Chapter Three-I Truscott
"Lilly, mom says you have to get up right now" a voice said in my ear.
"How can I do that if you're on my stomach?" I asked in reply. "Bailey get off me!" I pushed my younger sister to the floor and sat up. "Man, you're a pain."
"Takes one to know one" was her smart remark. I shook my head and pushed her out the door.
"Seven year olds" I whispered, shaking my head.
I locked my door so she wouldn't get back in. I love Bailey and everything, but she just invades my space. Touching everything and breaking everything. I walked over to my closet and stubbed my toe on my computer chair.
"Ow!" I yelled jumping up and down. I waited for the pain to ease a little before I set it back down on the plush carpet. "Stupid chair."
I quickly changed and grabbed my backpack, rushing down the stairs. Mom was at the stove making breakfast for herself. Bailey was already eating her cereal.
"Morning" I called as I grabbed my favorite cereal out of the pantry. Cocoa Puffs, who could resist it?
"Good morning, Lilly. Did you finish your book report?" mom asked, giving me a kiss on the side of the head.
"Yep. I spent all night on it too" I replied, pointing to the kitchen table.
"That's good" mom replied with a smile.
I reached into the cabinet for my favorite cereal bowl. But, in my haste to get it, it went sliding out of my hands and crashed to the floor, breaking.
"Aw, man" I moaned, taking a step back.
"I'll get the broom" Bailey said, pushing her chair away from the table. She pushed the table so hard, the carton of milk fell over onto the table. . .soaking my book report in seconds.
"Oh no! My book report!" I yelled, rushing over to the table. "You did that on purpose!"
"Honest, I didn't" Bailey replied, eyes wide.
"Lilly, I'll send your teacher an e-mail explaining why you don't have your report. Just go on to school before you're late" mom said with a heavy sigh.
"Fine" I mumbled, grabbing my backpack.
"Looks like you're going to have a bad day today" Bailey remarked.
"Shut up, Bailey" I snapped and headed out he front door, slamming it shut behind me.
I rushed to the side of the house and grabbed my skateboard. I stepped onto it and headed over to my best friend's house: Miley Stewart. There me and my other best friend, Oliver Oaken, wait for Miley and the three of us walk to school together.
Oliver. . .
Just thinking about his name gave me the chills. I know what you're thinking. How can a tomboy fall in love? Well, it's true. I'm in love with Oliver Oscar Oaken. I don't know what about him I like the best. I just like being around him. But, I'm not going to tell him that. He doesn't like me back. And if we did go out and things went wrong, our friendship will be blown for the rest of our lives.
Oliver showed up about five minutes after I arrived at Miley's. In those five minutes I did some serious thinking. I was going to tell Oliver that I liked him. If I kept this secret for too long, I might explode. Sweet, he's wearing his purple polo today. I loved that shirt. It really brought out his eyes. . .
"Hey, Lilly" Oliver greeted. Man, I loved how my name rolled off his tongue.
"Hey, Oliver. How are you this morning?" I replied giving him a warm smile.
"Waking up to my mom's 'man voice' is not the best way to start a morning" Oliver replied with a shudder. I laughed into my palm. His mom's 'man voice' was pretty scary.
"That has to suck" I said in between laughs.
"Trust me. You don't know the half of it" he replied, shaking his head.
'It's now or never, Lilly'
"Hey, Oliver can I ask you something?" I said hesitantly, staring at my skateboard. I just couldn't bring myself to look into his eyes.
"Anything" Oliver replied with a shrug. "You can tell me anything, Lilly."
"Well, it's like this" I hesitated.
"Spit it out, Lilly" Oliver said with a little laugh. "Come on, I think I can handle whatever you're going to say."
"Well. . .would you uh-"
I turned at the sound of footsteps and saw Miley rushing towards us.
"It's about time. Come on, let's go. High school isn't going to wait for us" I said rolling my eyes, although a smile was on my face.
'Saved. Thanks Miley. I don't think I could have gone through with that.'
"Sorry about that, guys. Jackson took forever in the shower this morning" Miley replied, rolling my eyes.
"Jackson" Oliver said in a sympathetic way slowly shaking his head like a concerned parent. Miley laughed and the three of us started towards Seaview High School.
My name is Lilly Truscott. I'm fourteen years old and I'm a Freshman at Seaview High School. And guess what? I'm in love with my best friend.
The three of us arrived at Seaview High and immediately spotted Amber and Ashley, the most popular girls in our class, laughing about something. The kids around them were laughing and pointing at something. Or someone. I followed Miley and Oliver over to the group of kids. I looked over the shoulders of the group of kids and my eyes widened at the sight.
"Not again" Miley moaned. Oliver and I let out a big sigh.
Oliver, Miley, and I exchanged nods and we immediately rushed over to the group of kids and saw that they were beating some kid up. I recognized him. He was my newest friend, Blake Anderson. He was kind of shy but was fun to be around.
"Stop it! Get off him!" Oliver cried as he and I grabbed onto the three boys and pulled them off of Blake.
"Geek! We'll get you later" one of the boys spat. "You'll pay for asking out my girl." The boy was Miles Johnson. His girlfriend was Ashley.
"You asked out, Ashley?! Sweet nibblets, she's like one of the most popular girls in High School" Miley cried, grabbing a hold of one of Blake's arms.
I grabbed his other arm and Miley and I helped him to his feet. His blond/white hair was falling into his blue eyes. He had a scratch across his left cheek and his lip was split. I think a shiner was forming around his eye too.
"Don't rub it in" he said bitterly, spitting blood onto the floor.
Oliver winced as he looked at the specks of blood and grabbed his books and stuff. When he straightened, he noticed the dent in the row of lockers behind Blake.
"Ouch, that looked like it hurt" he commented with a cringe.
Miley and I looked to where his eyes were fixed and we gasped in shock at the bent locker door; eyes growing wide.
'When will kids stop beating up the ones that are weaker than them?'
"It feels worse" Blake replied in a dark tone as Oliver handed him his books. "Thanks. I'll be a little late to class. I'm going to the nurse."
"Ok, we'll tell the teacher for you" Miley replied with a nod. He gave her a warm smile.
"Thanks, Miles" he said quietly.
Ding, ding, ding, ding. Lightbulb, lightbulb. I think Blake likes Miley. He always seems to shy away from her and talk to her in a really soft voice when she's around. If only she'd notice what a great guy he was.
-
I rushed out of the English room. The teacher kept me late, asking why I didn't have my book report. I repeated everything that happened this morning and also said how mom should have sent the teacher an e-mail.
"Sorry, Lilly. But, I didn't get any e-mail. I'm going to have to give you an F" my teacher replied.
I groaned and left the room. I rushed to my locker and put up my stuff. I was already late to meeting Oliver and Miley.
"Thanks a bunch mom. Now, I'm probably going to fail the class. Boy, this really is turning out to be a bad day" I whispered as I rushed into the cafeteria and got in the lunch line. I made face at the meatloaf that was slapped onto my tray. "It's better than nothing."
"Hey, guys, sorry I'm late" I said breathlessly, rushing up to our table.
"Yay! My life has meaning" Oliver cried in a desperate tone. I laughed and shook my head as I sat down.
"Glad to hear it O gift from god!" I replied with a smile. I saw the look on Miley's face and continued with my lunch, trying to stop myself from blushing.
Miley covered her mouth with her hand and tried her hardest not to laugh out loud. It was obvious that she was losing that war.
"Hey, Miley"
Miley turned with a smile on her face, but her smile faded immediately when she saw who it was.
"Jake Ryan" she replied with a nod.
"This'll be interesting" Oliver whispered to me. His breath smell liked sweet tortilla chips. I nodded and crossed my arms over my chest, eyebrows raised in an amused look.
"I can't wait for our English class. I heard we're going to be acting out Romeo and Juliet. Guess who Romeo is?" Jake said with a smile.
Oliver turned his head and pretended to gag. I laughed quietly. I loved Oliver's jokes. Sure, Oliver and I were friends with Jake, The Zombie Slayer, but, we didn't like how conceded he was at times.
"Guess who'd rather kiss a frog?" Miley shot back with a smile.
"Ooh" I hissed. That was kind of harsh.
I furrowed my eyebrows as Jake winced and clutched his heart. He made a face of pain and leaned against the table. He looked at Miley through one eye. 'What the heck is he doing?'
"I'm not sure if you heard it, but you just broke my heart" Jake said, taking in deep breaths.
"And I don't care. Buh bi now" Miley replied, giving a small wave. Jake shook his head and walked off.
"That was really harsh" I said to myself.
"What?" Miley asked innocently as she turned to face Oliver and I. Well, she tried to be innocent.
"When are you going to tell Jake you like him?" I asked. I rasied a forkful of meatloaf to my mouth..
"When you tell Oliver you like him" she replied, amused.
The mass of meatloaf on my fork dropped off into my lap as I stared at Miley. I could feel myself blushing; but I couldn't look at Oliver. 'Does he like me back?'
"I don't like Oliver that way. He's my best bud. It'd be too weird if we started dating" I replied quickly.
"Right" Miley said rolling her eyes. I could tell she didn't believe what I said. Hell, I didn't care either. I had this feeling for a while that Oliver liked me back. "Have any of you seen Blake?"
"Not since this morning" Oliver replied, shaking his head.
"I wonder how he's doing" I added.
The three of us turned at the sound of laughter. I cringed once I realized what was going on. Blake was lying on the floor, his face in his tray of food. Some of the jocks were dumping what was left of their lunch onto his back.
"Oh, Blake" I heard Miley whispered.
"When are they going to give the guy a break?" Oliver asked.
He pounded his fists on the table in anger. I had never seen him so mad before. It kind of scared me. I put a comforting hand on his shoulder and I felt him relax immediately.
Blake lifted his head from his tray and sent the jocks a death glare. They just laughed harder and left the cafeteria as the bell rang. Blake got up and rushed out of the cafeteria, using the doors on the other side of the room.
"Come on, we don't want to be late to class" I said quietly.
Miley and Oliver nodded and followed me out of the cafeteria. We went our separate ways, Miley in one, Oliver and I in another. We got our books from our locker and headed towards the History room when I turned towards Oliver.
'Ok, Lilly, let's try this again. There will be no interruptions'
"Oliver, about this morning" I said quietly.
"What about it?" Oliver asked looking confused. "What were you trying to ask me?"
"Well, I was going to ask if. . .uh. Would you-"I stopped walking, staring down the hall at some kid. He had a black gun pointed at something behind me. I was too afraid to look. Hell, I was to afraid to do anything except stand there.
"Would I?" Oliver prompted. Then, Oliver saw it too.
"Don't do it, man. Don't do it" a voice said in a shaky voice. I watched as the boy tightened his finger around the trigger.
"Run, Lilly!" Oliver yelled, putting my hand on her shoulder. I snapped back into reality and started to shake.
Hearing Oliver's scream, kids looked up and saw the gun and started to run in different directions. Oliver and I turned around and started to run, trying to fight the crowd. I jumped at a loud cracking sound. I couldn't help myself. I let out a loud scream and then someone crashed into me, knocking me to the floor. I screamed as kids literally ran over me.
'God, please let Oliver be ok'