Double Threat My Bleep (3 page)

I glance at my girls, grab my stuff, and move to the front. As I settle in my new seat, in the front freaking row, I glance to my left and right. Effing classic. I actually laugh out loud. Okay, more like chuckle. I’m now sitting in between Amy and Eric. With all the distraction of Keesh and Jonathan, I didn’t even notice either one of them come in.

Great.

Just great.

Math class couldn’t have been over fast enough. I had to take mad notes, on who knows what, to keep my mind occupied. Of all things, I just wanted to laugh. So I kept writing and drinking water like I just got back from months in the Sahara, just so I could stop thinking about how I was wedged between Amy and Eric.

Really, I had no choice. What was I supposed to do? Just laugh. Laugh through the entire period. How could I explain that to my super strict teacher? Oh, I’m sorry Mr. Whatever-your-name-is, I can’t concentrate because you just made me sit in between my two worst enemies: my ex-boyfriend who decided to cheat on me and screw my ex-best friend on multiple occasions, and that said
ex
-best friend.

“Meggie, are you okay?” Steph puts her hand on my arm.

“Yeah, totally. I just gotta pee,” I say, steering our group toward the nasty girls’ bathroom.

They follow me in. “No kidding, you guzzled like two water bottles. What’s up with that?” Keesh jokes.

“I would’ve drunk more if I hadn’t run out. I was trying to keep myself from laughing like a crazed lunatic.”

Steph calls over the stalls, “Why were you going to laugh?”

“I don’t know. It’s just when I looked over and saw them there, it was the first thing to come to mind. It’s just so jacked up, it’s funny. I guess.”

Steph and Keesh begin to laugh.

I walk out of the stall, and head to the sink. “Why are you guys laughing?”

Steph wipes her eyes. “Because you’re right. It is kinda funny.”

“And sad,” Keesh adds.

“It’s like a really bad joke.” I dry my hands and we walk to our next class.

Sign language. There is no way I could stand another year of Spanish class, so I convinced my parents to allow me to change foreign languages. It’s kind of weird American Sign Language is considered foreign, but I’ll take it. And of course, my girls decided to change too.

So here we go.

My phone vibrates as I’m about to go into class. “You guys go ahead and save me a seat, I just got a text.”

“Ooo…I wonder who-oo,” Steph teases.

They walk into class, looking back at me with cheesy grins.

I flip open my cell.

thinking of u. Hope ur 1st day is goin good ;)

Alex has to be the cutest and sweetest boyfriend ever. Here he is texting me, while he’s hundreds of miles away, probably taking a break from his grueling college classes.

OK here…cant wait 2 tell u bout 2nd prd

The bell rings. Crap. I’m late.

I wait a second to see if he texts back.

“Are you coming in?” a tall blonde asks. I’m assuming this is my teacher. She looks at my phone in my hand, out in plain sight. “And make sure you turn that completely off before you come in or it will be mine before you can even take it out to check the time.”

Whoa. She’s a tough one. I press the power button on my cell and watch the images fade away. Maybe we should have stuck it out in Spanish.

Time flies when you’re signing the alphabet. Over and over again. And I mean, over and over again literally. Most of us know it already. I think all kids try to learn to sign, at least letters. Well, at the very least A, B, C, D, and E, for testing purposes. LOL. Really, the only letters I ever forget are P and Q. So it seems like review more than anything. A no-brainer.

I can totally use the relaxation after last period being so tense.

I press the power button, yet again, on my way to ASB. It seems like forever before it’s completely on and functioning.

No messages. Hmmm. Alex didn’t text me back.

Whatever. I close my phone and try to catch up on the conversation Keesh and Steph are having.

Chapter Four

ASB
is the usual madhouse. Kids are packed in the small room, bags are tossed everywhere, and glitter sprinkles the floor already. Last year, the glitter wasn’t noticeable until at least a month into the school year. On day one, the class looks like a tornado of sparkling posters has blown through. I guess we’re getting an early start on the festivities this year.

Thankfully, we’re all on the same committee, and Amy isn’t in the class. It’s bad enough I have a class with her, I don’t want to have to plan school events with her too. I’m sure I’ll see both Amy and Eric in either English or history. I just hope it’s not both classes. I’m crossing my fingers. Maybe I’ll be lucky and I won’t ever see them again.

“Welcome back, Tigers.” Mr. Mitchell shouts over the commotion, and almost immediately the class is silent. “I said, WELCOME BACK, TIGERS.” The class hollers back, and claps. “Now that’s more like it. Today, I’m going to be meeting with the officers…but I’d like the rest of you to make up some posters with info about this week’s events and get them put up around the school. It’s great to see you all back. Let’s welcome the freshmen before we get to work.” We all boo and laugh. The ninth graders lower their heads. Did we look that sad last year? “Okay, let’s get started. Get to work.” With that, he turns around and heads into his office with a trail of class officers following behind him.

Whew. He’s gone. Time to relax. It’s been a stressful morning already and I need a breather.

And Alex still hasn’t texted back yet. I need to stop thinking about it. He’s in college. He probably doesn’t have tons of time to be texting me all day. I should be happy he even thought to text me this morning.

“So spill it,” Steph demands, dropping some poster paints on the cafeteria table.

“Huh?” I respond.

“What?” Keesh adds.

Steph rolls out some poster paper on the table. “Don’t act all innocent, Keesha. What’s happening with Jonathan?”

I almost forgot. Here I am wrapped up in my own drama that I forgot about Keesh being pissed off at Jonathan. And so pissed they actually broke up.

“Don’t we have work to do?” Keesh tries to avoid the question.

Let the interrogation begin. “Work, shmerk,” I begin, “I can multitask. You talk, and we’ll listen.”

She raises her brow at me. “Whatever.”

I hold a brush up to her. “Seriously, Keesh. Just a few days ago, you two were all hugged up and now all the sudden you’re all ‘it’s me or him’ and you hate him. What’s the deal?”

“I thought you said you could work and listen at the same time. All you’re doing is talking.” She snatches the brush from my hand and starts writing on the poster.

“Blah, blah, blah.” Steph leans forward in her chair and looks up at Keesh. “Enough already. Tell us. Stop screwing around.”

Keesh gives me the brush back and sits down. She gives Steph a brush too. Then, motions to the posters. I start working on one, and Steph works on another. Keesh sighs, and puts her face in her hands. “He’s pulling an Eric.”

I fumble with my brush, and smear paint across my sign. “He’s what?”

“He’s pulling an Eric?” Steph blurts. “What does that mean? Is he cheating on you?”

“No, he’s not cheating,” Keesh responds, softly.

“Then what? I don’t get it.” I’m totally confused.

Keesh turns her face away from us. I hear a slight sniffle. I think she’s crying. Or trying
not
to cry.

“Come on, Keesh,” Steph says, “You know you can talk to us. We’re your girls.”

“I know I can. I just feel so stupid. I can’t even keep my man happy.” Keesh takes a deep breath. “Jonathan wants to get a little freaky deaky and I don’t want to, so now I see him checkin’ out anything with tits and an ass.”

“Oh, c’mon. He’s a guy. It wouldn’t matter if you got busy all the time, he’d still check out anything that walked. All guys do, even Dominic.”

I chuckle at Steph’s bluntness. “She’s right, you know. Just because Eric’s a jack ass, it doesn’t mean Jonathan is gonna go out and find any old hole to dip his stick in.” Keesh busts out a laugh. I knew that would do it. “But seriously, Jonathan isn’t like that. I mean, has he done anything other than
look
?”

“No, but…I know he will. If I keep saying no, what else is he gonna do? These dumb boys are always complaining about blue balls or something. It’s not like he can’t take care of that all by himself. But if I’m not gonna give it up, it’s just a matter of time before he finds some skank who’s more than willing to jump my man’s bones.”

Steph lets out a chuckle before saying, “C’mon now. Give the boy a chance. I don’t think he’ll let you down. He totally adores you.”

“Yes, he does. He’d do anything for you. Did you see his pouty little face? He’s walking around on his first day of school like someone stole his puppy. It’s sad. You gotta talk to him and work it out,” I add.

“You guys really think so?” she asks, with a concerned look in her eyes. I’ve never seen Keesha like this. She’s usually so confident, so sure of herself. She’s really vulnerable right now. She really thinks Jonathan is going to cheat on her. There’s no way. That guy really loves her.

“Abso-fricken-lutely,” I shout. Silence feels the cafeteria as students stop their advertising campaign to stare at me. I smile at everyone and quickly get back to my poster.

Oh my gosh, I’m starving. We can’t reach our spot fast enough. I plop myself down on our grassy knoll in the middle of the quad and start chowing down on a bean and cheese burrito. Or more like a faux bean and cheese burrito. The tortilla is real, I think. The beans and the cheese are a little on the funky side. But it tastes so creamy good.

“Did you even chew?” Keesh asks.

“No, I just swallowed,” I respond.

“No wonder your college guy is staying with you.”

“Excuse me.” I whip my head around and I’m not surprised to see who it is. “Travis, shut the hell up and go away.”

“C’mon, Megster.” He sits down next to me and throws his arm over my shoulder. “If you need someone to keep your skills in practice, I can volunteer my services.”

“Is this kid bothering you again, Meggie?” Dominic asks as he and Steph trot over to our hill.

“When isn’t he?” I respond, lifting Travis’ arm and removing it from my body.

Dominic and Travis slap hands. “What up, Dom? I just can’t stay away from this girl.” He brushes his arm up against mine.

“You know she has a boyfriend so why don’t you just give it a rest already?” Steph says between bites of nachos.

Keesh nods in agreement. “Seriously, Travis, it’s getting old.”

“I’ll be patient. All I have is time.” He stands. “Something tells me she’s worth the wait.” He leans over and kisses me on the cheek and jogs off. A sharp twinge hits my belly.

“Alex is gonna kick your ass when he comes back,” I yell after him, wiping my cheek. It’s weird but that pang in my stomach was not entirely bad. Oh my gosh. Did I just like his kiss? No. I didn’t. I didn’t like his kiss. It was nasty. He is nasty. I mean, look at how he talks to me. Sure, he’s funny most of the time. I mean, if anyone else said the things he did, I’d laugh my ass off. But Travis, he just irritates the hell out of me.

“He is one persistent dude,” Jonathan says, sitting down with the group. He doesn’t sit next to Keesh, but at least he’s here. “Gotta give him credit for not giving up,” he says looking directly at her. Is he talking about Travis? Or is he talking about himself?

“Yup,” is all she says. But she does so with a smile.

All is right in the world. For now, anyway. Keesh is walking to class with Jonathan. They aren’t holding hands or anything, but they
are
walking together and talking. That’s a good start. Dominic leaves Steph and me off at English. I’m starting to feel lonely. I guess I’m doing pretty well though, considering it’s fifth period and it’s barely starting to kick in.

Damn Alex for being an older guy. Damn him for going to college a million miles away. Damn him for getting into an awesome university instead of staying home and going to a junior college. Damn him. Shit. I can’t believe I’m sitting here damning my boyfriend for being so wonderful and smart. I just miss him. And I’m at school here all by myself with all our friends who are all coupled up and I’m the odd man out. This totally bites.

Okay, okay. Get over it Meg, and pay attention. Focus. Forget about Alex. Forget about being a loner. Forget about it. Just forget about it. Focus.

The door flies open, and the clack clack of heels sounds across the tile floor. It’s Amy. Kill me now. The only seat left is in the front row. Thank God. Now I’m only stuck looking at the back of her head for the whole year. Definitely beats looking at her skanky face. Maybe I should bring a straw tomorrow and shoot spit balls at her. I chuckle inside.

“What are you laughing about?” Steph whispers. I guess I wasn’t keeping my daydreams to myself.

I smirk. “Tell you later,” I whisper back.

Holy crap. This syllabus is huge. Is it our textbook or a course description? With each flip of a page, and let me tell you, I’m flipping and flipping, I lose count of the amount of books I have to read this year. Frickin’ amazing. Does Mrs. Castillo care if we have a life outside of this class? There is absolutely no way I’m going to be able to keep up and still be able to kick it every weekend. I think we’re going to have to get even more creative this year.

Oh my gosh. This lady is nuts. She’s numbering us off into groups so that we can get to know each other. I’ve been in class with these people since we were kids. We all know each other. And if there is someone I don’t know, it’s for a reason. I have plenty of friends. I really don’t need any more.

Whatever…time to be friendly.

Could today get any worse?

Actually, I should have predicted this. Yay. Amy and I are in the same group. Maybe we can exchange phone numbers and be homework buddies. As a matter of fact, I think I might invite her over to read
Lord of the Flies
with me. Wooohooo. I can’t wait.