Lexi, Cassie, BB and Maddy walked in a huddle to their lockers when Lexi began sharing the information she scoured. "So she has a small group of friends that she's always with and they never go to any party. They have their own small parties that no one's ever invited to. About the "violent streak"? Nobody's heard anything about her or seen her getting into fights. Everybody knows her as a sweet and strange girl except Tammy Johnson, I don't know if you know her."
"We don't," assured BB, "Move on." The others nodded.
"Okay. Sonia has two older brothers and a younger sister in middle school. Now, Tammy passed out three years ago and studied with one of the brothers. Tammy said that their father was a professional boxer and owns a gym, but it's a small one for only adults with memberships. So she could be getting lessons with her Dad or something like that. So maybe that's what she meant by saying that she can throw a punch."
"I didn't know she had brothers," said Maddy to herself and then loudly asked Lexi, "What are her brothers names?"
"Why do you need to know that?" asked Cassie.
"Cause what if I hooked up with them? I don't want no Alabama."
"My God," sighed Lexi before saying, "Her brothers are Rahul and Sam."
"I know Rahul," said Maddy. "He's that jock that got bullied out of the football team when we were freshmen."
"And I guess that means Sam was one of the first gays at East Highland. He was beaten up for it," said BB. "Your very dear Nate's older brother was in on it."
"Why don't we remember any of it?" asked Cassie.
"Maybe because we were in 3rd or 4th year," BB said shrugging.
"How do you know all this?"
"Had to do some digging on the queer history of our school for a friend." Cassie shot her a confused look but she didn't spill.
Maddy didn't hear Cassie and BB, "So I haven't fucked either of them. Sonia's clear."
"Doesn't any of this feel wrong to you guys?" asked Lexi from behind. They hadn't realized that Lexi had stopped walking with them until then. BB and Cassie turned around to face her and Maddy walked towards her. She took Lexi's hands and said, "Look, I just don't want to repeat my mistakes. That's why I'm doing this."
"Not to just prove a point?"
"That's... a part of everything, of wanting to be better," Maddy said and sweetly smiled. "The point I want to prove is that I can change and be a good person. That I'm not just some heartless bitch."
Lexi looked straight into Maddy's trying to see if there was any lie and Maddy let her. She couldn't find any. "...Okay. So was I of help?"
"A lot."
"Cool. Do you need anything else?"
"No. Thank you."
"You're welcome." She looked at her sister and said, "I'm going to class now. Bye." She waved a small farewell to Maddy and BB and walked away feeling powerful. Lexi chose to not warn Sonia, trusting Maddy. A small mistake.
The girls went to their classes, excited for Maddy's Bio class.
*****
Getting her lab coat on, she entered the slowly filling Bio Lab and hurried to Sonia, who took position at one of the tables at the back and was leaned to the side to talk to two friends of hers. She stood in front of Sonia and interrupted the conversation with a smile and a "Hi!"
Sonia saw her eyes sparkle like a kid's when they see ice cream or something they love and was slightly unnerved. "Hi..." She removed the tiny shock from her face and replaced with a soft smile, "Do you need something Maddy?"
"I... was wondering if you'd let me be your lab partner today," she said as she applied her charm thick.
"Uh...," Sonia wasn't expecting of this kind to ever happen to her and took a look at her friends for advice. They shrugged. "Um, well, I promised I'd help somebody with the dissection if we're doing it today. If we're not you can stay, but if we are dissecting again, you'll need to find another seat."
"Uh, yeah," she gulped. She wasn't expecting to be turned down. "Can I wait here till Mr. Ramirez says what we're doing today?" she asked still smiling.
"Yeah, sure." Sonia knew what she said hurted Maddy which got her confused. Why would she be hurt by me saying no? Many people are better at this shit than me, many people who'd love to help her in a heartbeat. Why did she ask me? Maddy placed her things on the right of the table awkwardly, two steps away from Sonia.
The dude who had asked Sonia for help came through the door and she brushed past Maddy when she went to talk to him. As she went to him, Maddy's eyes roamed up and down her body. To Maddy's surprise, flannels, plain tees and cargo pants turned her on. She blushed and kept following Sonia's hands, lips, rogue hair strands and eyes with her eyes, Sonia's friends saw all this from the table to the left.
Sonia asked people to shift around and got the guy a seat and a partner to help him out. Making sure he and the girl at the table were comfortable, she walked back to her table and smiled at Maddy saying, "You can stay here if you still want to, I got a seat for the kid I said I'd help."
She smiled back, "Thank you! You're so kind."
Sonia gave a tight-lipped smile and said, "Thanks."
Mr. Ramirez called order to the room and once order settled in, he announced, "I said last class that we'd repeat the dissection and its formalities, but we don't have enough specimens this week. So we'll be taking care of it in the next lab class. So today we're doing-"
Maddy leaned over to Sonia and whispered, "I don't like how they're called specimens. They were real creatures until you killed them."
Sonia whispered back with her eyes on the teacher, "But calling them animals or anything else makes it worse. You feel guilty for wanting to learn a subject that is fundamental to progress."
"Yeah, but I still don't think it's right."
"Well, if it's any comfort, I'm pretty sure they're bred to be specimens. So we're not destroying the ecological balance and they haven't lived outside their cages, so they don't practically have lives."
"So they won't have friends or sisters and brothers?"
"Uh...," she turned her head to face Maddy and said, "I don't know." She chuckled. "If you wanna be in my group for the next project, we can take that as our topic. 'Specimen Breeding... and it's Ecological Imbalance' or something."
Maddy smiled back. "Yeah."
The two of them sat through the class trying to conceal their smiles from everyone and get the work done as they got hypnotized by each other.
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AN: I hope you liked this chapter! If you did, would you please vote on for it? The next chapter comes Monday.
Till then,
Persephone
YOU ARE READING
Maddy and Me
Romance"I really do love you. It didn't start in a good place, I admit, but these feelings I've grown for you are very much real!" said Maddy, crying. "And how am I supposed to know if that's true? This entire thing could just be in my head! Maybe you foun...
