Not Very Stereotypical.

Chapter Twenty One

Shortly after the confrontation, the lunch bell rang and I made a beeline out of the door, not bothering to give Mr Brown another look before I left. I whined like a puppy as I banged my head against Leighton's shoulder, pouting while she laughs lightly making my head pop back up off of her. "It wont be the last time I'm sure you'll be fine. You didn't get written up so no one will even know."

I expanded my arms in the oversized jacket and turned on my feet to face both Leighton and Mitchell who was already distracted by his phone. "I didn't expect to go full Britain like that." I groaned and tapped my feet in a slight tantrum. "I sounded like a right chav." Leighton's face mushes together with confusion and Mitchells eyebrow perks up from his text as he questions my words.

"What is a 'chav' and I think you stood your ground." Her words stumble, struggling awkwardly with the clear new vocabulary. "No one would ever usually survive that, you've clearly hit a soft spot for the teachers here." I sighed and then gave up on my tantrum and attempted to embrace it by standing slightly straighter, adjusting the jacket yet again around my shoulders.

"I guess you're right I suppose." I remember the time where back home, Emma and I were sat in the back of Science attempting one of the rare experiments we got to do. We were adding metal slices into different chemicals and with the dizziness of falling off an anti-swing chair still buzzing around my head, we were giggling pretending to do shots with the final purple liquid which ha started spitting ever so slightly from it's reaction. But the fun and games were over when something ended up of Emma's tongue which I managed to talk us out of exclusion with a rant about how someone with possible concussion should've been removed from the classroom fuelled with chemical fumes incase of worsening the injury. It's still one of my favourite come backs to this date.

Pulling two of his fingers up to his forehead, Mitchell saluted to us after looking up from his phone. "Practice is starting, see you guys out there." He started to walk away before he added, "keep the jacket for now, give it to Mill-Mill at the end of the day." Waving gratefully, he moved away through the crowd of growing people heading in many directions to spend their lunch break. Linking my arms with Leighton we started skipping down the hallway, bumping into people and almost taking over Mitchell on our way.

"We've got to catch up with Gracie before she goes to practice." Leighton panted dramatically as we pushed through the door which lead us outside to the bleachers.

"Have you decided not to do it this year?" I asked as we carried on walking towards the gym doors to meet Gracie by the field.

She shook her head and denied it quickly, explaining that she was going to take part in the season but we had to meet Milly first and that because she was still part of my 'welcoming committee' - she was allowed to show late to some lessons if necessary, including her first day back at cheer practice. Sounds like everyone's late excuse in September if you ask me, "just taking to a year 7 to lesson." But I respected that.

Arriving at the burgundy swing door, girls dressed in various colours of athleisure and sportswear came out, running onto the side line of the lacrosse field and beginning to stretch. Last to appear was Gracie who still had her leggings on and her hair pulled into a ponytail who was scratching under her arm which exposed a toned abdomen under the t shirt she had lifted slightly. "Oh my gosh you scared me!" She said jumping briefly moving her hand on top of her chest. She quickly re-adjusted herself and after looking at Leighton who squeezed past her and into the changing rooms as I was now left with Gracie.

"Are you okay?" She asks turning to shoulder bump me. As she pulls away from me her eyes change as she glances down to Mitchell's jacket. With a smile still on her face she asks, "Were you wearing that this morning?"

Shaking my head, I explained the summary of the situation, afraid she'd need to shoot off before I had the chance to finish the explanation but to my surprise she crossed her arms and leans on her leg slightly, popping her hip out. She screwed her nose up slightly at the revelation of the jacket belonging to Mitchell so she shook her hands, indicating for me to taking it off. "Ew, no you're going to smell like boys for the rest of the day." I hesitantly started to pull an arm off of the jacket and gave her one last look before I did so. "Seriously I've got another warm up jacket in my gym bag, let me change it. It's been washed don't worry."

I handed over the jacket, which she held closer to her before skipping into the changing room and swapping the large oversized jacket into a much more fitting lycra black jacket, which definitely did match my outfit better. Thanking her, I smiled and cautiously took it under my arm after looking around and making sure I couldn't see any teachers. Leighton appeared through the doors dressed in her change of clothes and announced herself with a "ta-da!" Followed up with a twirl and a pose before laughing at herself. I walked along with them as they headed towards the field, "Milly will be up on the bleachers doing homework waiting for you and we'll be just here if you need us for something traumatic." As she spoke, Leighton used exaggerated hand motions and comical eye movements as she slowly moved away to join the group of girls listening to their coach.

"Okay, I'm sure I'm capable of walking up some steps." In my true classy style I was also moving away from them backwards towards the metal set of stairs but karma hit me too soon as whilst waving them away my back got prodded hard causing me to stumble. Managing to bounce of the hand rail, I fell onto one of the first steps and landing with a thump on my bum. With the distant laughter coming from Milly in the stands I hoped not everyone saw my hypocritical mistakes  but was disappointed to see Gracie wiping away the starts of tears in her eyes and Leighton cradling her stomach from the cramp of her laughter. "Or not." I said lifting myself off the steps, with my self esteem following slowly behind me as I stood.

With the red of my face finally cooling down I had only managed to walk up a step before I heard the words leave his mouth. "Did you have a nice trip there Bethany?" Peeling my eyes together and turning around attempting to keep my face its regular colour, I saw Noah and Mitchell both holding their lacrosse sticks smiling at my fall. Noah smirked, popping his lip slightly so his bright set of teeth were visible as the smirk turned into a sympathetic smile.

"That's not my jacket, where'd you get a new one from?" Mitchell said, moving his stick off the ground to point it at Gracie's jacket under my arm before resting it behind his head on his shoulders. Dropping his smile and turning to look at his friend, Noah's mouth opened in confusion and looked questioningly in anticipation of a further explanation. "Brown almost dress-coded her so I gave he my jacket, that's all bro."

I offered Noah a smile as he breathed out an odd sigh of relief and decided to finish the story, "and Gracie said that I shouldn't smell like boy for the rest of the day so swapped it for me and now she's got it hidden in her gym locker." I pointed at the door as he turned around to glance at Gracie who had began stretching with a few of the other girls.

"Of course she has, okay well see you later I'm gonna run." Mitchell said swinging his stick and then jogging into the centre of the field to join the other lacrosse guys start practice. I waved at him before I turned to look back at Noah who was clearly still looking at me.

"Haven't you got to go too?" I asked feeling weary that he could get in trouble . He shook his hair as he looked toward the ground before pulling his eyes back up towards mine.

He lifted his lacrosse stick off the ground and away from his grey practice joggers, Noah poked my stomach with the net at the end. "I'll see you around, Clumsy." Winking at me before he turned his body away from me, my stomach flared up with butterflies as I watched him jog onto the pitch. I rolled my eyes and started to carefully but hastily skip up the steps to join Milly where she was still sat doing her homework.

As I sat down next to her, she turned her head away from the book she was writing in briefly and gave me a look with a cheeky smile attached. "Don't you dare." I pouted and crossed my arms before laughing to myself.