• Chapter 2

    Two weeks later, Jayden and Sam got back together. Turns out it was just a misunderstanding between them. Jayden thought Sam and his best friend Kyle were going out behind his back, but everything was clarified. Everything and everyone, was back to normal.
    Except me.
    I couldn’t stop thinking about that night. It was perfect up till the end. And it was anything but unnoticeable that Sam was more…intimate… with Jayden, but only around me. It was if she was saying, “ I’m with Jayden, not you. There was never a chance. I’m straight.”
    Every time it happened, I felt my heart being ripped to shreds. It was hard not to think that it was and could have still been me. I must have messed something up, and that was why. What was done wrong though?
    “Nothing,” a voice would say. “There was never a chance and you knew there was never a chance.” I knew it was just trying to convince me. Make the hurt go away. It was doing a terrible, terrible job. I still felt like crap.
    “Ugh, I’m hungry!” I snapped out of my daze. I always did this around Sam lately. I think she was starting to notice my...moodiness.
    “You wanna go somewhere? I just got paid. Treats on me?”
    “Oooh, you asking me out on a date?’ she laughed. Ow.
    “No, of course not. Sisters only.” The smile wasn’t very convincing.
    “I know, I was kidding!”
    “Good.”
    “Hmm, I wanna go somewhere fast. Doesn’t seem appealing to me to wait to long for my food.”
    I started to steer her to Frosty Freeze. The burgers were bomb, even though you did have to wait awhile, it was faster than most places. Plus, as a bonus, they had Dr. Pepper Freezies there. One of my extremely close friends, Ani, had shown me.
    After we had been walking awhile, Sam took my arm. It surprised me since she had been so stand offish lately. My heart started to beat faster. There was that ache in my chest again, and as usual, I wished she were mine.
    She immediately knew where I was taking her when we turned right at the intersection, and took the lead. I let her, in a relationship I would be the “uke” or “girl.”
    There were high school kids in a parking lot, and they started eying Sam and me. I didn’t take my arm away; I kinda wanted them to think Sam and I were dating. It was in fact what I wanted, and badly. She could be mine forever, and I would never bore of being with her.
    Their gaze was still on us as we got closer. They were laughing and shoving each other, like boys do when they dare each other to do something. If they tried to hurt Sam just slightly, they were going to be in a world of pain.
    “Dykes,” one of them said. It was the taller, skinnier one, the one with the challenge in his eyes. He was tall, and looked kind of bulky, someone you usually wouldn’t mess with. He was on the football team, the band played at the football games, so I saw him a lot. He was their kicker.
    “What did you call her?” I asked. I didn’t care if called me a dyke. I was gay, but Sam wasn’t. Sam had a boyfriend, not a girlfriend. Not me. She tried to keep my arm in hers, but I broke free and walked closer to them.
    “Mallory, don’t!” Sam commanded. She had commanded me. That tone of voice meant you had better listen to me or else. I stopped and tried to calm down. She came over to me and hugged me. Whispers of calm words flowed from her lips, and the anger started to subdue. Sam was the only one who could do anything like this, command or calm. It was probably because of the fact I loved her?
    Sam’s arms went around me as if to hold me back. I didn’t need to be held back, though. I was calm now. As long as those idiot guys didn’t try anything, I would be fine. Besides, she would be easy to overpower. Swimming had started back up a week ago, and if I was angry enough there could be some real damage done.
    “That’s right, better listen to your girlfriend,” he said. And that was it. All that was needed.
    I broke through Sam’s arms and was after him. Three seconds, tops, and my fist had connected with his face. A satisfactory crunch sound greeted me as well as pain in my fist, but I was too mad to notice the pain. All knew was that I had broken his nose, and was proud of it.
    He sat up slowly, shaking his head as if to clear it. Buddy, it was gonna take a lot longer and a lot more to clear your brain. His nose looked disfigured and was bleeding pretty badly. His eyes were already starting to swell. Not only did he have a broken nose, but two black eyes. The friend looked pretty mad, he ran over to me and got in my face. Not hard to do when you’re 5”1 and he’s 6”3.
    “My turn, twerp,” he snarled. He tried to hit me, but I fell back instead. The curb twisted my ankle funny, and pain seared up my calf. I almost cried out, but I refused to show the pain.
    “I’m no twerp, I got your friend pretty bad,” I smiled. Boy was I getting myself deeper and deeper. “Now then, are you really going to beat up a girl? Not only that, but a little one? What reputation would that give you?”
    “Whatever, c’mon Steven,” he said to the other guy. They started to stalk off.
    “Careful! People might think your dating!” I said as I smiled innocently. Sam put her arm around my waist.
    “Sam, what are you doing?” I asked nervously.
    “Oh, please. I’m not stupid. I know you hurt your ankle. It’s easy for me to tell when your hurt, we’ve been friends forever.” Seven years to be exact.
    “Oh, right…right…”
    “Let’s get you home. Put your arm around my shoulder. It’ll be easier to support you that way.”
    “Aw, darn. Now people will think I’m the guy in the relationship. I wanna be the girl!” I laughed.
    She looked at me like she was disgusted I would even imagine me with her, and then realized I was joking and laughed nervously. Suddenly my ankle didn’t really hurt, but my heart did. We started to slowly walk to my house. Rather, I hobbled and Sam just about carried me.
    I missed the next day of school due to a doctor’s appointment. My ankle had a really bad sprain and I had to miss swimming for two weeks and on crutches for a week and a half. It irritated me. While everyone else was getting stronger at swimming and learning their drill in band, I was stuck on crutches. Well at least I didn’t break it.
    “Ms.Zella? Can I leave early? My class is on the other side of the school and I’m on crutches.”
    Ms.Zella was my science teacher, she was pretty laid back and let us do pretty much whatever, as long as we got our work done, and today I had finished my work. Most likely because my science partner, Morgan, wasn’t there. We never got anything done together.
    “Sure,” she said. She didn’t even look away from her computer screen. She was head of a lot of clubs and activities so I didn’t blame her. I just hoped she didn’t notice that I was leaving fifteen minutes early. No one else did, it seemed, they were looking at their work on their laptops.
    My backpack was pretty light, all my books had been emptied so I didn’t have to carry the extra weight. In all truth I didn’t mind the extra weight, it would give me more strength and endurance.
    Hmm, around the whole entire building, or down a flight of stairs? Stairs it was, I was lazy today, and even if it took longer to make It down the stairs one at a time, it seemed quicker going through the building.
    My crutches weren’t the best, they were like seven years old and too tall for me. I was still a little unbalanced on them, so I decided to take the stairs really slow. I was about five stairs from the bottom when the door opened.
    Because of the small distraction, my crutch missed the next stair and went out from under me. My body was falling face first, and it was too quick to do anything about it. The person who had walked in ran too me.
    She caught me before any real damage was done to me. The only reason I knew it was a girl was because Her hair was around me, long and black. Oh, and the fact I had done a face plant right into her breasts.
    “Oh, my gosh! Are you okay?” she asked as she helped me balance myself. I was a little wobbly from the fall, but everything else seemed fine. I realized then she looked a lot like Sam, but with longer hair and bigger breasts.
    “Hm?” I had been caught up in looking at her. She was quite beautiful. “Oh! Uh, yeah. I’m fine, just a little shaken that’s all. Sorry for, ahem, landing in yours boobs…” I blushed and looked down, feeling very embarrassed and awkward.
    “Oh, yeah. No problem. Better than your face landing on the floor right? I’m just glad you weren’t a guy. Men are nasty perverts, and would view it as a score.” I liked this girl.
    “Ah ha ha, yep.” I said while smiling. I couldn’t help but take a quick sweep of her. My eyes stopping on all the wrong places a little bit too long.
    Her shirt was black with music notes and jazz instruments on it. In lettering it said The Jazz Band. Looked like she was in jazz band. Her jeans were blue, and her shoes were converse, black. She had a little bit of make-up on, but it was obvious she didn’t need it. She had to be at least a C-cup.
    “Nice shirt, you in jazz?”
    “What? Oh! No, my ex-girlfriend gave this to me.” She looked sad to say ex, like it was a one way break up. The worst kind in my opinion.
    “Oh, I see. Not your style?”
    “Well, I want to be in regular band, the clarinet looks interesting to learn. I like the way it sounds too.” She seemed really excited talking about music.
    “What a coincidence, I play. Come by the band room, Amanda will probably let you join and check out an instrument. Then she can find someone to teach you and all that.”
    “Okay, thanks, and also would you mind teaching me? I don’t know any other person in band and your pretty cute.” Was she flirting with me? A thrill ran through my body. She was almost as captivating as Sam and I had just met her.
    “Only if you’ll keep your hands off me,” I laughed, making sure it sounded like a joke and not a homophobe comment. “When do you have time?”
    “How about lunch? Band is right before, right? I can just meet you there.”
    “Alright sounds good to me.”
    “Okay, see you then. By the way, my name’s Kailey. Bye Mallory!”
    How did she know my name? Oh, well. Like I cared. For all I knew we could be in the same class. I took my phone out. Dang, five minutes to get to my next class before the bell rang. I started hobbling to class, the thought of being stuck between the Science and Math buildings in a mob was not pleasant. Especially on crutches.
    It seemed to take forever for lunch to come. I was excited to see Kailey again. Something about her…intrigued me. She was a lot like Sam, looks and attitude.
    “Hey, Amanda,” Our band teachers first name was Amanda. Everyone called her that, and no one really knew her first name. Her attention was hard to get. She played favorites, really bad. “Amanda?”
    “What?”
    “There’s this girl, Kailey, she wants to join band. Do we have room for an extra clarinet?”
    “Yeah that’s fine. Have her switch in at semester. I’ll get a clarinet ready for her. Last years seniors never cleaned them and they are really gross.”
    “About when will it be ready?
    “Two, three, weeks, maybe?”
    “But semester is in a month! She needs to start learning now so that she won’t be behind!”
    “She should be able to catch up quickly, and if she doesn’t, it means she doesn’t belong in this band. I learned an instrument in a month while we were learning the music. If I can, she can. I’m not dropping everything for her.”
    “Okay, I’ll tell her then.” What a beep.
    I exited the music building in a fowl mood. On my way I saw Kailey. She was alone and walking quickly to the band room, a smile on her face. Her smile reminded me of Sam’s, full, but not too full. I felt a longing to be with Sam. I pushed the hurt to the Back of my mind.
    “Hey, Kailey! Uh, Amanda doesn’t have a clean clarinet right now, and won’t for like three weeks, sorry. I could teach you to read music.”
    Oh, I know how to read music. I took music appreciation, so I learned it then.” “Hmm, I could teach you the fingerings then?” Over Kailey’s shoulder, there was a couple kissing. Loneliness overwhelmed me. I needed to get away from them.
    “Do you mind if we share an instrument? I don’t mind if you don’t.”
    “You’re not sick or anything are you?”
    “Nope.”
    “Ok, fine by me then. We just can’t let Amanda see, she’s tnot that big on students sharing instruments. And I know the perfect place to go. Can you carry my clarinet case for me? I kinda, well, can’t.” She laughed. It was a beautiful laughter.
    We went to the band room so she could get my instrument, and headed to the bleachers by the pool. No one hung out there at lunch or break, well occasionally me, so no one would here us nor see us.
    “Ok, first I’m going to teach you how to put a clarinet together, and take it apart. Go ahead and try it out real quick.”
    She started from the top with the mouthpiece, and got all the pieces in the right place right down to the bell. She faced them all the right way as well.
    “Nice, you got it right the first time, it took me a few tries my first time.”
    Her face turned red at my praise, and she looked away. Did I say something weird? Before she had seemed so comfortable with me, and after I had fallen into her breasts as well.
    “Well, uhm, anyway...Let’s try to play a note now, then. Shall we? Just blow into the instrument and that a G.”
    Her note sounded extremely flat and forced. Just what I had hoped for, now I could teach her about her mouth muscles and how to hold her lips to make the correct tone.
    “Ok, hold your mouth like this,” I took the clarinet from her and showed her how your lips were going to go. “Then you’ll have a much better tone quality.” I smiled. She took the clarinet and avoided eye contact.
    She hesitated before putting the clarinet in her mouth, looking at the mouthpiece. Then she tried again. This time, she sounded beautiful. She was a natural clarinetist.
    “Perfect, now I wish I could teach you more, but the bell’s about to ring. And it takes me forever to get to class, and it’s going to take us forever to get back to class. Here, I’ll put the clarinet back.”
    Kailey went to hand me the clarinet, but I wasn’t paying attention and it fell. Right on my twisted ankle.
    “Haaaaa! FFFFFFFFFF!”
    “Are you ok?! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to!”
    There was so many words I wanted to say at that moment that I refused to say, instead gibberish came out. Instead all that I could do was look at Kailey as if asking the question “Do I look ok?!”
    “Um, what do I do?”
    “I don’t know, the pain should just go away I think. It’s already starting to go away. Make sure the clarinet is ok.”
    She picked it up and looked it over. From what I could see, it looked fine.
    There might have been a few new scratches, but that didn’t really matter to me. What really mattered was what it sounded like. I took it from Kailey and played a quick scale. Sounded ok.
    “Here, hand me the case. I’ll put it away.” We started waling back to the band room after the clarinet was back in the case. She was silent, and I was concentrated on not tripping. When we got back, I had to show her where my locker was again, it was too high for me to reach regularly, so I know I couldn’t put it away on crutches.
    “The top locker the-“ My locker caught on a saxophone case strap, and I started to fall. Kailey dropped my clarinet and caught me just barely. Again I did a face plant right into her chest. What was with my face and her boobs?! Of course out of all things to notice, I noticed that she was wearing the same perfume as Sam did. She hadn’t been wearing it earlier in the day when she had caught me.
    “You not that great on crutches, are you?” she laughed. I couldn’t exactly answer with my mouth smashed.
    “Mrrb!”
    “Oh, right, you probably need help.”
    My crutches had fallen when I had, so to help me up Kailey had to practically hug me. We ended up in what looked like a lovers’ embrace. She was much taller than me, I realized. My head came to about her neck, and I looked up at her. She was already looking down at me. Her eyes were beautiful. They captivated me. My face felt hot, and her face looked red as well. She started to slowly come closer to my face, and I closed my eyes.
    “Hey, you two! No P.D.A.!” I couldn’t see who it was because Kailey’s body was blocking the way, but I recognized Angela’s voice. She was a security guard at our school. Her job was to catch kids who fought, dressed inappropriately or publicly displayed affection.
    “Its not—no you see—it’s a misunderstanding. She was tr-“ Angela’s eyes got bigger as she saw it was two girls together, then hardened to an icy stare.
    “Don’t try to make up excuses! I know what you two were doing, this is high school!” She looked disgusted now, I hate people who immediately judge like that.
    “Well? Are you going to stop clinging to each other? Or do I have to pry you two apart?!” Kailey slowly let me go and gave me my crutches. Her face still looked red, I wondered if mine did as well. She handed me my crutches.
    “If you had let her finish,” Kailey started to say. Her voice sounded extremely dangerous. “She was going to say that I caught her! Her crutch got caught on a saxophone case and she tripped. I barely caught her!”
    “Well, I know what I saw, and that’s what matters. Come on, up to the attendance office.”
    “For what?” Kailey asked.
    “P.D.A. and disrespect. Your both getting a weeks detention and going up to the attendance office for me to issue it.”
    “This is so freaking stupid!”
    “Shouldn’t have been kissing.” Angela smiled coldly and walked out the door.
    “You ok?” Kailey asked me. She looked me straight in the eyes, and my heart started to beat faster. The way Sam made it beat, but it wasn’t Sam. I had barely met this girl. Must be because I was getting a weeks detention?
    “Yeah fine. We gotta follow her,” I said as I motioned to Angela with my head.
    When we got outside the band room, Angela was waiting for us. On her walkie talkie she was telling the office ladies we were coming up, then started walking quickly. I had a hard time being on crutches and all, and when we got to the office I was out of breathe and sweaty. My shirt had risen up my hips and lowered at the top from the friction. Kailey’s stare burned into me and I blushed. She helped by pulling it back into place.
    “Thanks…” I mumbled. She just nodded curtly.
    “Ok girls, sign in over there.”
    “For what? I told you she tripped and I caught her! We. Were. Not. Kissing!”
    The secretaries looked up from their work with faces of disbelief. They either couldn’t believe two girls were getting in trouble for kissing, or that someone was yelling at Angela. Either was pretty rare at out school. Angela’s face was turning red from anger. If Kailey didn’t stop, she was going to get more attention.
    “Why don’t you believe us? If we wanted to do that, we would have done it not at school! Are you stupid?!” That surprised me, she was talking as if we were a couple. Kailey seemed to realize this and she looked at me as if to see if I had caught it, which I had.
    “Ok, I see you want another week.” It was obvious Angela was trying hard to stay calm. Her hand shook and her knuckles were whit as she wrote us our detention slips.
    “You have until two weeks from now to serve these,” she said as she looked at me. “You have three weeks,” she said as she looked at Kailey. “Serve them fast.”