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Chapter Nineteen
A Sixty Minute Lesson
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"TORI, WAIT UP," CHERYL CALLED AS SHE CHASED AFTER THE SMALLER FRAMED GIRL.
Tori stopped and turned around to let the redhead catch up to her in the hallway.
"Hey, Cheryl" Tori said, forcing a smile
"I was hoping you remembered the River Vixens meeting after school to recruit new members," Cheryl said gently, hoping to ease Tori into the topic.
"I'm sorry, Cheryl, I forgot all about it," Tori stumbled over her words as she tried to get them out. "I haven't even thought of a routine yet."
"Toni offered to help you at lunch. She wants you both to tryout together and she has some moves down. Just meet up with her at lunch and she'll help you out."
"Cheryl, there's no way I can learn an entire routine in one hour."
"Tori, you are one of the fastest learners I know and I believe you can do this. And it could also help you release whatever it is that's been bothering you after biology class," Cheryl said. She reached out to place her hand on Tori's shoulder but she only flinched, making Cheryl jerk her hand back. Cheryl sighed, "Just think about it. I would really like to have you there with me."
Tori only nodded as she tugged on the ends of her sleeves of her sweatshirt. Cheryl smiled softly and started walking away to her next class while Tori fidgeted with the strap of her bag. She made her way to her English class and sat down without so much as a word to anyone. She didn't even pay any attention to Reggie who continued to act like she was the problem of their relationship when talking to another member of the football team. It was just her luck when the class was put into groups of three and she happened to be grouped with Reggie and the unnamed Bulldog. She grabbed her pen and notebook and walked over to join the two football players while telling herself that the sooner they get the assignment done, the sooner she can get back to her spot and away from them.
"I don't have the patience to deal with your bullshit and your lies right now so let's just get this over with," Tori said before Reggie could even open his mouth to speak. "The faster we finish this, the faster I can get away from you."
Their English teacher handed out a sheet with questions to answer for each group and Tori was already quickly writing down the answers.
"Do you even know what you're writing?" Reggie asked while chuckling.
"Read the questions before you ask me that," Tori responded without looking up from her notebook as she continued writing.
Any comment shared between Reggie and his friend remained ignored as she wrote down the answers in her notebook and put her pen down. All she could do was wait for their teacher to let them know when it was okay for them to go back to their regular seats and until then, she was stuck sitting with her arrogant ex boyfriend and his friend who no doubt believed that Tori was the problem in their relationship.
Once their teacher deemed that time was up, Tori was quick to grab her pen and notebook and headed straight back to her seat where another student was sitting during the assignment. Once they were back to their seat, Tori sat down and rested her head on her hand as she closed her eyes tiredly. For once, she didn't have the energy for anything and that bothered her but at the same time, maybe she would be less of a nuisance to the people around her.
When the class was over, Tori decided to look for Toni. She was going to try to give the River Vixens a chance but she was going to need some help in the little time she had. She looked in the student lounge since Toni was often there during lunch but Fangs and MF were the only Serpents inside. As soon as Tori saw MF, she quickly turned around and started walking away but Fangs had already noticed her presence.
"Tori, come sit," he said as he waved her over.
"I can't. I need to find Toni for something," Tori said while gripping her bag even tighter to hide the shaking in her hands.
"Will you be able to join us later?"
"It's going to take the whole lunch period," Tori said and tried to smile reassuringly, more to herself rather than to Fangs. "Maybe some other time."
"Well, Toni is in the dance studio," Fangs said while.
"Thanks," Tori said and turned around to leave.
She headed down the hallway to where the dance studio was and pushed the door open. Toni was inside waiting and Tori went inside, grabbing the pink haired girl's attention.
"Hey, Tori. Are you feeling better than earlier?" Toni asked.
"I guess so," Tori said while shrugging her shoulders and taking off her sweatshirt, leaving her in a pair of grey sweatpants and a black tank top.
"Let's get started."
By the time Tori had learned all the moves and they had gone over the entire routine three times, Tori's muscles were aching from so much moving around. After they had gone over the routine for the fifth time, Tori was lying down on the floor as she panted from the amount of times Toni insisted on going through the routine. Cheryl believed that as a fast learner, she would get it all down before the meeting after school but it never crossed either of their minds how sore her muscles would be after moving around so much.
"I've been out of it for far too long," Tori said in between heavy breaths.
"I think you'll be fine. You got the moves down, which still surprises me since we have ten minutes of lunch left," Toni chuckled.
Tori looked at Toni and sat up straight.
"Why did you want me to tryout for the River Vixens with you?" she asked. "You have a better shot at doing it alone since you've had more time to practice."
"I thought maybe we could make a great duo like that Kevin Keller boy said the first day I transferred here. Remember 'Toni and Tori?' I thought it wouldn't be such a bad idea," Toni said while shrugging her shoulders. "I also wanted to ask you if you were okay because I noticed how you were shaking earlier today."
Tori tore her gaze away and looked down at her feet. Her fingers closed tightly around the material of her sweatpants as she tried to come up with an answer. She couldn't just tell Toni that her friend had threatened her out of the blue and gave no reason why. Would Toni have even believed her?
"I'm fine," Tori said simply with a short nod.
"You know, just like you told Cheryl the other day, if you don't want to tell me something I won't push but I just want to be sure that you're okay," Toni said while moving closer towards Tori.
"What if I don't ever want to tell you?"
Toni stiffened when she heard Tori's question.
"Why wouldn't you want to tell me?" she asked.
"You wouldn't believe me," Tori replied while shrugging her shoulders.
"Alright. Well we have five minutes left so we're going to run through this dance one more time," Toni said and stood up. "Let's do this."
After lunch, Tori's muscles ached as she walked to chemistry and sat down next to Sweet Pea. Sitting down brought some relief to her sore body and Sweet Pea didn't seem to notice her sitting next to him yet.
"You probably already know this, but Toni has some seriously crazy moves," Tori said while chuckling lightly.
Sweet Pea didn't say a word and Tori practically deflated at the silent treatment. As of that moment, MF wasn't the only person avoiding her like the plague and ignoring her presence, but so was Sweet Pea. She sighed to herself as she used the period to work on the assignment that Mr. Harris had just given out to the class and didn't even try to talk to the Serpent boy sitting right next to her. It was like she was suffocating in that one spot and was unable to breathe as she was practically dying to get out of the class. How many people were going to shut her out over something she didn't even know about? The entire third period was just Tori racking her brain and giving herself a headache as she tried to figure out why MF got mad at her the way she did and why Sweet Pea was all of a sudden pretending that she wasn't sitting right beside him and that the seat next to him remained empty. But then again, she could never tell the other Serpents that Sweet Pea ignoring her made her feel even more small and insignificant or how MF had terrified her more than anything else she had faced in her life.