The Dad She Never Knew

Two

Cal and I ran into the front foyer of our high school, having ditched Darren and Amalya back in the parking lot. Cal looks at me, panting. "I'll. . .see you. . .in first period. . .okay?," Cal asks, panting. I nod, breathing heavily beside him. With that, Cal walks off.
As I'm at my locker, someone comes up behind and grips the back of my upper thigh. I know who it is before I even turn around. Sighing quietly, I look up and turn my head to see who's touching me. It's no surprise that I find a tall, muscular kid with combed over dirty blond hair and navy blue eyes. A.k.a Rycker, Darren's best friend.
Rycker raises his eyebrow and smirks at me. "Hey gorgeous," Rycker purrs. I try to shove him off, but Rycker only clutches my leg tighter. "Aw come on baby," Rycker says. "Don't be like that. I'm not like Darren, I'm a good guy." I roll my eyes. Yeah okay Rycker, I think, you're a junior and you've slept with more than seventy-five percent of the school's female population. Don't kid yourself.
"Hey! Dick head!" Rycker and I both turn at the sound of a female voice. I smile at the girl storming towards us. The girl's wearing black leather boots, light blue skinny jeans, a Three Days Grace T-shirt, a leather vest and a black beanie that says 'Rule Breaker' in big, white letters. She got shoulder length, bright red hair and dark green eyes. It's none other than my friend Mollie.
Mollie storms up to Rycker and I and tears Rycker off of me. She then slams him against the locker next to mine. "Don't you dare touch my friend like that! If I ever see that again, I will not hesitate to slit your throat. This isn't a joke. Do you think this is a joke? Am I laughing? I'm not dicking around here." Mollie throws Rycker to the side like garbage, then turns and looks at me. "You okay?," Mollie asks me.
I nod and kick my locker shut, my books in my hand. "Yeah," I say, not making eye contact. "Let's just go to class." Mollie nods, and we walk down the hallway together. We enter our first period class, English, to find Cal already there. Cal spots us and walks over. I roll my eyes as Mollie blushes at his approach. Cal looks over at me.
"Ari, are you okay?," Cal asks. "You seem a little. . .pale." Cal gently lays a hand on my cheek. "You are! What happened?"
"She had a run-in with Rycker at her locker," Mollie says. "He was being a pervert again." Cal barely glances at Mollie before looking at me again. He slowly removes his hand from my cheek, his fingers trailing over my skin. Cal cracks his knuckles as Darren and Rycker walk in. I try to grab Cal, put he moves to quickly and is soon standing right in front of Darren and Rycker.
"Hey Rycker," Cal says, clearly gritting his teeth. "You wanna tell me why you're treating my Aria like a prostitute?" Darren butts in to the conversation.
"Woah woah woah. I'm sorry but did you just say your Aria? Since when do you own her?"
"You're not in this, Darren," Cal snarls viciously. Cal turns back to Rycker, his dark blue eyes blazing with anger. "You gonna answer me punk, or am I gonna have to force it out of you?"
"Cal," I whisper yell across the room. Cal looks over at me. 'Don't' I mouth to him silently. For a second, it seems like Cal's about to ignore me, then he growls and spins around, stalking back to Mollie and I. The teacher walks in as we all take our seats.
Half way through the class, the phone rings. The teacher answers it. When he puts the phone back down, the teacher looks over at me.
"Aria, the office needs you." As I get up, so do Cal and Mollie. The teacher is about to tell them to sit down, but Cal stops him.
"She's our friend. If something involves her, it involves us. We're going with her."
"One of you can," the teacher says.
"I'll go," Cal says immediately. With a sigh, Mollie sits back down in her seat, and Cal and I leave the room. As Cal and I are walking down the hall, he grabs my hand. I can't help it, I blush. When Cal and I enter the front office, there's a strange man standing with the principal. The man has blond hair, like mine. He's also got bright blue eyes. The principal steps forward and looks down at me somberly.
"Aria," the principal says, "I'm afraid I have some bad news. It's about your mother." My eyes widen. "She's dead." I gape at the principal, but apparently he's not done. "This is Tom Lalcon," the principal continues, indicating to the strange man behind him. "He's your father." I feel Cal's arms wrap around me tightly, and the world suddenly goes black.