"Hm,"
Tiara Gold. She was the next Sharpay Evans in line. And it was her turn. In a blunt dive, she managed to duck to dodge the orange, less than air-headed—basketball! At least she made sure her blonde crown wasn't damaged. Turning around in a stiff manner, she faced the culprit.
She had black hair, Tiara felt so lucky she didn't have to try to keep her hair so perfect so it would shine, even at night. Glasses, I guess contacts didn't stop her inner nerd. And her brown eyes, psh.
"Excuse me," Tiara's chime nearly stopped half of the people in the gym class. "You," She pointed accusingly at the girl. "You hit me with that ball." Well, nearly.
"Wha?" One girl dropped her awkward position from picking up the basketball and gingerly walked over to Tiara. "I hit you?" Tiara nodded as if anyone didn't know. "Um—I'm so sorry!" She bowed as if she was face-to-face with a princess, wasn't she? "I so didn't mean to—honest!" She held up the fallen basketball as a wish of forgiveness.
Tiara stared at the girl's regretful eyes with satisfaction. "Just make sure it doesn't happen again." With a sharp tap, she slapped the ball out of the black-haired girl's hands, letting it land in her cheap—oh, of course she could tell!—shoes.
Tiara sauntered proudly out the hall after class, kids making a path for her. This was her high school now, and she was running it.
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
"What team!?"
"Wildcats!"
"What team!?"
"Wildcats!"
"Hm,"
She looked at her locker, where was her pencil? The mechanical one with the pink nub called the eraser? "Damn," The raven-haired girl muttered under her breath. She only had .01 of an ounce of respect for Tiara Gold. And her pencil, well, no one takes away her weapon. And that reminded her of when she used the .99 attempting to hit Gold with that basketball, not intentional—Of course.
"Damn you," She slammed the pink locker next to her so loud the sound waves could've caused ringing in the ears. Then she used every ounce of her strength to bash the locker next to her, for every hit, was every rude as hell comment.
"Out of my way,"
"Freak."
"People with places go first."
And just the simple haughty laugh intertwined with that British accent irritated her more than when the skater guys drag their skateboards across the hall like a wagon.
With a last kick, she smiled in satisfaction.
Bm, B-bm, Bm, B-m-bm…
She tensed. Who was coming? She quickly slipped away from her neighbor locker, and started fiddling with the lock, spinning it feverishly until it magically opened. Once it was forcefully ajar, she stuck her head in it as if she was doing nothing wrong—right.
The one set of footsteps, was it going that slow? Cruiser. She flinched every time a 'B-m' was repeated.
The stranger was just banging on the lockers. Okay, not a stranger. Just Jimmie Zara. He's the captain of the basketball team. He's the kid who ran around naked because the former senior Troy Bolton stole his clothes. He who sang with Sharpay Evans, in an albeit, strange performance.
She could feel him taking his sweet precious time to get to the basketball court, on the other side of the school. The girl internally groaned in annoyance. She bent down, finding her extra-credit assignment tucked in a half-together folder. At least one thing came out good today. Flattening the bundles of papers together, she scrawled on the name 'Charmaine Lendoza' at the top of the cover page with a pen she borrowed. Hoping to avoid talking to him, heck, he probably didn't even know her first name; she just stared at the wall of her locker, waiting for him to leave.
The worst possible thing that came true was that not only he bumped into her, but she couldn't save her papers from flying like fireworks on the fourth of July. "What the hell!?" Charmaine instantly dropped to the floor, retrieving all the loose papers she could find. "Couldn't you be a little more careful?" she muttered under her breath, more to herself than the boy in front of her.
"My bad!" the boy prompted, grabbing the cover page. "It was an accident."
"Yeah." The girl said, rather uncomfortable. She banged her back to her locker, slipping to the floor all over again. She sighed in frustration, trying to put the pages in order.
Jimmie sat down next to her, leaning on Tiara's locker. "Baby, I can't believe you wrote this much!" He said in amazement.
"Unfortunately, I have a lot of time on my hands." Charmaine said, holding her hand out for Jimmie to give her the cover page. "And what did you just call me…?"
"Really..." He scanned the title page. "Charmaine."
The sound of her name leaving his lips left an odd feeling to herself. "Hm. You just found out my name, you looked at the assignment heading, didn't you?"
"Nah," Jimmie said, waving her off. "I just refreshed my memory of your name."
Charmaine almost laughed, almost. She just settled on a wan smile. It was the first time she decided to crack a smile to him. Charmaine usually had a permanent scowl whenever he was around, deciding he was too… enthusiastic for her taste. And the facts that if she didn't like basketball, she should hate the basketball captain more. But that was childish.
The smile quickly faded when Jimmie placed the title page on her lap. "I should give this Ms. Darbus." She announced, getting up and heaving her backpack on. Holding out a hand, Jimmie complied, and Charmaine helped him up. "Thanks, Jimmie. You're not half bad."
"Cool, you can call me Rocket Man, though." Jimmie replied awkwardly, letting go of her arm.
"I'd rather not." The ebony haired girl said bluntly, breaking into a jog towards the English wing.
"Why not?" Jimmie asked, catching up to her. She sighed; he wasn't going to let this go. Jimmie picked up the pace, walking backwards. So even though he was in the front so she wouldn't go anywhere and facing her so he can talk to her directly.
"I don't know." The girl mumbled, almost incoherent to understand. She watched Jimmie's skater shoes drag across the hall; he was going to trip at any time. She grabbed his arm once more, and tugged it so Jimmie was walking to her left side. "The story about why I may never call you Rocket Man is reserved, so you can wait." She turned the last corner, almost to the classroom.
"Okay." Jimmie replied slowly, wondering what kind of answer she pulled.
"Shouldn't you be prepping for a basketball game or something?" questioned the girl, clutching her extra credit papers tightly in case of another mishap.
Jimmie shrugged. "Don't worry about it."
"I never implied I was worrying, I just wondered." Charmaine neared the door, and heard a few voices. She froze.
"Wha—" Jimmie started, but was immediately silenced. The girl was holding her papers tensely, as if they'd vanish from her grasp. Her other hand was on his chest, making sure he didn't bump into her again. "What are you doing?" he whispered.
"Quiet." was the only thing the girl murmured. She waited a few moments, and in a barely audible tone, she counted. "Four, three," to each number, was a footstep, specifically, a stiletto-clad one. "Two, one."
"Rocket Man and… four eyes." Tiara Gold said, her last lines rolling off her tongue like honey, bittersweet honey. "I hoped you taught her how to hold a basketball properly, so no more… accidents happen?"
Jimmie just glared at the Sharpay-clone, noticing how rude that comment was. Though he had to admit Tiara was one of the hottest babes he could possibly score, it didn't make up for her attitude. "We're still up for that lunch date?" He said in a more playful demeanor, total opposite of the glare he put on beforehand. He smiled as the blonde decided to ignore it, rolling her eyes as if she didn't hear anything, and walked away, her heels clicking.
Charmaine's hand continued to settle on Jimmie's chest, probably not even noticing. Her chocolate eyes were settled in a trance, all glazed over and dull. "Charmaine, you okay?" he asked, worried for his classmate.
The girl perked her head up, and shook it off, as if mentally coming back to earth. "Hm." she slowly descended her hand down, and walked in the classroom, Jimmie following shortly after.
"Ah! Miss Lendoza, what do I owe this pleasure?" Miss Darbus asked, clearly seeing Charmaine as one of her favourite students.
"I came in to hand in the English extra credit." Charmaine replied, her voice toneless.
"Oh, fabulous!" the teacher took the group of papers from her hand, placing them airily on her desk. In a slightly darker tone, she turned to the brunette basketball player. "And Mr. Zara? What do I owe this pleasure? Are you thinking of making up for last year's performance in the Spring Musical?"
"Oh, not really." Jimmie replied, watching Charmaine slip a flyer for Spring Musical tryouts in her back pocket. "I just owe her for messing up."
"It was a rather strange gesture, I didn't even ask." Miss Darbus heard the other teenager murmured. "But nether less, I appreciated it." Charmaine returned to her side by Jimmie, and knit her dark eyebrows in confusion. "Something the matter, Miss Darbus?"
"Not yet." The teacher said crisply.
Charmaine smirked at her teacher's comment, and left the room with the alleged 'Rocket Man'. She managed to be two steps ahead of him, not wanting so see his face. How embarrassing! She didn't care about what Tiara said, but she cared about the fact that Jimmie saw her being humiliated.
"So…" Jimmie chimed, almost uncomfortable. "What was with the accident she said about before?"
"Nothing." She said offhandedly. "Basketball I had bounced off the rim and almost hit her head. It may have been on purpose," Charmaine looked at the ground; she felt that she just couldn't lie to him. "Even though it was seen as an accident, I know it was wrong. But I feel that she deserved it, I wish it did hit her head." She muttered, wishing the worst.
She faltered, as she felt a slight tug at her wrist. "Don't let Tiara get to you." Jimmie said, almost soothingly to her.
"Like how you get to her?" the girl asked. "Or try to get to her?"
"Hey!" Jimmie protested, off guard by her comment. "I'm getting to her!" he patted something in his pocket, it was long and Charmaine could spot a bit of a shiny glass container inside. She watched a syrupy liquid bob in every step Jimmie took. "Yeah." Charmaine whispered, unsure of what to say.
"Besides," Jimmie tapped the corner of her glasses with his finger, making her face heat up. "You look kinda cute with those specs!"
She got back to the two-steps-ahead-of-him-thing. "R-really, what I said back in Miss Darbus' room, I really appreciate you sticking by me, even though Coach Bolton's going to make you run laps after this." She spun her body around to Jimmie, catching him off-guard. "Friends?" she stuck out her hand to him once again.
He backed up a bit grasped her hand tightly. "Sweet. I'm Jimmie 'The Rocket Man' Zara."
"Charmaine Lendoza," She smiled, for the first time, in a natural way. "I'm charmed to meet you."
Letting go of her hand to walk home, Jimmie watched her black head of hair disappear. She really was cute, in the cynical sarcastic way, and she seemed she had some good comebacks. Then he realized something. Why was he staying after-school again? And what did Charmaine mean about Coach Bolton making him run laps?
"Crap! Basketball practice!"
So... how bad was it?
~atemfan1