Yes, I do understand no one has reviewed. But I still love this story, no matter how much it sucks. Anyone know Jimmie's first name? James? Jacob? Jim?
"Dude, I talked to Jimmie Zara today." Charmaine repeated, still in shock. "Are you serious. Are you serious!?"
"Who is the 'you' in this conversation?" someone on the other line asked, slowly, trying to calm her friend. Charmaine didn't act like this. Charmaine was cool, calm, and direct… well, she was direct. But cool and calm wasn't the best description of the conversation.
"You? 'You' is everything that caused this! The fallen papers, the urge, and the thought!" her friend exclaimed, pulling her hair out. "I need to like, calm down, right? Right, breathe." She started breathing, but it soon got faster and faster, going to nearly uncontrollable.
"You're hyperventilating—again." Elena muttered, playing with a teal piece of thread that was hanging off her shirt. "This isn't being calm. You're just being insane."
"Jimmie Zara!" Charmaine said, once again. "I thought he hated me!"
Elena sighed in irritation. She didn't want to deal with her hormonal induced friend; she had her own hormones to deal with herself. She pulled the phone away from her ear, as Charmaine kept repeating that name over and over. "I'm hanging up now."
"No wait—"
Ƹ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒ
Charmaine thought she was never going to talk to Jimmie again, like it was a once in a life time thing. Then again, she had English and study hall with him. But they still never talked then, she sat in the front, and he was in the back. "Gah…" she muttered, leaning her head on the cool desk. Just as the bell rang, Jimmie slipped in the room. It was unusual, he was always tardy.
She started copying notes. She enjoyed Miss Darbus as the new English teacher; she was cool, at least to her. She had a knack for liking thinks others didn't. She started doodling on the margins, small stars and moons. Their was always one moon orbiting us, then a million stars. She wondered how the moon feels. How there's only one of the moon to watch over us, but all these stars seem to overpower him.
She started ripping out a piece of paper from the back of her notebook and wrote in the middle of the top margin, They Both Shine. "The moon and stars both do, right?" she asked herself.
"Indeed." Miss Darbus smiled, looking over her shoulder. Charmaine scooted over a bit, slightly embarrassed.
"Yeah, but my deal is what shines more? But does it even matter? I guess they have their own thing." Charmaine replied softly, thinking deeper and deeper. She began writing what she just said, silently thanking her teacher. But the inspiration got foggier and foggier as the noise in the room seemed to increase. She covered her ears. She tried to drown out a bit of noise from the back of the room that managed to cloud her mind.
"Miss Lendoza, do you mind sitting one seat down?" Miss Darbus asked, pulling her completely out of her drive. "And Mr. Zara, up here." A collected path of 'Oo's' circled the room. "I hope you do pay more attention with this seat change, Mr. Zara."
Charmaine's breath hitched, as she moved her stuff over and Jimmie sat in her previous seat. "Sup, Charms." Jimmie grinned, looking at his new surroundings.
I guess she was going to talk to Jimmie pretty soon.
"Charms?" she asked. She never had a nickname before.
"Sure. I think it's a pretty cool nickname." Jimmie explained, slumping farther in his seat. "Damn, I hate the front seat, you have no baskets to lean your feet on." Charmaine smirked, and rested her feet on the metal book-holder of the Jimmie's seat.
She began writing once again, clicking her mechanical pencil every few seconds. Eventually with seven lines of rubbish, she began bordering her page with stars, and one crescent moon on the bottom corner until the bell rang.
She grabbed her books, and let them lean on her hip, her hand gripping them on the bottom of the stack. Charmaine went to the middle of the room, waiting for Elena, who didn't like the back, or the front.
"Whoa, whoa! Rocket Man's sitting in front of you!" She said, but her excitement was merely sarcastic.
Charmaine shrugged. "I thought we'd never talk to each other, only that day. But I was wrong, stupid me and my assumptions."
"Alright, let's get to gym. I heard we're playing basketball." Elena said primly, her books pressed to her chest, her and Charmaine walking out of the room.
Charmaine groaned. "I don't wanna play basketball." She whined, hitting a locker. "I thought we were playing volleyball today!"
"We were." Elena agreed, turning a corner, her friend shortly following. "But the basketball team is going to our period to teach us some stuff, so they changed the plans."
"I don't care if the basketball people are coming to teach us." Charmaine pouted. Her eyes were almost sad through her black framed glasses. "This sucks."
"It doesn't really matter, I play alternate on the volleyball team, and you're a setter." Elena replied, her tone neutral. "Besides, you should be happy. Jimmie'll be there."
"Oh, yeah. He's captain." Charmaine put into realization, almost forgetting. "Doesn't matter, he's not going to talk to me anyway. He has to teach basketball to all the other students to, along with the rest of the team."
"Tsk, tsk." chided Elena, slipping in the locker room. "And what did you say before about assumptions?"
Charmaine lazily followed like a baby duck and its mother. "Whatever."
"Alright, Wildcats!" Jimmie pepped to the audience of the gym room. "Well, every one knows what basketball is, right? The ball goes in the hoop—oh, not that way!" a collection of wolf whistles were made for a few moments briefly by the boys. "But it's more than that! You got defense, offence, guards, and three-point shots. Me and the rest of the team are gonna brief you on this!"
Charmaine's head was down, half-listening on Jimmie's little speech. She was placed with a big group of people, and was thrown a basketball. She chest-passed the orange ball to Donny Fox, who was obviously unprepared.
"Ow! Damn, girl, give a guy a warning!"
"Sorry," she muttered, apologetically. "I just don't feel comfortable with this sport."
"Why?" he asked, dribbling the basketball a little.
"Just, eh." Charmaine stuck out her tongue a bit, and Donny nodded, not understanding. "Don't worry about it. I'll do my best, just… yeah."
They split the group in two, and it was a five on five. They were practicing with half a basketball court. "What are we supposed to do now?" Elena asked.
"Wait," Donny answered, doing some foul shots. "We kind of have a basketball member as our teacher today." He pointed to the crowd of the basketball team next to all the gym coaches. "See? They're separating them among the groups."
"Alright." Elena nodded. "How would you know?"
"I'm the ball boy of the team."
Elena stifled a laugh at the basic answer. "Awesome."
"Right, very funny."
Charmaine glanced at Tiara Gold, who was talking with her group of friends. She hated how they were in the same group she was, Tiara would probally tell her how ugly she is, or something of the sort. Tiara was Tiara; she took others for her gain. Her long dark red basketball shorts swished back and forth as Charmaine moved, leaning over Elena.
"Eeeelennaaa," she sang, causing her friend to move two steps back. "Have you noticed fifteen minutes have passed?"
"Yes, yes I have." Elena said curtly. "Please control yourself."
"I will not calm down, I will simmer." She prompted, sitting cross-legged on the floor crossing her arms across her chest. "There's a reason for gym class. I'm gaining pounds by the second." She sighed, finally tired of waiting and leaned her head on her hand, arm on her thigh.
"You don't have to wait anymore. Rocket Man's coming over!" Donny pointed out, and he was right.
Charmaine's head lifted up slightly, watching Jimmie jog over to their group. "Let the games begin." Donny walked to Jimmie's side; she could tell they were good friends. They started splitting up the teams; Charmaine was on a team conveniently with Elena, inconveniently with Tiara.
"Okay," Jimmie clapped his hands; he was very into the idea of teaching his favourite sport. "Usually, you see the ref. throwing the ball in the air and one of the opposing members gets it. I guess I'll do that." He called for Elena and Donny, and threw the ball in the air. "Make sure you stay in court…"
Charmaine sighed, and jogged, watching after Elena. Soon enough, the basketball was in the air, and Donny got it, dribbling the ball. Elena came after it, and Donny threw it to Tiara—who wasn't even remotely paying attention—but Charmaine dived for it and successfully caught it.
"Nice interception!" Cheered Jimmie.
"You're going to regret that," Tiara seethed.
"You didn't even do anything." Retorted Charmaine silently to herself. She dribbled the basketball to its basket. She stood a good few feet away, ready to make the shot—until suddenly pushed off her feet. The wind was knocked out of her, right under the basket, basketball knocked out of her hands. "Aw, dammit." She hit her hand on her forehead, letting her cool palm subside the pain.
She felt uncomfortable in her shoulder—the pain multiplying by the second. "Are you okay?" Elena asked, crouching down to her side, Donny shortly following.
"Nope."
"Whoa, whoa! What was that?" Jimmie asked one of Tiara's friends.
"As you saw, I was getting the basketball." She snorted, her taut muscles easily seen off her small shirt.
"But you're on the same team!"
Charmaine's laugh echoed the area, and got up, despite the pain increasing, it was starting to drag to her arm. "Wow." She sat on a nearby bench, rubbing the shoulder that got some impact sliding on the polished gym floor. "Give me a few minutes."
Jimmie nodded, watching her cope with a smile on her face. But he couldn't deny by the slightest glance, she had to have frowned.
He turned his attention back to the group he was working with. Thank goodness he had Donny with him; he could never survive with all these girls. Though, he couldn't complain, they were girls. He sauntered over to Tiara, who just waved off one of her friends. "Does the teacher need to give the student a few pointers?"
Tiara scoffed. "Don't be coy with me."
"I don't have the slightest idea what that means," he advanced on her, checking her out. "But you look cute in gym clothes. Nice shorts." He pointed to the short white-lined hot pink shorts around Tiara's thighs.
"Zara!!" the sound of Coach Bolton's voice echoed the gym. "Get over here!"
Jimmie obeyed, but not before turning to Tiara. "Be right back." Going over to his basketball coach, he stared at his steely expression. "What's up?"
"What happened to Charmaine Lendoza?" he questioned fiercely.
Jimmie stared at him for a moment. "Oh, she was knocked over by her team member. She should be sitting at the bleachers for a few…" he turned to the bench, and Charmaine wasn't there. He checked the court, she wasn't there either. "Well, she was there…"
"I sent her to the nurse. And what were you doing? Flirting with girls? She practically sprained her arm and you didn't do anything?" Coach Bolton said, his tone feirce.
"Sorry." Jimmie muttered, seemingly disappointed.
Coach Bolton came closer to the Rocket Man, his face softer. "She was holding back tears." Jimmie's eyes widened. "And from what I see her in gym class—floor burns, baseballs to the head, she wouldn't cry over an injury."
Jimmie bit her tongue. He remembered watching Tiara's cold face hit Charmaine like a snowstorm. And how Tiara gave a small gesture to the girl who pushed Charmaine, but he thought it was nothing, until now. "Can I see her?"
Coach Bolton shook his head. "You're job is to teach your group how to play," He gestured to the group of kids at the far corner of the gym. Tiara and her friends were talking the usual gossip and Elena and Donny were bouncing the basketball to each other back in forth. "And so far you're not doing a good job."
Jimmie would have to wait.
He didn't see her until the next day in Miss Darbus' class. Jimmie made sure he got there extra early. And Charmaine was the first person in class; he got a good chunk of time to talk to her. He noticed her left arm was limp. There was some cloth tied around so she wouldn't be able to move it.
"You okay?" he asked her carefully, sitting in the desk in front of her.
"Better." Charmaine murmured, her eyes fixated on the printed sheet of notes in front of her.
"At least it was the left arm." Jimmie said hopefully, assuming she was right-handed.
"I'm left handed." Charmaine clarified, her expression more forlorn than before. "What the fuck, how the hell am I supposed to live now?" Jimmie ears noticed the suggestive language. "If I can't fucking write, how am I supposed to fucking do anything? Writing is my life."
"I'm sorry. It was my fault." Jimmie said apologetically. "To make up for it, I'll even write whatever you want."
"What are you talking about?" Charmaine finally looked at him, her brown eyes fitted with confusion. "It wasn't your fault."
"I was too busy checking out Tiara's ass." He confessed, blushing slightly. "I wasn't watching out, I was distracted."
Charmaine sucked in some air, glaring at him to some degree. After a long moment of silence, staring at each other, people in the room were filing in, watching them with confusion. With her right arm, she landed a punch to his shoulder, again, and again.
"Oh, I so wish I could punch you with my left hand, much stronger." Said Charmaine acidly in-between hits.
"Then it's luck it was your left arm sprained." Jimmie winced, the last punch hurt a little more than the other ones.
"No, you're luck is based on two things." Charmaine stopped hitting him and leaned back in her chair. "Luck that I'm already tired, and luck that you'll only have to write four-thousand words today."
"Four-thousand?" he repeated, unbelieving. "You write four-thousand words every day?"
"Usually seven-thousand, but I'm being nice. You'll be my hands every day for today, and for the rest of the week, maybe more." She managed to tear out a piece of notebook paper with one hand, and slapped it on Jimmie's desk. "Start writing, the title is Ways I Can Fight the Urge to Hit People." Jimmie laughed with a lopsided grin. "Fine. Ways I Can Think Happier Thoughts. Number one, think about how much Jimmie Zara is going to owe me…"
"Is this list really necessary? I wasn't serious."
"…Number two." Charmaine went on, ignoring him. "Remembering how Jimmie said to me "To make up for it, I'll even write whatever you want." Number three—are you writing this down?" She teased.
"You're going too fast," he said, scribbling her last words. "And why would you need this?"
"Remembrance to make sure you don't screw up again." She said, a hint of devil in her voice. "Come on, only three-thousand and forty-eight more words to go!" she patted him on the shoulder in mock-comfort. "Hurry up, then we have another four-thousand tomorrow!"
That's what friends are for, right?
Yes, I do understand no one has reviewed. But I still love this story, no matter how much it sucks. Anyone know Jimmie's first name? James? Jacob? Jim?
And thank you for reading!
