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Recently, my principal accused me of starting a gossip club. I didn't do it, just in case she looks at this blog.

Torn--Cats

LionClan

Leader: Wolfstar (8 lives) - White she-cat with bluish stripes

Deputy: Ravenfire- Black tom w/ sharp blue eyes

Apprentice: Blackpaw

Medicine Cat: Mintcloud- Bluish- Grey she-cat

Warriors: Firespots- White she-cat with ginger spots and dark green eyes

Apprentice: Yellowpaw

Eclipsepelt- Small black and white she-cat who is hardly LionClan she lives roaming the forest, helping the Clans.

Browniespots- Black and White Tom

Lionspot- Golden tom w/ black stripes

Apprentices: Yellowpaw- Black she-cat with a yellowish face

Blackpaw- Light Brown tom w/ a black stripe on pelt

Queens: Snowfeather- Small Black she-cat w/ snow-like white flecks on pelt

Elders: None

Kits: Shadowkit- Coal black tom w/ yellow eyes

Whitekit- White & Ginger she-cat w/ grey flecks

Darkkit- Light grey tom w/ black stripe down pelt

MoonClan

Leader: Jumpstar (4 lives) - Dark Brown tabby tom with amber eyes

Apprentice: Fawnpaw

Deputy: Rainbowstream- Grey and Black she-cat

Medicine Cat: Ivyleaf- Light Brown she-cat with white underbelly and paws

Apprentice: Aloepaw

Warriors: Brambletail- Black Tabby Tom

Apprentice: Sharkpaw

Fireblaze- Ginger Tom

Leafheart- White she-cat

Apprentice: Ivypaw

Swiftpelt- Light Brown Tom

Lionclaw- Golden Tom

Gingerstripe- Robust ginger she-cat with black stripes and green eyes

Apprentice: Wingpaw

Shimmerspark- Light Grey Tabby she-cat with violet eyes

Apprentices: Sharkpaw- Blue tom w/ white underbelly and paws

Wingpaw- Black and White Tom

Fawnpaw- Light brown she-cat with darker spots

Ivypaw- Ivory white she-cat with green eyes

Aloepaw- Dark ivory furred she-cat with clearish eyes

Queens: Silverfoot- Silver she-cat with one white paw and amber eyes.

Greenflower- Light brown she-cat with green eye

Blueflower- Blue-Grey she-cat (one litter of kits with 13 kits)

Elders: Flowerpetal- Pale ginger she-cat with a white belly and tail tip

Nightshadow- Black tom

Kits: Frostkit (Silverfoot) - White she-cat

Skykit (Silverfoot) - White tom

Crowkit (Silverfoot) - Dark Grey, almost black tom

Flowerkit (Greenflower) - Brown tabby she-cat with green eyes

Bluekit (Greenflower) - Light brown she-cat with blue eyes

Brownkit (Greenflower) - Dark brown tom with amber eyes

Hammerkit (Blueflower) – Grey tom with black paws and one black ear

Cinnominkit (Blueflower) – Dark Brown she-cat

Cometkit (Blueflower) – Dark Grey she-cat with a blind amber eye and an all seeing blue eye

Featherkit (Blueflower) – Grey she-cat with light blue eyes

Poppykit (Blueflower) – Beautiful white coated and blued she-cat

Silentkit (Blueflower) – Brown haired tom

Wildkit (Blueflower) – Ginger tom

Jaykit (Blueflower) – Black tom with grey feet

Lionkit (Blueflower) – Golden tom

Goldenkit (Blueflower) – Golden she-cat

Tigerkit (Blueflower) – Dark Brown Tabby Tom with green eyes

Leapordkit (Blueflower) – Light Brown she-cat

Pantherkit (Blueflower) – Dark Brown Tom

BreezeClan

Leader: Rockystar- Grey and White Tom

Apprentice: Weatherpaw

Deputy: Rainfoot- Slivery- grey she-cat with slanted blue eyes. She got by killed by kittypets. Everyone thinks she just went missing. Only Streamstripe knows the truth.

Medicine Cat: Redfeather- Ginger tortishell tom

Warriors: Foxheart- Ginger tom with amber eyes.

Streamstripe- Long silvery- blue furred she-cat with darker grey stripes ankles and down.

Apprentice: Spottedpaw

Kindleheart- Dark reddish-brown tom with white a streak down his underbelly. He has an almost feminine build to him.

Apprentice: Shadowpaw

Fallowspots- Light Brown she-cat

Cloverpelt- Black and Brown she-cat with green eyes

Apprentices: Spottedpaw- Tawny tortishell she-cat

Shadowpaw- Huge black tom

Weatherpaw- Grey tom w/ white flecks

Queens: None

Elders: None

Kits: None

OceanClan

Leader: Pantherstar (7 lives) - Dark Brown Tabby she-cat with white tail tip and light blue eyes

Deputy: Leapordspots- Dark tabby tom with blackish- brown, white muzzle and front left paw.

Medicine Cat: Silverfoot- Black Tom w/ silver feet

Warriors: Bearclaw- Dark Brown Tom with Yellow Eyes

Apprentice: Snowpaw

Salmonfur: Pale Grey Tom

Sunpelt: Golden she-cat

Dappledfur- Light brown tabby she-cat with light green eyes, dark tabby marks on her pelt, and a white chest and paws.

Stripednose- Pale brown tabby she-cat

Leapardtail- Gold tom

Grayfeather- Grey tom

Leafeyes- Pale ginger she-cat with green eyes

Pathchtail- Black and White Tom

Nightfur- Black she-cat

Twilighttail- Brown Tom

Apprentices: Snowpaw- Black Tom with a white muzzle and yellow eyes kept from being a warrior for one moon because of injured leg.

Queens: Freebird- Light Brown Tabby she-cat with a white tail tip and green eyes

Bramblefur- Black she-cat

Goldenheart- Golden she-cat

Elders: None

Kits: Lightkit (Freebird) - White she-cat

Darkkit (Freebird) - Black tom

Leafkit (Freebird) – Black and White Tom

Barkkit (Bramblefur) – Brown Tom

Dawnkit (Bramblefur) – White she-cat

Leafkit (Goldenheart) – Pale Brown she-cat

Bluekit (Goldenheart) – Black tom with ice blue eyes

Smallkit (Goldenheart) – Small grey tabby she-cat

Torn

Ivypaw opened her eyes on the second morning of her training. Today was just another day in her world. Yesterday hadn’t been as exciting as she thought it would be, in fact she preferred kit hood. Ivypaw spotted her mother, Rainbowstream, go to eat some prey with her father, Brambletail. As much as she wanted to go join them she couldn’t because her mentor, Leafheart was beckoning her from the shadows of the TallBoulder, the Clan meeting place.
It’s just another day in apprenticeship, she thought as she headed over there. Finally, with her slow-moving pace, Ivypaw reached Leafheart. From the look she was giving her Leafheart had noticed the slow walking and unhappiness toward training, but she didn’t mention it.
“You’re going to the Gathering,” Leafheart announced. From the look in her eyes it showed that she hadn’t chosen that. That hurt Ivypaw inside; she knew that if she kept this attitude up she would have no friends but her sisters. That thought reminded her that she promised Aloepaw and Fawnpaw that she would eat with them. She saw them beckoning her with their tails and she thought, what a coincidence.
Sharkpaw and Wingpaw were there as well. Ivypaw blushed when she thought of Sharkpaw; she had had a crush on him since kit hood when she opened her eyes. She thought he had a crush on her, but he had been hanging around with Fawnpaw since her apprentice’s ceremony and that’s what had put her in a bad mood.
I want to announce the news to the rest of the apprentices, she thought as she sat down.
“Guess what?!” she asked. ‘I’m going to the Gathering tonight.” Fawnpaw muttered “lucky” and Aloepaw had an awestruck look on her face. Wingpaw and Sharkpaw weren’t that excited because they had been apprentices for six moons and they each had been to a Gathering. But, even though they had been to Gatherings Sharkpaw still said, “That’s awesome; I’m going, too,”
Ivypaw’s heart had beat faster when he said awesome, and felt like it was going to explode when he said he was going, too. Jumpstar summoned her to his den and then told her to sleep.
Later that day Jumpstar was getting ready to go to the gathering when suddenly Ivypaw had an idea, she would talk to Sharkpaw on the way to the Gathering to see if he liked her or Fawnpaw. If he liked Fawnpaw she would go on living her normal life, but if he liked her she would, well, she would decide that when it happened.
They started toward the Gathering and luckily Sharkpaw ran over to talk to her. She asked him her question in a stuttering breathes.
“Well, Ivypaw,” he answered. “I liked you but then you started spending time with Skykit and I got over you and started liking Fawnpaw.”
Ivypaw felt sick, she had only been spending time with Skykit because he was sad that she had left the nursery, he only had about two more dawns until he was an apprentice so she figured to spare his feelings and to be nice that she would spend time with him. She did not love Skykit!
She couldn’t bear to look at him anymore so she looked away. She sped up and didn’t look back. There was a deep, sad, feeling in her chest and she tried to push it away. Finally, they reached the Gathering and Jumpstar gave the release with his tail and all of the MoonClan cats coming rained down on the Gathering.
BreezeClan was the only Clan there so far. Lionclaw walked up to Ivypaw and said told her to go talk to the other apprentices. So Ivypaw obeyed she saw a sturdy grey tom that look like an apprentice, so she walked over to him.
“Hello,” he mewed. “I’m Weatherpaw. Who are you?” he asked it in such a golden voice that Ivypaw couldn’t even think of her name. Finally, she chocked out “Ivypaw” and he smiled. She felt like one of those lovesick cats from the elder’s stories, even the part of loving a cat from a different Clan. She didn’t think he would like her if she kept her stuttery-mouth figure, so she tried a new approach.
“I’m from MoonClan, you must be from BreezeClan,” this time she was going for a smart cat. He obviously figured that out and a look in his said just be yourself, and she did. Until the actual Gathering started they conversed. Ivypaw found out that his mother was Cloverpelt and his father was Rockystar who was also his mentor. A lot of the Clan thought that was a bad choice but Weatherpaw was actually getting the best training ever. Weatherpaw now also knew all of her problems from her mentor to Blueflower’s eight kits. They knew everything about each other except Ivypaw’s problem with Sharkpaw and now there problem with each other.
“So, what do you think Blueflower should do about her kits?” Weatherpaw asked.
“I don’t know, I mean our Clan is so big. I personally think that Blueflower should give her kits to another Clan,” Ivypaw said and he smiled.
“You know, most cats don’t think it’s a bad thing to have a big Clan.”
“I know, but we won’t have mentors for all of them. And besides, if we get too big, all Clans will fear us and there will be no point in being a warrior.”
“Good point, Ivypaw. You know, I like you, maybe we could meet again.”
“What? You mean at the next Gathering?”
“No, silly Ivypaw, I mean a forbidden meeting,” Weatherpaw mewed and Ivypaw held her breathe. He really wants to see me again? I can’t believe it, she thought.
“Alright, but where?”
“Anywhere that’s easy to meet at for you. Maybe at the river?”
“Sure,” Ivypaw mewed. “Now, we have to go, I’ll see you at dawn tomorrow, Weatherpaw.” Ivypaw trotted off but she swore she saw Weatherpaw staring at her as she left.
Ivypaw ran into Sharkpaw on the way back to her Clan.
“Ivypaw,” he mewed. “ I really do like you, but why were you with Skykit so much?” He likes me, he like me! Ivypaw thought and her heat skipped a beat, but what about the handsome Weatherpaw? She really liked him, too and anyone could tell he liked her. Oh, well. I’ll think about this later, Ivypaw thought.
“Ivypaw, why did you spend so much time with Skykit?” Sharkpaw asked again.
“Oh, sorry Sharkpaw, zoned out. I spent time with Skykit because he was leaving the Nursery soon. I didn’t mean to offend you; just he was missing someone to play with.”
“He said he had no one to play with?” Sharkpaw asked and laughed. “He had his siblings, Greenflower’s kits, and Blueflower’s kits. You know he likes you, he just wants an excuse.”
“No way, he likes Flowerkit, anyone can tell.”
“No, oh, brilliant Ivypaw, he just uses that as an excuse.”
“Whatever, Sharkpaw, I like you, not Skykit,” Ivypaw mewed. But do I? My heart beats faster when he’s around and I am jealous when he says he likes someone else, but I also like Weatherpaw. He’s so dreamy and beautiful and his pelt shines.
“Ivypaw, wake up,” Sharkpaw mewed. “You really seem out of it today, did something happen?”
“No, just, you know, in awe of being at a Gathering.” It seemed too easy for Ivypaw to lie now. It seemed to come from her naturally, and it also didn’t bother her. Well, if I do end up with Weatherpaw I will have to do heavy lying or go and join his Clan. But, would I do that to Sharkpaw and to the rest of my Clan?
The leader’s had started talking but Ivypaw really wasn’t listening. She was looking at Weatherpaw and Sharkpaw, while thinking about if she would want to be with both or only one of them.
“Come on, Ivypaw, its time to go,” Swiftpelt mewed. Ivypaw went to go walk alone, she wanted more time to think. Sharkpaw is in my Clan, for one. But Weatherpaw is so charming and he confident, and his eyes… Ivypaw needed to stop thinking about him. She wished she didn’t like him, or he didn’t like her. It would be so much easier if Weatherpaw just got over her, or didn’t show up.
When Ivypaw reached camp she still didn’t want to talk. She just headed to her bed.
“Ivypaw, what was it like? The Gathering? Did you and Sharkpaw get together?” Aloepaw asked.
“Did you meet anyone cool?” Fawnpaw asked.
“Hey, guys, I’ll tell you tomorrow, but I’m really tired,” Ivypaw mewed. “But Sharkpaw likes me.”
“What? You’re really with him?” Fawnpaw asked.
“Yes, now go away, I’m trying to sleep.”
Fawnpaw and Aloepaw walked off, muttering.
Ivypaw was in a sleepy mood but she couldn’t get to sleep. The Gathering replayed over and over in her mind. I mean, getting two guys in a day is a big achievement, but it wasn’t too great for Ivypaw. I really wish that Sharkpaw liked Fawnpaw. I wouldn’t have to worry as much.

The next morning Ivypaw woke up to a back ache. She quickly stretched in case she had to patrol or hunt. Hunting, she repeated the word in her mind and her mouth started to water. Ivypaw climbed out of bed and went over to talk to her mentor. She didn’t know how to hunt and the rule for everyone besides elders, kits, and the leader had to hunt before they could eat.
“Leafheart, can you teach me how to hunt?” Ivypaw asked when she found her mentor.
“Why? I was planning fighting today,” she responded.
“I want to eat, and you know the rule.”
“Ivypaw, you mouse-brain, if you can’t hunt you don’t have to hunt before you eat. Go grab a bite and I’ll get you when we’re going to fight.”
“Alright,” Ivypaw mewed.
“Go eat, Sunpaw,” Leafheart mewed.
“I’m not Sunpaw, I’m Ivypaw.”
“Sorry,” Leafheart mewed. I wonder who Sunpaw is. Let’s see, she was probably… actually, I don’t have an idea. I’ll ask an elder or someone.
“See you later, Leafheart,” Ivypaw said. What’s my number one worry, who I like or who Sunpaw is? Well, I can’t solve the problem of whom I like now, so I may as well find out who Sunpaw is. Now, whom should I ask?
Ivypaw decided to go ask the elders. Nightshadow was asleep so she asked Flowerpetal.
“Who is Sunpaw?” Ivypaw asked.
“Sunpaw was a tom from BreezeClan. He and Leafheart, while she was Leafpaw, were mates and they ran off. Sunpaw was killed, though. Leafheart never told anyone how, but she was devastated,” Flowerpetal mewed.
“What? Leafheart ran off with a tom from another Clan? I thought she was always a ‘follow the warrior code whatever happens’ kind of cat.”
“She changed to that when she came back. But, you know Shimmerspark? She was Leafheart’s first apprentice.” Ivypaw nodded.
“Yes,” Flowerpetal continued. “She was interested in a tom from another Clan. Leafheart used to be really close to her, but then she started to love him. Nothing ever happened between Shimmerspark and that tom but Leafheart hated her after that. Well. Leafheart is jealous of anybody who has love.” Again, Ivypaw nodded. I now know why Leafheart hates me. She sees that I have something with Sharkpaw, and she’s jealous. I wonder if she knows about Weatherpaw?
Ivypaw saw Jumpstar up on TallBoulder and went to check out what was happening. While Ivypaw was in the Elder’s cave Jumpstar had made Wingpaw and Sharkpaw warriors. I’m so jealous. If I was a warrior I could have a mate. And I could be with Sharkpaw. Then Weatherpaw popped into her head. Did she want to be with Sharkpaw? Anyways, I want to be a warrior. Then, I could make my own choices.
Ivypaw was walking over to Sharkpaw to congratulate him when Leafheart stopped her.
“So, you know my secret? Well, go say congrats to your mate,” she said, her voice dripping with venom.
“Leafheart, you’re a pretty she-cat. There are many toms that would want to be your mate? Why do you have to be so hostile?” Leafheart ignored the question but Ivypaw could see that she was considering Ivypaw’s option.
“Go talk to Sharkwater and then meet me at the Sandy Hollow. Sharkwater, that’s a cool name. I wish I were a warrior. The only way that would happen is if I single-handedly defeated some threat.
“Ivypaw,” Sharkwater called.
“Hey,” she replied, smiling flirtatiously.
“You know, Ivypaw, now that I’m warriors, we could become official mates.”
“Yes, but…” Ivypaw said stuttering. “Um, I’m still an apprentice.”
“Ivypaw, you know the rule; only one of the pair has to be a warrior before they have kits,” Sharkwater said. I do know that, but I’m not sure I want to be with you. I need an excuse. Maybe, I could say I don’t believe in being mates before I’m a warrior. But that’s not true; I’ve been saying I want to be with him since I was a kit. Oh, shoot, Weatherpaw said he’d be a warrior soon, and then he’ll want me to come with him. Ivypaw thought. But, maybe he doesn’t like me; maybe he just wants to be friends. Oh, I’ll find out tomorrow at dawn.
“Uh, Sharkwater, give me until tomorrow to thin about it. You know, becoming mates is a big deal,” Ivypaw said.
“Ivypaw, don’t you love me?”
“Of course I do, but I’m just an apprentice, I might not want to be that serious yet.”
“Alright, love,” Sharkwater said.
Ivypaw turned and ran towards the Sandy Hollow, looking for Leafheart. She was trying to remember where it was. Finally, she reached the hollow and she saw Leafheart, standing there with a dark red-brown tom. One sniff told her that he was from BreezeClan. A red-brown tom in BreezeClan would be… Kindleheart! But, didn’t he have a mate. What was her name? Streamstripe, oh, right, she was his sister. Leafheart nuzzled him, but she saw Ivypaw.
“Ivypaw, get out of the shadows,” she commanded.
“What, who is she, Leafheart?” Kindleheart asked.
“Kindleheart, no worries, she’s just my apprentice. You won’t tell, will you, Ivypaw? I saw you with Weatherpaw.”
“No, Leafheart, I won’t tell. But there’s nothing going on with me and Weatherpaw.”
“Don’t lie, I saw your eyes when you looked at him. But you also like Sharkpaw in that way, don’t you?” A smile crept on to Leafheart’s face. “You have a choice to make as well. Do you want to know the truth about Sunpaw?”
“Yes, please, Leafheart,” Ivypaw said.
“Well, Sunpaw and I loved each other, and, as you know, we ran off together. That was before Kindleheart and his family joined the Clans. Well, I met Kindleheart and I loved him more than Sunpaw, so I killed Sunpaw.” Leafheart said it so simply, without any regret. “And since then, I’ve been with Kindleheart.” How could she kill a cat? Especially after she loved him? If I give up one of the guys I love, I would never kill either of them.
“And we are expecting kits,” Kindleheart mewed and Ivypaw almost feinted. What? How could Leafheart do that to me? To our Clan?
“But we’re not sure what to do,” Leafheart added. “Kindleheart says that we should run away together, but I don’t want to do that again. I think I should pretend to mate with some tom in our Clan, or just leave the father unknown.”
“Oh, but Leafheart, I want to be with you forever,” Kindleheart mewed. They went on arguing and Ivypaw drifted into thought. If I became mates with Weatherpaw what would I do? I know I wouldn’t get pregnant, unless I wanted to change Clans.
“Alright, Kindleheart, I think you should leave.”
“Goodbye, Leafheart and Ivypaw, I will see you soon,” Kindleheart mewed and strode into the bushes.

Katie Benson; (My Version)

I jumped for the could-be final shot in the game and the ball swished.
“Yeah, Katie!” my friend Maddie called. We were now in our third over-time, after me making my third shot in the final seconds to tie it up. And guess what? This is the tournement (not the actual final game in the tournement, though). I know, it sounds too good to be true, me being an all-star and tying the game 3 times, but it’s really happening. I’d dreamed of this since I was little! I mean, if I were a senior, or someone close to me had just died, it would sound like some goody-goody story about the final fight or whatever. But, no one has just died (or no one that I know) and I’m a freshman, not a senior.
My sister, Sydney, is a senior, but she hurt her knee so she can’t play. And again, guess what? The school board allowed her to get a medical red-shirt! Sydney is European studies major (emphasis in French) and a Russian minor, but now she is going for a Russian major too, next year.
Anyways, back to the game. At the over-time we got 3-ish minutes to shift people out.
“Alright,” my coach said, “Maddie, Daesha, Megan, Melissa, and Katie, you’re in. Katie, we need you to hit just a few more three-point shots, and Melissa, keep them out! Daesha, keep up the full-court press when we’re tied or we’re winning, but when we go under, if we do, drop back.” Daesha nodded and then we did a team cheer. Okay, now you’ve heard the names, can you guess which school I go to? Well, if you don’t know, I go to Seattle Pacific University, and am the shortest player on the team. Even though my family is tall, I am a mere 5’6.
We took our balls out onto the court, but then threw them back when we saw the time. We had about two seconds left until we started. The buzzer rang and we all got into our defensive position (since I had scored at the last second, they got the ball first). Daesha was up pressing them and then, I couldn’t believe it, she stole the ball. She dribbled up and made an easy lay-up. There was a bit of stunned silence and then we all clapped and yelled “Yeah, Daesha,” or from the crowd “Yeah, Henderson!” She came back to the defense, and we all high-fived her. Daesha is a star senior this year and very aggressive.
The other team dribbled the ball up and then Maddie was on them. They whipped the ball around to the person I was guarding, or at last tried to. I snatched the ball and then started running up the court. But Maddie was faster; I was at half-court when she was under the basket and I threw the ball to her and she made a perfect lay-up.
Maddie ran back again and Daesha went forward to try to make a steal. Daesha hit it out of bounds and the ref signaled that subs were coming in. Maddie went out for a point guard; #3, Jordan Harazin. Melissa (#34) came out for Caitlin Rohrbach. So, now it was Caitlin, Jordan, Daesha, Meagan, and me who were on.
They took it out and Daesha went back to her tough defense. She tried, and failed, to get the ball, but it slowed the opponent’s point guard down a lot. They were making desperate plays to try to get a basket.
Right now, my player had the ball, and she drove and tried to make a drive but she ran right into me and I fell over. The ref called on offensive foul. Our team had double bonus, and they just had single bonus, so I got to shoot two foul shots.
My team high fived me as I walked to the foul line. I wasn’t sure why the coach had put me in; I had 25 points and no fouls, which was good, but I’m a freshman. The coach tried me for the first time at this game, and it was a final game, a freshman almost never played.
I was at the foul line in a second and I wasn’t sure I could make this. Quickly, I shot the ball and it went in, I was ecstatic. Daesha high fived me and I got ready for the next shot. It went in too!
Everyone high fived me and I saw my score go up; I had 27 points. We were beating the other team by six points. My team knew better than to slacken up on our defense because we were winning, though, we’d lost a lot of points because of that before.
I looked into the crowd and saw my all-time favorite play, from last year, Kelsie Burns. She was a great three-point shooter.
Her description on the website doesn’t give her enough credit; she saved them a lot of games. Now, I’m the only person who can really shoot three-point shots, in fact my average is .946, so I’ve got a great three point shot. Also, it just shows her junior year, she was much better in her senior year; REALLY great. In my free time, I’d go to watch the SPU games and practices, usually doing my homework while watching.
Anyways, they had the ball back and now were about to take a three-point shot but I jumped in front of the player and it hit the rim. Caitlyn grabbed it and passed it to Jordan, Jordan gave it to me and I drove for the basket, at the last second, I passed it to Jordan and she jumped for a three. It hit the back rim but Caitlyn grabbed the rebound and passed it again to Jordan who took another three point shot, and this time she made it.
I high-fived Jordan, but then the ref called the subs in. We didn’t sub anyone, but they subbed in a huge German player, who was at least 6’5. I mentally gulped; we needed Melissa or Sydney for her.
I saw Melissa and Maddie get up and go to kneel next to the score-keepers and the ref got her in. Jordan and Meagan came out and Melissa walked over to me.
“Katie, you’re point guard, since you can shoot and dribble,” Melissa said but her eyes said that she’d rather have McKayla or Jordan in, but she’d much rather have me than the other Katie.
“Come on, Mel, I’m not that bad as a point guard, and I have more points than your season high,” I said, laughing. She nodded but wasn’t convinced. Actually, I changed my mind about that look in her eyes; I think she was jealous of my points. I laughed when I thought of that idea, after we’d won a previous championship this year, she got an award, along with Daesha Henderson. “Mel, you’ll make a ton of points, I’m guessing you’re guarding that huge woman.”
“I’m not,” she said, “Maddie is, but I’ll help if she makes a drive to the basket.” I couldn’t believe it. Maddie is great on defense and everything else, but she isn’t big enough to guard a 6’5 player. But if the coach thought Maddie could do it, I would be confident in my teammate. One of our assistant coaches called a time-out and we all ran over. We are using so many time-outs.
“Okay,” Coach van Beek, “we’re going into a half zone, half man-to-man. Maddie, Melissa, Katie, Daesha, and Jordan, you're going in. Maddie, you guard that huge girl, Melissa, you stand in the center and help with drives. Everyone else, pick someone to guard, and help with the empty person that’ll be there ‘cause Melissa is in the middle.” We all shouted out numbers, except me, and I got stuck with whoever was left, the point guard.
I walked over to Sydney for the last 10 seconds of the time-out. Normally, we don't go and talk to the peopleon the bench, but since we're done, no one is protesting.
“Doesn’t Daesha normally guard the point guard, or Nyesha?” Sydney asked, here eyebrows raises, but before I could say anything she continued. “I’m really proud of you, Katie, you are playing amazing. You’ve topped my season high, and you’re guarding them really well. Also, we’d have lost if you hadn’t nailed those three-pointers at the buzzer.” I smiled. My sister didn’t sound jealous, which was one thing I loved about her. Sometimes, we fought, but it was over dumb things like I didn’t high five her in a drill and she’d get all mad, and it was dumb and we always made up. Even though she was injured she was really supportive and she couldn’t go to our games at other places, but she’d bake us cookies. And one more thing, she was really nice. She, like it said in senior night appreciation, believed heavily in God and trusted that he would lead her in the right path.
"Get out there," Coach van Beek says with a smile. She grabs my shoulder for a second and looks me in the eye. "Katie, don't wait until the last minute to take those shots. We need those points." I nod with a brief smile. "Good luck!"
I walk out onto the court, a half-smile on my lips, and turn to Melissa, who looks a Hell of a lot more serious than me. I smile at Daesha, who returns it, but with a little more hesitance.
They've got the ball outside, since we'd scored recently. I mark up on a tall guard (or she could be a short forward). Melissa is standing in the center, Maddy is unsuccessfully trying to guard the tall girl; number 18. Jordan and Daesha have the two girls farthest apart, but are both keeping a careful eye on the one girl who isn't guarded.
They throw the ball in to the person I'm guarding, but I'm not tight on her, and I let her dribble up the court. When she reaches the half-court line, I'm on her.
I swat at her and block her drives, but don't manage to get my hand on her pass. She chucks the ball desperately toward the tall girl, number 18, who forces her way past Maddie and Melissa to make a basket.
"Damn," I say as we get into a small, brief huddle. "Maddy, since I can jump higher than you, let me take that girl; maybe I can stuff her shot. Melissa, you need to keep helping me. Does that sound good?" There are quick nods, and I smile thinly.
"Let's go," Daesha says gravely. The rest of us manage a small smile, but it's mostly only because we're still winning by 2.
We get out of our little grouping, which technically wasn't legal, since we hadn't called a time-out. Oh, well, the referees didn't say anything, since we hadn't been more than a few seconds.
Anyways, we get out of the grouping, and set up. Maddie passes it to Jordan, and she dribbles it in, since the other team isn't playing any more than half-court press, which is practically a first for our team... aren't we lucky.
The ball gets passes to me by Jordan, who then runs to get open right outside the 3-point-line, almost even with the backboard.
I whip it quickly back to her, and then get open a few steps in from the three line. Jordan passes it back, and I take a shot that swishes. Good.
We get quickly back into our defensive positions, and I get the chance to fully size up this new player. She's about a foot taller than me, which looks a Hell of a lot bigger than it sounds. Damnit.
They try to pass the ball to her, seeing that I'm the only one guarding her, but I jump up and swat it to Jordan. Thank God!
The score is 79-70, which is quite amazing, since we'd been behind for most of the game.
She takes her time dribbling it up, and when she gets up, she tries to pass it to Daesha. Despite Daesha's intense skills, the ball accidentally goes out of bounds. The other team gets it.
We settle into our

Basketball.

I woke up that morning feeling very scared. That was the day that I tried out for the high school basketball team. Most of my friends played volleyball or did cheerleading but me and my friend, Emma, had stuck with basketball. So, my name is Dezzi, and I’m 13. I’d dreamed of being nationally ranked since I was a little kid, around age five, and by the time I was eight, I could nail a three-point-shot. When I was 10 I could hit a three with someone guarding me, and by age 12 I could shoot a three without jumping. This is something a lot of pro players can’t do. So, anyways, let’s go back to the day of the High School Try-outs. I knew I was good, because I could win any one-on-one game. But I didn’t know how good the other players were. But I really wanted in.
I picked up the phone and dialed in Emma’s number.
“Hello, who is this?” Emma’s mom picked up.
“Hi, this Dezzi, is Emma there?”
“Yeah,” her mom said. “Let me get her, one second.” I heard a click, the phone was on hold. After one minute, I heard Emma.
“Hey, Dez, what’s up? You know try-outs are today?” Emma said.
“Yeah, that’s why I was calling you. The school said that the people trying out don’t have to go to morning classes today, and I was wondering if you wanted to come over to my house and shoot hoops.” I had a hoop in my backyard and the ones at school would be filled.
“Sure,” she said. “Wait, let me ask my mom.” Again, the phone clicked and I waited for a second before it was picked up again.
“She said fine. I’ll be over in a few,” she said and hung up. I stepped out of my bed and picked up a pair of shorts that were on the ground. I pulled off my night-shirt and tossed it onto a chair. There was a clean grey sports bra on my desk and I put it on. It was a bit loose but I put a clip on it and then it fit snugly. I would have to get another one for try-outs but it worked for now. My shorts and shirt for the game were in my drawer, so for now I just pulled a grey tee over my head. My hair wouldn’t need anything until the try-outs, but I put it in a band anyways.
I flew down the stair when I heard the doorbell and but my mom was already at the door. Emma’s pale blonde hair was bobbing right above my mom’s head.
“Hey, Dez,” she called.
“Hey,” I replied, “let’s go shoot some hoops. Did you bring your ball?” She held her hand up and I saw the ball there.
“Duh, I did,” she said, shaking her laughing. I picked up my ball and walked out the door.
“Alright, Em, let’s play one-on-one,” I suggested.
“That won’t prepare us for try-outs. They’ll have us run, shoot, and then at the end play scrimmage. Gavin tried out, so he told me about it,” she said. Gavin was her older brother, he was only twenty-three but he pretended to know everything. He was pretty cute though, so he had a girl with him every time I saw him.
“Okay, then, let’s just shoot a bit,” I said and she lobbed her ball at the hoops. She was behind the three-point line so it was very far off. She was a tall, think forward, and couldn’t make anything from outside the three-point line. I then shot the ball and nailed my three.
“Show off,” she muttered and I laughed.
“Hey, you know you can make a better percentage of lay-ups, and can do all those twirls under the basket to make a shot.”
“You can do that too,” Emma said laughing.
“Ha, ha, if I did it as well as you I’d be a center, or a forward, like you.”
“You wish you were tall enough to be anything but a guard,” Emma laughed. I snorted.
“Come on, let’s just shoot,” I said. Emma did a drive to the center and made an easy lay-up. I stepped back a bit from the three point line and took a shot, it swished.
“You see what I mean, Dez? You are a show-off!” Emma exclaimed.
“Not any more than you,” I murmured, but Emma didn’t hear it. We shot hoops for about an after that.
“Hey, Dez, I’m hungry, you got anything to eat?” Emma asked.
“Yeah, let’s go grab something,” I tossed over my shoulder, while I was running inside.
“Wait up, Dezzi,” she yelled back. I reached the kitchen right before her and hid behind my fridge.
“Hey, Dezzi, where’d you go…?”
“BOO!” I shouted jumping out. She flinched but then laughed.
“You so didn’t get me,” she laughed.
“Shut up, Melmo, I so got you, I saw you flinch.” She shrugged and muttered something like whatever and I laughed.
“Alright, we got, um… I think this might be baloney, or maybe its ham, well, whatever it is don’t touch that pink stuff. We’ve also got string cheese, that’s baby food, there’s soda, here, you like root beer, right? Oh, god, Jake and Lila eat so much; did you know we’ve got a whole drawer of baby food?” I said rummaging through the fridge. Jake was my baby brother, I had two brothers, one was Jake, who was almost one, and then an older brother named Thomas (age twenty-three), who was Gavin, Emma’s older brother’s, friend. And then there was Lila, who was Jake’s twin sister, who was learning how to walk. Jake was still weaning off breast milk, so you could tell Lila was more mature.
“I’ll have, what’s that dough for?” Emma asked, pointing at some dough.
“Uh, let’s see, my mo made pancakes yesterday, so I bet that’s leftovers.”
“I thought you didn’t like pancakes,” Emma questioned.
“I don’t, but she and dad like them,” I responded.
“Okay, you have any microwavable junk? I could eat that, I just want food and to get back on the court.”
“Yeah, here’s a hot-pocket, I’ll have an apple,” I said and pulled out the hot-pocket. “Microwave’s right by the door.”
“Duh, I know, toss me the hot-pocket, wait, don’t toss it, just give it,” Emma said and laughed. When we were littler she hadn’t played any sports but basketball, and couldn’t catch any ball, besides a basketball, for her life. Now, I’d taught her how to play soccer, so every other year, she played in my wreck league.
I walked over and put the hot-pocket in her hand. “You’ve got to learn how to catch.”
“Yeah, I do, but basketball in number one!” she said and I laughed.
“Eat your food,” I said and grabbed my apple. In a few minutes we were done and back on the court. We played a bit of one-on-one but we didn’t keep score. I went inside to go to the bathroom and took a look at the clock.
“Em, its one o’clock,” I shouted and she came running in. “I’m showering now.” I ran up the stairs. I took a quick shower and while Emma was taking hers I got dressed, and put in a hair band. Emma got out of the shower and got dressed as well.
“Mom!” I shouted and she came hustling out. My mom was a tall blonde woman, who I looked nothing like. I had short, brown hair, and I was short. My eyes were dark and she had bright green eyes. My dad had black hair and dark brown eyes, and he was tall, too. I and my siblings didn’t look much like our parents, except Jake, he was going to be tall, and he had a mop of black hair, and he looked just like a mini my dad. Lila was also a lot like my mom, with pale blonde hair and green eyes. My mom was tall, but Emma was taller, and they both had the same hair. Thomas had dark brown hair and dark brown eyes that always seemed to be laughing, unlike my dad’s business-like eyes. Their eyes were the same color, but didn’t have the same expression.
“Honey, did you finally figure out that you had to leave? It’s almost 2 o’clock,” she said. We had to be there at two o’clock and the drive took about 15 minutes, and it was 1:43 right then, according to my mom’s cell phone, which I was looking at.
“Okay, get in the car, I’ll be there in a sec,” she said, tossing Emma the keys. Luckily, I intercepted them, before Emma could drop them. Emma and I ran to the car and I unlocked it. We hopped in and patiently wait for my mom. In just minutes my mom came, the clock now read 1:48. She started up and we roared out of the block we drove for a few minutes.
“So, do you girls think you’re going to make the team?” my mom asked.
“Well, mom, if we get there on time,” I growled.
“Yes, Mrs. Waters, I think Dezzi will, I hope I will,” Emma said. Waters was my mom’s last name but I went by my dad’s, Fjord.
“Oh, I am sure you guys will make it,” my mom said.
“Mom…” I said and my mom shut up. We went in silence for the rest of the ride. We pulled in at 1:58.
“Shoot,” I said and jumped out of the car. “We’ll have no time to warm up!” We hurried into the gym. Most of the girls were here already, warming up. Emma and I went to stand on the wall and soon the coach blew his whistle, and the rest of the girls came to line up with us.
“Alright, ladies, who is here is a freshman,” he yelled. “If you are a freshman step forward, facing me.” Only a few girls stepped forward, including Emma and I.
On his clipboard he jotted down name as he got to us. He pointed at Emma.
“Emma Szabo,” she said and he jotted it down. Next, he pointed at me.
“Dezzi Fjord,” I said and he laughed.
“Miss Fjord, are you Norwegian?” he asked.
“Uh, yes, sir, or at least my parents are.”
“Have you ever been there? It’s a beautiful country, if I may say so myself. I studied it when I was in college and lived there for a year.”
“Yes, sir, I have been there, my family and I go ever summer,” I said. He nodded and jotted down an extra note beside my name. He finished through the line of freshmen and then quickly did the older years.
“Alright, now, point guards go over there, forwards over there, normal guards there and centers there.” Emma went to the forward place and I went to the normal guard section. What my dad used to say was that forwards are normally tall and skinny, guards are good outside shooters and can somewhat drive, centers are big (not fat, just largely built), and point guards have almost no shooting ability but can dribble really well, and quickly. Emma did follow that, but I can shoot from anywhere, I just don’t meet the height standards for a forward or a center, but I have the same shooting ability.
“Point guards,” Mr. Mickey, the assistant coach/P.E. teacher, said, “we will start with you. Let’s see you shoot 3’s.” A few girls lined up, one of them I knew. Her name was Allie, and she was in my social studies class. I knew she couldn’t hit anything outside, but she could make lay-ups really well.
First up in line was this tall blonde girl; she took a shot and it air-balled. The assistant coach made a nasty face at her. Next up was this really fat girl, no offense to her but she was really over-weighted. She shot and it swished.
The coach clapped but didn’t really look at her. A few others shot, but no one made them except this one blonde junior, whose name I didn’t know. Allie’s shot air-balled but it was great form. Next, he made them run. The fat girl (whose name I found out was Sally) could hardly run at all, and Allie was the fastest. Then, she made them run with a ball and there was this girl who said something to another girl and she fell over laughing. The rest of the point-guard drills were not interesting. Allie did really well though. Next, were the centers, and their drills were really boring. There was one girl who did really well, a girl named Melissa. She was tall, with dark brown hair and dark brown eyes. Now, Emma was up, her and the forwards. I couldn’t bring myself to watch her, my eyes kept wandering. Some of the male team was watching us and some of them were kind cute. I shook my head when I my head the whistle, that meant I was up.
“First step, three’s,” Mr. Mickey said. He tossed about three balls at us. I grabbed one, and stepped a bit back. I didn’t notice, but everyone else was shooting at the normal line and I was way back, half-way between the line and half-court. I shot the ball, in perfect form (well for me, my form is unusual, but it’s not bad form), and it swished. Mr. Mickey whistled.
“Good job, Miss Fjord,” he said. The rest of try-outs went by in a blur, but, not meaning to sound self-centered, I think I out-performed all those girls. I hope the coach thinks that.

The next day I was woken up by a call at about 6:30 a.m.
“Dezzi, can you get that?” my brother groaned from his bed. I dragged myself out of bed and checked the caller I.D. It was Seattle Public Schools. Someone probably had low lunch money or something dumb like that, maybe my school was out. I picked the phone up.
“Hello, this is the Fjord house-hold,” I said. There was a deep breathing and wheezing on the other end.
“Yes, is this Dezzi Fjord? This is Mr. Mickey, and I wanted to inform you that you’ve made the team. Get a pen so I can tell you the practice days and times,” he said and my heart almost stopped. I made the team! I picked up a pen and tried to calm myself.
“This is Dezzi, and I have a pen.”
“Alright, we have practices on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday, all at 4:00 p.m. through 8:00 p.m. Also, bring your class schedules and make sure to have an e-mail memorized,” he said and hung up. I had it all on my paper and I took a moment to get used to the fact that I was on the team.

When I got to school, I took a look at the roster. Here it is:
Colfax High School Women Basketball Roster 2006


Number Name Height Position Class
#1 Delany Fellini 5’9 F Sr.
#5 Jordan Harazin 5’6 PG Jr.
#7 Allie Herman 5’7 PG So.
#8 Isabelle Tulia 5’5 G Jr.
#13 Dezzi Fjord 4’10 G Fr.
#16 Melissa Grean 5’11 C Sr.
#18 Emma Szabo 5’11 F Fr.
#19 Kaitlin Burns 5’10 G So.
#21 Lizzie McGuire 6’1 C So.
#22 Zoe Bowman 5’5 F Jr.
#23 Hannah Parker 5’6 G Jr.
#24 Maddy Parker 5’8 F Sr.

Note: Practices are at 4:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and FridayI jumped when Emma touched my shoulder.
“Hey,” she said, her eyes groggy, “they woke me up at seven to tell me I made it.”
“6:30 for me,” I said and laughed, “but at least we made it on the team.”
“Uh, the idiot coach. At least he’s only an assistant on our team. Well, we better get to class,” Emma said and walked away.
“Emma, wait up, you left your bag,” I called. Emma had walked away and left her bad at my feet. Emma didn’t hear and kept walking. I’ll give it to her at homeroom, I thought. Emma and I were in the same homeroom. I caught up to her at homeroom.
“Thanks, Dezzi. I got no sleep, dumb idiot…” she trailed off, muttering nasty words about Mr. Mickey. You couldn’t blame her, he woke her up early (or her version of early, I usually get up at that early. I lost half an hour of sleep with that phone call).
School that day went slowly; my calculus and trigonometry classes went slowly. I didn’t get trig but my parents made me do it. I mean I wasn’t going to be an architect or an engineer. My schedule wasn’t too exciting; both my parents wanted me to be really good at math, so I took trig, calculus, and algebra 2. I could easily do algebra 2, which was my strong point.
When I finally got out of school I went right to the gym. I wasn’t going to practice yet, but the ride home was too long for me to get there and back in time for practice. I pulled out my homework and saw that someone else was here too. She was blonde. She’d just walked in and she came to sit next to me.
“Hey, I’m Jordan, what’s your name?” she said. Jordan, Jordan that must be Jordan Harazin, a junior.
“Dezzi,” I replied with a smile. My old friend from middle school used to tell me that I freaked people out if I was all pouty and silent. Jordan took a look at my homework.
“Algebra 2, already; I’m just finishing that,” she said.
“It’s my parents, they are math maniacs,” I said with another smile. “Algebra is only the beginning of it; they also make me take trig and calculus. Algebra is my best.” She laughed.
“Hey, I’m taking calculus, I could help you if you needed it,” she offered.
“Oh, thanks, I’d love that, Jordan!”
“No problem, let’s get started,” she said and grabbed a pen from her backpack. We spent the next 15 minutes on my calculus and at the end of that time I was pretty sure I got it more than before. After that, we worked on our own homework. I finished my calculus and my algebra in 30 minutes. I got started on my trigonometry homework when someone walked in. She had dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes.
“Hey,” she said breathlessly, “I’m Maddy! What’s your name?” She looked straight at me and Jordan laughed.
“Shut up, Maddy!” Jordan laughed, “You know her name, and can’t you see how short she is?”
“Short… let’s see, who the shortest player on our team is… I swore I saw the roster… who was it…?” Maddy trailed off before she finally remembered. “You’re the one with the funny last name, Fjord! The guard, I was you at try-outs and you were great!” Maddy was pretty nice, but I wasn’t that good.
“Maddy…” Jordan started but Maddy interrupted her.
“What’s your first name, Fjord?” she asked.
“Is Hannah here?” Jordan asked then whispered to me. “Hannah is Maddy’s younger sister, she’s pretty cool.
“Hannah is here, she’s coming!” Maddy said. “And when’s your birthday?”
“My name is Dezzi, and August 8,” I said.
“Cool, mine’s this Friday, October 21, I’m turning 18!”
“Um… great,” I said.
“Maddy, we’ve got to finish our homework,” Jordan said and turned her face down to her homework.
“Alright, Maddy said and looked at our homework. “Whoa, Dezzi, trig already? I’m doing the end of trig, you need any help?” I laughed; another person who wanted to help me.
“What’s funny?” Maddy laughed or she pretended to laugh but she was really confused.
“Nothing, nothing, just that Jordan offered to help me with me my calculus and now you’re offering to help me with my trig,” I said.
“You take calculus and trigonometry?” she asked, mouth gaping. I laughed and nodded, but then shook my head a little to show that I didn’t want to go any farther on my academics topic. Maddy sat down next to me and we spent the last 30 minutes before practice on this homework. Jordan finished her homework and started to listen in on our conversation, as she would be taking trig eventually.
The head coach, Alyssa Skye, walked in at exactly 4:00. I’d figured out that on the days I had practice, I would go to the gym and do my homework until practice started, then I’d ride the metro bus home.
“Alright, first, I need your parent’s e-mails, so I can e-mail them about the games, and I’ll need your class schedules,” she said. Since Coach Mickey (I suppose I should call him Coach Mickey, since he’s my coach. Not Mr. Mickey) had told us about that, I brought it. I had a slip of paper with my schedule and my mom, dad, and my e-mail address.
Coach Skye came around and took down the e-mail addresses and class schedules. She smiled when she looked at us so I don’t think she was as mean as Coach Mickey (who was fat, short, and beady-eyed).
“Alright, guys, let’s start with a scrimmage, so I can see what you can do,” Coach Skye said. “And you guys can all call me Alyssa.”
She split us into two teams. It was Emma, Jordan, Maddy, that girl named Melissa, and me versus this girl named Delany, Allie (from my social studies class), the other center, Lizzie, a girl named Zoe, Hannah, and finally the other good guard named Isabelle. The rest were substitutes.
It didn’t take much deciding from my team to decide where we would be. Mostly, Emma and Maddy talked about which side forward they would be.
“I’m so right side,” Emma said. Maddy shrugged and nodded. Her eyes said that she would like to be right side, but she wasn’t going to argue.
“We’re ready,” our team said.
The other team was arguing about which forward would be on each side, but after five minutes, they decided.
“We’re ready,” they said and we started. Melissa from our team was jumping, and Lizzie from their team was jumping. Coach Skye, I mean Alyssa threw the ball up into the air. Okay, I’m just going to call her Coach Skye (because Alyssa sounds weird). Anyways, Coach Skye threw the ball up into the air and Lizzie tipped it to Allie, but Jordan grabbed it from right in front of Allie’s face.
“Good job, Jordan,” Emma called. Jordan dribbled it up the court, having a hard time because Allie was pressing her. Jordan whipped the ball around and passed it to me. I was a bit surprised by the strength but I was open a little behind the three-point line. I took a shot and it went in. Coach Skye, who was now sitting behind the score-board altering thing, put a three on the guest side. So, I guess we were guest.
The other team took it out and soon Allie was dribbling it up the court but Jordan stole it and made a quick drive and made a lay-up. The score changed to 5 for us. Now, they had it and Allie successfully made it up the court, but using a lot of their time. Allie desperately chucked the ball to Lizzie and she forced her way past Melissa and made a lay-up.
Our team called a time-out.
“Melissa isn’t big enough to hold off Lizzie,” Maddy said. “So we’ll have to have two people on her. But then someone else will be open. So who is everyone guarding, again?”
“I’ve got Allie,” Jordan said immediately.
“Duh, I’ve got Lizzie,” Melissa said. “And I do need help with her. She is huge!”
“I’m guarding, um… what’s her name? Oh, yeah, I’m guarding Isabelle,” I said and then felt like an idiot about not remembering Isabelle’s name.
“I’ve got Zoe, the one with the brown hair,” Emma said and Maddy finished it off.
“I’ve got the short, blonde, forward,” she said. “I’ll help you with Lizzie, Hannah isn’t a great shooter. She’s just pretty good at rebounding.” We all nodded and put our hands together and shouted some lame cheer (that I didn’t participate in).
The other team was ready for us when we came out. Jordan took the ball out of and passed it to me. I dribbled up the court quickly, avoiding Allie. She wasn’t easy, to avoid, but not hard either. I had it up in a few seconds and whipped it to Jordan. Jordan passed it to Maddy, who passed it to me, and then screened me, so I shot a three-point shot. It hit the inside rim and bounced out, but Melissa grabbed it and made a lay-up. We scored again, 7-2, us! They had the ball now and Jordan forgot to press them behind half-court. Allie dribbled it up slowly, looking for who was open. Maddy was standing half-way between Hannah (the short, blonde, forward) and Lizzie.
“Maddy,” I whispered, “let me guard Lizzie, and you go with Hannah and Isabelle.” Maddy nodded and shifter her position so she could be near Hannah and Isabelle. I went right to Lizzie and blocked her with my arms.
“Ha, shortie, you think you can guard me?” Lizzie laughed. It was true, I wasn’t even 5 feet and she must be over six feet. But she wasn’t all like mean, just laughing. There was a lot of passing I hadn’t followed going on but somehow it got to Isabelle.
“Maddy, get Isabelle,” Emma yelled just as Isabelle set up for a three-point shot. Maddy ran up but not in time, Isabelle shot a three and it swished. The score was now 7-5, us still leading. I took it out and threw it to Jordan. Allie had ditched full-court press and Jordan dribbled it up very quickly, not wasting a second. I was almost right beneath the basket and she passed it to me. I caught it and went in for a lay-up; my shot was rolling out of my hands when Lizzie fouled me. The ball didn’t go in.
I was at the shot line in a second and I took my first shot. Of course, it swished, and so did the second one. Now, the score was 9-5, us still winning.
“Alright, guys, that’s enough scrimmage,” the coach called. “Practice is over, come back tomorrow!”
Jordan walked over to me. “I know what you’re going to ask. She always cuts the first practice short, I’m not sure why. She does a five-minute scrimmage and then cuts it off. Don’t worry; it’s not always like that.” Jordan walked over to her backpack and waved at me as she went. I waved back and mouthed “bye”.
I went to pick up my bag, and I decided to go talk to the coach. She is a little weird, I thought, mostly because she cuts practice and doesn’t do try-outs. Emma walked over to me.
“Hey, you seem to be friends with Jordan. Anyways, what are you doing?” Emma asked, shuffling through her bag to see what homework she had left.
“Right now, I am going to talk to the coach,” I said.
“About what,” Emma asked.
“Um… I’m not quite sure, actually I have no idea,” I said and we both laughed. I really wasn’t sure why I’d wanted to talk to the coach, and I don’t think it’s because I forgot why. Emma shook her head and I laughed. “Okay, I guess that I won’t talk to her, let’s go, well, if you can come over.”
“Uh, I was thinking you could come over, and do some homework,” Emma said hesitantly. I put my bag down on the ground and pulled out my cell-phone.
“I’ll call my mom, I had to anyways ‘cause practice ended early,” I said. “You can call your mom when I’m done.”
“No, thanks, I’ve got my cell,”
“Duh, you do,” I said and picked up my phone. I typed in my mom’s number and waited for a few rings before she picked up.
“Hey,” a voice on the end said, “this is Thomas, who is this?”
“Thom, it’s Dezzi, can you tell Mom and Dad that I’m going over to Emma’s for a bit. I’ll do my homework and I’ll be back before 10:00.”
“Alright, bye, Dez,” Thomas said and hung up. I looked at Emma and she had hung up, and now she was smiling.
“So, did your mom say yes?” Emma asked. I nodded.
“So did mine, she’s coming a few minutes,” Emma said. I picked up a gym ball and dropped my bag. I figured that if I had a few minutes it would be good to get in some practice.
Basketball is turning out pretty good for me. First off, it’s fun, but that’s a no brainer. Also, from basketball, I met Jordan and the other girls, and they’re pretty nice.
“Let’s play a bit of one-on-one,” I suggested to Emma. Two other girls were still in the gym, waiting for someone. I saw Emma looking at them. “Fine, we can play 2-on-2, if they want to play. But you’re asking them.” The girls were that guard Isabelle, and Maddy’s older sister, Hannah.
Emma walked over and started to hesitantly ask them. I saw Isabelle nod enthusiastically and Hannah shrugged and I saw her lips say yes. Emma walked over grinning evilly.
“Dez, you know I’m the only forward here, actually, the only person who isn’t a guard,” she whispered to me.
“Yes, so,” I whispered back.
“You can play point guard and just normal guard, so you and I would be a great team, if we can convince them,” she said softly, and then more loudly said, “So, what are the teams?”
“I don’t really care,” Hannah said and Isabelle shrugged. “What do you want?”
“Well, I’d like to be on Emma’s team, only because she’s my friend,” I started but Isabelle but me off.
“That’s fair,” she said and I could see why they liked those teams. Even if Emma and I were good, we were still both freshmen and they were a junior and senior. Emma smiled at me.
“Alright, next thing, what about a referee,” Hannah said.
“We don’t need a ref, just call our own stuff,” Emma said, thought for a second and then added, “and be fair, guys.” We all accepted that and I knew that even if we promised, we’d not be entirely fair.
Emma and Hannah were jumping and I threw the ball up. Of course, Emma got it (she’s a lot taller than Hannah) and I dribbled up the court. I made a drive and made an easy lay-up.
They took the ball out of bounds and I went up to do full-court press. Neither of them were point guards, so it took a whole lot of passing to get it down the court. We weren’t on a time frame, so they had as long as they wanted to get it up the court.
Just then, Emma’s mom came in. I saw Emma sigh.
“Time out,” Emma called. She walked over to her mom and I followed her.
“Come on, mom,” Emma was saying, “please, just 5 minutes.”
“Emma, no, we have to go, Pena is in the car,” Mrs. Szabo said.
“Mom, come freaking on, why not?”
“Don’t take that tone with me, young lady, or Dezzi will not come over.” I sighed, why was Emma’s mom being so difficult?
Someone else walked in, and he looked a bit like Isabelle, I bet he was her dad. Isabelle and Hannah walked over to the man and then they walked out of the room.
“You see, Emma, they’re going too,” Mrs. Szabo said gently.
“Just shut up,” Emma said angrily. Mrs. Szabo pretended not to hear and turned to walk out the door.

“God, my mom is such a bad person,” Emma whispered to me and I laughed.
“Yeah, what homework have you done?” I asked Emma.
“I think I’ve done everything but biology, well, everything that’s due tomorrow. I haven’t finished that homeroom assignment, but that’s due next week sometime.” Emma and I had only two classes together; biology and homeroom.
“I just did my math; I’ve still got biology, history, English, Roman, Spanish, French, Lifetime Fitness and our optional monthly P.E. homework left,” I said and groaned. Emma and I would have no time to do anything else, except sit and gossip. Oh, well, that’s probably what we’d have done anyways.
Soon, we were at Emma’s house and we went to her basement to start the homework. Emma had the biggest house I think I had ever seen in my life. They had one dog, Pena, Emma, Emma’s older brother, Gavin (who had pretty much moved out of the house) and the parents. Emma’s mom was still pretty young and she was pregnant, but not really pregnant.
Emma and I started our homework, I pulled out my biology. It was silent for a few minutes before Emma decided she wanted to talk. I thought she was going to ask about some biology problem (she doesn’t get biology), but she didn’t.
“Okay, you know Chris?” Emma asked. Let’s see, I think Chris was some guy in one of her classes, maybe her history.
“Um… is he that guy you like in your history class?” I asked. I knew Chris was a guy she liked and I randomly guessed that it was in her history class.
“Yes, that’s him, and guess what?” she said but before I could say anything she nearly screamed, “he asked me out!” I was really happy for Emma but I didn’t do the thing that most girls did with the screaming and dancing, honestly, if Emma wouldn’t be mad at me, I wouldn’t care.
“Yay,” I said, trying my hardest to sounds excited for her. She didn’t buy it and frowned at me. Quickly, I needed to come up with an excuse, oh, I have it, and I was focused on my homework and didn’t really hear what she said. I decided to try that.
“What did you say?” I asked, pretending to say it unfocused, and then coming back into focus, and I think it worked.
“I said Chris asked me out,” Emma repeated, exasperated.
“OMG, are you serious?” I asked, this time really trying my hardest to sound really excited, and she bought it.
“Yeah, I couldn’t believe it, we are going on Saturday, but my mom said that I could only go if it was a double date. So, I was hoping you could go with Austin.”
“Austin, he’s not my official boyfriend, just… well, we’ve been on a few dates,” I said. Austin was a guy that I’d liked since, I don’t know, Kindergarten. He’d been at my Elementary School, Middle School, and is here at Colfax, and now he told me that he liked me a while ago.
“Everyone knows you dating, Dezzi, it’s public news, and besides, he said he liked you so you are dating,” Emma said. “And you’re not obsessed with him, which is why a lot of boyfriends break up with their girlfriends, because the girlfriends are obsessed with them.”
“Yeah, but I don’t understand people like that,” I started but Emma cut me off.
“Because you are such a tom-boy,” she said. I turned back to my homework. “You know, now that I have a boyfriend, I can’t talk about how cute guys are without betraying Chris.” She sounded worried and I laughed.
“Oh, Emma, I feel so bad for you, you can’t talk about how cute other guys are.” She laughed along with me, but I really think she’s kind of sad about it. She talks about guys 24/7, it’s really annoying, but it is typical teenager.
“Hey, what’d you get for the chemical thingy for… um… problem 28,” she said after a few minutes of silence. I flipped back about half-way through the homework.
“Oh, I got B,” I said, “are you really back there? I’m on problem 63.”
“No, no, I just couldn’t figure that one out so I went back. I’m on problem 44,” Emma said and turned her attention back to the homework. We worked for about 45 minutes quietly before I checked the clock. I’d finished my biology homework and my Russian homework, and now I was almost done with my French. When I finish that I will have all the stuff I need to have done for tomorrow done.
I wrote down the last problem, and instead of stopping, picked up my homeroom project. We had to write a 5-page essay on the reasons not to have sex until we were married. Our teacher decided that our class needed to retake flash.
I started writing about stuff I didn’t believe, like you don’t want to have a child because it will mess up college for you and crap like that.
We worked for another hour, and I almost finished my Homeroom project when Emma finally said she was done with her homework.
“I am finally done!” she exclaimed.
“Em, I was done an hour ago,” I said and laughed.
“Then what were you doing?”
“Our homeroom project, I’m almost done,” I said. We were silent for a few minutes and I took that opportunity to finish my homeroom.
“So…” Emma started, “what do you want to do?” I shrugged and pulled out my English homework.
“I’ve still got homework, that’s due sometime that’s not tomorrow, but if you want to do something else, I can put it off,” I said and wrote down an answer on my homework.
“Let’s go shoot hoops for a bit, then we can do our homework,” Emma said and I shrugged. “We can invite Jordan and Maddy over.” That wasn’t fair, she was bribing me. She knew that I’d become friends with Jordan and Maddy and that I wanted to hang out with them.
“Fine,” I said, almost bitterly, “as long as I get to choose the teams.” Emma agreed quickly and ran upstairs to call them. I worked on my English for the 10-ish minutes it took Emma to call Jordan and Maddy. Emma came back down.
“Alright, they’re both coming in about 25 to 30 minutes. Let’s just do our homework until then,” Emma said and again we settled into silence for the time it took them to get here. I worked a bit on my English but wasn’t anywhere close to finishing it, it was due next Tuesday and it was a big report on some… I don’t know exactly what it’s called, but it’s something big and there’s a spelling test, which were really hard. I didn’t study until the last day, though.
I heard a knock on the door after a while and Emma’s mom got it, soon Maddy and Jordan came down. Um… this was a bit awkward; Jordan and Maddy being here, none of us had anything to say for a while.
“This is awkward,” Emma said.
“This reminds me of one of those games against Humboldt, where that band played awkward silence when the crowd wasn’t chanting anything,” I said and Jordan nodded.
“I remember that, too,” Jordan said, “but I didn’t watch a lot of that.”
“I didn’t see that,” Maddy said, “but I think I saw another game Humboldt played in, and they had a band.”
“That would probably be the same band,” Emma said. “I think I saw that game…”
“So, let’s play,” Jordan said. “Um, where is your court?”
“Come with me,” Emma said and started to walk to the door to the outside. “Did you bring a ball?”
“Yeah… I did,” Jordan said. “Let me go get it.”Jordan ran up Emma’s stairs, toward the front door.
“I didn’t bring a ball, but let me go get my shoes. Brb,” Maddy said and ran upstairs after Jordan. I looked at Emma for a second and she went to get her ball. I went outside to check if Gavin had changed the hoop’s height, but luckily it was just right. Gavin liked to shoot on the hoops a little shorter, so he could dunk, as he wasn’t quite tall enough to dunk on our regular hoop.
I grabbed one of Emma’s other balls and stepped out to take a shot. It swished, so I knew that hoop was the right height and I went to check the other. That one was good, too, but I took a shot to double check. The ball hit the back rim, so I knew it was right, I mean I didn’t always make my shots.
Emma came out with Jordan and Maddy walked, hopping on one foot, putting her second shoe on. I laughed at Maddy.
“Can’t you even put a shoe on right?” I asked Maddy, but I was joking, and Maddy didn’t get it. She looked angry for a second before she realized that it was a joke, and then she laughed. She laughed too late for anyone to believe her but it didn’t matter.
“Dezzi’s choosing the teams, because I had to bribe her to even play. Responsible Dezzi wanted to do homework,” Emma said and Maddy laughed.
“Hey, Emma, Dezzi has a ton more homework than you do. Do you think it’s easy taking trig, calculus, and Algebra 2?” Jordan asked. Jordan didn’t really like Emma, you could tell. I could tell why, Emma always made jokes at other people’s expense, never at her own.
“Yeah, and Emma, I have to do this homework today, sort of… I have a lot less time to do my homework tomorrow, because of track and swimming and the dumb bus. I have ½ an hour of free time tomorrow, and I might use all of that!” I said and Jordan nodded to show her agreement. Sometimes, Emma starts these things as jokes, but this time she was really saying I should play, and she wanted to argue.
“Yeah, but Dez, which is more important, getting good grades, or getting a sport’s scholarship,” Maddy asked.
“Maddy, I would expect you to take Dezzi’s side on this. What if, even if she practices a lot and misses all her homework, she doesn’t get a sport’s scholarship, and then what will she do?” Jordan asked and Maddy shrugged.
“I’m just saying, not taking anyone’s side,” Maddy defended.
“Oh, come on, guys, let’s just play,” I said and threw the ball up. From our argument, we could tell the teams. It was me and Jordan vs. Maddy and Emma. This’ll be easy, I thought, since they didn’t have a point guard.
They were going to get the jump, because we were a lot shorter. Jordan was jumping with Maddy, which was nice. Jordan and Maddy had a two inch height difference and Emma and Jordan had a 5 inch height difference. But they weren’t doing it because they were nice. If (when) Maddy got the ball, she’d pass it to Emma and I am not tall enough to guard Emma, and I never will be.
Emma threw the ball up and Jordan got the tip. I grabbed it and ran, full speed up to make a lay-up. I gave Jordan a high-five and Maddy and Emma gave us nasty looks. I mean, we didn’t feel any friendship to them when we were playing them, we came to think of them as “the opponents”, and so did they.
I heard a doorbell, and wondered who it was. I hoped it wasn’t my parents, because I was having fun. Emma groaned.
“I bet we’re having pizza today, my mom uses the baby for an excuse not to cook.”
“What,” Jordan said, “your mom is hardly pregnant, she can probably still drink.” Maddy laughed when she heard Jordan.
“Jordan, when you’re one day pregnant, you can’t drink,” Maddy laughed. Jordan shrugged.
“Maddy, I meant metaphorically,” she said when Emma’s mom interrupted us.
“Hey, guys, there are some people here for you,” Emma’s mom called and we all filed into the house. The people were Austin, Chris, and two guys I didn’t know. Jordan ran up to the guy with spiky hair and whispered something to him, and he kissed her cheek.
“Come on, guys, let’s go play basketball,” Maddy said quickly. I could guess that the other guy that I didn’t know was Maddy’s boyfriend and the guy that just kissed Jordan was her boyfriend. We all did as Maddy suggested, well, just used that to fool Emma’s mom.
“Okay, introductions,” Emma said. “This is my boyfriend Chris.” She looked at him for the okay, and he nodded and kissed her. I laughed and Austin introduced himself.
“I am Austin, the lovely Dezzi’s boyfriend,” he said and laughed.
“Hey, you laugh when you say Dezzi is lovely, that’s insulting,” Jordan said. “And this is Jake, my boyfriend.”
“Alright, we get that we’re all dating,” Maddy said. “This is Josh.” Josh smiled at everyone and I got the impression that he was a bit of a goody-goody. Well, Maddy sort of is, too.
“Okay, I was wondering if you lovely girls would like to go with us to the movies,” Austin said, but he was implying that it would be each girl alone with her boyfriend.
“Austin, we’re in the middle of a basketball game,” I said and at the same time Jordan said “sure”.
“Oh, come on, Dez, please?” Austin asked and finally I agreed. Everyone else was all for it, now the hardest part, convincing Mrs. Szabo.
When we asked her, she was very easy, she just said yes and to be back by ten. I groaned I wish she’d said no; the basketball game was way more fun. We walked in silence to the movie theatre and Jordan and her boyfriend paid for their tickets and left us. Emma and her boyfriend were next, then Maddy, and finally us. Austin bought the tickets and I was silent until we were in the theatre.
“What are we going to see?” I asked.
“It’s a surprise, Dez,” he said and grabbed my hand. I wasn’t thrilled and pulled my hand away. I did not like having a boyfriend, in fact, I only thought of Austin as a friend. “What’s with you today, you seem pouty.”
“I was having fun in that basketball game, and now I got dragged here because everyone else is crazy about their boyfriends.” I was pouting, I mean, I would just ditch this whole movie idea and go play one-on-one with Austin for an hour and a half.
“You’re such a…” Austin wasn’t sure what to call me, as he couldn’t call me a tom-boy, because guys were thrilled to go to movies with girls, so instead he tried to kiss me but I backed off.
“Austin, no matter what you do I will pout about this,” I said and he laughed.
“Wanna bet, Dez, I can make this fun for you,” he said, completely convinced.
“Alright, tomorrow’s dessert that I’ll hate this,” I said and we shook on it. He laughed and looked like he was going to say something but he changed his mind. I knew he was going to say “I’m such a…” and then not know what to say again, and I would not let him kiss me.
We bought a few snacks, and headed into the theatre when something dawned on me and I looked suspiciously at Austin.
“If this is some romantic thing…” I trailed off and just glared at him. He smiled slyly and I prayed that this wasn’t a romantic movie, I would die. I saw Jordan come in and pulled her away from her boyfriend for a second.
“Jordan, is this a romantic movie?” I asked her and she shook her head, looking anxiously at her boyfriend.
“Of course not, they would take us to that, they can’t live with it. It’s always horror so we’ll get scared and cling onto them,” she said and laughed. “I’m never scared; I just have an excuse to cling onto him.” She walked away from me and I thanked God that it wasn’t romance. Jordan is really girly, I thought, or maybe she just really likes her boyfriend.
I pulled out my iPod and turned it up as the movie started. I put on a hat so people couldn’t see my head-phones and drifted out of focus. The movie was about them discovering some ancient species of alien frog, and the frogs were violent and tried to kill everyone. The movie was a cheap budget, you could tell. None of the actors were very convincing and the special effects were cheap.
Finally, the movie ended with the main character killing the mother lord of the frog people and saving the earth. I was not impressed by the movie. I looked at my iPod, and it said it was 9: 08. I groaned. I had about 40 minutes until we had to leave and everyone was expecting me to make out with Austin for the last minutes. Austin looked at me.
“Was that fun?” he asked. I shook my head and gestured to my iPod, it was still on. “Alright, but the bet isn’t done yet.” He leaned down and kissed me. I didn’t pull away because this kiss wasn’t like his others, to prove that he was my boyfriend. I think this is one that he really meant and I held the kiss for a minute before I pulled away. When I did I was breathless.
“Okay,” I said and took a deep breath, “maybe this isn’t the worst date ever.” He laughed and kissed me again.
9: 45 came too soon; I had fun with Austin, but we didn’t kiss the whole time. We talked a lot but now it was time to go again. We met up with everyone else in front of the theatre and we all said goodbye to the guys. Everyone was surprised when they saw Austin kiss me, and I let him. The girls were going to Emma’s house and then her mom would drop us off at our houses.
“So, Dezzi, you and Austin, eh,” Maddy asked. Maddy was normally not talking like… a teen and Jordan looked at her surprised.
“He convinced me,” I said shyly and looked down. Jordan looked impressed and laughed, like she couldn’t believe that I actually had a boyfriend that I let kiss me.
“I think Jake and me… well, we had fun,” Jordan said and we all looked at her. For a teen ‘fun’ meant sex and Jordan was, what 17? “We did and I liked it, I really like him.” We giggled and Jordan was with us.
“I just hope you don’t get preggie,” Maddy said and we all looked at her again. “What, can’t I be slutty for one night? Jordan is all the time; it’s not fair that I have a rep as a good girl.” Everyone started laughing except for Maddy who repeated what she’d said before.
“Its okay, Maddy, it’s just that… you’re not normally like me,” Jordan said and I laughed. Emma whispered something to me but I didn’t catch it.
“What’d ya say?” I asked her, whispering.
“Jordan can’t always be slutty or she’ll never get a good college,” Emma said loudly, so Jordan heard it.
“Hey, how will they know what I’m like?” Jordan asked. “And besides, I’m not that slutty, I mean Maddy and I are friends and she’s very pure.” Maddy nodded.
“Jordan is only… like that when she’s been with her boyfriend. So, to get her into a good college, we just need to break them up,” Maddy said and Jordan nodded.
“Hey, let’s hurry up,” I cut in, “it’s almost 10 o’clock.” Maddy looked at her watch and nodded and we sped up. We talked a bit more about our time with our boyfriends, but we soon got too close to Emma’s house and we started to talk about innocent things like homework. Homework, that reminded me of all the homework I had to do tonight.
Emma’s mom drove me home, and Jordan and Maddy went home in Maddy’s car. I groaned when I got home. I had to do my homework but I really wanted to go outside and shoot around a bit.
I settled in my bed and finished my Roman in 25 minutes, giving me 35 minutes for my other homework. My English was something that would take about 2 or 3 hours more but I had 8 days to do it. I put my iPod into the microphone so it played out loud and I closed my bedroom door. The English was a dumb assignment, a huge report rough draft on some conjunction common mistake. I mean, the rough draft takes about 1 hour and the typed final takes 1 or 2 hours. I’d almost finished the rough draft at Emma’s house but I knew that it wouldn’t get done today; it would probably be finished on the weekend, because I had almost no time on the weekdays, and now track practice was going to be 2 days a week.
I did 15 more minutes of homework before I got sick of it. I picked up my basketball and went outside to shoot. It was pitch black and I just sat there. The air was nice, but I didn’t really want to shoot hoops. I really wasn’t sure about Austin, I liked him, but I still don’t think it’s more than as a friend, even though I like kissing him.
I hope Jordan isn’t slutty for her whole life. She’s really smart, I could tell when she helped me with my homework, and she is eager to learn. But I think she just does that to make us laugh, she’ll change before college. I hope basketball practice goes well for the year and I do as well in games as I do in scrimmage.
“Basketball is doing one thing bad to my life,” I thought out loud. “I don’t think Emma and I are as great friends as we were before. But I also think it’s because of Jordan, she and Emma don’t like each other, and I’m trying to be friends with both of them. What do I do about that?” I was asking no one a question, but a voice came out of the air.
“Well, I think you should keep being friends with both of them.”
“Austin, get out of my yard,” I yelled. Austin had appeared on the fence, and had listened to my thoughts.
“Oh, come on, Dezzi, I was just visiting,” he said, mockingly. This is really when I didn’t like him, when he was being so arrogant.
“Austin, I swear, I will throw this at you.” I’d picked up a baseball and it was behind my shoulder, and I was ready to throw it. And he knew I had deadly aim and power.
“Come on, Dez, I was thinking it could be… you know… romantic,” he said the last word and put his hand to his face, protecting it.
“Austin, I let you kiss me earlier because you weren’t being arrogant, now you are,” I said and frowned. I think even if he wasn’t being arrogant right now, I wouldn’t let him kiss me. He shrugged.
“Dez, I really like you, and I don’t want you to hate me,” he said. I really didn’t like this romantic stuff, especially now, when he had listened to my thoughts and was trespassing.
“I don’t give a shit. Just get out of my yard,” I said. I was grumpy, because of Emma and he wasn’t helping out. Austin jumped back over the fence and I waited until I heard his footsteps leave until I went back inside.
God, I hated Austin, I think I’m going to break up with him tomorrow. I picked up my ball and headed back into my room. I read for about 20 minutes before I fell asleep, listening to my iPod.

The next morning was grey, and I didn’t want to get up. I pulled my headphones off and got dressed slowly. I put all my homework in my backpack and went to go get some breakfast. I hated breakfast, but my parents made me eat it. I took a bagel and ate it quickly.
I normally walked to school; it only took an hour and I got ready for school quickly. I woke up at about 5:45 and I took 15 minutes to get ready for school. My school started at 7 a.m.
I was out the door quickly that morning, partly because I’d slept in, partly because I wanted to be alone. I suppose it doesn’t matter what I do at school so I am going to fast-forward until after school.

He, he, the bus, I hate the bus. It gives me a chance to do my homework, but no one I know takes it. They’re all weirdoes. And besides, doing my homework is really hard when the bus is bouncing around all the time. Math was just about the only thing you could do, because you just had to write down numbers. I couldn’t write my English report or anything else, but at least I had a lot of math, normally. I had, like, no homework today, so I just sat and listened to my iPod. Half an hour is a really long time if all you have is music.
Someone moved from another seat to sit next to me. She had long blonde hair and didn’t go to Colfax. The reason our ride was so long was mostly because we had to share a bus with some of the Snohomish students, she was obviously from Snohomish.
“Hi, you seem as bored as me,” she said. Another blonde girl waved from a seat next to her. She was probably her friend. She turned her attention to her for a second. “Hold on, Sydney, I’m busy.” That other blonde girl must be Sydney.
“Hi, I’m Dezzi,” I said.
“I’m Katie, and that other girl there is my sister, Sydney. I’m a sophomore, she a freshman at Eastern Washington, but she came to visit me and has to take the bus. Well, I better get back to her,” she said and switched back to the other seat. Katie seemed pretty nice, but I wondered if over at Snohomish they always brought their family to school.
I shrugged and continued on with my music. I listened through Tim McGraw, a song by a new singer who was just getting big (Taylor Swift), and some songs that I didn’t really like, like Hannah Montana songs (she was also a new singer).
When I got home Austin was waiting for me at my door.
“How did you…”
“My mom picked me up,” he explained. His house was farther away than mine, but the bus takes twice as long as normal.
“Go away, Austin, I have homework,” I said. It’s only sort of a lie, I don’t have any homework due tomorrow, but a bunch due others days, and 2 books to read soon. I also had to practice for basketball. I had swimming and track practice.
“You don’t have homework, you told me today,” he said and laughed. I didn’t know what to say, I wanted him to leave, but now I had no excuse.
“I have track and swimming,” I said and then silently added, “But not until 5:30.”
“Dez, why are you avoiding me, I know you don’t have your other sports until later. It’s as if…” he couldn’t finish the sentence so I did for him.
“It’s as if I want to break up with you?” I asked. He nodded and looked down. I was implying that I wanted to break up with him, and he knew it.
“So, we’re… not a couple anymore?” he asked. I knew it hurt him, and right now was one of the times where I liked him, but I couldn’t like a guy only 25% of the time.
I nodded and he walked away.
“Uh… Austin, we may have broken up but we’re still friends, and… you need a ride home,” I called. Austin laughed, but it was forced.
“So, you don’t want me to be all mopey, and do you think your mom will give me a ride home?” he said and I nodded.
“Let’s go ask her,” I said. I knew she was going to say yes, but we should still ask. Austin was being nice right now, but I was not going to fall for it. He would be back to himself later.
We walked into the kitchen and my mom looked surprised to see Austin, but it was an act, of course (she knew we were dating but she was a pretty cool mom so she didn’t mention it).
“Okay, mom, Austin came over and he needs a ride home,” I said and my mom looked from Austin to me. My face was blank, cleared of all emotion but Austin’s was a bit sad and I could tell she now knew we broke up.
“Of course, Austin did something happen between you two…” my mom said. She didn’t want it to be too awkward, but she was curious.
“We broke up,” Austin said, and his face turned a bit sadder and my mom looked at me. She could tell I broke up with Austin, just by how sad he was.
“But we’re still friends,” I added hastily. My mom frowned at that but then she shrugged and walked out to the car.
“Come on, guys,” my mom called. Austin got in my car and I walked back to the house. I didn’t want to be anywhere with Austin, especially with my mom there. I didn’t have anything until 5:00, as my other practices started next week. Normally, I’d be busy all day today when soccer and my other sports started.
I played so many sports that usually I had almost no time for homework; so I worked on it on the weekend (when I didn’t have sports games). Austin came out of the car and his eyes showed that he wanted to talk to me.
“I know who you like,” he said and I raised my eyebrows.
“Do say,” I said. He couldn’t know who I liked, I’d only told Emma today at school. I was going to deny it, even if he was right.
“You like Brandon Griffin,” he said and I winced. He was right, but I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of being right. But, maybe if I told him I did like Brandon I would break his heart, but I wasn’t that mean. I’d never liked Austin, always Brandon; I wasn’t one of those people who as soon as they got over one guy, went on to the next. Emma had a list of five or six guys that she liked, and then tons more that were cute. I sighed, I didn’t know if I should tell him he was right, or I should lie.
“No, I don’t,” I said and scoffed. He could tell I was bluffing, luckily. He laughed, though; he obviously had heard me tell Emma.
“Dez, I know, Chris told me,” he said. Then I realized, Emma told Chris and then Chris told Austin, how could he. Next time, I would tell Emma not to tell her boyfriend.
“My mom is waiting for you, and she’s being nice. So go,” I said and Austin shrugged, laughed and walked away to go to my mom. God, he is such a jerk, I thought and went inside.
I ate a snack and did my homework until 5:30 (I finished both parts of my English!), when I had my swimming. Emma didn’t do swimming, but Jordan did. I’d seen her there before, because swimming started way before basketball, but I hadn’t talked to her. We did swimming with Snohomish High School, the same school we took the buses with. Our schools were partner schools, so we did almost everything together. I had a friend at swimming, her name was Leila. She went to Snohomish, and was a junior, like Jordan.
My mom drove me to my swimming and gave me money for a bus ride and dinner. I had swimming until 6:30 and then I had track until dinner. After dinner, I had to go to soccer, which was at Snohomish and I had to have dinner in between. I didn’t have time to go home, so I took the bus and in between bus rides I picked up some fast food. I had no time, virtually, for homework so I had to stay up until midnight+ to get it done. Today was lucky, because the teachers gave us no homework. It had to be for some reason, but that reason I really didn’t know.
Jordan was on my swimming team, but she didn’t compete or anything, she just swam so she could save her life if she fell off a boat. Swimming practice was much unorganized; we just swam around while they played music. We could go to different stations and practice speed or long-distance swimming. I went over to talk to Leila, but she didn’t notice me.
“Leila, over here,” I called and she turned to look at me.
“Oh, hey, Dez,” she said and swam towards me.
“Hey, Lei, I broke up with Austin,” I said and she did not look surprised. She just came over and patted my shoulder.
“Oh, let me guess he broke up with you?” she asked sarcastically. She knew I didn’t like Austin, not at all really.
“So, you know the blonde over there?” I asked, pointing at Jordan. Leila nodded and I continued. “She’s on my basketball team, and she is my friend, so wanna go hang out with her?” Leila laughed to herself but said she would go. I wondered if that girl I’d seen on the bus was on the swimming team. I looked around, but didn’t see her tall, blonde head. I thought of her again and realized something; her sister had been on the cross-country team when I toured the school, last year (Snohomish and Colfax shared a track team). Before I’d decided to go here, I toured the school and spent a while looking at the sports teams.
Jordan came over to us. She took one look at Leila and started to walk away.
“Oh, come back here, Jordan,” Leila said, but in a voice I’d never heard from her before. Jordan turned around and looked at me, as though pleading for help.
“Do… do you two know each other?” I asked. If I wasn’t mistaken, Leila knew Jordan, but Leila bullied Jordan. Jordan was obviously scared of Leila, but I wasn’t entirely sure why.
“Yeah,” Jordan whispered to me, and lost the look of fear on her face, “she bullies me at softball, but I’m not scared of her, just pretend.” I laughed and Jordan tried to turn her face to fear again as she look at Leila.
“Yeah, Jordan and I are on the same softball team,” Leila said with a vicious glare at Jordan. I stifled a laugh as Jordan, for the first time, stood up for her.
“Hm… we are on the same team, yet Leila isn’t very good,” Jordan said and turned to me. “I hope I didn’t offend you, after all she is your friend.
“I have gone blind and deaf for the moment,” I said, quoting one of my favorite books, Harry Potter, book 1.
“Look who’s talking. You can’t catch a pop fly right to her mitt,” Leila said and laughed. Jordan looked like she was about to swear, but she contained herself.
“I don’t play outfield, but at least I can throw the ball from first to second base,” Jordan said and Leila was about to ague, but our teacher called us over.
“We’ll finish this later,” Leila spat and walked away.
“Well, I guess that’s the end of my friendship with Leila,” I said and Jordan and I laughed. Then she smiled a bit and described the Leila she knew.
“Leila is a bully and a bit of a bitch.” (We both laughed when she said a BIT of a bitch, she was all bitch) ”She bullied me all the time at softball, for anything, but I wasn’t really scared of her. Today, I finally decided to stand up to her.”
The coach glared at us; we’d been talking at the same time as he had. Swimming lessons had been going on for quite a while, so he didn’t need to have a huge, long speech. Jordan and I picked the same station, speed swimming.
“Is speed swimming your favorite?” Jordan asked me and I nodded. I started on the course, and Jordan timed. I came back with a blazing 2 minutes.
“Wow, Dez, you’re really good,” Jordan said. Jordan started and I thought about how quickly Jordan and I had become friends. Today had gone quickly; I made 2 news friends (Maddy and Jordan) and lost an old one (Leila). I still had other friends, like my two other girl friends, Lili and Crystal, who did volleyball and cheerleading. I had a ton of guy friends, like Austin, Chris, Jake, Josh (all of whom were dating my basketball friends, besides Austin), Brandon, Jacob, Alex; I could go on for a while. Gavin and Tyler were my best friends that were guys. Speaking of guy friends, my two swimming friends, both from Snohomish, came over to me. Their names were Connor and Ian.
“Hey, Dez,” Connor said.
“Who’s your hot friend?” Ian asked, staring at Jordan. Connor was also looking at Jordan, but sadly, Jordan wasn’t single.
“Hands off, guys, she has a boyfriend,” I said and their shoulders slumped. Jordan came back at 3 ½ minutes, which was pretty good.
“3 ½ minutes, Jordan,” I said to her and she cast a curious look at Connor and Ian. “Those are my friends, Connor, the brown-haired one, and Ian, the blonde.” Ian and Connor waved with flirty smiles and Jordan realized they were interested in her.
“I’ve got a boyfriend,” she said and I laughed.
“I told them that,” I whispered to her, “but I guess they can’t pass up anyone as irresistible as you.” Jordan smiled and looked at Connor. I could tell what was going through her head; Connor was cute and she had to keep an image of her boyfriend in the front of her head. That reminded me of a book I read when I was little, it was called the ‘Vampire Diaries’.
“So,” Connor said to Jordan, “how’s it going?” He was still flirting with her, and she looked like she was going to tell him again that it was single. She dropped it and decided that she’d just pretend he wasn’t flirting with her.
I left Jordan and Connor to talk and went o a different station; Ian followed me. I knew Ian had a bit of a crush on me, but it was mostly because he loved to flirt with girls that he followed me.
“So… know any other cute girls… that are single?” he asked and laughed. I didn’t laugh; I found it annoying when Connor and Ian were flirting with girls. Crystal, my friend, was single and she thought that Ian and Connor were very cute (I’d gotten an e-mail from him showing a picture of him doing something). But I didn’t want to tell him that; he’d love to go out with a cheerleader, and Crystal was pretty.
“No,” I said stoutly and frowned.
“What about Lili and Crystal?” he asked and I couldn’t really lie, I mean, it’s not like she’d go out with him; he’s from Snohomish, after all.
“Lili has a boyfriend,” I said, avoiding the topic of Crystal. I did not want to have to see them get together, Crystal would actually probably want to go out with him; she was that desperate.
“And Crystal?” he asked and his eyebrows rose.
“She’s, uh, single,” I said, very hesitant. He grinned and looked like he was about to say something flirty.
“So, what’s her address?” he almost purred and I sighed. Why couldn’t he date someone from his own school, instead of bothering me about my friends? I repeated my thoughts to Ian and he frowned.
“Come on, you know she’d want to go out with me,” he said and I realized that he was right; I had no right to stop him from dating her. I hopped out of the pool for a second and wrote down her number, and put it in his pocket. And then I went back to Ian.
“Okay, her number is in your pocket,” I said and he laughed.
“Did I finally convince you?” he asked and laughed again.
“I am going to do my report,” I said and jumped out of the pool. I had quite a bit of homework due another day, and I wanted to do it now. I was doing a report on knights.
People teased me about how small my handwriting was, but if it wasn’t that small, I wouldn’t be able to fit as much on my papers. Sometimes, it sucked, though, because when I had to write a certain amount, I had to write more than others in my class, who had big writing. I worked on my homework for most of swimming practice before I went home.
My knight report complete, I got a ride home with Jordan and her mom. Jordan’s mom was very nice; she saw that I’d have to take the bus and offered to give me a ride to track.
“Wow, Dezzi,” she’d said, “I can’t believe how many sports you do; basketball, swimming, and track.”
“And soccer and baseball,” I added and then realized I was showing off a bit and hastily said, “but Jordan is very good, too. Softball, basketball, and volleyball are pretty impressive.” Jordan smiled at me; she liked to be praised. Too soon, we were at my track practice and Jordan’s mom dropped me off.
“Hey, mom, if it’s okay with Dezzi and her coach, can I go and watch track practice?” Jordan said and I laughed. Track practice was really nothing fun; to watch or to be in. My coach would say yes, if Jordan seriously wanted to come and watch. My coach didn’t let visitors just watch, thought, he thought it was a waste of time to just sit around and watch; he’d make them participate. Jordan’s mom agreed and promised to pick us up when it was over.
“Jordan,” I said, “I really don’t think you will like track, it’s no fun. And you have to do it with us, if you don’t mind.” Jordan beamed when she said that she’d have to work with us.
“Do I mind working with you?” she asked, hyper, but in a second she calmed down. “You know, I tried out for the track team, but I didn’t make it.” I racked my brain, trying to remember if I’d seen Jordan at track try-outs.
“I don’t think I saw you at try-outs…” I said and she laughed. “What’s so funny?”
“Do you know who my dad is?” Jordan asked and I shook my head.
“I’m a freshman; I don’t know that many people.”
“My dad is the head director for this school system; so he gets his way around here,” she said.
“How does that explain why you weren’t at track try-outs but you tried out?” I asked.
“You’re so slow,” Jordan said. “I got a private try-out because I was nervous. The people who tried me out, they were afraid to tell my dad that I didn’t get in.” We laughed. We had just walked to the track field, and we were early. Only this girl named Felicia, whose boyfriend was very serious about track, was here. Jordan glanced at Felicia before turning back to me.
“Who’s that?” she asked.
“Felicia… um, I don’t know her last name is that girl. She only does track because her boyfriend is a track star,” I explained and she got this far away look in her eyes for a second.
“That reminds me of my freshman year here,” she said, but seemed hardly to be talking to me. “There was this guy, Shaun was his name. He was the hottest guy ever to come to this school, every girl thought so. He only dated basketball players, so I tried out for the basketball team. You know I made it, and we went out for a while. We broke up, but I was still glad I’d gone out with him, if I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have been on the basketball team.” I smiled and Jordan looked at Felicia again.
“She’s a freshman, too,” I said, expecting Jordan to laugh but she was too deep in thought to listen to me. I waved my hand in front of Jordan, and she jerked out of her trance-like state.
“Sorry,” Jordan said, “I was taking a trip down memory lane.” Jordan cracked a wry smile and I went to go change into my track clothes. Jordan was practically drooling over me; I could tell she really wanted to be on the track team. I forgot to mention that at Colfax, track is the same thing as cross country.
“Jordan, is your dad is so big and all-powerful, why can’t you to get you onto the track team?” I asked.
“Basketball, softball, and volleyball keep me pretty busy, I’m good without it.” Jordan said that, sounding like she was trying to convince herself more than convince me.
“Let’s go run some laps,” I said and Jordan shrugged. She now wanted to talk to me about… you know, what we’ve been talking about, even though it embarrassed her and made her sad. We started running and in a few minutes Jordan was gasping for breath. The rest of the track team had shown up and our coach told us to run 10 laps.
Jordan and I were done a good 3 laps before even the fastest of the others. Jordan sat down, pooped, but I wasn’t really tired. I was pretty good at track; I could run fast and keep a pace for a long time. Jordan just flopped there while I watched everyone else. In track, I didn’t have any friends… really. There were tons of girls, from both Snohomish and our school, who tried to talk to me. I was polite and listened but I didn’t really say anything back. Jordan finally got her breath back and then watched the other girls with me.
“That black-haired one is pretty fast,” Jordan said, saying it slowly as to make sure that I agree with her.
“Yeah,” I said, “but she slows down after a while.” Jordan shrugged, glad that she wasn’t completely wrong. We watched others, bored, for a while until everyone finished. My coach gave a talk about how we all did amazing in our last tournament, which was a few days ago, but I wasn’t listening. Brandon had come over to the field to watch us practice. He looked right at me and my face turned bright red. Brandon was one of my good friends; he didn’t know I liked him. I’d kept it hidden since 1st grade, when I first met him.

“Mommy, I’m scared,” I said. I was going to the bus on the first day to 1st grade. I’d never taken the bus before, and I was going to first grade, which Thomas said was a lot harder than Kindergarten.
My mom kissed me goodbye and I ran out to the bus-stop. There was the most… I don’t know how to put it, maybe beautiful guy standing there. He saw my nervous smile.
“Hey, what’s your name?” he asked, perfectly confident and with honest curiosity. “Mine’s Brandon, I’m in 2nd grade.”
“My name’s Dezzi, I’m going into 1st,” I said, surprised how easily the words came to my mind. I didn’t seem to be thinking them, just saying them.
“Cool,” he said and I smiled. This wasn’t like what I normally felt about my guy friends, Connor and Ian. (Yes, it is the same Connor at Ian I was at swimming practice with). I wasn’t sure what it was, but it was different.
The bus came by too soon and Brandon and I got on. He sat down in the first row, without anyone, and I decided to sit by him. He didn’t seem at all… you know, it didn’t feel awkward to sit next to him, and started to talk to me about a sport’s game, which I’d watched yesterday.

Ever since that day on the bus in first grade, I’d liked Brandon. At the time, I hadn’t known what a crush was; I’d thought you were born with a soul mate like my parents. I’d dated two guys ever, one named Connor (yes, again the same Connor; I’d had a crush on him when we were in the same Middle School) and Austin. Austin and I are probably never going to talk to each other but Connor and I are still friends. I kind of wanted to go with Brandon, but I didn’t want to be with him like what I was like with Austin. I just being friends with Brandon would also be hard; I don’t think that I’d ever get over him.
I tried to focus back onto track but my mind kept drifting. Finally, after minutes of thinking about Brandon, Jordan roused me and told me what we were supposed to do.
“More laps,” Jordan said when I asked. I wasn’t unhappy about that but some other girls were groaning. “Hey, Dez, why did you seem so spaced out while the coach was talking?”
“Jordan, you’re the only one who hangs onto his every word.”
“Dez, I know that’s not it, seriously, tell me.”
“Fine, um… I was thinking about someone,” I said and Jordan raised her eyebrows.
“A guy?” she asked.
“Yes,” I barely whispered.
“Austin?”
“No,” I said, my voice even quieter.
“Who is it?” she asked, staring into my eyes.
“Um… the guy I like,” I said and she was briefly confused.
“Dezzi, I didn’t think you the kind of person that, as soon as they got over one guy, moved onto another,” she said and I laughed.
“No, it’s a guy I’ve always liked. You know, I never really liked Austin,” I said and Jordan smiled.
“I understand, but who is the guy?”
“Um… do you know Brandon?” I asked and Jordan smiled.
“So, it’s him, I saw him here a minute or so ago.” I nodded shyly and she continued. “Oh, so that’s why you got lost in thought.” I smiled darkly and Jordan and I started on our second lap. Jordan was keeping pace with me, but she was much more tired than me.
“Really, Dez, you like Brandon?” she asked.
“Yeah…”
“I think I dated him once,” Jordan said and I laughed. How could she not remember if she dated him… had she really dated that many guys?
“Jordan, that’s sad, that you don’t remember the names of all the guys you’ve dated.” Jordan laughed.
“Hey, I’ve dated more guys than you probably know,” Jordan said. I couldn’t quite believe that; Jordan had dated a lot of guys, but I knew a lot of guys.
“I know a lot of guys,” I said automatically, but inside I thought that Jordan really had dated more guys than I knew.
“I’ve dated more guys.” Jordan said it so plain and simple, it was a little awkward. Dating a lot of guys would not be something I’d pride myself in, or even say so simply; without regret.
“Jordan…” I said sadly, “Jordan, you don’t even regret all the guys you’ve dated?”
“Not really… should I?”
“Jordan, really… exactly how many guys have you dated?” I asked. “Do you even know?”
“No, I don’t know,” she said stoutly and we finished our second lap and started on our third. “But, it’s not like I should. Dez, some people have dated a lot more than me. I mean, some of the really popular girls have dated every guy that’s ever been on a sports team and has been single. It’s unrealistic, but, Dez, you’ve probably dated the least guys of any girl in the whole school.”
“What about the nerds?”
“Yeah, well, besides them. You know, guys want to go out with you… a lot. You’re pretty, you’re athletic, and you’re smart; you’re pretty much anything any guy ever wanted.”
“What, then why’s nobody asked me out?” I asked, completely bewildered. Jordan (one of the hottest girls in school) was telling me that guys thought that I was desirable.
“Because, they’re pretending to be your friend, so they can eventually get them to like you,” she said. “Brandon wants to go out with you, I’d bet.”
“No, he can’t,” I said and immediately thought about the times in my math classes that he started at me while the teacher was talking. Jordan saw the thoughtful look on my face and smiled.
“Reconsidering? You know he has a huge crush on you, he’s just too afraid to say anything. You know, Dez, if you gave it a shot, you could be as popular as me,” she said and I laughed. “No seriously, guys dig you.” Me… being as popular as Jordan… was unrealistic.
“Jordan, I’m not popular, never will be,” I said. I had my mind set on it; she wasn’t going to persuade me otherwise. “Have you… Jordan, did you really have sex with your boyfriend the other day?”
“Um… do you really want me to answer that question?”
“Yes, or if you don’t want to answer that just tell me if you’re a virgin,” I said demandingly.
“Let me just tell you, I’m 16, its’ completely legal. But… alright, do you really want to know if I’m a virgin?”
“Yes,” I said again.
“Fine… I’m a -err-…,” Jordan was afraid to finish the sentence, and I didn’t blame her.
“Jordan, it’s one word,” I said and Jordan shut her eyes for a second.
“Yeah, but it’s none of your business,” she said, her voice wavering. She opened her eyes; she knew she was going to tell me eventually.
“Jordan…”
“No,” she said.
“No, you’re not a virgin, or no, you’re not going to tell me?” I asked.
“No, I’ve never had sex,” she said and I laughed.
“Finally,” I said and I started to bounce a little more in my step. Jordan pretended like she’d had sex with, like, every boyfriend she’d ever had. I started to say something, but then I realized it might make her… mad, I mean she’d probably just spilled her biggest secret to me.
“Yeah, now that I’ve said that… it’s your turn,” Jordan said.
“What do you mean?” I asked and Jordan raised her eyebrows at me. “Oh, no, no, Jordan… I’ve never has sex.”
“Really, are you sure, Dez? You seem like it.”
“How do I seem like I’ve had sex?” I asked. We’d finished another lap, but now I wasn’t counting.
“Well, you’re only friends with guys, never date. Well, most girls who’ve had sex and regret it avoid relationships with guys. You avoid relationships with guys, you know, besides them being your friend and all.”
“Do you really think… you know?” I asked.
“Well, you said no and I believe you, but if you’d told me otherwise, I would’ve believed that, too,” Jordan said. We ran almost another lap in silence.
“How many laps do we have to do?” I asked and Jordan laughed. It was kind of funny that I was the one actually at track and she knew what to do.
“As many as we can; the last person running wins,” Jordan said and smiled at me. “Of course, you’ll win.”
“No, I willn’t,” I said and laughed.
“Is willn’t a word?” Jordan asked.
“No, of course not, Jordan, are you serious?” I asked and Jordan laughed and silence fell for a second while she thought of a response.
“I was just wondering,” she said.
“Jordan, is that all you could think of? Really, get some better, well, whatever you call them. Retorts,” I said and Jordan rolled her eyes.
“Let’s see you think of a better one,” Jordan replied and frowned at me.
“I wouldn’t have asked if willn’t was a word in the first place,” I said and laughed. Her frown deepened.
“Dumb ass,” she muttered, just loud enough for me to hear it.
“Come on, let’s forget all this unpleasantness,” I said, quoting “Alex Rider; Eagle Strike”. “Jordan, don’t be a bitch, seriously.” She laughed.
“Fine, but I’m not the bitch here…”
“Jordan!”
“Okay, okay, moving on, sorry, Dezzi,” Jordan said hastily. I glared up and her and looked around to see who was still running. Obviously, you weren’t allowed to go super slow so already about 5 girls had dropped out. Jordan was doing really well for someone pretty new.
“Jordan, do you have any nicknames?” I asked.
“Um… I never really thought about that.”
“Jordan is too long a name, please, I need a nickname for you,” I said.
“Umm… can I get back to you on that?” she asked and I smiled.
“Really, you have no nicknames? Jordan, that’s so not normal, you must have at least one, I mean, even something embarrassing your parents or boyfriend calls you.”
“No nicknames that I’d want you to call me,” she said and I noticed her voice was raspy. I pulled the water tube and offered it to her. She accepted it and put it to her mouth.
“Thanks, Dez, but why the heck do you have this?” Jordan asked. “I mean, no one else has carry-around water.”
“Yeah, I know, but I like to be prepared. If you didn’t notice, I carry this everywhere, even in school.” My water tube was very small, and it was concealed under my shirt. I wore it so much; I didn’t even feel it anymore.
Jordan and I kept going, but as both of us got tired, out conversation stopped. Finally, Jordan dropped out and there was just me left. Our coach congratulated Jordan and I, as Jordan had never done track before and she’d got second place.
“Dezzi, I thought of a nickname for myself. You can call me J,” she said.
“Jay, you want to be called Jay, like a bird?” I asked in disbelief.
“No, J, like the letter J, the first letter of my name.”
“That’s… a bit ridiculous, Jordan,” I said. I mean, being called the first letter of your name was so not original.
“You asked me for a nickname, not for a good one,” Jordan replied, her eyes smiling a little. I laughed at how dumb her new nickname was.
“That’s such a dumb nickname,” I said.
“Dez, you’ve changed your opinion. Before, you said it wasn’t original and now you’re saying dumb.”
“A person can change their mind, J,” I said, my voice mocking when I used her new nickname.
“Yeah, well, make up your mind,” she said hotly and I was surprised. I thought we were only teasing, well; Jordan hadn’t had a great day, or so she told me. Jordan stomped away but I sat down calmly. If I had free time, I’d use it to think about… stuff.
Jordan was being snappy, which wasn’t her, well, for as long as I’d known her. Jordan and I had only known each other 1 day and we felt like we’d been friends for years. I looked back over to the spot I’d seen that Brandon had been standing before, and saw that he was back. Our coach had said that he let us do what we wanted for a few minutes while he decided what we were going to do next. I walked over to Brandon and he smiled at me.
“Hey, Dez,” he said, his voice light.
“What’s good?” I replied, not expecting him to answer. He looked up at the sky for a second, like he was deciding if he should say something.
“So… I heard you and Austin broke up,” he said, hesitantly and I nodded. “Why?”
“Um, I don’t… um… we’re, like, not crushing on each other, for use of a better word.” He laughed. “Well, that’s not entirely true. He likes me… but I don’t like him.”
“So,” he said, looking up at the sky again. A question was forming on his lips. “Do you… do you want to go to the movies with me this Saturday?” He said it all in a rush. I forced down a grin.
“Yeah, Brandon, I’d love to, what time?”
“I’ll pick you up at four,” he said, winked, and walked away. Today was Tuesday. I hurriedly ran over to Jordan.
“J, guess what?” I asked and she raised her eyebrows. Even if she had seen me with Brandon she wouldn’t believe that he’d asked me out. “Brandon and I are going on a date tomorrow!” Jordan’s mouth practically dropped open.
“Dez, that puts you way up on the popularity line,” she said and I laughed, that was all she cared about; I was going out with the guy I’d wanted to go out with since 1st grade.
“Brandon’s not a football player,” I said.
“No, no, Dez, he’s older than you, dating a sophomore is something that’ll make you popular,” she said, still breathless. “Not that you couldn’t be popular if you wanted.”
“Jordan, I already told you, that even if I could be popular, I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t get as much free time as I get now.”
“You lose all your free time once games start, and even before your games start you hardly have any free time,” she said and I shrugged.
“I don’t care, I don’t want to be popular, and by free time I meant during school, between classes. If I was popular, people would follow me around and ask what I’m doing all the time.”
“How do you know?” Jordan asked.
“I was mega-popular in Elementary School. I’d be doing something and 10 people would come up to me, ask what I’m doing, and then want to do it, too. So, the ideas that I came up with my friends weren’t that original. My friends said that it was annoying how many people followed me around and had a crush on me, I don’t want to go through that again.”
“Seriously, Dez, do you know how many guys follow you around, drooling?”
“Those are my friends,” I said.
“No, they’re only your friends so they can get close to you. They’re too embarrassed to admit that they like you,” Jordan retorted.
“You expect me to believe that my friends just take advantage of me?” I said. “No, they don’t, they’re just my friends.” Jordan laughed, but it wasn’t because she thought I was funny.
“It’s funny, Dez, that you’re the only girl that doesn’t want tons of guys to like her. Most girls would kill to be you.” When Jordan said that, I realized something; I’d been in a pretty bad mood all week. Looking back, I wasn’t sure why Jordan was my friend, or if she only pretended. I was having mood swings all the time. Jordan looked at me curiously as she saw a grin break out on my face.
“Jordan, I’m sorry I’ve been a bitch all week,” I said and Jordan looked at me. “You know, I’ve been really grumpy, and I was mad at Ian and Connor, normally I laugh with them. I don’t understand why you’re friends with me.” Jordan grinned.
“I was thinking the same thing,” she said and we both fell silent. “But, anyways, I say congrats on going out with Brandon.”
“We’re not officially going out, he just asked me out.” Jordan raised her eyebrows. “Fine, maybe we are going out, but you know, he’s just my friend, maybe he thinks it’s a date as friends.” Jordan raised her eyes again.
“Dez, you’re making excuses, you know it’s a real date.” I sighed, I knew that it was a date; I just wouldn’t believe it until I’d gone through all the possibilities.
“It might be…” I said, “But maybe it won’t.” Just then, our coach called us over. He wasn’t much of a coach; he was a parent who learned how to teach off the internet.
“Okay, girls,” he said, “Jump-roping time.” We all groaned, except for Jordan.
“Jordan, our coach has this crazy idea that if we jump-rope for ½ an hour that we’ll have quicker feet He got it off the Internet, of course.” Jordan grinned and started to say something. “Damn it, no, please don’t defend out coach, it makes me sick.”
“I was about to say that was really dumb...” Jordan said and I shook my head, laughed, and ran over to the coach.
“Alright, grab a jump-rope,” the coach said, gesturing to a pile of jump-ropes nearly as tall as him. “And jump for as long as you can. The people who can jump for ½ an hour win the game!”
I grabbed a rope and started to jump slowly. Jordan started too, but at first was too fast, and then she tripped over the rope.
“Fuck,” Jordan said under her breath, so low that only I could hear it. She sent me a glance, obviously I shouldn’t say anything.
Jordan and I jumped for a good 15 minutes before Jordan got tired and stopped. Most girls had dropped out around 10 minutes, but I’d kept going with a couple other girls. Jordan had pulled out some paper and she was writing on it; I assumed it was homework. Track was almost over, so after the 30 minutes, he’d have us have a ‘meeting’ and then we’d leave. I jumped for a few minutes until the coach called it off.
“Good job,” he said absentmindedly. “You’ve reached 30 minutes. Now, we’ve run over-time, so I’ll see you all next week. We don’t have any meets… I don’t think.” He glanced at the schedule and then nodded.
“Wow, real organized,” someone whispered.
“Anyways, we haven’t got any meets, so I’ll see you… later.” The coach turned away and Jordan hastily stuffed her paper into her pack.
“Alright, let’s sleep,” Jordan said. I groaned.
“What I’d give for a bit of sleep right now.” I flopped down onto the grass and Jordan put her pack down.
“Brb, I’ve got to go to the bathroom.” She ran off, leaving her bag next to me. I could tell that those papers, well, it was a small notebook, was still in her pack, and it wasn’t homework. I opened up her backpack and I pulled it out. Quickly, looking around to see that no one was looking, I opened it to almost the very end, the part that she’d been writing in today.

7:23 p.m. November 13, 2006

Wow, right now, I’m at Dezzi’s track practice, and it’s so amazing. I’m just realizing now how unhappy I am that I didn’t get onto the team. I’m not sure why, because I seem to be better at it than a lot of the other girls. Dezzi’s also really awesome; I can’t believe she’s a freshman. You know how, like, sometimes you feel like around someone really popular, and that you’ve got to impress them. I feel like that around Dezzi; frankly, I’m surprised she isn’t super popular. She’s just so cool. Dez is so good at so many sports… I mean, I used to think I was athletic, but I’m not compared to her. I also feel like a bitch around her, like she’s so cool and calm and I’m all moody. Damn, I also can’t believe that I’m about to say this, but she’s smarter than me. When I was helping her the other day with her homework, I knew that I was only ahead of her because I’d been doing it for longer. Her brain is like a sponge, it just soaks up knowledge in seconds. I wonder if she keeps a diary like me. No, actually, I don’t wonder. She’s just jump-roped for ages… and I got tuckered out at… 15 minutes, or something like that. Maybe she’s got an IM account, and then we can talk later, because I won’t be able to spend all day with her. Oh, now she’s looking at me, I better put this away.

Jordan Harazin

I couldn’t read it all at once, so I copied it onto a different piece of paper. Here’s what it said:

November 13, 2006

Wow, right now, I’m at Dezzi’s track practice, and it’s so amazing. I’m just realizing now how unhappy I am that I didn’t get onto the team. I’m not sure why, because I seem to be better at it than a lot of the other girls. Dezzi’s also really awesome; I can’t believe she’s a freshman. You know how, like, sometimes you feel like around someone really popular, and that you’ve got to impress them. I feel like that around Dezzi; frankly, I’m surprised she isn’t super popular. She’s just so cool. Dez is so good at so many sports… I mean, I used to think I was athletic, but I’m not compared to her. I also feel like a bitch around her, like she’s so cool and calm and I’m all moody. Damn, I also can’t believe that I’m about to say this, but she’s smarter than me. When I was helping her the other day with her homework, I knew that I was only ahead of her because I’d been doing it for longer. Her brain is like a sponge, it just soaks up knowledge in seconds. I wonder if she keeps a diary like me. No, actually, I don’t wonder. She’s just jump-roped for ages… and I got tuckered out at… 15 minutes, or something like that. Maybe, she’s got an IM account, and then we can talk later, because I won’t be able to spend all day with her. Oh, now she’s looking at me, I better put this away.

Jordan Harazin


Sorry, if my handwriting’s a bit small, or messy, but at least it’s better than Jordan’s. I can’t believe Jordan thinks all that stuff about me; I feel… sort of… like Jordan. I mean, I feel like I’m pouty and she’s, you know, perfect, but I don’t think most of that other stuff about her. I saw Jordan come out of the bathroom and stuffed her journal back in her backpack; I’d borrow it later. I changed my mind last minute and put her journal in my backpack to read later. Jordan glanced at me when she sat down and looked suspiciously at me.
“What’d you do?” she asked, seeing a… breathless look on my face. I smiled, making it secret, to have to make her pry it from me, to give me more time to think.
“I didn’t do anything.” I grinned again. Her eyes wandered to her backpack and I held my breath. Luckily, she shrugged and dropped it.
“Do you have an IM account?” she asked and I grinned. She said she’d ask it in her diary entry.
“Yeah… why do you want to know?” I knew why she wanted to know, even if I hadn’t read her journal, I would know. I looked at her, right into her eyes, and wondered if she really thought that stuff about me.
“I was thinking that if we could IM later, you know, today and tomorrow.”
“What’d we IM about? Remember, I don’t know shit about your grade’s gossip.”
“Yeah,” Jordan said, “I forgot, but you’d be able to learn.” Jordan frowned.
“Sure, what’s your name?”
“J-Dan,” she said and I laughed.
“Dezbear,” I said and the tips of Jordan lips turned up.
“Wow, really, Dez, that’s one of the lamest nicknames ever.”
“Look who’s talking, J-Dan,” I said with a small smile.
“Whatever, but anyways, we’d be able to talk… you know, you can learn about junior.”
“I talk to Emma all the time, but I haven’t been on in a while, she’s prolly pissed.” Jordan grinned and then her mom pulled up. She picked up her bag, and again I held my breath, hoping she wouldn’t notice. She didn’t notice any difference, so I picked up my bag and we both got into Jordan’s car.
“Mrs. Harazin,” I said. I wasn’t sure if I should ask if she’d take me to my soccer practice; it was in Snohomish, pretty far away. “Um… could you drop me off at the bus, I need to go to soccer practice, and it’s at Snohomish.” She smiled at me.
“I could drop you off, if you wanted.” I shrugged, and then remembered my dinner problem. I didn’t have time for getting anything but fast-food.
“That’d be great, but I’d still need to stop by a fast-food place for my dinner.” When I said this, Jordan grinned, but her mom frowned.
“Oh, we… don’t really eat fast-food around here,” she said. “We could swing by our house and grab something to eat,” she said.
“Oh, my soccer practice starts soon, I don’t have time for that, I think it’d be easier if you dropped me off at the bus stop.” Jordan’s mom frowned.
“Hm… I guess we can go get some fast-food, a little bit every once in a while can’t hurt.” Now, Jordan was grinning broadly and a small smile formed on my lips. “Well, as long as the food isn’t McDonald’s.”
“I’d never eat at a crappy—I mean, bad place like that.” Jordan’s mom didn’t seem all too offended when I said crap. I’d assumed she would be offended, I mean, if you don’t eat fast food, you don’t say ‘cusswords’ like that. Maybe, she thought, like Jordan and I, that crap wasn’t a cussword, but I doubted it. In a minute, we pulled over at a Burger Master, and we each ordered our food. Jordan, I noticed, ordered a whole mountain of food. Obviously, she was savoring getting this kind of food. I ordered simple, seeing as I got this all the time. Jordan’s mom didn’t eat, she just sat there. She was going to eat at home, she told us. Getting the food wasn’t hard, but after Mrs. Harazin saw what Jordan got, there was a big argument. Jordan ordered, like, 3 burgers and a packet or 2 of French fries, and a salad.
“Jordan Danielle Harazin, you’re not going to eat all of that.” She grabbed a burger from her plate. She opened the tin foil a little and looked disgusted.
“Mom, I never get this; I can eat whatever I want,” Jordan said.
“Jordan, don’t be rude or you will throw all of this crap away,” Mrs. Harazin said and stifled a laugh. Maybe, I was wrong and she did say crap. Jordan face reddened angrily, and she turned down to look at her food. Jordan and I were sitting next to each other, and Jordan’s mom was across from us, still staring at the burger like she was scared of it. We ate silently, Jordan and her mom still in a bad mood from the fight. As we were leaving, Jordan tripped.
“Damn it,” she said and I glanced at her mom. Jordan’s mom didn’t say anything; I wasn’t sure if it was because she hadn’t heard, or swearing was good in their house. Suddenly, I remembered the dairy. It was in my backpack, and I really wanted to read it. I slipped the diary into my hand and excused myself to go to the bathroom. Jordan and her mom ignored me and Jordan’s mom said something to Jordan. Jordan replied, and I saw my name on her lips. I shut the door, deciding in my mind that I had about 4 minutes before Jordan got suspicious. I didn’t have the time to decode it, so I set a timer on my cell-phone, and started to pick through it.

1:03 p.m. November 11, 2006
Lame, here. Today, I’m so bored. It’s in the middle of lunch. Nothing’s new this year, different than my sophomore year, I mean, other than, you know, meeting Dezzi and her annoying friend, Emma. Jake said he and ‘the guys’ are going to take us on a date tonight, you know, try and surprise Dezzi. Austin says he’s never surprised her… ever. I don’t understand Dezzi at all. Sometimes, she’s serious, and others, she’s fun-loving. All the time, she’s really cool, though. Hannah’s coming over, so I’ve got to cut this entry short. Bye!

Jordan Harazin

Too quickly, I got bored of reading her more recent entries, so I decided to read her very first one.

4:31 p.m. June 7, 2001
Wow, 11th birthday. I got this book this morning from my aunt. My mom says she can’t believe how old I’m getting. School was the best today! There’s this guy I like, his name is Gabe, and he told me that he liked me today. He said, like, this is your birthday, so it seems like the perfect day to tell it. Well, almost perfect, only Valentine’s Day would be more perfect.
I’m not sure what more I should say, so maybe I should hang up my pen for now.

Jordan Harazin

Jordan had started writing in that diary when she was 10. That’s pretty dedicated. Her hand-writing had gotten a lot worse since she was 10. Her signature still had stayed the same. The timer went off; my four minutes had gone by super quickly. When I walked out, Jordan and her mom were still arguing.
“Jordan, stop…” her mom almost screamed and then immediately stopped talking when she saw me. I pretended I didn’t notice but really curiosity was burning inside my chest. Jordan and her mom ignored each other as they walked out of the restaurant. Jordan itched to tell me something, but obviously, it was something bad about her mom, so she couldn’t say it now. The ride to my soccer practice was just as quiet. Dinner had been about 20 minutes, so we had about 10 to get to my soccer practice. Jordan’s mom got us there in 5 minutes (she totally broke the speed limit!). Jordan and I stepped out of the car for a second. Jordan walked out of ear-shot of her mom and looked like she released a breath she was holding.
“Wow, my mom and I were arguing about how we’d gotten junk food. She was all like, ‘Since you got this, no sweets for a week.’ I was all like ‘its Dezzi’s fault—no offense—that we got this. And besides, she gets it all the time.’ So she freaked out and got all, you know, ‘I’m going to ground you’ and I had to… keep fighting, but keep it cool, to get out of trouble.” My coach looked over at me, and I looked at Jordan to see if she was done. I loved soccer practice; it was a boy/girl practice, just like swimming. Brandon did swimming. Luckily, Jordan caught my eye.
“I’ve… kinda got to go, so we can IM tonight… bye!” I said and Jordan waved to me as she walked back to her car. I caught Brandon’s eye (on accident) but he smiled at me and I got the feeling that maybe he did ‘like’ me. Brandon was the star goalie for the boy’s team. The girl’s and the boy’s teams practices together but didn’t play on the same team. I was a multi-talented player. I mean, not that I’m really good, but I play everything. I like to be goalie and mid-field. I almost never played goalie because there was this one girl named Sarah, who was an amazing goalie. If she couldn’t make it, though, I’d get to play and, don’t get me wrong, but I kind of liked it when she missed games. I knew I wasn’t as good as her, but I’d never let a goal in, and she had. It was, of course, because she’d played more, but it made me… proud… no, that’s not the right word to use… anyways, choose some word that you think would fit for that.
Brandon gestures for me to come over to him. I walked over slowly, knowing that he’d want me to shoot on him so that he could get better.
“Wanna shoot on me?” Brandon asked, like I knew he would. I nodded, and he threw a ball at me. I didn’t think, I just wanted to catch him off guard, so as soon as the ball rolled over to me, I took a shot. It went right over his shoulder and into the goal. I smiled as he frowned, but it was an amused frown.
“Ha ha, I got one in past you… the star goalie!” I gloated. Brandon grinned at me again and raised his eyebrows.
“So, now, I’m ‘the star goalie’, not Bran?” he asked. I took my turn grinning before I replied.
“Okay, then, Bran, how about we do some shooting, so I can show you up again, and this not because of a surprise,” I said. He rolled it back to me once he retrieved it from the goal and I took the time to set up. I shot, but Brandon blocked it. He punted it, very controlled, right about to my feet. I shot again, and again Brandon blocked it. We repeated this for about 20 minutes, and I never made a goal. Finally, Brandon decided that I should be goalie, and he’d shoot, since I wasn’t getting anywhere with him.
Brandon shot once, and I blocked it easily. Brandon was a good goalie, but his offensive and defensive skills left a lot to be desired. I knew I could shoot well than him with my un-dominant foot, my right foot, than he could with his dominant foot. I tapped the ball lightly back to him as the coach called us all in.
“Alright, guys, you ready to start?” he asked. “We’re going to do cones for quick feet.” He counted us off and we split up to different cones. He rolled a ball over to me, as I was first in line. I dribbled through it quickly to the end, back, and then to the end of the line. I watched some of the other people go.
Soccer practice ended quickly after that and I got a ride home on the bus. I sat between two older people. Quickly, I pulled out Jordan’s diary.

9:41p.m. June 31, 2001
Sorry, it’s been a while since I wrote in you, and I also hope that you notice that my handwriting has changed. Kara told me this handwriting looks cooler than what I did before. Anyways, I kissed Gabe today, and that’s why I decided to write here. So, it was during recess and he came up to me with his friends and then he was all like “Hey, I want to Jordan alone.” So, then they went away and he was all like “I really like you, Jordan.” Then, he leaned over and kissed me I thought, “Like, wow, that was so cute and amazing!” So, that was really cool and then he walked away but before he got back to his friends he winked at me, and it was totally hot.
Shit, I have homework. Don’t you like the way I say swear-words? Well, anyways, I do that because Gabe does it, but anyways I have homework, so I’ve got to go.
Adios,
Jordan Harazin

I closed Jordan’s diary and looked out the window.


That looked cool, I thought. Maybe, I’d go check it out, considering that my stop was in just about a second. I stuffed Jordan’s diary back into my backpack and got off the bus. Looking around quickly, I crossed the street and went into Doug’s Sport’s Center. I wasn’t sure if that was a community center or an actual store. I wanted to go in, but as it was 10:30, so the store was closed. I walked back the couple blocks to my house and ran to my room.
I turned on the computer and went to my IM account. I made Jordan my friend quickly and saw that she was on.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Dezbear: r u there?
J-Dan: yeah
Dezbear: wat u doing.
J-Dan: watching TV
Dezbear: wat show
J-Dan: survivor. It’s on ads tho
Dezbear: cool. i just got home from soccer practice.
J-Dan: did u finish ur homework?
Dezbear: ‘cha, wat about u
J-Dan: same. o, look, shows back on. why dont u turn on ur TV to channel 7, cbs or come over and watch it w/ me
Dezbear: no i dont like survivor, and i dont have a TV
J-Dan: plz for me?
Dezbear: dont u guilt me into watching that DUMB SHOW!
J-Dan: plz? plz? plz?
Dezbear: just go watch it. ads must be done
J-Dan: fine! L
Dezbear: jay… do NOT throw a fit
J-Dan: im watching survivor… aloneL
J-Dan: unless, of course u’d come over
Dezbear: no
J-Dan: plz?
Dezbear: if my parents let me
J-Dan: rly? J r u serious?
Dezbear: yuppers, lemme ask
J-Dan: hurry!

Dezbear: okay, they said cha, ill be over in a sec
J-Dan: thank u!

My mom drove over to Jordan’s house in a couple of minutes. Jordan was waiting at the door for me when I came in.
“Dez, Dez, survivor is about to come on again!” Jordan said. “Come on!” Jordan walked over to her couch and looked at the TV intently.
“Jordan… please,” I said with a stifled laugh. Survivor started, and I looked away, not really caring what was happening. I pulled out my phone and logged onto my IM account. I saw that Emma was on.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

(Cell)Dezbear: em, come out, come out, wherever you are
Embear: here!
(Cell)Dezbear: im stuck at j’s watching survivor
Embear: 1st, whose j? 2nd why are u watching survivor, u hate it
(Cell)Dezbear: j=jordan. it’s her stupid nickname, i asked her to come up w/ one. and she MADE me come
Embear: wow, you know i dont like jordan, right?
(Cell)Dezbear: any1 does
Embear: wat? how?
(Cell)Dezbear: u just act all mean and stuff around her. w/o her ur nice
Embear: LLLLLLLL
(Cell)Dezbear: JJJJ its ok, no1 hates u! except jordan, she doesnt like u either… sry
Embear: dersicle
(Cell)Dezbear: hm. ur not even unhappy. that shows that u rly dont like her, or cares if she likes u
Embear: that wud be tru
(Cell)Dezbear: whatevs, enuff about u and jordan
Embear: ok, then wat we talk about?
(Cell)Dezbear: idk, homework?
Embear: no, wats happening on survivor?
(Cell)Dezbear: im not paying attention, i already told u that.
Embear: k, then not that, but not homework
Embear: how about cute boys??
(Cell)Dezbear:J, but ur dating, um, wats-his-name
Embear: CHRIS!!!
(Cell)Dezbear: speaking of cute boys, brandon asked me out. we were at track practice and he came over and he was all like wanna go c a movie w/ me
Embear: awesome, but austin will be PISSED
(Cell)Dezbear: oh, shit, i totally forgot about him
Embear: crap, my mom is coming up. im supposed to be asleep. ive gtg
(Cell)Dezbear: bye, em

I quit my IM account. If you’re wondering why Emma and I have almost the same IM account name is because when we were making our IM accounts we decided it would be cool if we had, like, the same name.
Jordan was raptly watching Survivor, but I wasn’t interested. I got up, muttering something about fresh air, and walked outside. Jordan didn’t even seem to notice, she was so intent on watching the show.
Jordan had a basketball hoop, so I picked up one of her basketballs and took a shot. It swished, but I wasn’t interested. I just let the ball drop to the ground and I sat on my knees in the grass. I didn’t know what to do for the next… well, until Survivor ended. Survivor ended at 11:30, from 10:30 to 11:30. I just had to wait until then.
I pulled out my cell-phone and saw that it was about 11:00, 11:05 to be precise. I had 25 minutes out here, with nothing but my cell-phone and whatever Jordan had. I picked up the basketball again. I shot, like, 3 more shots before I dropped the basketball again. I was really bored about being here, so I turned my phone on checked to see if anyone was on the IM account. Emma wasn’t on and, of course, neither was Jordan, but my friend Ivy was.

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

(Cell)Dezbear: hey, r u there?
(Cell)Ivythorn: Yup, what r u doing?
(Cell)Dezbear: i am watching survivor
(Cell)Ivythorn: er… u hate survivor
(Cell)Dezbear: i know
(Cell)Ivythorn: then y r u watching it?
(Cell)Dezbear: long story, and im fairly low on battery
(Cell)Ivythorn: dez, tell me
(Cell)Dezbear: k, so im at jordan’s house (a new friend) and she made me watch survivor. but i ditched her, so now im in her backyard cuz i don’t want to watch survivor.
(Cell)Ivythorn: er, not a long story
(Cell)Dezbear: ivy, u just can’t say er. er is for english ppl
(Cell)Ivythorn: y not? er is perfectly acceptable
(Cell)Dezbear: no, its not. well, at least not for american ppl.
(Cell)Ivythorn: hm. . . .
(Cell)Dezbear: u c wat I mean?
(Cell)Ivythorn: nope, just watching a show
(Cell)Dezbear: survivor?
(Cell)Ivythorn: er... ive gtg
(Cell)Dezbear: bye, and now i know that ur watching survivor. ill c u soon!

Ivy hung up and I saw that no one else was on the IM. I didn’t really want to IM, but I had nothing better to do. I checked my e-mail, but had nothing new. I decided to go inside because nothing could be worse than being bored out here. Jordan was watching the show so intently that I don’t think she’d even seen me leave. Jordan finally looked up when I came in the room.
“Where’ve you been? You missed the best parts,” Jordan said and I grimaced. I sat there watching the show for a minute. I watched someone get voted off and then the show ended… finally. Jordan got up and smiled at me.
“Finally,” I said. “So, what do you want to do? Or should I go home?”
“Nah, well, I mean, not if you want to stay,” Jordan replied. I thought about it for a second and decided that I’d like to stay with Jordan, if she didn’t watch any more shows.
“I’ll stay, but what d’you want to do?”
“We could watch TV?”
“No,” I said. “How about shooting hoops outside… or I could help you with your homework.”
“Dezzi, I’m a junior, you’re a freshman, and you’re not going to help me with my homework,” Jordan said. “And, also, why would you want to do homework?”
“I don’t want to do homework, just thinking of… ideas for what we could do.”
“Well, come up with something better.”
“I don’t see you coming up with anything better,” I said. Jordan sighed.
“I guess you’re right. So, let’s just come up with something,” Jordan said. “Shooting hoops sound… okay, but are you sure you don’t want to watch TV?” I briefly considered; there were some TV shows that I liked.
“Alright… what’s on TV?”
“Um… Glee and Smallville are on. Oh, also The Secret Life of the American Teenager is on. Wait, add CSI and The Office.”
“Alright, I like CSI and… um… anything with gore or violence,” I said and Jordan gave me a funny look.
“CSI it is,” she said and flipped the TV on. We watched in complete silence for a while. About ½ an hour after we started watching, I got a call from my mom.
“Dezzi,” she said, “can we come and pick you up now?”
“Can I sleep over here?”
“Sleep over on a school night? Are you crazy?” my mom asked. “Let me ask your father. I’ll call you back in a couple minutes.”
My mom hung up and Jordan looked at me. “Did you seriously ask your mom for a sleepover on a school night?” I nodded simply. Jordan laughed and turned back to the show. Seconds after, my mom called me back.
“Alright, Dez,” she said, “you can stay if you’ve got all your homework done. We’ll swing by with your stuff. What do you need?” I couldn’t believe my luck; I was actually having a sleepover on the weekend. Quickly, I explain to my mom what I wanted, and then she hung up.
“Jordan, my mom said we can have a sleepover!” I exclaimed and Jordan scoffed.
“Hm, maybe I do see why you’re not popular. Dez, sleepover is for little kid. But, actually, that’s really cool and my parents are out of town for a while so they don’t care what I do.”
“Alright, but, J, if you can’t call it a sleepover, what do you call it?” I asked.
“That’s a good point,” Jordan said absentmindedly. “So, sleepover is good when it’s just us or you and Emma. Or, you know, anyone else… well, you can do it when you’re not in a social party… or anything that matters for your social life.” I shrugged, not really interested. I never had been but I just wanted to prove my point. Jordan flipped her cell-phone open.
“11:44,” Jordan said. “Your mom better get here soon.” As if on cue, the doorbell rang. I opened it and Jordan turned the TV off in a second.
“Hey, mom,” I said. I glanced at the TV to check that CSI was off. My mom wasn’t a big fan of CSI. Well, actually, my mom didn’t like TV… at all. We didn’t have a TV at my house, except for a small one that my brother had bought for himself when he was 13. That TV didn’t work well because you had to set up those rabbit ears, and they never stayed.
“Here’s your stuff,” my mom said and turned around to leave. “Wait, Jordan, what time do your parents say I should come to pick you up?”
Jordan didn’t hesitate. “How about you pick her up around noon tomorrow,” Jordan suggested. “That’d work for us; just make sure it’s before 6:00 p.m.” My mom nodded and left. We both sighed when she the car had driven out of sight.
“Damn, Jordan, that was good lying,” I said.
“That wasn’t lying, that’s what my parents would’ve said if they’d been here. I only lie for special occasions.”
“And this isn’t a special occasion?”
“Well, it is, but I meant, like, sex with my bf for the first time,” Jordan said. Jordan ran to her room to get a sleeping bag.
“Okay, you can put your sleeping bag here,” Jordan said. I dumped my sleeping bag on the ground and then flopped down on it. Jordan followed me.
“So… what’s up?” I asked after a minute of silence.
“Besides you getting asked out by Brandon? That’s big news, you know,” Jordan said and I smiled crookedly.
“I do know, and I’m so excited… for Saturday.”
“Is that when he’s taking you out?”
“Yes, it is,” I said. “Didn’t I tell you?”
“Maybe, I don’t know, but do you want to watch CSI some more?’ Jordan asked and I shrugged. I thought it would be over, but I don’t know. Jordan flipped on the TV, but some weird show was on, not CSI. Jordan flipped the TV off.
“What do you want to do?” Jordan asked. “I’ll check and see what else is on.”
“Not TV,” I declared. “How about we play Truth or Dare?”
“Actually, that’d be cool, but you have to promise not to tell anyone at school that we did this. Will you promise?”
“Sure,” I said. “You go first.”
“Alright, Dez, choose truth or dare.”
“Hm… I’ll play it safe, truth,” I decided and Jordan thought for a minute.
“Alright, why haven’t you had sex?” Jordan said and grinned broadly.
“Because I haven’t, you know, I’ve never met a guy that I liked enough.” Jordan raised her eyebrows. “Alright, it’s because I’m scared to get pregnant. But you can’t tell anybody.” I said the last part so forcefully that Jordan, I think, believed me. It was part of the truth but the other part was that I’d actually come very close to having sex, but I’ve always wimped out.
“Your turn,” Jordan said eagerly. “I say dare.”
“Alright, I dare you to call Jake and Brandon and have them come over,” I said and Jordan laughed.
“You think they’ll be up? It’s like midnight,” Jordan said. “Well, it’s a dare, so I have to try.” Jordan picked up her phone and called Jake, since she obviously didn’t know Brandon’s number. It rang a few times, but no one picked up.
“Hey, Jake, this is Jordan. I’m calling late on November 14. If you get this message, please call me back or just swing by my house.” Jordan hung up and looked at me. “So, Brandon’s number, please?”
“206-458-9631,” I said as Jordan typed it in. Again, no one picked up but this time, Jordan didn’t leave a message.
“Alright, Dezzi, do you choose truth or dare?”
“I’ll go with dare, since there’s nothing you can really do to me that that’s bad.”
“I dare you to…” Jordan said. “Um, I dare you to go buy us some ice cream at the drug store a block away, in the dark.”
“Please, Jordan, you can’t seriously think that I’m afraid of the dark… can you?” I asked in disbelief. I wasn’t afraid of the dark at all. Jordan shrugged.
“Here’s 10 bucks, now go,” she said. I grabbed the 10 bucks out of her hand and I stepped outside to the complete darkness. Walking down the block was easy; there was nothing there. When I got to the store, I played it safe and got Orange Cream, since almost everyone liked that kind of ice cream. When I walked back, I saw a guy that looked familiar.
“Dezzi,” he asked when I passed him. I stopped abruptly. I didn’t know him, but he was cute. “My name is Lance.” That name didn’t ring a bell in my head.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know you,” I said cautiously. He cocked his head.
“We, uh, went to a soccer camp together when we were 10. Well, I was 10 and you were 8.” Then, I remembered. Lance and I had been in love, like, a lot, at a soccer camp we’d been to. But Lance had lived really far away.
“Lance, I didn’t know you lived near here,” I said. “Why didn’t you call me?” My voice had turned nicer.
“When you were eight, you didn’t have a cell phone. Also, we just moved.” He took a step closer to me. “Why don’t we pick up where we left off?” Then, he kissed me. His lips were like honey, and I was eager for a longer kiss, but I pulled away.
“I have a boyfriend,” I said slowly, focusing on Brandon. I couldn’t believe his arrogance. He must now be at least 15, and a junior or sophomore in high school.
“Alright, even if we can’t date again, give me your number so we can be friends. My number is 206-331-4767.”
“206-331-5797,” I said and we typed each other’s numbers in.
“One more,” he said. “Our last kiss can’t be unwilling.” I smiled at him and let him kiss me, this time; we got deeper into the kiss. He pressed his tongue against my lips, and then I ended the kiss. Breathless, I walked away from him. I couldn’t believe I’d done that; betrayed Brandon. Alright, that sounded really cheesy, but it was what I felt. When I got back to Jordan’s house, she saw my looked and raised her eyebrows about it.
“I met this guy, Lance, who I knew from soccer camp. He kissed me, and I… liked it… and I felt like I was betraying Brandon.” Jordan grinned.
“You are totally in boy trouble!” Jordan exclaimed. “I can’t believe that! You, Dezzi Fjord, Miss Could Be Popular but isn’t, is having boy troubles.” Jordan took the ice cream from me and went to get a spoon for each of us.
“What do you think I should do?” I asked as Jordan came into the room again. Jordan grinned. I could tell that she was enjoying this.
“Give me a second,” Jordan said. She ran into her room and grabbed a sleeping gown and sweat pants. She changed quickly, but I still saw her lacy white camisole.
“You ready now?” I asked.
“Yeah, sorry, but you should get your sleeping clothes on. Anyways, don’t freak out about Lance. You won’t see him for a while, so just stick with Brandon, act natural, and call me when Lance gets contact with you.” I pushed my hair out of my eyes.
“J, I can’t call you when some guy is calling me. Also, what if I see him again?”
“If you don’t like that, think of something better yourself.”
“Alright, alright, I’m just saying…” I said with a laugh. I honestly wasn’t sure now if I liked Brandon or Lance, but it didn’t matter; Jordan and I should just have fun.
“Okay, can we move on and just watch a movie?” Jordan asked. “I mean, not that I’m not interested, or anything, it’s just we should have fun, not wor“I was just thinking the exact same thing.”
“Alright, what movie do you want to see?” Jordan asked. “You can text or something when I’m watching.” I nodded agreeably but I really didn’t care.
“Whatevs,” I said, “I really don’t care.” I pulled out my cell-phone but my mind wasn’t on it. No one was on their IM account. Jordan watched the movie for an hour and an half before I fell asleep.
While I was asleep, I had a really weird dream. Here it is:

“I love you,” Lance said and kissed me. Well, it wasn’t really me, because I was watching this, I wasn’t me. I’ll pretend I was someone else, so I’ll say Dezzi. Anyways, Lance kissed Dezzi, and I saw her enjoy it. She was fully into the kiss. Then, Brandon walked up.
“Dezzi,” Brandon said with hurt in his voice. “What are you doing with him?” Lance grinned.
“Get over her. She and I are engaged,” Lance said. I looked more closely and saw that Dezzi was older than I am. Actually, she was a lot older. She looked like she’d already graduated from college.
“What,” Brandon asked. “How could she… she’s only in High School. Also, Dezzi and I were—are dating.”
“High School,” Dezzi muttered. She looked confused for a minute before realization dawned on me. “Oh, Brandon, you look just like you did in High School. But we broke up ages ago.”
“Like I did in High School, like past tense? That doesn’t make sense… are you okay Dezzi?” Brandon asked.
“Are you okay, Brandon? We’re not in High School any more. I’m 23 years old, when we dated was 10 years ago. Are you okay?” Dezzi said. “Isn’t that right, Lance?”
“Yeah,” Lance said. “I don’t know who you are, but you better stay away from Dezzi.” Lance said it, baring his fist. Brandon took a step back.
“Dezzi,” he said, looking at her for help. His voice was weak with pain. “Please, it’s Brandon. You’re not 23.” Lance put his fist up again and put his arm around Dezzi’s shoulders. Brandon walked away and gave Dezzi a backwards glance. I could see the pain in his eyes and a thought hit me.

What if that’s what happened to me and Brandon; Lance and I engaged and Brandon living in the past. It was probably just a dream, but sometimes dreams had real impacts in life.
I woke up abruptly, but not for any reason that I could tell. Jordan was sound asleep next to me, but I knew something had jolted me awake. I sat up. Jordan’s house was light, so I knew it was morning. I pulled my phone out and saw 5:10. We had about 35 minutes… wait, Jordan was a lot closer to school than I was, so we could probably wait for about 30 minutes more than normal. I tapped Jordan.
“What?” Jordan asked groggily and sat up. “Oh, hey, Dez, is it 6:30 yet?”
“No, but is that when you leave?” I asked and Jordan nodded.
“What time is it?” she said, and she lay down again.
“About… 5:10,” I said with a grimace. I knew Jordan wasn’t going to be happy about me waking her up. Jordan sat up again.
“Okay, then, why did you wake me up?” Jordan asked.
“Um… I was bored,” I said.
“To Hell, what do you want to do?”
“I’ve got no idea, just not lying around. How about Truth or Dare, without the Dare part,” I suggested.
“Why not… but I’m asking you first,” Jordan decided.
“Go ahead,” I said.
“Do you want to—think you’re going to have sex with Brandon? And you have to tell the truth.” Jordan grinned as I thought it over.
“Alright, I do want to have sex with him. If I think we will have sex, I don’t know. Eventually, maybe, we will but not in High School.”
“There’s something you’re not telling me,” Jordan said. I explained about the dream cautiously and Jordan laughed. “So, you think you’re going to split up with Brandon and get together with Lance? Oh, speaking of Lance, I want to meet him. How about you call him?”
“Call Lance,” I asked. “You can’t be serious. He might take that the wrong way.” Jordan shrugged and her face said ‘So what, I still want to meet him.’
“Fine, then I will dare you to call Lance and ask him to come over,” Jordan said. “And I don’t care if we’re not playing a dare contest.” Sighing, I picked up my phone and called Lance.
“Dezzi,” Lance said in a welcoming voice when he picked up the phone. “How’s it going? More importantly, why are you calling at this hour?”
“I am calling because my friend dared me to,” I said and Lance scoffed.
“Isn’t that childish; playing truth or dare?”
“Yes, but we weren’t playing, she just dared me to. Anyways, will you come over?”
“Sure,” he said, “can you give me an address?” I gave him Jordan’s address and he hung up.
“Well,” Jordan said.
“Well, he’s coming over… now. So, get dressed.” Jordan pulled herself out of her sleeping bag and rushed to her room to get dressed. Jordan came back, fully dressed.
“Why aren’t you dressed?” Jordan asked.
“Um… I don’t have any clothes. Can I borrow some of yours?”
“Don’t you want him to see you…?”
“Jordan!” I shouted sharply. “Just let me have some clothes before he gets here.” Jordan went to get another pair of clothes. She came back with grey sweats and a white tee-shirt.
“Here you go. Sorry, if they don’t fit, but I’m bigger than you are.” I put them on just as the doorbell rang. Jordan opened the door.
“Hey,” Lance said. “So, what do you want me for?” Lance winked.
“Damnit, Lance is hot,” Jordan said.
“You make it sound like someone else said I was hot,” Lance said with a glance at me.
“Lance, don’t be a jerk about this, but I do think you’re cute—I mean hot,” I said. Lance smiled happily and Jordan looked at me with surprise.
“So, Lance, are you single?” Jordan asked.
“You’re not single, remember?” I said to Jordan before Lance could answer. Jordan laughed.
“I know, I wanted to make sure Lance wasn’t cheating on someone else for you,” she said. “Not for me, because Jake…”
“I am sure that Lance doesn’t want to hear about how amazing some other guy is,” I said.
“Damnit, if you’re not single… well, that doesn’t matter to me, all I want is Dezzi,” Lance said, causing Jordan to laugh.
“Fuck, ‘cause I did need a back-up plan in case Jake dropped me, or became more of a bastard than he is.”
“I did not need to know that,” Lance said with a grin. “But, you know, Jordan, you could be my back-up plan, you’re pretty sexy.”
“Thanks,” Jordan said with a smirk.
“Do… nah, I’m not going to ask that,” I said. I almost wanted to ask Lance if he thought I was sexy, but I didn’t want him to get on that.
“Oh, Dez wanted to know if you thought she was hot,” Jordan said. I sort of wanted to have some fun and play slutty and sexy. Actually, never mind, I know Jordan was already going to play that role. In fact, she already was. She sat down on the couch and patted the place next to her. Jordan didn’t care if she had a boyfriend; she would flirt with any guy that was cute at all. But there was one way to tell if she was dating that guy. She had this thing about kissing people. She wouldn’t kiss anybody but her boyfriend. The guys she flirted with, she’d let do other stuff, far more sophisticated than kissing, but she wouldn’t kiss anybody but her boyfriend or a guy she really liked.
Lance put his hand to her face, letting it brush her breasts. He grabbed the side of her face, and turned it towards his.
“You have pretty eyes,” he said, dropping his hand to her chest. He, like, petted her chest, which I thought was pretty disgusting. It reminded me of a breaststroke, but not the kind in swimming; a breast stroke. Jordan thought so, too, so she slapped his hand.
“Go away,” Jordan said. “We have to get to school and so do you.” Jordan had so much hate in her voice, it surprised me. Lance left with a sad smile on his lips. It looked like he was hurt but trying to be cool; anyways, I didn’t care.
“Wow,” I said. “Lance is such a flirt. I am so glad that you pushed him away.” Jordan smiled thinly.
“Yeah, don’t go out with him.” She said it in such a shaky voice, it almost frightened me. “He was flirting with me, he almost had sex with me, in front of you, the girl that he likes. He also was… he wanted to have sex with me, even though he—we just met. He’s a creeper, Dezzi, don’t let him near you.” Jordan let out a breath.
“Oh, my God, Jordan, you’re pushing a guy away.” I laughed after I said it, but Jordan was all serious. “Sorry,” I said, seeing the revolted look on her face.
“Nah, don’t be sorry, just stay away from him. I seemed disgusting, didn’t I? I can’t believe I did that. That was so disgusting,” Jordan said. “He is stalking you.”
“No, he’s not. Remember, you invited him over. Well, actually, I invited him over, but you wanted me to.”
“So, he almost had sex with his crush’s friend… right in front of his crush. He may not be a stalker but he is a creep.”
“Creep—Crape, ooh, a crape sounds really good, now, actually, not just a crape, but breakfast,” I said.
“’Kay, we can make it, what d’you want?” Jordan asked and walked to the kitchen, I followed her. “So, we have eggs, veggie burgers, tomatoes, and pears. What do you want?”
“I’d like a pear, please. Where do you have a knife and cutting board?” Jordan pointed and threw a pear at me. Jordan played softball, so her throw was good. I cut up the pear and ate it slowly. Jordan ate a boiled egg. We walked back to the living room and sat down.
“So, we’ve got tons of time; what do you want to do?” Jordan asked. “We can practice softball—well, for you baseball.” I shrugged. I didn’t practice hitting against actual people much, only machines, but I was sure that if Jordan pitched, it would be softball style.
“Do you pitch?” I asked.
“Yeah, do you?”
“Yup, but I pitch a lot faster than most softball players. Are you a regular pitcher?”
“Nah, I’m just back-up. Sophia Lags usually pitches,” Jordan said. “Oh, by the way, at, like, midnight, Brandon called, asking if you and I would like to go swimming on a group date tonight.”
Swimming sharply brought back painful memories.

I was walking along the edge of the beach, seeing the beautiful waves lap against the shore. I wanted to be more in it than just along the side.
“Mommy,” I called to my mother, a couple feet away, “can I go on a big boat?” She smiled happily and nodded. I was six at the time, so I wasn’t sure what ferries were called.
We left the beach, my mom saying goodbye to her friend, and went on the ferry. I walked to the sun deck to see the water, like I did on the beach. I couldn’t see the water, though, so I jumped up on the rail. My mom was right next to me.
“Honey, be careful, you don’t want to fall off.”
“Yes, mommy, I’ll be careful,” I said. I leaned a little farther, reaching my hand out towards the water.
Then, I was falling. I wasn’t sure when it had happened, but I no longer saw my mom, just the side of the boat. The scream was caught in my throat, but I heard my mom frantically yelling .I hit the water, bracing my back against it. I may have been six, but I knew that water hurt like concrete.
The water didn’t hurt that much, but the cold after it did. I swam, but barely, since I’d never had any lessons. Numbness was what was going through my body, not cold or anything else, just numbness. I didn’t know how long I was there until I realized that there could be jellyfish or sharks.
I thrashed my legs out and looked down into the darkness. There was nothing there, so far. My foot brushed against seaweed, that I’d felt so many times before, and I stifled a scream .Around then, my legs started aching. I’d been here for a long time. After that, it was a huge struggle to stay above water; I even think my head went underwater for a tiny bit.
Finally, I saw a red buoy flying from the top deck of the boat. It wasn’t anywhere near me though. I’d drifted a lot away from the boat. I swam, with almost no energy, to the red buoy, and I grabbed it. After I’d got it, I felt exhaustion sweep through my limbs. I was so tired, so, so, tired, that I couldn’t keep holding it like this. I knew I’d been swimming for at least an hour, and that thought seemed to make me more tied. I pulled my legs through the hole in the buoy and waited to be hauled up.

That had been one of the most terrifying times of my life, when I’d fallen off that ferry. After that, I’d started taking swimming lessons, and I was very serious about them. Swimming now was fun for me, because if I fell off a ferry now, then I would be able to swim back.
“Dezzi,” Jordan said impatiently, “do you want to go or not? If you don’t, Lance—I mean Jake—and I can go alone.”
“Did you just say Lance?”
“He’s what I’ve been thinking of. But are you going?”
“Yes, I’ll go,” I said. “When was it again?”
“Tonight, at 8:30; we’d go get dinner and then swim,” Jordan said. “But, back to softball; do you want to play?”
“Well, sure, why not?” I said. “But can we please play with a baseball?”
“If you want, but softballs are easier to hit than baseballs. I prefer softballs, but if you really, really insist, then we can use baseballs.”
“Okay, okay, softballs it is,” I said. “You’re pitching first.” Jordan got up with a shrug. She grabbed her glove and ball.
“Do you want a glove?” she asked.
“I’m hitting, and after I’m done hitting, I can use your glove. But I do need a bat. Preferably, a bat that’s too small for you.” Jordan handed me a bat and batting gloves, both of which were too big for me. I strapped on the gloves and picked up the bat.
“Alright, let’s go to my back-yard and play. We each get three outs, or 10 runs.” Jordan had a plate and back-stop in her back-yard, so I stepped up to the plate. Jordan threw a fast-ball and I nailed it. The ball flew forward and hit her brown fence, then dropped to the ground. I ran home before Jordan could get the ball back.
“Wow, hitting a softball is easy. Pitchers don’t throw it very well in baseball; just they throw it really fancily.”
“You should try hitting against Danielle Lawrie. She is the new big thing in college softball. I wonder if you could hit well off of her.”
“I bet I could hit off of her. I sound like a jerk saying this, but I can hit off most anyone,” I said.
“Eh, you don’t sound like a jerk, just realistic. I could hook something up between you, I know her.” Jordan smiled. She must be pretty proud about knowing someone who was famous, like this Danielle person.
“That’d be fun, a lot of fun. I bet I could beat her.”
“She’s a freshman in college. She’s a great pitcher, one of the best in the world, and she can hit a lot of home runs.” I shrugged. I didn’t know who Danielle Lawrie was, but I bet I could beat her. I suddenly felt a competitive streak to beat Danielle Lawrie.
“Bring it on; I really want to play against her.”
“Hit against her would be what I’d hook you up for. She might not want to pitch for a freshman in High School, though.”
“She better,” I said. “But it is all up to her.” Jordan threw another pitch, but it was way off so I didn’t swing. The ball hit the backstop and flopped uselessly on the ground. I picked it up and threw it back to Jordan. Jordan threw, like, three more pitches before she flopped on the ground.
“This is why I don’t pitch. I get so tired. I strike a lot of people out, but I can only go about one inning a game because I get so nervous and then that turns to me being tired.”
“So, do you want me to pitch or should we go in?” I asked.
“You pitch, but only once or twice, and then we go in,” Jordan said. I threw a few pitches for Jordan, but she swung at all of them and hit none of them, not even 1 foul.
“You’re good,” Jordan said when we got back in the house. “Maybe, you could out-pitch Danielle Lawrie. Actually, I take that back, but you can hit better than her, so you are pretty good.”
“That made no sense. Do you know what time it is?” I asked and Jordan flipped open her phone. Her phone wasn’t on, so she had to turn it on.
“Um… it’s about 6:00,” she said. We had about 30 minutes until we had to leave for school. Jordan flopped down on her sleeping bag.
“Do you have any homework?” I asked.
“Nope, I finished it all last night. What about you?”
“Done, too, so what do you want to do for the next half an hour?” I asked. “We could—do you have any ideas?”
“Maybe, we could go early and get started on homework due later, or we could sleep some more, or shoot hoops,” Jordan suggested.
“Let’s just go to school; walking is always fun.” I grabbed my backpack and so did Jordan. We slipped on our shoes and were out the door in a second. We walked the whole way to school in silence. It didn’t take that long; Jordan was only 15—or so—minutes walking distance away from school. We got there about 45 minutes earlier than I would (I got there right about as the bell rang), and I saw that there were very few people there.
“No one is here,” Jordan said in wonder. “I’ve never been here this early.” I nodded, looking awestruck.
“The school looks so empty. I bet only the teachers are here.”
“Some of the teachers are hot and young, and we’re here alone with them,” Jordan said with a flourished wink.
“Jordan, it’s a teacher, for God’s sake. Teachers are total-fucking-ly off limits.”
“You did not need to add the ‘fuck’,” Jordan said. “But I know poor little Dezzi needs to stay tough.”
“Shut the Hell up,” I growled. “I bet I could beat you in a wrestling match.” Jordan almost laughed. She knew I was strong, but she was a lot bigger than me, and she didn’t know that I took aikido lessons.
“You’re on, right here, well, not right here, in the grass. Now,” Jordan said, laughter still echoing in her voice. Jordan was strong, and hopefully, she would be a good opponent. I’d fought quite a few people, and I hoped Jordan would be a good fight.
“Five, 4, three, 2, one,” I shouted and Jordan lunged at me. She obviously had not self control in this, so I kicked her to the side mid-lunge. She got up again and brushed herself off. I thought she’d give up, but she didn’t. This time I lunged at Jordan and I punched her in the nose. She grabbed my arms and we started to wrestle on the ground. I got hit once in the eye, once in the nose, and a couple other places on my arms and legs. I pinned Jordan down and she scratched me with her nails. All the hits I’d gotten on her, I’d been in control enough to make sure the marks didn’t last. But, I still won with ease. A few guys had been watching us and when I got up, one of them named Michael was staring at me.
“Hot,” he said. “I can’t believe you won that so easily, and without giving her anything but a bloody nose.” I looked over and saw that Jordan and I both had bloody noses, even though I’d thought that I hadn’t hurt her.”
“Want to go on a date?” Another guy asked me. “How about tonight we go at 5:00. My name is Chad.”
“Sorry, Chad,” Jordan interrupted, “Dezzi, has a boyfriend.” Jordan then said, “Two” under her breath and I knew she was talking about Lance.
“Let’s have a fight,” A guy named Mitchell, from my algebra 2 class asked. I quickly sized Mitchell up, seeing his lean Asian build and his bulging muscles. He did have slightly chubby thighs, which was a disadvantage for him. His muscles made up for that, though.
“Let’s fight,” I decided, thinking it might be a challenge. He counted off and we started. He crouched in a martial arts crouch and I immediately knew that I didn’t have to worry about hurting him too bad, unlike Jordan. His fist flew at my face slowly, but I knew that if it hit, the impact would be bad. I held my arm up loosely and let his punch hit me. It hurt like Hell, and I knew that now I would have to be very careful or I’d break my arm.
Quickly, I punched him right in the mouth and his lip split. Blood dripped down onto his once clean white t-shirt. I punched him twice more before he collapsed to the ground, wheezing. That was the weakness for most people; when they got hit once they couldn’t recover. I was surprised about Mitchell, because he seemed like he’d done martial arts and martial artists usually can recover after one hit. I pinned him down for the time I needed to win the fight and he got up and wiped the blood from his mouth.
“How long have you been doing martial arts?” I asked, out of breath.
“Kung fu, for 3 years,” he said, but with his split lip, and now I realized tongue, it sounded like “kun-fir, fir tree yews.”
“That’s sick,” I said. “Maybe, you could teach me some of what you know?”
“Yeah, we could hang out.” He said it like he wanted to hang out a lot, and touch me. He turned around to face our audience. “Anyone want to fight her? Daniel, you’re always saying you’re a better fighter than me, and if you can beat this girl, you’ll prove it.” The Daniel dude stepped out of the crowd. The look on his face made it look like he never learned how to fight, but he just wanted to outshine his friend.
“Alright, I’m up for it,” Daniel said and suddenly his face changed to arrogant and I saw the martial arts in his face. “I’ve been doing kung fu for 3 years, too.” “Alright… Daniel, let’s go,” I said. The crowd counted off for us and Daniel got into an imperfect fighting stance. Even thought his fighting stance wasn’t perfect, I knew he would put a good fight because of the huge strength in his arms. Daniel was pretty big, in terms of muscles, and he had short close-cut black hair and he had a slight Asian coloring. Also, he was tall, probably about 6+ feet tall. I knew I’d seen him before, oh, yeah; he was a junior in my trig class.
He flew at me quickly, but I stepped aside fairly easily. I took my turn kicking at his face, and I felt my foot collide with flesh. He flinched but recovered just in time that my punch missed him by a centimeter. His foot flew at my face, and I ducked barely under it. As his foot was retreating, I managed to grab it, and flip him over onto his back. He stayed down for a fraction of a second before he did a simple roll; one of the first things you learn in the martial arts. Later, you learn more advanced rolls or other ways to get off the ground, like a flip, but then again maybe he wasn’t that advanced. He shouted a battle cry right before he launched himself at me again, which was seriously was bad timing. You wanted to shout a battle cry right after you started an attack, to shock them out of saving themselves.
I wanted to end the fight, thinking about reading Jordan’s journal. I grabbed Daniel by his arm and threw him onto the ground with full force. His body stopped moving quickly, and I pinned him down for good. People cheered and another couple boys asked me to fight, but I said I had to go for school.
School started in 10 minutes, and Jordan had disappeared. I decided to play it safe and go read her diary in the bathrooms. I pulled her diary out and flipped to a page in the middle.

9:46 p.m. December 31, 2003
New Year’s Day—I mean Eve-- is here at last! I wanted to write the last of this year. I am hoping that next year will be happy, and I will find a boyfriend, and get good grades, and stay on all of my sports teams. I hope we get a dog, or a cat, or another animal, other than Squeaky, my gerbil. I really hope that Squeaky doesn’t die because he is really old, and I love him a lot. Mom would also not let me get another pet.
Ooh, look, cute guy alert. I think he’s my cousin, Steven’s friend, and that his name is Brad. I’m going to go introduce myself, so bye.

Jordan Harazin

I put Jordan’s dairy away and pulled out my phone. Someone was trying to contact me through my IM account.

J-Dan (Cell): Dezzi, Dezzi, Dezzi!
Dezbear (Cell): wat the frick?
J-Dan (Cell): where the hell r u? u disappeared after the fight
Dezbear (Cell): u disappeared. meet me outside the girls bathroom
J-Dan (Cell): k, ill be there in a sec

I walked out of the stalls. I stuffed my phone into my pocket, and patiently waited for Jordan to come. 10 minutes later, Jordan showed up.
“What took you so long? We’ve got to go to class now,” I said. Jordan shrugged.
“Bye,” she said. I walked into my homeroom class and saw that everyone was there, but the teacher. I sat down next to Emma.
“Am I missing something?” I asked. Our teacher wasn’t there, but another woman had come in. Our teacher always gave us warnings when she’d be gone, and if she was sick, she texted us. I know it’s weird, but that’s our homeroom teacher for you. Remember, she was the one who is teaching us F.L.A.S.H. again.
“Someone said that Mrs. Richly is going to have someone famous come in to see us. Rumors are its Megan Fox, Lindsay Lohan, or someone else,” Emma said.
“Ooh, are you serious? I hope its Megan Fox, wait, but then every guy would be drooling over her,” I said. I doubt that someone famous was really coming, but it was fun to think about. Then, our teacher walked in the door.
“So, you guys, are you all prepared to meet someone famous?” Our teacher said it in such a bright, jolly tone that I found that I really couldn’t believe her. I decided to play along with the game anyways, though.
“Who is it?” I shouted. Our teacher turned to me with a psycho smile. One corner of her mouth had turned upward, and her eyes were sparkling with a secret twinkle.
“She’s just arrived, let me go get her.” Our teacher walked out of the door, only seconds after she’d just walked in. We waited in silence, the classroom humming in anticipation. I wished our teacher would go ahead and tell us that no one was actually there; she was just trying to get us excited.
“Em, I seriously don’t think there’s someone famous. If we’re lucky, she’s faking it all and if we’re not lucky, then we get to meet a college professor or someone who works at a museum or zoo. Or, maybe, we’ll get an F.L.A.S.H expert,” I said and Emma shrugged.
“So what, we can still hope,” Emma said.
“My God, Emma, who do you think it’s going to be? I bet you hope it’s, like Zach… whatever-his-last-name-is,” I said. “Wait, but Mrs. Richly keep saying ‘I’ll get her.’”
“Yeah, sure,” Emma retorted, obviously pissed.
“Em, I am, like, sure that it’s a college professor or someone; just not a celebrity,” I said. “If it isn’t, I’ll give you 10 dollars.” Emma nodded, still glaring at me.
“Seriously, leave it, let’s just hope,” Emma said, her face lightening a little. “God, seriously, take a break and have some fun.”
“Listening to those damn professors is not fun. I don’t know how the Hell people in college do it.”
“You should have fun, as in make-believe. Just believe that there could be something fun in school,” Emma said.
“You sound like a freaking psychiatrist,” I said, my face mocking.
“How do you know what a psychiatrist sounds like?”
“Well, everyone has had a few problems…” I said slowly, and Emma cracked up, laughing. Emma laughed for a while and I realized that maybe the bad feelings were over between us, for now.
Finally, our teacher walked in with someone who did look a bit like Megan Fox.
“So, you guys, this is my friend, Beth, and she’ll introduce herself,” our teacher said.
“Hey, I’m Beth Boeing. Um, I’m a sex education teacher. Samantha, I mean, Mrs. Richly, has told me that you guys have, uh, forgotten some of the basics of F.L.A.S.H. So, I’m going to re-teach you F.L.A.S.H., but in a more teenage kind of way, not like the fifth-grade stuff you learned.” Excited whispers rippled through the class. Some kids liked to talk about their sexuality; that much I knew. “How many of you have been involved in sexual activities?” That was an awkward question, and thankfully, Mrs. Richly walked out of the room.
“What kind of sexual activities?” someone called.
“Sorry, did I phrase that wrong? I meant, who here has had sex?” Beth said. The majority of our class raised their hand. “Well, that seems like a fairly large amount. So, I have an assignment for you guys, just to get you started. How about you each write a paper about one of your love moments, preferably during a time you’ve had sex, but not all of you have had sex. It’s due next Thursday.”
I glanced at Brandon. Yes, I know he’s a sophomore and I’m a freshman, but our homeroom is a mixed homeroom. Brandon grinned at me and mouthed ‘tonight’. I raised my eyebrows. Was that supposed to mean we’d create a romantic moment tonight? Like, would we have a romantic moment, like a kiss, or sex? There was one problem, though; I hadn’t had my period, so that ruled out sex.
Beth dismissed us and we all walked out. Brandon walked over to me and winked, his dark brown eyes twinkling.
“I know what I’m going to write about,” he said, “since I haven’t had sex yet. Wait, we are still on for tonight, right?”
“Yeah; you know Jordan and, uh, Jake are coming, too,” I said.
“Mm-Hm, but we won’t really be together at all times. What are you going to wear?” Brandon looked down over my body, and I remembered that we were going swimming.
“I don’t own a bikini,” I said, looking a different direction.
“Well, we could go shopping before we swim. On one condition, though,” Brandon said, grinning sheepishly.
“What’s that?” I asked, trying my best to sound sexy.
“Um,” Brandon said, looking up at the sky. He always did that when he was nervous to say something. Usually, he was only nervous to say something about romance.
“Get on with it, Bran. I promise I won’t laugh.”
“Dez, don’t promise that. Okay, the deal is that I get to see you change, into the different bathing suits.” I pursed my lips, trying to hold myself to my promise not to laugh.
“There’s nothing to see,” I said, finally letting a grin out. “Bran, I haven’t even had my period yet.”
“You wear a bra, which means you must have some boobs.” I wore really big shirts, so people wouldn’t see my lack of boobs. Also, they were comfortable and I’d been wearing them since I was 7.
“I wear a bra because of my parents, and I don’t really have boobs. Some men have more boobs than me,” I said, and Brandon forced a weak grin.
“Sorry, um, but I still get to see you naked if we go swim-suit shopping,” Brandon said. “I mean, bikini shopping.”
“Don’t get your hopes up. Remember, you’re supposed to keep your underwear on. Besides, I haven’t even agreed to the deal. Hm, I think I’ll stick to what I own now.”