Can You Fight? [ON HOLD]

Chapter 2

Ring. Ring. Ring.

I did a mental happy dance. It was finally lunch time! I quickly collected my crap and avoided everyone who wanted to harass me today. I made my way to my locker which was surprisingly empty and collected my lunch money. I guess Ryder was still embarrassed from today’s little incident with Aiden to harass me. It’s nice to have a break from him once in a while.

I ducked my head and squeezed past the crowd of people head to the cafeteria. Once I got to the doors, Ryder’s female version stopped me.

“Oh look,” Veronica sneered in all her ugliness. “It’s Ugly Lia.” Her two cronies sneered as well. Right now I looked frightened, but on the inside I was laughing at her ugly, orange, makeup coated face. She looked like a freakin’ Oompa Loompa for fuck’s sake! She’s short like one too without the heels of course.

“What do you want?” I asked her trembling.

“Leave her alone,” a voice commanded. Veronica and I turned around and saw Aiden standing against the locker with his arms crossed.

“Oh Aiden,” Veronica purred as she dragged her fingers up and down his chest, “She’s not worth your time.” Veronica disgusted me and I could tell Aiden was repulsed. “You could do so much better,” she drawled. “I could teach you a lesson or two in the janitor’s closet.” Aiden looked like he was about to hurl; I was too.

“Maybe you should learn a lesson on how to keep your legs closed,” Aiden retorted. I crudely snorted at his comeback. Veronica was fuming and her cronies tried to stifle their laughter. She flipped her bleached hair and walked away from us into the cafeteria with her heels clanking on the tile; her cronies flowed right behind her.

“Thanks Aiden,” I gave him a huge smile as we walked side by side into the cafeteria. Many of the students gasped as they saw me with an actual friend, a hot one too. If someone told me I would have I hot friend, I would be surprised too.

I led Aiden to the lunch line where I ordered a hamburger, some fries, an apple, a bottle of water, and a salad. Hey, fighters gotta eat. I can’t be anorexic like Veronica or else I’d be killed after one punch. Besides, I burn all of these calories when I’m fighting. Aiden saw my plate and his eyes widened in shock.

“I’m uhh really hungry,” I answered sheepishly. Aiden just nodded his head skeptical of my answer.

I led him to my usual table at the back corner of the room where my one and only friend, Riley, was waiting.

“Hey Riley,” I greeted her with a small smile. She looked up from the thick book she was reading and strands of her blonde and colorful hair fell on her face. A look of shock and surprise was on her face.

“Hey Lia. Who’s your uhh friend?” she asked hesitantly.

“I’m Aiden,” Aiden introduced himself with a smile. Riley lifted her bulky, red glasses moving her blue eyes up and down on Aiden. She was calculating and judging him; I could tell. I’ve known Riley since eight grade when we were forced to work on our English projects together; we’ve been best friends ever since. We both were outcasts with me being a nerd and her being a nerdy rebel. Our personalities just instantly clicked. She’s one of the few that know about my fights and she’s not scared of me; she thinks I’m awesome for doing them.

“Well,” she drawled. “Welcome to the table Aiden,” she said as grabbed his hand and shook it with one of her rare smiles. After that, she went on reading again. I sat down next to Riley and Aiden sat across from us. I started digging in my food.

Lunch was surprisingly peaceful. Veronica and Ryder left me alone for once and I think Ryder’s still pissed about the incident in the morning. He was completely fuming during lunch (not that I was watching him of course, I just overheard their conversation). Hell started again during English Class.

“Okay class,” Mrs. Reynolds, my English teacher, said as soon as she finished all of the typical first day crap. “We’re going to have a project.” We all groaned.

“I know this is the first day and all and it’s the last class of the day, but this project won’t be due until the end of the school year. All seniors are required to complete it,” Mrs. Reynolds added. That earned a few more groans. “Okay, so basically I will assign you a partner, someone you most likely don’t know, and you two must learn things about each other. Like favorite colors, foods, family, all that crap. Then you will have to present that person to the class maybe grade through a report, song, PowerPoint, poem, play, story, and any other type of media as long as I approve it.” Ugh! That sounds like a lot of work. And the partner thing scares me the most. There are so many secrets I don’t want anyone to know.

“Why can’t we pick our own partners?” Connor or something asked.

“Well Roger,” Mrs. Reynolds began. Wow. I wasn’t even close. “We want you to meet someone new, so if we let you choose you’ll probably pick your best friend and destroy the whole point of this project.”

“I think this will be fun!” our preppy student council president, Polly (yes, Polly), exclaimed with glee in a high pitched voice. Of course she would. She’s a try hard who’s too involved in this school and is happy and positive all the time.

“I think it’ll be fun too!” I chided in with Polly. She smiled and nodded her head vigorously. I might hate her, but I still have to keep the nerdy teacher’s pet front up. Yes, I know my life sucks.

“Try hards,” Ryder fake coughed from behind. His friends high-fived him and they started laughing along. Great. Just another reason to hate this project; there’s a two percent chance that Ryder might be my partner and a twenty percent chance to get his friends. FML.

“Okay. I’ll announce who the partners are now,” Mrs. Reynolds said. “Keep in mind that these were randomly picked using a computer. If you get your friend, well you got lucky.” The whole class was on the edge of our seats waiting for who we get paired up with.

“Tristan and Carly, James and Sophie, Aria and Tyler, Carlton and Sarah,” Mrs. Reynolds went on. I was lucky for now; most of Ryder’s friends were already called. “Devin and Greg, Julia and Fiona.” There’s only four people left and Ryder’s one of them. “Lucy and Mark, and finally Ryder and Cecelia.”

My eyes grew wide and I was stunned. Everyone in the room gasped; no one moved for a few minutes. Then whispers started to fill the silence.

“What!” Ryder exclaimed (loudly) in shock from the back. I was too sunned. How was this possible? I’ve been pretty much a good person all my life. Is the universe getting back at me for breaking my grandmother’s vase when I was eight? Why me? Why do I have to be the unfortunate soul who gets paired up with the devil himself?

What if he finds out? I’m so screwed! I’m gonna let it slip out and he’s gonna tell the world! He is already out to get me when I basically kicked his ass a few years ago. He is the youngest gang leader when he became gang leader at fourteen. I was the first one ever beat him in a fight. I’d be feared and possibly arrested! Most importantly, someone might hurt my mom! I can’t let that happen, but I can’t switch partners. I know I’ll… I’ll be careful! I’ll filter my mouth and keep the nerd front up. I won’t let him come to my house and I’ll make sure my wig is completely secure. That’ll work right? Wrong.

“Okay class,” Mrs. Reynolds said. Wow. She says “okay” a lot. “You can use the remaining time to start your projects.”  Kids immediately sat next to their partners and started talking. I still didn’t move a muscle; actually I couldn’t. Ryder was already right next to me.

“Hello part-ner,” he greeted with a sly grin adding emphasis on partner.

“H…hi,” I stuttered quietly. I started to slightly shake in so called terror. Ryder’s smirk grew even more at my fear. I internally grinned. This project could be fun… Prepare yourself Ryder. Hell’s about to start…

Author's note:

Hey guys!! its alexj23. This story was written by viola4lyfe, and she emailed it to me to upload. Anyway, thanks for reading!! I will try to write the next chapter as fast as I could. Thanks for reading!!!!