A gif of Malakai falling echoed from Quinni's phone. People had wasted their time making a fucking meme over this. I couldn't believe it. We were sitting at the bottom of the stairs waiting for class to start.
"It started circulating over the weekend." Quinni stated.
"Who made it?" I angrily asked.
"We don't know."
"Do you think he has seen it." Amerie demanded but Quinni shrugged. He definitely saw it but it was better to say nothing than confirmed it to Amerie.
We stayed a bit silent. Then, Quinni touched my double hickeyed neck.
"Slay Ball did you dirty." She giggled.
"I tried to hide it as best as I could." I responded annoyed that I had obviously failed. I put up the collar of my jacket trying to hide it.
"And who could be the person that did that to you?" Amerie asked.
"Spill the tea boo." Darren added.
"Well... it's Ant." I paused and they all exclaimed ouh's in surprise. Darren clicked their tongue and Quinni her fingers. "And the other one is Spider." They all stopped laughing and joking around. It went dead silent.
"You slut." Darren giggled. I scoffed, smiling at their comment.
"It just happened. I was really high."
"I will never be that high. Was it a threesome?" Amerie asked a bit dry.
"Amerie." Quinni exclaimed.
"Sorry. I just have feelings about JJ hooking up with two most idiotic and misogynistic people in our school."
"First, we didn't hook up but yeah, whatever." I said not wanting to get into the subject. I knew she didn't meant to arshe, she had other things in her mind.
Amerie spotted Malakai, she got up and went to talk to him. Ant was fun, he wasn't really my type but we had a great time on the dance floor. Clearly for Spider it was another story. He could made me the most mad and yet I still would have butterflies every time he was close to me. Fucking bastard.
The bell rang and we made our way to the gymnasium where the assembly was. We sat down and waited for Mrs.Woodsy to commence.
"Good morning, everybody. So I have an announcement. It's really very thrilling. Hartley High has been selected to kick off the city of Sydney Interschool Basketball Semifinals."
Nobody really cared and Mrs.Woodsy didn't get the reaction she had hoped for. Everyone kept chatting to their mates, ignoring the principal. Except Quinni, who listened carefully.
"Which will garner some much-needed positive attention after the map debacle." Mrs.Woodsy continued.
"Map Bitch!" Spider loudly yelled, interrupting the assembly.
"Put a sock in it, Spencer." Mrs.Woodsy responded in the mic.
I turned around and scoffed at him with a disgusted face. I twirled back on my seat. I felt him approaching his face from the back. I felt my little hair rising at his proximity. I had goosebumps everywhere.
"You weren't disgusted by me last weekend." He whispered in my ear. I put my whole hand on his face and shoved him in the back of his chair, making Ant laughed.
"It's actually a big honor and we would actually like you to help us and clean up the school." Woodsy continued.
"Don't actual cleaners do that, Miss?" Ant asked, actually confused.
"The cleanup is compulsory and you'll be handed out schedules in the first period. Thank you."
"Clean up up trash? I know a guy or two who could get tossed in a bag." I said to Quinni referring to the problematic men in our year. She laughed as a few other others who had heard me.
Students rapidly exited the gymnasium and went to class. I find out later that I had trash duty this afternoon, but first, SLTs.
I entered the room a little bit before the bell and found my mother had written To Porn Or Not To Porn on the blackboard.
"Are we gonna watch Shakespearien Porn today mother?" I said.
"Very funny, Justine. Now sit, students are coming in now."
I did as I was told. The second bell rang and my mother started her class.
"Morning everyone. So we all agree that porn has given us unrealistic ideas of what sex should look like. But is it all bad?"
"When you watch as much as Ant does." Dusty said. The class laughed.
"Very funny." My mother chuckled sarcastically.
Quinni raised her hand.
"It can be helpful if you don't know what you like." Quinni started.
"Or who you like." Sasha continued. "I 100% find out I was into girls watching porn."
"Oh my god, me too!" Spider exclaimed as Sasha rolled her eyes at him.
"Miss. I find porn a bit hectic. Like if that's what sex is supposed to look like, then I don't think I want it." Missy added to the conversation.
"Yeah, yeah. Really, it feels like it's all about getting a guy off." Amerie continued Missy's thoughts.
"Isn't it?" Spider exclaimed, laughing.
"Shut up Spider." I shouted. I didn't know what took over me. Maybe it was Amerie's comment earlier or the fact that she was right about Spider being cunt, but I just had to push him off his high horse. Thinking he was untouchable because he's a cis white male.
"Language Justine. But see, that's why I want to talk to you about pleasure. Specifically your pleasure." My mother continued. "It feels scary right? You know teenagers actually knowing what they want."
Oh I know what I didn't want that's for sure. Or so I tried to convince myself.
"I want that PlayStaion gift voucher." Quinni replied.
"I want a good almond milk." Sasha added.
"I want my dad to be proud of me." Ant spoke up, all the class awed due to his answer.
"So let's try something this week." My mother started while picking up a wood box. "I want you to put in this box things you like. Things you derive pleasure from. It can be whatever you want, just make sure it's honest, yeah? And we will read them out next class."
The bell rang and we all exited the room. Time for trash duty. I went to the class where they handed bags and gloves, and waited for my turn to have one.
"Hey."
I looked up to see Ant besides me. I blushed, I hadn't talked to him since Slay Ball.
"Hi."
"Guess we're on trash duty together. Will be less boring to have company." He said, his eyes deviating to my neck. He smiled seeing the marks he left on my body.
"Stop this."
"What?"
"Stop looking at it." I chuckled.
He raised his arms up and made a face. I soon discovered Ant wasn't who I thought he was, he was way less stupid than he looked like. Maybe Spider was bringing his IQ down.
"You want some?" Ant asked me, I glanced down to see him holding a tiny metal bin with sour gummies.
"THC?" I asked and he nodded. I chewed on a green one. I've never did drugs on school grounds before.
We talked for the rest of the period. Minutes passed by and the gummies had kicked in. We were laying on the grass, our bags full of trash hanging out besides us. We looked at the clouds seeing things nobody else could. He took my hand and pointed to the sky.
"Look it's a big ass cock!" He said as we both bursted in laughing.
The clouds were quickly covered by his shadow.
"Are you guys fucking stoned?" Spider angrily asked.
"So what if we are?" I cockily asked while getting up on my ass, crossing my arms.
"You guys are fucking children. We're in school, y'all are gonna get caught for sure."
"Boo-hoo Spiderbitch."
Ant laughed at my response.
"Fuck the both of yous." Spider answered while walking away.
We looked at each other chuckling and making sour faces at Spider's overreaction.
The week had passed so fast. After that, I tried to not get myself in any dumb situation. Ant and I started texting, it was nothing serious, very casual. I didn't want to think twice about Spider. Thursday morning, I walked towards SLTs' class. The bell rang and I quickly sat in my usual place, waving at my friends who I hadn't seen the whole morning.
"So remember, peeps, this isn't a guessing game. It's an exercise in normalizing our wants and needs. I don't want to hear any shaming? Am I clear?" My mother said about the exercise we had talked about last class.
People agreed with her.
"All right. Who's first? Harper."
Harper got up her seat and picked a piece of paper.
"I have to know the person properly before I have sex with them."
"Very good and very common." My mother stated. "Sasha?"
"I can only cum to country music."
We all started to laugh, looking around our peers and trying to find who had written it. Amerie got up and picked a paper out of the box, just like the others.
"Uh it just says foot. Not feet. Foot."
Again, we laughed. I never understood foot fetishes, they're not my thing at all. I find it actually pretty disgusting. It was now Missy's turn, she opened the paper.
"JJ likes to be double-dicked by Spider and Ant."
My face turned red of anger and embarrassment. I didn't know how to react, I just froze in front of everybody. I didn't say anything and I didn't move a single muscle. I could feel, however, the murderous side stare of my mother. Oh how she would yell at me tonight at home.
"Who the fuck wrote this?" Missy exclaimed. "She isn't even a part of this class."
Everyone started to gasp and laugh. I finally looked at my friends and only them. I couldn't face the two boys or anyone for that matter. First, it was a lie and somebody was out to bring down my reputation, to sabotage me. Amerie, Quinni and Darren were desperate to help me, yet they couldn't do anything. The class went full-on chaotic. I took my things and stormed out of the class.
"You guys shut the fuck up, it's a fucking lie!" Amerie's shout echoed, it was nice hearing her defending me but I knew there was nothing she could say that could save me from this hell.