"Okay class before we being let's talk about the fundamentals of-"
Joshua stood next to me.
My heart pounded. Not one of those 'I'm about to go on the stage and I'm freaking nervous' poundings. More like a, 'I'm going to bungee off of this building into a pool filled with sharks' kind of pounding.
He still smelled the same from Friday night ... or was it Saturday morning?
Vanilla and citrus.
The lights above reflected off of his dark brown hair making his hair lighter than what it truly is, then my eye inevitable just so happened to examine his features. The strong structure of his face looked like the perfect example of masculinity compared to the others in our class. The way he stood next to me was lean yet lenient at the same time. His scar unnoticeable to others, seemed to shine in my opinion. It was perfectly place on his forehead appearing from his eyebrows and then suddenly disappearing into his hair.
"Whatcha looking at?" His voice brought me out of my daze.
"Ugh-" What do I say? "Oh you just had something right there." I said pointing to his cheek. "I thought it was a bug but it turned out to be just a beauty mark."
His eyes widen and before he could make any expressive reactions, I quickly apologized. "No wait I meant - I didn't mean. What I meant was -"
He nudged me and chuckled, "I guess I deserved that."
He gave me a calming smile.
And then I smiled back.
He turned back to Coach Carson and I couldn't but help but feeling lost when I looked into his eyes-
"Volleyball is this delicate sport that consist more of than just the individual it's the team-"
Then suddenly I was pulled away from Joshua, the culprit pulled me back to the rear of the group.
Somebody turned me around quickly and I looked into the faces of, Emma and Leia?
"We just wanted to have a little friendly chat with you." Emma stated.
This is her way of saying, 'you are being interrogated whether you like it or not.'
"Andy you better explain what the hell is-" Emma suddenly busted out saying.
"Shh." However some girl whispered before Emma could finish her question.
"Sorry." She muttered.
"Andy." Leia said patiently. "If you aren't ready to tell us anything,"
I looked at Leia and Emma confused at their acquisitions. And then it hit me.
"Then take your time we're here for you-"
"Unfortunately for you, time's up." Emma cut her off, "Spill it."
Can you believe the kind of friends I have?
"HEY YOU THREE."
Emma, Leia and I froze in our spots.
"YEA YOU THREE. FROZEN STIFF IN PLACE! Turn around you crazy twerps."
Obediently we turned around and as we rotated, I noticed that the whole class looked at us.
Joshua didn't pay attention but as soon as he realized that I was here, he looked back at the spot next to him. Where I was previously and looked back at me.
I sort of waved.
And then he sort of waved back.
Emma took a step back and to the side so that she was somewhat behind me. Then all of a sudden I felt a sharp pain on my side.
"HOLY MOTHER OF GOD." I groaned in response and almost fell to the floor.
"Oh no." Leia said concerned as she rushed to my side to help me up.
"OH NO INDEED!" Emma acted out. "Coach, Andy's not feeling well. Looks like she needs to see the nurse!" Then she gasped.
She literally gasped.
Who even 'gasps' like that anymore?
"Now why would I let you do that?"
Emma immediately became quiet.
The whole room became eerily silent.
"Do you really want me to explain what's going on?"
My eyes widen.
She's gonna tell.
"Emma no-" Emma hit me again and I groaned once more.
"Andy here, well coach, what I'm trying to say." Emma tried to say. "Is well, you know mother nature decided to visit her early this month and-"
Coach's face turned red from embarrassment. "JUST GO. AND HURRY UP! You got fifteen minutes."
We just stood there.
Did that just actually work?
Leia tried pulling me from my spot. But I wouldn't budge but then Emma started pushing me and that's when I moved.
Did he not see EMMA HITTING ME?
My sides hurt like a mother foe, otherwise I remained motionless as Emma apologize again and again.
"Andy listen if there was any other way we could have got out of that situation I would have totally done that. But there wasn't so. I just did the next best thing."
"Emma you did the first thing that popped into your head-" Leia tried to explain.
"Leia now's not the time to actually reveal the truth to the truth."
"The truth to the - ? Ugh never mind you guys are so confusing."
"It's not my fault." Leia tried to defend herself. "You just have to be friends with Miss. Lunatic over there." Then she whispered in my ears. "She believes that Hogwarts is a legit place."
"I can hear you, I mean we are in a bathroom which echos every single sound." Emma leaned against the wall next to the sink across from the first bathroom stall closest to the door. "And plus J.K. Rowling wrote all of those Harry Potter franchise books so that we can have a glimpse into the future of which catastrophic events will take place, which then would escalate into a flow blown on war between the human and magical world."
"You are a nut." Leia managed to say.
"A conspiracy nut." I added.
"True story." She defended.
Leia and i just stared at Emma and Emma just stared at us.
"BACK on topic. Andy you better explain or I'll get Leia to get it out of you." Emma threatened.
"What do you think I am? An interrogator?" Leia asked.
"Jeez, Leia it would have been nice if you could have just supported me."
"What don't you just ask her?"
"No you ask."
"FINE!" Leia said frustrated.
"Andy." She said calmly.
"Yes."
"Do you mind telling us what's going on?"
I got up from the middle of the floor and went over to the corner of the room. My back hit the wall and I slowly landed to the floor again. I tried to think back to the beginning when this all happened. To when being young and carefree meant just playing in the mud rather than gossiping.
But I looked up again.
These were my friends.
"Okay well it started when I was about four and my brothers were being mean again. So I rushed outside and saw this hole underneath the fence. So I sneaked into my neighbors backyard and got my dress really dirty and my pigtails in a tangled mess."
I stopped and tried to focus on my train of thoughts. "That's when I met Joshua and he had these glasses on-"
A brown eyed boy whose very presence was the essence of my childhood.
I managed to tell them everything.
My childhood. My mother's death. The move away from Hallow Oaks. The move back to Hallow Oaks. Starting a second semester at a new school during my senior year. Classes. Meeting 'Josh'. Believing that 'Josh' wasn't Joshua. 'Josh' being a totally ass to me. Having the unfortunate fate of being paired off with 'Josh' in every class that we have together. Finding out that 'Josh' lived next door to me. Finding out that 'Josh' was indeed Joshua my childhood best friend. Discovering that he doesn't remember me whatsoever. Him threatening me to never talk to him. Me talking to Will. Josh and his posse walks over to talk to Will, which escalates into me talking too. Me + Josh = Big Ugly Fight. Josh crosses the line. Slap. We don't talk. He apologizes. He apologizes again. He hangs out with my bro's. Watches a movie with us. Stays the night at my house, but not with me. Emma reveals to me that Josh was suppose to be a Derricks party with Katie. Katie and Josh were suppose to do the dirty deed apparently. Josh's ditches her for me, well my brothers in a more practical sense. Katie shags Tim. Tim and Rachael broke up because he cheated on her with Katie. Gossip spreads.
Yep, I think that pretty much sums up everything.
"Why is he being nice to you all of a sudden?" Leia asked curiously.
"I don't know."
"I think that's quite suspiciously that he changed his attitude all of a sudden." Emma commented.
"Well maybe he had a change of heart?" Leia defended.
"I'm telling you it's not normal!" Emma argued. "Teenage boys do not just change their attitudes one day and then act all differently the next day. And also the fact that he doesn't remember shit? HELLO? I smell a rat behind this!"
Then Leia and I lost Emma to conspiracies again.
"What about that night you went to go get some food?" Leia questioned.
Ah, yea.
"I just went to get some food, I didn't see Josh that night."
Emma nodded but Leia.
Leia still looked at me.
"We should be heading back. Before Coach Carson gets all pissy."
"Yea true that." I replied.
In my heart, deep down. I didn't want to tell them anything about that night. It's not like I didn't want to tell them. It's just that I'm not ready yet.
In till I figure out what's going on, how the heck am I to know where things stand?
We went back to gym. The volleyball courts were set up all ready. Everybody were in their respectable areas. I ran over to Joshua.
"Sorry bout' that."
"Special time of the month. I got you. No need to to explain." He replied. "Please don't explain I don't want any scarring details about the female body system in my head."
Joshua held the volleyball in his hand, hitting it against the floor and then twisting the ball every time he got it.
"So who are we playing against?" I asked.
"Oh um-" He looked over. "Looks like Sam."
I looked over to the other side. Sam was this medium sized blond kid with abnormally huge arms and legs.
"He does wrestling. It's going to be hard for him, he only plays in positions with direct contact." Joshua admited. "I don't know who his partner is-" Joshua stopped mid-sentence. He accidentally dropped the ball from his hands, I bent over to grab it.
Trying to make me do all the work.
"What? Jeez dude, who is it? Tell me it's not an Amazonian. I can't deal with-" I also stopped.
Joshua still had his mouth opened a little, but I could sense a little tension illuminating off of him.
"Josh what's wrong?" I asked.
He closed his mouth after a second or two and then looked over at me."Nothing nothing." He grabbed the ball from my hands.
My eyebrows raised in response. I looked over at what he was starring at. Sam was stood to a girl a little taller than me. He looked somewhat giddy when he talked to her, she had the tendency of twirling a piece of her hair around one of her fingers.
Why did she looked familiar?
"That's Katie Delaney, she's our I guess you can call it -"
Leia said while trying to figure out what to call her.
"School Bitch." Emma completed her sentence, not fearing anything she just said. "And I think the school bitch doesn't seem to like you Andy." She said quite concerned.
Holy shitake mushrooms.
I looked back at Josh. He stood behind the serving line, looking anywhere but at her. His face was stone hard. No expressions or facial emotions can be seen whatsoever. He hit the ball harder and harder with more strength each time.
This is not going to go well. I ran over to Josh and stood in front of him. He immediately stopped and looked at me.
"Hey."
"Um hey."
"You okay?"
"Yea why?"
"Because you're making a hole in the ground." He looked down.
"There's no hole."
"Joshua I can't see China."
Joshua and Andy stood in the sandbox over looking a whole they dug up.
The hole was a good three feet deep.
"Well according to this map." Joshua pulled out a piece of paper which said map to China. "We just have to dig a little deeper."
"Fine." She sighed.
Mrs. Michaels and Mrs. Adams sat on a bench nearby. "You do realize that they'll eventually discover you gave them a take out menu with a map of where the restaurant is located in Chinatown?"
Mrs. Michaels looked at her friend. "Yea, but for the time being. Let me savor this moment before I have to give them the Italian take out menu."
"Well imagine there will be one soon if you keep on pounding that ball against the ground. So here's the deal. You transfer all that energy that powers, this little green machine macho act, to something better. Like I don't know our first match of the competition. And I promise you we'll win."
Then I grabbed his face between my hands.
"But I swear Josh." My voice suddenly became deadly low. "If you screw up this match to a girl that checks her nails every five seconds. I will skin you alive, roast you over a fire, feed you to the Captain and then use your bones as the basis for jello."