ch.9 more than a headache 

"Wake up sleepyhead!" my sister shouted to me with her high pitched voice as if she were an annoying fire alarm that rung during a fire drill at school. I opened my eyes and blinked twice while letting out a stressed sigh. "I don't wanna get up" I said mumbling, I had barely gotten any sleep last night because I kept waking up. 

I opened my eyes nice and wide only to quickly close them again and start squinting. I put my hands flat against the couch and pushed myself up weakly. "Ummm...why did you sleep on the couch last night?" my sister asked me slowly while giving me the side eye.  "I-I- couldn't sleep last night....I thought the couch might help me sleep better but it didn't" I said while looking around the living room as if I were a kid that was visiting Disney for the first time. 

My sister looked down at me with a sad look on her face that slowly grew into a spiteful expression. "Is it because of ..... you know who? If it is, then  you seriously need to get over that Shit-" she said before she caught herself and regained her composure before she went off on a rant. "I'm sorry- I didn't mean it that way......but seriously he's not worth losing sleep over AND he has serious issues....well at least that's what I've heard......either way he's not the guy he claims to be"

My sisters words were sharp like the knife of honesty, painful but necessary. I didn't want to listen to her but she was right, Denver was just an acquaintance and it was silly for me to think of him as a friend. "You're right its okay, don't be sorry" I said quickly before my voice cracked.  I got up and headed to the bathroom.

I walked up the stairs as if I were a celebrity about to face their walk of shame after they've been ridiculed for something. Once I made it to the bathroom I closed the door shut, feeling safe and hidden somehow. I took my clothes off and looked in the mirror feeling bare, prude, and chagrined.

Turning my Red Hot face away from the mirror, I walked towards the shower and proceeded to turn it on. The steam clouds rose all around me in the shower as if they were trying to suffocate me. My hand shook as I started feeling lightheaded, I poured some translucent shower gel onto my loofah and began scrubbing my skin gentle and slow as fruity and floral scents caressed my body.

I honestly think this was the quickest shower I've ever taken, 8 minutes in and I had already turned the water off and grabbed my towel, wrapping it around my body gracefully. The cold air was a child blowing bubbles against my body, except there were no bubbles now, just cold air. Thank God it was amnesty week, I didn't hate the uniforms but I definitely didn't love them either and today I was so thrilled to just throw on a pair of sweat pants and a big t-shirt, I already had my outfit somewhat planned out in my head.

Walking into my room I approached my old beaten up dresser that looked like it would fall apart any day now. I opened the top drawer and  needle like pieces of wood poked out as the drawer opened with a creeeak. Damn, I really should ask my parents for a new dresser but somehow that felt wrong to me. My eyes scanned the contents in the drawer and immediately focused on the 'smarty pants'  logo on the black and pink lacy thong I got yesterday. Dusting the wood chips off of it I held it in my hand and eventually pulled out the matching bra.

I removed my towel , feeling colder as I slipped my skinny legs into each opening in the thong and pulled it up around my waist. The feeling of comfort was burned away by a violent fire. How did other girls tolerate these things so much? It felt like I had a wedgie that I just wanted to pull out but that was impossible. I put on the bra and looked in the mirror feeling a little shy as I held my hands out in the air and looked over my shoulder at my backside. I quickly threw my glasses on so I could see more clearly, it was like I had nothing on. Was it too much? If I was on national television this would be censored without a doubt but I was honestly too tired to care. I had a bigger problem, should I wear shorts or sweat pants?

After 25 minutes of procrastination I had finally made up my mind on whether or not I would wear sweat pants or shorts and I knew shorts would be the better choice because it was easy to take them off for gym class, the worst part of my day. I dreaded it every time I had it which was every other day but even though I was a good student gym was the only class I often didn't participate in, sometimes I didn't even get dressed.  The grungy smell of perfume, sweat, and other nasty body odors linger around the room as you try and get dressed, the floor feels mucky if your not wearing socks that day and have to change into sneakers, the slutty junior and senior girls get on the benches in the locker room like cowgirls and swing their shirts around the air in a wild circular motion while screaming to the top of their lungs, and then there were the girls that watched you get undressed.  I really hated gym with a Passion but it was required if you wanted to graduate, my face was already turning upside down at the thought of gym class today.

"Mel! Cris is here....we'll be waiting in the car for you, I figured you could just go with us since you already took a shower and everything...Okay" my sister said so loudly and quickly. "Wait!" I yelled out but she had already rushed outside SLAM the door echoed behind her even though she already closed the door. Dammit I thought to myself, why did she want me to drive to school with them? I wanted to be alone on the rowdy school bus as I always did but today would be different.

I went downstairs to the living room and swung my backpack over my shoulders, while I headed to the kitchen and got my self a bottle of water, I felt so weak holding the refrigerator door in my hand, my body wanted to collapse but I was fighting it off.

Walking outside and entering Cris's car I pulled out my phone and scrolled through various pages until I reached my music library. 'A world alone" by Lorde started playing and as always I was looking out at the window watching the world pass me by.

After about 20 minutes of driving I saw the words 'Lakewood Senior Highschool' and the logo of our school's sports team come closer and closer to me faster and faster every second and I just wanted time to slow down but of course it didn't. "Annnnnd...We're here..Fuck my life" Cris said enthusiastically while my sister began laughing hysterically.

"We'll see you later Mel!" my sister hollered as she walked hand in hand with Cris and walked into the hell hole, AKA school. Regret sat on top of my shoulders  and made it hard for me to walk inside the building and get to geometry class.

Why was I here? It was only 1st period and the day already was moving so slow, I was in geometry class and my teacher was rambling on and on and I couldn't even focus on anything. I just wanted to lay down and think about nothing, not the inscribed angles and secants of a circle. 

Mr.Huff looked at me exactingly and I gave him a glare, what did he want from me? After a few more moments of staring he said "Melody...I'm quite surprised with you, speak to me after class, okay" he said disappointingly which then made the whole class look at me in shock, I felt my face burn and knew I was blushing.

Mr.huff went on with his lesson and was going to draw a circle on the board before he was interrupted by a fierce SWOOSH sound the classroom door made. "Excuse me sir but you're late, do you even BELONG in my classroom?" Mr.Huff said while examining the guy intently.

"Oh...Yeah sorry...I had had some family stuff to handle this morning but my name is Denver, I'm a uhh....I guess you could say new student...I missed first period yesterday and that was my frist day..I should be on the roster" he said while looking around the room quickly before he he looked back at Mr.Huff

How awesome, I thought to myself. This jack ass was in my geometry class. "Okay then... Have a seat wherever you'd like and try to follow along" Mr.Huff said as he looked at all of the classmates in the room. "Okay now, who wants to help Melody solve this problem she just evaded" he said while chuckling and looking around the room full of empty faces.

"Come on...I KNOW one of you guys knows the answer to this problem... It's not that hard you just have to think about it..." Mr.Huff said as his voice trailed off. I was only a freshman but I was in a sophomore geometry class and while I was good at math, geometry was pretty fucking difficult. "I know the answer..Sir"  a familiar voice called out from behind the classroom but Mr.Huff was not impressed by this "I'm sorry but I don't have time for silly jokes, you just got here and I KNOW you don't know the answer" Mr.Huff said as he began looking around at the rest of the students in the class, preparing to make one of them his next victim.

"I'm not fooling around...The answer is 26 pi centimeters squared...It's not that hard to figure out all you need to do is know the rule of tangents and secants and then solve the equation in simplest terms....Maybe Melody should study more.... Oh yeah and by the way my name is Denver, don't forget that" Denver said cheerfully as if it was a piece of cake.

Intimidation surrounded me like a mob of angry people and I surrendered to their advances. I began fiddling with my glasses and acting as if I couldn't  see while Mr.Huff said "Wow...Thanks for saving me from my misery, Denver...You really know your stuff huh...Impressive" I felt so dumb even though I knew I wasn't. I was surprised at the fact that Denver was so good at geometry, he didn't seem like that type of person.

Sweat beads began coating my skin and I was burning up inside from my embarrassment. The bell rung and everyone left the class and Denver was the last one to leave, before he went through the door he turned around and winked at me the same way he did when we first met 2 days ago. He really had a way of making me feel uninvited, I rolled my eyes at him and began collecting my books and then I threw them into my bag and walked up to Mr.Huff.

"Mr.Huff, I'm sorry for what I did today...I didn't realize you were talking to me.. I promise that won't happen again" I said in a tone that sounded like a puppy whining when they wanted something. "It's okay Ms.Wiggins, I wasn't really upset over that...I just wanted to let you know you can talk to me about anything if you need to....It seems like you've been down these past few days..." Mr.Huff said to me slowly while he looked deep into my eyes for a long moment which caused me to look away from him. I hated the fact that he called everyone by their last name. Was it that obvious that I hadn't been myself lately? I guess it was obvious, I was going to have to find a way to hide it.

"Ohhhhhh...No, everything is fine, I've just been really tired lately, I've been busy with family events and things like that" I said simply, I didn't want to dig too deep because I felt like Mr.Huff was nosy. He was right though, I did have alot of shit on my mind these past few days and it probably would've been good for me to talk about it with someone but that was the problem, I had no one.

Mr.Huff looked unconvinced but he smiled at me and said he would see me tomorrow, and with that I left the class and went on with the rest of my day.

For the rest of the day I sat through various lectures that only made me want to collapse and fall asleep on the floor, it was nearly the end of 5th period already and I still couldn't go home until 4 more periods, it was times like this when I wished I was a senior they got to leave early if they wanted to. "If you don't know how to handle your stress properly you will go crazy, believe me kids I know....I was young once, the last thing you want is for your stress to control your life" Ms.Yilt said to the class as she went on talking about other health related things. 

I was taking in everything she said, surprisingly this was the only class so far today that seemed of interest to me.Every second of my life was planned for me, I couldn't just be free, I was always controlled by school work and other things that were just weighing me down and stopping me from doing the stuff I really wanted to experience and enjoy, I really needed to change that, but how? School was very important these days with the way the economy was.

I slowly began lifting my hand so I could ask her a question but just as my hand was in the middle of the air the bell rung. I quickly lowered my hand awkwardly and felt like a dumb ass, I hoped no one saw that. Damn maybe next time, I grabbed my backpack and swung it over my shoulders and walked out of the classroom in a fast manner, I had gym 6th period and I liked being first so no one could watch me get undressed.

I walked like I had no time to waste, pushing people into lockers and breaking through couples holding hands, I didn't mean to but I  was just in such a hurry and REALLY didn't want anyone watching me change into the ugly gym uniforms we all had to wear.

Once I arrived to the locker room I looked around, and I was the only one in there along with a girl I had never seen before. She was a beautiful African American girl with big wide eyes and dreads, she looked like she could be a model. I must've creeped her out because she quickly leaned forward to grab her shirt and throw it on while her eyes widened, I turned around quickly and walked over to my locker.

12-32-24 I spun the dial on the lock before I heard a click and then I opened the locker quickly and took off my pants  unaware that I was nearly naked. "We're playing dodge ball today guys, get dressed quickly, we have a lesbo coming....Oooooo nice undies" an older girl screamed out to me and the other girls in the locker room.

I was blushing from the comment she had made about my underwear but I quickly got over it, I seriously had forgotten I wore a thong. The wedgie feeling I had earlier this morning had went away and I felt like I had nothing on. I pulled my top over my head and put the rest of my clothes in my locker and slammed it shut.

My heart began pounding in my chest and my ears were ringing, I really was super weak and I probably should've gotten dressed slowly because it took a shit load of energy out of me. "Girls!!! Hurry up the lesbo  is coming, if you're still in the showers you should get out!" the older girl screamed out even louder this time. I rolled my eyes in a annoying manner, who cares if there was a lesbian here? It wasn't like they had an infectious disease, it was just a sexual preference and this girl seriously needed to get over it.

"I know , he came back yesterday and now his sister is back.....I  smell drama already... I can't believe she's a lesbian though... I thought she dated you know who" the older girls said to each other as I walked out of the gym, unamaused by their silly gossip.

I walked out into the gymnasium in my ugly gym uniform and proceeded to stand around shyly I was so physically awkward, and this made me hate sports with a passion, the boys were already playing, they always got dressed faster than us. "Girls hurry up! Once you get out here the game begins so don't be surprised when you get out here just run!" Ms. Soost yelled into the locker room door while I secretly looked at her in disgust.

Ms.Soost was, lovely? She was the total opposite of what you would expect a gym teacher to look like, she was fat and pretty unenthusiastic about sports and life in general, she was a lump on a lug pretty much but people say that's because she had a divorce.

The girls in the locker room were right, I noticed there was a new girl in our gym class already playing with the bitchy, bratty older girls, the one who was talking bad about her to be exact. Although they were both extremely different their personalities complimented each other,a slut and a bad ass, different yet it worked. The older girl stood next to the new girl, she bent over and was trying to capture the attention of the older guys, my stomach turned at the sight, she broke the dress code and acted straight up pathetic.

The new girl was interesting and honestly scary looking, she looked so rough and tough. Her black hair, black lipstick and black eye shadow matched her personality. Tattoos covered her body and I automatically knew she was no one to mess with, lesbian or not she would kill me. She noticed me looking at her direction and she shot me an evil glare and then rolled her eyes at me.

I kept walking slowly across the gymnasium  at an attempt to mind my business  as the dodge balls were slamming into the bleachers and walls and some of the kids were dribbling them around like basketballs, it smelled like sweat and I was getting weaker. Each step I took felt like a miles worth of running without a break. I had JUST made it to the metal cart that had the dodge balls in it until slam, everything went black.