Chapter 3: "She's different"

Thump went my books as I set them back into my locker. It was already established that this school  and I would not be getting along. At least not anytime soon. As soon as I closed my locker door, I saw the sweet girl I met earlier that day, Robbie, approaching the locker next to me. She opened her locker.
“Hey Robbie,” I said, smiling, pulling my phone out to read any new text messages.  She put all of books in, and smiled at me.
“Hey Jay!” she said enthusiastically. “Haha, that rhymed!” she added. We both laughed, there was something very fun about her personality, that was quite charming. “Want to hang out with me at lunch?” she asked. I looked up from my phone, shocked. I accepted faster than she could say anything else. We both laughed and walked towards the cafeteria. As we walked towards the cafeteria, I saw Tyler again, with a bunch of girls surrounding him. One girl that stood out was this blonde, in a very mini skirt, standing very close to him. He talked, and watched me as I walked on with Robbie.
“Hey, do you know that guy?” I asked, pointing my eyes to Tyler. Robbie looked back and laughed, grabbing  a tray for herself from the lunch line.
“Yeah. Tyler Giamatti,” she said. “Ladies man, star football and basketball player,” she added.
“I see, I see,” I said, thinking about last period’s situation, and grabbing myself a tray. I grabbed a salad and walked with Robbie to a table in the courtyard.
“Why do you ask?” she questioned, sitting down.
“Well I’ve bumped into him a couple of times, he’s always staring at me, and today he defended me with his friend-- sort of,” I said, eyeing down my salad as if it was the enemy in the situation.
“All the girls are always on him,” she commented. “Maybe he’s wondering why you aren’t.”
“I‘m not obligated to be all up on him. Who does he think he is, Brad Pitt?!,” I added. There was a moment of silence, and after a few seconds, we both burst out in laughter.
“Did you see your facial expression!?” Robbie said, pointing to me. I was turning red with laughter, nodding. 

We both ate our lunches and talked a little bit more about this “star football and basketball player.”
“C’mon, you gotta admit he’s cute,” Robbie stated, playing around with her fruit salad.
“Well…” I trailed off. “I guess he is. But he’s probably just a jerk,” I added. Thoughts were racing to my head. I wasn’t going to say anything nice about this guy, because every school I moved to, there was this popular guy that I’d talk to, and it gave me continuous problems. I wasn’t going to do it this time. I continued thinking when I was distracted by a “Yooo hoooo? Earth to JC,” Robbie said, laughing again. We got along great, it felt good to have a friend; someone to talk to, ask about the school.

We even walked home that day, laughing the minute we saw each other. “JC! Get your a*s over here!” she called out. I laughed and walked up to her and we were on our way. I put my shades on and tried to move the hair that the wind was whipping in my face. “Dang girl, pimpin!” she added. We both laughed some more.
“What?! Gotta look goood, you know?” I said, raising my eyebrow. We laughed some more. I think you get the point, we both laugh a lot. But anyways, we started walking through the courtyard, talking about what celebrities we liked, what stores we shopped at, and what plans we had that weekend.
“Hey, hey, hey, look whose checking you out,” she squealed, nudging me on my arm.
“Huh?” I asked in confusion, looking around, hoping to find someone cute that was “checking me out.” I finally noticed who it was. Take a wild guess. Tyler Giamatti was looking at me, with his friends, laughing.
“I didn’t know laughing at a girl was checking someone out,” I said to Robbie. “C’mon girl, let’s blow this popsicle stand.”

- - - - - - - - - - - - - TYLER POV - - - - - - - - - - -

“Dude, there’s the new girl,” Shane said, leaning against the hood of my car.
“Man, what’s with you? You gotta crush on her or something? You were on her case today,” I said, punching his shoulder playfully. He burst out into laughter.
“You’re joking, right?” he asked, slapping me back. “She’s cute, but she has attitude,” he added, as I watched her walking off with her friend. She was a lot more than cute, I noticed just today. 
“Naw, she gave you attitude cause your dumbass was feeling up in her hair and dropping her books and s**t,” I said. “You got owned man, you should have seen it coming,” I added, cracking up. I continued watching her, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of her.
“Hellooo? You there?” Shane sang, as he waved his hand in my face. “What’s up with you today?”
“Naw..nothing,” I replied, still watching her, as her hair blew in the wind.
“I think you got the crush, buddy,” he said getting off of the hood and looking at me.
“I don’t know, there’s just something different about her,” I said, watching her walk out of sight.
“What do you mean?” he asked, putting his hands in his pockets. “I thought you were getting in with
Kelly,” he added.
“Kelly’s cool and I am, I was just saying this new girl’s different, that’s all,” I replied.
“We’re basketball stars, man, we get all the girls, if you haven’t noticed,” Shane joked.
I smiled, shook hands with him, and got into my car to drive home. Yeah, I guess you could say we were the guys who ran the school. The most athletic, best looking, and pretty damn rich if I’d like to say so myself. All the boys have been tight since grade school. I gripped the wheel of my car, and tried to shake this girl out of my head. “Forget it, Tyler, forget it. She’s nothing to you,” I said to myself, and drove off.

“Come on Giamatti, get the shot!” Coach Carr yelled from the bleachers. Basketball practice. Something that always got my mind running into this world where it’s just me, the ball, and nothing but smooth shots. The ball was thrown in my direction, I dribbled it through my knees, passed defense and made a decent lay up.
“NICE!” Shane hollered, as he ran and shook my hand. I was pumped, making shot after shot. We were going to beat the other team into the ground at the final game to get into the play offs. The team practiced hard, everyone was sweating buckets before coach finally gave us a break. I pulled my shirt off and walked outside with the rest of the boys. We were sipping down Gatorade and chilling.
“We’re gonna murder the other team,” Michael yelled, shaking the sweat out off his head. The team laughed at his stupidity, it’s what he did. Yell and shake his head like a freak.
“Yo, I’m gonna get some more drinks,“ I said walking out into the courtyard.
“So I go to another building to get this fixed?” I heard a familiar voice ask. I looked up to see the new girl, Jordyn, talking to another student. She sighed and looked upset. She walked my way, looking around for something. She got closer and noticed I was a couple of feet away from her.
“Hey, you need help?” I asked, catching up to her. She looked away and then back at me.
“Why do you want to help me?” she asked bluntly, staring at her papers.
“Well, I see you have a new schedule,” I said taking the papers from her hands,” and you are new here after  all, and there’s no one else here,” I added with a smile. She laughed softly and nodded her head.
“I guess you’re right,” she said.
“So?” I asked. “Want my help or not?”
“Fine, fine, fine,” she said. “Can you help me get to the new admissions center?” she asked, turning what seemed to be the map of the school, around in every way. I turned the map the right way and laughed.
“This,” I pointed on the paper, “is the new admissions center.” I looked up to see a look of confusion envelop her face.
“That doesn’t really help,” she said, smiling. “A teeny bit more specific, please?”
I laughed at her wittiness and gave her directions to the exact building. She smiled as I handed her schedule back to her. “Thank you,” she said.
“You’re very welcome,” I said back. “So how do you like it here so far?” I asked, trying to start a conversation.
“Well your friend…yeah,” she replied, hesitantly, looking behind me. I turned around to see Kelly walking towards us, with her hands on her hips, calling out my name.
“Tyler!” she yelled, catching up to us. She leaned in, kissed my cheek, and smiled. I couldn’t believe what was happening around me. Kelly’s smile quickly left her face when she looked at JC. “Um, what are you doing?” she asked. Perfect timing for her to come and be on my case.
“Helping JC find her way to the new admissions place,” I said, looking over at her. She had the this-couldn’t-get-anymore-awkward look on her face. I agreed, but I continued babbling on. Kelly stared JC down and then looked back at me, grabbing my hand, weaving her fingers through mine. JC scratched her head and looked down.
“I..well, I’ll talk to you later,” she mumbled, pulling her bag onto her shoulder.
“We’ll see about that,” Kelly laughed as she moved her arms around me. Right at that moment, I knew how Kelly felt about the girl I was trying to help. I had a feeling this was going to get ugly.
JC turned around, her hair blowing in the wind, with a puzzled look, “Excuse me?”
“Uh, yeah?” Kelly asked, with a smirk on her face. As JC got ready to speak, her friend popped out from the building to the right and called out her name. She ran over to us and laughed.
“I see what’s going on,” she said.
“Hey Robs,” JC said, “let’s go.”
“Oh, oh, oh , OH!” her friend exclaimed. “Is this blondie giving you attitude? Cause I swore from where I was standing, she was,” she added. JC smiled and looked at Kelly.
“And you are?” Kelly asked, moving her body closer to me.
“That’s Robbie,” JC said sharply. “I hope your girlfriend doesn’t dumb you down,” she added, turning around, walking away.
“It’s all good, Jay, that’s why she doesn’t have friends,” was heard faintly, as they both walked out of site.
I sighed, and closed my eyes to prepare for another episode. Who said it was a crime to help someone new out?
 

Reviews

[Kelley]

Needs a little work but over all not a bad story at all.
Thanks for sharing.

Kelley