The Pizza Boy

Chapter 5

Isabelle couldn't convince her mom to let her stay home from school. She tried it all, the fake fever, fake cough, fake cold... She basically tried every type of sickness that could be endured. It was of no use. Isabelle's mom saw through it all, or she just didn't want to deal with her that particular day.

As Isabelle began to prepare for school, she heard a honk outside. That meant Matthew was there already. She ran out after saying bye and got into the car.

"Why are you so early today?" She asked.

It wasn't normal for him to be early. Usually, they ended up being late for school because Matthew never made it to Isabelle's house on time.

"Today is the day coach puts up the list!" He exclaimed, making it evident that Isabelle should know what that meant.

"What list?" She asked, a hint of annoyance at how he thought she should know everything that goes on in his life.

"The team! The list of all the players who made the football team Izzy! I wasn't there for grandpa's birthday to attend tryouts, remember?" He almost yelled.

"Alright, you seem excited. But didn't coach already announce that you would be captain? Why do you need to worry?"

Matthew rolled his eyes. "Izzy, obviously I need to know who's on my team. And as captain, I need to make sure everyone finds out and starts training individually. The tournament season is coming up and we need to be prepared."

"Okay. So I'm guessing you'll be extremely busy this week?" Izzy asked, already knowing the answer.

Matthew gave her an apologetic look. "Sorry babe. I might not even have enough time for walking the dogs."

Isabelle knew how important Matthew's dogs were to him. She knew that if he said that he might not have time for them, it means that he's very busy. It also meant she would have to walk the dogs.

"Okay. When should I come by for the dogs?" She said with a sigh.

Mathew grinned. "You're the best Izzy. Maybe 4:30?"

She understood that he wasn't trying to blow her off. It was only because he was captain of the football team and had many duties. Sometimes she wished he didn't.

Matthew parked the car in the school parking lot. As soon as they got out of the car, Matthew locked the car and ran to the school's main entrance like his life depended on it.

Isabelle chuckled and walked behind him, into school. The one place she didn't want to be. She didn't forget about the way Alex behaved during the party. She dreaded seeing him. She didn't know what was in store for her and was hoping that he just forgot about it.

She went to her locker to get her books for her first class, calculus. There she saw her least favorite person. Maria Dean. The stereotypical school queen bee.

All the girls in school have been worshipping Maria since 5th grade. And the rivalry between Maria and Isabelle began in 5th grade as well, when Maria 'accidentally' dropped orange juice onto Isabelle's new top and didn't apologize.

Isabelle punched her in the face (this was when she was going through a tomboy phase) and ever since then, Isabelle has been known to be the only girl who can stand up to Maria.

Maria was known to wait for Isabelle at her locker to give her some snarky comments and try to ruin Isabelle's day. It was pathetic really. Izzy didn't have the patience to deal with her most of the time, but when she did care, it was like world war 3, just waiting to happen.

Izzy walked to her locker and quickly took out her calculus books. Today was not one of the days when she wanted to handle Maria. But Maria thought otherwise. She walked up to Isabelle and in one swift motion sent all her books falling to the ground.