Sister City

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen

Armed with my new clothes, haircut, and makeup, I went back to school the first day after winter break feeling good. I made it through first and second period without getting any homework, which was a good start to the day. After a fifteen minute break, I had Social Science, a class I didn’t particularly enjoy.

Megan and Luka were sitting together in the back of the room; he was sitting in the desk behind her rubbing her shoulders. Marcus was sitting in the desk next to Luka, playing a game on his cell phone. Laura Ashley was sitting next to Marcus, watching his every move. Sophie, now Marcus’ ex-girlfriend, was sitting in the far corner of the classroom pointedly ignoring Laura’s obvious drooling. Sarah, Shauna and Trisha were all sitting together in between Laura and Sophie; I got the impression that they were acting as a buffer zone between the two warring factions.

This was one of the main reasons I didn’t like going to Social Science. The classroom was full of cheerleaders and football players and they always had some sort of drama going on. It was too much to deal with during an already incredibly boring class.

“Hey, Rin,” Laura said when I walked in front of her desk.

Marcus looked up from his game in surprise.

“Sit with us,” she continued, tearing her eyes away from Marcus for a moment.

“What’s up?” I asked, trying to sound friendly, as I sat in Regina’s seat.

“Tryouts for cheerleading at Analy are in March.”

“And?”

“I told them how good you tumble,” Trisha piped up. “I might have told her to convince you to try out.”

“It’s no good,” I replied, feeling ridiculously proud that they wanted me. “Coach Artemov won’t let me cheer.”

“Have you asked him?” Shauna asked reasonably. “He might surprise you.”

“No,” I said slowly.

Shauna wasn’t a cheerleader. She was a geek. A beautiful geek who fit in with the cheerleaders and dated a football player, but she was a geek nonetheless. If she thought I should ask Coach Artemov about being a cheerleader, maybe there was some merit to the idea.

“Ask him at practice today,” Trisha said matter-of-factly. “We’ll see you at tryouts.”

“Ok.”

I took my seat in front of Laura and pulled out my phone. I sent a text message to both Inara and Jack asking each of them if they thought I should try out for the cheerleading squad. I turned to ask Luka if James was giving me a ride to practice and caught Marcus staring at Laura. His eyes met mine and he blushed. I figured that he was just embarrassed about being caught staring at Laura so soon after he and Sophie broke up, especially since she was on the other side of the room with her forehead on her desk.

Just as I was about to talk to Luka, Mr. Christie walked in the room and turned off the lights. I hid my phone under my desk and sent a Tweet asking about my rides to and from practice. A few seconds later I got a Tweet from James telling me that Dad was giving me a ride to practice because there was a huge football meeting right after school, but he was picking me up after practice. I got a Tweet from Luka telling me that he and James would pick me up after practice but I had to walk there. I got a Tweet from Marcus asking me if James was dropping us off at his house for dinner. Dad sent me a Tweet asking me to meet him in front of the Super Playground because it was always busy in front of Brookhaven right when school got out. I sent back a message of thanks and acknowledgement of the meeting place.