Thankyou guys for the reviews, really appreciate them:-)
To anon: Look, I'm sorry I kept you waiting so long for an update but I thought that was a tad unfair. I work hard on my stories but I do have a life. I have to focus on other things besides fanfiction so it makes it difficult to update regularly. And I hate posting chapters when I'm not happy with them. So yeah, please don't rush me or the chapter won't be as good as it could be, ya know? I like to check it through before updating :-)
Disclaimer - I don't own a thing.
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Chapter 3 - Unwanted Attention
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Leaf's POV
"Leaf? Where were you yesterday?" Misty saw me heading into the school gates and came running over, standing by my side.
"Oh...I had dizzy spells and I felt faint, so I was sent home. I feel a lot better today," I lied terribly. I wished I could tell her where I actually went, but I knew that was impossible.
Misty looked like she didn't believe me, but then again she didn't question me about it.
"So, what's first?" I asked and she smiled.
"Gym class. Unless it's swimming, I hate it."
"But you don't do swimming in gym, right?"
"Exactly." she grinned and we burst into a fit of giggles. She was such an easy person to talk to, and I was thankful to have her as a potential friend.
As we walked through the gates, we walked past a huge crowd of people. Drew was there, his hair was easily recognisable amongst everyone else.
"Where's May..?" I muttered to myself. Unfortunately, Misty heard me.
"May? Who's that?" she questioned. I scanned the crowd again, confused as to why the brunette wasn't with all these people. Her and Drew seemed awfully close yesterday.
"She's nobody." I answered her question and we continued walking.
=^.^=
"Alright, it's bench ball today. Get the benches in order and I'll organise the teams." the coach moved a lock of hair out of his face and stepped off the bench he was sitting on, letting a couple of guys lift it up and take it across the room.
"Uh...what's bench ball?" I asked. Misty looked my way.
"Basically, the court is split in half. One team is on one side, and one team is on the other. Two people from each side will go and stand on the opposing bench to be the goalkeepers and the aim of the game is to throw the ball to them. If they catch it, you join 'em on the bench." Misty paused for a moment to take a breath. "And the first team to get everybody on the bench wins. It's simple really." she shrugged.
"That sounds kinda fun. At my old school, it was always dodgeball! You have no idea how boring and samey it got." I shook my head and smiled. I looked across the room and saw May struggling with a bench. I quickly hurried over and lifted up the other side.
"Thanks..." she smiled, her voice quiet and hushed.
Something was wrong.
In the base yesterday, May was happy, giggly and full of life. Now she looked shy and meek.
"What's up May? You look upset..." I asked and she made a 'hmph' sound.
"You shouldn't really be talking to me Leaf. People like your friends might get suspicious, and I don't want that." May shrugged and placed down her side of the bench. I was about to question her attitude until Lyra came bounding over.
"What are you talking to...uh...her for? Come on!" she grabbed my arm and dragged me away. I shot May an apologetic look, but she'd already turned back around, heading over to her own friends.
A few minutes later, the benches were set.
"Right, I need two team captains..." The minute the coach spoke, Drew and Gary stood up at the same time and said "I'll do it!"
"Fine." he nodded in approval. "Hayden, my star Quarterback, you choose first."
Drew gave Gary a nasty, yet triumphant smirk. "I choose...her."
As Drew pointed at me, I just stood there, frozen to the spot. Half of the girls in the room had their mouths open in shock, and I knew what they were thinking.
I walked over and stood by Drew's side, seeing a million glares burning into me.
"You better be good at this." Drew quietly spoke, not even looking at me. Then it hit me. He knew about mine and Gary's past, and he chose me for his team just to get to Gary. I had a sudden urge to slap Drew Hayden right into next week, but I had to remain calm.
Gary made his first choice, and then both of the captains continued to choose their team members, and I ended up with most of the populars on my team. Luckily I had Zoey and Marina too. My eyes fell on Gary, and he quickly smiled at me. I smiled back, and then I walked over to the first half of the court with the rest of my team.
"I think I should go on the bench, I can catch way easily." Drew smirked. Still irritated at his actions earlier, I grabbed a ball from the side and threw it at him on impulse. He jumped away from the ball like a scared little child.
Everybody looked at me. They looked almost shocked at my actions, even though all I did was throw a ball to him...
"No Hayden, you clearly can't catch." one of the boys sniggered, breaking the silence. This caused Drew to flush peony.
As I peered at him, I instantly knew that something about this boy was definitely intriguing to me. His skin was lightly tanned, making me look almost porcelain in comparison and his eyes were the colour of melted chocolate, similar to my own.
"Shut up, Cameron." Drew glared at him. It was clear to me that the two weren't friends at all.
The coach blew the whistle, threw two basketballs to either side and we began the game.
It started off with the populars grabbing a ball and trying to get on the bench early, but some of them were just total failures.
I managed to catch most of the balls that were being thrown, and I slowly edged further to the back, where I was solely defending for the team, as the others were trying to shoot. At least I found something that I was good at.
As a girl from the opposing team grabbed the ball, she threw it and aimed straight for my head. I caught it with relative ease and realised that she was the girl who started yelling at me when I beat Gary in the battle yesterday.
Pathetic, I thought as I passed the ball I'd just caught to Ash, who wanted to shoot. As Marina (who was goalkeeping on the bench) caught the ball when he threw, Drew looked at me and nodded approvingly.
Gary grabbed the ball and hurled it to the girl on the bench. It was too high for me to touch and she ended up catching it, but only just.
Gary grinned triumphantly and ran over, hopping onto the bench, right behind where I was standing.
The game continued and I carried on defending. Most of our team had gotten onto the bench by now, except for a few who were helping others get on the bench first.
I felt a sudden tap on my head, and I nearly jumped out of my skin. It was then a ball came flying from out of nowhere, and a figure came running in front of me, smacking the ball away with such a force it frightened me.
It was Cameron. "Thanks..." I smiled, slightly dazed. I was amazed at how hard he smacked that ball.
"Aw man! I had that one in the bag Cam!" Gary whined, grinning at Cameron, and he grinned back. I think the two of them were close friends, which explained why Cameron and Drew didn't seem to get along earlier.
Wow, I thought, Gary actually has friends who are male!
Cameron came to the back and helped me to defend. Some throws from the opposition were successful, others weren't. There were two people from Gary's team left, and the two of us.
"Ladies first?" he smiled and I giggled, grabbing the ball from his hands. I threw it but the defender on the other team managed to catch it.
It was a stalemate, and we continued to throw the basketballs back and forth, until Cameron hurled the ball amazingly hard. The girl actually ducked out of the way, and one of the boys on the bench caught it.
He glanced back at me; shot me a smile, and then he went to join the others on the bench.
Now, it was just me.
The two who were still shooting on the ground had both of the basketballs, and I wondered what they were doing.
They were discussing tactics, I realised.
They nodded at one another and threw both of the basketballs at the same time. I quickly ran from one end to the other and hit them away, much to the surprise of my team.
I put both of the balls I'd caught at my feet. I picked up one and threw it to the far left of the bench, and when the two of them were preoccupied with that one, I picked up the other one and threw it to the far right. Drew and Cameron both caught it, but Cameron quickly yanked the ball out of Drew's hands, a triumphant smirk on his face.
At lunch...
"You know, I still can't get over how awesome you were at bench ball this morning Leaf. You were like superwoman!" Zoey squealed as we entered the cafeteria and sat down.
"Yeah. But I can't help but wonder exactly why Drew picked you for his team first? He always picks Ash first, always." Misty grinned and I burst into laughter.
"I actually don't know." I lied, nudging her arm playfully. "Shut up Misty."
As the others talked animatedly to one another, I couldn't help but notice May sitting with a group of girls. She was smiling, definitely happier than before.
Still, it just didn't make sense. May and Drew messed around, talked and laughed together so much yesterday. They even went on a little mission, which they refused to tell me about, while Gary stayed with me.
They're close...but only when they're in the base.
If they're not in the base, they act like total strangers.
I realised why. If Drew was as popular as he seemed to be right now, then he wouldn't want his friends to know he was close with a virtually unknown girl, would he?
I sighed and bit my lip, touching the bracelet on my wrist. It had a small built in light that flashed whenever we were needed at the base, and the other three had virtually identical bracelets. May had given it to me yesterday.
Hopefully it would flash, so maybe I could get some answers from her.
Gary's POV
"Hey Cam, who are you staring at?" I asked. Cameron blinked, turning to face me with a smile.
"Nobody." he shrugged.
"Tell me." I replied, smiling as Umbreon hopped onto the table, stretching delicately. Our Pokemon weren't supposed to be out, but I released him anyway.
"No."
"Why?"
"Because I said so. Now shut up." Cameron folded his arms, signalling that he wanted this conversation to end.
"Do I have to threaten you?" I asked and he smirked, shaking his head.
"Hey pal, get him!" I leaned down to where Umbreon was lying and pointed at Cam.
After my Pokemon just blinked in response, I rolled my eyes until a very pretty sight came into view.
"Heya Gary."
I looked up at the girl and she put her hands on the desk, tapping her fingers on it. Her chestnut hair was sleek and straight, and it hung over her shoulders gracefully.
"Hello to you too...Michelle."
Luckily I remembered her name just in time. She seemed familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on who she was.
I'm ignorant, I know.
Michelle giggled and took a seat next to me. A few of her friends came over and joined us, although Cam didn't seem interested in any of them. In fact, he seemed irritated at their presence. That immediately struck me as odd, but I couldn't ask him why.
"So what brings you lovely ladies here?" I grinned and they giggled, smiling coyly at one another.
"We wanted a break from over there," Michelle pointed at the table where Drew and his team of sheep were sitting, tons of popular wannabe girls fawning over them.
"You made the right decision I guess, those guys think they own this school." Cam rolled his eyes.
A girl with light-ish red hair looked at me.
"Well, they do kinda' own this place. They're the star players of the football team and they all have cheerleader girlfriends, also known as us." she smiled, and then quickly covered her mouth in surprise. Michelle glared daggers at her.
Of course, it struck me, they were the cheerleaders! Then what were they doing here with us?
I quickly moved away from Michelle, as my lips were extremely close to hers. I realised she probably had a boyfriend. Whore.
"Why are you here then, if you have such perfect boyfriends over there?" my tone turned sour and Michelle's face turned ugly.
Uh oh.
The strawberry haired girl then smiled sweetly. "We want to talk to you about Miss Oh-I'm-So-Perfect over there." she pointed an accusing finger exactly to where Leaf was sitting with those other girls.
"She has a name." Cam began to glare at the girls and this confused me. He sounded almost protective of Leaf? He doesn't even know her like I do!
"Whatever, tan boy. Anyway Gary, I want to know exactly why my Drew picked her first for his team in gym class this morning! He always picks Ash first!" Brianna whined.
"How would we know?" Cam questioned, but I kept quiet. I knew exactly why Drew had chosen Leaf and I wasn't about to tell the biggest gossips in school about it.
"Gary. You look worried honey." Michelle turned to face me, petting Umbreon demurely. She had a cat-like look in her eyes. I gulped.
"I'm fine." I regained composure.
"There's only one reason why Drew picked her first, he must want to go out with her!"
Cam and I just watched in amazement as Brianna looked on the verge of a nervous breakdown. All of this over Hayden.
"Brianna, I'm sure he doesn't even like that new girl. She's like, not even pretty. Don't worry, he'll be your boyfriend soon enough..." Michelle tried to soothe her, but Brianna was stressing out right now. Fabulous.
"But I love him Chelle! I've loved Drew for so long. All of a sudden she comes along and bam!" Brianna complained.
This girl is such a whiner! I know for a fact that Drew doesn't like Leaf that way.
Stupid, over-emotional cheerleaders.
I saw Cam slowly get up, a look of boredom on his face, and I did the same. I like girls, scratch that, I love girls, but drama is just too much for me to handle.
"And where exactly are you two going?" Brianna yelled, but we just raised our eyebrows and walked away. Umbreon hopped off the table and followed us, leaping onto my shoulder.
"That chick is insane." Cam smirked. "I actually feel sorry for Hayden right now."
"I don't." I laughed and Cam held up his hand. I slapped his palm and grinned at him.
Girly as it sounded, there is absolutely nothing that could tear our friendship apart.
Leaf's POV
As everyone waited outside the English room for third period, I noticed Drew standing in front of me. I left Misty talking to other people and I grabbed his arm and steered him away, ignoring the glares I was receiving from a strawberry haired girl. I was too mad to care.
"Hey...what are you doing?" Drew glared, ripping his arm away from me.
"This morning. What the hell was that all about?" I demanded.
"What? All I did was choose you first, no big deal. Unless you wanted to go on that idiots team." Drew smirked.
"I don't care. I'm just mad that you brought so much attention to me! Why even bother, Drew?"
I was getting more and more angered by the second. Drew took notice of this and smirked, flicking his hair. He didn't answer my question, but I already knew the answer.
"I guess that's why your Codename's Flick, huh." I sniggered at his habit. Now it was Drew's turn to glare.
"Shut up. It's bad enough that you found our base. We were lucky that the Professor let you in, things could have turned out much worse if he hadn't." Drew hissed, lowering his voice so that only I could hear it.
"What do you mean?" I asked, but Drew ignored me, stomping off into the classroom. I rolled my eyes at his childishness as I entered the room and sat with Misty.
Drew still had a hint of anger in his eyes, like he expected me to feel some kind of remorse. Which is pretty ridiculous considering I did nothing to him.
He is such a drama queen.
=^.^=
After the lesson was over, Misty pulled me to one side. "I need to go to the bathroom, wait for me outside?" she asked, looking at me with a hopeful expression.
"Sure." I smiled. I had to go with Misty to my next class anyway, so it made sense to wait.
She darted inside the bathroom door and I leant against the wall, watching the other students pass by.
After a quick glance around, I took my phone out of my pocket and played with it absentmindedly, going off into daydreams. Then I heard the sound of footsteps nearing closer and closer, and my head shot up.
A pretty looking brunette and another strawberry haired girl were standing in front of me.
"What..?" I spoke cautiously. The brunette smiled, but was anything but comforting. It was sinister.
"Do you know who we are?" she asked me.
"No, I don't." I shook my head. What a stupid question.
"I'm Brianna and this is Michelle, she's captain of the cheerleading team and my best friend. Just you remember that." the other girl piped up. She was giving me a dirty glare, yet I had no idea why.
"Cheerleaders. Lovely." I rolled my eyes and ignored them, looking back at my phone.
'Come on Misty...' I thought, glancing at the door.
"Who are you texting? Mr Drew?" Brianna's voice was nothing more than a high pitch wail as she snatched the iPhone out of my hands.
"Give that back!" I snarled, snatching my phone back off her before she could do anything with it. Meanwhile, Michelle looked amusedly at me.
"Lay off her Bri. Listen new girl. I don't know who you are, but you aren't one of us. Back off from Drew Hayden or you'll have me to answer to." Michelle warned me.
I let out a laugh of utter amazement. They thought I liked Drew? Hell no!
"I don't like Drew, he's so not my type." I stated.
"Then why did he pick you for his team this morning? And why did you drag him away from
English before?" Brianna demanded answers that I just couldn't give her.
"What's going on here?"
Upon hearing that voice, I had never felt more relieved in my life.
I turned around to see Misty walking out of the bathroom holding her sweet little Togepi.
"Nothing. We were just leaving." Michelle turned on her heel and walked away, Brianna running after her.
"What did they say to you?" Misty asked as soon as Michelle and Brianna had left.
"I don't even know." I lied as we began walking to last period. I wanted to tell Misty about it, but that meant explaining why I was talking to Drew Hayden in the first place, and I wasn't a good liar.
As I headed to class with Misty, I felt everybody's stares on me.
More attention. Just what I needed.
A/N: I updated:-) Inspiration struck majorly after reading a couple of high school fics.
I'm not amazingly happy with this chapter but hey. I'm so unreliable at updating though, so who knows when the next update will be?
Definitely more Contest and Oldrival in the next chapter, since there was none at all in this one.
Not really much else to say but, Review? Maybe your reviews will give me some inspiration, idk:-)
:)~