Just made an awesome neck tie. It is blue and beautiful *adjusts tie* wearing it next Thursday. Right now I am in my black and red zebra one....ah....neck ties
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CHAPTER FIVE
I was up at four, just for gymnastics. You happy gymnastics? I made sure to be as quiet as physically possible as I grabbed my backpack and left.
I left my room as Charles, and didn’t change into a girl until I got to the locker rooms. I hoped that there weren’t any security cameras in this building, otherwise they would have seen Charles enter the girls’ locker room. Sick. I got on my red leotard this time.
I plugged in my ipod to the cable in the gym’s office. ‘Crazy Train’ by Ozzy Osborne started up. I don’t get why so many people dissed that guy, especially with Rand Rhoads at lead guitar. I started up on the beam first, doing illusions and flips, practicing hard and concentrating harder. That was the one thing that I hated about the beam, it always felt like I was going to fall off of the edge. I rose up to do a handstand and started to walk the length of the beam on my hands. I flipped off of the end and posed as I was trained. I hated posing, but you had to do it.
Two hours later, I decided to finish. I laid down on the trampoline as I tried to catch my breath. I enjoyed trampolines. I heard the door open and I froze.
“Renee?” Luke, that was Luke’s questioning voice. Crap, how did you find out? I jumped up from my position on the trampoline and tried to run across it, but just sunk in. He was standing at the entrance, the locker rooms were at the back, that is where I was going to escape to. I jumped off of the last half of the trampoline and landed on the padded floor. I started to run again, only actually running, not with stick arms.
“Renee, wait.” Luke called out lightly. How much I would like to wait, but he had seen me. I was so dead. What if he told somebody about this? Ugh, issues. I disappeared into the locker room and stopped to catch my breath. I could have had a heart attack because of that kid. Then a thought occurred to me. I still had to get my ipod and turn off the lights. How was I supposed to do that with Luke in the gym? Maybe he would leave, I would just have to wait it out.
After I had allowed myself some time to calm down I took a shower and changed back into my Charles outfit. I was wearing a big tee shirt, a pair of black sweats, my eyebrows and wig and no glasses. I was supposed to be sleeping, remember? I turned off the locker room light and stuck my head out to get a good look at the gym. Luke was gone, at least, it looked like he was. Didn’t he have practice in the mornings? Yes, what time was it…six fifteen. He was gone, probably on the other side of the building.
I crept out of the locker room and adjusted my wig. I went to the office and grabbed my ipod and turned off the lights. Now I would just have to creep passed all of the swimmers without being seen.
Somehow I managed to do just that. Once I was back in my dorm room I let myself fall onto my bed and I was out like a light.
“Hey, Charles!” Something soft hit my face and I woke up. “Get up, it is almost time for classes to start.” Was I late? I tried to scramble out of my bed but got tangled in my blankets and fell off of the side of my bed. Luke laughed. I would wring that boy’s neck.
“Yeah,” I said, wait, that wasn’t deep enough. I cleared my throat and repeated myself in a more manly manner. Whoops, too deep. I smiled at him and he returned my glance with a confused look. Yup, I was a goner, he knew.
“Okay, uh…” I looked over at the clock, it was seven twenty. Wasn’t that late, now what was my first class… I crawled back onto my bed and grabbed my schedule from my nightstand. Okay, Biology, with Luke, Calculus, with Luke, English, with Scarlet, and then Physical Education. Hum, I wonder who else had that for fourth block.
“I’m gonna head out,” he pointed to the door. “See ya,” I nodded as he left. I watched him go with the sad eyes of a lover. A lover? He’s your roommate! Bad Charles bad. I let my head fall onto the mattress.
I got ready for the day without Luke there rather easily. I was able to change right out in the open without the fear of him seeing my wrap thingy. I put on a pair of black pants, a white collared shirt, and a blue tie. That was the school uniform. I straitened my wig out a bit, re-stuck on my eyebrows so they were strait, and then put on my glasses. I was such a scrawny looking guy. I licked my fingers and flattened down some of the sticking up hairs in my wig. I went back to my nightstand and grabbed my materials for class. At seven forty, I was headed out for class.
When I arrived the classroom was pretty much empty. I still had ten minutes until class started. I decided to take my spare time to introduce myself to the creepy Mr. Kridd. Again.
“Hi,” I started. He looked up from his computer to get a look at me. He scanned me with his eyes, huffed, and went back to whatever he had been doing on the computer. “Uh, I’m Charles, I transferred from Georgia.”
“Oh,” he flew up and out of his chair. Mr. Kridd wasn’t that tall, but he was rather handsome. “I’m Mr. Kridd, your Bio teacher.” He held out a hand and I shook it. He smiled at me. “One sec,” he went over to his desk and grabbed a clip board. He flipped through it until he found our block’s seating chart. “We actually just had a student drop the class yesterday so you can take his spot.” He pointed towards a table in the middle of the classroom.
“Okay,” I went back to get to my seat and froze as Payne entered. He was wearing a long-sleeved black collared shirt with a pair of dark skinny jeans. The hoop that was normally in his lip had been replaced by a ball, the same ball that he had been wearing when I kissed him. Ugh, don’t remind me. He must have felt my stare because he looked up to me, his eyes meeting mine. A look of confusion crossed his face as he squinted still looking at my eyes. I quickly looked away and took my seat.
I turned to face the front of the class and gulped. I looked to the seat next to me, which was where Payne had been the other day. Oh god, no…no no no no no. Payne came up to the table and pulled out the seat next to me. He sat down and I turned to face the other direction, finding interest in the wall. He leaned in next to me and I thought that I would die. I could smell him. Not that it was a putrid scent, as sad as it might be, he did smell rather delicious, but that was beside the point. I tried to stay focused on the wall. Yes, walls are fun. Lets all have staring contests with the wall on the count of three. One, two, three, go. Wait, I blinked.
“Hey,” he said quietly. Wait, did he just talk? Huh, and his voice wasn’t even the creepy rasp that I had imagined it to be, it was quite normal. All velvety and deep like. Wait, what? I wrenched my eyes away from the wall to turn to him, it was the polite thing to do. I froze. He was smiling. What the heck? The last two days all he could do was act all scary and creepy to me, but when I am a guy he has the decency to develop manners. Wait, was he gay? I bet he was. Then why had he kissed me?
“I’m Payne,” he said quietly.
“Cha-Charles.” I nodded. Man my throat was dry which made my man voice less believable than it already was.
“First day?” He asked as class started.
“Yeah.”
“No it’s not.”
“What?” Really, what? How would he know? Mr. Kridd started coming around the class and handed out some previously graded assignments. He put down Payne’s and he covered it with his arm. Mr. Kridd leaned into Payne and whispered in a hard voice.
“I will need to see you after class.” I could feel Payne stiffen beside me, but he nodded and Mr. Kridd left.
As hard as it may be to believe. I managed to survive the class. I could feel Payne’s eyes drift over me every once in a while, but it wasn’t the normal locked stare that I had to deal with for the last two days. When the bell rang and class was dismissed I shot out of my seat and started to get my stuff together. As I pushed my stuff into my backpack, one of my books overshot it and skipped across the floor. Man, and here I thought I would make it out alive. I reached down to grab it but someone else had the same idea. I looked up to see a straight faced Payne holding my book.
I stood up and brushed some of the dirt off of my shirt before ripping it from his hands. I looked up to him and our eyes met, that same look of confusion crossed his face. What are you thinking about boy?
“Mr. West!” Mr. Kridd practically yelled. I winced and Payne didn’t move, but his facial expression did a one-eighty. He went from squinting and observing to large fear struck eyes. He tried to wipe the look away but failed miserably.
“Ya-yes,” he stammered as he turned to face Mr. Kridd. I took that as my opportunity to flee. I started towards the door while shoving my book into my bag. I tripped and ran into a table and Mr. Kridd turned to face me. He looked rather ticked off. I waved and went for the door. When I reached the doorway I could hear Mr. Kridd talking all hushed like and menacing. I turned to see Payne. All I could see was his back, but he still looked stiff and rigid. Mr. Kridd caught my gaze and I quickly exited the door way and went to the hall. As I started to turn towards my calc class I ran into somebody. Why me?
“Sorry,” I apologized as I started to pick up her stuff. “I am a clutz, here,” I stood up and pushed her books into her hands. Wait, I knew those hands. Vanessa.
“Hey,” she said sweetly as she pushed a piece of hair behind her ear. “You must be Charles, my brother’s roommate.” I smiled back. Was she flirting? No, that’s absurd.
“Yeah, that would be me.”
“What class do you have next?”
“Uh,” we started to walk down the hall together. “I have calculus with,” your amazingly hot older brother, “Ms. Beffert.”
“My brother has that too. And so do I.” Yay?
“Oh, okay.”
“Want to sit by each other? I could really use some help.”
“So could I,” I muttered as I entered the room. The class was filled with students. Unlike Mr. Kridd’s room, the walls were bare. The only thing on them was the windows and a smart board behind the teacher’s desk. The bell rang just as we entered and Vanessa went to take her seat. An older looking lady, probably in her early sixties, came up to greet me.
“Hi, I am Ms. Beffert. You must be Charles.” I nodded. “Okay, do you know what your status at math was in your old school?”
“Uh, I am not a math person.”
“Oh, that’s okay. I would like you to go sit by Luke then, he is one of my better students.” I looked over her shoulder to see Luke sitting by Darren. Want to know what I didn’t see? Payne. Praise the lord all mighty.
“Okay,” Ms. Beffert handed me a book and guided me to my seat. This classroom had individual desks. I sat down on one that was to the right of Luke. He smiled and waved at me, I smiled and waved back at my future husband.
We started off the period with notes and then we got an assignment, a big one at that. I was never a fan of math, and this was one of the reasons why. After class I went to lunch with Luke and Darren. I took the seat at the lunch table that Vanessa had occupied yesterday. I was sitting within elbow jabbing distance from Luke. I would have to take note of that. I wasn’t really paying attention to the conversation as I looked around the cafeteria. I hadn’t gotten any food today, just a water bottle.
My mind wandered onto topics such as what I was going to do tomorrow when it came to gymnastics, all the way to what Payne had smelt like. I had no clue was it was. It was just so…I don’t know, great? All I knew was that he had seemed rather fresh and minty, like scope toothpaste. Bad Charlene, bad. What was happening to me? My eyes wandered and landed on Payne. He was in the same corner next to the garbage can and for once he wasn’t focused on me. I followed his gaze to the table I had sat at the other day. He was looking at Scarlet, again. That poor girl.
“And then Mr. Kridd spazzed out on him.” All of the guys laughed. Wait, who? “He grabbed his tie and got all up in his face,” Darren reached over and grabbed me by my tie and pulled me up into his face. “Like so,” everyone started laughing. I looked out of the corner of my eyes, Luke was laughing too. What was going on?
“And then they made out?” One guy asked as the rest of the table started to hoot and pat him on the back. What were they talking about?
“Sick, please don’t show us that.” Luke said. I pulled myself out of Darren’s grip and readjusted my neck tie. I think he wrinkled it. What was it with me and wrinkles?
“Who are you talking about?” I asked. The whole table fell silent. Luke rolled his eyes and leaned incredibly close to me. I could smell him now, and man I would love to get a taste of that.
“Payne,” he whispered and jerked his head into Payne’s direction.
“Oh.” I wondered what had happened with Mr. Kridd. Maybe he needed to discuss grades with him, but the way that Payne seemed so terrified to do so told me otherwise.
“You know ‘bout his arm?” Darren asked. All of the guys nodded. “I heard that it was from the new girl, Renee. She attacked him with a pole!”
“She wouldn’t do that.” The table fell silent once more. I looked over at Luke, he was defending me. How cute. “I said that she wouldn’t do that. She’s too sweet to attack someone with a pole.”
“Yes, but it is Payne.”
“He fell.” I spoke up. Why did I just say that? They all turned to face me. “I heard that she pushed him off of her and he hit into a bar. He wasn’t attacked he fell.”
“Lies,” Darren said as he rose from the table. All of the guys followed, all except Luke.
“Asses, all of them,” he said quietly before taking a bite out of his hamburger. I smiled. I struck a conversation with Luke. He seemed a lot more relaxed and open to it now that I was a guy. So I really did make him nervous. After he left the table, I followed. I had nothing to dump so I was able to avoid Payne for that instant. Win. Well, that is what I thought.
I had English with Scarlet, and even in my new identity we were destined to be friends. She kept leaning on me, and edging closer, it was freaking me out a bit. I walked her to her next class and then went to gym. I entered the large gym with a smile plastered to my face. This was one fun day. When my eyes fell on the students in my class, my smile faded. Payne was in my class! Kill me now. I huffed and hung my head when I walked around to the bleachers and sat down.
Mr. Laslily entered later and had us do the same exercises as we had the other day. The funny thing was, that since I was no longer Renee, I could actually do the exercises to the better of my ability which meant that I was the fastest guy in my class. Fastest guy, as in, faster than even all of the guys. When I finished running my laps, it took over a minute for the next person to finish, and about three more before the class was done. I watched as each person finished, smiling all the while. I then realized something, Payne wasn’t running. What the heck? I looked around the gym, scanning for him. He was on the bleachers.
“Uh, Mr. Laslily.” I came up to him and he smiled.
“Have you ever thought about joining track Mr. Hatsfend?”
“No, but uh…why isn’t he running?” I nodded towards Payne.
“Who, him?”
“Yeah, that would be the one.”
“His inhaler needs a refill.”
“Oh,” I knew someone with asthma once. It was Jaxon’s little brother. Man, what was his name again? Payton, no, Peter, nope. What was it? I let it slide. That was the main reason why Jaxon and I would always ditch the little bugger, he couldn’t keep us to us. He was never the athletic person, even as a kid. He would rather sit by himself and color.
“Okay class! Time for weights, everyone to the weight room!” All of the girls groaned when the guys cheered. The class filed through the gym doors, I was one of the last people to leave. Payne was even further back. I could feel him eyeing me from behind. I gulped.
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Author's Note
Payne is actually turning out to be a human being. One beautiful and minty human being. *sniffs* ahh.....