Born to Perform

Chapter 31

After my apology, things slowly start to go back to normal. Cassie and Sienna are a little hesitant at first but our friendship soon returns to how it was with chatting, laughing and lots of bouncing. It’s such a relief to have them back and school is so much easier when I’m not all alone. My friends help me to dispel all the false rumours about why I left and Sienna threatens to slap anyone that she catches talking about me behind my back. As you can guess, this works pretty effectively because everyone knows that Sienna means what she says. 

Now the only thing remaining to do is apologise to Sam. I’ve planned out everything I want to say to him but Ariel is always by his side and whenever she sees me coming towards them, she pulls him in the opposite direction. It seems like she will do everything in her power to keep us apart so I don’t stand a chance at fixing things. I guess I’ll have to put that on hold for now. 

Instead, Cassie, Sienna and I focus on trying to figure out what Ariel is up to. While getting books out of our lockers, we watch her talking to a group of jocks and cheerleaders, tightly gripping Sam’s hand as if he might run away at any second. 

“Seriously, what is her deal?” Sienna exclaims after staring at the group for a few minutes. “Why can’t we work out what she’s up to? She’s not that smart!” 

“Maybe it isn’t a scheme. Maybe she actually wants to be nice,” Cassie suggests weakly, knowing this can’t really be true. 

“There’s no way Elisha would let her get away with all this, though,” I point out and they nod in agreement. “What actually happened with her? When did she change?” I ask. 

“It was really sudden,” Cassie explains, looking puzzled, “One day she was sucking up to Elisha at cheer practice and then the next day she turns up at school in her own clothes saying she quit the squad and they’re not friends anymore.” 

“And she was dating Sam within a day of the transformation,” Sienna adds over her shoulder as she searches for her history books. Cassie sends a sharp look to the back of her head but Sienna doesn’t notice and keeps rummaging through her books. 

“Don’t worry, I’m okay,” I reassure Cassie and I see her shoulders relax. “I just don’t get why Sam started dating her. Isn’t this almost exactly what happened with Elisha? And we all know how that turned out…” I trail off, remembering the sight of Elisha crying as Sam punched Justin repeatedly. 

“Sam was in a pretty bad place after you left,” Sienna says sadly, “I think he thought he had lost you forever and since he was suspended from football and the musical was over, he was just feeling lost. People do weird things when they’re vulnerable.” I take in what she’s saying and understand how he feels. After all, I dated Austin Solomon when I was feeling vulnerable. 

“But now that I’m back, why hasn't he broken up with her? He obviously doesn’t like her,” I protest. Cassie and Sienna look at each other and shrug. 

“That’s something only he knows,” Cassie says sadly, shutting her locker and starting to walk down the hallway to class. 

“Maybe if we can work out what Ariel’s doing, we can help you get Sam back,” Sienna suggests optimistically. I smile at the fact that she’s trying to make me feel better but deep down I wonder if Sam would still want to date me, even if Ariel was out of the picture. 

I spend the whole of my next class trying to figure out what Ariel’s plan might be but my mind draws a blank. Nothing about it makes sense: her reasons for changing, why Elisha isn’t giving her hell over it and why Sam is still with her even though he obviously can’t stand her. 

When I get out of class, I decide not to think about it anymore before I get a headache and head over to our usual lunch table outside. It’s a beautiful day and all the flowers are starting to come out for the Spring, making the school grounds bright and colourful. Cassie and Sienna are already sitting there eating their lunches and having an animated conversation.