(All I'm going to say is, I like Orion as stated in my last fic. Plus he's like Ginger's "therapist." Someone she can talk to about everything going on her life that's an outsider. This fanfic was inspired by another song "She Walked Away" by the Barlow Girls, although it's a religious song, this fanfic won't be. The song just reminded me a little bit of "No Turning Back" and how she freaked out over changes before High School, I think the song explains how she'd react once they took full swing.)
Ginger walked out of school that day, feeling neutral. It was an interesting feeling, being neutral. Lately, that was the only way Ginger could think to explain how she felt. She was a Junior in High School, back together with her freshmen boyfriend Darren, still friends with all her old friends, things should be good shouldn't they? Well, they weren't for Ginger. Her friends had slowly faded apart, Dodie becoming a Varsity Cheerleader and the Head Cheerleader's assistant/kiss ass. Macy and Dodie had a slight falling out because Dodie felt that since Macy was involved in band that she wasn't cool enough for her. Of course Dodie didn't mean for Macy to hear it, she was making jokes with her other cheerleader friends and Macy heard it. Dodie apologized, but things hadn't been the same between them since. Darren was the star of the football team and he loved the attention. He settled into an M-TV high school life, going to parties on the weekend, trying a little bit of everything. Lately he had been asking Ginger about having sex, Ginger wasn't sure she was ready, but Darren kept pushing. Her brother Carl was still acting up like he always did and the school convinced her mom to put him in therapy to help his work out his "issues." Between shifts at the hospital and sessions with Carl and his therapist, Ginger barely saw her mom anymore. Her step-father became Chief of Medicine at the hospital so he worked twice as much and her father moved to Florida for a new job. Ginger loved going to visit him during Christmas break and spending time some where warm, but she missed having him around to talk to. Her friends and family had changed so much since the start of High School, she wondered if she had changed too.
Ginger jumped into her radiant blue ford focus, put on her sunglasses, and drove to the community college where Orion was taking classes. Ginger found it odd how her and Orion could go from friends, to dating, and then back to friends again, but she loved having his friendship. She also loved being at the community college, it reminded her of avalanche ranch. People openly expressed themselves there and no one looked down on them like they did at her high school. Everyone treated her with respect and she even made friends with a few of Orion's friends. She loved just sitting in the student union and talking over a cup of green tea. Plus she liked going to see Orion, lately he had been making more sense to her then anyone she knew.
She walked into the student union and saw Orion sitting with his friends Lola and Reid on the couches. She walked over and fell back into her favorite over stuffed chair and closed her eyes.
Orion laughed slightly when he saw her. "Bad day?"
Ginger kept her eyes closed and head tilted up, not looking at Orion at all. "No..."
"Good day?" Lola said with question to her voice.
"No..." Ginger replied again, still unmoved.
"Then what kind of day makes you come in here and flop down like your life is over?" Reid asked calmly as he took a drink from his mug of coffee and flipped through the student paper.
Ginger sat up. "Neutral."
"Neutral?" Orion repeated.
"Yes, that's the best way I can describe it. My days have been the same for the past year, nothing good, nothing bad, just neutral."
"I prefer blah." Lola said with a smile as she stood up. "Want your usual Ging?"
Ginger nodded as Lola walked away and Orion set his books down. "But from what you've been telling me your past year hasn't been so great."
"Well, it hasn't."
"So how could your days now be neutral if you've been saying they are bad?"
Ginger laughed. "When things keep going the same way every day, day after day with no end it no long becomes bad because you become use to it. Although it does not become a good thing, it is no longer bad because you expect to be the way it is. So then it becomes neutral, unless you can think of a better work then that, I'll stick with neutral for now."
"Getting a thesaurus." Reid replied, not looking up from his paper. "It'll help you find a better word."
Lola came back and handed Ginger her drink, Ginger took a drink then replied. "I'm not interested in finding a better word, I'm interested in finding a fix for all of this crap."
Orion got up and walked over to sit next to Ginger. "What's going on now?"
Ginger sighed. "There's nothing new going on, it's still the same old. Dodie and Macy are barely talking, I barely see my family, Darren is going to party after party and I'm not interested in that. And well...he did start something new last week."
"What now?"
"He wants to have sex." Ginger mumbled and took a quick drink of her tea. Although she had hoped they hadn't, all three of them heard what she said and stopped what they were doing to listen.
"Did you guys have sex last time you dated?" Lola asked, rather interested in the subject. She was studying to be a psychologist and she took an interest in the as she called it, "inner workings" of teenagers.
Ginger laughed. "We started dating in middle school, my biggest worry was starting high school and so was his, there was never talk of having sex."
"Well according to you Darren isn't the same guy he was in middle school." Orion said, sitting back and watching Ginger.
"Yeah he isn't." They were all silent for a moment.
Reid broke the silence, he was very good for that. "Well do you wanna have sex with him?"
Ginger turned her head to him quickly. "No! Well...not yet at least. I'm so confused about a million other things I think sex would just make it worst."
Lola laughed. "Trust me it does."
"Then just tell him no if you're not interested." Reid replied, now returning to his paper. Reid wasn't one to think of emotions, he just gave you a blunt answer and went about his day. Sometimes it was helpful, today it wasn't.
"I have told him I don't want to have sex, but he keeps pushing. He says that he loves me and we're going to be together forever so why not. Plus the classic excuse of everyone is doing it."
Orion laughed. "I'm not at the moment."
Ginger smiled at Orion. "I don't think Darren considers you part of everyone."
"I take pride in that."
Ginger laughed. Even if Orion couldn't help her, he could make her laugh which was just as good.
"Darren's a football player right?" Lola asked after finishing the rest of her tea.
"Yeah...the star of the football team is more like it. He's one of the best players."
"And you said he's been partying a lot?"
"Yeah, what's your point?"
"My point is, have you been to those high school parties?"
"Only a couple, I usually end up leaving. It's just a lot of drinking games and loud music, not really my thing."
Lola laughed. "Well after everyone gets drunk there tends to be some...action for lack of better words. If he's at this party he is seeing quote everyone doing it. Does he strive to be popular?"
Ginger sunk down into her chair more, grasping her tea and thinking. "He didn't use to...now I'm not so sure."
"Well from what I've seen at these parties when I was in high school if you want to stay ahead of the crowd, sex does have to happen."
Ginger sighed. "Can someone find me the old Darren?"
"The saddest part is that Darren will be seen as a hero because he's a boy and they're supposed to be getting some every night, I blame American Pie for that. And while you as the girl, well if you and Darren break up other guys will think they'll have a chance, if you sleep with them you automatically become a whore to everyone and if you don't you'll still be called one by the girls that are jealous that the guys won't look at them."
"And what happens if I don't have sex with him?"
Lola sighed. "From what you're saying at the moment Darren is not going to give up, if you give in you go on the road I just told you about. If you choose the other, you could end up loosing him again."
"Maybe that would be for the better." Orion jumped in.
Ginger turned to him. "I don't want to loose Darren...and I don't want to have sex with Darren..."
"The only advice I can give you is keeping saying you're not ready, maybe Darren will respect that." Lola said with a smile.
"The only thing he's going to respect is finding a girl that will give to him when he wants it." Orion replied rather callously.
"You don't know that Orion!" Lola snapped at him. "You're not a sex obsessed teenager and don't tell me you use to be, I can tell you were the cool drummer in the background only caring about your so called music."
"I had my priorities. I'm sorry sex wasn't one of them"
Ginger laughed. "Calm down the both of you...I didn't mean to start an intense debate."
Lola turned back to Ginger. "Maybe you should try to talk to your mom about it. I mean, even if you're not going to have sex, it's never a bad idea to think about birth control. In case something does happen and even if it doesn't, there are ones that will help control your cycle and..."
"Stop!" Orion and Reid both screamed at the same time. Ginger and Lola laughed.
"No offense." Orion said, lowering his tone. "But I'm not planning on studying the female body to become a teacher or having to explain it to students one day, can we just keep that subject off limits."
"And what will you do when you have a daughter and she ask you questions?" Lola smiled at him.
"What any good husband does." Reid said, finishing his coffee. "Send them to their mom."