Next Day, 11:56 AM, Cafeteria…..
"And then she made him apologize for yelling at the waitress." Shane explained.
It was lunch time, and some of the usual suspects were at the regular table, shootin' the shit and talking about whatever topic came to mind. Right now Shane, Dean and Becky were describing the events of their little adventure downtown from yesterday. Seth, Bayley, Cody and Big E were all listening attentively.
"In my defense, the chick kept looking at me funny." Ambrose attempted to reason.
"She looked at you funny cause you tried to order your food in Korean, even though by your admission, you'd never spoken it before in yer bleedin' life!" Becky countered.
The other kids at the table laughed at the back and forth between the young couple.
"Hey, the least you coulda done was complement me on trying to be cultured. I was tryna impress you." Dean made known.
"And I think that's so sweet of you to do so, but ya can't be goin' around makin' yourself look like a fool for my sake. Especially when it's not even necessary."
"Yeah, like the time he almost embarrassed himself in front with of the whole school by challenging Montez Ford to a race." Cody interjected.
"The race never happened, so we don't know for sure what the outcome would've been." Dean stated.
The troublemaker's words caused the whole of the table to look at him sideways. Well, everyone except Bayley who did what Bayley normally does.
"Don't feel bad, Dean. Who knows, maybe you really would've won if you tried hard enough." The bubbly girl reassured him with a friendly grin.
"Well thank you, Martinez! Sometimes, I feel like you're the only one that truly gets me, ya know?"
That statement earned him a small smack to the back of the head from his fiery haired companion.
"Ah! What the hell did I do?"
"Smiles… I know what you're trying to do, and my god, you are really too precious for this screwed up world we live in. But for the love of everything that's holy, do not encourage this man's nonsense. Please, Smiles." Shane practically begged.
As she was about to respond, her boyfriend wrapped his arm her and pulled her close.
"Bay… He's right. You know he's right." Seth said to her.
"But-but… Uh, yeah. Sorry, Dean."
Ambrose waved his friends off in defiance.
"Look, the sooner you all just admit I'm a friggin genius, the better."
At that moment, someone else let their voice be heard, starting off by scoffing.
"Ha! The mathematical chance of that happening anytime soon is in the negatives, Ambrose. Don't hold your breath or else you might end up suffocating."
That jab at Dean came from none other than Little Miss Bliss, who took her normal spot next to her boyfriend.
"Oh look, the royal pain in my ass has decided to grace us with her queenly presence." Dean rebutted.
Price was delighted to see his girl, and he proved it by giving her a little kiss on the cheek.
"Hey, babe. What's up? I thought you were skipping lunch today to go study in the library." He pondered.
"I was, but then I realized… I don't really care that much." She explained.
"Eh, fair enough."
This didn't sit well with Uncle Deano.
"Wait, wait, back up, back up. So, I say that I don't give a shit about studying and you all get on my ass about it. Meanwhile, the princess says the same exact thing and nobody bats a frickin eye? What kinda shit is that?"
"Maybe because I have straight As, Ambrose." Bliss informed him with her arms folded.
"Man…. whatever. I still have more street smarts than all of you combined."
"First off, ain't no way you got more than me. Second off, let's see how much those street smarts help you when you're sitting in a hot ass classroom in July." Big E piped up.
"Really, E? You don't open your mouth the whole time and the first thing you say is against me? That's crazy, I thought we were boys."
"We are, but you be sayin' some dumb shit sometimes."
"Okay everyone, time to lay off Dean now. I think we've put him through the wringer enough for today." Shane claimed.
"Finally, took ya long enough to step in." Dean said slightly annoyed.
"Awwww, but I just got here. Can't we rag on him some more?" Alexa pretended to beg.
Shane chuckled.
"Nah, princess. Speaking of getting ragged on though, how was that meeting with the cheerleaders yesterday? Was Del Rey hard on you guys again?"
Alexa was now a bit nervous, but she knew she couldn't let Price see that, so she went along with it.
"Uh.. well, you know how she is. No matter how much we improve, she wants us to be better." She answered.
The question confused Bayley, who of course was a cheerleader as well. To her knowledge, no meeting of the sort took place the previous day.
"Wait, Lexi. There was a cheer meeting yester-"
Her inquiry was quickly cut short by Alexa, who suddenly got up and bolted toward her and grabbed her by her arm.
"Hey, hey, Bayley can I talk to you in private for just a minute?"
"Huh, oh sure-whoooa!"
Bliss practically dragged the unsuspecting girl out of her seat and out of the cafeteria itself, leaving the rest of the group in a confused state.
"The hell was that about?" Dean asked.
Shane shrugged.
"I really have no idea. Probably more cheerleader stuff."
"Becks, you ever thought about becoming part of the cheer squad? I think you'd look hot in one of those uniforms." Ambrose told his girl.
Lynch chuckled.
"Well, thanks for the compliment but, nah. I'm not a cheerleadin' kinda girl. I'll stick with lacrosse. I think I'm quite good at that if I do say so myself."
As the gang continued to talk amongst themselves, Alexa and Bayley had found themselves in the girl's bathroom, with the always positive hugger still not sure why she was there in the first place.
"What's going on Alexa?"
"Look, Bayley. I need you to do me a huuuuge favor." Bliss started.
"Of course! Anything for my friends!" She answered with a bright smile.
"Good, good. Alright, here's the thing. I… may have told Shane that we all had a meeting with Coach Del Rey that happened and I need you to go along with it."
Bayley's cheerful expression began to falter just a bit.
"Oh… you want me to lie to him?"
"No, no! Don't think about it as lying. It's more like… covering up, yeah."
"Well, what am I covering up anyway?"
Now Alexa had to come up with a bullshit reason on the spot, because there is no way she was spilling the beans about what actually happened to Bayley of all people.
"Uh… yesterday I was out looking for a Christmas present for Shane, and I didn't want him to know about it. So, I told him that instead."
That brought Bayley's happiness level back up to full strength.
"Okay that makes sense! That's sooooo sweet of you to do for him!"
"I know, I know. But I wanna keep what I'm doing under wraps so I can surprise him, so you have to go along with the story."
With a cute, determined look on her face, Bayley nodded.
"Don't worry, you can count on me!"
"Great to hear. Alright, let's go back to the caf, okay?"
"Okay!"
As the two girls exited the bathroom, Alexa let out a sigh of relief, as she was able to dodge the very honest and naïve bullet known as Bayley.
3:07 PM….
"Pain in my ass man, I swear. Why would she move the Spanish exam to this Friday? That's even less time to study for the thing." Shane complained as he stuffed his books into his backpack.
Right now, Shane, Dean, and Alexa were all by Shane's locker. Normally, Dean would be long gone but, as he put it, he felt like bothering Price a bit more today.
"Well, look on the bright side. At least we get to just get the shit over with now. One less test to worry about by next week." Ambrose pointed out.
"Why the hell would that matter to you? Either way you're not studying for it." Bliss jabbed.
"Ya know, I'd be offended if you weren't completely on point with that statement." He responded with a smirk.
Alexa just rolled her eyes.
"You never cease to amaze me, Ambrose."
Dean took a bow.
"I take great pride in that. Jeez, what's with all the compliments today? You like me now, finally?"
"Of course she likes you man, we're all in the same crew. Ain't that right, babe?" Shane stated with a smile.
"Yeah, sure whatever." Lexi lackadaisically answered.
Dean laughed.
"I can feel the love radiating off of her man, it's crazy. Anyways, I will leave you two lovebirds to interact amongst yourselves. I gotta go find Seth so we can figure out a workout schedule."
That surprised Shane.
"Wait, really? He finally convinced you to train with him?"
"Half him, half Becks. One, I was tired of him constantly bugging me about it, and two, Becky put up a pretty convincing argument as to why I should go along with it."
"What was the argument?"
"Something along the lines of, "Go workout with Seth, or I'll make you run twice as long as I usually do."
Price chuckled.
"Yup, sounds pretty convincing to me."
Dean and Shane dapped each other up and the slightly unstable boy turned around and exited the scene.
"Okay, that's all my stuff. You ready to leave, princess?" He asked his girl.
Alexa nodded and the two of them headed out. However, much like the previous day, someone interrupted the boy's full departure. As they came through the front entrance of the building, probably the last person Alexa wanted to come in contact with could be seen sitting on the bench, minding her own business.
"Hey, look it's Ruby. Imma go bother her." Price happily said.
"Uh… are you sure you wanna do that? She seems pretty content with being by herself right now." Bliss told him, trying to prevent him from going near her.
"I won't fully disturb her peace. I just wanna say what's up. Yo Ruby!"
He called out to the punk girl while walking toward. Ruby's solo thoughts were interrupted by the sound of his voice. Soon, the boy was in front of her, while Alexa anxiously stood behind him.
"Liv had to have told her what happened by now." She nervously thought to herself.
Well, if she did, it sure didn't seem like it. A small smile made its way onto Riott's face as she greeted her bandmate.
"How's it goin, man?" She asked while getting up. The two hugged.
"Nothin much, just chillin'. Ya know, hangin' out with this one over here." He said, referring to his girl.
"Nice, nice. Hey, Alexa."
"Um, hey Ruby." She responded, still anxious.
Ruby was a bit confused at Bliss's awkward demeanor but just let it fly by the wayside.
"I was kinda disappointed I didn't see you around yesterday. Did you end up giving Liv her stuff that she left?" She asked.
"Yeah, first thing in the morning actually. Made a grand entrance and everything. You know how she is."
Ruby rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, I definitely do."
"Speaking of her, how come she's not with you right now? Better question, how come I don't feel her hanging off of my back right now?"
The mention of Liv did not do Alexa any favors when it came to her nervousness.
"I honestly don't know where she is. I know she was here today because we had 4th and 7th period class together like normal, but she seemed out of it. I asked her if she was okay and she said she was just tired. Wouldn't say anything else to me about it. She seemed more than tired though. I'm kinda worried that she's going through something."
A small prick of guilt ran through the petite princess' body, but she stubbornly ignored the feeling.
"Good, she didn't squeal on me then. Glad she knows better." She thought to herself.
"I'm sure everything's alright. The girl uses up so much energy on a daily basis from just being herself, I'm not surprised that she had a bit of an off day for once." Shane said, thinking positively.
"I guess that does make sense. Still though…"
"I see you're still not feeling great about it. Look at this way, you're her best friend in the whole world. If something was really bothering her, don't you think you'd be the first person to know about it?" Price asked.
"Again, true. Yeah, I guess she's just burnt out right now." Ruby concluded.
"Exactly. My money's on her acting like her normal self sooner than later. Our little troublemaker can't, well… stay out of trouble for long." He joked.
Riott laughed.
"Well I for one am gonna try and enjoy subdued Liv for as long as possible. I gotta get home now though, so I'll catch you later."
"Tell your mom I said hi. And maybe try to get her to spill the beans on what went on between her and my friggin dad."
"Oh, trust me. I've tried, and she won't budge."
With that, the punk girl walked away and once again Shane and Alexa were simply a duo. Lexi was a tad bit irritated.
"So uh… what was that "our little troublemaker" stuff about?" She asked in a snarky tone of voice.
"Huh? That's just Liv dude. Good way to describe her, dontcha think?"
"Kinda sounded like a pet name to me." She mumbled under her breath.
"What was that, couldn't hear you, babe."
"Nothing, it was nothing. Let's just go home."
"You got it!"
As the two of them began the journey to home base, a thought passed through Alexa's mind.
"Yeah… I did the right thing, I'm sure of it. She needed to back off."
AN: Happy New Year, people. Hopefully, shit turns out better than in previous years. Anyway, you're the best. See you in the next chapter.
