Misery Company

Chapter 1

Misery Company

Chapter 1

Mackenzie Ashby was sitting with her friend Kira at lunch when it all turned to hell. She had been minding her own business when Christy Miller walked past their table; the preppy cheerleader’s drink ‘accidentally’ falling off the tray and onto Mac. She stood from her chair and looked down at the red on stain her t-shirt. “Now what?” she asked flatly.

“That was for what you did to my car.”

“Your car?” she glanced at Kira who was fighting a grin. “Oh! That’s my bad.” She pulled her t-shirt off before the juice soaked on to her tank top.

“Everything is one big joke to you. I should’ve known you’d be this immature. Dead mothers can’t teach respect.” Christy said, gaining oohs from the crowd watching them.

Mac kept her eyes on her friend. “She just had to go there.” In the same sentence she turned around and punched Christy across the jaw, sending the other girl to the floor.

IIII

“What do you have to say for yourself?” Principle Somers asked, his arms crossed over his chest as he sat behind the worn out desk.

Mac shrugged. “She was asking for it, anyone in the lunchroom will say the same thing.”

“This is the third time you’ve gotten into a fight on school property. I was going to suspend you until further notice but Coach Scott had a different idea.” He explained; clearly not happy with the idea but saw the point to it.

“No.” she said quickly, she knew exactly where Somers was going.

“Ms. Ashby you either do this or you’re going to be expelled and being this is your last year I suggest you take the deal.”

“Fine! What the hell do you want?” she glanced up at the clock, for the last half hour she had been listening about school rules and how what she did was wrong, whatever. She zoned Somers out because she knew what the Coach wanted he had been pushing since the school year started. Mac stood from the chair and grabbed her bag. “Can I go now?”

“Coach Scott is in the gym waiting for you.”

She walked down the empty hall, cursing the kids that got to go home while she was stuck there for who knew how long more.

IIII

“Coach why the wait?” Dean asked, he wanted to get practice over with. Before another word could be said Mac Ashby walked into the gym. Great, he thought flatly, he could’ve gone the rest of his life without seeing her ever again. “What the hell are you doing here?”

Mac grinned and dropped her bag to the floor. “I punched your girlfriend and apparently that’s a bad thing.” She turned to the coach; he was an older gentleman that reminded her of a nice grandfather. If she had a grandfather she’d want him to be as nice as Coach Scott but that didn’t help her anger. “Sneaky.”

“Boys this is Mackenzie Ashby, she’s going to be working with us this basketball season.” The Coach said and the whole team groaned. Mac had that effect on people and no one wanted a girl hanging around. She sat down on one of the benches.

“Why?” Dean asked, making a face. He was already stuck living next to Ashby and now she was involved in the only thing he loved. She was a fungus that he could not get rid of, every turn there she was.

Mac answered. “I just love torturing you that I got so damn good that this sport that the Coach has pulled every trick to get me here.”

“Is she serious?” one of the other players asked.

“Have any of you ever seen her on the court?” The coach asked.

“I make it a habit not to be in the same places with Ashby for too long.” Dean was starting to consider quitting the team if that’s what he had to look forward to; long afternoons with Mackenzie Ashby.

Mac chuckled. “Maybe there is a perk to all of this.” She got off the bench and walked closer to the group. “Can I kick his ass Coach, a little one on one?”

Dean couldn’t back out with the whole team watching but he didn’t want to play games with her either. “Let’s make it quick.” He tossed her the ball; if he was going to beat her might as well be a little nice and let her go first. Dean was the captain of the team, one of Winston High’s best players in years; of course he was going to win.

Dean and Mac took to the center of the court while everyone watched from the sides. She dribbled the ball and few times, he planned to steal the ball before she could make a shot but to his surprise she was faster. Faster then he had ever seen anyone move. Point for her.

“Is that all you got?” she sideswiped the ball from him. “No wonder this team hasn’t won a game in forever.” She threw the ball and made a three pointer. “Why even keep going, you know I’m gonna win.”

“Shut up and play.” Dean was not going to let Ashby; a rude loudmouth who was also much shorter win in a game he had been playing, mastering, all his life. Getting angry improved his game, they were soon tied and the whole gym was intense.

If Dean was honest with himself he’d admit that Mac surprised him. He never thought in a million years she was a hell of a basketball player. Everyone knew her as the bitch that started fights if you just said one wrong word. The girl that spoke to maybe three people and stuck mostly to herself. He knew by living next door that she had no parents, only an Aunt that took her in when she was a toddler.

They had lived next door to each other for the last ten years and never once did they get along. She was an angry kid and grew up into an angry teenager. But to be fair he never went out of his way to be nice. He was the boy that teased and stuck his foot out to trip her. Two of her three fights in school had been with him.

There was no love loss with Dean Chandler and Mac Ashby, especially now that she won the game in front of all his teammates and friends. Winston High just got much more interesting.