3

by Shera Eitel-Casey

  Afterward, everyone scattered and the rest of the school started to come in. Nic and I moved to the top of the bleachers thinking this was going to be lame. Declan found us, Tori sat a few rows in front of us, she was hand in hand with Alec. Storm and Shelby found us and sat in front of us.

  The principal came in and made a few announcements and then said "Here are your cheerleaders!" And the crowd cheered, the principal came back with "Did you say something?” Cupping his hand around his ear, “I said, here are your cheerleaders!" he shouted. The cheerleaders came tumbling into the gym and the crowd roared loudly, shouting for the cheerleaders. Very loud music was played and they did a dance, an awesome dance, actually. The football coach was up next and announced he thought they were going to have a great year; the crowd cheered, introduced a few star players and then the whole team. We all roared some more. The team leaders made an announcement and then four other football players came out dressed as cheerleaders and did a short dance to some music, hysterical! Then the team captain said “Thank goodness we have professional cheerleaders, let's give them a round of applause!” and we did.

  The cheerleaders did a cheer and everyone cheered back! And then they did another dance and everyone roared again. All the players came back in, students and teachers were riled up and screaming from the stands. Afterward, everyone was in a great mood, including me. Everyone met on the gym floor and it was over. Now all I needed was something positive to happen for me; so far my High School luck stunk. I definitely needed something positive to happen. And I may need to make it happen.

  My mom and I, along with Tori and her friend picked up Nic to go to our first home football game of the year. We were stoked. We got there early which was fine with me. It only took a few minutes after we got there for the parking lot to get all jammed up with traffic. Parents and students started coming in the gates. Nic and I walked around the entire football field just checking everything out, and then started to tour our side of the bleachers. Nic knew a lot more adults than I did but we chatted with all of them a couple of minutes regardless. We even went over to Tori and said “Hey” but, that was short lived.

  We leaned against the fence that encircled the field to watch the first kick off. Everyone was cheering and the cheerleaders were actually really good, they kept the crowd cheering. Declan walked up to us while we were leaning on the fence. We chatted for a bit and just as Declan left three other boys came up to us. The one in the middle was Frank; he was in my history class and a freshman like us. I hadn't realized he knew I even existed seeing he was the most popular boy in our class. He was very good looking with smooth light skin and brown hair with natural blonde highlights most likely from this summer. He said "You're Addie Gellar right?" And of course I agreed with him. I thought finally my luck is going to turn-around. We had the most popular boy in our class talking to us!

  He continued "Your boyfriend is Logan Harper right? He told me that he's madly in love with you and he needs your phone number." I just looked at him with my smile frozen in place, Nic said "Logan who?" He started to laugh, "You don't know who Logan is? Well he went on and on about you. Said he met you this summer and that you are awesome and he can't wait to see you again."

  Frank was looking at me waiting for a response. I didn't move or say anything, my mind was blank. "You supposedly met him at Kevin's house. Ring any bells?" He said a little sarcastically. My smile dropped and I went still. I lost all expressions and felt all the blood leave my face, my body felt limp as if I had no control. Still nothing came from my mouth, I couldn't speak.

  There was what I thought the longest intermission in a conversation ever, until Nic chimed in "Logan is an ass and Addie has no interest in him at all." He just looked me up and down and said "Cat got your tongue or what." I cleared my throat "No I'm just trying to figure out what he looks like, I barely remember him." I said shakily and without confidence. I hadn't even thought for a moment that Logan, Kevin or Lucy would say a word to anyone about anything. I just assumed everyone was keeping it quiet like Kit, Tori and I. I certainly didn't think anyone here at my school would find out about it.

  I turned around and leaned on the fence, reminding myself to breath, hoping they would leave. I pretended to be interested in the game, so much for my lucky day.

  From behind me he said, “What do you want me to tell him?” Nic replied “That she thinks he's an ass and to bug off." I turned around, and gave him a half smile in agreement with Nic. She grabbed my arm and we walked a little ways down the fence.

  Was Logan insane? Doesn't he know that what he did to me was wrong? I barely had a conversation with him and he attacked me as if that was normal for him. Nic turned to me put her arm around me and said "You okay?"

  "Yeah, I am fine....is that weird or what? Is Logan insane or what? I didn't flirt with him I swear I never even talked to him alone!"

  “He is obviously crazy” she said.

  Nic's my best friend and I knew she would support me no matter what but I wanted her genuine opinion about what she believed. I hadn't said a word to her; it was like she knew what I was thinking. That's what I like about Nic you don't have to spell everything out to her.

  She just started talking "Look Addie I believe every word you told me. You don't have to convince me it's not your fault, or that it happened exactly like you said it did. Since Tori already knew, I verified it with her, and you made it sound less dramatic than it was too. She's worried about you but she's glad you told me.” She took a breath and she held up a finger and pressed on it with her other, “My thoughts are, number one - why would you lie about something like that? It doesn't make sense. Plus, we always tell each other everything no matter what, whether we're at fault or not. Number two,” she held up a second finger “if a guy likes you or you flirted with him, him attacking you or even laying one finger on you without your permission is wrong. Number three - I don't care what any girl has done or said she doesn't deserve to be sexually assaulted. Number four and last but not the least - if he violated you like I know he did, because I saw the bruises, then he is a mean, vicious, crazy son-of-a-bitch who probably has a screw loose or two. So of course, he thinks he's in love with you, he is demented! He sexually assaulted you because you’re gorgeous and he knew you were out of his league. Plus, he's probably never had a girlfriend before."

  I let out a little laugh. "Thanks." I said and wiped a tear from my eye. We waited there until I was able to push them all back. I concentrated on the game and Nic stayed close by.

  After I pulled myself together, Nic and I walked all the way around the field. She took a plastic bottle out of her pocket filled with a clear liquid and she pushed it into my chest, “Here.” It was in a rubbing alcohol container.

  "What's this?" I asked.

  “It'll calm your nerves.” She said. So I took a sip, it tasted awful, I handed it back to her saying “Ewww.” She took a sip and said “Ewww” too.

  “I told you it was gross.”

  She handed it back to me. "I don't want any more of that." I replied. “It's awful.”

  "Come on, one more sip you'll feel better, it'll calm your nerves." Nic said. So I took another swig and so did she. "It is awful" she retorted. “Next time I'll add juice.”

  We ran into people stopping to chat and before I knew it the game was over. To my amazement we did not sit down the entire game, and I did feel better, more relaxed. I hit Nic in the arm “Hand it over – I need one more.”

  We headed out to the bonfire and not five minutes into it Frank came up to me, this time he was alone. I'm standing at the edge of the huge roaring fire and he stood next to me, casually, like he knew me and nudged my arm. "I'm glad you aren't seeing Logan, that guy is bad news and I can tell you're a nice girl."

  "Thanks." I said. "You know if he actually was my boyfriend I would have given him my number."

  He laughed and said "Yeah good point."

  CHAPTER 5

  After the first four weeks of school I hadn't bee
n approached by any boys, no dates for me. Of course, I guess I wasn’t expecting it either. My sister, on the other hand, had been asked out several times over even though she had a boyfriend.

  My sister Tori was short, petite and pretty and all the boys liked her. She had the same bra size as me but since she was short she was what the boys like to call 'stacked'. Because I'm taller I don't look as 'stacked'. I thought that was unfair. All the boys were always fawning all over her and when she would turn them down, she turned them down flat! After they'd come crawling to me for help. I never had any help for them but I would get to know them and sometimes I would be second on their list, never accepting any dates, thinking they had no real interest. Most of the time I just made another friend and friends are good.

  All in all she was much prettier than I. She told me it was only because she took the time to do her hair and make-up making her appearance better. We do have similarities. However, I get to sleep an extra 45 minutes a day! She gets up earlier to shower, style her hair and put on make-up, and dress nice. I don’t care so much, I get up wash my face, brush my teeth, throw on a t-shirt and jeans and I'm good to go. Sometimes, I put a brush through my hair, but sometimes I don't, with my hair being curly-ish leaving it alone looks better. Tori got all the attention and I didn’t really care, we usually didn’t like the same type of guys anyway.

  Since my sister and I were in the same grade, I was hoping not to have any classes with her in High School, but of course, we had first period together which neither one of us liked. The class itself I loved, it was Art class and since it was the first class of the day maybe she'll be too tired to fight with me.

  We used to fight all the time like any siblings would, but, we did get along when we needed to. My sister was held back in first grade because my family was transferred that year, plus to boot, she got pneumonia which put her behind even further, so they held her back. And my mom started me early, which she liked because we always had the same school schedule that way. So there you have it our small story of how we got to be in the same grade. Since we looked similar, we always just told everyone we were twins. It was easier and shorter to tell. Everyone believed it.

  Four weeks into the school year and my sister and I hadn't even spoken in class. Thank goodness it was the only time I saw her during the day. We had no other classes together not even lunch. I was happy about it and I think she feels the same. I was really hoping she wouldn’t speak to me at all in class or embarrass me in front of my friends or potential cute boyfriends either, because I wouldn't stand for that.

  It was Wednesday morning, our Art teacher gave us our assignment and as usual the radio went on and we could talk. The two really cute guys that sat at the front of the class controlled the radio. No one else cared or ever said anything to them because they were the super cool guys of the school. They made sure the music was good, I had no complaints. It was a ritual, teacher gave assignment, radio’s turned on, the two cute guys sat at the front of the room where the teacher normally would and they could screw around and leave class. Sometimes they didn't even show up, however, no one else could get away with any of that.

  This particular day a report came on “A girl was found dead off of Route 77 and even though she wasn't in or near a vehicle when they found her, her injuries were consistent with that of a vehicle that had rolled several times. An abandoned car was also found near the scene of the crime, the vehicle was left with the keys in it and the owner nowhere to be found. Investigators believe the owner of the car stopped to help and was a witness to the accident. The police are still investigating whether the disappearance and the death are connected.”

  Nic said loudly “Oh my Gosh, that's what you saw!” Several people in the class heard her and looked right at us. I shrugged my shoulders, made a goofy face like I had no clue what she was talking about and everyone went about their business. I looked at Nic dumbfounded “What? ...shhhh…”

  “The last dream you wrote down! I read, signed and dated it on Monday!” I put my backpack on my chair and shuffled through my papers until I found my journals, I found the newest one and reviewed the details. I actually didn't have to read it, I remembered, but I wanted to see if what I wrote down was the same as I had remembered.

  “We'll have to investigate all these facts and see how accurate your dream was!” Nic sounded excited. “Come over after school so we can start right away!” Nic started writing down a list of all the things we should check, number one on her list 'Drive down 77 to see where the accident occurred.'

  We had Peyton drive us down 77 that afternoon; it was nice because she never asked a lot of questions so we just told her we wanted to investigate. It was hard to tell from the road where anything happened, but I knew the spot so I pointed where to pull over. We got out of the car and looked over the area. Nic pointed “You can totally tell something rolled into the grass, right there.” She had a smile on her face, both of us were flabbergasted.

  “Now what?” I asked.

  “I don't know – do you remember what the driver of the truck looked like?”

  “No”

  “Do you remember if it was a boy or girl?”

  “It was a guy driving and a girl passenger, a girl with long brown hair.”

  “Well that's a clue.” She wrote it down. “I'll write down all our findings, anything you remember or anything we find. Do you remember what kind of truck it was?”

  “You mean besides a pickup truck? No, it was plain and dark in color.”

  “I thought you said it was white.”

  “It was white in my dream because it was the main subject and when I was driving it but when it rolled it was dark, like navy blue, keep in mind it was a dream…. now what?”

  She kept writing down more notes, probably something like ‘Addie’s lost it, she’s Looney Tunes.’ I started walking around the matted down grass to see if there was anything left behind but there wasn't.

  That following Monday in Art was quiet; everyone was working on their projects listening to the radio as usual. I looked up to glance around and caught notice of the twins. We had actual identical twins in our class and they sat together and they did look exactly alike. Both had this perfect red curly hair and freckles, very cute. My sister and I never sat together. Why chance it? She and her best friend sat next to the twins. I looked down at my paper and started drawing again, and BANG! I almost jumped out of my skin. A stool was pushed over by one of the twins.

  The next thing we knew a cat fight broke out. The twins were hissing and screaming at each other right in front of everyone! The entire class went silent; I was in awe that they were actually fighting like that in public. They were both standing, one of them started swinging. That's when the teacher got involved, a couple of slaps and it got very loud - - the teacher had to yell to get them to stop - - and he told them one more outbreak like that and they’ll get detention! They were lucky Mr. Walker was a very laid back guy who didn’t like confrontations…

  My sister and I exchanged glances from across the room and we both shook our heads. We both knew it meant we would never fight like that again. When the fight was over and everyone had settled back down Tori came over to me and said, “They looked bad didn’t they?” I shook my head. “Do we look like that?” Tori asked.

  “I don't know and I don't want to know, let's just never fight like that again.” We both agreed. I felt like we became instant best friends at that moment. Between this and my other incident we just kept getting closer, nothing like pure chaos to form a bond.

  She sat back down and in that same moment we made eye contact and a new pact for life had been made between us. My sister's smile turned into a surprised look and she pointed her finger toward my right. I turned to see one of the gorgeous guys walking toward me.

  He started talking to me “Can you believe those two fighting like that?”

  “Of course not,” I said, giving my sister a glance and a smile. I looked back at Cale, he was looking right bac
k at me. “How embarrassing...” I commented.

  “Isn’t that your sister over there?” Cale asked thumbing over his shoulder pointing in her direction.

  I lost my smile and took a deep breath and exhaled “Yes it is. Do you want me to introduce you?” He interrupted before I got my last words out “No, no, no, I came over to talk to you. You two are nothing but nice to each other, it's very nice to see. Are you twins?”

  I could have choked, I said “Yes” – because my sister and I are now buds. I looked at her and winked, she just smiled and raised her eyebrows at me a couple of times.

  I can't believe this boy was talking to me, well a boy wasn’t a good description for him, he was more like a God. He was gorgeous, beautiful, mature and cool! His hair was light brown, shoulder length and a little wavy, fine but lots of it. His hair was so nice and looked so soft I just wanted to run my hand through it. He was tall, I think six foot, plus, he wore Frye boots. I love a guy in boots, almost any kind; cowboy, Frye, construction or other leather boots. They are very masculine and sexy at the same time. He had soft grey eyes with bits of gold that were easy to look at and a narrow face (he also had a cute butt).

  I introduced myself “My name is Addie, what’s yours?” Yes, I knew his name but why should he think I ever really noticed him or knew his name. He chuckled and said “You don’t know my name?”

  As my sarcasm escaped me again “No, should I? I'm sorry” but then turned it into sincerity.

  “I guess not, my name is Cale Winters” he said with a big smile that could just make you melt. His teeth nearly perfect, making him totally adorable. I like a guy with a nice smile and teeth.