"What the hell is this?" Ray said, looking around the empty lot. There was
a flaming trashcan in the middle, and the football team stood behind it,
but Marissa, though her house was in plain sight, was nowhere to be found.
"Consider this an official goodbye," Gerry said, crossing his arms. He was carrying Ray's jersey. Spitefully, he tossed it into the garbage can, and the smoke billowed upward with the unpleasant scent of burning material.
"Anything to add, Songbird?" Blue said, looking over across the street. Ray turned around and saw Marissa walking across the street. She had her large black jacket clutched around her, and her eyes darted around insecurely. Marissa shrugged and shook her head.
"I never thought you'd do all this just to spite me. You can do what you want," Ray said, "But don't drag my girl into this,"
"No one dragged me into this," she said, brushing past him without laying eyes on him. She pulled an envelope out of her pocket and stood behind the flaming can. "This was all my idea. Oh, and please don't call me your girl anymore. I stopped being your girl when I became your punching bag,"
"What?" Ray said. If he had been expecting anything from this meeting, this definitely was not it.
"Like Gerry said," she said, her eyes blank and staring into the flame. "This is your official goodbye—from them, and from me." She opened the envelope and pulled out a picture of her and Ray. She took one last glance at it, then tore it in half, dropping it into the flames. She walked over to him and looked him straight in the eye. "Leave," she said coldly, walking away. She walked briskly back to her house and closed the door behind her, waiting until the door was safely locked to slump down on her couch, rubbing the back of her neck in agitation.
"Marissa," Gerry said, knocking on her front door, "Come on, open the door!"
"I'm busy!" she said back loudly, trying to mask her shaky voice. "I'll just talk to you at school tomorrow or something, okay?"
"You sure?" he said, not sounding entirely convinced.
"Positive," she said, "I'm just sleepy,"
* * * * *
Marissa drove to school the next day, not feeling like herself. She hadn't planned on things being like this. She knew that Ray being kicked off of the team would throw things off between them a little, but she never expected it to tear them apart completely. She got to school, and heard everyone whispering as she passed by. "Oh joy," she muttered, "This is going to be one long day,"
Throughout literature, she continually had to pinch herself to keep from turning around and looking at what Ray was doing. He's probably happy as a clam, she thought, now that he's finally rid of me. Another thing she noticed was that studying during class, instead of 'going through the motions' of being Ray's girlfriend, made her feel like she was actually earning what she got.
Still, she couldn't wait until lunch, where she could just sit and cut loose with the rest of the Titans. They always thought of the craziest things to do, especially if Marissa was trying to eat.
"I can't believe it actually took me a whole month to brush Ray off," Marissa said. She thought about what she was saying. Back home, a month would have seemed an eternity to her, yet now all she wanted was a guy who'd stick around as long as he could. "He's such a jerk. I must have been really desperate,"
"I hate to say I told you so," Sunshine said.
"And I'd hate to hear it," Marissa said. "Besides, it's not like I'm desperately waiting for another guy. I have another option right in my pocket—literally,"
"What, an action figure?" Blue laughed. Marissa laughed, rolling her eyes. She pulled a napkin out of her pocket, with some words scribbled on it.
"Guess whose number I got this weekend," she laughed.
"This weekend?" Gerry said. "You just broke up with Ray yesterday,"
"Your point being?" Marissa asked innocently.
"If you got the phone number this weekend, and you broke up with Ray yesterday," Gerry began, speaking as though he were talking to a toddler, "Then you weren't single when you were blatantly flirting with someone else,"
"Oh yeah," Marissa laughed, "I knew there was something I forgot when I got the guy's number. Too late now, though— Anyway, I got Kip Tyler's number, I'm calling right after school, and none of you can s"
"Kip Tyler?" Rev said. "As in Groveton's infamous Kip Tyler? That's the guy you met on Saturday? Why didn't you say anything when I called you?"
"Slipped my mind?" she muttered innocently.
"Missy," Rev said seriously.
"Look, I know you guys don't like him, but hear me out," she said, "I mean, this is bound to piss Ray off even more, which is just one more reason for me to do it. I mean, Kip meant to take you down, Rev, but I don't think he was planning to break your wrist. The same goes for Ray. He wanted you to take a hit, but he didn't want it to get you out of the game. From what I see, he'd blame Kip for that. See, I don't do this stuff for nothing."
"So you're going to go out with some brainless bulldozer, just to spite your ex-boyfriend? I never thought you'd be the type," Sunshine laughed. "How ladylike,"
"I never said he was brainless," Marissa persisted, "I just said that he's not the brightest Crayola in the carton,"
"Which still leaves us with the fact that he's stupid," Sunshine said, "And yet you still insist on going out with him,"
"Yeah, I'll go out with him," Marissa laughed. "But I never said anything about going steady,"
"Which reminds me," Petey said. "Why do you still got Ray's ring on?"
"I forgot about it," Marissa said, looking down at her hand. "Maybe I should throw it into the bushes. Maybe some bird's gonna have the luck of finding it, and good riddance."
"I got a better idea," Sunshine laughed. "Take it off." Marissa slid it off of her finger and handed it to him. He took it and cleared his throat. "Hey, Budds!" he shouted across the cafeteria. Ray turned around. "Air mail!" he threw the ring clear over all of the tables, and it landed in front of Ray. Marissa smirked, then went back to her lunch.
"Bullseye," Gerry laughed.
"That was so mean!" she laughed loudly. "Now I need a new good luck charm for when I'm at cheerleading practice. How about that?" she pointed at the tiny crucifix necklace that Rev wore. "Just kidding! I couldn't ask you to give me that." she said.
"No, really," Rev said, taking it off. "Take it,"
"For real?" Marissa beamed. "Thanks! You're the greatest! I swear, this is definitely the best thing that ever happened to me." She leaned over the table and kissed him on the cheek. Then, the bell rang. "Music class—time for Mrs. Lourdes to make me sing my million solos over and over again." She picked up her bag and walked off.
She walked into the auditorium and met up with the rest of her music class. Joanna came running up to her, panting. She nearly knocked Marissa over when she couldn't stop running. Marissa had to catch her and brace herself before she fell right out the door again.
"Is it true?" Joanna asked in astonishment. "It's word all over the school. You didn't really break up with Ray, did you?"
"Yeah," Marissa laughed, "But it's a fair trade. I got Kip Tyler's number instead."
"Kip Tyler?" said Noreen, a junior who was in the same music class. "Can I see that number?"
"Excuse me?' Marissa laughed. "I've already staked my claim over here. You aren't going to take my new guy,"
Then, Mrs. Lourdes walked into the room, and conversation stopped. Marissa tried to sink into the back of the group and managed not to get picked once. The rest of the day, Marissa put up with people's questions, and she was glad when school was finally over.
"We all had a quick talk, and we decided you should definitely see where things go with this Tyler guy," Sunshine said, walking up to her. "And we decided to pull out all the stops. You should call him from the pay phone in the empty lot across the street from your house,"
"Or I could call him from inside my house, where I have a heater, and a fridge," Marissa said, arching an eyebrow. "What have you guys got up your sleeve?"
"Well, we thought that we could invite one or two people to act as witnesses," Sunshine said. "You know, just in case it comes up in court or something."
"I'll think about it," Marissa said. "Well, I need to get changed. Practice starts soon, and I definitely need to be at this one,"
* * * * *
"I've said it probably a million times," Marissa said, sighing. "It doesn't matter how well you know the moves. If you can't keep the rhythm, then you've screwed the routine up even worse anyway. Now, take it from the top, and try to keep time,"
Their routine for the next game wasn't coming along quite as quickly as they had planned. Some people were speeding up the moves, while some were slowing it down. People were colliding and tripping all over the place. She had to really drive the point home that this was important.
Marissa took to the air, and performed her flips with more aggression than she had ever put into it before. She jumped higher, spun faster, and yelled louder. Even more importantly, she enjoyed it more. She spent less time looking at the Titans, trying to pick faces out from the crowd, and more time laughing. The squad seemed to like this new Marissa. It was like she had just been set free after a long time of being shackled to the ground.
By the time practice was over, the squad hadn't wanted it to end. They knew Marissa well enough to know that, come tomorrow, she and Ray would be back together, and then Marissa would be back to normal.
Marissa was walking out to her car when Rev and Sunshine came running over. It just happened that they were parked right next to her. They stopped her from getting until, laughing.
"We aren't letting you go home by yourself," Sunshine said. "If we know Ray, he'll be around, and you won't have any of us around to back you up. Now, we can't let have our good luck charm go and fall for that, can we?"
"Well, I feel so very special," she laughed. "But really, I've got this one covered. I dumped the rat because I wanted to, and I'm serious about it this time. You don't have to follow me around trying to protect me,"
"Just a precaution," Rev said, "I mean, if you give the man credit for anything, it's the fact he's really slick with words. We're not pulling the risk,"
"Oh, fine, stalk me, why don't you?" Marissa laughed, rolling her eyes. This was really considerate of them, but she didn't really feel that they needed to treat like she needed the whole team as bodyguards. "But I can drive myself, thank you very much. You'll just have to follow me. What time do you two plan on leaving my house?"
"Whenever the others leave," Sunshine shrugged.
"Others?" Marissa snapped. "What do you mean by others?"
"Well, it's not like it's the whole team or anything," Sunshine said. "It's just Alan, Gerry, Julius, Blue, and Petey, and Sheryl's coming along just for kicks,"
"That's just not fair," Marissa laughed. "That's seven guys and two girls."
"Well, it's not like we're planning to do anything," Rev laughed. "We're just going to make sure that if Ray just happens to knock on the door, you're not the one answering it. Now, get in that car and start driving. They're all probably waiting at your house already,"
"So you guys invited yourselves over," Marissa said, opening her car door. "Fair enough, but there's still one more thing that you haven't told me. You still didn't say when you're going to leave,"
"When it's time to leave for school—which reminds me. Can you give Sheryl a ride to school tomorrow?" Sunshine laughed. Marissa rolled her eyes and started the car. She got home, Rev and Sunshine about two minutes behind her, and saw a whole crowd of people sitting on her front porch.
"Y'all could've gone in without me," she laughed. "The door's unlocked."
"Well, you could've told us that before," Petey said.
"I would have if I had known you'd be here," Marissa laughed. "But, really, you guys, I'm really grateful." She opened the door and put her stuff down on the couch. "Well, since this is probably the first time you guys have been around, I'm gonna show you something," She brought them over to the back door and led them out to the spacious backyard. About half of it was concrete, and a basketball hoop was set up. "My personal getaway," she laughed.
"Finally something normal! I thought you'd be one of those sissies that play tea party or somethin," Sheryl said, grabbing the ball from the base of the pole. "What're y'all waiting for? Let's play."
"Bertier, watch out for that Songbird over there," Julius laughed, "We made the mistake of taking her on a little field trip down to the Burg. She don't play like a lady,"
"Damn, most of the time, she don't even play like a human," Petey said. "She'll ram into a guy like a damn bull. I've got a scar from that game down at the Berg."
"Fine, I'll play nice," Marissa taunted.
"Excuse me, am I hearing right?" Rev said, walking out to join the rest of them. "Did Missy just say she was going to play nice? Now that's something I'm glad I hadn't missed,"
"Watch out," she taunted Petey, "I never promised anything,"
"Aw, heck no," he said, jumping out of her way. "Forget it, I'm the referee."
They spent about an hour outside, shooting around. Apparently, they had decided to play 'Battle of the Sexes' basketball. Gerry slung Sheryl over his shoulder, despite her kicking and screaming. Meanwhile, Sunshine had Marissa in a body bind, and only let go when she threatened to nail him just like she had done to Kip Tyler.
At around five o'clock, they went back inside and raided Marissa's kitchen, loading up on as much junk food as they could get, along with Marissa's specialty—chilidogs.
After dinner came the least fun part—homework. About ten minutes after they had all started, Sheryl growled and threw a ball of paper out the window.
"What's going on?" Marissa asked, looking up from her science notes.
"I don't get why the hell they're trying to teach kids long division," she said, crossing her arms. "I mean, what am I ever going to need it for?"
"I remember those days," Marissa said, walking over, "Math still gives me hell. I hate it. But I think I got something that'll help you with long division a little. It's a kinda stupid trick, but it keeps you from getting confused." She tore a page out of her notebook and wrote on the page sideways, placing each number in a neat column. "It keeps everything all lined up. See if that helps," Sheryl tried it.
"It's easier," she shrugged, "But it ain't any less boring."
"Well, I can't help you there. Since the beginning of time, math has just been boring," Marissa laughed. "I've been going at it for how many years now, and I'm still trying not to get bored." She went back to her stack of papers, then pulled out the packet of questions for literature.
"Finally," Sunshine said. "I was wondering when you'd start on that. I can't get what the hell any of the questions mean—especially the first one,"
"The first one?" Marissa said, scanning over the page. "What is the last book that you've read?"
"Yeah," Sunshine laughed. "I can't for the life of me remember that one,"
"Oh, very encouraging," Marissa laughed. She snatched the paper out of his hands and scowled at him, "You're a liar! You're finished, and I bet you did it a week ago, too!"
"Maybe I did it a tiny bit ahead of time," he laughed, "I guess I forgot,"
"Well, since you're finished, you won't mind providing me with the answers to the last two," she giggled. She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. "You're my hero!"
At almost the exact moment she finished and put her pen down, the phone rang. She got up to answer it, but Alan grabbed her wrist and stopped her, answering the phone himself.
"Hey," he said. Marissa rolled her eyes. Now she wasn't even allowed to answer her own phone. Was she suddenly five years old or something? She elbowed Alan softly in the side and leaned closer to the receiver so she could pick up the conversation.
"Bosley?" said the voice on the other line. "Hey man, it's Ray. Give the phone to Marissa,"
"Budds, you ain't talking to her," Alan said. "You'd better quit calling here, or I'll let one of the other guys answer the phone next time,"
"You do that," Ray snapped. "Give Marissa the goddamn phone, or I swear your monkey-loving ass is going to be so sorry—"
"Shut up," Alan growled into the phone. Marissa could the conversation from where she was standing- Ray was talking that loud- and she didn't like where it was going.
"You half-ass little nobody," Ray said, "You think because you're the Gerry and his boy's sidekick, you're suddenly somebody—"
Marissa grabbed the phone out of Alan's hands. "How the hell do you get off talking to people like that?" she snapped loudly at him. "Don't you dare ever call here again!" she said forcefully, "You can't just call here and cuss out my friends like that. Get your nose out of my business, and get your ass out of my life!" Then, she slammed the receiver down.
Gerry stood up and started clapping. "Now I see how they call you my twin," he laughed. "You told him who was boss,"
"Oh, he'll call back," Marissa said, sighing. "Maybe I'll just give the phone to Sheryl," Sheryl nodded enthusiastically. She would have been more than willing to give the traitor a piece of her mind.
"Don't do that," Petey said. "Unless you want to get the police involved, never ever just tell this girl to cuss, because she talks like a sailor."
They all went to sleep at around eleven, after going out and playing basketball out in the dark a little, then watching a couple of hours of TV. Sheryl and Marissa got onto the foldout couch-bed, but Marissa felt bad for the rest of them, and they all ended up sleeping sitting, leaning on each other. Sheryl was sprawled out over Marissa, who had her head on Alan's shoulder. Alan was leaning against the back of the seat, and his feet overlapped those of most of the other guys.
At around two in the morning, Marissa woke up. For some reason, she had just started crying. She wasn't loud, but it was enough to wake Alan up, since he was a light sleeper anyway.
"You okay?" he asked. Marissa nodded. "You're not crying over Ray, are you?"
"I don't know," Marissa said hopelessly. "I mean, what if I was just being stupid? It could've been avoided." She wiped at her eyes. "I really hate crying, you know, but I think I might have overreacted."
"I was there," Alan said softly. "I don't think there was any other choice. I mean, I saw how he hit you. He had no right,"
"But I had a right to hit him?" Marissa asked.
"Actually, yeah," Alan laughed, "I mean, what goes around comes around,"
"Yeah," she laughed, "That karma's some good stuff, huh?"
"Ray's a dog," Alan said reassuringly.
"And I just hit that dogma with my karma," she laughed.
"That was corny," he said bluntly, trying to mask a laugh.
"You're right," Marissa said. "By the way, thanks for picking up the phone earlier. You didn't really have to."
"Well, anything to be of service," he chuckled. She laughed back, elbowing him slightly in the ribs.
"You know, I can't believe I hardly ever talked to you until now."
* * * * *
The next day at school, she had gone from just avoiding Ray to downright snubbing him in public. Even in class, she would 'accidentally' drop a note she had written to Alan about him on his desk on the way to the bathroom. Then she'd just smirk casually as she plucked it off, giving him just ample time to read every insult that a one-inch piece of paper could possibly contain.
"Whoops," she'd mutter innocently, "Well, look at that. It must've slipped." Then, she'd just continue on her way.
She was absolutely ruthless. She just happened to accidentally spill her chicken soup on his back at lunch, and intentionally got in his way at any opportunity.
Yes, this was definitely the beginning of something.
"Consider this an official goodbye," Gerry said, crossing his arms. He was carrying Ray's jersey. Spitefully, he tossed it into the garbage can, and the smoke billowed upward with the unpleasant scent of burning material.
"Anything to add, Songbird?" Blue said, looking over across the street. Ray turned around and saw Marissa walking across the street. She had her large black jacket clutched around her, and her eyes darted around insecurely. Marissa shrugged and shook her head.
"I never thought you'd do all this just to spite me. You can do what you want," Ray said, "But don't drag my girl into this,"
"No one dragged me into this," she said, brushing past him without laying eyes on him. She pulled an envelope out of her pocket and stood behind the flaming can. "This was all my idea. Oh, and please don't call me your girl anymore. I stopped being your girl when I became your punching bag,"
"What?" Ray said. If he had been expecting anything from this meeting, this definitely was not it.
"Like Gerry said," she said, her eyes blank and staring into the flame. "This is your official goodbye—from them, and from me." She opened the envelope and pulled out a picture of her and Ray. She took one last glance at it, then tore it in half, dropping it into the flames. She walked over to him and looked him straight in the eye. "Leave," she said coldly, walking away. She walked briskly back to her house and closed the door behind her, waiting until the door was safely locked to slump down on her couch, rubbing the back of her neck in agitation.
"Marissa," Gerry said, knocking on her front door, "Come on, open the door!"
"I'm busy!" she said back loudly, trying to mask her shaky voice. "I'll just talk to you at school tomorrow or something, okay?"
"You sure?" he said, not sounding entirely convinced.
"Positive," she said, "I'm just sleepy,"
* * * * *
Marissa drove to school the next day, not feeling like herself. She hadn't planned on things being like this. She knew that Ray being kicked off of the team would throw things off between them a little, but she never expected it to tear them apart completely. She got to school, and heard everyone whispering as she passed by. "Oh joy," she muttered, "This is going to be one long day,"
Throughout literature, she continually had to pinch herself to keep from turning around and looking at what Ray was doing. He's probably happy as a clam, she thought, now that he's finally rid of me. Another thing she noticed was that studying during class, instead of 'going through the motions' of being Ray's girlfriend, made her feel like she was actually earning what she got.
Still, she couldn't wait until lunch, where she could just sit and cut loose with the rest of the Titans. They always thought of the craziest things to do, especially if Marissa was trying to eat.
"I can't believe it actually took me a whole month to brush Ray off," Marissa said. She thought about what she was saying. Back home, a month would have seemed an eternity to her, yet now all she wanted was a guy who'd stick around as long as he could. "He's such a jerk. I must have been really desperate,"
"I hate to say I told you so," Sunshine said.
"And I'd hate to hear it," Marissa said. "Besides, it's not like I'm desperately waiting for another guy. I have another option right in my pocket—literally,"
"What, an action figure?" Blue laughed. Marissa laughed, rolling her eyes. She pulled a napkin out of her pocket, with some words scribbled on it.
"Guess whose number I got this weekend," she laughed.
"This weekend?" Gerry said. "You just broke up with Ray yesterday,"
"Your point being?" Marissa asked innocently.
"If you got the phone number this weekend, and you broke up with Ray yesterday," Gerry began, speaking as though he were talking to a toddler, "Then you weren't single when you were blatantly flirting with someone else,"
"Oh yeah," Marissa laughed, "I knew there was something I forgot when I got the guy's number. Too late now, though— Anyway, I got Kip Tyler's number, I'm calling right after school, and none of you can s"
"Kip Tyler?" Rev said. "As in Groveton's infamous Kip Tyler? That's the guy you met on Saturday? Why didn't you say anything when I called you?"
"Slipped my mind?" she muttered innocently.
"Missy," Rev said seriously.
"Look, I know you guys don't like him, but hear me out," she said, "I mean, this is bound to piss Ray off even more, which is just one more reason for me to do it. I mean, Kip meant to take you down, Rev, but I don't think he was planning to break your wrist. The same goes for Ray. He wanted you to take a hit, but he didn't want it to get you out of the game. From what I see, he'd blame Kip for that. See, I don't do this stuff for nothing."
"So you're going to go out with some brainless bulldozer, just to spite your ex-boyfriend? I never thought you'd be the type," Sunshine laughed. "How ladylike,"
"I never said he was brainless," Marissa persisted, "I just said that he's not the brightest Crayola in the carton,"
"Which still leaves us with the fact that he's stupid," Sunshine said, "And yet you still insist on going out with him,"
"Yeah, I'll go out with him," Marissa laughed. "But I never said anything about going steady,"
"Which reminds me," Petey said. "Why do you still got Ray's ring on?"
"I forgot about it," Marissa said, looking down at her hand. "Maybe I should throw it into the bushes. Maybe some bird's gonna have the luck of finding it, and good riddance."
"I got a better idea," Sunshine laughed. "Take it off." Marissa slid it off of her finger and handed it to him. He took it and cleared his throat. "Hey, Budds!" he shouted across the cafeteria. Ray turned around. "Air mail!" he threw the ring clear over all of the tables, and it landed in front of Ray. Marissa smirked, then went back to her lunch.
"Bullseye," Gerry laughed.
"That was so mean!" she laughed loudly. "Now I need a new good luck charm for when I'm at cheerleading practice. How about that?" she pointed at the tiny crucifix necklace that Rev wore. "Just kidding! I couldn't ask you to give me that." she said.
"No, really," Rev said, taking it off. "Take it,"
"For real?" Marissa beamed. "Thanks! You're the greatest! I swear, this is definitely the best thing that ever happened to me." She leaned over the table and kissed him on the cheek. Then, the bell rang. "Music class—time for Mrs. Lourdes to make me sing my million solos over and over again." She picked up her bag and walked off.
She walked into the auditorium and met up with the rest of her music class. Joanna came running up to her, panting. She nearly knocked Marissa over when she couldn't stop running. Marissa had to catch her and brace herself before she fell right out the door again.
"Is it true?" Joanna asked in astonishment. "It's word all over the school. You didn't really break up with Ray, did you?"
"Yeah," Marissa laughed, "But it's a fair trade. I got Kip Tyler's number instead."
"Kip Tyler?" said Noreen, a junior who was in the same music class. "Can I see that number?"
"Excuse me?' Marissa laughed. "I've already staked my claim over here. You aren't going to take my new guy,"
Then, Mrs. Lourdes walked into the room, and conversation stopped. Marissa tried to sink into the back of the group and managed not to get picked once. The rest of the day, Marissa put up with people's questions, and she was glad when school was finally over.
"We all had a quick talk, and we decided you should definitely see where things go with this Tyler guy," Sunshine said, walking up to her. "And we decided to pull out all the stops. You should call him from the pay phone in the empty lot across the street from your house,"
"Or I could call him from inside my house, where I have a heater, and a fridge," Marissa said, arching an eyebrow. "What have you guys got up your sleeve?"
"Well, we thought that we could invite one or two people to act as witnesses," Sunshine said. "You know, just in case it comes up in court or something."
"I'll think about it," Marissa said. "Well, I need to get changed. Practice starts soon, and I definitely need to be at this one,"
* * * * *
"I've said it probably a million times," Marissa said, sighing. "It doesn't matter how well you know the moves. If you can't keep the rhythm, then you've screwed the routine up even worse anyway. Now, take it from the top, and try to keep time,"
Their routine for the next game wasn't coming along quite as quickly as they had planned. Some people were speeding up the moves, while some were slowing it down. People were colliding and tripping all over the place. She had to really drive the point home that this was important.
Marissa took to the air, and performed her flips with more aggression than she had ever put into it before. She jumped higher, spun faster, and yelled louder. Even more importantly, she enjoyed it more. She spent less time looking at the Titans, trying to pick faces out from the crowd, and more time laughing. The squad seemed to like this new Marissa. It was like she had just been set free after a long time of being shackled to the ground.
By the time practice was over, the squad hadn't wanted it to end. They knew Marissa well enough to know that, come tomorrow, she and Ray would be back together, and then Marissa would be back to normal.
Marissa was walking out to her car when Rev and Sunshine came running over. It just happened that they were parked right next to her. They stopped her from getting until, laughing.
"We aren't letting you go home by yourself," Sunshine said. "If we know Ray, he'll be around, and you won't have any of us around to back you up. Now, we can't let have our good luck charm go and fall for that, can we?"
"Well, I feel so very special," she laughed. "But really, I've got this one covered. I dumped the rat because I wanted to, and I'm serious about it this time. You don't have to follow me around trying to protect me,"
"Just a precaution," Rev said, "I mean, if you give the man credit for anything, it's the fact he's really slick with words. We're not pulling the risk,"
"Oh, fine, stalk me, why don't you?" Marissa laughed, rolling her eyes. This was really considerate of them, but she didn't really feel that they needed to treat like she needed the whole team as bodyguards. "But I can drive myself, thank you very much. You'll just have to follow me. What time do you two plan on leaving my house?"
"Whenever the others leave," Sunshine shrugged.
"Others?" Marissa snapped. "What do you mean by others?"
"Well, it's not like it's the whole team or anything," Sunshine said. "It's just Alan, Gerry, Julius, Blue, and Petey, and Sheryl's coming along just for kicks,"
"That's just not fair," Marissa laughed. "That's seven guys and two girls."
"Well, it's not like we're planning to do anything," Rev laughed. "We're just going to make sure that if Ray just happens to knock on the door, you're not the one answering it. Now, get in that car and start driving. They're all probably waiting at your house already,"
"So you guys invited yourselves over," Marissa said, opening her car door. "Fair enough, but there's still one more thing that you haven't told me. You still didn't say when you're going to leave,"
"When it's time to leave for school—which reminds me. Can you give Sheryl a ride to school tomorrow?" Sunshine laughed. Marissa rolled her eyes and started the car. She got home, Rev and Sunshine about two minutes behind her, and saw a whole crowd of people sitting on her front porch.
"Y'all could've gone in without me," she laughed. "The door's unlocked."
"Well, you could've told us that before," Petey said.
"I would have if I had known you'd be here," Marissa laughed. "But, really, you guys, I'm really grateful." She opened the door and put her stuff down on the couch. "Well, since this is probably the first time you guys have been around, I'm gonna show you something," She brought them over to the back door and led them out to the spacious backyard. About half of it was concrete, and a basketball hoop was set up. "My personal getaway," she laughed.
"Finally something normal! I thought you'd be one of those sissies that play tea party or somethin," Sheryl said, grabbing the ball from the base of the pole. "What're y'all waiting for? Let's play."
"Bertier, watch out for that Songbird over there," Julius laughed, "We made the mistake of taking her on a little field trip down to the Burg. She don't play like a lady,"
"Damn, most of the time, she don't even play like a human," Petey said. "She'll ram into a guy like a damn bull. I've got a scar from that game down at the Berg."
"Fine, I'll play nice," Marissa taunted.
"Excuse me, am I hearing right?" Rev said, walking out to join the rest of them. "Did Missy just say she was going to play nice? Now that's something I'm glad I hadn't missed,"
"Watch out," she taunted Petey, "I never promised anything,"
"Aw, heck no," he said, jumping out of her way. "Forget it, I'm the referee."
They spent about an hour outside, shooting around. Apparently, they had decided to play 'Battle of the Sexes' basketball. Gerry slung Sheryl over his shoulder, despite her kicking and screaming. Meanwhile, Sunshine had Marissa in a body bind, and only let go when she threatened to nail him just like she had done to Kip Tyler.
At around five o'clock, they went back inside and raided Marissa's kitchen, loading up on as much junk food as they could get, along with Marissa's specialty—chilidogs.
After dinner came the least fun part—homework. About ten minutes after they had all started, Sheryl growled and threw a ball of paper out the window.
"What's going on?" Marissa asked, looking up from her science notes.
"I don't get why the hell they're trying to teach kids long division," she said, crossing her arms. "I mean, what am I ever going to need it for?"
"I remember those days," Marissa said, walking over, "Math still gives me hell. I hate it. But I think I got something that'll help you with long division a little. It's a kinda stupid trick, but it keeps you from getting confused." She tore a page out of her notebook and wrote on the page sideways, placing each number in a neat column. "It keeps everything all lined up. See if that helps," Sheryl tried it.
"It's easier," she shrugged, "But it ain't any less boring."
"Well, I can't help you there. Since the beginning of time, math has just been boring," Marissa laughed. "I've been going at it for how many years now, and I'm still trying not to get bored." She went back to her stack of papers, then pulled out the packet of questions for literature.
"Finally," Sunshine said. "I was wondering when you'd start on that. I can't get what the hell any of the questions mean—especially the first one,"
"The first one?" Marissa said, scanning over the page. "What is the last book that you've read?"
"Yeah," Sunshine laughed. "I can't for the life of me remember that one,"
"Oh, very encouraging," Marissa laughed. She snatched the paper out of his hands and scowled at him, "You're a liar! You're finished, and I bet you did it a week ago, too!"
"Maybe I did it a tiny bit ahead of time," he laughed, "I guess I forgot,"
"Well, since you're finished, you won't mind providing me with the answers to the last two," she giggled. She leaned up and kissed him on the cheek. "You're my hero!"
At almost the exact moment she finished and put her pen down, the phone rang. She got up to answer it, but Alan grabbed her wrist and stopped her, answering the phone himself.
"Hey," he said. Marissa rolled her eyes. Now she wasn't even allowed to answer her own phone. Was she suddenly five years old or something? She elbowed Alan softly in the side and leaned closer to the receiver so she could pick up the conversation.
"Bosley?" said the voice on the other line. "Hey man, it's Ray. Give the phone to Marissa,"
"Budds, you ain't talking to her," Alan said. "You'd better quit calling here, or I'll let one of the other guys answer the phone next time,"
"You do that," Ray snapped. "Give Marissa the goddamn phone, or I swear your monkey-loving ass is going to be so sorry—"
"Shut up," Alan growled into the phone. Marissa could the conversation from where she was standing- Ray was talking that loud- and she didn't like where it was going.
"You half-ass little nobody," Ray said, "You think because you're the Gerry and his boy's sidekick, you're suddenly somebody—"
Marissa grabbed the phone out of Alan's hands. "How the hell do you get off talking to people like that?" she snapped loudly at him. "Don't you dare ever call here again!" she said forcefully, "You can't just call here and cuss out my friends like that. Get your nose out of my business, and get your ass out of my life!" Then, she slammed the receiver down.
Gerry stood up and started clapping. "Now I see how they call you my twin," he laughed. "You told him who was boss,"
"Oh, he'll call back," Marissa said, sighing. "Maybe I'll just give the phone to Sheryl," Sheryl nodded enthusiastically. She would have been more than willing to give the traitor a piece of her mind.
"Don't do that," Petey said. "Unless you want to get the police involved, never ever just tell this girl to cuss, because she talks like a sailor."
They all went to sleep at around eleven, after going out and playing basketball out in the dark a little, then watching a couple of hours of TV. Sheryl and Marissa got onto the foldout couch-bed, but Marissa felt bad for the rest of them, and they all ended up sleeping sitting, leaning on each other. Sheryl was sprawled out over Marissa, who had her head on Alan's shoulder. Alan was leaning against the back of the seat, and his feet overlapped those of most of the other guys.
At around two in the morning, Marissa woke up. For some reason, she had just started crying. She wasn't loud, but it was enough to wake Alan up, since he was a light sleeper anyway.
"You okay?" he asked. Marissa nodded. "You're not crying over Ray, are you?"
"I don't know," Marissa said hopelessly. "I mean, what if I was just being stupid? It could've been avoided." She wiped at her eyes. "I really hate crying, you know, but I think I might have overreacted."
"I was there," Alan said softly. "I don't think there was any other choice. I mean, I saw how he hit you. He had no right,"
"But I had a right to hit him?" Marissa asked.
"Actually, yeah," Alan laughed, "I mean, what goes around comes around,"
"Yeah," she laughed, "That karma's some good stuff, huh?"
"Ray's a dog," Alan said reassuringly.
"And I just hit that dogma with my karma," she laughed.
"That was corny," he said bluntly, trying to mask a laugh.
"You're right," Marissa said. "By the way, thanks for picking up the phone earlier. You didn't really have to."
"Well, anything to be of service," he chuckled. She laughed back, elbowing him slightly in the ribs.
"You know, I can't believe I hardly ever talked to you until now."
* * * * *
The next day at school, she had gone from just avoiding Ray to downright snubbing him in public. Even in class, she would 'accidentally' drop a note she had written to Alan about him on his desk on the way to the bathroom. Then she'd just smirk casually as she plucked it off, giving him just ample time to read every insult that a one-inch piece of paper could possibly contain.
"Whoops," she'd mutter innocently, "Well, look at that. It must've slipped." Then, she'd just continue on her way.
She was absolutely ruthless. She just happened to accidentally spill her chicken soup on his back at lunch, and intentionally got in his way at any opportunity.
Yes, this was definitely the beginning of something.