Caged (Caged series Book 1)

by Destiny Hawkins

  “What about class?”

  “You’re smart, you’ll catch up,” she laughed. I shut up and let her lead me to the back door exit where her car was parked right outside. When we stepped out Lorena spoke again, “You didn’t strike me as the good girl type.”

  I blushed, “Well I didn’t expect my new friend to be such a bad influence either.” We both got into the car, “Where are we going anyways?”

  “My place,” she pulled off.

  Chapter 17

  I felt like I was stepping into a new world when I entered Lorena’s apartment. I didn’t know if it was just because it was so nice, or because it was a parent free home.

  The apartment was similar to Abigale’s, only the carpet was dark brown, and the furniture was a little simpler. Lorena didn’t have all the nice things that Abigale had, but for someone on her own, this was good enough.

  There was a glass table in front of the cream colored couch, which was facing the 34 inch flat screen that sat on a small stand. The walls were decorated with small and large paintings, and a few pictures of Lorena and Josh. I was paying more attention to the paintings though. They were really good. The one that caught my attention was the colorful splatter painting that hung right above the TV.

  “Did you paint these?” I asked while still looking around. I noticed that there were flowers growing on stands next to the windows, and even though it was still winter, they bloomed as if it were summer.

  “Yeah,” Lorena sat her things down and then went back into her room. When she came out, she had her laptop and a Shakespeare book with her.

  “So, we ditch school to do homework?” I laughed.

  “Well, I’m not that bad an influence. We still have to get our work done.” She sat down on the couch next to me and opened her laptop. Her screen was covered with different pictures of artwork which I assumed was done by her, “You’re really good at that.”

  “I try,” she smiled while browsing the internet, “So, let’s get this over with.”

  We went over the book again, and then the information that we took from the internet and started writing the paper. It was actually pretty fun working with her. We made jokes, laughed a little, and ate most of the sweets that she had in her kitchen.

  Lorena finished typing the paper after about thirty minutes. This was a really easy project for both of us since I pretty much knew everything about Shakespeare, and she was a bookworm, “All done.” She emailed our teacher the draft and closed her laptop.

  Lorena turned on the TV and sat back next to me while drinking a bottle of Sprite. I pretended not to watch her while trying to figure out what was bothering her, because she was restless, like she wanted to say something.

  “What is it?” I asked.

  “What is what?” Lorena seemed surprised.

  “What’s on your mind?”

  “What do you mean? There’s nothing on my mind,” she smiled slightly, “I’m just....I can’t figure it out.”

  “Figure what out?”

  “Where I know you from.”

  I froze. She couldn’t have known me. I’m from California, and the only person that would ever recognize me from my childhood is Arnold. If she knew me, then she must’ve heard about the incident. About what I did...

  “How would you know me?” I said trying to keep my cool.

  “I don’t know....” she frowned, “I wish I did. You just seem so familiar, like someone that I knew.”

  I sighed with relief. She probably just had me confused with someone else because there’s no way that she could know me. It was weird though...I got the same feeling about her as well.

  “Well, I don’t remember you,” I said with a smile. It looked like I relieved her as well.

  “Then I guess we don’t know each other,” she shrugged

  “No, I know you,” I grinned, “You’re the girl that dates my rival Josh, who loves to read, is a great artist, likes growing flowers, and skipping school just to do homework. I met you in class after you dropped your ID card and I stared at it trying to confirm if your eyes were actually blue.”

  Lorena laughed, “You seem to notice a lot about me.”

  “Just the obvious things.” We both giggled and got quiet again.

  I looked up at her painting on the wall, “So, since we have time, what do you want to do?”

  “Let’s go outside.”

  “Outside?” I looked out her window and saw snow falling, “In the snow?”

  “Yeah!” she stood up.

  “And do what? We are not going for another walk. My chest isn’t healed all the way,” I rubbed on my chest where my stitches were.

  Lorena put on her shoes and threw on a jacket, “Then I guess you can just sit in here by yourself.” She left out and closed the door.

  I felt awkward sitting inside her apartment alone. Did she really just leave me in here? I sighed and put my shoes on, then I grabbed my coat and headed out of the apartment.

  Once I made it out of the building, I looked around for Lorena. The ground was completely covered with a thin layer of snow. We still weren’t that far into winter yet, but it looked like it was getting ready to pour.

  Lorena was nowhere to be found, and I saw that her car was parked, but there was still no Lorena.

  I felt a thud on my leg, and then saw a chunk of snow hit the ground. When I looked up, I noticed Lorena picking up more to throw at me, only this time she actually aimed and I dodged it.

  Lorena laughed and tried again, but that snowball burst into a bunch of tiny pieces before it reached me.

  “Really?” I laughed. When I bent down to gather some snow, Lorena ran off around the corner of the building. I gathered my snow and chased after her. When I made it around the building I saw another snowball headed right for my face, but I dodged it and threw mine. I didn’t want to hit her in the face, so I aimed at her chest. She laughed when she got hit.

  Lorena dug in her coat pocket and pulled out another snowball, then she threw it at me. Her throwing skill was horrible. Almost like a toddler with a plastic baseball, only she added a jump for momentum. That one hit me in the chest.

  “Ha!” she pointed at me, “I got you!”

  “Yeah, Finally!” I picked up another snowball and when I looked up one had exploded on my face.

  Lorena started laughing hard when she saw how I paused. I wasn’t upset, just surprised.

  “Your face!” she laughed, “The look on your face,” hers was turning red, “I'm so sorry, but that was really funny.”

  I wiped the snow off of my face and walked up to the laughing Lorena then I smashed the snow that was in my hand all over her face. Now Lorena was the frozen one.

  We both burst out laughing.

  * * *

  Lorena pulled up to the school and waited for me to get out, “Have fun at practice, and don’t beat up Josh too much.”

  “I’ll try not to,” I gathered my things and stepped out of the car.

  “Hey,” Lorena smiled at me, “I had fun.”

  I could feel my face getting hot, “Yeah, me too. We should do it again sometime. Maybe you could hang out with me, Cameron and Abigale one of these days?”

  “Yeah,” she nodded, “I should see all of you at Cameron’s party in a few weeks.”

  “Party?”

  “Oh, he has one at his cousin’s house every year after the first wrestling meet.”

  “Oh, I didn’t know.”

  “Don’t worry, not everyone is told. It’s almost like a tradition for people to show up so not many people talk about it unless they’re reminiscing about previous years.”

  “Well, when is the first meet?”

  “Why are you asking me?” Lorena laughed, “I’m not a wrestler.”

  “Hey, you’re supposed to know these things. Your husband’s biggest fan.”

  “Now, I wouldn’t say all that.”

  “What part?”

  “The husband part. I’m not married,” she smiled up at me.<
br />
  I saw Cameron open the back door like I asked through a text, “Well, I have to go. I hope we can do this again sometime.”

  “Yeah, me too.”

  I reluctantly closed the car door and jogged over to Cameron, “Thanks.”

  “Skipping school with Lorena?” He had a big smile on his face.

  “Shut up,” I walked inside.

  * * *

  Wrestling practice was just like practice back in Cali. It was a bit harder, but not so difficult that I couldn’t perform. I was actually better than most of my team. It was me, Cameron, and Josh that stood on top.

  Josh was a very good wrestler, and he already had a few scholarships under his belt. He was offered his first one back when he was only in tenth grade. It was his skill, strength, and pure determination that got him those scholarships, and he took this sport more seriously than I did.

  Cameron was more for speed. Although he wasn’t as strong as Josh he was always able to pin someone. It was like every move he put a person in was quick and smooth, not to mention that fact that it was very hard for anyone to pull a move on him.

  Me, I was just good at everything. I try not to seem too cocky, but I have just the right amount of strength, I’m fast, and I’m really good at tossing people around. I may not have the same mentality that I had when I was a kid, but I still have the determination. Maybe I could even earn myself a scholarship to college.

  Today we weren’t going to do too much wrestling. Just conditioning. Mr. Clothorn picked me, Josh, Cameron, and a few other good people to put in a group. Then he made two other groups based on skill.

  The first group had to do fifteen push-ups, sprint a suicide, and then do 30 sit-ups ten times around. The second and third group did less. Mr. Clothorn split us up into groups so that the other wrestlers would be motivated to move up. I was told that usually by the end of the season Mr. Clothorn already knows who he will be picking for next year’s team based on who is in the second and first group. People in the third rarely get a second chance.

  Mr. Clothorn blew his whistle and we went right into doing the push-ups. The second whistle was for the second group to get started.

  Cameron was on my left, and Josh was on my right. We were all doing our push-ups simultaneously. At first it looked like we were going to compete with each other, but then we figured that we were at a good pace and would stick together as long as we were ahead of the others. Once we were all done we got up and sprint a suicide. Josh fell back a little because he was mostly muscle and couldn’t keep up with us light weights.

  Half way through the workout Cameron and I broke apart. Sometimes he was ahead, but then I would catch up and pass him. I had a little more strength, so when he slowed down on the push-ups I caught up by finishing mine faster. Josh was right behind me. Apparently he was out of shape because he wasn’t keeping up as well.

  All three of us finished at the same time and slowly crossed the green line while heaving. The rest of the team was still on their seventh through tenth round.

  “Hey, good job,” Cameron said resting his hand on my shoulder.

  “Thanks,” I said still out of breath. Josh and I looked at each other than nodded. We were a pretty good team. If Josh wasn’t such an ass hole I would actually like him.

  The rest of the team finished their rounds and then we went into a little bit of wrestling. We picked partners and started with the basics just to warm up and re-freshen our memories.

  First it was Cameron and I, we were just practicing shooting on each other and sprawling. Mr. Clothorn wanted all of us to be great at it, so we were going to practice shooting for most of today’s practice.

  “So, what were you and Lorena up to?” Cameron asked as he sprawled when I went after his left leg. I pulled away and stood up.

  “We were doing homework if you really must know.”

  “Riggght,” Cameron shot at me.

  “No, seriously. We were working on Shakespeare.”

  “Didn’t look like that to me,” he stood up

  “You just saw me getting out of the car, how is it supposed to look?”

  “I’m just saying. Your facial expressions really didn’t look like you just got done with a paper.”

  “Oh my gosh,” I laughed, “your delusional.”

  “Whatever you say,” he laughed.

  “Alright switch!” Mr. Clothorn yelled.

  “Have fun,” Cameron walked away.

  “Wha-”

  “Rose,” It was Josh’s voice, “partner?” he had a serious look on his face. The one that I’m used to seeing.

  “Sure,” I took a deep breath and turned to him.

  “Me first,” Josh shot at me and before I could sprawl he got my right leg. He had a tight grip, but then he pulled away. Now he was smirking.

  I tried not to get too pumped and took a shot at him. I felt a hard thud go to my temple and I got a little light headed then stood up.

  Josh was still smirking, “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine,” I took a deep breath.

  “OK,” he nodded and then shot at me again. I was too slow to move and he got a hold of my leg, then he lifted me up and slammed me on my back.

  “Oooooh,” I heard others say. I laid there for a second and waited for the air to rush back into my lungs. Smirking, Josh stood over me with his hand out. This guy was playing with me.

  “No slamming, Josh!” Mr. Clothorn said.

  “Sorry, Coach,” he said in an unsympathetic tone.

  I stood up and rubbed my head. His knee really dazed me.

  “You gonna go?” Josh asked.

  I hesitated, but shot at him again. I got a good grip on his leg, but once again I was kneed, this time with more force.

  I looked to my right and saw Mr. Clothorn running in my direction, and couldn’t understand why he was running so slow....

  * * *

  Winee crawled into my bed late at night and faced me. Out of everything she went through, and all the fears she faced, she was still afraid of the dark. Early in the morning she would go back to her room so that Arnold didn’t know, because we weren’t supposed to have any fears. We barely were even allowed to show emotion.

  “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Winee asked.

  I didn’t really have an answer to that question because I didn’t think much about the future, and so far I couldn’t imagine having one. Winee was always so positive, and then there was me who felt like there was no point to being happy, because happiness could be taken away, but I didn’t want to make her upset, so I just made something up.

  “I want to be a.....doctor,” I answered, “You?”

  “An astronaut,” she said looking up out the window, “I could leave here and go to outer space.”

  “You aren’t afraid of aliens?”

  “There are no such thing as aliens,” she laughed.

  “How are me and you going to be together if you’re in outer space?”

  “Well, you can be a doctor up there,” she smiled. “We could fly up there and start a whole new world on the moon, and we will need doctors in case anyone gets hurt, and there won’t be any fighting up there...” she looked back down at me, “We’ll both get married to celebrity moon stars, and have kids so that they could be best friends like us.”

  I smiled at the thought. She had such a big imagination.

  “That sounds nice, Winee....as long as we are together. Your all I have, and maybe if Arnold-” as if Arnold would actually change.

  “When Arnold gets nicer, then he’ll be allowed to come up to the moon with us. He has to say sorry too.”

  “Thanks Winee. I would like that,” I smiled.

  “Promise we’ll be best friends forever.”

  I put my pinky in front of her, “I pinky promise.”

  Winee locked her pinky with mine. That was the last time we ever spent time together...

  * * *

  I woke up in the nurse’s office where I heard Cameron a
nd Mr. Clothorn talking to each other.

  “I’m not sure if she can handle this sport,” Mr. Clothorn said.

  “Coach, she is really good. You saw her at tryouts. Josh isn’t even in her weight class.”

  “I just-”

  “We need her, Coach.” Cameron was trying to whisper, “I’ve seen videos of this girl. Rose is amazing!”

  I sat up and looked at the two, “I’m fine,” I said.

  “You were knocked out,” Mr. Clothorn said.

  “Yeah, he kept slamming his knee into my head,” I rubbed my temple, “But I’m fine, really. I’ve been through worse.”

  Mr. Clothorn looked down at me with an indecisive look on his face, “I just don’t want you getting hurt.”

  “Coach...it’s wrestling. We all are going to get hurt. Don’t give me any special treatment, or sympathy because I’m a girl. I’m better than more than half the team and I can take a lot of pain. He just caught me off guard, because its practice. I didn’t know we were trying to hurt each other,” I said frowning.

  Mr. Clothorn sighed, “If you weren’t as good as you are, I would cut you.”

  I looked up at him expressionless, “I’m sure you would.”

  “Go home and get some rest. Be back here tomorrow, but you’ll be going light for a while.”

  I nodded. Cameron got my shoes and my book bag, then sat them in front of me.

  “Hope you don’t mind, I got your things for you.”

  “No problem,” I bent down to get my shoes and felt a sharp pain in my head.

  “You okay?”

  I didn’t respond. Now all I was thinking about was getting back at Josh.

  Cameron took my shoe and slipped it on my foot, then he got the other one.

  “You don’t have to do that,” I blushed.

  “Well, who else is going to do it? You’re hurt,” his smile gave me butterflies. Once he got my shoes on he helped me slip on my coat and carried my book bag, “Can’t say I never did anything for you.”

  “Right,” I tried to hide my smile.

  Chapter 18

  The crowd cheered as we all walked into the gym room. We had a really big turn out because everyone wanted to see the girl that would be wrestling today. Wintry High was known for its wrestling team, so to let a girl join could either help their reputation, or severely hurt it.