ice blue eyes stared out from under a blond shock of hair as he scanned the room like a predictor. The only spare seat in the stuffy classroom was beside Carla – so with a grunt of resignation, he sat down. Beribboned with hair pristinely plated and her eyes stared firmly on the history book text in front of her Carlas hand hovered clutching a pen; poised like a snake about to strike. The class tittered and gossiped.
“Thank you class, now who can tell me what motivated the Etruscans to migrate at the turn of that period.

Under his breath, Shaun muttered the answer word perfect from the text but his book remained unopened.

Carla glanced across at him in surprise. He’d been kept down a year and with his surfer look, she has assumed that the glossy veneer of his personality was as deep as he got. His note book was a mess of figure drawings, detailed and beautiful all depicting ancient and fantasy battles..

She flinched, realizing he was aware of her scrutiny and quickly looked away.

Carla hurried to the school library during the lunch break, her heart pounding..
He’d accidentally brushed into her twice during class and had lent her a pen when hers had run out..

“Come on Carla, the debating team meeting is on now – you’re unusually late” added Mr Newman, the school debating tutor.

Carla flushed again. Shaun had disrupted her ordered life. The more she tried not the think about him, the more his wide smile haunted her. With tingling skin at he memory of his touch she went to her meeting, present but distracted.

Carla intently looked forward to ancient history lessons. Shaun’s school organizer lay open on the desk opposite her when she walked in.. With her excellent memory ensured she could replicate the subject areas at a later time. Being a class monitor Carla was able to slip unchallenged into the deputy headmasters office to look at the timetabling quickly noting down the schedules for Shauns classes. She began to fabricate reasons to walk past he lessons or to stop to chat to people within his class.

Her heart ached as she saw him joking amongst his class mates, wishing it were to her that he smiled at or spoken those few words to. His face dominated her thoughts now and she was desperate to capture and hold him at all hours. In a step far beyond her normal behaviour and against the school rules, Carla took photos with her phone and smuggled them back to her laptop at home. Not happy with the quality of these, she fabricated a story to gain access to the school magazine achieves and pocketed the past years official and candid photos of Shaun.
She followed his active facebook and blog entries, taking notes on the girls who were plastered all over his e-wall. She downloaded music by a band she had never heard of but forced her self to appreciate. For the first time in her life, Carla counted calories, started to starve herself and watched her weight on the scales every morning and evening; agonizing over the merest gain. Carlas parents congratulated each other feeling thankful that their bookish, boring daughter had at last began to show signs of fitting in and being normal. Her mother took her shopping and to her great delight was able to get Carla into a mini skirt and heels. Faced with a mountain of new cosmetics, Carla began to disastrously experiment with ‘looks’. After forcing her self to acknowledge she looked like a drag queen, she ditched the make up idea and started to question her other stalker like behaviours. She had become a parody and despite all her attempts, Shaun hadn’t noticed she were alive. Carla ceremoniousy burnt her stolen photos, a copy of his timetable, a sock and handkerchief she had acquired from his locker and a paper cup he had signed for one of the eight graders she had bribed to ask for one.
The next day when last bell of the day had rung and students streamed out from classes, delighted to be free for the afternoon, Carla headed home deep in thought. “Carla, your debating speech is poorly structured and really not up to your usual standard. Are you ok?” Mr Newman approached her, his glasses pushed high on his the bridge of his nose. “ Ahh…Is that smudged eyeliner?”
Carla nodded and mumbled an apology.
Mr Newman smiled knowingly. “Oh dear. How quickly the mighty fall when hormones kick in.”
“I. Uhh..” Carla began but flushed again. She’d lost count of the times her face had flamed red over Shaun. It seemed to be a consistent quality attached to his name, even though she was now sure she was over him.
“Well, try and put whoever this new beau is at the back of your mind. Your team in is the semi finals tomorrow and your opening remarks need to be reworked. Now, would you mind delivering these observation notes over to Mrs Jenkins. I believe she is clearing out the art supply cupboards.”
Nodding, Carla accepted the notes and tucked them into her back pack.
A rattling and clanking noise erupted from the art room as she approached. Carla called out for Mrs Jenkins, but was greeting with the sound of a shelf collapsing inside the supplies room. Quickly she hopped over the boxes, knocking a broomhandle wedged on the door flying as she rushed in. The heavy door swung closed behind her. However a groan from under the oxidative powdered clay sacks and broken shelving distracted her .
“Shaun, what are you doing here?” Carla cried, pulling the leaking powdery mess away from the prone figure.
“Helping out. But what are you doing here? This isn’t the library unless you haven’t noticed” He said, struggling up.
“I do other things away from the library” she defensively replied.
“Shaun, are you alright in there?” Mrs Jenkins urgent voice called, muffled by the thick door. “The lock has jammed and I can’t seem to open it from my side. Can you see if it will budge from yours?”
Carla and Shaun pulled and pushed the door to no avail.
“Hang tight, I’ll get Mr Gevice the groundsman onto it shortly”
“I saw your last week at the debating competition.” Shaun started.
Carla clasped her hands to her cheeks; reddening.
“I really liked your argument about how the strong women through history being demonized by historians”
Shaun looked at her. “ I admire anyone who doesn’t just follow what the crowd does just to fit in” he shyly added. “ like you. I mean you don’t follow what the other girls do. You don’t plaster on make up or hang around the guys waiting to be noticed, or talk like some demented idiot”
Their eyes met and for the first time Carlas face remained its normal shade.