Chapter Seven: I Always Will Be Wishing You and I

Sean had called in to tell Ellie that he had to cancel their dinner date today. Ellie was a little disappointed because she had news about their roommate. One girl had already backed down, meaning that she really needed to convince Alex.

The only way she was able to find her outside of school was with Marco's help. The two of them were going to the movies and hopefully, she'd have enough time to change Alex's mind.

"What will you have?" Alex asked at the concessions counter, managing not to be rude but not to go out-of-her-way to be kind either.

"Do you have a sec?" Ellie wondered, giving Marco a sideways glance. Here it goes.

"I'm actually busy, you know working?"

"Hear her out." Marco begged as Alex looked directly at Ellie and started to hand Marco a box of candy, pretending as if he had ordered something when he hadn't.

"Sixty seconds."

"Well … Alex, I know we don't hang in the same circles and we don't know each other that well-"

"Forty." She answered back, sensing that a favor was in the making. The gall of Ellie Nash to ask for something when she'd never done anything for Alex.

"I want you to move in and be my roommate. It's going to be four of us in all—me, Sean, you and maybe-"

"Fat chance."

"Come on Alex. It could be good for you."

"That'll be twelve seventy-five." She rang up the random items she'd collected for Marco and gladly handed him back his change.

"So, back to square one?" Ellie asked as Marco struggled to hold onto the large popcorn, drink and candy Alex had ordered on his behalf.

"Or you can just keep living with your mom."

"If you understood the situation, you'd never even suggest that."

Kendra was either losing it, crazy or really curious about this Sociology thing.

Manny was trying to carry her weight on the project by taking a personal interest in -Kendra, which meant she was giving the haircut.

"Have you done this before?" She asked Manny.

"Relax. Tell me about Sean. Have you made any moves?"

"No." She sighed. "But he did see me naked in the shower-"

"Wait. What?" Manny got so excited, that her scissors went two inches too high and snapped off more hair than she intended. "Umm … Kendra. Just hold on a sec. Don't move."

"Why?" She turned around anyway and screamed at what she saw before her. Her beautiful long hair was gone and it looked like she was going from a Connie Cheung bob to Halle Berry.

"Do not freak out, okay? I'll fix it."

"How?"

"We'll make it work. You'll be edgy and everyone will be staring at you tomorrow for all the right reasons."

"And if you can't make that happen?"

"I'll chop off my hair too."

"You're dead to me." Spinner could hear the words echoing through his brain. The secret was out. Jimmy wasn't going to keep it to himself and Spin had no idea how everyone would react. But … they had to get him, right?

"You're back late." Manny greeted him, looking happy and genuinely into spending some time with him. She was definitely one person he could count on …. Manny, Kendra and Sean. No matter what. But he was pretty sure that Marco and Paige, but maybe not Hazel, would get it. It was a terrible mistake and Spin had been reckless. No one was supposed to get hurt, or shot.

He just wanted to teach that jerk a lesson from hurting Teri so badly.

"No kiss?" She wondered as Spinner forced on a smile.

"Sorry babe." He obeyed suddenly, aggressively, signaling to her what he wanted, immediately.

"Can we at least talk first?"

"I don't feel like talking right now."

"And what if I do?" Manny played the counter, just because. Spinner always thought she was so cute when she did that.

"Then I'll do this." He scooped her up suddenly, rushing up the stairs and not letting her go until there was a bed to break her fall.

Kendra still hadn't talked to Sean about the whole shower thing. She wanted to know how much he saw, how much he—

"Boo." He yelled, making her jump out of her skin the next morning. Kendra hadn't even known that he was staying over.

"Idiot." She responded back jokingly, making sure her baseball cap was secure. It was.

"So, practice again today-"

"About that … I would appreciate it if you didn't make jokes to your friends about seeing me … you know…"

"What's 'you know'?"

"Sean." She warned.

"Oh, you mean SEEING YOU NAKED?" Sean yelled as Kendra's heart started beating faster. "Chill. Spin left early."

"Good." She calmed down a little. "I mean it. No comparing my body, taking notes or whatever."

"I didn't really see much of anything-"

"Then good. It's settled." She turned away from him, feeling nervous about how he was going to react to-"

"Maybe you can use the handicap stall or something. You wouldn't want someone else to walk in on you."

"Of course not. FYI, out of all the guys trying out, you're my only pick." Did I really just say that?

"Yeah, come on kid." He wrapped his arm around her neck, edging her to the door.

"Actually, I'm getting a ride … Liberty's taking me."

Don't freak out. Don't act weird. Don't look down. Act confident.

Kendra kept repeating those words over and over again as she walked down the hallway with her short and semi-spiked red-highlighted hair. But that wasn't the worst part. The dark eye shadow and all black crop-top made her feel even more self-conscious.

The whole sexy-vixen biker chick didn't really work for Kendra and it was super itchy.

She managed to make it to her locker and removed her sunglasses for a brief moment to get her books. Even then, she could feel that everyone was watching her.

She turned to come face-to-face with Danny and Derek.

"Hey guys." She said, trying to sound normal, but instead it came out like a purr. Or at least, that's what the boys heard.

"So, are you in the market?" Danny wondered boldly.

"For what?" She wondered, closing her locker and walking down the hallway.

"A date to the dance this Friday?"

"Not going." Kendra answered, walking past them both and shaking her head. So, so far this outfit worked a little since they did have the guts to approach her again today. But Danny and Derek didn't prove anything. Girl was their type.

She kept walking until her eyes met and locked with Sean's. He was holding hands with Ellie. They seemed inseparable, except he was looking at Kendra. The weird thing was that he didn't speak to her.

Oh well. Kendra shrugged, it off, even though she was hurt.

That was nothing compared to what she saw happen later. When she heard the rumors … Sean had dumped the paint on Rick and was, as a result, the reason why Jimmy had been shot and paralyzed.

The more she heard it, the less she believe until … she saw the look on Spin's face, until the Principal called him into the office.

"Do you think he's going to be okay?" Sean wondered, standing outside of the office beside Kendra. She guessed that he'd seen Spin walk in there too.

"I hope so." She sighed as Sean wrapped his arm around her neck as a gesture of sympathy. "You should probably get away from Spinner before all the lemmings start chastising you too."

"You think I'd turn my back on the Masons? Not hardly." Sean answered back.

"I just hope this doesn't ruin him."

"We won't let that happen." Sean promised.

"Thanks … for being honest about everything." Kendra looked down, the anticipation killing her.

"Yeah, about that … if we're being honest, your skin-tight outfit has been the 2nd most talked about thing today." Sean's arm fell to his side, regrettably for Kendra.

"It's not tight, it fits … at least that's what Manny said when she molded this thing onto me." Kendra joked back. "And while we're on the subject of outfits, can you actually try and wear regular clothing besides jeans and a wife beater? It makes you look like you don't care."

"I don't."

"Well, back to the honesty thing … I like Emma better for you. Ellie's a handful and I can tell it's taking its toll on you."

"Point taken. And Koki … I lied about the shower thing … I saw more than I let on."

She held her breath.

"But it's not a big deal, right kiddo? We're still cool?" He recovered quickly, as if trying to push the platonic thing.

"What did you see exactly?"

"A little bit of everything."

"Nice." She muttered sarcastically. "Now that you've said that you can probably … go. I can handle Spinner from here, perv." She added the last part as a joke as Sean bowed out. As he looked back at her, Kendra couldn't tell if he was just being friendly, weirded out by the outfit, or if all he could see when he looked at her was her naked body, but the look he was giving was definitely something she'd never noticed from him before.

(A/N: I'll keep going with this strange "pairing" or rather unpairing but reviews are appreciated. Don't be scared! I don't get mad. But, if you're into this one you might like A Perfect Lie but definitely Fool of Me, Wild Horses, and Double Standard. Luv. -NL)