"Kayla. Kayla, wake up." Kayla blinked her eyes open drowsily. Her cheek was rested on her forearms, which were crossed on a cool desktop. She lifted her head slowly, fighting the blush that wanted to spread across her cheeks. She could hear the quiet snickers from behind her and tried her best to ignore them and stare straight ahead. Her Journalism teacher, Ms. Alexander, was looking sternly down at her.
"I want to speak with you after class, Kayla."
Kayla looked at her table top as the classroom echoed with 'ooh's from the other students.
Ten minutes later, when the bell rang freeing everyone from class, Kayla picked up her books and approached her teacher's desk.
"I'm sorry I fell asleep, Ms. Alexander. I didn't sleep well last night." Kayla murmured quietly, partially ashamed because she actually liked Ms. Alexander and the class. Ms. Alexander also coached the girls JV and Varsity swim teams, while the gym teacher Mr. Smith coached the boys', so Kayla knew her pretty well before she even took the class.
"That's not the only reason I wanted to talk with you, Kayla." Ms. Alexander said softly. She sighed and shook her head, looking down at the desktop. "Your grades have dropped considerably the last few months, Kayla. And as you know you have to maintain a 70% average to stay in school sports. Now, I've talked with Mr. Smith and the school board. We've tried to be slightly lenient since you're the best girl on the team, and it sounds like your other teachers have tried to help you get your grades up. But Kayla, it's a two-way effort. If you're not willing to try in school there's nothing we can do to help you."
Kayla felt a lump grow in her throat. "So, what are you saying?" she asked hoarsely.
Ms. Alexander looked up at her sadly. "I'm afraid you've been cut from the swim team."
Kayla looked at the floor, her mouth open slightly. Swimming was the one thing in school that she enjoyed, that she actually looked forward to. She'd loved swimming ever since she was a toddler, and being on the swim team had been a way for her to combine her swimming talent with her competitive streak. But now it had been taken away from her.
Not sure what to say, Kayla just nodded and left the room. If she wanted to look on the bright side she could say at least she didn't have to worry about practicing over winter break, which was coming up in the next couple weeks. Now all she had to worry about was her ninjitsu training with her father and brothers.
Kayla sighed when she reached her locker and opened it, pulling her bag out and grabbing her helmet. She put a couple books into her bag and looked up into her locker. She had a small mirror on the back wall and she looked into it. Looking closely she noticed for the first time that she had bags under her eyes, her usually bright brown eyes were dulled slightly, her skin seemed paler than usual, and her hair seemed to hang by her face. She just looked tired. Kayla sighed again as she closed her locker.
"Don't break the mirror." a familiar, mocking voice spoke up. Kayla stared at her locker door to avoid saying anything. "I heard you got cut from the swim team." the voice continued.
Kayla looked up at that. Alex was standing there, leaning his shoulder against his own locker a couple lockers away. Behind him were a few of his friends; Carter, Brock, Matt, and Sam. Sam wasn't usually one of the guys to taunt her, he was actually a pretty decent guy, and he was on the swim team. Kayla noticed that Sam looked guilty and figured he told Alex about her being dropped from the team.
Kayla turned back to glare at Alex. "What's it to you? Maybe I just decided to quit."
Alex laughed. "That's not what I heard. I heard your grades dropped so low they had to drop you. Of course it's no big deal. The swim team will be just fine without you. Heck, they'll probably be better without you to slow them down."
Kayla gritted her teeth. She knew she should leave, but that would make her look weak. "What?" she growled.
"Yeah, the swim team's kinda like your family. But unlike the swim team they can't get rid of you."
Kayla snapped.
In a second her fists were clenching the collar of Alex's shirt and she slammed him up against the locker. She almost didn't hear the gasps from the other people in the hall.
"Clearly you never got the message the first thousand times. You mess with me you get a black eye. You mess with my family and I will break every freaking bone in your body. Got it?" she shouted in his face.
Alex stayed stone-faced. If Kayla didn't see the glint of fear in his eyes she would've thought he wasn't scared.
Kayla felt a pricking feeling in her neck and slowly looked over her shoulder. A crowd of about two dozen students were staring at her, waiting for her next move. Kayla slowly let go of Alex's shirt and stepped away from him. Looking around she searched the sea of faces, her eyes meeting the familiar eyes of Alana, but she looked away again before she could see the emotions in her best friend's eyes.
However, as she looked away Kayla saw another familiar face. Marcus stared back at her. Over the past few months of gym they'd become pretty close to friends, but as she looked into his eyes she saw a mix of emotions floating about in the deep brown color. She saw shock, concern, and…amazement?
Kayla quickly looked away and realized everyone was looking at her in a similar way. Whispers started floating among the crowd, echoing in her ears. The prick in her eyes told her she had to get out. She had to run before she broke down in front of everyone. She grabbed her bag and helmet and shoved her way through the crowd. She heard Alana call her name, but she ignored it. She couldn't bare to face her now, after what happened. She raced out to the parking lot, climbed onto her motorcycle, and sped out of the parking lot. Away from school, away from Alex, away from all those staring eyes. And away from her mistake.
When she arrived home she threw her things to the floor and raced into her bedroom. It had been a good five months since the last time she cried. She always forced the tears down because it showed weakness, but right now her eyes were like Niagara Falls, and she couldn't stop the tears from falling. She sat on the floor, her back pressed to the door, hugging her knees to her chest as she cried everything out.
The whole next morning Kayla pretended not to notice the stares, the whispers, the gossip. It was hard, if not next to impossible. Alana and Katie didn't say anything about it, though Kayla could tell they wanted to.
When second hour Gym rolled around Kayla just stared down at the floor, avoiding eye contact with anyone. An elbow nudged hers and she dared to look up. Marcus was standing next to her, looking at the floor instead of her.
"Hey," he murmured to her without looking at her. "What's up?"
Kayla looked back at the floor. "Nothing really. Pretty much just avoiding drawing attention to myself."
Marcus nodded.
Before he could say anything the three Gym teachers approached the enormous class and called everyone together to listen. Mr. Miller stepped forward to stand before everyone.
"Today we're going to be doing something a bit different from usual. Today all three classes are going to be combined and doing the same activity. Rope climbing." the three teachers stepped aside revealing three ropes that hung down from one of the many beams near the ceiling.
"Everyone has to participate, whether you like it or not. You have to climb the rope at least once, but if you want you can try it multiple times." Mr. Smith added.
"The record for the boys is 25 seconds. For girls it's 32." Mrs. Anderson added.
Kayla couldn't help smirk to herself. She was an expert climber, with lightning fast reflexes and great upper arm strength. It should be easy for her to beat the girls record, maybe even the boys.
Kayla stood between Alana and Marcus, watching the people climbing the ropes. So far the closest a girl had come to breaking the record was 35 seconds. After about half the class had gone she decided she might as well go now.
"I'm gonna try." she told her friends as she approached the empty middle rope. Mrs. Anderson smiled at her before looking at her stop watch.
"Go!" she shouted. Kayla pulled herself up with both her arms and her legs. She was literally flying up the rope. Before she knew it she reached her hand up and hit the beam the rope was tied to. She looked down, panting slightly.
"Ladies and gentlemen!" Mrs. Anderson called out, "We have a new girls record of 30 seconds set by Kayla Hamatto!" some of the students cheered, but Kayla could see that some students didn't. Carter, who was approaching the rope to her left, glared up at her. Kayla just brushed it off. She loosened her grip just enough to slide gently down the rope without getting a rope burn. Looking down she could see Carter was just reaching his rope and Marcus was crossing the gym to go to the rope to her right.
When Carter reached his rope he jerked it suddenly, causing the beam supporting all three ropes to lurch. Kayla's rope whipped, causing her grip to loosen. A short scream escaped her throat as she was sent plummeting toward the gym floor, the rope skimming her palm and fingers. Kayla instinctively shut her eyes as she tightened her grip on the rope. The coarse texture burned her skin and she could feel it cutting into her hand, but she didn't let up. Suddenly she jerked to a stop, causing the rope to swing her. Out of instinct she reached out a hand to find something to steady herself.
Her hand touched something soft, with firm bone and muscle beneath it. She looked up in shock, her eyes meeting a familiar pair of deep brown eyes.
Marcus' eyes widened in shock. Her face was only about an inch from his, in the exact same position they'd been in when they were in the alley months ago.
Kayla gasped and jerked her hand away from him, causing the rope to move and make her bump into him. She let go of the rope and backed away from him.
"Sorry." she murmured as she hurried away to the other side of the gymnasium. She stopped by the wall in a spot slightly hidden behind the bleachers and sat down. She gritted her teeth and hissed in pain as she looked down at her hands. There were patches of raw flesh with torn, ragged skin on both her palms as well as a few of her fingers. Warm blood was oozing out of the rope burns. Kayla closed her eyes, fighting back the tears that wanted to spill from the pain. Hearing footsteps approaching Kayla closed her hands enough to hind the injuries and rested her arms on her knees, which were folded up.
Alana peaked around the corner of the bleachers. "Hey, why'd you run off over here?" she asked as she sat down next to her.
Kayla shrugged. "No reason. Just wanted to get some time alone."
"Well, you missed Carter getting a detention in front of everyone for jerking the rope. He was so ticked off his face turned red. You didn't get hurt, did you?"
"No. What makes you say that?"
Well, I'm no doctor, but I don't know of anyone who can slide down a rope like that without getting at least a small rope burn."
Kayla rolled her eyes. "Yeah, good thing too. You couldn't make it as a doctor, you get woozy at the sight of blood or guts."
"Yeah, yeah. Shut up." Alana joked as she nudged Kayla's elbow; making Kayla's hands bump each other so her fingertip touched the raw flesh on her palm. She hissed at the sudden pain. Alana noticed, grabbed her wrist, and turned it; gasping at what she saw.
"You liar. You need to go to the nurse." Alana insisted worriedly.
Kayla pulled her hands away from her friend. "It's not that big of a deal. I'm fine."
They stopped talking and looked up. Mrs. Anderson approached them. "Hey, are you okay after that?" she asked.
"I'm fine." Kayla assured her, pulling a fake smile.
"She lying." Alana insisted quickly, grabbing Kayla's wrist and showing their teacher.
Mrs. Anderson grimaced. "Ouch. Why don't you change out and head to the nurse's office? Alana, you go with her, since I know she'll try to avoid it." she smirked knowingly down at Kayla, who grimaced and looked at her feet.
But she did as she was told, following Alana to the locker room to change.