Butterflies danced in my stomach every time I accidentally glanced in Tyler's direction during the history lesson. I wondered what other classes we would have together. To prevent Tyler from assuming I was easy or desperate, I intended to play hard to get until Mimi found another guy to distract her.
With only two minutes left in the period, Mr. Jefferson gave us a reading assignment to write in our agendas. While everyone else muttered under their breath about having homework already, Melaney, Emily, and I compared our schedules.
"I have Calculus next and then Physics, and then we all have gym together fourth period." Melaney said.
"Next, I have Business Math with Ms. Keys and then Business Law," Emily said.
"I have Business Math and Law, too. We can walk together," I offered.
I overheard Tyler tell Todd that they had Calculus next. When the bell rang, Melaney followed them out the door and down the hall.
Emily and I retraced our steps down the stairs to Ms. Keys' class and sat in the same desks as homeroom. Math was my favorite subject, and Ms. Keys was my favorite teacher. She took attendance and started the accounting lesson. I paid close attention and even took notes. When Ms. Keys handed out worksheets for homework, I folded the assignment and put it in my agenda.
"Where is Business Law?" Emily asked.
"Upstairs," I complained, wondering how Melaney and Tyler had fared in Calculus.
Emily and I trudged up the steps to Mr. Adams' class and selected desks in the middle rows by the windows. He passed out our textbooks and told us to turn to page one. Mr. Adams looked like a grizzly bear with his thick, fuzzy, brown hair and beard, but he sounded like a bee buzzing in my ear. While he droned on about federal law and the U.S. Congress, I gazed out the window, watching the clouds streak across the sky, envisioning future dates with Tyler.
Eventually, Mr. Adams stopped lecturing, passed out our workbooks, and assigned chapter one for homework. I paged through the book. Chapter ten was about criminal law. That should be much more interesting. I had a vested interest in learning about the statute of limitations for various crimes.
Emily and I hurried back downstairs to the gymnasium. Melaney waited for us outside the girl's locker room. We walked in and saw, to our dismay, Mimi Holt standing beside her minions (and also her cousins) Heather and Stacey Locke. The three were mirror images of each other - snobby, blonde, bouncy cheerleaders.
Give me a B for bubble-headed, bleached, *bleeps*! The first and last time I said the offensive word, which meant female dog, Mother made me swallow a tablespoon of vinegar. Disgusting! That was how I felt every time I saw Mimi. I had been hoping to not have any classes with her.
Since it was the first day of school, we didn't have to change into our gym uniform - ugly orange t-shirt and black shorts. We entered the gym and stood on the red line while Mrs. Wynn checked off our names on her clipboard. She had the ideal last name for a gym teacher. With a blonde pony tail hanging out the end of her orange Milltown baseball cap and a shiny silver whistle hanging around her neck, she led thirty girls outside.
Mr. "Bean" Wilson, the tallest, thinnest man I had ever seen, hence his nickname, waited with thirty boys. Tyler and Todd were two of them, which would've been wonderful if Mimi wasn't also in the class. Mimi would make mincemeat out of me if I spoke to Tyler. She destroyed the last girl who flirted with him.
We had the option of playing volleyball on the football field or running around the track. Easy decision. I ran, even though I wore leather moccasins and not my usual sneakers. Melaney walked with Emily and didn't even try to keep up with me. She knew I needed to run off all my anxiety before I could endure another minute of classes. Running as fast as possible, I felt my worries float away like the wind.
I heard steps pounding behind me and gaining quickly. Soon Tyler sprinted beside me.
"What are you doing?" I asked. I so wanted to talk to him, but privately, not in front of Mimi. "What happened to being discreet?"
"I'm on the track team. It's only natural for me to be running around the track," Tyler answered with a confident grin.
"Not during gym. Go play volleyball with your friends," I ordered, pointing toward the nets in the middle of the football field.
"Mimi is playing volleyball, and I don't want to be anywhere near her. She's still mad at me for breaking up with her."
"And I don't want her to be mad at me. She can't know we went out. She will make life miserable for me and my friends."
"Okay. Beat me to the front fence by the gate, and I'll go back and play volleyball."
I didn't answer. I just ran.
We touched the chain link fence at the same time.
"Tie. Now what do we do?" Tyler asked.
"If I was wearing sneakers like you, I would have won," I bragged.
"You really can fly, Fly Girl," he teased.
I didn't smile at Tyler. I glared at him in disgust. How could he call me that?
Of course, he would remember the horrid nickname Mimi gave me in third grade. I had escaped from school so many times the teachers labeled me a 'flight risk.' Mimi had overheard them talking one day and told everyone I was a Fly Girl, referring to the gross insect, not the action verb.
Might as well prove them right! So I flew away, running out the gate and into the parking lot. I followed the fence surrounding the football field up the hill, oblivious to my surroundings until I heard, "Jasmine Jane, you promised!"
I did. I stopped and crouched down with my hands on my knees and my head between them, staring at the blades of grass, waiting for the adrenaline rush to slow.
My fight or flight instinct was automatically activated whenever someone at school made me mad, and I would almost always choose to flee. I had to change, or Tyler might not go on another date with me again.
No matter what happened, from now on, I needed to stand my ground. No more running away!
I took two deep breaths and returned to my full height. I turned around and found Melaney, standing on the hill on the inside of the fence, scowling.
"Gotcha," I yelled, trying to laugh, but not succeeding.
Melaney and I hiked down the hill in silence, the fence between us.
When I entered the gate, Tyler wasn't there, but Mrs. Wynn was. She handed me a pink pass. "Mrs. Shepherd would like to see you in her office, immediately."
I took the pass and waved goodbye to Melaney.
She shook her head and walked back to the track and Emily.
I meandered through the empty gym, down the hallway, to the high school offices, angry at myself for losing what little time I had left outside in the fresh air. I waved hello to the office secretary with the pink slip for the girl's guidance office, the third door on the right.
I entered the tiny room without knocking.
Mrs. Shepherd sat behind a desk cluttered with student files, picture frames, and fake yellow roses in a green glass bottle. She sighed. "Please close the door, Jasmine."
I shut the door behind me, chose the chrome chair on the right, and sat on an ugly orange cushion that was scratchier than a burlap bag.
Mrs. Shepherd crossed her arms over her baggy, black shirt and waited for me to explain my latest infraction. When I did not, she asked, "How are you feeling today, Jasmine?" The million dollar question asked by counselors everywhere.
The first year after Daddy died, I always answered, "Sad" or "Angry." I told the many different counselors that I wanted Daddy to come back. They claimed he couldn't. Then I requested a Bengal tiger like Princess Jasmine in Aladdin. They informed me I couldn't have a pet tiger either. At the precocious age of nine, I determined that the counselors were just wasting my time, and I refused to speak to them.
Somehow I knew if I told them what I really wanted was to die and go to heaven to see my Daddy, they would lock me up in a small rubber room with no open windows like this suffocating office.
I didn't want to die anymore. I just wanted justice for my father's death, and then I might finally be free of the nightmares. But no one would believe me if I told them what really caused the car accident. Except for Tyler. He was there, in the back seat of the red sports car.
A/N: Video above is supposed to be Never Too Far Gone by Jordan Feliz.
"You will never outrun my love, my love, my love.
There's no distance too far that I can't reach you.
There's no place that's so dark that I can't find you."
Were you surprised by the ending of this chapter? Let me know in the comments.
Forever Remember to Live, Laugh, and LOVE. - 3L