As soon as I pick up the envelope, the machine Vicky built into my locker chirps, "You have ten seconds to spell the following word: 'Dodecasyllable'."

Without thinking twice about it, I spell the word correctly, and instantly, a piece of paper appears in my hand, no doubt consisting of a dodecasyllable.

More interested in checking out the envelope, I throw away the piece of paper without even sparing it a glance.

I carefully unseal the envelope, taking care not to rip the red heart seal, and find a baby pink note inside it. In red 'Love Letters' font, it is printed:

Your eyes are gorgeous, and so are you,

You look pretty in anything, it is true,

Even on the days when you're feeling blue.

~Your Secret Admirer

OMG, this note is adorable!! I look around the hallway, trying to figure out who dropped it in my locker. I bet it's from Noah! :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I sit through Biology class, unable to pay attention to the lesson, my mind still on the note. How sweet of Noah!

Once the lesson is over, I head to the cafeteria for lunch, chatting with Nicole on the way. I decide not to tell her about the note just yet. I'll tell her once I figure out who wrote it.

"Did you hear about the dance this weekend?" Nicole giggles excitedly.

I shake my head, confused. "What dance?"

In an official tone, Nicole explains, "The annual MMA masquerade bash will take place this weekend, on Friday." Dropping the act, she squeals, "And guess what the theme is... A Magical Winter's Eve!"

Excitedly, I grin, "A masquerade bash? No way!"

"Yes way! OMG, we totally have to go shopping tonight!"

"I'd love to!" After a minute, I groan, "I can't. I have spelling bee practice tonight."

"Come on! Lately, you're always busy with spelling bee practices!" Nicole pouts.

"Oh lighten up! Vicky just really wants to win. It'll be over in two weeks anyway. Then we'll go shopping every day!"

Nicole smirks. "And when we get into the elevator, every time someone enters, we'll be like, 'We've been expecting you...'"

We laugh our way to the cafeteria, and when we get there, I see Noah eating lunch with his basketball teammates on the other side of the hall.

Nicole and I part ways, and I quietly creep up behind Noah, and place my hands over his eyes, my bracelets jangling.

With a smile, Noah mutters, "Hmm... I wonder who it is..."

Teasingly, I respond, "The prettiest girl you've ever seen."

Playfully, he says, "Oh I know... Lucy Hale?"

At that, the boys at the table (who had been surprisingly quiet till now) began hooting and hollering, "Ohhhhhhhh..."

I punch Noah in the arm playfully, and take a seat beside him, looking everywhere but at him, pretending to be angry.

Chuckling, Noah consoles, "I was kidding, I was kidding!"

Giggling, I move to peck him on the cheek, but he turns his head swiftly and catches me on the lips.

The guy sitting on the other side of Noah fist-bumps him, "Very smooth, captain!"

I chat with the boys for a while, and we talk and laugh about our most embarrassing moments in high school.

At one point, this guy called Adam tells us a hilarious story from his freshman year:

"On the first day of my freshman year, we had a pop quiz in math, and I was the first to finish. I got up to hand in my sheet of paper, and when I went back to my seat, I collapsed into it loudly to act cool and let everyone know that I'd finished. But when I did so, the chair actually broke into four pieces, and we had to call the custodian to get me a new chair. For the rest of the year, I was known as 'the chair-breaker'."

As I recover from a fit of snorts at that tale, Noah spots the secret admirer note I placed beside my lunch tray.

"What's that?" he inquires curiously.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you... thanks for the note. It's adorable!"

"What note?" Noah asks, puzzled.

"Oh as if you don't know!" I hand him the note and peck him on the cheek.

After reading the note, he cautiously says, "Rhea?"

"Yeah?"

He shakes his head slowly. "I didn't write this."

Well if Noah didn't write it, then who did?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey Vicky." I open the door to my house, where I find Vicky (with his usual bag of spelling papers) still in his school uniform.

"Hey!" he grins. "How's that machine I installed in your locker working out? Is it helping at all?"

"Yeah, it's great." Proudly, I brag, "Today, I spelled the word 'dodecasyllable' right in one go, without even thinking twice about it."

"That's great." A genuine smile crosses his face. "Man, we have got to win this Bee. It would be like a dream come true!"

I smile softly. I don't know about myself, but I do know that Vicky really deserves to win. And I'm actually starting to get pretty competitive too. Just imagine how good 'Spelling Bee Champion' would look on my college application!

We head down to the living room and commence our usual regime of practice. We spend half an hour poring over Vicky's old spelling bee word lists, and then we start with the flash card practice.

Suddenly, I remember something I'd been meaning to talk to him about.

"Oh by the way, remember what our English professor announced in class today about the spelling bee? That in the competition, although both partners will discuss the spelling of the word given, only one will recite it. Do you mind being the spokesperson for our team?" I ask hopefully. If I don't have to recite any of the spellings, the chances of anyone finding out about my powers would be pretty slim.

Vicky looks thoughtful. "Why do you want me to be the spokesperson?"

I shrug nonchalantly. "Well, because you have more experience with spelling bees. If you leave it up to me, I might jack it all up."

It's not a lie... it's just not the entire truth.

Vicky's thoughtful frown deepens. "Hmm... alright, we'll see."

We begin the flash card game, and after a few rounds, Vicky says, "Spell the word 'kielbasa'."

Ohhh no! That's gonna pretty hard to hide!

Reluctantly, I spell the word out correctly, and almost instantaneously, a kielbasa on a plate appears on the ground next to me.

Vicky suddenly looks troubled. Trying to cover it up, I exclaim, "Speaking of kielbasas, I actually made one today. Here, try it." I hand him the plate with the Polish sausage on it.

"How did that get there?" Vicky demands, looking dazed.

"I told you... I just randomly felt like cooking one today." I really hope he buys the explanation.

Vicky looks into my eyes, his own, confused and a little scared. He starts to say, more to himself than to me, "Every time you spell out an object, it appears in front of us. You hate jokes which tell you to spell stuff. You even want me to recite the spellings at the spelling bee."

With a look of determination and a tone of finality, he states, "You have some sort of magical powers!"

*****************************************************************************************************

OMG, Vicky figured it out! Told you he's pretty smart! What do you guys think is gonna happen? And who do you think wrote the secret admirer note? Comment your opinions below!

Picture up on top is of Rhea and Vicky, just to remind you guys what he looks like.

VOTE! COMMENT!

~Ananya