Chapter 13

What Now

Oliver stopped to sign up for speech club. He was looking forward to learn about radio in club meetings and at speech meets. Oliver still had a dream of being a sports broadcaster and this was going to be his first step towards it.

"Hi. Are you signing up for speech club?" A very attractive girl asked Oliver. Oliver turned and looked at her and lost his voice.

"Ah, ah, ah…"

"Speech club?"

"Right. Speech club." Oliver parroted.

"My name is Gina. Gina Kelley." Gina reached out with her hand.

"Olive. I mean Oliver. Please to meet you….."

"Gina Kelley."

"Gina. Right. What did you just ask me?" Oliver asked looking confused.

"Did you sign up for speech club?" Gina giggled.

"Yeah, just now. What about you?" Oliver asked.

"I joined last year." Gina answered.

"So you going to join this year."

"I'm going to lunch, do you want to go with me?" Gina asked.

"Sure. What about speech club?" Oliver asked as they started to walk together to the lunchroom.

"Since I joined last year, we signed up before the end of the school year."

"Oh, that's cool. So what areas did you participate in on the speech team?"

"Well, not everyone in speech club will be on the speech team. You have to earn a spot on the speech team." Gina smiled at Oliver as he open the door to the lunchroom for her.

-------------------------------------------------

Miley sat in the lunchroom watching Lilly wishing that she was sitting with her instead. Miley really didn't know what to think about what happen at the start of the day with her brother and she really needed to talk to someone about it. Well, not really someone, more like Lilly. But she was with her friends and her new friends in the form of the junior varsity and varsity cheerleaders. Where was Oliver at? That question was answered when a very attractive girl came through the door followed by Oliver. Was Oliver talking to her and her to him?

"Awww…look at this Amber." Ashley started.

"Why is this a loser in its native setting?" Amber asked.

"Why I believe it is."

"And she is all by herself."

"What a loser!" They said together.

"OOOO…. tssss…."

-------------------------------------------------

The upper classman that lead the small group of rowdies didn't know what hit him. He did remember swinging at Jake. What he didn't remember was Jake catching his arm as he brought it around to hit Jake. After Jake caught his arm, Jake used the power of the swing to flip him to the ground. When the leaded hit the ground, all the air gushed out of his lungs in one big burst.

"In case you didn't noticed, that was a martial art move. I have to study martial arts so I or anyone else on the stunt crew doesn't get hurt doing the fight scenes." Jake told the crowd as he turned to look at them. "So I suggest you take your friend here and leave. Plus I don't want to hear about you guys bothering Rico again." Jake told them as they started to leave. Jake walked over to the trashcan, took the lid off the top and helped Rico climb out.

"Thanks Jake. For a pretty boy, you are not so bad." Rico said as he started to brush his self off. Jake started to help him.

"Is that anyway to talk to the person that saved your butt?" Jake asked.

"I said thanks."

"You called me pretty boy." Jake said as he gave Rico a look.

"Okay fine. Thanks Jake."

"No more pretty boy or anything else." Jake said holding out his hand.

"Sure." Rico took his hand.

"Good. Friends need to call each other by what they want to be called by." Jake smiled.

"You're going to be my friend?" Rico couldn't believe his ears.

"Why not. Miley, Lilly, Oliver, and Jackson like you. So you must be alright person to have as a friend."

"They like me?" Rico still couldn't believe his ears.

"Yes. You find that hard to believe?"

"A little. Not that many people like me is all." Rico told Jake as they fell into step going to the lunchroom again.

-------------------------------------------------

"What am I doing here?" Miley asked herself angrily. Oliver was sitting with a girl she had never seen before. Lilly was sitting with the other cheerleaders and here Miley sat all by herself with only Amber and Ashley sitting close by making faces at her. With the last set of 'looks' from Amber and Ashley, Miley stood up and left the lunchroom with a dark cloud over her head.