Frankie and I had moved on from loudmouth’s group, thank god, and on to a much more accepting group his friends. I smiled brightly as one of the boys continued his portrayal of what had happened with him concerning one of the new teachers at their school.
“And I swear to god almighty he pulled me close-“ he beckoned for his short stocky friend to step forward and he did letting the boy telling the story set his hands on his shoulders and hold him at arms length as he lowered his eyes to be at the same height as the boys “-just like this.” He looked around to make sure everyone was watching. We all were, grinning crazily at how nervous the stocky boy looked.
“And he said:” the boy cleared his throat to make his voice sound gruff as he mimicked the teacher. “Boy I support that we’re allowed free choices as I’m sure you do as well.” He looked around again. “Of course I agreed with him. Scared shitless nonetheless. And he continued: “But I support the ‘Don’t ask don’t tell.’ and that includes ‘don’t look at me like that anymore.’” The boy released the nervous stocky boy from his grasp. “He’d thought I was the queer one for looking at him so much!” We’d all laughed at that. “He’d been watching me thinking I was looking at him. And I’d been watching him thinking he was looking at me.”
The boy slunk away grateful that the story hadn’t turned so that he’d have ended up being hit on as the boy impersonated the teacher. “Let’s just say we both agreed to leave the conversation in the classroom.”
Again we laughed. The boy, I didn’t know his name, had been entertaining us for a good hour now. He’d so many stories! I wished silently I could have some funny experiences to share with people. I found myself drawing a blank. I didn’t really have any. Frankie grinned over at me as he handed me another beer. He was glad I’d eased up and was enjoying myself. I was too. This wasn’t so bad, being normal and all.
“Well I’m out.” the boy said tipping his bottle upside down to show only a few drops fell out. “Sorry to disappoint but I’m going to see if I can manage a refill.”
I smiled and offered forth my still full beer. “Here have mine. I was going to stretch my legs anyways.” I offered. He took it with a grateful smile. “Anyone else need one?” I asked as I got to my feet from where I’d been sitting on a log beside Frankie. Three of four people nodded and thanked me for offering.
“Want some company?” the stocky boy asked with a shy grin and I shook my head.
“I can handle it thanks.”I returned his smile and he actually blushed! Me! Of all people me causing someone to blush! I smiled to myself as I ambled off towards the direction of where the drinks were being doled out to everyone. I’d drank enough to feel a slight warm happy buzz throughout my body. Unlike last time I’d actually paced myself and things weren’t going too bad.
One of the JV boys stood up as I approached and leaned across the table. “What can I get ya?” he asked flashing me a huge grin.
“Could I sneak a twelve pack?” I asked nodding my thumb over towards the group he’d just watched me walk from. “Everyone’s run short.”
He nodded and one of the boys behind him who’d been listening in hopped to his feet and dug into a cooler withdrawing a cold twelve pack of cans for me. “You draw the short straw?” he asked as he slid them across the table and into my hands.
I shook my head my hair falling in waves around my shoulders. “No, I offered actually. Can only sit for so long.” the second I said it I’d felt bad. That’s all that they were allowed to do. Sit, watch and serve. I noticed for the first time that they all had sodas in their hands.
“Someone needs more.” the first boy said shooing the boy who’d gotten the beers for me away with a competitive scowl. I laughed to myself and pulled one of the beers from the twelve pack and popped it open.
“You guys aren’t allowed to have any?” I asked as I took a sip ready to walk off with twelve pack in hand but his thirsty eyes had surprised me.
He shrugged. “Nah. We’re here to cater not party.” I noticed he sounded a little proud of it. “Once we’re varsity we’ll get our fill while others watch. It’s just how things are.”
I nodded. I guess the popular crowd really did do things their own way. “How about if someone offers you one?” I asked noticing how his eyes watched my lips as I took another sip.
The boy looked surprised. “Never told any rules about that.”
I smiled and handed out the beer to him. “Well then I insist you do. I can’t finish it on my own.” I added in a wink and he took it gratefully taking a slow deliberate drink as though savoring it’s flavor like it was the very meaning of life.
I was tapped on the shoulder and turned to see one of the cheerleaders from my school I barely recognized had approached me. “Hey Rein. Can we talk to you?” she asked sweetly. I’d never spoken to her directly before. Only once or twice when I had been waiting for Kale after his football games.
I looked down at the beers I held in my hand. “I’ll take them over for you.” the boy I’d given the drink offered. He hoisted himself over the table and grabbed up the beers for me.
“Thanks.” I flashed him a smile and he nodded, striding towards the group I’d left. So he really had watched me walk over from them after all. “So what’s up?” I asked the girl. Peena. That had been her name. I remembered as I thought about how she’d failed to introduce herself that day I’d met her outside the pool. She’d been so smiley and cheerful . So happy for me and Jakeson.
“Let’s talk over here.” She smiled and I noticed for the first time the two girls she had standing slightly behind her on either side. Her entourage. I thought with a shrug as I followed behind them to a less crowded patch of earth that overlooked the bluff. We stopped and she took a long drink from her bottle of Mike’s hard lemonade she was drinking.
“Didn’t expect you here.” one of the girls spoke up first and eyed me up slowly.
I shrugged. “I’ve never come before but Frankie brought me.”
“See that’s exactly what we wanted to talk about.” Preena hissed her eyes losing her friendly shine in a matter of a blink of the eye.
What was going on? I wondered as the girls stepped in closer all three eyeing me up now. Had I done something to upset them? I’d never had a single disagreement at the Academy so I saw no reason for this treatment now. I didn’t talk to anyone but the guys really. I didn’t pay enough attention to anyone else to have started a fight. I didn’t have rivals.
But it turned out I was wrong. “Don’t give me that innocent look crap!” Preena hissed shoving me back, her drink dangerously close to spilling on me as she did so.
“What are y-“
“Shut up!” one of the other girls hissed. “We’re talking so listen okay? This is the only warning we’re giving you.”
Warning? What on earth was happening? Suddenly my happy buzz wore off as one of the girls sneered at me. “You think you’re all that? That you can prance around OUR school like you please?”
“You’re a no one? You know that right?” the other girl’s words sunk in reminding me of what Kale had once said to me. “You are a nobody, you understand that don’t you?” he’d said. He really was right after all.
Preena shoved me again and I didn’t even bother to fight against it as I stumbled back a step or two. “First you sink your claws into Jakeson. Mess with his head then leave him for Kale.” she hissed her eyes narrowing. She shoved me harder this time and I fell to the ground causing the trio to snicker.
Had I really been so blind to everyone hating me? I didn’t bother to get up, just looked up at them. “We’re not letting you snag Frankie too, you hear?” one of the girls asked nudging me with her foot as they stared down at me.
“You may have all the guys sprung on you but they can’t protect you forever. Not with how many people are against you.” the other girl hissed and stared mightily down at me.
“One wrong step and you’re out, you understand that miss innocence?” Preena mocked me as she stepped up closer and glared down straight into my eyes.
“You’ve no right to them. You’re not even one of the IN crowd.” the other girl sneered. “You’re not even lower class. You’re a no one. Without our boys that you treat like your own personal dogs you’d be alone.”
I swallowed slowly. It was all true. I hadn’t even considered the social affect that my feelings would have. I’d thought about nothing but what I’d wanted at the time. I’d totally forgotten there was a highschool world out there. One I didn’t belong to. “Do you understand what you’ve done?” one of the girls asked.
“You’ve upset the balance. You took what was ours and upset us. But worse then that you took what the masses wished they could get a piece of too. You’re not some fellow peasant hero among them. You’re a no one to them just like you are to us.”
Preena watched for my reaction but I was speechless. “Looks like that was too much for her to understand. We should give her a wakeup call.” And with that she tipped the bottle of Mike’s hard lemonade and let it pour out in sloshes all over me. I could have moved. I could have jumped to my feet and taken all three of them on. They were three cheerleaders and I a nobody raised on a military base with nothing to lose. I could have ruined their pretty faces.
But I didn’t. I just sat there stunned as the cold sticky fluid landed in ontop of my head and rolled down my face and onto my chest. It dripped from my hair and soaked through to my bra. The girls laughed and left realizing that I wasn’t going to do anything to them. “Stay where you belong you dog.” Preena smirked as her parting sentence and they were gone.
I blinked too stunned to actually do anything. How had I let things get so messed up? How had something as simple as highschool ended up so badly? I finally let out a sigh and wiped some of the sticky drink from my eyes.
“Hey are you all right?” the JV boy who I had given my drink earlier asked as he approached me, offering me a hand up as he loomed above me. I gratefully took his hand and got to my feet the drink rolling down my breasts underneath my shirt to rest between them and soak deeper yet into my bra.
I nodded numbly. No I wasn’t fine. He looked at me a second and grabbed my hand. “C’mon lets get you cleaned up.” he didn’t wait for me to say anything. He just marched off holding my hand leading me to the drinks table.
For once me being nice paid off and he grabbed onto my waist, lifting me over the table and setting me down behind it. He jumped over and ignored the incredulous looks of his fellow teammates. “We’ve got some rags back here.” he informed me sitting me down on one of the coolers as he pulled out a roll of viva paper towels and started to rip a few off. “Water’s cold, sorry about that.” he apologized.
“It’s okay.” I mumbled as he dipped them into on open cooler of drinks and offered me the dripping cold paper towels. I accepted them and started to wipe off my face. I was lucky I never wore makeup or I would have been even more pissed off by this.
“So who were they?” the boy asked as he sat on the cooler beside me.
I sighed. So he’d seen most of it then. “Some girls from school.”
The boy nodded knowingly and dabbed at my hair for me. “They sure got you good didn’t they?” he chuckled shaking his head.
I smiled back at him. “Yeah they did.” I paused with a wad of the paper towels and decided that I didn’t care if he thought me odd. I shoved them down the front of my shirt to soak up where the majority of the drink had seemed to settle.
He laughed again as I did this and I smiled bashfully back at him. “My name’s Paul by the way. I’d offer you a handshake but looks like you’re busy.”
Again I smiled as I blotted the paper towels down the front of my shirt. “A girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.” I responded as I pulled out the sopping wet paper towels and tossed them in the bag he’d motioned to.
Just as I was about to tell him my name someone else said it for me. “Rein there you are.”
Both Paul and I looked up equally amazed as Mike approached with a few of his friends all sporting their matching letterman’s light weight jackets. “Mike?” I asked stunned at his sudden appearance.
“You guys can go ahead.” Mike said to his friends and nodded his head towards the party all around us. The one called Pitty who I’d played football with gave me a small wave, which I returned, before he wandered off with the rest of the guys.
“What are you doing here?” I asked still shell shocked by his sudden appearance.
Mike hopped over the table well aware of all of the JV drink servers watching him with almost awe. Was he really such a big deal around here? I wondered as I looked around the party surprised to see how well all of his friends were being accepted into the crowds. It was like they were royalty. “Me and my the guys were just chilling when you called. Since we had nothing else to do I figured why not swing by here and check it out for once?” he eyed me up and down. “What on earth happened to you?”
“She ran into her fan club.” Paul spoke up and I chuckled shaking my head slowly. He blotted at my hair again.
Mike arched an eyebrow and watched as Paul blotted my hair. “Is that so?”
I shrugged. “Yeah. They got a little enthusiastic with wanting to serve me drinks.” I rolled my eyes thinking back to the trio. How had I messed up highschool so royally?
“How sweet of them.” he sighed and stepped up holding out his hand for some paper towels. Paul ripped off a few and handed them to him.
“Sticky sweet.” I commented as I scrunched up my nose in discomfort. I felt disgusting. Mike stood infront of me and blotted slowly at my neck. “Mike this is my friend Paul.” I introduced him glad that, unlike what Kale would have done, Mike accepted Paul’s presence. “And Paul this is-“
“Mike Klaers. ClayVontte quarterback. I know.” Paul grinned sheepishly and looked down at my still soaking shirt. “I’ve a feeling this is a hopeless task.”
I looked down well aware of the huge stain on the shirt and the sticky feeling all over me. “Yeah and it feels worse than it looks.”
The pair of them looked at me for a bit as they stopped their blotting. “You know-“ Mike said slowly as he looked over to Paul, “It’d probably work better if you just ditched your shirt.”
Paul met his eyes and smiled as though understanding some secret guy language. Wait.. they didn’t expect me to strip did they?! “Here.” Paul offered as he took off his sweatshirt then removed his teeshirt to reveal an undershirt stamped with his team’s logo. He slid back on his sweatshirt and handed me his shirt.
I mumbled a thanks. Normally I would have objected but with how uncomfortable I felt I figured it’d be better not to. I slipped the shirt over my head and pulled my arms inside.For a moment I struggled around before sticking my arms back out the arm holes. I then reached up and grabbed my shirt and bra that I’d just worked off of me and pulled themover my head.
“I feel very exposed but less sticky.” I said thankfully as I shoved my soaked bra and shirt into the garbage bags with the empty bottles and wet towels from me.
They both laughed and I smiled sheepishly. “That’s always a great statement to hear.” Mike winked and I laughed again.
“Can you wet these?” I asked handing Paul some of the paper towels and he obeyed. I took them from him with a thank you and pulled my arms back into the shirt. Holy crap it was cold! I wiped off my breasts and my chest of the remaining sticky drink. “Well I’m as good as I’ll get.” I said satisfied as I popped my arms back out and tossed the rags into the bag. Again they laughed.
“You’re surprisingly happy about this.” Mike said his smile becoming a small sad smile. “Aren’t you upset?”
I shrugged and pulled my hair tie from my arm. I pulled the back of the shirt together a bit and bunched it with my hair tie. There were two reasons I did this. One: It bunched the shirt around my breasts so it wasn’t noticeable at all I wasn’t wearing a bra anymore and two: it looked much cuter this way like I’d actually planned the outfit. The crunched up slightly oversized boys shirt paired with my worn skinny jeans looked like I was either slightly sporty, which I was, or I was in my boyfriends shirt and proud of it.
“No reason to pout about it.” I sighed and fluffed my damp hair. “They got their point across.”
Paul eyed me for a second. “And that was?”
I hesitated. I couldn’t very well tell them the real reason. It’d seem petty and made up. So instead I just said, “A friendly warning.”
Mike stared at me knowingly and nodded. “Girls seem fairly good at that around here.” he gave a sad sigh then opened up one of the coolers. He withdrew three beers. After opening one he handed it to me and I gladly drank it. He extended another towards Paul who looked at it blankly.
“I’m only JV.” he said shrugging and looking away from Mike as though embarrassed.
Mike Continued to hold it out. “So? If anyone asks tell them Klaers gave it to you. They won’t bother you.”
Paul grinned and accepted it, popping it open and taking a slow drink like he had with the one I’d given him earlier. “Thanks.”
“I always thought that was a stupid concept. Part of why I never came up here.” Mike looked around at the party going on around us. “A bunch of people who try to make names for themselves. All the while the people who actually deserve it are left to look like outsiders.” He shifted his gaze from me to Paul and then raised is drink. “To the underdogs.”
We raised our bottles and clinked them with his and drank from our beers together. “Never thought I’d be doing that with you of all people Klaers.” Paul chuckled as he finished off his beer only to look at like he wished he hadn’t. He tossed his bottle into one of the bags.
Mike surprised both of us and tossed Paul another beer. “A friend of Rein’s is a friend of mine.”
“Uhm-“ we were interrupted as three of Paul’s fellow JV boys stepped up sheepishly. “You really shouldn’t be back here.” the boy finished nervously looking from me to Mike.
He just grinned and slapped the boy on the back in a friendly gesture. “Sure thing pal, we’ll be right out of your hair.” I ran my hand through my hair and as if pre planned Paul took my right arm and Mike took my left as they lifted me up in the air and over the table. I set down on the safe ground on the other side and watched as Mike followed suite behind me.
“Sorry about that.” the boy apologized as he read Mike’s name across the back of his lightweight letterman’s jacket once again.
“We’ll be stealing Paul from you, I hope you don’t mind.” Mike said with a daring smile to the boys who’d made us move.
The boys looked as surprised as Paul. “But he has to-“
“You heard Klaers. I’m out for the night.” Paul said with a grin as he jumped over the table.
“Oh and could we snag a twelve pack?” Mike added on an after though. The boy eyed Mike wide eyed for a moment then hissed “You heard him!” over his shoulder to one of his companions. They obeyed and pushed one our way. Mike took it with a grin. “Thanks again.”
The three of us walked off with huge grins on our faces.