Page 4 of Finding Her

bear

Let me tell you something about teenage girls: they terrify me.

You might think a guy who chooses to spend his free time playing a full-contact sport wouldn’t be scared during a gym class, but fourteen-year-olds are vicious .

And when you’re the only guy in a group of them, you automatically become a target.

So I had to be on a strong defence during the dodgeball game, as every girl aimed straight for my head—even though that wasn’t allowed—or my junk—which shouldn’t have been allowed but Mrs. Dixon apparently had no concerns about.

It was only because of this brutal, life-or-death style game they had started that I was whipping dodgeballs across the room at full speed, just trying to get some of them out so I could have a breather.

I didn’t feel bad when they got hit a little too hard and walked off to the sidelines, rubbing at the spot they’d been hit like I’d severely injured them, because they started it first.

But I did feel an ounce of guilt when I caught one of them straight in the face.

The brunette girl was a little older than the other girls here—definitely not in my grade, but not a wide-eyed freshman on her first day of school, either—and she’d been hovering in the back corner for most of the game, probably trying to wait until there were less people to attack her before she came into the middle.

I hadn’t been aiming for her, but the girl I had been aiming for ducked at just the right second to let the people go sailing over her shoulder and into the corner where the brunette was hiding.

And from the way she jerked back then cupped her hands over her face, I had a feeling the ball hit her harder than I was intending.

To be fair, the blue-haired girl I’d been aiming for, Mia, was the only girl in this class that I knew and on a related note, had been the one to tell the other girls to aim for my junk, so she would have deserved it.

“Barrett!” Mrs. Dixon snapped, as if I’d done it intentionally. She’d been much less concerned in the first round of the game, when I was clocked in the head. But I wasn’t a total jerk, so I jogged over to the girl and asked, “Are you okay?”

Only the top half of her face was visible since her hands were still cupped over her nose and mouth, but that was enough for me to able to see the tears welling up in her big brown eyes.

And dealing with teenage girls was bad enough, but crying teenage girls?

I thought I might die right then and there.

“Don’t cry,” I said.

“I’m not crying,” the girl said, her voice muffled by her hands. But her insistence was ruined by the tear that immediately slipped down her cheek.

I didn’t have to look around to know that I was being glared at from all angles.

And while I didn’t care what anyone thought of me here, I didn’t think it would be good for the hockey team’s image for me to become known as the boy who made a girl cry on the first day, so I awkwardly patted a hand on her shoulder and said, “It’s going to be okay. ”

Yeah, I wasn’t really known for comforting people.

Behind her, Mia crossed her arms and sneered at me, clearly unimpressed.

I glared right back at her. She was a family friend, whose older sister I was supposed to magically fall in love with one day according to our parents, and I’d never particularly liked either sister.

Claire, the one I was supposed to love, just got on my nerves, but Mia was a brat.

I wasn’t even remotely surprised that she’d been viciously aiming for me in the game.

“Take her to the nurse,” Mrs. Dixon ordered.

Normally, I might have tried to get out of it and suggested maybe a friend should go with her, but I didn’t have any desire to stay in here and be torn limb from limb, so I nodded stiffly and used my hand on her shoulder to push her forward like Coach had been doing to me in the hallway.

But I guess she didn’t like it anymore than I had because she immediately shrugged me off and walked forward on her own.

I caught up to her just before the doors and pushed them open so we could step into the hallway.

Right where Coach was still standing.

“Barrett!” He snapped, his voice echoing off the walls. “What did you do?”

“Nothing!” I looked at the girl again and the blood that was now starting to seep through her fingers. At least no more tears had fallen down her face yet. “It was an accident!”

He probably would have continued yelling at me, if the girl didn’t choose that exact moment to drop her hands, letting the blood splatter everywhere.

All it took was one look at her nose to know this girl needed to go to the nurse now and I wasn’t going to let the opportunity to get away go to waste.

Ignoring the way she’d shaken me off before, I grabbed her elbow and tugged her down the hall.

“Wait, wait,” she mumbled as we reached the front doors. We had to go outside to get to the nurse’s office, since it was over in the administrative building. “I’m gonna get blood everywhere.”

Before I could suggest finding some extra towels in a storage closet or something, she lifted her purple HARTWELL GYM shirt, not fully taking it off but using the front of it to stop the blood pouring out of her nose.

If I was more of a gentleman, I would have focused on that, instead of how having the shirt off gave me a full view of her black sports bra and tanned stomach underneath.

But as it was, my eyes automatically drifted down and let me tell you, it was hard to pull them back up.

“You’re gonna ruin your shirt,” I said, way too belatedly. The purple fabric was already covered in blood and I wasn’t sure any amount of scrubbing would get it out.

“And whose fault is that?” She asked, her voice surprisingly bright and happy for the situation at hand.

I opened the door to the administrative building and trailed after her as she headed down the hall to the nurse’s office, wondering exactly how long I had to stay.

Did I actually have to walk her the whole way there when she clearly knew the way?

And what happened when we got there? Could I leave and just blow off the rest of first period or was I supposed to stay until the end of class? It wasn’t like she needed me at all.

“I didn’t mean to throw the ball at you,” I said. She glanced at me, her eyes looking like yeah right , but then she just shrugged.

“Whatever you say,” she said. There it was again, the peppy voice. Her few tears had dried up by now—thank goodness—but I hadn’t expected her to bounce back this quickly.

I could have tried to defend myself and really convince her it hadn’t been intentional, but what was the point?

I had nothing to gain from her believing me, and maybe it was for the best that she actually didn’t like me, anyway.

If all the girls in the class complained about me being there, maybe the school would pull me out of the class.

“I’ve got it from here,” she said as we reached the right hallway. Before I could ask what she meant, she flounced ahead of me, turning into the nurse’s office before I even got the chance to blink.

Did she really just ditch me? Not that I cared. Actually, I was better off like this because at least now, if anybody asked, I could honestly say that she didn’t want me to stick around. But I wasn’t used to being dismissed so easily, and I wasn’t really sure how to react to it.

I couldn’t just stand in the hallway where any teacher might stumble upon me and wonder what I was doing, or worse, where the girl might come back out and think I was waiting for her, so I hightailed it outside and found a spot on the quad to wait out the rest of the period.

I’d have to go back to the gym to change into my uniform and get my stuff before second period, but there was still half an hour left and I wasn’t going back earlier than I had to.

Not sure what else to do, I pulled out my phone.

Group Name: The Penalty Box

Members: Bear, Tino, Crossy, Mako

Bear

I think I just broke a girl’s nose

Tino

You think??

You’re not sure?

Bear

Well it was bleeding

But I’m not a doctor

Crossy

How did it happen??

Bear

Gym

Crossy

That is not an answer

Tino

Didn’t manage to convince coach to get you out of gym then?

I sent back the middle finger emotion then pocketed my phone.

I never should have told Tino about the mess-up on my schedule, but as my roommate, he’d been there with me when I received it and flipped out.

If I’d known I wasn’t going to be able to get out of it immediately, I probably would have kept it a secret so I didn’t give him ammunition to annoy me, but hindsight.

And anyway, it didn’t matter. I didn’t care what Coach or the school administration said—I would be getting out of this class before the month was up.