The Way I Am

3. The One With the Teasing

After a while, Mara got bored observing the kids in the library. While she took glances at John, who was trying to intimidate Johnson, she decided to take her sketch book from her backpack. She grabbed her color pencils and started to fill in the abstract image she had created a few days ago. Mara loved to paint and draw; it was her passion.

Drifting her sight to the art in front of her, she saw how Johnson kept looking at John. She felt bad for the kid, because he seemed like a nice guy. Even though, she wasn't in bad terms with Bender, she understood that sometimes he could be difficult and a bit of a jerk.

While she tried to concentrate in her coloring, she heard a particular noise of a paper being folded. She turned her gaze towards the causative of it all. She saw how John threw a ball of paper between Claire and Andrew who ignored him.

John started to hum the rhythm of Sunshine of your Love by Cream. Head banging to Bender's tunes, Mara kept coloring, until he shouted, "Oh shit!" which caused the attention of everyone in the room.

"What are we supposed to do to take a piss?" he added, looking around.

"Pee in your pants?" Mara replied, without thinking. Bender smirked at her. He knew she was joking, but he took that to his advantage to play around with the rest.

"You gotta go, you gotta go," he said, unzipping his pants.

"Oh my God!" Claire expressed while Andrew turned around to look at Bender.

"Hey, you are not urinating in here, man," Andre said.

"Don't talk, don't talk. It makes it crawl back up," John said, making Mara laugh. She understood he was joking. She was not friends with him, but she knew his kind. He liked to tease people because it was part of his persona.

"You whip it out and you are dead before the first drop hits the floor," Andrew threatened, which cause Mara to stare at him. The wrestler always took things too seriously. It was obvious that John was hated by a lot of people in the school, especially by the popular kids.

"You're pretty sexy when you get angry," Bender responded, as his stare never left the athlete.

"Not even angry he is sexy to me. I've seen better faces," Mara replied. Bender turned around and winked at her. "Like mine?" John asked. "Sure," Mara replied, smirking.

"Shut up!" Andrew shouted, looking at Mara. When he was about to say something else, John interrupted him, "Don't even think about it." Andrew stared at Bender and then turned around to his previous place. Mara noticed Bender's tension when Andrew had yelled at her. She didn't read too much into it, but she was grateful, that John was defending her.

"Hey, homeboy, why don't you go close that door? We get the prom queen impregnated," John expressed, looking at Claire. Mara laughed at John's funny comments, but taking it too far didn't get the same response for her. She shook her head in disbelief.

"Hey!" Andrew shouted, earning a "what?" question from Bender.

"You are total, man," the wrestler snapped.

"Totally?" Bender responded

"Totally," Andrew repeated.

"Why don't you shut up? Nobody here is interested," Claire snapped, turning towards John.

"Speak for yourself, princess," Mara tilted, looking at the prom queen, who only glared in return. Andrew whispered something that Mara wasn't able to hear, and John asked him what he did to get in detention.

"Maybe he bored someone to death," Mara expressed, laughing, making Johnson react the same way as John smirked at her comment.

"Fellas, I think we should just write our papers," Johnson, who tried to calm the tension in the room, was completely ignored by the conversation Bender and Andrew were having.

"Because you and smart mouth live here doesn't give you the right to be a pain in the ass, so knock it off," Andrew yelled angrily which only received a simple responded from Bender, "It's a free country."

"He is just doing it to get a rise out of you. Just ignore him," she raged.

"Sweets, you couldn't ignore me if you try," John retorted. Mara couldn't understand the small pinch of jealousy that surrounded her at his comments towards Claire, so she opted to ignore everything else the rest of them said, and continue to color in her book.

Even though she tried to make the rest of the words become a blur, she still wasn't able to completely ignore them. Hearing John asked if Claire and Andrew were boyfriend and girlfriend didn't gave Mara a single care in the world. It was obvious to Mara that all John was trying to do was annoy the popular pair. Coloring, Mara jumped in her sit at the shout of both the wrestler and the princess. Hearing Vernon's voice meant that these kids were going to cause trouble for all of them.

Mara was all to teasing the popular kids that annoyed her every day as she passed the school's halls, but she didn't want to spend a third Saturday in detention when her mother needed her at the diner. Debating whether it was going to be a good day or not, she noticed Bender getting out of his seat.

What is he up to now? she thought to herself, waiting for what the bad boy was going to do next.