The Best Year - 14. Chapter 14

I knew I wouldn’t see Luke until his orientation was over. It didn’t keep me from scanning the halls before school officially started for the morning. I timed my arrival so that I wouldn’t have to wait for the morning dismissal bell in the cafeteria with everyone else. My nerves would have given me away and I didn’t want to have to answer all of their questions, especially Ally’s. After last night, every time I thought about her, I felt guilty. That was something I didn’t really feel, I usually liked a girl, then got tired of them, or they me, and we would part ways. Ally talked of the future or at least the future up until Prom. The thought made me shudder and I glanced around to make sure no one saw me before I walked to first period.

As the day got started though, I couldn’t avoid people. They all seemed to ignore my glare and greet me anyway. After the first couple though, I felt better. At least people still saw me as someone worth their time. That I wasn’t giving off too many loser vibes yet. English was a disaster; I hadn’t done the required reading for the class and before I could make some smartass remark Miss. Chapel took off her black rimmed glasses and seemed to count to ten. Being an AP class, any lax in classwork was taken seriously, seriously enough for a lecture at me while the overall majority of girls giggled and whispered advice.

When the class ended with a paper that only I had to write. Not about Moby Dick, but the importance of preparedness, ten thousand words. Due Friday. I wanted to crunch up the yellow post-it note Miss. Chapel handed me on my way out, but her sparrow-like beady eyes seemed to watch me all the way down the hallway.

The next period didn’t go any better. Heather and Toby decided this was the day they were going to stop sexting one another under the table and pay attention to me. I actually wanted to pay attention in Calculus. I didn’t want to continue to feel like my entire life was out of sync all of a sudden. That I had some semblance of control and I thought the easiest thing to reign in was schoolwork, I at least knew it would be a constant thing in my life until around the end April. That and swimming anyway, but Coach Tate would expect more from me than just my attention.

“I think he’s got cum in his ears,” Toby whispered, and I shot him a glare after jotting down some notes.

“Shut the fuck up,” I hissed ruffling a paper, hoping pothead Tuck didn’t hear me.

“What’s wrong with you?” Toby asked and I saw more than just him leaning over to listen to the conversation. It seemed like everyone within earshot wanted to know my business.

“Nothing,” I answered shrugging. “Why aren’t you sexing up Heather’s phone?”

“I can multi-task,” Toby countered grabbing his phone he quickly sent Heather a text. When she read it I noticed her face flush, but she quickly sent a response.

“You really have been distracted today,” Heather said turning to glance over her shoulder.

“Class,” Tuck groaned as he grabbed a handful of Cheetos. “Our first exam is coming up, now is the time to pay attention.”

“No, I haven’t,” I said after Tuck turned back to the board, he was chewing too loudly to hear anything going on now.

“You’ve not said one smartass thing dude,” Toby countered smirking. “We haven’t been threatened with a detention yet.”

“You look like you got cock slapped this morning,” I said turning to face him. “There, happy?”

When Toby grinned and Heather laughed, which did prompt another groan from Mr. Tuck they settled back down and started sexting one another again. Finally left alone, the rest of the period went by slowly, but when the bell rang I jumped and quickly gathered my notes.

“Look at you,” Heather said, “jumpy as a damn cat.”

“Shut up,” I hissed shoving everything into my backpack.

“Seriously, bro,” Toby said putting his arm around me. All smiles were gone, and all the joking tone left his voice. I saw the concern and I wanted to break away from the casual embrace that should have felt normal and safe. Toby is one of my best friends, but I couldn’t tell him anything about Luke or how I had been spending my weekends. They were supposed to think I had gone through my own personal hell. That I would one day be able to hang out with them again once my parents gave up on trying to change me and go back to half-ass ignoring me. I knew it would be easier if I just ignored the past few weeks. If I would just ignore Luke, but I couldn’t, not after last night.

“I’m fine,” I answered shrugging him off, turning to Heather. “Heather suck my bro’s dick more often, so he goes back to thinking clearly.”

“Shut up!” Heather hissed glancing around before she smacked me on the back of the head. “Loser.”

“I agree with Jack,” Toby added letting his hand fall to his side. His comment earned him an elbow, but Heather leaned into Toby as they walked down the hallway to their next class. I had science next period, so I walked up the stairs and down the science wing. Biology was a fun class. We were just about to begin our first round of dissections next week and we were going over anatomy and physiology. I was lucky enough for this class to be during the lunch period too, so I was anticipating a lot of fun watching people dissect a pig after eating their soggy pizzas. It helped that the teacher was so laid back and motherly that she didn’t care if people talked as long as they kept their grades up. Connor was my lab partner, so I had to nod and answer his fucking questions and pretend to be listening when he droned on about Bailey Ashton’s party.

“I’m sure any party you’re planning this year will be awesome though,” he said after he finally caught on to my annoyance with him. “They always are.”

“Yeah,” I offered. “Thanks man.”

“So, I saw some of the church kids in the hallway,” he whispered resting his head on his hand. “That dude you didn’t want to come to the school and another girl.”

“What do you mean?” I asked crossing my arms. “About me not wanting him to come to our school?”

“That’s why you pulled that shit in front of his stuck-up mom, right?” Connor asked his eyes squinting slightly.

“No, I did it to be an ass,” I answered shaking my head. “I don’t care if they come to our school or not.”

“Alright,” he said still looking at me until I shrugged my shoulders and shot him another glare.

I could tell he was about to start apologizing again when Mrs. Morgan announced that it was time for lunch. Standing, I shrugged past Connor and walked around the table that we shared with two more people to put too much distance between us for him to start falling over himself to get back in my good graces. I had already decided that the trashcan trip he took was a mistake. That I might need to do it again, this time letting him know to keep his nose out of my business. Smiling I walked down the stairs and got into line at the cafeteria and waited for my turn to be handed a tray of slop and sent on my way.

When I found my table Ally was already sitting there and when she saw me she scooted my chair out and I faked a smile as I crossed the cafeteria and slid into my usual chair, my back against the far wall. I could see the entire cafeteria from here and I immediately scanned the room for any sign of Luke or anyone else that would be taking orientation with him. I didn’t know how long they would last, but it wasn’t like our school was difficult to navigate, I expected him to already be on his own and going to classes.

“Hey,” Ally greeted, reaching up she grabbed my chin and turned my head to face her.

“Hi,” I greeted surprising her with a quick peck on the lips.

“Stop it,” she groaned smoothing out her lip gloss by rubbing her lips together. “My Dad could be in here.”

“I can spot Welker from a mile away,” I said casually throwing my arm over the back of her chair. “You not eating today?”

“No, the lettuce looked questionable,” she said as she scooted her chair closer to mine. “Not as bad as that, what is that?”

“I think it started out as spaghetti,” I answered shrugging as I ignored my food. Seeing her, smelling her usual mixture of strawberry, and some sort of sickeningly sweet perfume knotted my stomach up with guilt again.

“So, what have you been up to?” She asked as we waited for Toby, Derek, and the girls to join us at the table. I nodded my head at Connor when he made eye contact before he sat down with his friends at the table next to ours.

“Being grounded and swimming,” I answered glancing over to smile at her. “You still on Welker’s bad side?”

“No, he can’t stay mad at me,” she said grinning. “I’m his sweet and innocent little girl after all.”

“You have his ass fooled,” I joked and laughed when she elbowed me in the side.

“So, it’s true,” Ally said, and I glanced around at her to see what she meant. I hadn’t banked on her agreeing with me. Then I noticed she was looking out across the cafeteria, I followed her gaze and bit the back of my bottom lip when I saw Luke and a girl that had to be a freshman or sophomore heading our way.

“What?” I asked trying to get her attention.

“Luke Clarke,” she hissed rolling her eyes. “Ever since that night at the pool I’ve been so annoyed with him.”

Looking around the cafeteria I saw that Heather was leading the rest of our friends towards our table. They hadn’t noticed Luke, but when I looked back at him and the girl, I saw that Tuley’s ass of a friend had. It also didn’t take long to see that Tuley had put him up to something, him and his other greasy-faced friends were laughing and pointing towards Luke and their friend.

“Where are you going?” Ally asked as I stood.

“Tuley,” I growled as Ally grabbed my hand.

“You know how they are, why do you care?” She asked and I glanced down at her to see that she had noticed Tuley’s buddy dodging people and chairs, closing the gap between him and Luke.

I wanted to call out, to make Luke pay attention to the dumbass about to ruin his first day at a real school with some dumbass move. Instead I slid out of Ally’s grasp and quickly walked around our table. I shrugged past other seniors heading towards our usual congregation at the back of the cafeteria. When I got a better look at the guy, I saw that it was the idiot that blindsided me during that brawl in the gym. Luke finally noticed me, and I nodded my head toward the dumbass. Luke didn’t seem to understand what I was trying to do, but I smiled when I rammed my shoulder into Tuley’s friend, harder than I expected. People started laughing as the dumbass fell between two freshmen sitting at the table behind him. He took both their trays with him to the floor and fell more than once in the cheap spaghetti sauce as he tried to scramble to his feet.

“Oops, didn’t see you there dude,” I grunted as I glanced around to make sure Tuley wasn’t coming after me. Still seeing him sitting there dumbstruck, I turned back to Luke.

“I’m going to fucking…” Tuley’s Friend started, but I shook my head and stepped out of the way of a foot that kicked out towards me.

“Shut up, dumbass, go back to your side of the cafeteria,” I countered crossing my arms, hoping like hell he didn’t take a swing at me. The last thing I needed was to be getting into another fight. Welker may actually make good on his promises to take away shit, even if it would make my life easier to miss out on Prom this year.

“Why did you do that?” Luke asked and I noticed the girl reached over and tugged on Luke’s shirt sleeve. I clenched my jaw tighter as I turned back to Luke, flushing at the way the casual touch between them made me feel.

“Get out of here, Luke” I hissed when Luke hesitated beside me. “He was about to do the same thing to you.”

“Really?” Luke asked turning to look around for the guy that bolted from the cafeteria.

“Yeah,” I answered turning around. I walked back to my seat hoping that Luke wouldn’t follow me back to my table.

“Paybacks a bitch,” Derek said as I got back to the table. We quickly knocked knuckles as I walked around to my chair next to Ally’s. She had her arms crossed and was shooting daggers at someone and when I looked up I saw that Luke and the girl had followed me.

“Are you lost?” Toby asked noticing them too.

“Just because he…” Ally started, but I reached up and put my hand on her crossed arms, grabbing her hand and gently pulling it free so I could hold it. I hoped it would be enough to make her happy.

“Hey, Luke,” I greeted my stomach twisting as I willed myself not to look at anyone else at the table. “We have room, don’t we?”

“No,” Ally mumbled scooting closer to me, but I saw Lily slide her salad bowl over to make room and Toby did the same for the girl that Luke brought with him.

“Thanks,” he offered as he pulled a chair over for the girl then got one for himself.

“Is that your girlfriend?” Ally asked not even looking at the girl she was talking about and when I squeezed her hand, she slid it out of mine and rolled her eyes.

“She’s my cousin, you know this,” Luke answered smirking as he examined his food. “She goes to our church.”

“Hi Allison,” the girl greeted, and I heard Toby and Derek snicker. The girl had balls at least.

“Shut up,” Ally hissed, and I saw both Toby and Derek jump as she kicked them under the table. “We’re not taking in church strays right now.”

“It’s just lunch,” Luke countered shrugging. “Right?”

“This is our table,” Heather said offering Ally a small smile. “It is kind of crowded now.”

“Come on guys,” I said sighing. “We can slide another table over tomorrow.”

“Tomorrow?” Ally asked her eyebrows cocked as she studied me. Not wanting to look at her, I looked around and saw that everyone had a mixture of amusement and confusion.

“It’s alright,” Luke answered shrugging. “Come on Olivia.”

“Ally,” I sighed, “come on.”

“Fine,” she said waving her hands. “Stay.”

“So welcoming,” the girl said and that earned the guys another kick under the table.

“Dude, rein in your woman,” Derek said reaching down to rub his knees. “I’m trying to eat.”

“Shut up, Derek,” Ally countered, “or i’ll break your kneecaps.”

“We need those for practice tonight,” Toby said shaking his head. “We all knew this would happen anyway; the Churchy bunch got to our boy.”

“So, Olivia,” Derek said winking at me. This time I was the one that shot my leg out and connected with his knee. He busted out somewhere between a laugh and a string of curse words as he reached down and rubbed his knee again.

“What?” Olivia asked smoothing out her soft blond hair. I could see the resemblance to Luke now and that made my face flush all over again.

“Nothing,” Lily answered shaking her head. “Derek was about to be an ass.”

“No way to talk about your boyfriend,” Derek countered pretending to pout.

“Well,” Lily said reaching up to pat Derek on the shoulder. “You were about to be an ass.”

“What grade are you in anyway?” Ally asked seeming to zero in on Olivia.

“Sophomore,” Olivia answered smiling. “Calm down I’m not after Jackson, he’s a bit too mean for me.”

“Dude, shot down,” Toby joked grabbing his fork as Heather elbowed him.

“You remember that,” Ally said, but I saw that she was trying not to smile. The half-smile did more to comfort me than anything though and I finally felt some of the knots loosen in my stomach. I had expected more of a mess, but I could tell everyone around me were biting their tongues. We did more eating and picking around at our food than actually talking and it wasn’t an easy silence. It would have been easier for Luke and Olivia to find their own table, to find their own friends that likely had lunch somewhere in the cafeteria too. Part of me wondered if Luke was somehow testing me, to see if I held up to my promises last night. The thought didn’t make me angry though, I knew I had something to prove to him. I had already fucked up his first attempt at going here, hopefully I wouldn’t again.

The bell rang, surprising everyone at the table and snapped us out of our uneasy silence. I actually welcomed the next half of the day. As long as Connor kept his mouth shut for the rest of Biology, all I had next was Spanish and History. The two cakewalk classes on my schedule. The only thing that worried me was seeing Toby and Derek in History. We never really fought over the years and if we did, they never lasted longer than a day or so. I couldn’t remember the last time I kept anything from them.

After Biology, I darted into the room just as the bell rang, Mr. Paige glanced over at me and motioned for me to close the door behind me. When I did, he smiled and pushed his glasses up with his index finger. His white hair and mustache were always meticulously groomed, and he wore sweater vests no matter what time of year it was.

Taking my seat, I opened my history notebook. Looking down at my doodles and scribbles from last week I turned it over to a clean page before turning to Derek and Toby. They were talking to one another, but I couldn’t hear what they were saying, so I knew it had to be about me.

“What are you two dumbasses clucking about?” I asked leaning toward them so I could whisper.

“About you nearly getting your balls cut off over those churchers,” Toby answered smirking at Derek. I rolled my eyes when he held up his hand for a high five.

“I didn’t want them telling Mom I was mean to them,” I countered and as I grabbed for my bag to retrieve a pen I cursed under my breath. “And Luke isn’t bad.”

“We’ve been replaced,” Derek muttered glancing over his shoulder at Toby.

“Knock it off,” I groaned loud enough for Mr. Paige to clear his throat. He was muttering on about the Revolutionary War the first stop on our history tour that never seemed to get past World War I.

“Dude,” Derek countered after seeing that I wasn’t in the mood for jokes. “If he’s cool with you, then he’s cool with us.”

“Yeah,” Toby added. “We’re not going to give you shit, the girls will do that for us anyway. You know we’re bros.”

“He’s just a friend, damn,” I hissed clicking the top of the pen. “We’re friends with everyone in this stupid school.”

“And you’re the only one getting pissed off about us talking about the new guy,” Derek whispered glancing towards the front of the room.

“Sorry,” I said biting my bottom lip.

“Damn,” Toby gasped, “they really have rubbed off on him, he apologized for being an ass.”

“Shut up,” I groaned and they both laughed.

“Fellas,” Mr. Paige said, and I turned just in time to see him adjust his glasses again. The sides of his hands were black from wiping away the ink from the dry erase markers. He was never bothered enough to look for an eraser, it slowed down his droning. He did hate people being loud enough to interrupt his train of thought though.

“Sorry,” Derek muttered leaning back in his chair.

“Speaking of the little angel,” Toby said as the door handle jiggled. I glanced through the thick glass on the door and saw Luke preparing himself to knock. Mr. Paige hated tardiness worse than talking, as that meant he had to actually put the lid back on the marker and walk over to the door. Usually he’d just wave his hand and dismiss them to detention.

“Fuck off,” I muttered as Paige got to the door and opened it.

“Sorry,” Luke said as he stepped into the room. “I just finished with my orientation.”

“Bet he chose gay,” Derek joked and I felt my face flush, but I didn’t turn around to look at him.

“Take a seat there’s an empty one behind Mr. Forrest there,” he said as he closed the door behind Luke and was already talking to himself about where he left off. I watched as Luke scanned the room for any other available seat before he walked down my row and slid into the seat behind me.

After Luke opened his notebook, I shot a glare at Toby and Derek. They were looking over at Luke and when they saw me, they smirked and decided to talk about what was going on with football. I tuned them out when they started complaining about still being benched. It would be the last game they were suspended by Welker over that brawl in the gym. I couldn’t concentrate on them if I tried though. I became intensely aware that Luke was sitting behind me and I listened as his pen furiously scribbled down all the notes already on the board that he had missed because he was late.

“Don’t worry,” I whispered glancing over my shoulder. I ignored the pause between Derek and Toby’s bitching as best as I could. “His tests are easy.”

“Yeah,” Toby added. “He just likes to ramble on and write shit on the board, if you remember your damn name you’ve practically aced the tests.”

“Really?” Luke said leaning toward them.

“Yeah they’re open note,” Derek answered. “All you have to do is pay attention when he starts outlining the chapters before the next test, all the answers will be in that outline.”

“Why?” Luke asked cocking an eyebrow.

“Because the dude is too old to be fired,” I answered shrugging. “He’s just waiting to get old enough to retire.”

“Fellas,” Mr. Paige said and this time he took his glasses off. It made him look younger and not as scatterbrained. “One more time and it’s detention.”

“Sorry, sir,” Luke answered, but Mr. Paige had already turned his back shoving his glasses back onto his nose.

The threat of detention shut us up though. I already knew I was walking a thin line with Welker, Coach, and my parents. I didn’t want to add to that list and I definitely didn’t want Luke to get sent to detention his first day in class. I could just imagine how smug Cindy would be, she would find a way to blame me for it as soon as she learned that it was the one class he shared with me, that I knew of anyway. Toby and Derek didn’t want to be benched when the real season started, they bitched enough about sitting out during the cupcake scrimmages. As sorry assed as our football team usually was, they might miss their only chances of coming off the field with a victory, even if they didn’t really count.

“So, Church where you off to next?” Toby asked after the bell rang. I grimaced as I gathered my notebook and shoved it into my bag.

“French One,” he answered, and I glanced over to see Derek and Toby both grimace.

“Why the hell would you do that to yourself?” Derek asked and I hid my smile. Luke didn’t seem annoyed with them over the nickname that I already knew would stick with him, whether he likes it or not.

“I need two foreign language classes,” he answered shrugging. “French One is open this semester for me.”

“What else do you have?” I asked turning to face him for the first time since he entered the room.

“English, Art, Music, History, and French,” he answered smiling. “Everything required that my school doesn’t really offer, we didn’t have much of an arts or language thing going on.”

“Oh,” I said as I noticed Toby and Derek leave their row. They both nodded their heads, a quick goodbye as they went for their next class. Reaching for my phone, I cursed remembering Mom still had it.

“I better get to class,” he said and I nodded and led the way out of the room into the boisterous and crowded hallway thinking that I would be the luckiest shit in the world if this was as bad as things got from here on out. I knew I wouldn’t be that lucky but watching Luke shoulder past everyone as he glanced at his schedule like a complete newbie, I smiled as I turned the opposite direction and went to Spanish.