Twice Bitten

by Diana Greenbird

  I blinked back the sugar that stung my eyes, frozen for a moment. On my periphery I could see Brett. He was quite possibly the only one in the cafeteria who didn’t look like he was enjoying the show. He actually looked a bit worried for Emma. Good. At least one person should be.

  Gossip hadn’t gotten around the school about why Emerson had gotten detention. And if it did, no one had said that he’d only been covering for me. So, everyone was clueless to what I was capable of. To them, I was just the weak new kid who hung out with the school rejects and was literally crippled. What could I do to the queen bee?

  ‘Halloween’s a month away,’ I said, wiping the soda from my face. ‘But I know how prepared you cheerleaders like to be.’

  ‘What the hell are you on about, freak?’ Emma laughed, tossing her blonde hair behind her.

  ‘I thought I’d save you some money on makeup.’ I reared my fist back and punched her in the eye. ‘I figured you’d go for prostitute Barbie as you already have the reputation down for it. But street workers are used to getting roughed up. You’re not complete without a black eye or two. And I mean, I should know, should I? I’m just trash.’

  Emma wailed on the floor. It wasn’t dignified and it sure as hell wasn’t pretty. I couldn’t help the smile on my face.

  Gi looked at me with pure shock on her face. Oh, yeah. She’d sort of asked me not to do the same to Emma as I had with Brett, hadn’t she? Huh. Oh well, I didn’t necessarily promise.

  ‘Sorry,’ I mouthed over to her.

  She didn’t say anything back. Jenny and Martha ended up laughing hysterically at the scene. Possibly more to do with Gi’s reaction. Me (the crippled, soda drenched, barely dressed new kid) punching the head cheerleader in the face and then apologising to her (the resident gay kid who had once been best friend with said wailing cheerleader).

  That was when the teachers decided to turn up. Impeccable timing as always.

  I got suspended for the week. Personally, I thought that maybe that was a little light on how punishments went considering the fancy-pants nature of the school, but I wasn’t exactly going to complain aloud.

  This time Gi had been too shocked to try and intervene as she had for Emerson. She’d apologised for not trying to step in, but I’d shrugged it off. Technically, I’d already sidestepped one suspension and exclusion when Emerson took the fall for me. I might as well accept one on the chin. Figuratively – not literally like Emma had, of course.

  Maybelle wasn’t impressed to say the least when she had to pick me up. At least the sorry state of my appearance got the “why” interrogation part of the lecture out of the way quickly.

  ‘But Emma… surely, she wouldn’t do a thing like this,’ Maybelle said on the drive back home. ‘She’s such a lovely girl. She’s friends with Gi, isn’t she? And, oh, Richard had nothing but nice things to say about her.’

  ‘Richard can suck a dick,’ I mumbled under my breath.

  ‘What?’

  ‘I said, Richard sure knew which girl to pick. As in for a girlfriend. I was being sarcastic,’ I said, covering for myself.

  Maybelle, mm-hmmed me.

  ‘Still, I think you might be barking up the wrong tree accusing Emma of such an awful thing – and violence is never the answer,’ she said pointedly as though she’d forgotten the main point of her lecture.

  ‘It was definitely her. She got all pissy at me last weekend when I went shopping with Gi and did the whole “you better watch out” speech.’

  ‘Officer Barnett wouldn’t raise a daughter like that.’

  ‘Officer Barnett is Emma’s dad?’

  ‘Yes,’ Maybelle nodded. ‘He goes to our church and he’s a wonderful guy. You remember him from when he came around to question you about your accident, don’t you?’

  I nodded, numbly.

  ‘Him and his wife are simply darling. I couldn’t imagine them raising a daughter who would behave in such an awful, awful way. Her and the cheer squad helped me raise money for last year’s Christmas donation drive.

  ‘I know you’re new around here, but you can’t go accusing people before you have all the facts, especially if you’re going to react with anger.’

  The rest of Maybelle’s lecture faded into the background. Emma’s dad was a cop. Well…Hell on a hotcake. I was screwed.

  Throughout my week’s suspension, AA Team kept me in the loop with what was going on back at school through regular updates on our group chat. Emerson managed to bug me though text talk since he was missing his opportunity in class.

  Emerson: Do you just come up with a plan each weekend on how you’re going to get out of a week’s worth of school?

  Me: Yes, this was all part of a larger plan to coast by my last year of high school.

  Jenny: I can’t tell whether you’re being sarcastic or not in text-speak. Use emojis.

  Me: I’m not using emojis.

  Jenny: Emoji prude.

  The next few messages were sexual themed emojis thanks to Robbie. I might not use them, but I knew what they meant.

  Martha: Keep it in your pants. No one wants to hear about you and Jen getting it on.

  Robbie: EVERYONE wants to hear about us getting it on.

  Gi: Have to concur with Martha. Keep your teeny weenie in your pants.

  Jenny: Before you say it – no, we don’t want a size update.

  Robbie: Just because you don’t want everyone to know how badly you’re destroyed down there.

  Jenny: ROBBIE!

  Martha: Who wants to bet Jenny’s privately ripping Rob a new one in their DMs?

  Gi: 98%

  Emerson: 100%

  Emerson: She’s in my class and looks like the vein in her head is going to explode in anger.

  Gi: Bet you’re glad you’re missing out on all this, eh, Liv?

  Me: How can I be missing out when you guys are giving me the play by play every second?

  After my week’s suspension was up, Gi picked me up from school like before. She seemed down. There hadn’t been anything in the group chat to explain what was up with her, so I had to assume it was something to do with home.

  Emma hadn’t retaliated against the AA Team for my behaviour, which was what Emerson’s main concern had been when he messaged me. Something about how I was messing up Gi’s senior year by antagonising Emma who had been ignoring her lately enough that she could go to school without the fear that Emma was going to screw up her life. Right before I’d blocked his number, I’d sent a special emoji downloaded just for him in the shape of a middle finger. I had to put up with hearing him in the group chat, but that didn’t mean I was going to listen to him one-on-one.

  The AA Team didn’t comment on Gi’s mood at lunch, they just attempted to cheer her up with benign things that would usually work on any other day. Emerson even tried offering her the things he had to eat in his own “lunch”. Yes, Emerson brought his own lunch. No, he never ate any of it. I wondered if Gi ever realised this.

  ‘What’s up with Gi?’ I asked Jenny.

  Talking about Gi now wasn’t covert, but with everyone trying to cheer her up, they weren’t really paying attention to me. Emerson could obviously hear me, but like he was going to call me out on it.

  The rest of the group were in the seats of the auditorium, even Robbie, who was trying to do consecutive celebrity impersonations to cheer Gi up. Jenny and I were the only ones sitting on the stage. (Me, because I wanted to be as far away from Emerson as possible since he’d spent all day being the worst pain in my ass you could imagine, and Jenny because she didn’t want me to sit alone).

  Really, I thought Jenny was actually just trying to pump me for information about what was going on between me and Emerson. Jenny – ever the romantic – was still attempting to figure out the question Gi had asked me last Saturday: whether there was anything going on between us.

  Apparently, Emerson acting like a prick was something so impossibly unusual for Jenny to comprehend that meant for sure there was something going o
n between us. She’d been one of the only ones from the AA Team to witness his less than stellar performance around me. She also shared a class with Emerson and Emma – and apparently, he was downright hostile to her since she had pulled the stunt of taking my clothes and attempting to humiliate me in front of the school.

  Jenny looked uncertain about whether she was going to answer my question about Gi, but she eventually caved. She wasn’t as big into gossip as Martha was, but this group didn’t really keep secrets. Ironic, as the two new members they’d chosen did nothing but keep secrets.

  ‘The auditions for the school play went up today,’ Jenny said.

  ‘And it’s The Wizard of Oz?’ I asked. That musical gave me the creeps. Flying monkeys, creepy gremlin things – munchkins, whatever you wanted to call them. I was not a fan.

  ‘And she can’t audition,’ Jenny said.

  ‘She wants to?’

  Jenny looked all broken hearted on behalf of her friend. ‘Gi used to star in all the plays. But she can’t even walk down the halls without someone heckling her. She doesn’t want to have to literally be up on stage and have an entire audience go at it.’

  ‘That’s absolutely sh-’

  ‘Hey! Pretty girl! You want me to walk you to class or what?’ Robbie shouted over to Jenny.

  I hadn’t realised lunch was over. Had I really been fending off Jenny’s questions about Emerson for over half an hour? Jesus.

  My head ruminated on Gi’s dilemma throughout all of the next class. Emerson was sitting next to me; I tried to ignore his presence as much as he was ignoring me.

  It had been a long time since I’d cared about someone else other than myself. I wasn’t heartless. I didn’t forget what it was like to consider other people’s wants and dreams and want to play a part in making those come true. It had just been a long time. Not since Christian.

  I considered the promise I’d made to Brianna to try here and that I’d already decided I wasn’t going to let Emma walk all over Gi. What would one more thing on that list really mean anyway? It wouldn’t exactly harm her or any of the AA Team if I involved myself in this. I was already their “friend”. It didn’t seem right that Emma got to have her normal life and every extracurricular she set her mind to when Gi didn’t even get this one little thing. If Gi had really been part of the Cheer crowd before, that meant she’d had to give up cheerleading – all her old friends and god knew how many other extra curriculars where she wasn’t welcome anymore.

  ‘She’s auditioning for that play,’ I said, I hadn’t realised I’d said it aloud until Emerson replied to me.

  ‘Gi? She’s not,’ Emerson said, like I’d heard some rumour and been stupid enough to believe it.

  ‘We’re going to help her audition for that play,’ I corrected. ‘And then we’re going to make damn sure she gets a part and if anyone tries anything when she’s performing, we’re going to deal with them.’

  ‘We are?’

  ‘Are you actually her friend, or is that just part of the Emerson-alias?’ I asked. (I was genuinely curious).

  ‘I care about Gi.’

  ‘Then prove it.’

  ‘Why are you bothered about whether she gets to be part of the play or not?’

  ‘I’m part of the AA Team, aren’t I?’ I said.

  Emerson grumbled reluctantly. He couldn’t deny it. He’d only been their friend a week more than me.

  Emerson looked like the last thing he wanted was for us to be involved in a plan that would require us to spend more time with each other since we were already on the same class schedule. But he just nodded his head slightly. Gi, apparently, came first. I’d take it.

  This year’s production was of We Will Rock You. Since the closest I got to the arts world was my love of the Classics, I wasn’t exactly knowledgeable about musical theatre, but a quick Google had me informed that it was a play based off the popular Queen songs.

  ‘Can she sing?’ I whispered to Emerson as we waited outside the theatre.

  I’d told Gi that I wanted to meet her at the theatre hall before she drove me back to school since I thought I’d left something from my bag there at lunch. She hadn’t turned up yet, but she said she’d show; it wasn’t like she’d been clued into our plan.

  ‘Before she came out, she was in the church choir,’ Emerson said. ‘She was asked to leave when Emma’s video made the rounds.’

  ‘Oh.’

  ‘You hang out with her every day and you really don’t know anything about her, do you?’ Emerson said. His expression was annoyed. ‘If you’re only her friend to get to me, the least you could do is not be a shite one.’

  ‘I’m not her friend to get to you,’ I hissed. ‘And I’m not shite.’ I mocked his stupid British accent. ‘I’m helping her get this part, aren’t I?’

  ‘For reasons unknown,’ Emerson said, as though I had some ulterior motive other than helping Gi do something she wanted to.

  I couldn’t exactly say I’d not given him any reason for him to doubt me, but it still stung a little. I was used to pushing people away and keeping them at arm’s length. It hurt when I realised how well it had been working. Not with Emerson. I couldn’t give a rat’s ass what that vamp thought of me – but in Gi’s case. She was a real nice girl and she’d been nothing but kind to me since I’d transferred here.

  ‘Gi was the first person to even offer their help when I came here,’ I said. First, showing me to the gym, then helping me escape church and join the AA Team. ‘I’m trying to be nice, asshole.’

  ‘God help us all if this is Olivia Morgan when she’s nice.’

  Emerson was saved my retort when Gi appeared around the corner.

  ‘You didn’t already go in?’ Gi asked me as we waited outside the doors. ‘There’s some auditions in, like, five minutes you know. You won’t be able to look around when they start.’ She spotted Emerson. ‘Emerson? What are you doing here?’

  ‘Jenny’s in there,’ Emerson said. ‘She wanted some emotional support for her audition,’ he lied expertly. ‘I was heading in when I saw Liv.’

  ‘Oh, you wouldn’t mind if we watched her audition, would you?’ I added, pretending I was completely surprised. I was a little surprised that Jenny was in there. I’d assumed it would be Martha who would be auditioning considering how much theatre meant to her.

  ‘You want to… watch Jenny audition?’

  ‘I didn’t think musicals were your thing, love,’ Emerson said to me. The stupid term of endearment was back now Gi was here. Goodie, we were pretending to be civil again.

  ‘They’re not really,’ I said. ‘But, you know, if Jenny needs the support.’

  ‘Oh, she probably really does,’ Gi said, empathetically. ‘She’s only ever made it to the chorus a couple of times and gets really bad stage fright during the auditions. She’s not that bad when she’s in front of a crowd, but I think it’s all about being judged to see if she’s good enough to make the cut. Martha doesn’t help at all.’

  I could only imagine what Martha would be like. Obnoxious, probably condescending… yeah, that wouldn’t help with Jenny’s stage fright.

  ‘She probably would have asked me to tag along,’ Gi mused. ‘But I…’ she trailed off.

  Yeah. Jenny wouldn’t have wanted to put Gi in that position to make her watch others audition for the part she wanted to play.

  We walked into the theatre. It was strange to be in our usual lunch hangout in a capacity where other students were here and using the space for its intended purpose. Jenny and Martha were there. Emerson headed towards them ahead of us, probably to tell them of our plan, and I looked around the seats, pretending to be looking for the item that I’d “lost”.

  ‘Found it,’ I told Gi, when Emerson looked over his shoulder at us, beckoning me over.

  We sat down in our seats next to Martha and Jenny.

  ‘Thanks for coming,’ Jenny said. From the tone of voice she used, she probably wouldn’t be getting a leading role; she might as well have
punctuated the sentence with a wink.

  Martha rolled her eyes at Jenny, taking tiny sips of water, which she said was helping keep her throat lubed up. I gagged at the phrase. Jenny sniggered behind her hand.

  The drama teacher, Ms Phillips, went through the motions of telling us how the audition process was going to work. First would be the singing auditions – and then reading for parts. It was supposed to help her keep in mind who could sing, who could act, and who could do both for when she was casting. The call backs would be held in two weeks, the final casting list posted the week after.

  I’d never carried a tune in my life – but I supposed acting couldn’t be that hard. I was sitting here pretending I gave a shit about musicals for one, and no one had called me out for being a complete phony.

  The sign-up sheet had been alphabetised; Ms Phillips called the names of those wanting to audition. Gi’s surname was central – and thankfully before Jenny’s so she wouldn’t be able to leave early and miss her shot. Emerson had added her name to the audition sheet when I’d been messing around in the seats looking for my missing item.

  Whilst the auditions went on, I had a look around the audience for trouble. Musical theatre didn’t exactly scream “homophobia” – it was probably the most gay-friendly place there was in high school – but I didn’t want anything screwing this up for Gi. I wasn’t doing this to humiliate her.

  Emma wasn’t here, but there was one of her usual friends, Lisa. She was a descent singer I was unhappy to find out.

  Several other people auditioned before Gi’s name was called out. Her eyes widened in shock and she took in a breath.

  ‘Go up there, then,’ I said.

  ‘Liv, I can’t. I didn’t even sign up.’ Gi looked between us. Then at Jenny and Martha.

  ‘Come on. You missed out on two plays because of Emma and they’ve sucked without you,’ Jenny said.

  ‘I wouldn’t say they’d sucked-’ Martha argued. (She, no doubt, had been part of the cast).

  ‘This is your last chance to be in a high school play. Don’t let Emma take this from you, too,’ Jenny interrupted over her friend.

  I stared at Emerson. If he didn’t agree with this plan, he wouldn’t’ve come along.