by Linda Nelson
“Well then go right ahead, if you can convince her to go.”
Chapter 12
“Karla, what happened to you yesterday? I looked for you at lunch time, and you weren’t there. I wanted to know whether you needed any more help with your math.” Neil leaned up against the locker next to Karla’s facing the direction of the student flow into the school’s front doors. That way he could keep an eye out for Ashley.
“Maggie picked a fight with me yesterday, and I got suspended for the rest of the day.”
“Oh – do you mind me asking why?”
“Maggie and I have some bad history. That’s all.” Karla didn’t honestly want to tell him that she overheard Ashley and Maggie talking about him, or about why Maggie hated her so much. It wasn’t something she felt comfortable talking about to someone she didn’t actually know.
Karla looked over her shoulder to see if Maggie was anywhere insight. She was relieved at first then she noticed the bobbing heads of Ashley and her cohort coming her way. The last thing she wanted was a repeat of yesterday. “I got to go.”
With no further explanation, Karla bolted down the hallway to her next class leaving Neil dumbfounded as he continued standing against the lockers.
Then he saw them walking toward him.
“Neil…” Ashley said surprised to see him, a broad smile on her face, “How nice of you to wait for me, maybe we will have a minute or two to chat before class.” She waited for him to take hold of her hand, which he didn’t do. He still leaned up against the lockers with his arms crossed over his chest.
Neil looked addressed Maggie. “What happened between you and Karla yesterday?”
“Oh that, nothing really, we just had a little spat. That’s all.”
“About what,” Neil inquired.
“Nothing really,” she looked at Ashley, waiting to see if she was going to add anything about the incident yesterday morning.
“It must have been about something if she was suspended.”
Maggie looked genuinely surprised. “She was suspended, whatever for?”
“She didn’t say, she only said you picked a fight with her.”
“Me, now why would I do that?” Maggie tried her best to look surprised. “Maybe she was talking about a different Maggie. If it was me, we would both have been suspended. Wouldn’t we?”
Ashley knew Maggie was lying, and she was taking up her precious time with Neil.
“Maggie I have to go to my locker.” Ashley butted into the conversation and took hold of Neil by the arm, saying to him, “Forget about Karla and Maggie. Walk me to my locker. I want to spend some time with you.”
She wrapped her arm into his locking him to her. There was no way he was going to escape without a fight.
Maggie’s eyes narrowed as she watched Ashley pull Neil along to her locker, talking his ear off. Apparently Karla was going to cause trouble not only for Ashley but also for herself. She needed to put a stop to it before things went south. There had to be something she could do to take care of her Karla problem once and for all.
At her locker, Ashley continued to talk Neil’s ear off. She didn’t see right away that he wasn’t listening to a word she was saying. But when she did she didn’t know if she should scream, throw a tantrum or cry. Especially when she noticed where his mind and eyes had wandered off to, Karla…
She stood outside the doorway to their science class, in a deep conversation with Darcy and Mrs. Bowman. There was no telling what they were talking about, but it had to be funny. Possibly, Darcy told a joke of some sorts. Or maybe Mrs. Bowman had something funny of her own to share. Either way, Karla appeared to be laughing about what ever had been said.
Neil’s eyes were mesmerized. It was pretty obvious to Ashley too. She couldn’t miss the target of his vision, especially when Karla looked in his direction and smiled. Her face turning a bright shade of pink when their eyes locked together with his, made it all to evident.
“Neil did you even hear a single word I just said.”
“Huh? Of course, I did.”
“Then what did I say?”
“You found a dress, and it is blue.”
“No, I did not. I said, I may have found one if you like the color blue. What the hell are you looking at over there? Why do you keep looking at Karla?”
Neil didn’t respond.
That’s it. Ashley couldn’t take it anymore. She stomped on his foot.
“Ouch – Why the hell did you do that?” Neil moved away from Ashley with a hop. He should have been grateful that she hadn’t kicked him instead.
“You’re looking at other girls – that’s why. Pay attention to me. You didn’t even hear a thing I said.”
“I heard you. A blue dress would be fine. I am sure I have a dress shirt that would match.” He battled with himself, trying not look in Karla’s direction by turning his back to her.
Ashley closed her locker just as the bell rang. She once again latched onto Neil’s arm. There was no way she was going to enter the class room without either holding hands or something. She needed to let all the other girls know that Neil was now off limits. He was her man, hers and only hers.
The two of them barely passed through the doorway with Ashley clinging the way she was. She had to turn a little sideways to keep from letting go of his arm, which she did not release until she stopped before his desk. Her desk was a couple of rows over to the left toward the windows and two rows behind, on the far side of the room. She was two rows directly behind Karla. This irked her. Karla was sitting too close to her man.
How to get another into trouble? Ashley pondered this for the next few minutes of class, with nothing coming to mind. She finally gave up the idea for the time being and settled with writing love notes to Neil to be passed to him in class while the teacher was facing the black board.
The first note was passed to her right over to Maggie to pass up toward Neil. He opened it up to find a dirty joke written by Ashley. He chuckled a little but didn’t answer back with a note of his own.
Ashley was determined to get him to write her back. The following note she wrote said something to a different effect, and a superb example why one should reread what they write before sending it off. This message she passed up toward the front of the class for Karla to give to Neil.
He opened it after his fingers touched Karla’s when she handed it off to him.
It read: Eat me. There was no signature. He wasn’t sure if it had come from Ashley or not. He frowned, wondering if the note was supposed to be a joke of some sorts. He didn’t even turn around and look at Ashley this time. Instead, once again he looked at Karla, and she smiled at him.
Ashley sat in the back of the class bewildered by his behavior. Did Neil have other plans for lunch? Why was he suddenly ignoring her?
When the bell rang for the next class, Ashley tried to hurry over to Neil. But she got stuck behind a student who unknowingly blocked her path. Then Maggie got to her before she was able to get to Neil. In the meantime, Neil turned to Karla and said something to her. Ashley couldn’t hear what he said all she was able to make out was Karla shaking her head no.
Karla turned to see Maggie coming towards her. She wasted no time and bolted from the room before Neil could catch up with her leaving him behind with Ashley and Maggie.
“So are you going to eat lunch with me today or not?” Ashley asked him in front of Maggie.
“You wrote that? I thought it was some sort of a joke. No one signed it.” Neil handed the opened note to Ashley without a reply of whether or not he was going to eat lunch with her. He picked up his books without saying another word and hurried off to his next class before she could latch onto his arm again.
Ashley looked at the note and saw what he had been referring to. Maggie saw it too and snickered.
“You wrote that? How else did you expect him to act? It says eat me.”
Ashley felt her face heat up. She was sure it was beet red.
Chapter 13
While Neil sat through his next class, he couldn’t help but think about how Ashley was acting. She was the clingiest girl he had ever known, and he couldn’t stand it.
Was this what it was like to get to know what someone was like? The more he was around Ashley, the more he didn’t like her. She made it so that he couldn’t breathe. He was suffocating, and she didn’t care about anyone but herself.
Maybe he shouldn’t have asked her to the dance. Maybe he’d be better off if he got it over with, and just broke up with her.
One of his friends from lunch leaned toward him and whispered, “Man, your girl is hot.”
“What?” Neil had heard him clearly. He just didn’t know what the guy was talking about. She had been driving him nuts, and it wasn’t in that sort of way. He knew he should have felt a puff of pride in his chest for having one of the hottest girls in the school on his arm, but now he wasn’t feeling it was worth losing his mind over it.
Art, a scrawny kid with glasses who fit the geeky profile to the tee, he loved comic books and everything to do with computers. Definitely a weird one.
“Your girl, I said is hot.” Art said again as they walked to the café for lunch.
“She might be hot, but she is driving me crazy. I don’t get one minute of peace.”
The look on Art’s face said it all. He was assuming Neil meant something else.
“No, not like that, we aren’t doing it.”
“Well, if I was you. I would be. I’d tag that one in a heartbeat.”
“We aren’t together like that. Plus, I don’t want to pressure her.”
“Pressure Ashley? From what I have heard through the grape vine, she is not one you have to worry about pressuring.” Art was the first one to sit down at the table. “I hear she likes to put out.”
This was not news Neil wanted to hear. Maybe some guys would take advantage of a girl like her, but it kind of turned him off. How many guys had she been with before she had met him?
What could he say? Ashley did have a nice body. But once you got to know this person you weren’t that interested anymore in what she had to offer.
Logan took a seat across from Neil. He was another geek. He was also Neil’s main baseball card trader. “Did he tag her yet?” He asked Art with a grin.
“I didn’t tag her and I’m not going to.” Neil looked over his shoulder to see if Ashley was on her way to sit with them. Thankfully she was nowhere in sight.
“What are you, gay? ‘cause if you don’t tag that one everyone will think that you are…” Logan said boldly.
Art added, “It’s not like you have to put a bag over her head.”
Logan and Art laughed together. Neil shook his head.
This was one of those times when Neil’s sarcastic side came out. “No, I’ll just have to put a sock in it.” Chuckles sounded around the table.
“Put a sock in what?” A voice asked from behind Neil.
Art moved out of Ashley’s way and took a seat on the other side of the table out of her line of fire. Busted…
“My mom’s mouth…” Neil replied, trying to recover himself before she caught on that they were talking about her.
“Why would you want to do a thing like that?” It was obvious that she had no clue that they were actually talking about her.
“She bitched me out the other night when I told her I joined the wrestling team. She wanted me to quit, but I’m not going to.”
“Why is she against it? I think it is pretty cool that you made the team.” Ashley said, she scooted over on her seat, trying to sit as close as she could to Neil.
He looked over at her while she moved closer, and wondered if she was trying to sit on his lap or something. Logan and Art said nothing. The two of them just sat there grinning at Neil in between bites of their sandwiches.
Neil made up his mind. As soon as the dance was over, he was going to break up with her. He couldn’t stand her clinginess. “My mom thinks wrestling is too violent of a sport, but my dad disagrees with her. He told her she should feel lucky that I didn’t choose to be a hockey player instead. Now that is a violent sport.”
“When’s your first meet?” Logan asked while he rummaged about in his bag for the latest baseball card he had brought to trade.
“It is this Saturday at noon in the gym.” Neil said. He took the card from Logan to examine. It was a new rookie card of Walt Hiltman, a first base player on the A’s team. “I’ll give you two dollars for this card.”
“How about two dollars and your Daryl Aspin card,” Logan haggled.
“No, that is too much. I don’t think he is a good first base player. I’ll give you one dollar and the Aspin card.”
Art wasn’t much of a card collector, but he knew a good card when he saw one. “I’ll give you three dollars, but I don’t have an Aspin card to throw in. Hiltman’s batting average is pretty decent for a rookie.”
“I’d take the three dollar deal if I was you, ‘cause you know I’m not going to let my Aspin card go.”
Ashley looked on while the boys haggled over baseball card while Neil looked about the room. He saw on one side of the cafeteria, Maggie sitting all by herself – talking to no one; and on the other side of the room Karla was with Darcy and Heath, once again laughing up a storm. He loved her smile.
Suddenly he felt a foot kick his leg. It was Ashley once again.
“Keep your eyes off the other girls,” Ashley demanded.
“I wasn’t looking at anyone in particular,” Neil defended. “Quit kicking me.”
“Only if you look at me only.”
“Damn it girl. I said I wasn’t looking at anyone in particular. I was just looking around.”
“Yea, you were scoping out other girls, that’s what you were doing.”
Snickers came from both Logan and Art. They weren’t helping him out at all.
Ashley bundled up her lunch and stood up.
“Where are you going?” Neil asked surprised to see her leave.
“Somewhere someone will talk to me. I’ll see you afterschool when your practice is over.” Ashley left to sit with Maggie, two peas in a pod.
That’s all he needed. Ashley to show up at his practice afterschool, damn, now he would never have any peace. He had to break up with her soon, or his legs were going to be black and blue from her kicking him all the time. Jealousy was one of those faults he couldn’t stand in a girl.
“How come you’re not sitting with Neil?” Maggie asked while Ashley took the seat across from her putting her back to Neil. “Did you guys have a fight?”
Ashley frowned. “No, it’s just that they were doing nothing but talk sports. I’m not into baseball.”
“That was a bad move.”
“I agree. He should have been spending his time talking to me instead.”
“NO, stupid – You should have been learning to like baseball if that is what he is into. Talk about how to lose a guy. You just made a bad move. If you want him to like you, then you need to learn to love everything he likes.”
Ashley looked over her shoulder longingly at Neil. Maggie was probably right. She was right about most things when it came to boys and relationships. She should never have left the table. “What should I do about Karla? He keeps looking at her.”
“Don’t worry about Karla. I have plans for her. Big plans – I just have to set them into motion.”
“What are they?”
“I can’t tell you right now. I haven’t worked out the details yet. But when I do you will be the first to know.”
Ashley was sure this was fantastic news in the Karla department. When Maggie schemed, she schemed.
Chapter 14
Ever since Karla got to school this morning she couldn’t help but notice Neil looking or staring at her, even when he was in Ashley’s company. Maggie was looking at her too, only with narrow devious eyes. Apparently she was up to something, prompting Karla to stay as close to any teacher she could find in her current vicinity.
This morning it happened to be her science teacher. She never realized that the woman had such a strong sense of humor. For five minutes, she stood outside the room with Darcy and Mrs. Bowman exchanging jokes. They were clean but funny.
Last night before Karla jumped in the shower she had her dad’s new girlfriend chatting off her ear once again, just like she had done before sitting down for dinner. The woman was turning out to be kind of likeable, and made Karla feel a twinge of guilt about her mom. She tried to remain loyal to her mother, but this woman was making it hard.
Carrie even talked to Karla about the date rape incident that had happened to Karla months ago and suggested that she speak to a good friend of her’s. She told her it was to help her recover from the experience without feeling like a victim. She just wanted to help. This was more than Karla had gotten from either of her parents.
Karla agreed to the idea, and the appointment was made for her afterschool today. Carrie told her she would pick her up afterschool. Just the idea of having someone to talk to for just this once seemed to lift some of the weight off Karla’s shoulders.
Just before the bell rang for her science class Karla couldn’t help but notice Neil once again staring at her only this time he got busted for it by Ashley. He looked as if he wanted to say something to her, but he didn’t know how to say it, or was afraid to show it. And when their eyes met, she couldn’t stop herself from smiling. And it was contagious. Neil returned her smile even after Ashley stomped on his foot.
“I’m telling you Karla, that guy likes you. I can see it.” Darcy said while they walked into the class room and took their seats before Maggie and Ashley arrived for class.
Karla didn’t say a word. She just smiled. Deep down inside, she too was beginning to believe that there might be perhaps something behind Neil’s smiles and stares, just being near him made her insides flutter more than any other guy in the past, more than Gerry and Max combined.