Since, A Novel

xi. ONLY ONE HAD A THROAT & THUS DESERVING

          "I heard that, you shit!" shouted the guy again.

          "See?" Yūn joined Kate's chuckles.

          "I'm going home. I'll eat all your chips and mom
          will kill you because you got a kid hurt!" then he looked at Yūn on the ground. "Not my bad, kid; she was
s'posed to catch the ball, for chrissakes."

     The tall girl, Kate, had tried to lift Yūn up off the ground. Yūn had grunted even more when she had stood up and her butt hurt.

          "Ow,"
         "There, there!" she yells in lowercase. "Real sorry! 
          You got a name, kid?"
          "Yūn,"
          "Great, okay, Yūn, not much of a talker, huh? We live on the 3rd street across the burger shack. You tried it?" she didn't wait for Yūn to answer, she was a fast talker. "Where's your house? The graze shouldn't be so bad," there was a bright smile on her face despite the dirt. Her blonde hair was a mess and there were leaves on it. The white tee that she wore was dirty, too, like she was just done plumbing and fixing the car. "Hold onto the tree, I'll get the bike."

     Kate Roman was the kind of girl who would stare back at the guys who'd check you out when you are using the bike home because your skirt just happened to be darn short (she had actually stared back at the guys and had thrown rocks at them, one of them cried). She would look at you with so much hate and loathe you with all her soul when you'd eat her snacks or sneeze in her direction. She would make fun of you first before helping you but she would take off her high-cut Converse to kill the fly that kept sitting on your nose and laugh again when she accidentally hit you. And she would laugh, again, before saying the truth so you'd think she's not being serious. And her laugh tended to be funnier than the jokes she'd tell—and those were Yūn's favorite things about her, but she just couldn't understand why her best friend would transfer into another school all of the sudden and not tell why.

     The backdoor near the bleachers opened with a grating, creaking sound, indicating that there was a company. That gymnasium was much wider—it was where the school intramural would take place every year and only the one where the players were all upper-grade students and would compete with other schools—than the one in the west side of the school where the mini theaters had been held. Yun had continued laying low on the bench, still with the book covering her face having thought that it must be one of the maintenance staff or guards who'd check the place, having considered that it was way past lunchtime and everyone would be busy again after a short break. Yūn had heard no sound and had turned her position, placing the book on the spot next to her head.

          "So this was the book, huh? The one you were
          reading the other day,"

     Yūn took a little moment to let the voice sink in before opening her eyes. It was, yet again, Georgette Wills. Yūn lifted herself up from the position and she'd found Georgette standing before her, with the book in her hand and the other arched on her hip. She wore the school's varsity jacket and her wide denim pants were stained with red and yellow. A blue paint didn't hide the smug look on her face with her ginger hair in a high pony-tail.

          "I knew it," the girl says, "This Evelyn girl was a
          slut! Why'd she have so many husbands?
          Questionable. And why'd you even read this?
          Controversial!" Georgette exclaimed with a single arched brow. "I thought you're supposed to be into
          girls?"
          "You're a blab."
          "I—" Georgette scoffed. "I'm a what?"
          "What are you even doing here?" Yūn sighed at the question, although she wasn't really interested in the reason why Georgette was yet again bugging her.
"Because." Her look was sharp. "I thought I told Governess Ross about this—the book—YOUR book. And that you were reading it. We're not even supposed to have these books. So why do you still have this now? Don't tell me you even begged to get this book back. And why're you even avoiding my question? Maybe you're into boys, after all."