The whole school was silenced, caught in a collective, soundless gasp. The only sound was the ball bouncing off to who knew where; everyone’s eyes were on the freak show that had just shown him up again. Even Jeraud was caught in a silenced stare.
She turned around to face him, the wrinkles on her forehead not completely ironed out. She held out a hand for him, her gaze sincerely apologetic and annoyed, a complex emotion he either couldn’t figure out or was too butt hurt to even try.
He scowled, jumping up to his feet while disregarding her outstretched hand.
“Remember your side of the deal,” she growled as she leaned up against him, “and tell your friends, too, Jer,” her nose scrunched as she bared her teeth at him, spinning on her heels. Then she turned around with a large smile as she called out, “Aud!” separating his name into two words as usual, her smile back to life almost as if it had simply risen from the grave.
Upon facing the rest of the class, the rest of the blacktop, she halted. Mr. Torres’ clipboard slipped from his grasp and clattered to the asphalt, his glasses askew on the bridge of his nose.
Still. The world was still. Even students from other P.E. classes stood in complete awe.
Not only did the freak make a swish from across the court—something that was practically unheard of in freshman P.E.—but she had beaten Jeraud Fray: athlete scholar of the year since he was in pull ups. His unbelievable record was shattered into tiny pieces as if it were made of the thinnest of glass.
Suddenly, cheers erupted as if released from a vacuum all at once. Students from basketball teams, powder-puff, soccer teams, cheerleaders, they all flocked toward the beast, chanting eagerly for her to join their club or squad or team. They promised her popularity, a second family, lasting friendships, and a promising high school career. Everything Jeraud had tirelessly strained for his whole life, she earned in one fell swoop.
His heart grew bitter as he was shoved further from her, toward the outskirts of the crowd, every push just a tough reminder of how shallow society’s idea of success is. He searched above the crowd for his only comrade in this endeavor, but Romeo was nowhere in sight, lost in the wave of students.
He threw his arms up in the air as his insides began burning him from within, blaming all of his misgivings on the creature he was forced to live with. Because of her, he couldn’t even find his best friend. Because of that freak, he could simply trash his high school career. A fire devoured his spirit, taking hold in the pit of his stomach. Unless he got rid of her, he would always be forced to play second fiddle, and Jeraud was never one to harmonize.
“I’m sorry, but I can’t join any of your clubs…”
He could hear her rejection over the combined awes and boos from the crowd loosening around her. Jeraud could just make out a sliver of the beast’s midnight hair between the ebbing crowds.
“Why not, Rose?! I thought we were friends!” This time, he could picture the faux pout of Melanie, the shallowest soul in all the land. She just wanted to hog the title of ‘Orphan girl’s BFF.’
Chant’s joined Melanie’s started riot for the mutant’s new found athletic powers, retightening their choking hold on the creature and blocking her from Jeraud curious gaze once again. Varsity cheerleading, soccer, and softball were sports any normal student would accept in a heartbeat. Then again, she wasn’t a normal student. She’s hardly normal at all.
Suddenly, it hit Jeraud like the bottom burning skillet, and his knees trembled in shock. Maybe she thought she was too good for any of these sports, because she was much more athletically blessed than anyone in their whole dang school.
His chest tightened at the thought of her thinking she was better than anyone, especially him. His skin boiled at the idea that she believed these sports, the teams he drooled and dreamed of joining, was mediocre compared to whatever she was capable of. His hatred grew, almost to the point where he wanted to bite her head off as soon as he got to see it.
There was nothing she could do that he will not strive to beat from now on, he promised himself with a belly hungry not only for her undeniably gruesome defeat, but for her pompous blood.
The crowd slowly dissipated into just a few lingering and determined students. She must have given her completely BS excuse to get them off her back.
Mr. Torres, who had finally retrieved his clipboard from the ground, demanded the troll’s attention, probably in a last ditch effort to recruit her for his basketball team. She shuffled on her feet back and forth as he gripped her shoulder, leaning in to view her from over his glasses.
Jeraud snatched the shoulder of a boy who was among the chanters, his head held low. “Why won’t she join any teams?” He narrowed his eyes at the boy.
The boy stiffened beneath Jeraud’s scrutinizing gaze, before shrinking in his grasp. “She said that she’d rather spend time with her new family after school than making new friends.”
Jeraud’s body froze, sucker punched for the second time today. She’d rather…spend time with family?
He let the kid go to gape back at the weirdo who was his new sister. She’d rather spend time with them…? With his family?
How can someone be so smart yet so incredibly stupid?
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