Deuce finally caught up with Cleo during lunch. She immediately turned her back on him when he approached which wasn't a good sign but he wasn't expecting any good signs. Clawd and Romulus tried to wave him over to their table and even Clawdeen gave him a threatening look but putting this off wasn't going to make things any better. He kept walking towards her table but had to stop when Clawd literally got in his way.
"Hey, I wanted to remind you about SKRM practice Saturday."
Deuce nodded. Of course he knew SKRM practice was Saturday. It was every Saturday during the few weeks that casketball and SKRM season overlapped. He knew Clawd was just trying to help him out and he appreciated it, but the werewolf had the wrong idea this time.
"Well, I figured that, as captain I needed to you know touch base with everyone and go over plans...like now...over there."
Deuce placed a hand on his shoulder. "Yeah, no problem, bro. I'll be right there as soon as I take care of this."
Clawd looked at him like he was crazy, maybe he was, but Deuce stepped around his friend and walked up to Cleo's table anyway. "Hey, Cleo, can I talk to you in private?"
The Egyptian woman looked over her shoulder, her eyes frosty with fury. She was beautiful and she was scary. "If you're here to try to apologize, you can just do it here. You embarrassed me in public, you should apologize in public."
He wondered if she truly realized the irony of that statement. How many times had she embarrassed someone in public only to reconcile in private? He pushed the negative thoughts away. This was going to be hard enough without picking any additional fights. "Look, Cleo, I think this would really rather be done in private. So, can we please go somewhere alone for a minute."
Her eyebrow raised, "No. You can do your grovelling right here. I doubt it will help you after the way you treated me but you can try."
"I'm not going to apologize." Her eyes sparked and he spoke up again before she did. "I'm no good for you, Cleo. We're not good for each other. I thought I was helping but..." He let that trail off. She wasn't going to listen to him right now. She was too angry. He needed to just keep this simple. "I'm sorry, Cleo. You're beautiful. You're wonderful. But, it's over."
"Oh my Ra! You're dumping me!?" Her voice was bouncing off the walls and her volume was making his ears hurt. "How dare you? Me? Why? It's that tramp, isn't it? The one you've-"
He cut her off again, raising his own voice to be heard. "It's got nothing to do with anyone but you and me, Cleo! We're through because of this." He waved his hand to take in the whole situation. "Your anger is just...Look, I'm not getting into this with you. Not here. Not in public. But, I'm telling you and the whole school. No one else has anything to do with this break-up but you and me and anyone that says different is a liar."
He turned and walked away, leaving her to be soothed by her friends. There was nothing more he could say without embarrassing or hurting her further and he didn't want that. Instead, he collapsed onto a chair at a table with Clawd, Romulus, Manny and Heath.
The fire elemental gave a low whistle, "Oh man! What were you thinking? She is never going to forgive you for that. You are gonna have to buy her a diamond the size of-"
"Shut up, Heath," Clawd followed his command with a glare but then leaned in closer to Deuce. "You sure about this, dude? I mean...this seems pretty permanent."
Deuce nodded. "It is. We're done. We can't go on like we've been and...I don't know if she can change or if she wants to but I do want to and we just can't go on."
Romulus leaned forward, lowering his voice enough to leave Heath and Manny out of the conversation. "I heard what you said, but, seriously, does this have anything to do with the notes."
Deuce glanced at Heath and Manny but they were distracted by some of the ghouls practicing a new dance step near one of the windows. They weren't bad guys but they were too immature for talk about anything more than how pretty a ghoul was. "She didn't break us up if you're asking. This isn't her fault. But, yeah, the notes sort of did start this. They made me realize how much being Cleo was cutting me off from people and, dudes, being afraid of your ghoulfriend? You know there's something wrong when you spend most of your day worrying if next time you see her she's going to yell at you for nothing. It just kind of woke me up to something that's been bothering me for awhile and brought it to a head but, no, she didn't do anything to break us up and I don't want anyone saying that. She's been nothing but a friend. This break up is my fault and Cleo's. We screwed up." He shrugged. "I should have called her on the trust thing a long time ago and she shouldn't be taking the least little rumor as proof positive that I'm screwing around. But we didn't catch it and it's led to this."
The werewolves nodded sympathetically. "Well, umm, you gonna be up for practice today and tomorrow?"
Deuce smirked, "No, I'm going to go crawl into bed with a box of ice cream." He playfully punched his friend's shoulder good-naturedly. "Bro, I'll be fine and we gotta get ready. Casketball against Zombie High this weekend and SKRM against Granite High next week. They are going down!"
Meanwhile, on the other side of the spooketeria, Purrsephone read the note she had found in the locker. "SN, I'm going to talk to Cleo at lunch. It will probably be bad. No matter what gets said, it's not your fault and I'm not going to let her blame you. Thanks for being my friend through this. Hanging out with Cleo and her friends is probably out of the cards now but you can always hang out with my friends and me as long as you're not allergic to dog hair. Hope that made you laugh. Anyway. Now that you don't have to worry about Cleo, and you really don't, when can we meet? I'd like to actually, you know, talk talk to you. How about this weekend? After the game? Just let me know, ok?"
Between discussing plans for the weekend and for after school and the just now public break up, she didn't have time to get a note in before lunch ended but made sure to drop it off before heading to last period. After the bell rang, though, she headed over to the gym with her sister and Toralei to change into their fearleading outfits. Frankie arrived just as they were lacing up their shoes.
They gave her a friendly smile but she didn't seem fully at ease. They didn't blame her though. One of her best ghoul friends was having a really bad day and she was in a room with the monster that had dumped water on her and caused her to accidentally electrocute her friends after Mashionals.
Toralei waved toward her locker. "Go ahead and change and meet us out there. We'll get our area marked off and the music cued up while we're waiting."
She smiled her thanks and the werecats headed out. While Toralei set up the cd player, Meowlody and Purrsephone measured out the space they would need for the routine and set some chairs to mark it off, ignoring the mansters playing casketball, which was hard for Purrsephone. Deuce looked so good in his uniform but she had had a lot of practice pretending not to notice him in public so she managed to pull it off.
As soon as Frankie was out, Toralei motioned them over and the twins formed up a line with Frankie between them.
"Ok, Frankie, let's do the stretches first. Don't need any pulled muscles right before the game tomorrow." As Toralei led them through the warm-ups, Purrsephone smiled feeling her body loosen up.
She and Meowlody, also, made sure to talk to Frankie, reminding her to breath into the stretches and giving her tips on how to push herself a little farther each time. She couldn't match their limberness, of course, since she wasn't a werecat and she, also, hadn't been doing this as long as they had. The three of them had learned these stretches under Nefera who used to spend entire practices on them in order to improve the strength and flexibility of the team as a whole. No matter what else Nefera was, there had been a very good reason the fearleading squad had dominated Mashionals under her and it hadn't been through cheating. Not then.
Next, Toralei put the music on and had the twins and Frankie go through the routine so she could see exactly what the ghoul was doing. Everyone knew that Frankie and Draculaura didn't have the best balance and grace but Frankie did have spirit and the rest could be worked on but Toralei needed to know exactly what she had to work with, where Frankie was right now.
Purrsephone knew that Toralei was a good teacher. After all, though no one seemed to want to remember it, she had taught Cleo when Cleo had first joined the fearleading squad. Nefera, of course, hadn't taught her sister anything and Cleo hadn't even been able to do a cartwheel originally. But, Toralei had worked with her and taught her, to show that the werecat had what it took to be a good fearleading captain. And what had been the reward? Cleo becoming fearleading captain without ever once thanking or even acknowledging Toralei for all of her teaching and a tongue lashing from Nefera for not letting Cleo fall on her face. Purrsephone frowned. They still owed Nefera.