And So It Goes by Judy Colella (books for 9th graders .TXT) đ
- Author: Judy Colella
Book online «And So It Goes by Judy Colella (books for 9th graders .TXT) đ». Author Judy Colella
Turning away, I went to Gina, told her to breathe, and picked up the basketball which was a few feet beyond her near the bleachers. Dribbling it (I would have spun it on one finger but my inability to do such a thing would only have resulted in deep mortification), I made my way to Lacy.
She took a step back as I got closer. âYou are dead, bitch!â
âYou keep saying that, but I have yet to find any evidence of it.â I tilted my head to one side and smiled. âIâm sure you arenât such a baby that you asked your not-so-bright posse to attack me and Gina, right? But in case Iâm wrong, and you do something like that again, I might have to get physical with you. See, you donât know squat about me, Lacy, or what kind of self-defense training Iâve had. Do yourself a favor and leave me alone, okay? Letâs go back to the way it was before my speech this morning, which, yeah, was unbelievably stupid.â
The Queen of Airheads (Lacy) gaped at the Queen of I-Just-Made-All-That-Up (me) and nodded.
âGood. Thanks.â I didnât believe for a moment that she was going to leave me alone, but at least she now knew I wasnât intimidated. For all the good that would do me when I was being squished under her boyfriendâs pickup or being beaten to a pulp by the entire cheerleading squad and their families. Ah, well.
When the day ended â something I was beginning to think would never happen â I grabbed Gina by the backpack and hustled her off to the bus. We got on and slid into our seats long before anything that bore any resemblance to a cheerleader caught up with us. You know: she who quickly runs away will live to be beaten up another day. Sorry.
My mom was doing something in the kitchen when I got home, but it involved Wade and didnât sound like cooking. Grossed out, I ran up to my room, stripped, took a shower to wash off gym sweat, and got comfy in a t-shirt and pajama pants. Now all I needed was a good book to read. I have no use for the internet or social media, since I also have almost no friends. Besides, why give dopes like Lacy a tool for continued torture?
After digging around under my bed, holding a brief discussion with the dust bunnies and removing an apple core I didnât remember tossing under there, I found several paperbacks Iâd been meaning to read. Picked one. Threw self on bed, started to read.
Smiley face.
Four
I believe I started this with something about how the best-looking guy in the school wasnât crushing on me, or whatever. I was wrong. Either that, or someone is playing the worldâs meanest trick on meâŠentirely possible, considering the way everything else in my life goes.
Football is a game I associate with boredom and freezing my butt off. Why canât they play it indoors? And why does it take thirty minutes to play two minutesâ worth of the actual game? Their idea of âone minute left to playâ is like my grandmotherâs idea of, âIâm going to hang up now, okay?â Sure, Grandma. Whenever weâre on the phone and she says that, I can pretty much count on at least another twenty minutes of random sermonizing and story-telling, often accompanied by âto make a long story shortâ (which I have come to realize is code for âyou better not have to go to the bathroom, and I hope you have your sleeping bag and pillow out and ready, âcause this is the longest story I could think ofâ).
Wait. What was I talking about? Oh! Right. Football. When they â why am I talking about football? Hold on. Ah, thatâs it â the quarterback. Sorry. That came out like the demented rantings of a shipwrecked sports commentator. Let me start over.
Jacob (what is it with every cute guy being named Jacob? Ever since that movie about sparkling bloodsuckers came out, mothers have been racing to scribble âJacobâ on their newbornsâ birth certificates). Wow. I need to slow down. Let me start again. Oy.
Jacob Wainwright is the quarterback on our schoolâs football team. Heâs cute. Heâs got a drool-worthy physique. Every senior girl who isnât blind wants him, except me. I also consider him top-quality eye-candy, but heâs a quarterback, for heavensâ sake! You know, as in football? That game I canât stand? The one where you have to sit on icy metal bleachers to watch a bunch of hefty guys grunting at each other, knocking each other over, and slapping each otherâs backsides, and for what? Some ball that isnât even round? So no. Iâm not interested. And then this happens.
âHe likes you, you know.â
I was putting books in my locker when Gina gave me this highly doubtful bit of news. âSure he does. As what? A potential bet with his friends?â
âWhat?â
âYou know â they take bets to see if he can convince me to go out with him, and then when I show up at whateverâŠthingâŠheâs supposed to be meeting me at for our âbig date,â all his friends and the whole flock of cheerleaders pop out and start laughing at me. Jacob gets paid off for winning the bet, and I slink off in utter humiliation. Thatâs what.â
It was Tuesday, the day after my basketball debacle with Lacy & Co., and so far, no one had stabbed me with a pencil, knocked me into the toilet, or pulled my pants down. Well, that last one might be because I was wearing overalls. Still. But now this garbagio about Jacob. For real? Sheesh.
âWhy donât you think he could like you, Shasta? I mean, okay, you dress a little weird, but youâre really pretty â prettier than any of the cheerleaders for sure.â
âNo Iâm not.â
âYes. Yes you are. Do you even own a mirror?â
âSeveral, but I rarely use them.â I finished putting my books away and closed my locker.
âMaybe you should. You have gorgeous green-blue eyes, your hairâŠokay, your hair is odd, but thatâs only because you donât wear it the same way as most humans, which means youâre not among the clones.â
We started walking toward class, and as I let Gina carry on, I kept a careful look around us for a possible ambush.
âYouâre super slim,â she was saying, âand you could wear any awesome fashion you wanted and look better than Lacy and her friends put together!â
âIf Lacy and her friends were put together, theyâd never fit into any outfit.â I bit my lip, getting a sudden mental image of the cheer squad stuck together in a kind of ball, arms and legs and heads sticking out at strange angles, and a department store clerk trying to squeeze them into a dress. Awesome. I love mental images sometimes.
âYou know what I mean, Sh- are you laughing? Whatâs so funny?â
I gagged. âNothing.â It came out like a choked squeak.
âAll right â focus, please!â
I swallowed, getting myself under control (hey, at least I donât turn purple when I laugh). âIâm focused. Wait. What am I focused on?â
âJacob Wainwright.â
âWhy?â
âBecause he likes you.â
I stopped, grabbed Ginaâs arm and made her stop too, and face me. âGina. Friend. Why on Earth do you think he likes me? Did the football fairy come to you in a dream and tell you this?â
âFunny, Shasta. Thereâs no such thing as a football fairy.â
âSure there is. Sheâs the sister-in-law of the Cheerleader Genie, whoâs the cousin of the Tooth Fairy.â
âYouâre sick. Thatâs why I love you. But Iâm telling you, Jacob is totally into you!â
âEw, no he is not!â
Gina rolled her eyes. âYou know what I mean.â
I sighed. âOkay, then why doesnât he ever talk to me? Come to think of it, I donât believe heâs ever even made eye contact with me. And donât give me any crap about him being too shy or afraid, orâŠorâŠwhatever. Heâs too egotistical to be like that.â I started walking again.
âHe doesnât talk to you because heâs afraid of Lacy.â
âHow could anyone be afraid of Lacy?â
âGuys are strange that way, I think.â Gina shrugged.
I didnât know what to say at that point. Nothing in me was in the mood to hope she was right about olâ Jake. Fact is, I donât like him. He fell off my radar with a dull thud the day I overheard him say to one of the cheerleaders that it was her âlucky dayâ because he was going to take her to the movies that Friday. Movies. Sure, Jacob. Yeck! Did he honestly believe he was that much of a prize? Heck, he didnât even qualify as a parting gift as far as I was concerned.
We got to class a few minutes early, which meant only the geeks were already seated. Everyone else was congregating in the hall, a few standing around near the back of the room, and no teacher in sight.
âThere he is,â Gina told me in her ridiculous side-of-the-mouth hiss. How embarrassing. âDonât look.â
âI wasnât going to â and why tell me heâs here if you donât want me to look?â
âHeâs staring at you.â
âI doubt that. If anything, heâs looking at you hissing at me like weâre in a bad movie.â
âDonât be mean.â She gave a sudden, brilliant smile, and did one of those close-to-the-chest waves.
âHeâs looking at you, isnât he.â I wasnât asking.
âNoâŠâ Grin. âHeâs looking at you, girlfriend.â
âDonât call me that. Why did you call me that? Are you trying to sound cool?â
âRemind me to smack you later.â
âSure.â I went to my desk and sat, opened my notebook, and took a pen from my backpack. I needed to doodle. I do that when I donât feel like dealing with something. Defensive Doodling?
âShasta, right?â
I didnât need to look up to know that the voice hadnât come from Ginaâs throat. Biting back something that would have made page one of Epic Sarcastic Comebacks, I put my pen down and raised my eyes. One eyebrow shot upward in what I hoped was a quelling queryâŠsorry. I didnât speak. Well, no, I did. I said âyes.â But that doesnât really count, does it? Freaking guys named JacobâŠ
âSorry to bother you,â he said, crouching down next to my desk, one hand on its surface. âI just had to say something. I â I think youâre the first person Iâve ever seen stand up to Lacy, and I wanted to tell you I think youâre pretty awesome.â
Wait â when had he seen me do that? He wasnât in the same gym class, and the other times Iâd spoken with her was in the hall and⊠âDude! You werenât hiding in a stall in the girlâs bathroom the other day, were you?â
âNot hiding, no. I was, um, with someone.â He gave me the strangest smile Iâd ever seen. I do believe the handsome hemorrhoid was blushing! Ha!
I shook my head. âUm, yeah. I have no words right nowâŠâ
âYou wonât mention that to anyone, will you? I mean, um, crap. I walked right into that, didnât I.â
Or stepped in it, whatever â I hate potty humor.
Comments (0)