Gym Class

Chapter 2

Fast forward a few weeks to our Volley Ball unit in gym class. Jaime and I were partners, as usual. We were lined up across from each other on opposite sides of the net so we could serve it over. Beside me was Jess and for some reason, she was extremely hyper. I had never seen her this way before.

After about 10 minutes of that Mrs James, our supply teacher for the day, called us over to her.

"You've gotta squat under it." Jessica announced as we headed over to the group. She dropped low and side stepped under the net. I laughed and tried it myself but i didn't drop low enough and my pony tail got stuck.

Jessica laughed and laughed as I struggled to get my hair out. "Here let me help." She giggled and she leaned over top of me. Her long, slender fingers quickly untangled my hair from the net.

"All good." She smirked as she lightly ran her fingertips along my back, causing my body to shudder involuntarily. It wasn't that I didn't like it, I loved it. I needed her touch. I longed to feel her hands around my waist and her chin resting on my shoulder. We played a game of volleyball for almost the rest of the class but then, 15 minutes before it ended, we were called back in.

"Alright girls," started Mrs James. "Get in a circle, we're doing core." Everyone groaned and stomped their way into a circle.

"What if I don't have a core?" I heard Jessica say beside me.

"I don't have one either so it's okay." Jaime laughed.

"Can we just do some Jumping Jacks?" I called out after we had just finished doing 25 push ups, 25 crunches and 25 sit ups.

Mrs James looked over at me and then called out, "Plank for a minute!"

"This is the farthest thing from jumping jacks." I groaned dramatically. Jessica, who was already in plank position, started laughing so hard that she fell and landed on her stomach.

Back in the change room we were all laughing about all the things that happened in class. It had finally gone silent and I was putting on my shirt when I heard someone go "oh dear lord please no" followed by laughter. I looked and saw Jessica and this girl, Olivia, laughing. Jessica saw me looking at her and held up a broken shirt strap from the tank top she was wearing.

Jaime, a few other girls and I were all laughing as Olivia tied the broken strap to the back of Jessica's bra.

"What are you doing for lunch?" Jessica asked me after we had all settled down.

"I'm not quite sure." I told her.

"Do you want to come with me to hangout with Kayla?" She asked. Kayla was a friend of both of us. Jess had gone to school with Kayla since she was 4 and Kayla had been my neighbour since my family moved in 7 years ago.

We stopped in at the cafeteria first to grab some fries and a drink. "God damnit." I heard Jess mutter as she looked into the fridge.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"They only have apple juice in a can! I want apple juice in the big girl cup!" She whined dramatically. She took the canned juice and angrily stomped over to the register. Her smile reappeared once she saw that there were donuts.

My school makes the best donuts. They're extremely rare, like once every two months. They never last long, 10 minutes tops. Jessica went to grab one but a boy was blocking her way.

"I'll just wait." She sighed. The boy went to pay for his food, gave the lunch lady a $5 bill and said, "and I'll also get a chocolate donut." He then turned around and grabbed the last chocolate donut in the container.

Jessica's mouth dropped open and her eyes flashed with anger. She quickly grabbed a vanilla donut and handed the lunch lady some money before we left the caf. Jessica munched angrily on her donut as we made our way up the stairs.

"Today is not my day." She shrugged, once she had finished it. The fact that she was so calm and collected about it now made it that much funnier. I completely lost it. People stared at me in the halls because of my outrageous laughter. Jessica had a small smirk on her face, showing me that she was proud at her ability to make me laugh like this.

Upstairs we joined Kayla, who was with a bunch of her friends. We sat on the floor, in front of her friend Amanda's locker.

I never knew how crazy Jessica actually was until today. These were her friends from before high school. Here and these four other people had grown up together and I was the odd one out. I didn't really mind, I made friends quick and I already knew most of them.

Almost as soon as we sat down Jessica was arguing with A.J., a short, stalky boy that I had a few classes with last semester.

"A.J. Remember when we were friends?" Jessica asked him in the middle of their argument. "In grade 7 you were like my only friend."

"I have no Idea what you're talking about." A.J. said, with a dumb look on his face.

"What do you mean? We ate lunch together like every day. We dated too. For like a month."

"Yeah I remember dating but it was like a week, definitely not a month. And we were never really good friends." He told her. His face was dead serious. Hers, on the other hand, was filled with sadness. Obviously something had happened between the two that A.J. just wanted to forget. It was pretty awkward after A.J. said that. Thankfully Lucas decided to cheer Jessica up. I don't know if that was what he intended to do but it ended up working.

Lucas took some of the popcorn he had and started throwing it at Jess. She was picking out a few pieces from her hair when he started hitting her in the face with them. That's when she started throwing them back. The two play-fought for another few minutes until a teacher walking down the hallways scolded them for their behaviour. This caused them to crack up, their laughter seeming to wipe Jessica's mind of A.J.