Disaster Usually Follows

Chapter 14

Pic of Tara (cheer captain)^^^played by candice accola

1 week later.

Maddie's POV:

The sun burned my eyes as I walked into school. A couple stares were thrown my way, but Kylee was quick to take the attention away from me.

"Don't you just hate when people rudely stare for no reason?" she said loudly, throwing a few pointed looks people's way.

I stifled a laugh and watched as people looked away with some red tingeing their cheeks.

But I didn't blame them. My black eye was finally starting to heal but it was still something no amount of concealer could fix. I wore a scarf to hide the marks on my neck that was still sporting faint bruises. The doctor Mrs. Knight took me to yesterday cleared me for my concussion with a warning not to use too many electronics and stay away from loud noises.

In other words? I looked and felt like crap.

Kirsten had called a couple times the last couple days to tell me she was building a case and a court date would be chosen soon for Johnny's custody. Likewise, Mrs. Knight had pulled me aside and told me not only would she let me stay with them for the rest of Senior year, but she was looking into fostering, even adopting Johnny. I felt like so much weight had been taken off my shoulders.

"Hey." A voice said beside me.

I looked over to my right and caught sight of Blake walking next to me.

"Hey," I said, a small smile coming to my face.

"How are you feeling?" he said awkwardly, shoving his hands in his pants.

"Like crap," I said, thinking back to earlier.

Blake looked at me and chuckled.

"Most people would say 'good'." he commented.

"I'm not most people," I said, now with a full blown smile.

"Blake!" That familiar and annoying voice screamed from my left side as Kylee was pushed away from me. Tara, the head cheerleader stood in her place looked at me with her perfectly done makeup and cringed in disgust.

Gee thanks, that does such wonders to my self-esteem, I thought bitterly.

"Ouch," I said aloud, bending over as pain laced through my head.

Try to stay away from loud noises, I mocked in my head.

"You okay?" Blake asked me, worry in his voice.

"Yeah," I said rubbing my temples while Kylee steadied me.

"Doc said to stay away from loud noises, though."

"Sorry," Tara said, her tone saying anything but. She flipped her from-a-box- blonde hair and wrapped her arm around Blake's, dragging him away.

Blake, seeming to not follow looked back at me helplessly.

I waved him off and kept walking with the help of Kylee.

"You okay Ky?" I asked, listening for any more sounds that hurt. Other than the occasional slam of a locker, the voices were pretty much just chatter.

"Yeah. Can't say the same for my ribs tho. That girl can elbow." she chuckled.

"You okay?" she asked, pointing towards my head.

"Getting there," I said, chuckling.

"That girl tries too hard. Did you see how she was dressed? This is school, not the runway, honey." Kylee said quietly to Blake and Tara's retreating forms.

"Haha. Let's just get to class." I said.

<><><>

"Maddie," Blake whispered as he sat in the chair next to me.

Mr. Fiddle glared at Blake for coming in late but soon turned to the lab table he was supervising

"Yes?" I whispered, using the same tone.

"How's your head?" he asked referring to earlier.

"Okay," I said with a laugh.

"You know, talking normally won't put me in a coma." I joked.

Blake blushed and cleared his throat.

He seemed to do that a lot lately.

"Oh. Okay," he said in his normal voice.

"So I have a plan." he suddenly said after a while.

"While you were gone Mr. Fiddle said if anyone got the project done early, they could bring it in."

He pointed to the windowsill where two projects were already sitting.

"Since the game is tomorrow and I can't do it then I was thinking, maybe we could do it tonight?" he said nervously.

"Oh!" I said in surprise. I had completely forgotten about the big game.

"Of course! My kitchen-" I cut off, suddenly remembering I no longer had my kitchen.

"Oh," I said in a more dull tone this time.

"It's okay! My mom said we could use hers and she would even be able to help." Blake offered, trying to cheer me up.

"Yeah, sounds great," I said with fake cheer. I didn't realize until now what it meant to stay with the Knights. I wouldn't have my kitchen, the MR, or even my room anymore.

"If you want to wait until my football practice is over I can drive you to my house." He offered.

"Thanks! I might take you up on that." I said, thinking about my civic still in the driveway at the house.

"Uh- s-something else," Blake said, getting my attention.

"Hmm?" I said.

"Um. If you're not busy, maybe you want to come to my game? I mean, I know that a lot of the schools going -"

I cut him off of his rambling.

"I'd love to," I said, my mood finally brightening.

"Awesome! You can bring your friend too." He said, getting excited.

"Kylee? Yeah, she'd like that."

"Great."