This is the REAL fourth chapter that I forgot to post! Sorry! Hopefully, no confusion was caused.
The same scenario happened the next day. She found the same group of girls she'd nicknamed the D.U.L.L.s (Danger! Unbearable Loony Leeches) at the same spot she had found them yesterday. The entire team was practicing. However he was nowhere to be seen.
That's a surprise, she thought dimly, struggling to decide what to do. Not that there were many choices. The D.U.L.Ls were all looking at her, grinning like barracudas. Turning around to leave the gym, she heard them giving each other high-fives to celebrate their victory. She gritted her teeth, clenched her fist tightly.
Today's your day, bloodsuckers, she thought darkly, storming out of the gym in fury. Someday, it'll be mine. Just wait.
Not feeling confident about it as she would've liked to be, she muttered several curses. Then she saw him, silently coming out of the changing room, downing a can of frozen Cola. Distracted, she almost tripped over a pot of plants that stood in her way.
The flicker in his eyes told her he'd noticed her. Somehow, feeling compelled to greet him, she quickly said: "Hi." Feeling it was too short a greeting, she added, "I'm, uh, I'm going home." Duh.
He didn't say anything, looking as if he hadn't been listening. Slightly abashed and cursing herself for talking to him when they had nothing to do with each other (talk about public humiliation), she quickly opted for a quick and smooth escape.
She was metres away when -
"Why?"
She stopped dead in her tracks at the unexpected and delayed response. Amazed, she turned around to find him looking straight at her. "Um," she grappled for an answer. "Because that's where I live?"
He saw it as a sarcastic reply and pressed his lips together in irritation. "No. Why do you let them bully you like that?"
She thought she knew what he was implying, though why he was broaching the subject puzzled her. "I don't know what you're talking about," she said with aplomb.
"I think you do."
She was getting annoyed – she could feel it. The simmering fire coming to life.
"Why do you let them push you around?" he continued. "You're all but kneeling at their feet and kissing their shoes."
She saw red, whole flashes of it.
He finished his drink and tossed it into a can nearby. Shifting his sports bag, he looked at her, said, "Go home then, cowardly turtle," and left.
She stared at his retreating back, mouth wide open.