Toni placed her hands on her knees as she breathed in deeply; she looked around and saw Tammy pushing at Scott's shoulder. Toni smiled and then startled suddenly when she felt a hand on her lower back. She turned and saw Jethro standing there smiling at her.
"You alright?" Jethro asked.
"Yeah I guess I'm just a little more out of shape than I thought." Toni said, she looked over to the hoop and saw Mat and Jon still fighting to shoot hoops. She smiled, even though she had only been going to this school and lived in this town for a few weeks now; she had already made a great group of friends and found someone special she felt an explainable connection to.
She reached up and placed her hand on Jethro's cheek, he looked down at her and Toni was caught in his deep blue eyes as she always had been ever sense she first ever met him. She felt him place a hand on her cheek and felt his other arm wrap around her waist. He leaned down and she met him halfway there second ever kiss was just as soul searing as the first if not more.
"Hey Gibbs get a room!" Jon hollered.
"Shut up, Jon like you have anything to complain about." Mat said pushing Jon over giving him a pointed look.
"Hey don't give me that look that only happened once and it's not like my fault that you guys totally happened to walk in on that. How was I supposed to know you were going to walk in right then?" Jon said rubbing his shoulder.
"Dude it was my house on my couch! I had just got done telling all of us to meet there and you totally knew!" Scott exclaimed.
Toni and Jethro had pulled away from each other by now; Toni looked up at Jethro who rolled his eyes. Toni giggled a little and plopped her forehead on his shoulder.
"I signed up for the basketball team." Toni said looking up at Jethro. "The first day of school, Tammy showed me where it was to sign up."
"That's good, you're good at basketball." Jethro said indicating the court they were standing on in the park.
"Thanks, the coach had already gone over all the people who signed up and talked with all of us after school last week. She said that as long as everyone on the team got good grades they could continue to be on the team. She also said tryouts will be held in about two weeks." Toni said. "That's why I asked you all to come down and play a game with me tonight, I know I'm not that out of shape, I played all throughout my last high school and only stopped training in-between the move."
"We're glad to help but honestly it seems like you'll have no problem getting on the team you are very good." Jethro said. Toni's cheeks heated a little at the praise.
"You're just saying that." She mumbled.
"Nonsense, I would never lie to you." Jethro said seriously.
"You mean that?" Toni asked looking up into his eyes.
"Always I promise Toni I will never lie to you." Jethro said while grabbing her hand and squeezing it. She smiled at him when suddenly she heard a loud bang; Toni turned and saw Scott laid down on the ground and Tammy storming away.
"Uh oh." Toni said cringing wondering what in the heck just happened, Jethro nodded thinking the same thing. "Uh you go to him I'll go to her." Toni said looking at Jethro, he nodded. Before Toni went after Tammy Jethro pulled her back into a kiss, she smiled up at him.
"I have a game, in two days, you should come?" Jethro said brushing her hair aside. Toni tilted her head and smiled.
"I'll be there and once I get done talking with Tammy she'll be there too." Toni said, Jethro nodded then headed over to where Mat and Jon were helping Scott off the ground.
Green Eyed Girl
Toni sighed as she did her homework on the island table in the kitchen of her house, her father was supposed to have been home by now, or so he said. She leaned her head on her hand and finished the last equation for math, putting that subject away in her bag she went over to the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water. She took a sip and went into the living room; they had unpacked everything and the living room actually now looked homey. She was about to sit on the couch when there was a knock on the door. She went over and peeked out the window; she smiled and opened the door.
"Hey!" She said smiling.
"Hey." Jethro said leaning against the frame of the door.
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"Standing in a doorway." She rolled her eyes at his answer but let him in nun-the-less.
"You know what I meant." She said.
"I wanted to see you." He said shrugging his shoulders. "Is it a bad thing if a guy wants to see his girlfriend?" He asked. Toni felt her heart jump at what he said, they hadn't labeled anything yet and she was shocked that he was the one to label it. She smiled warmly at him.
"Of course not, would you like something to eat or drink?" Toni asked, he nodded. She then led him into the kitchen where she took some of the tuna noddle casserole that she had made for her and her dad and put some in a bowl, she then went over to the fridge and got another water bottle out and placed it in front of him.
"Thank you." He said as he began to eat. "So games in about two hours." He stated.
"Yes I know." She said with a smile, he finished eating, took a long drink from the water then got up and made his way over to her. Backing her up to the fridge she placed her hands on his shoulders as he leaned down and kissed her.
"You're so beautiful." Jethro whispered into her lips.
"You keep telling me that." She said back.
"And I mean it every time." Jethro responded, she closed her eyes and leaned back into the fridge.
"Do you ever wonder what life will be like after high school, what will change, and what will stay the same?" She asked him.
"Sometimes." He responded moving a strand of her hair out of her face.
"Sometimes I worry about what I'll make of myself." She said.
"I'm sure whatever you do will be great." Jethro said resting his forehead on hers.
"I hope whatever happens, that we'll still be together, I know we haven't known each other long but for some reason I have this explainable connection to you. It feels like I just need to be with you and when I am I am happier than I've ever been." Toni said now looking into his eyes; Jethro didn't say anything but he did lean down and kiss her. The rest of the time they spent together before the game was of Toni trying to help Jethro understand the story line behind their English assignment a book called The Outsiders.
"Hey you're going to be late if you don't put a move on." Toni said as Jethro tried to kiss her again.
"Alright, alright I'm going." He said, he then lead them outside and helped her into his truck. He drove them to the field and got out she followed him to the door of the locker rooms where he turned and kissed her.
"Good luck." She said and he disappeared into the locker rooms to get ready.
Toni went to the stands and saw Tammy already there with a saved seat for her.
"Hey, see you came." Toni said with a knowing smile looking at the away jersey that she was wearing, Toni also had an away football jersey on for it was Jethro's. Tammy rolled her eyes.
"Shut up and sit down." Toni laughed and did as she was told. Toni looked over the crowed and smiled at all the home team fans, she also looked down at the home team cheerleaders and cringed she really did not like Chelsey and her gang of friends.
"So what are you doing this weekend?" Tammy asked looking over at Toni.
"Probably just going to study for the History test on Monday." Toni said seriously.
"Really you should come to this party on Saturday everyone will be there." Tammy said.
"I really don't think that is a good idea." Toni said thinking about her old school and shaking her head.
"Come on, please I promise it will be fun." Tammy said.
"I do not doubt that it will be I just don't think it's a good idea." Toni responded trying to just pay attention to the game.
"Please Toni, come to the party."
"Tammy I said no!" Toni suddenly snapped, and to her horror her left check felt suspiciously wet. Reaching up she whipped off the tear and jumped up from the seat, she had to get away from all these people. Toni ended up running until she couldn't run anymore, then she started walking. Soon she found herself outside her own house. She went inside by now tears were freely falling down her face.
"Toni your home early, I thought the gameā¦" Anthony DiNozzo looked up at his daughter from the book he was reading. "Antonia, honey you ok?" Anthony stood up and immediately wrapped his daughter up in a hug.
"I'm sorry papa, I just. The flashes came back and I just can't." Toni struggled to tell her father what she wanted to say.
"Sh its ok I understand, it's alright, you're ok now. Everything is ok." Anthony said his heart breaking as his daughter sobbed in his chest.
"I knew it wasn't going to be easy to start over and move on, to move passed this, I just thought that these flashes that used to happen all the time would be gone." Toni said.
"I know, we both knew it wasn't going to be easy, but it is getting better right?" Anthony asked.
"Yeah papa it is, I just, and it's just going to take a little more time." Toni said, Anthony nodded and hugged his daughter closer.
"You take all the time you need, anything you need you let me know ok sweetheart." Anthony said rubbing a hand over his daughter's hair.
"Ok papa, I will."
Toni went to bed early that night, she could hear the house phone ring several times and her father answered, she really didn't want to talk to anyone right know so he held them at bay for her for tonight.
The next day Toni woke up to feeling nauseous, she ran to the bathroom before it was too late and puked into the toilet. She sighed as she leaned back against the wall, suddenly the doorbell rang. She got up and headed to the door.
"Hey wanted to check on you." Jethro said standing on the other side of the door.
"I'm fine." Toni said rubbing her eyes.
"Tammy said you were crying, she told me to tell you she didn't mean anything she said that upset you." Jethro said.
"It wasn't her, she has nothing to be sorry for." Toni said. "Come in." Toni stepped back from the door and Jethro walked in.
"So you going to tell me what had upset you yesterday?" Jethro asked. Toni thought it over and sat on the couch, it wasn't something she wanted to talk about, but she knew if she wanted this relationship with Jethro to work she needed to tell him the truth.
"I uh." She cleared her throat. "I used to live in New York City, before here, went to a public school. I was one of the best basketball players they had. Over the summer I was invited to a party all the most popular kids of the school were there, including Rick Chandler the captain of the basketball team. I went with a few friends, all of them got really drunk, I don't drink so I stuck with water or soda. I'm really smart and I never excepted a drink from someone always poured it myself. I had a sprite, I remember I had to go to the bathroom, there was this bookshelf right next to the door. I never thought anything of it honestly I never thought it would happen to me. I put my cup in the bookshelf hoping it was hidden away well enough. I should have just gotten a new drink, anyway a couple minutes after I retrieved my drink and started drinking from it again, I started feeling weird, kind of like I was really drunk. The next thing I know Rick is leading me up the steps after this I can't remember what exactly happened, I remember waking up about two hours later the skirt I was wearing was torn there was blood, from the looks of my hands and face I knew I fought back I had a split lip, and bruised cheek and my wrists were bruised as if being held down. I looked around and found a cordless house phone and dialed 911. The cops showed up and I told them everything I could remember, they processed everything including me, it was a long process but soon they had Rock arrested. All the evidence that he had left behind buried him. They said if I hadn't of called 911 right away it would have been harder to catch him and he might have gotten away with it." Toni finished wiping a tear off her cheek as she told her story. After being frozen throughout her story Jethro shook himself then sat down next to her pulling her into his side.
"I'm sorry you had to go through that Antonia." Jethro said kissing the top of her head.
"It's not as bad as it was, but I'm still having a hard time every once in a while." Toni said.
"Which is understandable, and if you need anything from me just let me know ok." Toni nodded, already she started to feel better.
