From underdogs to top dogs

Chapter 2

It was lunch time and Chase offered Skye a seat next to him at a table in the corner of the dining hall. It was unusual for either of them to have company.

"So what've you got next?" Skye asked as she took a bite of her chicken wrap.

"Uh..." Chase pictured his timetable in his head. "PE." He smiled.

"Oh I guess that means I have a free period. Looks like I'm doing some textiles work."

"How come you don't do PE?" Chase asked. "I thought it was compulsory."

"Oh just..." Skye thought. She wanted to tell Chase, he had been the only nice person to her but they had only just met that day. "Health reasons."

It wasn't exactly a lie. They were interrupted by a shout from Ashlynne who was on the other side of the room. She was yelling at a light haired boy.

"Why don't you take you're worthless self over where all the other losers belong before I have to punch you?!" She yelled.

The two looked over and saw the boy walk over to the small area where they were. The only other seat was at their table.

The boy looked down, avoiding any eye contact with them. Rather than sitting with them, he stood against the wall.

Skye looked up at him. She knew what it was like to be on the receiving end of the girl's mouth.

"Hey." She smiled. "Wanna sit?"

"Huh oh me? Nah it's fine."

"Its no trouble. I know what it's like to be singled out by her." Skye shrugged. The boy smiled and sat down with them.

"Thanks." He mumbled.

"Don't mention it. I'm Chase." The brunette introduced himself.

"And I'm S-" the boy looked at her and cut her off mid sentence.

"You're Skye. I know you're-" it was Skye's turn to interrupt by shaking her head with scared eyes at him. He seemed to get the message and changed the subject. "I'm Rocky."

"So how come She picks on you?"

"Just because," he looked down.

"Because what?" Skye asked gently.

"Doesn't matter." Skye knew better than to push people into admitting what they didn't want to.

"Ugh! Why is this so hard?!" Chase looked down at his physics book from their last lesson.

"What?" Rocky peered over his arm. "Oh you mean the equations?"

"Yeah. I can never remember them."

"Try putting the symbols in triangles."

"Well how does that help?"

"Like this." Rocky took Chase's book and pen. He drew a triangle with a line across the middle and a line splitting the bottom in half. He wrote in the symbols and passed the book back.

"I still don't get it."

"Well if you let me explain," Rocky rolled his eyes. "Cover what you're trying to find."

"Are you being serious?"

"Yeah."

"This is embarrassing." Chase muttered, feeling like a primary school pupil as he did so.

"Then what do you have?"

"Distance over time."

"Yeah. So speed is distance divided by time."

"That actually helps. Thanks Rocky."

"No problem." The bell sounded for the last lesson of the day.

"Well I'll see you guys later." Skye smiled.

"Laters." The boys gathered up their stuff and walked to their next class.

As they passed the geography rooms, Rocky walked into one.

"Bye!" Chase called over his shoulder.

Rocky turned around, surprised that Chase had spoken to him in front of so many people. No one else ever had.

As Skye was walking out of the school building, Chase ran up to her, ignoring the usual shouts of abuse that came his way.

"Skye, help, maths homework." He gasped.

She rolled her eyes and motioned for his phone. He passed it over and put her number in.

"Call me when you're stuck." She smiled. "Gotta go, bye." She waved as she jumped into the passenger seat of her mums car.

"Good day sweetie?"

"Pretty good."

"Ready for your group." Skye nodded and they were off.