My sister always was relentless. She’d been on me for days to let her sit here with me during lunch so she could show the school that at least one person supported me. I loved her more than anything, but there was no way she got involved in all this.
Ever since our parents had been killed in a car accident we’d been closer than most siblings. Living with Grandfather drove us together. I know she worried about me. She’d never really liked Gina. I’d chalked that up to her having a school girl crush on Danny. She’d always worshiped the ground he walked on. However, even my fifteen year old sister was smarter than me when it came to Gina.
“Hi, I’m Mattie,” she said, holding out her hand for Katie. “Seeing as how my big brother has the manners of a brick, I thought I should introduce myself. You do know its social suicide to sit her, right? Hey, you’re the girl from the library aren’t you?”
Katie’s eyes grew to the size of beer coasters at the exuberant young girl who had sat next to her. She reached to shake her hand and said, “Hi I’m Katie.”
“So why is she sitting here?” Mattie asked me. I knew she was trying to change the subject and hoped I’d forget she’d placed herself here in the middle of the battle zone.
“I’m here to warn you brother that the cool kids are planning on jumping him later.” Katie said.
“Jesus, she doesn’t need to hear about all this,” I said. “It doesn’t matter anyway, they’re not going to do anything for a while. They’ll wait until Danny comes back.”
“How do you know? You can’t be sure. You should tell someone. Come on Scott, this is serious.” Mattie said. Her face scrunched up in that worried look she got whenever something bothered her.
“She’s right,” Katie added while opening her yogurt.
“She doesn’t need your help Katie. Neither of us need your help.” I said with a little too much anger. I wasn’t mad at them. I was pissed off that they were involved in a bad situation. A strong protective urge came over me whenever I thought of either of these two your women being hassled or disturbed. I could understand the feeling about Mattie, it was sort of surprising though to be feeling it for Katie Rivers.
Katie blanched and her face turned white at my harsh words. Before I could apologize we were interrupted again.
“Hey Mattie, Mind if I join you.” A pimply faced ginger haired boy slid into the seat next to Mattie before she could answer. He adjusted his tray and smiled at me. “So what’s everybody talking about?” He asked like we were discussing the chance of rain. The boy either had the brains of a goat or the balls of a bull to be sitting here now.
Mattie’s face turned beet red and her lips were locked in a tight line. This was a first, a speechless Mattie was not something you saw every day.
“Hi, I’m Keven Hays,” he said. “You know my older brother, Jason. He’s the dumb idiot over there,” he said nodding toward the popular kid table. The boy was all elbows and freckles with a long lanky frame and bright eyes that didn’t miss a thing.
You could have knocked me over with a warm breeze. “Do you have any idea what you’re getting yourself into?”
“What?” He answered with a mock sense of innocence. “The edict from on high that no one is allowed to talk to you or face the wrath of those that matter?” He shrugged his shoulders as if it didn’t concern him.
“Yes that,” I said as I looked at Katie to catch her staring at me, her eyes twinkling while she suppressed a laugh. It made me want to laugh too.
“Well I figured this would be my chance to sit next to Mattie,” he said. “You can’t blame me now can you? I mean, come on. Think about what this is going to do for my reputation in the freshman class. I ignore the edict from on high, confront the big bad brother, and most of all, I actually get to sit next to the goddess who is Madison James,” He said before stuffing half a sandwich into his mouth.
Definitely balls like a bull I thought.
Katie snorted and brought her hand to her mouth. Mattie looked like she wanted to melt into the floor. I caught her sneaking a glance at him from beneath her brow and a flash of appraising interest. Oh Christ, my kid sister was interested in a boy. And worse, a boy was very interested in her. The protective emotions kicked into high gear. My hands clinched into fists without me thinking about it.
Katie read me and reached and gently placed a restraining hand on my arm. She realized what she’d done and quickly withdrew her hand as if she’d burned herself on a hot stove.
The kid, Kevin, was oblivious to all of this or at least acted that way. “You know they’re going to jump you? I heard my brother talking about it,” he said to me as he took another bight of his sandwich.
I ignored him and focused on trying to figure out why Katie pulled her hand back so fast and why it felt warm where she’d touched my arm. I looked at her again and was struck at how pretty she was. Her glasses didn’t hide her big beautiful green eyes. They reminded me of a corn field in late spring. That calming green that made you feel good every time you saw it. When she smiled her whole face lit up like a sun beam breaking through a stained glass window. A sudden desire to make her smile seemed to be all I could think about.
Get a grip Scott. No way are you getting interested in a girl ever again. I’d learned my lesson well. The last thing I’d ever do was become interested in someone ever again.
Chapter Four
Katie
It didn’t take long for the wrath of the gods to descend on me like a ton of bricks. I hadn’t made it ten feet out of the cafeteria before Nichole and Jennifer confronted me.
“What do you think you’re doing skank?” Nichole asked. She stood in front of me with her hands on her hips like a bridge guarding troll. Jennifer hung back with a hungry look on her face. Large eyes, dilated pupils and a silly grin.
My stomach dropped and that old, familiar tightness in my chest returned. I hadn’t felt this way since they took mom away. See this is what happens when you get involved.
I tried backing up but the rush of the lunch crowd kept pushing me forward. I was trapped like the rat they viewed me as. Why are girls like this? What did I ever do to them? We’d never talked. Yet here they were, acting like I was the second coming of the devil himself.
I had become un-cloaked, my invisibility lost forever. I was now firmly in everyone’s awareness. There would be no more hiding in the shadows. A part of me had known this would happen when I sat across from Scott but I hadn’t been able to stop myself.
Deciding to ignore the whole situation, I made a move to go around them. Nichole didn’t agree with my plans and grabbed my arm. “I asked you a question bitch,” she said with more venom than the situation deserved. I briefly wondered if she was more upset about me talking with Scott or with me trying to ignore her.
I looked at her hand. Strawberry red nails sparkled on my forearm. I hated being touched. Despised it with a deep passion. I flashed to another hand who had grabbed me there. A hard masculine hand that brought pain and shame. I stopped breathing and felt light headed and proceeded to lose it. I twisted my arm out of her grasp then stuck my face next to hers, eye to eye and said through gritted teeth. “If you ever touch me again I will scratch your eyes out and mail them to your mother. Do you understand?” All the color drained from her face as she tried to swallow.
Figuring she’d gotten the message, I turned and scooted past her. Making sure to bump into Jennifer who looked like she was about to pee her pants right there in the hallway. In all honesty I don’t know who was more surprised, her or me.
Needless to say, Fourth and Fifth periods were rather tense. It seemed the quiet treatment had been expanded to include me.
Being ignored intentionally is different than being invisible. They made a point of catching my eye before turning their back. I laughed to myself; did they think I cared? It wouldn’t have been a big deal. Easily ignored and forgotten. Until I got to my locker after fifth. Someone had kindly left me a message.
The words BITCH, SKANK
, and SLUT were written in strawberry red nail polish all over the front metal door. The last T had run and dripped onto the floor like a sloppy exclamation point. The padlock and handle had been covered in the stuff and still looked wet.
Okay, this was getting serious; it was no longer business as usual, now it was personal. My face grew warm and I knew it’d gone beet red. The freshman girl next to me furrowed her brows in concern as she quietly closed her door and slowly backed away.
I stood there looking at my locker, trying to figure out what to do. No way was I going to cry, not here, not now. You’ve been through a lot worse Katie, I kept repeating to myself.
“You okay?” a deep voice said behind me. Why him? Of all the people in the universe. Why did he have to be here now? I turned to see Scott with a concerned look on his face. As if he actually gave a shit. I know I wasn’t being very fare, this wasn’t his fault. Unfortunately he could see the tears in my eyes and that made him the target of my anger.
“No of course I’m not okay. The people in this school are a bunch of assholes!” I said.
He laughed and said, “Really, I didn’t know.” He reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a snow white handkerchief, “Who uses handkerchiefs anymore?”.
Without saying anything he started wiping at the ugly words. They became a glaring garish red blasted against the yellow lockers. He swiped at the lock but it was a lost cause until it dried, even then I wouldn’t be able to see the numbers. I wiped at my eyes while he had his back turned.
“Come on, I’ll walk you to the library, you can probably get into your locker after school. Things should be dry by then.” He gently touched my elbow to turn me and get me going. I flinched and drew away from him.
He immediately pulled his hand back and his brow creased in concern. I over-reacted again. Everything felt like it moved at a thousand miles a minute. He stuck his hand in his pocket and we made our way to the library.
It felt strange walking next to someone. He caught me having to skip to keep up and slowed to match my stride. I didn’t notice what the other people were doing; I even started to forget about my locker. I kept thinking about the boy next to me, sneaking a look from behind the hair in my eyes. He caught me and smiled all the while keeping his hands in his pocket.
Holding my library door open he smiled and motioned me in with a flamboyant flourish. He gently touched my lower back making me visibly shiver. He immediately returned his hands to his pocket and shot me an apologetic smile.
Placing his books on his center table, he turned and tossed the now pink handkerchief into the trash can. My heart skipped a beat, I felt guilty. He’d ruined his handkerchief for me. What if it was important, had it been his father’s? I couldn’t stand it if it had belonged to his dad. I’d give anything to have something of my dad’s, - whoever he was - the thought that I might have caused Scott to lose something important made my stomach knot up in a ball.
He wasn’t perturbed as he swung a leg over his regular chair and plopped down. Pulling out his book he focused and drifted into a different world. Like I said earlier, there are different kinds of being ignored, some are most definitely worse.
I stared at him and for the first time in my life wished I was pretty, I wanted him to look at me and not be able to look away.
“What are you reading?” I asked. Unwilling to let our moment go. He looked at me then back at his book.
“History of the English Speaking People, Volume two. By Winston Churchill” He answered and laughed at the look of disbelief on my face. I mean come on, the guy was a nerd, handkerchiefs, history books, holding doors open. Definitely a died in the flannel nerd If it hadn’t been for those wide shoulders and arms the size of railroad ties.
He sheepishly shrugged. “It was my dad’s. I’m reading all of his books. I started last year and I’ve only made it to the C’s.”
“Is it any good?”
“Yeah it is. It’s sort of neat reading ancient history from a famous politician’s point of view. He sees things a little differently than your normal historian.” He shrugged his shoulders again and returned to reading. “Besides, the man can write.”
Wow, nerd to the ninth degree.
We spent the period talking about books. It surprised me how easy he was to talk to. I didn’t feel the normal anxiety like I felt whenever I talked one on one. Especially with boys. He told me about how his dad had caught him reading late at night in bed with a flashlight. But hadn’t been upset. The next day his dad had returned from his grandfather’s farm with all of his old Science Fiction books that he’d loved as a boy.
My heart sort of flipped when he mentioned that he now slept in his dad’s old room and all those books were back on their original shelf. I wondered what it would be like to have that kind of dad. The kind that shared your love of something, that you could talk to, ask questions of.
It was nice to talk to someone. When the bell rang I jumped in surprise, I’d forgotten all about my locker. Scott gathered his books and glanced at the front door then back to me. I think he wanted to say something. He hesitated then seemed to change his mind when Mattie stepped in. He smiled and said. “Take care Katie, see you tomorrow.”
I watched him leave and my heart fluttered. I pulled out a handy wipe and used it to retrieve his handkerchief from the trash.
.o0o.
The next morning my psychedelic locker waited for me in its usual place. I found myself walking slower and slower as I approached. But there leaning next to it, his arms folded stood my gentle giant in his red Letterman Jacket. He smiled when he saw me and pushed off, holding huge lock snips. I furrowed my brow in question. He ignored the query and handed me a small bag then cut my lock off as if he was cutting a piece of paper. He turned back to smile at me again but wouldn’t answer my questioning look. For the first time I noticed a small chip on one of his front teeth. You wouldn’t normally see it, not unless you were looking hard.
He opened my locker and clucked his tongue at the neatness, shaking his head back and forth while he chuckled. I wanted to dive in and hide my box of handy wipe packets but he stood in the way and I could no more move him than I could have shifted the Rockies.
Pulling a screwdriver out of his back pocket he started removing my locker number then the obnoxious door itself. I stepped back and folded my arms. I could wait, he better have a great explanation. People were staring as they walked by; we were definitely not being ignored now.
When he’d unscrewed the last screw he reached down and picked up a fresh locker door from the floor. I hadn’t seen it there.
“Where did you get that?” I said.
“Don’t ask. The less you know the less you can get in trouble.”
My stomach rolled over and I had to fight to hold down a giggle. Was he really doing this for me? Why?
Once he finished, he retrieved the bag and the lock inside. Carefully reading the combo from the package, he opened the lock, put it in place and gave me the combo. Giving me one last smile he picked up the old door and started down the hall like he had nothing better to do.
“Wait Scott, I mean, thanks, but what’s the use. They’ll just ruin this one.”
“No they won’t,” he said and held out his phone to show me a picture of a car, a silver hatchback. The special touch was the text in Strawberry Red. “Nice car Nichol, shame if something happened to it.”
The man was a genius.
Chapter Five
Scott
The four of us were sitting in our regular table in the middle of the cafeteria. I dropped my fork onto my tray, “How do you screw up spaghetti? How hard can it be? You open a can, boil the noodles. I hate it when they do this. It should be against the law or something.” Everybody ignored my rant and concentrated on their meals.
“If you couldn’t tell, spaghetti is his favorite,” Mattie said in an aside to Katie.
The buzz in the room suddenly stopped when Danny Carrs walked in. It sounded like the cr
ickets going silent at sunrise. An eerie calm that prickled at the skin.
I knew it had to happen sometime, but the knife to the gut was still a shock. He wore a white cast on his right wrist and my skanky ex-girlfriend on his left. To tell you the truth she looked good which only shoved the knife in a little farther. She wore a short pleated black skirt and a pretty pink fitted shirt. She obviously went for that conservative, innocent; butter wouldn’t melt in her mouth look.
She scanned the room until she located me. We locked glares for a moment until she smiled the sweetest, most venomous smile ever seen in this part of the state. I swear it was laced with acid. Gina pulled on Danny’s arm to make him aware of me.
Danny glanced my way without an expression. Panned over my companions, finally coming to rest on Katie. His eyebrows rose for a moment before he turned back to his friends. We obviously were not worth worrying about.
I forced myself to focus on my meal. Glancing over I caught Katie looking at me with a concerned expression.
“What?” I asked rather sharply.
“Nothing, Nothing.” She said holding up her hands before I could bight her head off.
“I hear they had to go back in to adjust the pins,” Kevin said referring to Danny’s hand. “How’d you break it anyway? The story is that you held it down and hit it with a hammer.”
“Kevin!” Mattie gasped.
“What?” he said innocently but the twinkle in his eye led me to believe he knew exactly what he was doing.
“Let’s change the subject, I hear you fell in P.E. while running around the track,” Mattie said to Kevin.
“I didn’t fall. Ryan Jennings tripped me. On purpose.”
“What,” I said. “I thought this crap hadn’t spread to the freshman class. You guys told me everything was all right.” My guts turned over thinking about Mattie being hassled.
“Not everything’s about you big guy.” Kevin said. Like I said earlier, bull’s balls. “I didn’t let Ryan cheat off my test in sixth grade.” He said. “We’ve been butting heads ever since.”
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