The Game Changer (14 page)

He must have noticed my anxiety because he eases up slightly on the attitude. “JJ, look, D is over there. At the end, is E, then F.” He points in the direction of the different hallways, giving me a rundown of the layout of the school.

“Got it,” I whisper to myself, glued to the same spot, unable to make my legs move forward. I take a deep breath.

“Are you goin’ to go in or what?” he says, waiting. I nod and take a step forward. “Wait.” He stops me. “Let me see your schedule.” He takes the crumpled paper from my sweaty hand. “Okay, next period you have English, E-6. Wait here when your class is over. I’ll come back to get you... Oh, we
both
have the same Study Hall, third period; that’s in the cafeteria.” He hands me back my schedule and turns to go, motioning his hand for me to go into the class.

I find the closest seat to the door and sit down. The teacher goes over the syllabus for the class and we do a quick review of the course. When the bell rings, I jump from my seat and enter the hallway; I glance up and down the hall through the crowds of kids, looking for Luke. I’m about to give up when I
see him turn the corner, pushing his way through the mob, heading towards me.

“You okay?” he asks. This time he’s finally looking into my eyes. This in turn makes me more upset so I only nod. “You look scared to death,” he says as we begin to walk.

“I am. It’s the first time I’ve been to school in two years, remember?” He nods, looking at me sympathetically. “And, I went to Catholic school, so we pretty much all looked the same. This is really scary to me.” As much as I try to force it back, I can feel the tears build up in the corner of my eyes.

“I remember,” he says sympathetically, stopping me while he dabs his thumb at the corner of my eye. “You’re doing just fine. Relax.” He offers me a smile while looking into my eyes. 

I take a deep breath, feeling somewhat better as we continue walking to my English class. It seems as if every person in the hallway high fives him as they walk past. I take note of the girls eyeing me up, probably wondering who I am and wondering why he is with me.

“I’ll meet you here when the bell rings, I’ll walk you to Study Hall,” he says as he drops me off at the door.

“Okay.”

“Breathe,” he says as he mimics taking a deep breath.

I smile and exaggerate taking a deep breath.

My English teacher keeps us longer than the bell. When he opens the door, Luke is waiting outside. I’m curious about Study Hall. Luke says usually the seats aren’t assigned and you’re free to sit wherever you choose. As soon as we enter the cafeteria, a cute girl with big brown eyes and a stylish haircut walks up to him. It’s probably his new girl of the week, I think as he introduces us. “Jess, this is Crystal...Crystal, this is Jesse…
my neighbor.
” He sounds sarcastic as he gives me a smirk.

I don’t miss that he emphasizes the,
my neighbor
part. Point taken. We say hello to each other and then she begins to pull him away to sit with her and a couple of other people I guess are friends of theirs. As I am about to walk over to an empty table, Luke walks up behind me.

“What are you doing? Come sit with me.”

“That’s okay, Luke, really, you don’t have to...” I start.

“J, c’mon, you’re not sitting by yourself.” He pulls me by my arm and kicks out the chair next to him with his foot. I would have preferred to sit by myself than having to sit with him, his new girlfriend, and the rest of their friends, but at least, we are speaking again. I don’t join in on their conversation. Instead, I take out my English book and pretend to read. Actually, I'm listening in on their conversation and watching the clock, waiting for the period to end. Finally, when it does, I jump out of my seat and turn to leave. Luke remains sitting, still talking with everyone, but quickly turns around and tugs lightly on the side of my shirt.

He looks up at me with those puppy dog eyes. “Hey, do you want me to walk you?”

“No, I’m good. I know where I’m going. Thanks,” I say giving him a smile. It almost looks as if he hesitates on whether he should go with me or
not, but, in the end, he stays with his friends.

I walk through the crowded hall by myself, trying to trace back my earlier steps. I’m almost
near E when I see Billy. “Hey, Jesse, how’s your first day?”

“Hey, Billy, it’s okay. I’m just trying to remember my way around.” I can’t help being happy to see a familiar face.

“Where are you heading?” he asks while pulling the crumbled schedule from my hand.

“History. E-2.”

“Cool. Me, too.” We walk the rest of the way together. It feels good to have a friend in one of my classes. Billy sits behind me in class and taps me every two seconds to talk. Great, first day and he’s going to get me in trouble already.

Thankfully, I have the same lunch period as Lori and Matt. She waits for me outside the cafeteria to show me to our table. She introduces me to some of the kids who I have yet to meet, although I do recognize a few from the beach. I feel more comfortable at this table than I did earlier at the table in Study Hall.

The highlight of the day, besides talking with Luke, is my Art class. It’s the one class I’m most excited about. Being tutored at home, I missed out on studying Art. Mr. Collier, my new teacher, has a lot of experience. His work has been in several shows and museums. When he is not teaching, he spends his time attending shows and galleries throughout the United States, Europe and Japan. It sounds exciting.

The last period of the day is gym, which I am lucky enough to have with Deanna. We are looking forward to it, until we see that Alexa has gym the same period. Thankfully, she has a different teacher, but we still have to share the same locker room. For some reason, she glares at me as if her eyes were daggers. I look away, but De glares back.

“What’s her problem?” De asks. I shrug because I really don’t know. To be honest, I haven’t seen her around much lately. De sees her more than me, since they both practice together for cheerleading.

At the end of the day, De and I are standing outside the girls’ locker room talking when Mikey and Luke come walking down the hall. “Did you two ever move or are you still here from this morning?” Mikey teases as he walks over to us.

Luke glances over. “Hey, JJ, how was the rest of your day, did you find everything?”

“Yeah, I did. Thanks.” He gives me a slight smile and enters the locker room.

***

By the time I arrive home, my dad is waiting to hear about my first day. I tell him what he wants to hear, about how much I like the school. I leave out the part about being scared to death. I don’t like to worry him. He has prepared a special dinner since he doesn’t have to work and then after, we sit around and watch some TV together. I wait for him to fall asleep, as he usually does after dinner, and then I head over to De’s.

I have grown familiar with the smell of a fresh pot of coffee being brewed after dinner when I enter De’s house. Maria has made a chocolate cake for dessert. I love being at their house and sitting here like this. I feel like they are my family, that’s why I wish these strange feelings I have for Luke would go away. I want to go back to the way things were.

It isn’t long before Luke and Mikey come walking in through the kitchen. “What smells good?” Mikey asks.

“I made a chocolate cake; it’s over there on the counter.” Maria points.

“Awesome,” Mikey responds as he helps himself to a piece.

Luke gets out the milk and pours him and Mikey a glass, not seeming as enthusiastic as Mikey to see us. “Where’s Dad?” he asks.

Maria answers, “He’s in the other room, watching the game.”

Luke cuts himself a piece of cake and goes into the other room with Lucca. Mikey stays with us and sits at the counter. “So, what’s up? What are we talking about?” he asks jokingly, of course.

“School. Where were you guys?” De asks him.

“At the cages,” he answers.

De laughs. “I don’t even know why I ask, I figured as much. If you’re not picking up girls, you’re doing something with baseball. You two are so predictable.”

He teases back, “Oh, really. What’s it matter to you anyway? Does it bother you or something?”

“I could care less,” she shoots back. Then, her phone rings. “Wait, it’s Timmy.” She holds up a finger to shush him for a second.

“I’m outta here,” Mikey says sarcastically, picking up his plate and walking into the other room.

Maria rises to clear the plates from the table. “Ah, them two...
someday
.” She shakes her head as she refers to De and Mikey as if I know what she means. De is on the phone, busy talking to Timmy, not listening to our conversation. “You
all
will get it straightened out someday,” she says as she pats the top of my head.

I get up to clear the dishes with her, I want to ask her what she means, but I don’t. “Maria, go sit, I’ll do the dishes.” She goes in the other room to watch TV with the boys, while I mull over what she said.

After Deanna finishes with her call, we go up to her room. I want to ask about her and Mikey. Was there more to them than just being friends? Is that what Maria meant?

“De, how are things going with Timmy? Are you serious about him? I know you really like him, but you know what I mean.”

“I don’t know, I guess. It’s not like I would see anyone else right now. We are just taking things really slow. Timmy is shy... quiet. He’s not in any rush and I’m fine with that. That’s why I like him so much. I know he likes me, and he’s happy right now just spending time with me, and that makes me happy.”

“I’m happy for you... Why doesn’t Mikey seem to like him?”

“He’s just being Mikey; he’s a little overprotective, I guess.”

“What does Luke think of him?”

“Honestly, I think they both like him; they know he’s really a nice guy. He has a good reputation, not like some of the jerks I’ve dated in the past. Mikey just seems more protective because he knows a little more about that than Luke does.”

“What do you mean?” She has me curious now. Deanna doesn’t talk much about her previous relationships. I know she dated before, but she always makes it sound like she never really got serious about anyone.

“Remember when I told you I had made a lot of mistakes last year? That I wish sometimes that I could have erase my sophomore year?”

“I remember.” 

“I told you about when I started to hang around with Alexa. I sort of dumped all my other friends. I’m actually surprised they took me back when I finally came around. Anyway, she was popular, so that made me popular. I was only a Sophomore, but I was hanging around with all the Juniors with her. I started to date this jerk, Paul Simpson; he was really popular and an awesome football player. At the time, I guess I was impressed by that. The thing is, everyone knew he was a jerk, even me. Like I said, though, he was popular and a lot of girls liked him. Alexa was hooking up with his friend so she fixed me up with him. It was around the end of November, the season was just coming to an end when we started dating. I was only seeing him a short while, but it was always the same thing; every time we were alone he would push and push wanting to take things further and further. I wasn’t comfortable with it, but I kept letting him go further and further.”

Her eyes begin to well up and I interrupt. “De, you don’t have to explain to me, it’s fine. I don’t want to make you upset.”

“No, really, I’m fine. I just get so mad when I think about it. I’m smarter than that. Anyway, one night I was drinking at a party, probably more than I should have. He told me he loved me and I thought I felt the same way. At least, that’s what I told myself to make it seem okay with what we were doing. It didn’t help that I had Alexa as a friend, telling me it was no big deal. So, that night, after the party, I let him. We went all the way. Afterwards, it was as if he didn’t even care. It didn’t matter to him what it meant to me, knowing it was my first time. Needless to say, I didn’t hear from him after that. I was mortified. I cried and cried for days.”

“I’m sorry.”

“I’m fine now. I just hate knowing I gave in to some creep.”

“I know. Is that what you meant when you said Mikey knows about stuff?”

“Mikey and Paul had the same gym period. The following week in school in the middle of changing classes, there was a lot of commotion in the hallways. I heard kids talking about a fight in the locker room. Come to find out, Mikey beat the crap out of Paul, breaking his nose and everything. I heard Mr. Smith, their gym teacher, broke it up. I made my way towards the office and peeked through the glass. Sure enough, Mikey was sitting in the office with an ice pack on his hand and Coach Briggs was standing over him, giving him hell. I saw Paul sitting in a chair on the other side of the room, covered in blood, holding a towel up to his face; it was actually scary. Mikey spotted me and nodded for me to go away.”

“I know this sounds horrible, but I think he deserved it.”

“He did, but God forbid if Mikey got hurt, broke his hand or something, it could really set him back, or maybe ruin everything with baseball. They are scrutinized so much, you have no idea.”

“By who? What do you mean?”