Chapter Three: Ashley

"The winning team of course, is Chatham High!," everyone claps and cheers, "The V.I.P. on this team is Dean Ashley Pruitt!" I gasped, who in the hell signed me up with my middle name too!? Everyone looked at me and started laughing.
"Ashley? HAHAHAHAA! We HAVE to call you Ashley now! Whaddaya say g-"
"My middle name isn't Ashley, you dumbass. It's Ashton." I lied, sounding completely serious. Ashton? Oh well.
"Ashton? Ugh, that's no fun. But at least we don't have a girl on our team." For some reason, that statement pissed me off.
"Excuse me..?" I ask, starting to get an attitude. It's on.
"I said, 'but at least we-"
"I know what you said, stupid. I'm saying that girls can play just as well as boys."
"HAHAHA, you're funny Dean. Why the hell would you say something ridiculous like that? You have a girlfriend who can play ball? She better than you? HA! What a joke. Girls are just a joke." He says snobbishly, now I'm REALLY pissed.
"Listen man, don't piss me off. I will blow my top and beat the shit out of you."
"Pff, you can't do anything to me. You're like, what, 5 feet tall?" He retorted.
"If I can beat up a 350 pound man who used to be a professional wrestler, I sure as hell can beat up a 100 pound man who can barely throw a basketball across the court." I smiled, if arguing was a job, I'd be a millionaire.
"I," he paused, now he's speechless, "You know what? Let's drop it."
"You're boring, I can't have a decent argument with anyone around here. I just get started and then they give up."
"There's no arguement, girls are just weak and stupid, and boys are strong and smart. It's just how things are. Girls are here for our entertainment and that is that."
"What the FUCK did you just say?" I yell, reaching a higher octave.
"I said what I mean, and I meant what I said."
"Yeah? Well there's one advantage that girls have over guys." I say, shuffling my feet.
"Oh really? What?"
"When you're a girl, it don't hurt when someone does THIS." I yell, kicking him straight in the crotch. He cries out and falls to the ground, looking totally pathetic.
"It would probably hurt worse if you actually had balls." I say before walking away. Suddenly, he stands back up and grabs me by the shoulder, flinging me towards the benches. I stumbled a little, and started walking faster towards him. It's a fight now. He laughs then kicks me in the crotch, and I just smile. This is why being a girl is so great. He just stares at me as if I just finished walking on water.
"H-How the hell are you still standing?" He asks, totally awestruck.
"How the hell are you so surprised? All you did was kick me between the legs. One, it didn't hurt, and two, you kick like a 2 year old."
"Woah woah woah, wait.." I bite my lip, I think he's finally piecing the puzzle together.
"Dean, dude, are you a.. A chick?" He just looks at me up and down, confused.
"Depends, what would you do if I said yes?"
"Well I would.. Well I can't tell coach or he'll kick you off the team.. And I can't really tell anyone else.. 'Cause they might tell coach, and he'll kick you off the team. We can't afford to lose our best player, I know that. So..?"
"Let's simply leave it at this," I say quietly, I drop my disguised voice and in my girly voice I say seductively, "It'll be our little secret." and I walk away, grinning. He stands there a few moments before running after me.
"Hey hey hey I have more questions now, Dean! That bringing me to my first question, what's your real name then? And also, is your middle name actually Ashley then?" He says so quickly I can barely understand him.
"Slow down buckaroo. My name is Wilmadeen, but everyone calls me Deenie. Yes, my middle name is Ashley. Next question, or questions, please."
"Okay.. Well how are you a girl? I mean.. Dude, you don't.. No offense, even look like a girl."
"Well duh, if I allowed myself to look girly, then how would I pass for a dude?"
"How do you do it, though?" I sighed, knowing I'd need to give him a lengthy explaination to satisfy him.
"It's real easy. I keep my hair real short, and put my bangs in my face, and I always wear a boyish hat. I wear loose shirts so you can't see.." I paused, starting to get embarrassed.
"Oh.. Yeah, go on."
"Yeah.. And I don't wear any makeup, either. My face is kinda plain, so there's nothing girly about it unless I let it get that way."
"Ohh.. Well, can I see you as a girl?" He whispers.
"What? You see me as a girl right now."
"No, I mean all girled-up. You got me curious now." I looked at him strangely. I see what he's getting at.
"My house tonight at 8PM." I say lowly, hoping no one would hear.
"Right. Be girly and stuff, kay?" He asks, sounding pretty dumb. I just nodded and walked on. Back to the car with dad..
I walked through the lot, reaching the parking space that we always park in. It's kind of like having a table at a restaraunt that you go to often. I get in the car, smirk at dad to let him know we won, and close the door hard.
"What'd you win?"
"What did I- Oh. Well our team won tickets to some concert, and the guy who is doing the concert, the V.I.P. gets to meet him and that would be me."
"Well what concert? Whose performing?"
"Uhh.. Michael uhh.. Jenkon.. Nonono.. Jack.. Jackson! Michael Jackson." He looked at me funny. "I don't know who he is."
"Huh.. I've heard a few of his songs. There's this one, in '83 that was on the radio. It's uhh.. Billie somethin'. It was some song about a girl who came to him saying her kid was his, appearently it wasn't. The girl's name was Billie.." He stops talking and begins humming a familiar tune, "Jean! Billie Jean, that's it." I simply nodded uninterestingly and turned my head to look out the window.
We start to move, then we get out of the lot and start to drive. Today is a beautiful day. It's close to 6PM now, and the sun is just beginning to set. The sky is a beautiful mix of light pink, pale orange, butter yellow, and grey-blue. There weren't any clouds all day today, and it was amazing. My two favorite times of the day are dawn and dusk. It sounds dumb but everything is at it's peek of beauty at those times, being why I love them so much. I sighed softly, watching the sun go down as we pull into our driveway. I rush out of the car and toss my things onto my bed.
arefully, I close the door and lock it, opening my window. I grasp the sides of it and hoist myself onto the rooftop to watch the sunset. The sun was just reaching the horizon, preparing to transition the day into the night. Dusk.. It's so magical. I climb back down, the sun isn't going to really set for roughly 20 minutes. I needed to girl myself up for Marc Yeah, Marcus, also known as Marc, is the guy I was talking to earlier. He's eh. His looks? I would say by lack of a better comparison, he looks like Robert Plant mixed with Eric Clapton.. He doesn't have the mustache but he's certainly working on it. His hair was about to his chin, and wavy. It's a dirty blonde color, with a few natural highlights of a golden brown color, kinda like bronze. However, his skin was pale, and freckled. He was different to say the least, but hey he's not the worst I've seen.
close my window for now. The breeze stops flowing in, and now I know what I have to do. I have to get girly.

This is dedicated to one of my best friends, Ashley.