Offenders

Offenders (5)

Vanessa seemed very excited over something. That kind of scared me a little, to be honest.

“What are you staring at?” she snapped as she walked by my desk in one of the two classes I had with her. I blinked at her and didn’t look away.

“What are you so happy about?” I had to ask, since it was a little unsettling that she was smiling so much. I almost only ever saw her with a scowl. Since I knew she didn’t want to actually be friends with me, she stopped trying to be nice. It actually didn’t really bother me all that much.

“In case you somehow haven’t heard,” she began snippily, and I had to stop myself from rolling my eyes at her. I really couldn’t believe that she hated me so much just because I was close friends with Dex. “There’s a rally tomorrow. Don’t you listen?”

I could only give her a strange look. “Why are you so excited over a… rally?”

Vanessa continued to scowl at me as if I was the stupidest person on the planet, and I kind of felt like I was, since I had absolutely no idea what a rally was.

“Because,” she continued now slowly, as if I was a child, “dance always performs at the rallies, and I like to show off my talent as much as I possibly can.”

I continued to just stare at her, still not really understanding a single word she was saying. She then grew tired of this conversation and continued on her way to her seat. I didn’t stop her.

What had she even been talking about? What was a rally? I mean, I knew what the word meant, but I didn’t know how that had anything to do with school.

Later that day at lunch as I sat with my friends, my teammates, I asked them this question.

“So… Vanessa was talking about a rally this morning,” I blinked, feeling a little embarrassed about not knowing what it was when everyone else seemed to. “What’s a rally?”

Dex looked at me like he couldn’t believe what I was saying. “You really were locked in your room for five years, weren’t you?”

I didn’t see why that had to be brought up. “Yeah, but why is that important?”

“You probably shouldn’t ask questions like that around humans,” Anthony informed me now, and I was still annoyed with the fact that none of them were telling me what a rally was. “Unless you want them knowing you spent five years locked inside your bedroom.”

That was not something I wanted humans to know, that was for sure. It would have been weird, right? I didn’t want anyone thinking I was strange, and I knew spending five years in my room was definitely strange.

I figured that I’d have to restrain myself from a lot of questions. If I didn’t understand something, I’d just have to wait to ask my teammates what it meant if they weren’t around.

“A rally is kind of like a celebration, or a party,” Anthony explained to me, but I still didn’t really understand. “Kind of. They pile the whole school together into the gym and we’re supposed to scream and cheer and play games… I was never into it.”

Aiden rolled his eyes. “I wonder why.”

“They’re too loud,” Dex complained with a shake of his head. “That’s why I hate them. Except the cheerleaders and dancers in revealing outfits usually make up for it.”

I remembered what Vanessa said about dancing earlier. She was obviously going to be a part of it, dancing in revealing clothing for all to see. Including Dex. I felt my stomach turn.

Lena shook her head. “You’re a pig.”

Dex shrugged. “I like girls. Sue me.”

“You don’t like girls. You like—”