Chapter Ten: Second Chances

After school, Joy had almost forgotten about Blake's promise to meet her and she would have gladly left immediately after her last boring class of the day, but he was faithful to his word and was waiting patiently for her at her locker.

"What do you want?" Joy pretended to be uninterested in the fact that he was waiting for her when actually she was quite pleased.

"I told you I'd be here," His face displayed his smugness in his smirk.

"Yea, so," Joy opened her locker and began sorting through her books, stuffing a few into her black leather shoulder bag. "I didn't think your type were always that true to their word."

"Okay, I think I've got the point. You don't trust me. My assumption is that you've been burned before and are now too scared to trust any guy that wants to be your friend!" Blake came around to the other side of her locker so that he could look into her eyes. "You'll like me if you would just give me a chance. I'm not all that bad you know."

Joy rolled her eyes and then turned to him with a sarcastic grin. "It's not that I don't trust you, it's just that…you are really annoying!"

"Ouch!" He pulled back in joking offense. "You certainly aren't afraid to speak your mind, huh?"

"What's the point?" Joy slammed her locker shut. "Are we done here?" She started to walk away down the hall.

"Yea, we're done." He watched her walk away and then added to himself, under his breath. "For now." Something about the new girl really interested him. She was doing more than just playing hard to get. She was serious. That bothered him. But it also enticed him. He knew that somehow he would get her to go out with him.

Joy resignedly returned home with an annoying load of catch-up homework, after school. Her Aunt and Uncle had gone out, somewhere; at least that's what she supposed when she found the house empty. At least there's one thing I can rejoice in! She decided with a smirk as she brought her books up to her second-story room and spread out on the bed. Before long, Joy's mind wandered away from her schoolwork and to the memory of her parents; a direction which her thoughts often drifted to these days. Her eyes clouded over with tears and any hope of concentration was gone.

The rest of the week passed swiftly, with no hints of improvement for Joy, but she really didn't care. It surprised her only a little that she received no more unwanted attention from the irritating jock, in fact, she hardly even realized that she hadn't seen him again since she left him at her locker on her first day.

However, her high school isolation did not last. Monday morning, Joy arrived at school late; tardiness was common school behavior for her. She ran through the empty halls, five minutes after the bell had wrung, and stopped at her locker. There she found that a note had been slipped through the slits in the metal and was waiting for her inside the locker. She quickly unfolded the sloppily creased notebook paper and scanned the words. When her eyes skipped to the end and noticed that the note was signed from Blake, she folded it back up with out reading it and stuffed it carelessly into one of her binders before shutting her locker and hurrying onto class.

By lunch she had almost completely forgotten about the unread letter, and things would have been great if Blake hadn't insisted on showing up in person to ensure that she had actually read it.

"Joy!" Blake found her at lunchtime, eating by herself outside, under a tree. "This is pathetic! You're too pretty to eat alone!" He dropped down next to her and took the brown paper bag, which held her lunch, away from her. "You brought your own lunch? That's so cute! Did your mommy write you a note to go with it?"

"God! Why are you such a pain? Do you take pleasure from annoying other people?" Joy grabbed her lunch bag back with a frown. Of course she couldn't say that her mommy was dead.

"I'm sorry," Blake seemed suddenly serious. "I came over here to try and make peace with you and I'm only making things worse. That's why I wrote you the note. It's easier for me to talk with writing. Did you read it?"

Joy suddenly remembered the note she had stored in her binder and shook her head. "Maybe I'll read it later, when I have time." She smirked. "Or if I ever have the need to bore myself with a letter from someone like you."

Blake actually looked a little hurt. "Right, okay, well as good as my intentions were, I've still got my pride, as you have so readily pointed out, and so I'm going to leave now." He stood. "As much as I love your sarcasm, I'm not really in the mood." And he stalked away.

Joy was left alone again. She considered reading the note, but only a minute later she was interrupted again.

"Hey," the voice belonged to the tall, brunette girl whom Joy had bumped into on her first day of school.

"Hi," Joy remembered their odd and abrupt conversation and she started to feel bad about how she had ended it. "It's Dawn right?"

"Yea," Dawn shifted her feet nervously. Her thumbs were hooked in her vacant belt loops and her shoulders were hunched, making her seem shy and insecure. "And you're Joy, right?"

"Yea," Joy bit into her apple. "Did you want something?" She asked a sweetly as she could.

"I know you probably aren't at all interested, but I wanted to apologize." She sat with crossed legs beside Joy. "About the other day, you know, I don't think I was as nice as I could have been."

Joy forced a smile, "I wasn't as nice as I could have been either."

"Then I guess we're even," Dawn forced a slight laugh. "The reason I'm here is because I, well," She seemed to be having a problem explaining herself. "I hate seeing people alone. It makes me sad. I don't have many friends but I do have more than your zero."

"I'm sorry, but is this you apologizing? Because you kind of such at it." Both of the girls smiled at each other.

"Right, I know, I'm not very good at that sort of thing." Dawn blushed, slightly embarrassed. "I guess I was just hoping that you would give me a second chance."

"A second chance?" Joy's smile turned completely genuine. "I don't really think you ever had a first chance." She shrugged. "I'm usually not very good at admitting mistakes, but I was rude to you the other day and for no reason. So I owe you an apology too."

Dawn nodded quickly, "Sure," then she grinned. "And I'll totally forgive you, if you'll forgive me!"

Joy nodded, "Sure."

"Great! Then, do you maybe want to eat lunch with me tomorrow?"

"Sure," Joy nodded again. Dawn seemed sincere. And Joy couldn't spend the entire year eating all alone under the tree. Why shouldn't I give her a chance? She thought as Dawn stood and left with a wave.

That night, Joy had actually taken the time to complete, well at least to start, her homework. She had the best intentions to complete it too, if only she hadn't become sidetracked. As she opened her binder to retrieve her English homework, a folded sheet of paper slipped to the floor. She realized at once that it was the note from Blake and at first thought about ignoring it. But then, she remembered how badly she had misjudged Dawn with a first impression and so she decided to give the guy a chance. She put aside her schoolbooks and opened the note. It read:

Joy, I know that I didn't make the best impression on you, and in fact all you can probably think about is how annoying I am. I'm so pissed at myself for not handling our first meeting better. The truth is, I was nervous. I get that way sometimes. Nervous I mean. When I want to talk to someone, like say a pretty girl, I can't think of what to say and then nothing comes out right that's how it was with you. I really wanted to talk to you but I wasn't sure how you'd respond and I wasn't sure how to approach you…I guess I didn't exactly go about it the best way, huh? Well, anyway, I really hope you'll forgive me for being such a jerk. I don't blame you if you never want to speak to me again, but please give me a second chance. It would mean the world to me. Like I said, I think you're very pretty, and after passing notes with you all through first block, I think you're pretty nice too. I'd really like to get to know you better and I you give me a chance. Blake.

It was a good note. Joy couldn't deny that fact. Either Blake really knew the right words to say to a girl or else he was actually a pretty decent guy. She hoped for the latter because she wanted friends. Dawn was cool, and definitely someone Joy could become good friends with, but she wouldn't mind having a guy friend, or maybe more than just a friend eventually. She decided to give Blake a second chance to prove himself.