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Chapter 7: Downhill

Thursday came and everything went downhill for Crystal. She got teased five times more and the CBS became more mean, even her sister. That was weird since they wanted to accept her in the group, but Crystal guessed it was because they found out about everyone taunting, mocking, and laughing at her and the fact that David Cleer's girlfriend was just stepping to the cheerleading squad didn't help Crystal at all.

She had even gotten in a fight with Freddy that morning, when they were walking to school. 'God, it's like he's my friend one day and my enemy the next. What a loser!' she thought to herself. He was saying how she was being a baby and should defend herself, but she wasn't going to let them get to her.

Freddy may be right, but she knew what he was thinking and that wasn't what she wanted. She wanted to handle things her way and her way only. She told them to stop and if they didn't, she wasn't going to tell someone to stop it for her and sure as hell wasn't going to punch them like Freddy wanted her to.

"I've never been so insulted in my life." She sulked and Zack patted her on the shoulder reassuringly.

"Don't worry. This will all blow over. I got your back anyway….. and I'm sure all your friends do too." He started to turn the temperature up. Lab was the best class for her. Zack was a great friend and she was glad he was her partner. They always had these great conversations. He was like her mentor or her savior….. hmmm, actually he was like a girl, except he looked like a guy.

"So what are you going to do about your little fight with David Cleer's girlfriend?" He asked.

"Well, she said my humiliation is enough and that I'm already getting what I deserve, then she splashed her water in my face, hence the small clear patches on my blouse." Crystal rubbed her eyes.

Her eyes wondered in the class until they fell on a particular guy in the class. His brown hair was ruffled in many places giving him a 'sexy' look. She observed him as he laughed and how cute his dimples were when he smiled. His eyes were so captivating. They were a chocolate color with little specks of auburn. She bit her lip and was beginning to fantasize a long with her inner voice scolding her, but this time she wasn't listening to it. He looked like the long-term boyfriend girls dreamed for, who had a side order of fun.

"If you stare any harder you may just burn a whole right through him." Zack laid his head on her shoulder and she shuddered, completely startled.

"Who is he?" She turned her attention to Zack, who went across the counter.

"Mike Lopez: star basketball player, honor student, intellectual, nice guy, half Italian, half Spanish and you might just have a chance with him." Zack looked up and smiled at her, while giving her the beaker of the liquid in his hand.

"I don't think so Zack. I mean if I were him, I wouldn't even date me……although I can fantasize….."

"Well, you might just see more of him next week."

"What do you mean?" She stood up and traveled on the other side of the counter beside Zack.

"He's in choir and you do have choir practice on Monday. Tell me how the staring goes down." She smacked him in the arm while he just smirked.

"What? Just tell me what there's not to love about that sexy….. whatever he is…. Is he human?" She asked, her eyes traveling to the young boy that she obviously fancied at the moment.

"Hmmm…well if he is, he masks himself good in the showers." Zack joked and she laughed.

"I've never wanted to be a guy, until now." He chuckled and she rested her head on his shoulder.

"Zack, can you help me bag him?" He couldn't help but laugh at her choice of words.

"Yes, Crystal, I'll help you bag him."

"Pinky swear?" She asked.

"Pinky swear." He promised, while linking his pinky with hers and she smiled excitedly.

The rest of the day went on great! If you consider being ignored from students because they didn't want to be associated with you, getting major insults or getting the door slammed into your face a good day, than hey, she had the best one. Crystal was not one lucky chick.

"See ya loser." A brunette walked away leaving Crystal on the floor, while she picked up her books.

"I'm such a loser. Why couldn't I just be perfect?" She muttered to herself over and over again.

"Because if you were perfect, you probably wouldn't be that happy." Someone lifted up a book for her.

"I highly doubt," she then made eye contact with owner of the masculine voice and suddenly, her heart jumped up to her throat, "that." She finished her sentence.

"And I wouldn't be helping you with your books if you were perfect…….Need a hand?" He asked, while sticking out his free hand. She gladly accepted it, as he pulled her up.

"Thanks. My day's been really…-"

"Rocky? Terrible? Dreadful?" He inquired, while smirking.

"Well, I was going to say bad, but gee, those work. Rubbing it in?" She asked as he chuckled.

"Sorry." He gave a small smile.

"Nah, it's okay. My day's been pretty bad, rocky, terrible, and dreadful altogether." She sighed. There was a brief comfortable silence, until he decided to break it.

"You joined choir right?"

"Yeah." She squeaked out.

"Well then, I guess I'll see you there on Monday….. Well I better be going. It was nice talking to you Crystal…" He walked away and she smiled like a lovesick puppy with a blush creeping on her cheeks.

"I think I'm in love." She leaned against a locker.

"It's lust." Another guy said, who just happened to be on the other end of the lockers. He was leaning the other way, so she couldn't see his face, but the trace of spiky blonde hair hinted on who it was. She rolled her eyes and began to walk away.

"Hey, hey, hey. Not so fast." He grabbed her, making her swirl around and take a look at his face.

"What do you want Freddy? Do you want to call me a baby again? Do you want me to defend myself now? Because right now, I will." She pulled her arm from his grasp.

"I just want you to forgive me….. C'mon, it wasn't even that bad…." He pleaded.

"I just wanted you to be my friend……..Was that bad?" When she asked that, she wasn't quite sure of the question either. She didn't know if being Freddy's friend was such a good idea. After all he did make her feel a little dizzy when his shirt was off, his arrogance was way off the meter which completely bugged the hell out of her, and he had random fights with her for nothing. Was that what friends did? I don't think so. Okay, so the first one wasn't really, um, a good point, but so what!

She turned her heel and walked away and this time he didn't follow. He just watched her, hoping she'd at least turn around and give him a look. But she never did. That wouldn't stay for long because a new friend was going to help her.

She checked her cell phone, which was vibrating and looked down at it. There was a reminder.

"Thursday: 3:30 p.m. appointment. Arm check up." She read it to herself. She remembered calling the doctor the day before for her arm. She didn't want it to get infected, but she was sure it wasn't really bad. But, then again, you can never be too sure.

She walked out of the school too see her stepfather parked in front of the school, waiting for her.

"Thanks for picking me up in such short notice." She thanked him and he mouthed out 'no problem' because he was on the phone. He drove her to the hospital and stayed in the lobby, talking on the phone like a manic workaholic. Well he was a manic workaholic, so that didn't work.

She took a seat beside an older guy. His facial hair was shaved and his hair was protruding in different directions, which didn't give him a bad look. He was wearing simple black jeans and a red top, with ACDC written in black letters. Since they both were waiting and she looked at his schedule, which read the same time as hers, she decided to make conversation with the man.

"So, why are you in this suck fest?" She asked him, while stretching her arms out. He looked at her and back to the wall.

"Something about health and nutrition. My friend kept nagging me about it. I just like to eat. Is there a problem with that?" He gave a small sigh.

"I know what ya mean. It's your life, why should they interfere? Yeah, and especially when it's there fault, that's when you could just strangle them…. God I could kill- never mind. Sorry. I shouldn't be ranting about my life to you."

"Nah, it's okay. I listen to a lot of teenage problems….. so, why are you in hell?" He asked and she chuckled.

"I got a gash on my arm because my so-called friend was making out in the hall."

"Yikes. Glass nearby?"

"Yep. God, it's so nasty how he kisses her. Their tongues are like shoving down each other's throats. It's like that time when my stepsis forced me to listen to her pop 49 CD. Some pop is cool and everything if you have a good voice, but, uh, this was just……. very, very painful." She shivered and he laughed.

"I have a band and the back-up singer and drummer always seem to do that and it's exactly what you said, dude."

"Would this band happen to be School of Rock?" She asked, narrowing her eyes down.

"Yeah, you heard of them?"

"Well, yeah. I know everyone in the band, except for well, you…. But now I do. Dewey Finn, right?" She asked and he nodded.

"Crystal… something?" He asked and she gave a small laugh.

"Matthews. Crystal Matthews….. So, they've spoken about me?" She asked.

"Oh yeah. They said you might try-out for the singing on Monday…."

"Maybe I'm not sure. I have choir on Monday in the gym after the tryouts. If I can balance both and stuff, maybe I will."

"You should. Freddy said you sound good…. Would Freddy be that so-called friend?"

"The one and only. Stupid jackass." She muttered under her breath and he tittered.

"Yeah, he can be like that at times." He slouched down.

"Try all the time. I live next to him and it's not that great. He's like my brother's role model for girls and it completely blows my mind. I just had a fight with him and let's just say, I'm not so forgiving." She exhaled noisily, which sounded much like a big sigh to Dewey's ears.

"He's not a bad kid. He can be jerk, but he can make you laugh. Sometimes he's actually intellectual."

"Well, I've seen that humorous side of him before. As for intellectual, are we talking about the same Freddy here?" She questioned and he laughed.

"Just give him a chance and if he ends up being the biggest jackass in the world than you don't have to be friends. Easy as that." He reassured.

"You are a good mentor….. The gang told me." She smiled and he patted her on the head.

"Mr. Finn, Dr. White is waiting for you…… Ms. Matthews, you can wait in the room to your left. Dr. Stanley should be ready in a jiffy." A perky nurse spoke up.

Crystal finished with Dr. Stanley, but Dewey had already left. However the nurse withheld a little note that Dewey wrote. The messy scrawl read:

-Crystal

Good luck! Don't worry, Freddy's a little, um, dumb, so he should be easy to persuade for forgiveness. Hope you try out for the band. We could use someone like you.

Mentor, Dewey Finn-

She smiled. This guy was really cool. Well, he sounded pretty nice. She went down to the lobby and her stepfather was still on the phone. They finally came home but her step father immediately left because he had work. Instead of going into her house, she walked over to Freddy's, knowing that if she was going to say sorry that it had better be soon. She knocked on the door and Freddy's mom answered it, she looked like she was just about to leave.

"Aw, Crystal, haven't seen you a while. I suppose you're here to see Freddy, right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, he's upstairs in his room with a friend. You know the way. Anyway, I gotta leave. I just forgot my phone. My number's on the fridge. If anything goes bad with Freddy, just call me….." She said very quicky.

"I will… but if I smell smoke I think I'll just call 911."

"Good idea." Mrs. Jones smiled before exited the door and locking it.

Crystal breathed out hard. Butterflies were soaring in her stomach and she repeatedly scolded herself for feeling like this.

"I'm just going to say sorry and that's it." She told herself as she went up the steps.

She knocked on Freddy's door, said 'oh, lord' and bit her lip. That was going to become a habit. And then, Marta opened the door with only an oversized t-shirt on…. Probably Freddy's.

"Oh god," were the first words that came out of Crystal's mouth.

"I think this was a wrong time. I'll- yeah-Bye!" Crystal raced down the stairs, completely embarrassed.

She opened the door and ran out of the house. She felt like she was running in the Olympics or doing an obstacle course. She jiggled with the handle of her door and finally entered her home. She ran up the steps and went into her room. She turned up the stereo to whatever was on. It was 'Somebody Told Me' by the Killers.

" 'Oh god?' Oh god, I can't believe I said 'oh god'! Why didn't I say something else?.... wait, what would I have said? Oh, nice t-shirt, is it Freddy's? I'm so stupid. Why am I acting like this?...... well, they probably had sex. That really explains it….. oh, god…..ew, sick, nasty, ick!" And then, the phone rang. She sprung to it and checked the called ID. It read Jones and she blessed Caller ID.

"Thank you god for letting people create such a great thing." She smiled and then let it all come. They had a system on their answering machine like press 1 and leave a message fore Corey, press 2 and leave a message for Brooke, etc. and Crystal was thankful for that. Suddenly her answering machine popped up….. that was something she loved. They each got their own answering machine.

"I'm not here, but my room is, so tell it your message. BEEP!" Her answering machine voiced out.

"Uh yeah, Crystal, it's Freddy…. We're sorry you walked into that little moment. Sorry again…. And well about what happened this morning. I hope you can forgive me still….. Bye."

"Okay, well at least I know he still wants peace….. so, yeah…" She sat on her bed, shaking her legs back and forth, just thinking.

The rest of the day went by pretty fast. Except for the additional math equation, contemplating on what she was going to write for her essay, and Corey's date the next day, Crystal thought about nothing. She just had fun with Corey and avoided Brooke, which made the day fun-filled. She checked her phone and saw another message by Freddy. It was just him asking to talk in the morning. Now she had something to think about.

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SoHaPPy