Chapter 19: Bad chemistry.
Humphrey's POV:
Homeroom passed quickly and without anything of particular note in the announcements other than the fact that the football team would be playing against the top team in the league on Friday evening. I was confused but Kate explained to me that everyone in the school liked and was encouraged to support the sports teams and most of our year would attend home games. It turned out that both the football team and basketball team had games once a fortnight on Friday evenings, just on alternating weeks. Since we still had practice on Friday I wouldn't be able to go which I was a little bummed about since Kate would be there as part of the cheerleader squad. Once the announcements and attendance were finished Kate and I spent the remaining few minutes chatting about sports and continuing on the way to Science which was our first class of the day. As we entered the classroom Kate let out a loud groan, a sentiment that was echoed by almost everyone in the class.
"What's wrong with everyone?" I asked with a slight smile, looking around in confusion and some amusement as everyone let out a load groan simultaneously. Kate didn't answer however as I followed her over to the desk we shared with Abby and Chris who were both already seated and both turned as Kate and I walked over and took our seats.
"That." Abby said, answering my question as she pointed up the front where the teacher was writing times on the whiteboard, above which I saw the words 'Chemistry test today.' written.
Two hours later.
There was a collective sigh as the bell sounded, signalling that both the test and class had ended. I thought I'd managed to do okay since I'd answered every question and even had a few minutes at the end to go over my answers. The teacher had approached me beforehand and apologised for the sudden test so soon after I'd started but asked that I just do my best which had me nervous but all things considered I think I did okay.
"Stop work everyone." The teacher said, clapping her hands together as the bell rang. "Leave the test papers on your desk when you go, and good work."
Everyone seemed fairly drained as we packed up our things and left the classroom, the only small chatter being made was about various test questions and how people thought that they'd done. As it turned out the 1A class for the four main subjects was pretty much constant with only a few people different in each class according to their various strengths or weaknesses. I was glad that I was feeling particularly energised that day as we were given a fair amount of homework from our mathematics teacher as well as any work that wasn't finished in class, which didn't affect me since I'd managed to complete it all.
Kate's POV:
Kate let out a sigh as they left the classroom and Abby bid her and Humphrey farewell, heading in the other direction towards her locker. 'What a day...' Kate thought to herself, first a surprise test and now extra Mathematics homework. She followed Humphrey through the crowds towards their lockers which were almost right next to one another, Humphrey's being three away from hers. She noticed that there was fairly little resistance and wondered why, looking up to see that people were already moving out of Humphrey's way and then giving them an even wider berth when they noticed Kate walking behind him. Normally she absolutely hated that kind of special treatment and it annoyed her today as well but she was too drained to bother with it today as they arrived at their lockers.
Kate entered her code and opened her locker, swapping a few of the textbooks in her bag for the ones she'd need for English which was their final class for the day. Mr. Sanposito, their English teacher, had been dropping hints about an essay for the past week now and Kate had a feeling that today was going to be the day, especially if the last two classes were anything to go by. She had just finished repacking the swapped books in her backpack and closed her locker, spinning the dial to lock as she heard it.
"CRASH!"
The sound came from right beside her, grabbing the attention of everyone in the hallway as Kate herself jumped and yelped in shock, turning to see Garth, the captain of the football team, release Humphrey's shirt as he laughed hysterically. Humphrey looked nonplussed as he held his hands up a little in a gesture of peace. Humphrey's obvious confusion just made Garth laugh even harder as he slapped his shoulder with enough force to make Humphrey take a quick step to the side to avoid over-balancing.
"Garth! What the hell?" Kate snapped after a moment, an accusatory look coming onto her face as she glared at Garth. 'God he's such a jerk.' She thought to herself as she waited to hear his excuse this time. She couldn't entirely blame him for his behaviour though, since the teachers never called him out on anything, probably favouring him as the captain of their precious football team.
As Kate spoke up Garth turned to look at her in surprise, the grin fading from his face as he swallowed nervously.
"Oh... Kate. I was just coming to welcome the new kid."
Humphrey's POV:
I looked back and forth between Kate and the senior that she identified as Garth, totally lost as he spoke while wearing a confusing expression. He was a large guy, not quite as tall as Hutch but easily as muscular with rather generic good looks and short brown hair. From afar he seemed to be a fairly normal sort but for some reason he was giving me a bad vibe that I just couldn't ignore and was reinforced by the hostility between he and Kate. I looked back over at Kate to see that she was about to say something but she was cut short as Garth threw his arm around my shoulders, forcing me to turn away.
"Listen up uh... Humphrey isn't it? I've heard a lot about you." He said, speaking quietly so that only I could hear him. 'Like what?' I wondered absently for a moment.
"I... see?" I replied hesitantly, still feeling a bit lost.
"Yeah. Honestly I'd be surprised if half of it was true but let me give you some advice." He continued, pausing for a moment as I shrugged and nodded for him to continue.
"You're new here so it can't be helped that you don't know this but JC is not a nice town." He said, inadvertently bringing the memories of last Sunday to my mind as I glanced back over my shoulder at Kate.
"I noticed that." I muttered, barely aware I'd spoken aloud. Garth nodded at that, following my gaze over in Kate's direction as well.
"Exactly! I knew you were a smart one. Trust me when I say you don't want to associate with the wrong sorts around here." He said, louder now as he gave me a knowing look and a subtle gesture in Kate's direction. 'Are you serious?' I thought as I slowly turned to look at him in disbelief. The look in his eyes told me he was deadly serious however and I took a quick step away, shrugging his arm off my shoulder as I looked at him coldly.
"Garth, was it? I can tell who to trust just fine." I said shortly. Garth looked at me with a shocked expression as though no one had ever disagreed with him before. After a moment his expression grew angry and all of a sudden he lunged forwards, grabbing my shirt and pinning me against the lockers. I held his gaze evenly as he stared me down, his mouth opening and closing slightly as though he was so angry he'd lost the words.
"Watch your back." Garth said after a long moment, slamming me against the locker once more to emphasise his point before letting go of my shirt. I saw Garth smirking as he walked away, the crowds quickly parted to let him through.
"Are you okay?" Kate asked me as I slumped back against the lockers, letting out a deep sigh and nodding.
"Yeah I'm fine." I replied, straightening up and turning to her with a little grin. As I turned I noticed that the locker behind me was dented which shocked me a little since I wasn't hurt at all. I was relieved that it wasn't actually my locker but the one next to it and I wondered a bit nervously whether I would get in trouble for it. 'I'll have to apologise to whoever's this locker it.' I thought to myself as I said aloud, "I thought he might've been your boyfriend or something at first."
Kate gave a dry laugh at the suggestion, shaking her head as I picked up my dropped bag and we began walking towards the cafeteria.
"No, he's just a jerk." She replied, making me laugh as the crowd that had gathered to watch dispersed and we entered the cafeteria, grabbing some trays and joining the queue.
"What? But he seemed so charming." I said in mock disbelief, glancing over to the football team's table where I saw Garth telling them something that made a few of them to send frowns in my direction. 'Just ignore them.' I thought to myself as we slowly moved towards the food and Kate spoke up once more.
"Well actually he was going to ask me out once." She said, a strange smile coming over her face which seemed almost bitter but I couldn't imagine she was mad about not dating someone like that. I was hardly surprised to discover that she'd been asked out before though, after all she was very pretty, anyone could see that.
"You said he was going to ask you out?" I prompted, wondering what had happened.
"Yeah he was but chickened out when he found out my last name was Spencer and realised who my dad was." She said in that same somewhat bitter manner. 'Winston scared him off?' I thought to myself, thinking back to my meeting with him at the boxing gym. Kate's dad was a large enough guy but nothing special physically and had been friendly with me from what I could remember, leading me to be confused as to what I had missed.