The next few days all looked pretty much the same. The nagging was still going around even though it did seem the public humiliation was starting to decrease slightly. Athea was becoming able to handle the insults a bit better and was finally starting to feel okay over the whole change of environments – and life, to be honest.
Today was a particular day. She had woken up in an oddly good mood, and was feeling actually good about herself. She managed to put together a killer outfit that would honestly make Brie so proud. Tight jeans, a loose layered tank top, a beautiful feather necklace her sister had given her as a birthday gift, some knee-high boots Diogo had designed especially for her for Christmas and a faux leather jacket. Her hair styled on a braid with her bangs hanging loose and silver earrings that went all the way up to her ear piercing, she felt like a model walking down to the car to go to school.
"Hey!" Patrick smiled, looking at her from head to toe. "Looking good, piccina!"
"Was feeling inspired today." She laughed, getting inside the car.
"This looks like something your sister would pick out for you to wear." Patrick smiled softly at his daughter.
"Yeah..." Athea sighed through a smile looking down, holding the edge of her top with the tip of her fingers as her dad made his way to school.
Her first few classes went by normally – if you could call that normal – although she did have some unpleasant surprises waiting her in her locker, which were, of course, expected and formally ignored. During one of her many History lessons, however, class was interrupted by a loud microphone noise coming out of the room's speaker. Someone cleared their throat and the voice that followed was old and female.
"Pardon teachers for the interruption. Attention students, this is Principal Nesbitt speaking! I come to warn one and all about our very own Homecoming Ball!"
The class cheered and some girls around Athea started squeaking like squirrels. She tried to search her teen movie mental library for what exactly was Homecoming again but the Principal went back to speaking before she could have any luck.
"There will be a homecoming game held against Melville High on Friday, and on Saturday night 8 p.m. the festivities will commence! Get yourself a pair or come on your own, you'll be welcomed anyway!"
"Heard that, Italy?? No worries!" Some boy shouted from the other end of the classroom but Athea could only see the series of laughs and high-fives that followed, unable to look the joker in the eyes – which was honestly for the best.
"One last thing: there will be the crowning of a Homecoming King and a Homecoming Queen so don't forget to vote! Thank you and happy studying!"
The voice silenced after another mic noise. The class, however, had burst in conversation even louder than before. People were turning around on their seats laughing and talking excitedly about the dance. The teacher tried to make some order out of the chaos but failed miserably. The bell soon rang and lunch was served.
Coming back from her lonely lunch, Athea made her way to the rest of her classes, until the very last one. Then, she left the school building over to the stadium for PE. Not her favorite, but it was curricular, so there wasn't much she could do about it. Walking into the girls' locker room got her under some staring. All girls inside – some changing, some chatting, others on their phones – stopped whatever they were doing to watch her as she got in (since she had, after all, gotten there late because she had lost her way).
She dashed with her head held down to the last locker on the last, empty lane. She quickly changed into the school'straining outfit, being mindful to lock her clothes safely to avoid any surprises later. Since her hair was already tied into a braid, she saved time in putting her hair up, hence being the first one to leave the locker room.
PE was dreadful. Although in shape, Athea isn't in the slightest athletic and so every single exercise was a complete drag and by the end of it she felt completely drained. With a heavy breath, she went back to her locker and found the lock violated. Opening it slowly in fear, she saw the bag in which she had kept her clothes completely soaked in tomato sauce. She heard giggles from her right and looking over a group of girls covered their mouths in laughter while looking at her.
She sighed deeply looking back at her clothes as they left. Once she heard their footsteps far away, Athea smiled with the corner of her lip. She had expected something like this – similar things had been happening all week. She carefully took the bag out, dodging from the drips of sauce that fell on the floor. She took it to one of the nearby sinks and washed the red madness off easily. Opening the bag up, the insides were dry and clean. She closed the liquid-proof bag in satisfaction and changed back into her clothes from before, leaving the lockers shortly after, to the astonishment of the other ladies in the room.
Stepping outside into the bright end of day sunlight, she took a deep breath of the clean air. Adjusting her bag on her shoulder, she was starting to make her way out of the stadium when she saw a nice little spot on the bleachers with a little bit of shadow on it. Checking her watch, she decided to try and wait to see if her dad would be able to pick her up at school instead of taking the bus.
Making her way to that one spot, she noticed the school's team was having their training session on the field. Judging by the shape of it and the uniforms and utensils, she guessed it to be baseball. She sat down and put her things around her. Picking up her cellphone to text Patrick, she already plugged in her earphones and just started doing some random sketches in one of her notebooks to spend time.
She ended up so focused she lost track of time and when she came back to her senses the sun was nearly setting and the baseball team was celebrating the end of another practice. They started to make their way out of the stadium through the corridors underneath the bleachers and one by one they appeared outside in a considerable distance from her.
Taking a deep breath as the cool breeze kissed her cheeks, she took the earphones off and made her way down the stairs to get something to drink from one of the vending machines around the stadium. She was casually humming the last song she had heard as she reached the last row of seats, and started to walk towards the stairs that led out of the stadium when a flushed and breathless boy wearing the baseball team's uniform stopped her. Recovering from her sudden startle, she was barely able to devise blue eyes' face from under the mess of sweaty dark hair.
"Hey!" He excitedly called out to her, still running a bit out of breath.
"H-hello." She answered in a reflex, still in awe, regardless of the person standing in front of her. Only after her adrenaline had calmed down did she realize exactly who it was, making her expression completely change to neutrality.
"Hi." He smiled in a sigh, seeming a bit tired. It hurt her to her bones to admit it, but his smile was gorgeously dreamy. "Hmm, could we talk?" He asked, a bit hesitant.
"I'm pretty sure we don't have anything else to talk about." She tried to laugh along ironically only so to make that sentence seemingly less rude.
"Yes, I know." He said whilst moving both of his hands to indicate Athea to wait. "And that's exactly why I want to talk to you." He looked at her from the floor up like a wounded puppy. Athea just answered him with a confused face.
"I don't think I follow..."
"Look, I know what I did and I know I acted like a douchebag and I wanted to apologize and make up for it, you know?" He shrugged his shoulders. "So!" He clasped his hands together, making Athea jump slightly. "Will you be my date to the Homecoming Ball?" He asked, doing an exaggerated bow.
"W-what?" Athea blinked rapidly, not believing her eyes. Jason quickly got back on his feet.
"Will you, please, do me the honor of taking you to the Homecoming Ball?" He looked at her, nearly begging.
"You can't be serious." She was about to step back and walk away in her shocked, almost annoyed state.
"No, no, no!" Jason desperately tried to stop her from leaving. "I am serious. Look, I promise this isn't a prank, or a dare, or anything whatsoever. I really just want to make it up to you and I thought I'd give you a fun night out to compensate for the catastrophe the last one was..." He looked at his feet in embarrassment.
"And why should I believe you this time around? Or even go along with your pity plan just so you can feel better about yourself?" She crossed her arms, shifting her weight from one leg to another.
"You don't have to, really!" He looked at her with eyes nearly popping out of his face, as if he vitally needed her forgiveness. "I mean, even I wouldn't." He laughed, apparently starting to calm himself down. "But I swear this time I won't bail on you, I won't embarrass you, I seriously just very much want you to accompany me to this ball." He started to feel his face warm up: probably leftovers from practice; nevertheless, he looked at his feet again.
Athea looked at him for a good while, thinking. On one hand, her soft soul couldn't help but feel sorry for him; on the other one however, she was not sure she could trust him again. She sighed and was about to open her mouth when he talked first:
"You know what? Let's do it like this:" Jason stepped up before she did, honestly afraid that she would give him a 'no' for an answer. "I'll come to pick you up at your house at around 10 to 8 and, if you're willing to come with me, all you have to do is step out." He sighed. "I will stop by, no matter what your answer may be now. I really want to make it up to you."
"How do you even know where I live?" She started to get a little creeped out.
"Weee take the bus together...?" Jason answered in obviousness.
"Oh." She went back to her senses. "I never really pay too much attention to the people on the bus." Jason laughed.
"You sure are a special one." He adjusted the cap he was holding back on his head. "So, guess I'll see you Saturday? Maybe?" He tried to smile friendly but it just ended up looking awkward.
"I'm still not su-"
"Okey dokey, then!" He shouted before she finished her sentence. "See ya!" And ran away from her as fast as he could.
Athea, went back to her spot confused and drink-less. She sat down and stared blankly at the baseball court for a solid 10 minutes as thoughts filled up her head with confusion and fear. Should she trust him one more time? Should she give him the pleasure and honor of a second chance and risk another public humiliation and depreciation of herself? Should she throw caution to the wind and try to have hope in humankind once more? She gripped her head as her elbows reached her knees, her rational, thinking mind completely covering up her raced heart, at a million-pace speed after a cute boy asked her out to a dance.
Jason, was breathing breathing heavily under the bleachers, stopping his run immediately after he was out of Athea's sight. Why was she so hard to talk to? He'd never had trouble asking girls out, why was this happening now with some foreign chick? He stopped to think for a while,his heartbeat still ringing in his ears because of his dash – and ended up confusing himself even more, so he just tightened his cap and made his way back to the lockers.