I wake up to my cousin shaking me. "Skylar. Get up. We have to get ready for school."
I nod my head and open my eyes. "I'm sorry about last night Avery." I say.
She smiles at me. "I know. It's okay." Then she walks out.
I roll out of my bed and go to my closet. I honestly don't care how I look. I'm not trying to impress anyone.
I grab a pair of purple shorts and a white and purple Peter Pan t-shirt. I grab underwear, a new towel and go into my bathroom.
I turn the shower on and start my routine. I'm out and dressed by 7. I throw cover up on my scars and grab my purple high tops.
Avery comes into my room. "Hey it's my turn to drive so we have to leave in five."
I nod my head and grab my folder and throw it in my bag. I grab my wallet and phone and follow Avery outside to her car.
I slide in the passenger seat. Avery starts the car and we go to Ashley's house. Once we pick her up we go to school. It's a Monday. We are all tired and don't talk much.
I break the silence. "So do you guys know Dylan Parker?" I ask.
Avery's head snaps in my direction and Ashley starts choking on her water. I look at them with raised eyebrows. "Yeah we know him. He's the football quarterback. He also hates the guys and the guys hate him." Av asks me.
"Why?" I ask her.
She shrugs her shoulders. "He's a douche bag." Ashley says from the back.
"Why are you asking?" Avery asks me.
I shrug my shoulders. "I don't know. I met him a couple of days ago at the café and saw him yesterday with Rylee. I don't know anything about him so I was just wondering."
She nods her head. "Okay. He is bad news Skylar. Stay away from him if you can."
Once we get to school I leave my friends to go to my locker and then to the office to get my ID number.
I reach my locker and open it up. Suddenly I feel someone standing next to me. I put my book in and shut it. "Hey Skylar." He says to me.
I smile. "So, why are people telling me to stay away from you because you're a douche?" I ask Dylan.
He shrugs his shoulders. "Jealously I guess."
I roll my eyes and start to walk away from him. He catches up to me. "Okay. Maybe I've done some stuff I'm not proud of." He says to me.
I look at him and laugh. "You and me both." He smiles at me.
We walk to the office and I walk in. "Skylar! Welcome back!" The secretary says to me.
I smile at her. "Thanks. I was wondering if you had my ID number?"
She nods her head and types into her computer. The warning bell goes off. Dylan is still here. "12928." She says to me. I scribble it down and thank her. Dylan and I leave.
"You're going to be late for class." I say to him.
He rolls his eyes and smirks at me. "Who cares."
I roll my eyes at him but couldn't help but chuckle. "So Skylar. I was wondering." He says.
We stop in front of my class. I can see everybody but I ignore them. I look back at Dylan. He is nervous and is scratching the back of his neck.
"Spit it out Parker. I don't have all day." I say to him.
He nods and breathes. "Well opening game is this Friday and there is always a party after. I was wondering if you wanted to go with me?" He says.
I ponder for a moment. "I don't know. Maybe. Let me talk to Avery and see if she has any plans for us for Friday. I will text you?"
He smiles and nods his head. He looks over my shoulder and his smile fades. His jaw clenches and his fists ball up. "I will see you later." He says to me and walks off.
What is his problem? I turn around and get my answer. My friends are staring at us. I walk in the class and walk to my chemistry teacher. "Sorry I'm late. I had to stop at the office before school." I say to her as I give her my homework.
She dismisses me and I walk to my seat. Stone is glaring at me. Avery is also staring at me. Even Jake is giving me a weird look.
I take my seat and Mrs. Jenkins starts to go over a review. I can still feel my friends eyes on my as I get out my notebook and start copying down the board.
I look at Stone. "What?" I ask him.
"What did Parker want?" He asks me.
I shrug my shoulders. "Why does it matter?" I ask him.
My phone vibrates in my pocket. I slide it out.
Avery💕
What's up with you and Dylan? Is that why you asked about him this morning?
I roll my eyes. Why is everybody over reacting?
Nothing is going on. I ran into him this morning and he asked me to go to a party this Friday. I said I had to talk to you first and we went our separate ways.
I hit send and look back at Stone waiting for his reply. He just shrugs his shoulders and goes back to writing down the notes. All of a sudden my pen stops working. I scribble over and over trying to get it back to work. I groan in frustration.
Stone then reaches into his back pack and hands me a pen. "Thanks." I say to him.
He shrugs his shoulders and goes back to work. I click the pen and start to take notes. The ink isn't coming out.
I groan and click the pen again. I click it one more time and then everything happens so fast. Something cold and wet gets flung all over my face. I gasp really loud and everybody stops and looks at me. I have blue ink from my hair to down my chin.
I quickly stand up and wipe the ink from my eyes. I can see Stone shaking. I glare at him. "Oh my god! Skylar are you okay?" Mrs. Jenkins says to me.
People have their phones out and are taking pictures of me. Anger rushes through my veins. Avery looks at me with wide eyes. Everybody is waiting for me to snap and freak on Stone.
Instead. I say, "Aw you made me ink."
Stone looses it and starts laughing hard. I soon join him. Everybody else looks at us like we grown a second head.
I look back at the teacher. "What happened?" She asks me.
Stone and I sobered up. He looks at me with wide eyes knowing what I am about to do. "My pen exploded. I'm sorry for disrupting your class but may I go clean up in the restroom?"
She looks at Stone and nods her head. I crouch down to get my backpack and whisper. "Game on Stone." I wink at him.
He just smiles and leans back in his chair. I walk out of the classroom and straight to the bathroom. When I get to the bathroom I look at my reflection and start laughing. I take a picture of myself just for memories.
I turn on the sink and the door opens, Av walks in. She looks at me and smiles. We both start laughing. I put my hair up and start washing my face.
"What happened?" She asks me.
I smile. "Stone gave me a rigged pen. It exploded in my hand."
She nods her head. It takes forty-five minutes but the ink finally comes off my face without staining. My hair has a little tint of blue but it's not that noticeable due to the headband Av gave me.
"And you're not mad?" She asks me.
I shake my head as we leave the bathroom. "Nope. Because I know how I am going to get him back. And let me tell you. Karma is a bitch, also named Skylar."
We laugh as we go to third period. We missed study because of the ink. We walk into history and I take my seat next to a smirking Stone.
"Hey Skye!" Rylee says to me. I smile at her.
"Hey Ryles!" I say to her.
She pulls out her phone and slide it over to me. It's a video of me before the ink gets all over me to when I ask to leave the class.
I laugh and look at Stone who is already laughing at me. "I hate you!" I whisper yell to him.
He smirks at me. "No you don't."
I roll my eyes. The rest of the morning goes by uneventful. I walk into the lunch line and grab whatever they are serving.
"Hey Skylar." Someone says from beside me.
"Hey Dylan." I say without looking up.
"How was your morning?" He asks me.
I look at him and see him smiling trying to hold back his laughter. I roll my eyes and chuckle. "Saw the video?" I ask.
His eyes go wide. "There's a video? I've got to see that!"
I roll my eyes. Great. I pay for my food and leave Dylan without saying anything else.
I walk to my table and sit across from Avery who is next to Ashley. Rylee sits next to me.
"Are you going to soccer try outs?" Rylee asked me.
I tense and freeze. Avery's eyes snap to mine. I shake my head. "No. I'm not playing this year."
Rylee nods her head. "Skylar you're going to have to walk home or wait until tryouts are over and then I can take you." Av says to me.
I nod my head. That was the end of that conversation. The rest of the day goes by quick and uneventful. The period ends and I head to my locker.
"Skye are you going to stay?" Avery asks me.
I nod my head and open my locker and exchange my books. "Yeah." I say.
She nods her head and walks off with Ashley and Rylee. I start to walk to the back of the building. I put in my headphones and find a spot in the shade where I can watch the try outs. I ignore the world and let my music take over. The girls start with simple running drills. Then they go to short quick passes, long passes, shots on net, and throw ins.
About thirty minutes into try outs, my heart clenches. I miss this. I miss this so bad. I pull my knees up to my chest and sigh. The boys have try outs too, on the field next to the girls.
I pick up my phone and text Avery. Hey I decided to walk home.
I grab my bag and leave the field. I don't look back. Once I get to my aunts house I go up to my room and flop on to my bed.
I roll on my side and see my old cleats on my floor. I get up and sigh. Maybe Avery is right, maybe I should start playing again.
I get up and grab a pair of exercising shorts and a sport bra. I change into them and grab a pair of long socks.
I walk over to the new cleats my brother sent me and grab them. I jog downstairs and out to the back yard. I walk over to the net and grab a ball. I tie up my cleats and stand up. I hop from one foot to another and then stop. I stare down at the ball. I don't know how long I was staring at the ball, but my vision goes blurry. I shake my head. I can't do this. I'm not ready. I can't make this choice yet.
I kick off my cleats and throw them into the soccer net. I kick off my socks and run through the fence and on to the beach. I keep running until I come to the pier. I jog to the end and don't stop, I dive into the water without a second thought.
I hold my breath for as long as I can. I sit on the bottom of the ocean, my lungs burning, screaming for oxygen.
I finally cave and resurface. I swim back to the shore. I slowly walk up to the house and go straight to my room. I grab dry clothes and change. I then go on to the roof.
"God I can't do this. Why can't I just do this?" I hear someone yell.
I look behind me and see Roland sitting at their patio set with some books and papers everywhere. I see him groan in frustration.
I climb back through my window and go over to the fence. "Hey Roland." I say.
His eyes snap to mine and he looks down at his lap. "Hi." He says.
"What do you have there?" I ask.
He shrugs. "Math homework." He then sighs. "Multiplication."
I nod my head and blow out a breath. "Multiplication? That's actually some hard stuff. I struggled with that when I was your age."
He looks up at me. "Really?"
I nod my head. "Yeah. I can show you how I figured it out if you want?" I say to him.
He shrugs his shoulders again. "I guess."
I smile. "Okay. I will be right back." He gives me a look.
I run up to my room and open my candy drawer. Yes I got a secret stash. I grab the smartys and run back outside. I pull out a seat next to Roland. "Okay. What are you having difficulties with?"
He doesn't look at me. "I know all of my 1's and 2's. But I don't get the 3's and higher. We are supposed to know to 10."
I nod my head. "Okay." I say. I open three packs of smarties. "So if we have one group of three. How many do we have?"
He counts them. "Three." I nod my head.
I take a piece of paper and fold it a couple of times. I then write 3x1 3x2 3x3 3x4. All the way up to 3x12. In separate boxes.
I put the three smarties in the first box. "Okay. If we have two groups of three, what does that equal?" I put two groups of three smarties into the second box.
"6." He says. I smile and nod. We do this all the way up until we do 12x12. It takes two hours but we get there.
I make a chart for him that has all of the answers. I teach him how to use it. "Okay so if you need to figure out what 7x4 is all you have to do is go to the 7 row and go down four spaces and that is your answer. It works for all of them up until 12x12." He nods his head. "Roland do you have any duct tape and a sharpie?"
He gives me a confused look. "I think so." I smile.
"Let's get it." He nods and we get the stuff.
We then go over to the stairs. I put two pieces of tape on each stair. They are carpet stairs so nothing will happen. I take the sharpie and write all of the multiplications with three. One on each step. Good thing they have twelve steps. On the other side I write the answers. "Now. Every time you go up or down you have to say the problem and then the answer. If you don't know it then just look over there."
The front door opens and Brayden walks in and Diana. "Skylar? What the hell are you doing in here?"
I look at Brayden. His mother hits the side of his head. "Don't be rude." She smiles at me. "It's nice seeing you."
I smile back. "I'm just helping Roland with his multiplication. My mom made me do this to learn. It stunk but worked. Every time Roland has to go up or down the stairs he has to say each multiplication problem as he does. He does this until he knows all of them by heart. Then you remove the duct tape and go onto the next set of twelve."
She smiles at me. "What a brilliant idea. Thank you Skylar so much for helping him." I stand up and shrug my shoulders.
"It's really no problem." I say.
"Would you like to stay for dinner?" She asks me.
I shake my head no. "No thank you."
She shakes her head. "It's not a problem if that is what you are thinking. I insist. It's the least I can do for you helping Roland."
I bite my lip. I take a deep breath. "Okay. I guess I can stay." She smiles.
"Spaghetti good?" I smile back.
"Perfect." I say.
"Okay. It will be ready in a half in hour." She says.
I nod my head. "Skye. You want to see my room?" Roland asks me.
I smile down at him. "Sure bud." He smiles back.
He starts to go up the stair. I say "Um forgetting something?"
He smiles and looks down. He then starts listing the problems as he goes. I smile.