A Rose as Black as your Heart

(15) Street Basketball!

A/N: From now on, I’ve decided to dedicate a chapter to a random commenter for each chapter, to show my appreciation of your support :) So it would mean a lot if you could share your awesome thoughts!!! :D A/N

This chapter is dedicated to supernaturalgirl84 for no particular reason but the nice long comment! ^.^ Thanks Hun Xxx

Chapter 15

The following week passed kind of slowly. The lessons were dull, as usually, only brightened by the fact I now had a couple of friends to chat to – maybe Zoe was right about the popular thing after all, weird as it seemed –and the fact that the teachers were getting used to me randomly calling out my opinions. I had a feeling some of them were even starting to like me.

Bridgewood was a weird place.

At lunch, I sat with Travis, a couple of his friends who gradually stopped being scared of me, and sometimes Rose, though usually she sat at the A-list table, followed by bundles of friends.

Travis usually walked me to and from lessons (even though most of the time it meant he was late for his own) and when some days I had to stay late because Matt was getting home late, he’d walk me in to town, and we’d usually grab a coffee and chat about school. I was slowly settling into a routine that was actually fun, and despite the fact leaving Canada had meant leaving my home, my mom and my best friend, I was seriously starting to enjoy myself.

Savannah was worried when I told her over the phone.

“You’re not gonna stay, are you?”

“Not forever,” I assured her, “but I can definitely survive through junior year.” I thought about it. “And maybe senior year.”

Behind me, Travis gave a whoop. “Alexis has finally come round to how awesome this place is.”

I glanced over my shoulder to mock-scowl at him. “Shut it, dofus, or I’ll take off to Canada.”

It was lunch break on Thursday, and Travis and I were sitting behind a grassy hill in the playground. We often sat there if we wanted to talk or catch up on homework.

I was talking to Savannah on the phone, because it felt like ages since I had. It was eight thirty in Canada, so she was only minutes away from getting to school. Travis didn’t seem to mind that I was on the phone; he was sprawled on the grass in the shade, with his shoulder leaning against mine, while I sat in the warm sun, drinking in the heat.

“Hey, is that Travis? Can I say hi to him?” Savannah asked eagerly.

“If I wanted Travis to be mentally scarred for life, that wouldn’t be a problem. But I kind of like having someone to talk to.”

Travis glanced at me and gave me a lopsided grin. “Too late. I’m already mentally brain damaged. Why d’you think I like hanging out with you?”

I batted his face, and he ducked, laughing.

“We were talking on Facebook the other night,” Savannah said brightly. “He doesn’t seem too messed up.”

Travis had heard, apparently, and he shot the phone a glare as if the force of his gaze could actually transmit through the phone to reach Savannah.

“You what?” I narrowed my eyes at Travis. “And you didn’t tell me because...?”

Travis looked sheepish. “Well, you asked me not to accept her friend request. But I was kind of curious, so...”

“You do realise,” I informed him, “that you have potentially put your whole family in danger?” I held up the phone and pointed at it, as if I was actually holding up a tiny version of Savannah. “This girl tried to drown me.”