How to Change a Bad Boy
By: Janzelle
Chapter: 9
How to Hate Gym
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We all are well aware of the athletic abilities of Ally Dawson: she has none. Will Austin be able to help her out?
Songs I've Used: Rubik's Cube by Athlete
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Recap:
'I cannot believe I got to act up on stage again!' I thought, happily squealing to myself.
Though, I probably won't be doing that for a while. I mean, right after Austin and I stopped dancing and he let of me, I realized I was still up on stage.
Insert crazy stage destruction here
'However, I should probably thank Austin. If he didn't push me, I would not have been able to experience the stage again. He probably won't admit it, but he was really there for me through the whole thing and I'm glad he was.'
I stood next to Austin, an uncontainable smile stuck on my face, and glanced down at him.
"What?" he hissed and I looked away.
"Nothing! …Just, thank you," I said softly and stared down at my suddenly interesting shoes.
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(Ally's POV)
Dear Diary, Wednesday
Possible Song Lyrics?
-I'm like a kid who just won't let it go
-Twisting and turning the colors in rows
-I'm so intent to find out what it is
-This is my Rubik's cube
-I know I will figure it out
The whole play fiasco was amazing. If you were there, you would not believe your eyes. Austin playing a lead role?! Yeah, and that is not even the best part! When I screwed up and accidentally injured the princess, Christina, Austin was there for me. It is because of him that I was able to get back on stage.
PS: Oh, and just so you know, I visited Christina in the hospital to make sure she was okay. She broke her arm and has to keep the cast on for six to eight weeks. I felt so bad, but she was nice enough to forgive me.
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I had been having this weird dream lately. I would write it down in my diary, but I would rather not be reminded of it:
I was crying. No, I was bawling, kneeling down next to a body. I couldn't tell who it was because it was encased in a black darkness, too dark for my eyes to penetrate. A red liquid escaped the person's body and I bawled harder. Why was I crying? Who was this person? I closed my eyes and when they open again, I was sitting in a hospital chair. The person who was hurt was lying down in the hospital bed. I ran over to the bed, but my legs rapidly began to move slower and the bed moved out of my reach. I unexpectedly fell into darkness before waking up, drenched in my own sweat.
Every night, I had this nightmare and I couldn't figure out why.
'Is it supposed to be a warning?'
The subject kept grabbing me away from listening to my teachers. I even tuned out Trish when she was talking about how she was fired from Billl's Surf Shop.
Austin was not at school today. Well, he was not at his morning classes and when I sat on the roof at lunch, he did not show. If it was one thing I learned about Austin I knew that if he was not in class, he was always on the roof.
Austin had not been coming to school a lot lately. And when he did decide to show up, he left sometime after gym class. This skipping-school phase started a couple weeks after the Sleeping Beauty play. I just did not understand why Austin was not showing up for school. He already ignored his teachers and their lessons; missing school was affecting his attendance record even more. Though, that wasn't even the worst part. Austin would not tell me anything.
I tried bringing up the subject a few times, when I caught him at school a few days ago, but he would always get angry and tell me to 'butt out' of his personal life. I thought we had a better relationship than that.
During the play, Austin and I had such a great connection. We talked and laughed and worked together on a daily basis; and it was nice. Now, we barely talked.
How could he not see how concerned I was about him? When he did come to school, Austin looked so exhausted, like he hadn't slept a wink in months. It killed me inside watching him drag his feet to class and slam his head on the desk, hoping to catch a few Z's.
"Are you sure Austin's not a girl? The guy has more mood swings than you and me put together. Maybe he has his period," Trish joked and I gave her this are-you-really-cracking-jokes-at-a-time-like-this look.
"Trish! I am really worried. What if Austin's not eating right? What if he's doing something illegal or got caught up in some horrible deal he can't get out of? Worrying over here!" I said frantically, chipping the chocolate-colored nail polish off my recently painted nails.
We walked into the girl's locker room, putting our bags down and dialing in our gym locker combinations.
"Who are you? His mother?" Trish questioned sarcastically as she switched into her gym clothes, "I bet he's fine. You need to stop worrying or you'll get worry lines and that is not a good look on you."
"Trish!"
"Okay, okay! Just, could you stop thinking about Austin for one moment of your life? It's gym time! The class where I find my happiness in pegging other kids in the face with dodge balls!" Trish said in awe, going into a fantasy where only she had fun.
I hated gym class. It was the first class I ever felt such a despising feeling toward. I couldn't throw a dodge ball, a football, or any ball in this case. If you had not already noticed, I was not athletically inclined. All my life, I tried my hardest to avoid gym class. Even in elementary school, when the children went out for recess, I curled up in the library reading a good book. Though, my plan-to-avoid quickly came to an end when I entered middle school and recess was no longer optional.
I sighed unhappily, changing into my gym clothes.
'Please universe, anything BUT dodge ball. I bet the teachers still haven't erased my face imprints from the last game.'
Trish and I entered into the gymnasium and immediately began our five-minute walking warm-up. We split up into our classes, each class playing a different sport for the day. Sadly, Trish wasn't in the same class as me. If only Austin was here, then I would at least have a friend to talk to—
'Wait one moment! I know that mob of blonde hair anywhere!'
I giddily fast-walked up to the tall boy. Though, as soon as I reached him, my heart fell. Austin looked drained! His eyes were slightly red with a few bags displayed under them.
"Austin! What happened? You look more tired than on Monday…" I trailed off, biting slowly on my bottom lip.
"Hmm? Oh, hey Ally," he greeted slowly, rubbing both eyes with his hands, "I was just… doing some late… reading or whatever."
'Lies! Austin doesn't read!'
We sat down in our class group while our gym teacher, Mr. Small, started to take attendance.
"Austin. The entire world knows you don't read," I stated bluntly, furrowing my eyebrows.
Why did he make an effort to lie? Lying only led to more lying. He should've just come clean and told me what was up.
"Oh."
Austin didn't even try to cover it up. Instead, he shrugged his shoulders, leaning his back on me, and softly closing his eyes for a brief moment.
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Mr. Small decided that we would play a friendly game of basketball today. He split my class into two teams, though half of the girls complained when they were not picked for Austin's team. Fortunately, I was not one of those girls. I grabbed an orange penny, along with the rest of my team.
There was no doubt a lot of bias in the two teams. It looked more like our undefeated school basketball team and against Austin, three other girls, two guys, and I. They were in a similar situation as me (no athletic abilities).
"Ally!" someone called out my name. Though before I could react, the basketball struck me brutally in the back of my head.
I foresaw a headache in my future… Oh, wait, never mind. I felt the throbbing now.
'Ow… that wasn't very nice,' I rubbed the growing bump in the back of my head, while the guy who threw the ball, Mitch Goldstein, chuckled to group of boys in yellow pennies, 'Why would he pass it to me? We aren't even on the same team!'
Just another reason why I hated gym. I was always singled out as the weak link of any team. Most of the time I was teased by the athletic students, since the rest of the students usually didn't try to participate in gym class.
However, I did not get why he tried to throw it to me in the first place. The guys usually dominated the basketball court while the girls huddle together on the sidelines.
I always tried to participate so I would get my class participation for the day, but the guys still only passed it to themselves.
"Ally!" Mitch called out again.
'I think I'm realizing a pattern here…'
I whipped around to the voice, putting my hands out to catch the pass and prove to those infuriating boys that I could in fact catch a basketball, but I was too late. The ball was already too close to my face and—with my reaction and coordination skills—it was a lost cause to try and dodge or stop it.
I scrunched my eyes up for impact, but, thankfully, it never came. That would have caused me to gain a bloody nose and I did not do well with blood. Instead, Austin had shown up right on time, grasping the ball with his hands and shaking his head judgingly at me.
"Wow, you really suck at sports," Austin joked as he dribbled the ball between his legs.
He dribbled around me, passing a few yellow-penny guys on the opposing team, and dunked the ball into the hoop, NBA style. It was called NBA, right?
"Aw, Austin. She would have caught it eventually," Mitch said sarcastically, "Come on, it wasn't going to hurt that badly."
I felt myself getting red in the face, my stomach feeling queasy.
'Why was gym class so hard for me? I can always overcome any other class I take. Why is gym so different?'
I looked down at my worn-out gym sneakers, picked at my nail polish once more, and tried to ignore the spotlight of shame those guys were directing towards me.
"Yes, because it was just so funny. If you really want a ball in someone's face, I could throw it at you," Austin suggested, spinning the basketball on his index finger and giving a quick smile to the victimizing boys.
"Oh, pretty boy has some claws. It's about time he put down the hair straightener and acted like a real man," Mitch provoked, a small blush brightened up his face.
Austin's eye twitched. He was about to slam the basketball at the guy's face, but I held his arm back.
"Austin, no. Isn't there a better way to resolve this?" I questioned, looking between both boys motherly.
'You know, I've always wanted to join Peer-Mediation Club…'
"The girl's right," Mitch agreed, motioning two other members of the basketball team to come over, "How about we have a little basketball match. Three-on-three. Then we'll see whose better. I'll give you and your lady-friend until tomorrow, after school, to find a third player."
"Ugh, why can't I just beat him up and be done with this?" Austin whined, turning to me and ignoring Mitch's pointed glares.
Mitch was an unusually large basketball player. His bulging muscles could intimidate even the toughest of teachers. Though, Austin still acted as if he could take on this brooding giant.
"Fine, then let's make it interesting. If you win, you can beat us up and we won't try and stop you. But, if we win, your pretty boy face is mine. Oh, and I won't forget about your precious Ally," he winked at Austin and the other two guys snickered in the background. Austin looked like he was about to blow a gasket.
"You better stay the fuck away from Ally or God so help you little shits—" Austin started to threaten, but I interrupted him.
"We accept," I blurted out and Austin's jaw dropped to the floor.
I didn't know why I just blurt things out sometimes. Maybe it was the horrible criticism of Austin or my hidden competitive side. Probably the competitive side wanting to finally break free from being locked up for fifteen years.
The guys laughed mockingly before leaving for the boy's locker room. Austin just stood there looking at me as if I had grown three heads.
"Are you crazy?! You suck at every sport imaginable! This won't be any different!" Austin shouted in my face, visibly steaming. Suddenly as if something clicked in his head, his anger diminished, almost completely, "You know what? Never mind."
Austin grabbed his schoolbag that was resting on the metal bench and stormed out of the gym. I followed quickly behind him.
'Why is he leaving?'
"Austin, wait! Where are you going?" I called after him, though he continued to walk away.
"I have 'things' to do," he hissed, not turning around to face me.
"What is it? What do you always have to do?" I yelled, trying to catch up to him.
"None of your business."
"Well… can you at least stay just this once? I mean, we have to find a third player and practice if we want to have a chance against—"
"No. You want to know why? Because I've already missed too many days because of that stupid play and tutoring sessions; I can't skip out anymore," Austin snapped. Even though he was not looking at me, I could tell he was angry.
"But that's not even all of it. I'm not going to stick around and watch you embarrass yourself against the basketball team. I guess you'll just have to find two other players now."
'Oh gosh… I made him mad. Now he definitely won't stick around! This game will be a thousand times harder without Austin there to help!'
"No, no, no. Let's not be irrational here," I started, trying to maintain a cheerful tone, "Austin, if you just share with me what you must accomplish, then maybe I could help—"
"No," he spat, more forcefully than the last.
"Why not?"
"Because I don't need you sticking your pale nose into my business!" Austin shouted, running a hand viciously through his messy blonde hair.
A dangerous bullet shot straight through my heart. The first time I met Austin, he said the same thing. Did we really revert back acquaintances in just a short five minutes?
That lump in my throat was returning, slowly increasing as the seconds passed by. A watery feeling engrossed my eyes and burned my eyelids.
'Does Austin hate me, or something? Is that the case? He doesn't talk about his family; he doesn't bring up his hobbies or anything in particular about him. It is like he is trying to keep me out, as if I was some type of disastrous virus trying to penetrate his body.'
"Austin, why are you doing this? You never let anyone in, always keeping things to yourself. When are you going to turn it all around and break down those walls of yours?" I questioned, every bone in my body wanting to flee straight to my songbook and scribble down those possible song lyrics. Though, my heart overpowered and kept me rooted to the spot.
"How am I supposed to help if you don't tell me anything? How am I supposed to understand you?"
Austin stopped in his tracks, spinning on his heel to look me straight in the eyes. He gave me a laugh; a laugh full of frustration; and it was nothing close to his actual, loveable, real laugh.
"Who said that I wanted you to understand?" his words stuck to me like superglue.
'No one said those words exactly, I just thought, since we were friends, that we would be able to understand each other more. Friends understand friends through a process called bonding.'
With that, Austin had turned around again and continued to exit the school, leaving me to drown in my thoughts.
Not a moment later, a hand touched me, comforting me from my shoulder. I flinched under the sudden pressure, whipping around to see none other than my longtime crush, Dallas, standing before me.
"Da-Dallas! You what doing are here (what are you doing here)?" I said, jumbling up my question and mentally hitting myself for it.
Somehow he understood what I said, responding, "Hey Ally, sorry about Austin. He can be… frustrating at times. I couldn't help but overhear your fight. If you need a person to help you out in that basketball match, I'll be happy to help."
Dallas flashed his perfect smile, warming my body; the body Austin coldly threw to the side and abandoned. I gradually smiled back, pushing a few strands of hair behind my ear. The feeling of acceptance was such a wonderful feeling.
'How lucky was I to be found by Dallas?'
"Wow, he's really changed since then," he scoffed, bringing me back to reality.
"Since when?!" I asked quickly, a little too quickly.
Dallas looked at me with an eyebrow raised, "…Since the beginning of freshmen year; about a year ago," he answered, curiosity in his voice, "Why do you ask?"
I sighed. I wish that were more of a clue then 'just a year ago'.
"No particular reason…" I trailed off sadly.
After school, I was able to meet up with Dallas. He taught me some basketball skills like dribbling and passing. He was such a great teacher; just another great quality of a great man. Dallas even found a third person that could help us win, Alexander Gulch.
'Though, even if we did beat the basketball team, I wouldn't beat them up. That would be silly and wrong.'
Even though I was with Dallas, and I was extremely ecstatic to be with him, I couldn't help but let my mind wander back to a certain blonde-headed boy every once in a while. The more I thought of Austin, the more I remembered our fight, and the more I was detaching myself from practice. Something I needed gravely.
As soon as I got home that night, I ran up into my room and closed the door behind me. Don't worry. I did not forget to greet my father when I came in. My fingers clutched the Spiderman coloring book and additional crayons I bought for Austin. When I passed the children's store, it caught my eye from the display window; I just couldn't help myself. I felt as if I needed to buy it for him. You know, just to see him smile genuinely again.
I sat down in my comfy pink chair and scooted it closer to my wooden desk. I had only one objective to accomplish. I cleanly ripped out a piece of loose-leaf paper from a nearby notebook and grabbed my favorite pen; the one with the puffy purple feathers bouncing from the top.
What I Know About Austin:
1). His name: Austin M. Moon; He never really told me what his middle name stood for…
2). Age: 15; sophomore like me
3). Likes: coloring books, pizza, the arcade, all kinds of sweets, stuffed animals, and, acting (though he won't admit it)
4). Is easily bribed
5). Likes my cooking :)
6). Sucks his thumb when he sleeps
7). Is a musical genius, but cannot write a song
8). Great at sports
9). Sensitive
10). Something changed him in freshman year?
My hand stopped writing. I could not think of anything else I could possibly write other than explaining his appearance or grades. I sighed unhappily, dropping my pen back in the pencil holder and leaning back into my chair.
I thought that if I listed things I knew about Austin, I would be able to see that, in fact, I did know a lot about him. Sadly, that's not the case. I could list over thirty things I knew about Trish and probably over twenty things I knew about Dez. However, Austin was unsurprisingly the hardest of them all.
I sighed again and blew a piece of brown hair, that was uncomfortably itching my rosy nose, out of my face, watching it slowly fall back in the same place and continue to irritate my nose.
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Austin wasn't in school today, big surprise. I knew I shouldn't have expected him to come, but I really thought he would. Maybe turn over a new leaf in the process.
The rest of the school day went by slow since every class seemed to drag on longer then the one before it. I usually did not complain about long school days because the more you are in school, the better education you get. It was just, the day was more fun when Austin was actually in class. Whether he was complaining, harassing, or just plain talking, the classroom was always more lively when he entered the room.
I stretched along the side of the basketball court, feeling the tightening pain in my legs as I pushed my body into a pike stretch. The moment of truth was here: The Basketball Game.
Dallas and Alex warmed up on the court, shooting three-pointers and dunks. However, they missed more than they usually did. I did not mean to complain but, Dallas was a football star and Alexander was a soccer goalie. They were not pros at the sport like Austin; but I was happy to be on a team with them.
'Because I am more worse then Dallas with both his hands tied behind his back.'
Mitch and his goons showed up a few minutes later and a kid-referee was shuffling her feet behind them. I could only wonder how she was pulled into this.
"Where's Austin?" Mitch spat, hints of disappointment shown on his face.
"Um, Austin, cannot participate with us today. He is… busy," I covered for him. It was not a lie since Austin was actually busy.
Both of our teams pulled up to our starting points and when the fidgeting referee threw the ball in the air, the game had begun.
Luckily, this was not a public event because I probably would have played like a deer in headlights. Mitch had caught the ball and, with little difficulty, slam-dunked the ball into the net. He shouted happily to his teammates, running back to his defended hoop while we collected the basketball.
The game moved on like this. Every other basket Mitch made, Dallas or Alex would shoot into the hoop. I could only assume Mitch was going easy on us too. Dallas seemed to send me apologetic looks every now and then, making me feel horrible that we were going to lose and get beat to a pulp.
I was no help to the team at all. Any time Dallas or Alex passed the ball to me, Mitch would snatch it from my hands in a matter of seconds and steal yet another point from our hoop.
'I really am unable to improve at gym. I guess I should just stick to my academic classes. I mean, no one is perfect.'
"You guys suck. How do you expect to win if you can't even score a good ball?" Mitch teased and his cronies copied. "I am going to enjoy this win—"
Whap!
A blue Nike sneaker hit Mitch square in the back of his head, knocking him to the hard ground.
"I'm here—gasp—I'm here. God, why is the school so damn far away?" Austin wheezed, putting his hands onto his knees to catch his breath. I chuckled when I noticed his lack of footwear on his left foot.
"Austin, what are you doing here?" I asked, running up to him. Dallas had called a timeout and joined us a few moments later.
"Do you know how guilty you make people feel? Your stupid, beat-up face kept flashing in my mind," Austin mumbled under his breath, though I heard him loud and clear.
He rubbed his red eyes and lightly slapped his flushed cheeks, "Why are we just standing here? Are we gonna play or not?"
Austin ruffled my hair, just like when he promised to make it up to me when he stole my song, a small smile escaped his lips.
He picked up his shoe, not forgetting to glare viciously at Alex to get him to run off.
"Well, look what the cat dragged in," Mitch smirked and his group snickered, "It won't make a difference, you're still going to lose. Check the score."
Austin made a face before glancing at the scoreboard the blushing referee was holding: Mitch- 57, Ally- 28.
"Are you kidding me?!" Austin yelled at Dallas and me, running his hand through his hair and sighing overdramatically. "This is going to be hard."
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Even though Austin played like a professional basketball player, surprisingly making Dallas and I look like professionals too, the time ran out before we could claim our spot as winners.
Mitch- 107
Ally- 92
On the bright side, the team did very good since we were originally far behind.
Austin sat on the metal bench, panting and whispering curses. Sweat trickled off of his brow and he pushed slightly wet hair from dangling in front of his face.
Dallas sat on the side; a sad pout graced his beautiful face, causing me to pout as well.
Mitch and his basketball friends victory-danced and chest-bumped on the court, chucking basketballs in every which and way before returning his attention back to Austin.
"I believe we had a deal, pretty boy," Mitch smirked and Austin rolled his eyes.
"God, if your going to beat up someone, could you make it Dallas only?" Austin joked while Dallas shot him a warning glare. It surprises me how he was able to joke at a time like this. "Kidding! Then… just beat me up. Leave Ally and the 'boy who still wets his bed' out of it."
I stood there, biting my now non-existent nails. I know Austin tried to bail on me in the first place, but this is a horrible way of making it up! I do not want Austin taking all of the beating. I am the one who got us into this in the first place!
Mitch looked at Austin with a confused expression plastered over his face. He grabbed Austin's shoulders, roughly pulling Austin closer.
'Oh gosh! He's going to head-butt him!' I thought, not realizing what was really happening.
What came next was unpredictable. Eyes widening. Jaws dropping. Dallas bursting into hysterical fit of laughter.
…Oh, and lips crashing together.
When Mitch pulled away a couple moments later, Austin was completely stiff as if he looked into Medusa's eyes.
The only word that was able to escape his glistening lips was 'NO!', which he managed to shout repeatedly while he ran around the court like a chicken without its head.
Mitch stood their dumbfounded, "I thought I was clear when I said 'your pretty boy face was mine'."
I stifled a laugh, watching Austin try to rub off the unwanted kiss of his tongue with the back of his hand. It wasn't that hard for me to hide my laugh, considering that the event gave me more of a dull feeling in my stomach and funny, jittery feeling.
I kind of felt bad for Mitch knowing that Austin would not be able to return his feelings; you know, since Austin doesn't swing that way.
The blonde boy was still running around the court like a maniac, stopping at the hoop and banging his head against the solid, dirty metal. Probably to bang the memory from his head.
'He must have really hated that kiss… oh wait!'
It just occurred to me that I brought the coloring book I was going to give to Austin with me in my gym bag. I zoomed over to my bag to get it.
"Austin!" I called, immediately ripping his attention from the wretched kiss.
A surprised look pulled over his face and he ran over to me to retrieve the ingenuous treat. It seemed as if he had already locked up the dark memory to the far corner of his brain.
'Hmm, I wonder if he did that with our little kiss,' I thought, remembering the kiss I could not lock away.
"Holy shit, Spiderman!" Austin exclaimed as he flipped open the pages to a colorless cutout of Spiderman shooting his web-thingy in a cool fashion.
'Wow, that was… way too easy…' I thought, glancing down at Austin while he colored in Spiderman's suit red and blue.
Even though he was brutally rejected, Mitch still makes flirty eyes at Austin in gym and crams love notes in his locker. I knew I shouldn't have been thinking this, but I was pretty happy that I wasn't the only one that hated gym.
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Question of the Day:
-What do you think the next chapter will be about?
You are getting closer to the discovery of Austin's mysterious past!
Review!
(^w^)
