Chapter Eight- Caught up in Confusion

As soon as the bell rang for lunch, Kelsey darted out of her math class. She slowed down after she put her books away, and walked to the tree. She thought about what she was going to say, and then waited for Portman to show up. 'I'm in such a deep hole.' Kelsey thought to herself. 'I like Portman, but is it worth messing up an awesome friendship?' Kelsey frowned when she realized it was at least five minutes after the bell had rang.

" Where is he?" she asked aloud, ignoring the strange looks she received from a couple of freshmen walking by.

" Hey, Kelsey, what ya doin' out here?" Russ asked her as he walked by.

" I'm waiting for someone." Kelsey simply explained, hoping she didn't sound rude.

" See ya later." he waved as he continued walking to the dining hall.

'He's not coming.' Kelsey thought sadly, hoping she didn't look as dumb as she felt waiting all alone by a tree.

Just as she was about to admit defeat and go to the cafeteria, the bulky senior leveled with her at the meeting spot.

" Hey, babe, sorry I got held up." he was now leaning up against the tree, beside of her. " What's up?"

" Nothing." Kelsey quickly said. Actually nothing was wrong, now. "So, why are we out here?"

" Did you skip lunch?" he asked, purposely ignoring the question.

" I wasn't hungry." Kelsey replied. "We get out of the first block of English today."

" Oh, yeah. Pictures." Portman looked into Kelsey's piercing eyes. "You look really nice."

" Aunt Rosa helped me." she confessed, barely resisting the urge to start twirling her flaxen locks.

' Argh.' she inwardly groaned as she settled with smoothing her dress down instead.

" I didn't know she was here."

" I called her last night, and she got here just a few hours ago." Kesley paused for a moment, wondering if she should just quickly find out what Portman wanted or to beat around the bush for the whole lunch period. She chose the first choice. "So, what did you want to talk about?"

Portman looked a little nervous. " I just...you know...last night-"

Kelsey could feel her stomach drop. She knew he never got nervous about stuff, so he must regret the night before. "Oh. You know, we could just forget about it, if you want."

Portman opened his mouth to say something, but closed it.

" I'll see you around, then." she said with a frown as she started walking off to the school, not realizing that Portman was just opening his mouth to say what he was thinking.

" I want ya to be my gal." he murmured as leaned his head against the tree.

Kelsey was waiting for Kylie to arrive to the back corner of the spacious library to work on their history project. She looked at a clock moving soundlessly on the wall, and realized that she had been waiting nearly an hour after school for the girl to show up. Due to the Warriors having a pre-season game later that day, practice had been canceled, so Kelsey had arranged a few days prior to work on the project with Kylie.

'She's 30 minutes late.' Kelsey thought angrily.

Even though Kelsey had arrived early enough to have the basic skeleton of the paper outlined, she still expected the cheerleader to be on time to at least assist her. Especially since her scrawling was barely legible due to her writing with her right hand. Really, she had just meant to highlight key points in the articles she had printed off in the library, but could not resist the temptation to start working on the assignment when she had noticed that the other girl was running ten minutes late.

Kelsey heard the library door open, and fleetingly hoped that it was her tardy partner. Instead, the heavy footsteps that stopped directly in front of her table in the nearly empty library were none other than Trevor Riley's.

" Can we talk?" he whispered.

" Sure." Kelsey said skeptically, leaving her things in the library.

Perhaps the jerk had come to finally apologize to her and to offer to pay for her hospital bill. Too bad none of the other Ducks were around to see this.

Kelsey walked out into the hallway, attempting to cross her arms, but realized how silly she looked. She settled with placing her right hand on her hip, while cocking her head to the left.

" Kylie wanted me to tell you that she couldn't make it. She said you need to meet her at her locker tomorrow before the bell rings." Trevor put a hand onto her right shoulder, before planting the other onto the left side of her waist. " Seeing as how pretty you look today, how about you go to the movies with me?"

" Get off you creep." Kelsey said fiercely, as she attempted to get away from him. It was a fruitless struggle seeing as how she was already injured due to his pushiness.

" What's the matter? You don't want me to touch you?" Riley sneered as he pulled her closely to him.

" Get off." Kelsey spat maliciously, wondering why no teachers had showed up yet.

" Hey, Trevor, man, leave the girl alone."

Kelsey sighed in relief as she saw Charlie and Russ round the corner of the hallway. Trevor immediately let go of her but not before whispering, " This isn't over."

" Want us to beat him to a pulp?" Russ questioned as he sneered at the retreating hockey player, a fist tightly curled at his side.

Kelsey just leaned against the wall of the library, her eyes tightly shut as she tried to slow her breathing down.

" You okay?" Charlie questioned, noticing how pale she looked.

" Yeah." she whispered. " I just need to call my aunt to come take me home."

" You can come over to the dorms." Russ offered. " Call her from there and wait for her with us."

" Yeah, that would be a good idea." Charlie added.

" I need to get my things from the library." Kelsey said as she accepted their offer.

" Where were you sitting?" Russ asked. " I'll get your stuff for you while Charlie walks you over to the dorms."

Kelsey explained where she had been sitting and gratefully left with Charlie. After waiting for Ken to sign them in, they entered the building and followed the former figure skater to the room he shared with Dwayne. The room was rather tidy, and empty, much to Kelsey's delight because the less Ducks she saw at the moment, the more time she could compose herself.

" Dwayne's out with Jenny Mathis." Ken explained, earning a shocked look from Charlie and a slightly confused one from Kelsey. " She's a sophomore on the equestrian team. So, what are you doing here so late in the afternoon, Charlie?"

" Oh, just helping Linda with her latest petition." he sighed. " Thank God, Russ came to rescue me with his excuse of desperately needing me to help him with our project."

" Could I use your phone, Ken?" Kelsey asked as she finally composed herself.

" Oh, sure. It's on my desk." he pointed to a neatly arranged desk.

Kelsey dialed out her home phone number and waited for her aunt to answer. " Hey, Aunt Rosa, I'm ready to leave...No, I have to meet her in the morning, so I did as much as I could...Ok, I'll see you in a bit."

She placed the phone back onto the receiver and sat down in the chair pulled out at Dwayne's desk. " Thanks."

" You're welcome." Ken said, perplexed. " Did something happen?"

" I don't really want to talk about it, now." she admitted.

There was a knock on the door, then Russ entered looking slightly harassed. " Your little lover and his crony just cornered me out by the science building. I may have to give him a little LA a-"

" Russ," Charlie said pointedly, " you'll get kicked off the team."

" And, probably out of school." Ken added.

" I don't really care." he loudly asserted. " It's just not right for them to be picking on us still."

Unfortunately for them, Russ had left the door ajar. A moment later, Connie and Julie had entered the slightly crowded room.

" What's going on?" Connie demanded, her arms crossed and a frown on her face.

Charlie cut Russ off and answered, " Riley tried to put some moves on Kelsey, but we stopped him."

" What is that creep's problem?" Julie sighed exasperatedly.

" I don't know." Kelsey said as she crossed her legs.

" Maybe he's getting back at us over last year?" Ken thought out loud.

The other Ducks looked at him, with Connie saying, " That does make sense," while Julie nodded her head in agreement.

" But, still, no reason to take it out on Kelsey." Russ said angrily.

" Oh, it's no reason to take it out on Kelsey, especially since she wasn't even going here last year." Connie said. " I wish we could just report him."

" We can't report him to the dean because Riley's dad has his hands tied." Julie reminded her roommate.

" It's fine, guys." Kelsey sighed. "Riley's just got us stuck in a hole. We can't fight back because we have the potential of getting kicked off the team and possibly expelled, and all the teachers think he's a star pupil."

They continued to discuss their options for another ten minutes, when Charlie cleared his throat. " I think you're aunt should be getting here soon."

" Oh," Kelsey started, " you're right. Thanks so much, guys, but I need to get going. I'll see you all in the morning."

She took her bag from Russ, and started out the door.

" Wait, I'll walk you out to the front of the school." Charlie said, a blush tinging his neck. " You know, just to make sure the goons don't come by."

" Um, thanks." she accepted nervously as she walked down the hall with him.

The signed out at the front desk, then continued to walk to the front of campus. Their conversation consisted of the ever popular topic of the history projects, with the conversation coming to an end when Kelsey saw her aunt's rental car.

" Thanks again, Charlie." she said as she started walking to the vehicle. " Do you need a ride home?"

" Oh, no thanks. I have to work on my project with Russ so Linda doesn't think I'm lying to get out of helping her." he laughed.

" I'll see you around, then." she said as she got into the car.

" How was school today, Miss Kelsey?" Rosa questioned as they pulled out onto the road.

" It's a long story." she muttered. " I'll tell you about it over dinner."