#thought the cubs were gonna win yesterday and they definitely did not

[pen-masta]

Duly Noted Part 4

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Castel has been spending his Saturday morning pacing around his room again and again. He picks up the letter off of his bed to examine it again. He’s held his black-light flashlight up to it in search of some kind of hidden message or hint that this is a prank--he’s found none. He has letters and cards from the past spread out on his bed. He has cross referenced the writing with notes from his mom, letters from the Curtis sisters, and cards from Joy. He’s even looked at ones from his dad and his brothers, just to be thorough. But the tone doesn’t match with any one’s writing.

He huffs and plops down in his computer chair. He just can’t believe this is real, there’s gotta be some kind of catch or something! He skims the letter over again. Your teeth sparkle and shine and are just as luminous as your smile itself, he reads in his head.

Okay so this is obviously from someone who has seen him and she must be from school because she talks about the catastrophe in the lunchroom yesterday. Who has he seen though? He doesn’t really conversate that often with any girls--other than Joy. And anytime he does it normally ends in laughter, but this obviously is a girl he hasn’t spoken to--if he had she probably wouldn’t have laughed at him or anything like that.

He sighs and grabs a pen off of his desk and he begins to click it as he concentrates. The person focuses mainly on his smile, so she’s definitely seen him around. She also mentions his intelligence and humor, no one can make a judgement like that based solely on a smile so she must have heard him speak. So she must be near him at some point in the day, maybe she’s in some of the same classes. And that perfume...he knows he’s smelled that scent before.

He taps his foot to the tempo of his pen clicking. She wants to get to know him better and he wants to know who she is. And there’s nothing else he can get from this single letter so...he might as well reach out to her and hope for the best.

He sighs and spins around to his laptop. He opens an email to the address she gave him and he starts to type. He deletes and rewrites it several times within the hour. When his fingers stop moving he takes his hands away from the keyboard and reads over the email.

Dear Secret Admirer,

Thank you for the compliments and I’m flattered--I’ll be honest you’ve kind of caught me off guard. Your letter came as a great surprise and it really did kind of lift my spirits from yesterday’s incident; but I’m still a little skeptical about all of this. Please understand it’s not that I don’t believe your intentions are true I am just not that quick to trust people--but I do want to trust you eventually. You mentioned that Catch Less Cassie is not a name I like, which is true, but it means I am single. I am single and I’m guessing you are too? And from what I understand the place you’ve seen me is at school, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen you. ‘I know you from school’ is a very vague statement. Is there a more specific connection we have?

You have me at a slight disadvantage, you appear to know a lot about me and I know nothing about you. You seem so interested in me, but I can’t say I am about you until I get to actually know you. I’d really like to get to know you better, and perhaps it seems weird but I think the best way to do that is if I ask you a few questions. Please just bare with me on this.

1. What is your favorite quote?

2. Do you judge a book by it’s cover? Please don’t say ‘no of course not’ I want an honest answer.

3. What’s one thing you hope we share on common ground?

4. If you could meet anyone past or present who would it be? Why?

I’m sure these questions sound strange, but if you really want to get to know me better you will answer. If you respond I’ll know you’re serious and that this is real. I hope to hear from you soon.

-Sincerely,

Castel Cubs

There. Informative, direct, and gets right down to business. He nods and presses send feeling very confident. If he gets a response alright, but if he doesn’t it’s not like it was really detrimental. He leans back in his chair and smiles a little at the thought of getting a response, a little mystery in his life would be exciting.

“Your move admirer,” he says and closes his laptop.

He looks at his watch and sighs a little seeing it’s almost three in the afternoon. He and Joy didn’t really do anything yesterday other than work, he didn’t even stay for dinner. He knew she really wanted to hang out and stuff last night--after all it was Friday night. But he was still feeling kind of depressed and then this whole secret admirer bizz came up; he just wasn’t in the mood for hanging out and having Friend Fun.

When they finished their work she had tried to get him to play some video games, but he declined and asked for a rain check. He looks out his window to see the sun shinning high in the big blue sky. He smiles feeling the warm breeze float through the open window and into his room.

“The orchard just opened up again and everything is in bloom,” he thinks out loud and stands up. “Maybe Jo-jo will want to go for a stroll.”

Feeling energetic and happy he pulls on his jean jacket as he hops down the stairs smiling.

=============

Haley comes down the steps to see Joy sprawled out on the couch dawning her old band t-shirt and fuzzy shorty-shorts she wore to bed last night. Her hair is a mess as she quietly munches on a bowl of Fruit Loops, watching colorful cartoons.

She smiles warmly at her baby sister and hops into the spot next to her.

“Hey short stack,” Haley smiles. “It’s three o’clock, are you not planning on getting dressed anytime today?”

Joy smirks and swirls her spoon around in her half empty cereal bowl, “Nope I’m bummin’ it today.”

Haley nods, “I’m guessing Castel will not be making an appearance today?”

Joy shrugs and sighs a little, “Not today, hose-ah.” She smiles weakly, “He was still really down yesterday so I’m sure he’ll be brooding all weekend.”

“He did seem kind of out of it yesterday,” Haley nods.

Joy hums in agreement munching on another spoon full of colorful circles. Haley can feel her sister’s sorrow, Joy is never herself when she doesn’t get to be with Castel. Yeah he needs his time and she gets that, but when he needs time alone it effects Joy’s alone time greatly. She hates seeing her peppy, energetic, bubbly sister down in the dumps without her best friend. She decides to move the subject in a different direction.

“Did he get the letter?” Haley asks propping her feet up on the coffee table.

“He did,” Joy smiles. “He didn’t share it with me though so I’m not sure what he thinks of it.”

Haley nods, “So do you think he responded to our little note?”

Joy shrugs, “Not sure.”

“You haven’t checked the email?” Haley asks in surprise.

Joy shrugs again, “No I haven’t. I didn’t think he’d respond at all this weekend, what with the way he was acting yesterday.”

“Well maybe he did,” Haley says excitedly. “Come on get your laptop! Let’s see!” She says poking Joy’s side repeatedly until she giggles and bats Haley’s hand away.

“Alright, alright you win. I’m getting up.” Joy giggles and puts her bowl down on the coffee table.

She opens her laptop and logs into the email account she made the other day for Castel’s secret admirer.

“We should come up with a name for her,” Haley pipes as Joy logs in.

“What for?” Joy asks

“Well if Castel is as great of a detective as you say,” she smirks, “he’ll probably start trying to research her soon. So if we make a name for her and set up like an account on some social media cite it’ll kind of throw him a bone.”

“Well I don’t know that seems kind of--hey! He responded!” Joy squeaks and opens the message.

She reads it out loud and Haley skims over it as Joy reads. 

“Sincerely, Castel Cubs.” Joy chews her bottom lip before sighing loudly, “Gosh he’s so smart!”

“This is gonna get tricky,” Haley hums. “If you answer them like you would he’ll get suspicious. You gotta word them very carefully short stack.”

“I thought we were doing this together?” Joy asks

“No,” Haley smiles. “I said you were writing the notes to him, I’ll just be here for help and ideas.”

Joy playfully scowls at her sister and Haley sticks her tongue out at Joy.

“Alright let’s see,” Joy hums rereading Castel’s email. “Well I think we should start out the email just talking, maybe another compliment. Then go into his questions.”

Haley nods, “I agree.”

“I think it’s only fair to ask him questions too,” Joy smirks. “Because then his secret admirer will get to know him better.”

Haley smiles, “Yeah. Oh! How about Abby!”

“Abby for what?”

“Her name,” Haley says.

Joy wrinkles her nose, “Cassie would never be into an Abby.”

Haley scowls, “Ok how about Nichole.”

Joy snorts, “To pretentious.”

“Taylor?”

“Too plain.”

“Mary?”

“Too basic.”

Haley huffs, “Ok Miss Know It All how about you pick a name.”

Joy pauses for a moment searching for the perfect name for their mystery girl.

“How about Robin.”

“Robin?”

Joy smiles, “Yeah Robin Violet Gray. Kind of unique, interesting, and mysterious.”

“Alright,” Haley agrees. “Robin it is.”

Joy smiles and looks back at the computer screen, “Ok so let’s get down to business.”

“To defeat,” Haley smiles.

“THE HUNS!!!” The two girls sing loudly before giggling.

“Alright seriously though,” Haley smiles. “Let’s start with the compliment. What else is great about Castel?”

“Well we’ve already complimented his smile, his humor, his brains, and his body...” Joy hums and twirls her hair around her finger thinking. “I think we can go with--”

Joy is cut off by a loud knocking. The two both eye the door from the couch then look at each other. They have a quick rock, paper, scissors battle to see who will get up to answer the door. Joy growls pouting that she lost as she waddles to the door.

“Little hi little low,” she smiles as she opens the door.

“Little hey little ho,” Castel grins back completing the movie quote.

Joy blinks in surprise, “Cassie! Wow I didn’t expect to see you today.” She grins hearing Haley slam the laptop closed behind her.

Castel chuckles, “I see that.” He says gesturing to her attire.

Joy playfully sticks her tongue out at him, “What the hey hey why you over here?”

“What am I not welcome anymore?” He teases

Joy rolls her eyes, “No dum-dum I just figured you were still upset about the whole...you know and I wouldn’t be seeing ya at all this weekend. Not to mention I haven’t heard from you so...” she shrugs.

Castel rubs the back of his neck and smiles sheepishly, “Yeah, yeah I’m sorry about that. I should have just let it go and stuff.”

Joy smiles kindly, “No need to be sorry I know it was really upsetting for you Casanova.”

He smiles softly before clearing his throat, “Anyways I was wondering if you were busy?”

Joy chews her bottom lip, “Well I’m actually in the middle of something with Haley right now.”

His eyes show his hurt, even though he manages to hold his smile. As soon as Joy sees the darkening of his eyes she knows she’s made a grave mistake.

“Oh well if you’re busy it’s ok.” He nods and turns to leave, but she grabs the sleeve of his jacket.

“Cassie what is it?” She asks concerned.

He shrugs and suddenly finds the ground really interesting, “I was just wondering if you wanted to go down to the orchard with me. It’s a beautiful day out I thought maybe we could just...” he clears his throat. “But it’s ok no worries, I understand you’re busy.”

Sugar! His rain check! Ugh! Why did she say she was busy!?

“Cassie,” she starts but he smiles and shakes his head.

“It’s cool Jo-jo you’re not even dressed to go out. We can go another day or--hey!” He yelps when she pulls him inside the house.

“Give me ten minutes,” she instructs tossing him onto the couch before spinning around to Haley. “We’ll finish up later sis.” She says before dashing up the stairs.

Castel sits up on the couch and readjusts his jacket. He nods to Haley as his greeting and she smiles back at him.

“What were you guys working on? Not something super important I hope.” He smiles a little truly worried he’s interrupted some major project or conversation between Haley and her sister.

Haley shakes her head and tucks the laptop under her arm, “Nothing important at all Cas, I assure you. Don’t worry about it, just some girl stuff.” She stands up and heads to the den, “Go have fun with her Cassie.” She says before disappearing.

He sits alone on the couch hearing the sound of muffled footsteps running back and forth on the floor above him. A smile curls his lips looking forward to spending some long over due alone time with Joy. He’s glad he came over.