And I finally make it off writer's block island long enough to update I hope this chapter will make the wait worth while...
Note: I'm going back to school tomorrow meaning I'm going to have very little free time. So if I don't update for awhile don't think I forgot about the story. I have every intention of carrying on.
Hope ye enjoy.
As usual, Monday morning came too soon. Propping herself on one elbow, Elizabeth peeked over the edge of her blanket at the clock on her bedside table. She had to shove a bit of clutter out of the way to get a clear view. It would be a chore to haul herself from bed and she hadn't even slept. Elizabeth rolled onto her back. The ceiling was one of her most familiar sites. The clock said it was time to go to practice, but her body wasn't listening. Though any swelling had gone down yesterday, her neck still ached terribly. She feared any painkillers would only make her drowsier so she decided it was for the best if she avoided them. The only relief she could get would be from ignoring the pain as best she could and holding her neck still- a challenge when one spent as much time running around as she did. Elizabeth sat up and pulled her knees to her chest. Now was not the time to be dwelling on anything but track and school. The team had a week before they squared off with their rivals. Elizabeth ripped her blanket off her. She had to practice more- she would not let either the team or herself down. Last year she had allow that girl defeat her; she had watched as they her teammates. This year she planned to suffer no such shame. If she didn't come out on top, all those hours she had spent practicing would be in vain.
Elizabeth mindlessly prepared herself for the day to come. She trudged into the bathroom to brush her teeth and hair and then back into her bedroom to dress. Her packed bags lay on the floor inches from the door. She scooped them up and switched her light off. On the way out of the house, Elizabeth retrieved her water bottle from the refrigerator. The early morning spring air smelled fresh and sweet from the midnight showers that had moved through last night. Drops of dew collected on the leaves of the blooming flowers and birds fluttered overhead searching for the worms that always came in the aftermath of a rain shower. Elizabeth rushed past all of this to her car, heeding only the time. She sped off in the direction of her school. It was early enough that rush hour had not began yet so the only annoyance Elizabeth had to deal with was the newly risen sun glistening in her eyes. Only in the morning did she consciously take the street that passed next to the ocean; it was the quickest route and her mornings were mostly rushed. Almost any other time Elizabeth chose the side streets in residential area where homes and trees blocked her view of the water. She fixed her gaze on the trinket that hung from her rearview mirror- a small circular crystal that broke the white light into any color Elizabeth could imagine. The school parking lot was as empty as most places at this hour. She parked, shouldered her bags and embarked upon the long- she had been quite unlucky on the day they assigned spots and scored one of the farthest spaces- walk to the track.
"Lizzzz!!!!" Lindsay screeched as she ran towards Elizabeth. Elizabeth put her arms out to block her friend from bowling her down.
"Don't tell me you drank the whole pot of coffee…" A slight tang of jealous found its way into Elizabeth's words. She would kill to have that much energy.
"Oh my god! Liz you gotta hear this. I've been waiting like forever to tell you."
"Oh really, did you start practice early? Cuz if it's not that, I'm not interested. We have a meet in a week so please save your energy for running not plowing me down."
"Liz! So guess what?" Elizabeth's foal mood had not worn Lindsay's excitement down even the smallest bit.
"You're steeping on broken glass?" Elizabeth snickered. Lindsay stopped bouncing around stood in front of Elizabeth, refusing to let her pass until she heard her out.
"Ok ok ok, so Wednesday is Eric's birthday and we're throwing him a huge bash. I'm like inviting the whole track team and like everyone else I know and then friends of friends…and James is helping me plan. We came up with the idea just last night and wow I hope I didn't say that too loudly. It's supposed to be a secret…"
"Is that so."
"Elizabeth Swann, that is no way to respond to the most awesomest news you'll hear all day."
"Excuse me. Didn't I just say we have a meet? We don't have time to be wasting like that…Not to mention I have mounds of schoolwork."
"You're too serious and it's so boring and it's driving me mad. Even you need to have a little fun now and then Liz-"
"No, you need to let me by."
"Oh Liz, now you're just worrying me…"
Elizabeth blinked. "Stop, just trust me when I say I'm fine. I think I know myself better than anyone of you."
"Then smile." Lindsay set her arm over Elizabeth's shoulders. Elizabeth winced in pain at the touch.
"Are you okay? I didn't hurt you did I?"
Elizabeth nodded. "Err…your arm was just cold."
"Really, it doesn't feel cold…maybe you pulled a muscle or something. If that's the case you shouldn't run and risk hurting yourself more."
"Didn't I just get done telling you I was okay." Elizabeth hurried away from Lindsay, completely ignoring her good –for once- advice.
Elizabeth's decision to run with her neck sore turned out to be a disaster. The first few times around the track were nothing, but the more she ran the more impossible it become to ignore the clenching feeling situated in her neck. All the same, she pressed on. It was just a feeling; she could ignore it. Tears of pain formed behind her eyes. Elizabeth squeezed her lids shut, stopping the tears and impeding her sight. She wouldn't open her eyes until she was sure the tears were gone.
"Liz!" Elizabeth blinked- a hand had grabbed her shoulder, jerking her whole body back.
"What? What are you doing?" Elizabeth was looking right into the sun. The bright light was not helping to stop the world around her from spinning.
"You almost ran into the bleachers." The girl who had saved Elizabeth from hitting the metal seats at full speed spoke in a timid voice almost as if she was scared to be talking to her.
"Why the hell would I do that?" The other runner didn't respond, but kept looking her up and down.
"Lemme talk to her, Sara." Lindsay ran up to them. Sara nodded and took off in a sprint to make up for lost time. Elizabeth leaned forward her hand gripping a pole. "I'm going to get help Liz."
"No…Lindsay don't…it's nothing…"
"Like hell! You talk right now or I'm going to tell the coach and-"
"My neck hurts that's all. I must have slept in a funny position. Nothing to worry about…"
"So you run. Brilliant Liz. Come on maybe some ice will help."
Elizabeth nodded. Lindsay took her by the arm and guided her to the bench. Elizabeth tried to resist but she wasn't strong enough and her words came out as groans. Lindsay deposited her on the bench; Elizabeth fell forward. The pain was spreading to her back making it difficult to sit straight. The coach noticed and hastened over to offer her aid.
"What's happened?" The coach pushed Elizabeth's hair out of her eyes. She inhaled as her hand touched the girl's face.
"Get her out of the sun, Lindsay. Over exhort yourself again Liz?"
"Sorry…" Elizabeth coughed, her head slipped into her hands.
"Don't apologize; you just give us quiet the scare. How many times have I reminded you you can't push yourself this hard…?"
"She's not listening."
"Go then." Lindsay nodded and helped Elizabeth to her feet. She practically carried her off the track and into the school. They rested in some chairs in the hall outside the locker room. The school was refreshingly cool and dark.
"Liz?"
"Yeah, what is it? Stop saying my name…"
"Are you on drugs?"
"Excuse me?" Despite the pain, Elizabeth sat up. Once she got off her feet and out of the blinding light, her dizziness diminished, but she still felt better with her eyes shut.
"You can't deny that lately you've been acting a little freaky. So unlike yourself, you've always been all smiles and energetic but now it's like…"
"So I must be on drugs…I just have a lot on my mind."
"Didn't seem to me like you have a lot on anything. How much do you weigh?"
"Why does that matter?"
"Cuz I have more trouble carrying my dog than I did you and that scares me."
"…Now you're comparing me to your dog…You're just jealous cuz I'm skinnier than you."
"Oh yeah, I want to be a complete stick. How'd ya guess?"
"Who wouldn't want to be?"
"Someone who, you know, enjoys not starving themselves."
"I don't starve myself." Elizabeth snapped. She felt the need to add at least not on purpose to her previous statement but refrained to avoid another round of 20 questions.
"I never said you did. Liz, I'm just worried about you like anyone would be after seeing their friend nearly pass out."
"And I said how many times I'm okay."
"Yeah fine then. You're okay then it shouldn't matter if I leave you now-"
"Damn straight. I never asked you to help me."
Scowling at Elizabeth, Lindsay got to her feet. Elizabeth stayed put; her muscles weren't working well enough to move that quickly. "I'll see you at lunch, Liz. Hopefully you change your mind about the party." She marched off leaving Elizabeth alone to stew. Elizabeth sighed. She wasn't acting any differently; her friends were just getting more annoying. There was so much else going on, why were they so concerned with her? She wasn't concerned about herself. The current situation didn't allow her a moment to worry about something so pointless. She had to focus on winning. Elizabeth would not disappoint anyone. As always, she could survive anything that came at her.
During her PE class later that day, Elizabeth acquired ice from the nurse, left it on her neck and sat in the shade. However, with Jack buzzing around her she didn't get much rest. She chucked a stone at him, but he caught it.
"Keep trying there luv." Jack left the rock on her head and plopped down next to her just out of her arm's reach. Elizabeth attempted to shake it off, but the resulting pain in her neck made it impossible.
"Jack, get it off. You're hurting me."
"Hey watch who you're accusing Lizzie. I didn't touch ye." Jack chuckled at the truth of his remark.
"What part of leave me the hell alone don't you understand?"
"The whole part after you opened your mouth."
"Please Jack, my head hurts."
"Begging are we?"
Elizabeth beat the back of her head off the fence she was sitting against. Of course, this only multiplied the pain she was already swimming in, but she'd rather suffer then hear Jack. The icepack fell from its perch in the sudden motion.
"You must really like pain huh?"
"You that's you cuz as soon as I can I'm going to kill you."
"Ahh Lizzie you'd never kill me. You love me far too much."
"Watch me. The only time I'd say love around you is if I was referring to how much I love to hate you. You're like a pesky mosquito that keeps flying around you no matter how many times you swat at it. Eventually you just have to kill it even though you really don't want to."
Jack picked the ice up and put it back against Elizabeth's neck to distract her from his lack of a comeback. The two sat in silence for a moment; Elizabeth dug her nails her nails into her leg and Jack watched her giving her a look that almost resembled sympathy or at least as close to it as the Great Captain Jack Sparrow could get.
"So how'd that happen? You get into a fight or something?"
"Yeah that's it Jack. Exactly it so now that you know drop it."
"Hell no, tell me all the details. Who was it?"
Elizabeth rolled her eyes. "None of your business."
"You would think not, wouldn't ye."
"Yes. I'm warning you Jack…"
"Whao scary, scary. I have me ways luv."
"More power to you then."
"Me sources have told me James can be quite the brute."
"Yeah and?"
"Hey I'm not suggesting anything…Just making an observation."
"How nice for you, I'm sure you're so proud."
Elizabeth closed her eyes as another wave of dizziness swept over her. She moaned almost wishing she would just faint. Jack touched his hand to his check.
"You should go to the nurse's office. You're really warm."
"And I'm fine."
"We must have huge variations in our definitions of the word fine then."
"And last time I checked yours doesn't matter so forget it."
"Well you gotta move anyway. We're going inside."
"Oh right." Elizabeth stumbled to her feet. She used the fence to steady herself though Jack was offering her his hand. Once she got inside, she drank the rest of the water in her bottle. This made her stomach ache, but Elizabeth didn't care anymore. No matter what she did, something always hurt her.
Elizabeth would have felt better avoiding the lunchroom for a while. James sat at their usual table, a cocky smile plastered on his face. Elizabeth froze in the entrance; she had nowhere else to go. Lindsay and Eric- along with countless other nameless faces- bumped into her. They simply smiled and waved. Elizabeth was glad Eric was there; when he was near Lindsay rarely thought of anything else. The flow of students coming into the lunchroom forced Elizabeth to her table. She sat down, crossing her arms in her lap and staring at the tile. James placed his hand on her knee. She bit her lip.
"So is your neck feeling better?" Eric asked. "Linds told me you were kinda not feeling so good earlier." Elizabeth swallowed hard. James' hand was burning through her jeans.
"I'm fine. It passed."
"That's good. I hate to think of you suffering, Liz." James kissed her on the check.
"I'm going to the restroom." Elizabeth pulled away from James. The sight of food was making her very nauseous. She proceeded to her selected location, her head down. The words of a haunting voice startled Elizabeth and drew her attention way from opening the door. She thought she had gotten away from him. Was James following her? Elizabeth would have run into the restroom and locked the door had she not heard the voice of the other person she was making a point to avoid. What could James want with him? She slowly turned around; she didn't want to know the answer, but she just couldn't stop herself.
Mere feet from where Elizabeth stood, a small crowd was gathering. She froze- never again would she walk away from James during lunch. Bad stuff always happened when she did.
"Get away from us." Jack spat.
"Or?" James said. His voice sounded evil, almost the same as it did that last Saturday…
Despite James snarling at him, Will was perfectly composed. One of his hands was on Jack most likely to stop him from attacking James. "He's not worth it, Jack."
James laughed. "So Will I don't mean to be blunt, but what did you do Elizabeth. We've all noticed she's been acting funny lately and now this random injury…and it just so happens you were the last one with her…"
Elizabeth gasped loudly. A few heads turned to her. She covered her mouth her hands. Will's gaze moved to Elizabeth; his eyes reflecting both the hurt and confusion he felt.
"You bastard! How dare you blame Will for your own work." Jack growled and for a moment, Elizabeth was stunned at how angry he was getting.
"Are you accusing me of hurting my girlfriend? Surely not, everyone here can vouch that Elizabeth is my most beloved-"
"Like hell! You give a damn about her cuz she's hot and popular. Otherwise she has zero personality…"
"Jack! Stop arguing with him. This doesn't concern you. If James has a problem with me than let him take it up with me….and me alone."
"But Will this dumbass ain't gonna listen to words- only a good beating can break through his hard skull."
"Too bad you're to into your boats and rum to give me one then." James sneered at Jack.
"Like I said earlier, this has nothing to do with him." Will stared James straight in the eyes.
"Even your only friend doesn't want your help."
"On the contrary, I just don't need a bunch of cronies mindlessly following me around to feel big and important. And I certainly would never pick fights-"
"Who do you think you are? Touching Elizabeth and then talking to me like this…Why don't you go back to wherever you came from? Oh wait never mind, you have no clue right? You don't belong here. You should have stayed where ever you and that whack-job women ran off to…"
"Are you done ranting about happenings you have idea about? Cuz if that's all you have to say I'll be getting back to lunch…" Will turned away, but James grabbed him by his collar and shoved him against the wall. Will still didn't fight back much to the disappointment of the masses.
"Stay the hell away from Elizabeth."
"I can't do that. Elizabeth is my friend and I have every intention of standing by her as much she will let me."
Elizabeth looked on in horror. She couldn't decide which was more terrifying; Will's inhuman self-control or James' audacity. Recent events had proved to her that he had a temper but she never imagined he'd let it out in the middle of school. She saw him as the type who'd pounce from behind when his victim was alone.
"You're going to let Will get hurt cuz you're so stuck up and to spineless to stand up for yourself. James is bad news, but you're even worse…" Jack called to Elizabeth. The crowd turned to her awaiting an answer.
"I don't know…" Elizabeth looked away- she hated all the eyes that were on her.
"Will! He hurt Elizabeth. Don't let him get away with this…"
"I pity you…I sincerely pity anyone who has to tear down others especially those weaker to feel good about themselves." For all the rage Will harbored, his voice was calm.
"Who are to about being weak? What are you afraid to get hurt?" James punched Will in the stomach. Will didn't even wince; he wouldn't give James that satisfaction. Elizabeth continued to watch from the sidelines. This was all her fault. James should be beating her; she was the one who was bad. She wasn't so weak that she needed Will to take the punishment for her actions. She would gladly accept pain now. If the everyone in her lunch hour wasn't watching, Elizabeth told herself, she would jump in, but word would get around. She didn't want the reputation of siding with the none in-crowd. James continued punching Will, but he never once fought back or tried to run away. Jack was trying to get at James but he was far outnumbered.
"No, I'd much rather save my strength to fight for the ones I love than to get caught up in brawls."
Footsteps and yelling dispersed the crowd. Students fled from the scene- the deans were coming and no one wanted to be caught in the blame. Someone pulled James away from Will and he fell to the ground. Instead of running to aid his friend, Jack cornered Elizabeth.
"Wonderful friends you got there." Elizabeth was silent.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Still Elizabeth said nothing.
"God, you've been nothing but trouble for Will, but of course no one listens to me." Elizabeth was shaking. The dizziness was coming back stronger than ever. She would give anything to pass out and hit her head so hard she'd have no recollection of anything.
"You damn coward." Jack slapped Elizabeth across the face. She didn't protest; she deserved that. She wished he would continue.
"Jack no, stop. She doesn't know what she's doing. Leave her be, she's lost to us…"
"Will, are you okay? Why didn't you beat the crap outta them? You coulda taken them done so fast…"
"And that's exactly why I didn't. If I let my anger take control, I'm afraid I may have killed him." A dean tapped on Will's shoulder. He escorted both Will and Jack off to his office. The blame would fall on them, as it always seemed to.
Elizabeth decided it would be best if she left school. The deans would want to question her and she didn't want to be anywhere nearby when they did. She had an excuse for leaving and any attempt at going on would only result in her falling deeper into madness. For once she thought "to hell with the track team." Elizabeth didn't even track anyone down to tell she was going. Lindsay saw what happened and she knew Elizabeth was already not well- even she'd be smart enough to put two and two together. Anyway if she cared, she would have stayed with Elizabeth and not fled with the rest of the onlookers.
Hai. If you're mad, review Please.