Rodrick

Rodrick Heffley had a lot of problems.
Löded Diper was constantly falling apart. His parents were annoying. Greg was… well, Greg. And somehow, there was always something going wrong at school.
Falling in love was definitely not on the list.
Especially not with a theater kid.
They had been around school for months. Always carrying a script, always rushing to rehearsal, always disappearing into the auditorium after classes. Rodrick had barely paid attention at first.
At least, that's what he told himself.
Then he started noticing little things.
They always sat in the same spot before rehearsal. They tapped their fingers against their script whenever they were nervous. They laughed way too hard at stupid jokes. And whenever they walked past Rodrick and his friends, Rodrick somehow became extremely interested in whatever was happening on the other side of the hallway.
Ben and Chris hadn't noticed.
And Rodrick intended to keep it that way.
He hadn't told them.
He hadn't told anyone.
Not even when Ben asked why Rodrick suddenly knew what time theater rehearsal ended.
“Why do you even know that?” Ben had asked.
Rodrick had immediately shrugged.
“I don't. I just guessed.”
Chris had looked at him suspiciously.
“Sure.”
Rodrick had ignored them.
There was absolutely no way he was going to admit that he sometimes stayed at school longer just because they were still inside the auditorium.
He'd rather eat Greg's leftover cafeteria food for a week.
One afternoon, Rodrick was sitting in the hallway with Ben and Chris, lazily spinning a drumstick between his fingers.
“Let's go,” Ben said. “We've got nothing to do here.”
Rodrick glanced toward the auditorium.
“Go ahead.”
Chris frowned. “Aren't you coming?”
“In a minute.”
Ben stared at him.
“You've said 'in a minute' for like twenty minutes.”
Rodrick rolled his eyes.
“Then wait another minute.”
Ben and Chris eventually left.
Rodrick waited until they would come.