I Do

It was time. I'm totally ready to take Derrick "hotshot" Harrington down a notch.

I square my shoulders and entered the school building with my head held high and without Layne for the second time in my life. I had told her to get her own ride since I had to "conduct some very important business". She had scoffed at me and told me to have fun. She had hung up laughing on me. I felt a bit miffed.

I grimaced at the thought and felt my shoulders droop a little. Then I remembered what had happened to me the last time I entered without Layne.

But I have a mission now, I thought to myself, take Derrick Harrington down a notch.

My self-esteem went up a notch.

I eyed Derrick surrounded by girls (when is he ever not?) with Alicia clutching his arm. I saw that Derrick was trying to pry off Alicia's claws to try and flirt with the girls but Alicia's claws were dug in too deep in his arm skin. I giggled at the scene.

But this wouldn't work. I needed both his girl and guy friends to completely humiliate him. I groaned but I was secretly relieved that I was putting this off until lunchtime.

I head to my locker and spun the dial open. I replaced my books for homework with the books that I need for my first two periods. I stuffed them in my JanSport bag, wincing at the sudden jolt of the books. Ugh, my bag felt heavier now from the history books that I had just reloaded my bag with.

The bell rang and walked into homeroom, one of the two classes I share with Derrick and Alicia. I sat at the back of the classroom, as usual, and pulled Wuthering Heights out of my bag. I'm a total sucker for old romantic novels, though Pride and Prejudice is my favourite. I turned it to a random page and started to read its dog eared page.

I was completely engrossed in my book when the bell rang, signalling us that it was the start of period one. I slung my bag on my shoulders, my head still in my book. I carefully made my way out of the classroom and into the hallway. I then put my book away and made my way to my first class, history.

The morning passed rather quickly and before I knew it, lunch rolled around. I had a P.E period just before lunch and I was starving. I grabbed quickly munched my apple and chicken sandwich before I dashed outside to catch the Wespas before lunch period ended.

"Hey, girly! What's the rush?" Layne asked as she caught my arm before I could exit the cafeteria doors. I gave an inward sigh as I, politely as I could, tug my hand away from Layne's hands.

"Um... I have a stage challenge meeting I need to attend!" I said as casually as I could before I sprinted away, leaving Layne with a puzzled look on her face. I wasn't exactly lying; I did have a meeting but it was after school. And it was tomorrow.

The double doors closed behind me and I was outside, on the Wespa's turf. I wrinkled my nose as I saw the cheerleaders stretching and bending forwards, for the entertainment of the Bulldogs or other jocks. I held my head high as I saw Derrick checking out Olivia's cheerleading-toned butt.

Alicia's glare turned from Derrick onto me. I brushed past her and headed my way towards Derrick. He saw me approach and tried to walk away. But all exits were blocked and if he walked away now, it would seem rude. So he turned his attention back to me and tried to smile. My heart jumped a little but I took it as a sign that I was nervous and nothing else.

"Hey, Derrick," I simpered. He flicked his hair away from his face and gave me a small wave.

"Well, you know how you have to do a recital at the end of the semester?" I said loudly. Loud enough for his soccer friends to stop kicking a ball between them and, discreetly of course, turn their attention to me.

"What are you talking about, Massie?' Derrick mumbled nervously.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about, DERRICK."

His soccer buddies stopped trying to be discreet and started to throw questions around.

"Well anyway, Mme Noelle just finished casting out all the roles and you're going to be an ENCHANTED TREE. How exciting is that?"

Derrick's face turned bright red. His guy friends then started to smother him.

"Oooohhh! You do ballet? Why didn't you tell me before?"

"You know, my 5 year old sister does ballet as well... maybe I can introduce you to her!"

"An enchanted tree aye? You'd look totally hot in a green leotard!"

The girls then joined in and soon, Derrick became a laughing stock. His face looked pained and for some reason, instead of feeling good, I felt rotten inside. I turned away and realised that I never wanted to see Derrick look as hurt as he did just then, even if he mocks a million more people in his life.

I grabbed my chemistry books and dashed to class with literally seconds to spare before the warning bell rang.

I walked into the lab and seated myself in my usual assigned spot, in the middle closest to the window. I would actually enjoy this class if it wasn't for the fact that Alicia sits next to me. And to make matters worse, she was my assigned lab partner.

I laid my books on my table and placed my bag underneath my chair. Alicia still hadn't arrived yet. Typical.

Mr Reed scanned the classroom and saw the empty seat next to me. He glanced at me and I shrugged. He sighed and turned to the board.

Mr Reed was just about to write something when the lab door flung open and Alicia strutted in, her Louis Vuitton handbag hanging on the crook of her arm and her Fendi shades perched on her flawless forehead. All 18 heads, including Mr Reed's, snapped towards the door. Alicia, obviously enjoying all the attention, did air kisses towards everyone. I rolled my eyes as Mr Reed actually blushed.

"Um, ok class, settle down and turn to page 64 in your text book. Alicia, sit down and if you're ever late again, detention will be coming your way." Mr Reed said, trying to be stern but not succeeding to cover up the flustering. I rolled my eyes again and opened my text book to the designated page.

Alicia smiled at Mr Reed which seemed to fluster him a bit more and strutted down the aisle to my table. She pouted at me and nudged my workbook so it wasn't on "her" side of the table. I sneered-smiled at her and pushed my workbook back to its original place. She sighed and slammed her bag down onto the table. I jumped at the sudden noise but regained my composure.

Alicia took her time to take all her books out. When she had finished, we were all already on question 5 of the exercise. Then, she leaned over and accidently on purpose knocked my arm, causing me to do a squiggle across my exercise book.

"Shit! Why did you have to do that, Alicia?" I hissed under my breath.

"Well, why did you have to spill to everyone that my boyfriend is casted as an enchanted tree in a ballet recital?"

"Your boyfriend? The last time I checked, he was single."

Alicia's cheeks went red and I knew that I had hit her weak spot.

"Well, it won't be long until he's mine again."

I scoffed at this and Mr Reed seemed to have heard me. He turned away from the board and glared at me.

"Care to share with the class at what you're laughing about, Miss Block?"

I bowed my head and muttered a muted no. Mr Reed stared at me for a few more seconds before turning back to the board.

Next to me, I heard Alicia snicker, just as loud as I had scoffed. But Mr Reed didn't seem to acknowledge that she did. I sighed at the unfairness but kept doing my work.

I got dropped off at Arabesque about half an hour before the lesson started so I could warm up and maybe squeeze in a run-through of one of my pieces. I quickly changed into my black leotard and pink leg warmers and walked into the ballet studio with the makeshift barre hanging off my arms.

But instead of greeting an empty studio, Derrick was standing there, with his arms crossed across his chest and his Air Force Ones strapped to his feet. His expressions were unreadable.

I gulped as I gingerly walked towards him. He was standing on the middle of the room where I usually put the barre.

I placed the barre right in front of him and gave him a shaky smile.

"So, you ready for today's lesson?"

"Why did you fuck with me today?"

I winced at his crude words but remembered my pre-arranged answer. I knew something like this was going to come up.

"Why did YOU fuck with ME when Alicia was being Alici-bitcha?"

He looked taken aback but I held my guard.

"Well, unlike you I have a reputation to keep up!"

"What? As a douche who would laugh if a girl slaps another girl? Even when you promised the slapped girl that you'd stand up for her in front of the slapee?" I spat my words out.

Instead of sniping back like what I thought he'd do, Derrick bows his head in shame and start to take off his Air Force Ones. I looked at him in surprise since for every lesson I seem to have to drag him out of the shoes.

When he finished, he looked up at me. We stood there for a while, staring at each other (well, I was staring and he was kind of glaring). Derrick then broke the trance and asked when we were going to start. I coughed uncomfortably and walked over to the other side of the room to play the warm-up song.

"Do you think maybe we can have another song today?" Derrick asked me. "This one's getting kinda boring."

"No."

He shut up. I think he could tell I was pissed at him.

We did the warm-up for about 20 minutes and I started to teach him the "Enchanted Tree" routine. The moves were simple and I had memorised the whole sequence last night so I didn't need the sheet of paper with me. He caught on pretty quickly and learnt the whole routine in today's session, though I wasn't surprised because it was simple enough for a seven year old to learn it. Literally.

"Um, the recital's going to be in about three weeks time, on a Thursday night from about 5.30 to 8-ish."

He looked at me and groaned. "Thursday? Like, the 29th?"

I nodded and he groaned again. "The state championships are on that night!"

I shrugged. "You have to make it. Or all of those moms for the 5,6 and 7 year olds are going to be very disappointed."

"I'm going to be dancing with 5, 6 and 7 year olds?" He screeched. I winced and nodded.

Derrick sighed and shook his head. We went separate ways to get changed and about 10 minutes later we were waiting outside for our rides. Derrick had gotten a ride with someone else to school and he came to the studio right after school so he didn't have a car. Isaac was running late and there was nobody else waiting.

We sat in silence for a while. He then turned to face me.

"Look, I'm really, really sorry about what happened yesterday."

I kept looking forwards and ignored him, though all I wanted to do was to turn around and face his gorgeous face.

"Whatever. You've said sorry before and look how that went."

In the corner of my eyes, I saw him shake his head, his dirty blond crown shaking like a cute Labrador. My favourite breed.

"Massie, this time I really meant it. I think that I was just in the moment and had to laugh. I think I was... scared of Alicia and what she would do to me if I didn't laugh."

I started to say something but he cut me off.

"I know I must have hurt you but now I realise that... I never want to see you hurt like that again Massie. Your face when you looked at me was so haunting and I don't think I can live with that image in my head. So please, forgive me, or say that you do, to ease the pain a little. Cuz when I see you hurt... I seem to break apart a little."

I turned my face to look at him. I felt something running down my cheeks and realise that they were tears. I brushed them away and lowered my eyes to his lips.

"Don't do that. I think girls look prettier when they cry."

I giggled. He smiled and went on one knee. "So do you, Massie Block, forgive me, Derrick Harrington, for being a douche who likes to see pretty girls get slapped?"

I giggled again, my tears have stopped now and nodded. "I do."

He stood up and took his hands in mine. "You may now kiss the forgiven."

Before I had time to process the words in my mind, he leaned his face in and his soft, warm mouth kissed mine. I gave a little squeak and he let my mouth go a little but I wasn't ready to do that yet. I leaned in and kissed him back.

When we pulled away for air, he smiled bashfully, almost shyly, at me. He put a hand on my right cheek and stroked it. I shuddered at his touch.

"You know, if you don't mind me saying, that was probably better than kissing Alicia."

It was kind of rude but I didn't care. Derrick Harrington likes me, Massie Block, of all people. I guess Alicia was wrong after all. She wasn't going to snag him back.

Phew. That took a while but I hope you guys like it! Please review!!!! I poured my heart and soul into this chappie!

SkyexHIGH

P.S... the story isn't finished yet ;p