Welcome to Oceanside High: Revenge of the Bully

Chapter 5

Friday nights usually aren't filled with fans in the audience, just family watching their daughters have some fun in the ring, taking a couple hits, rolling around in a headlock, tapping out. Really it's all about getting out the frustrations that plague us.

But tonight the seats are filled and Donny is there in the front seats with the biggest smile on his face near the ringside, seated next to Lindzey, she too has a big ugly smirk. She narrows her eyes at me when I peek through the backstage curtains. Coach grabs my shoulder and pulls me back behind the curtains.

"Coach. You must be joking." I tell her. I'm sweating like a hog pig stuck in a sauna.

"What?" Coach Lisander peeks out there and doesn't seem too disappointed about the crowd.

"There's like soooo many people out there! Can't you count?"

"What you expect?" Coach Lisander's English is a little broken since she came here from Russia two years ago but she's cheap as prices for coaches go. "Maybe LuAnne Rivaldi made big, big name for herself when she knocked out Persephone Lincoln last week."

"Wait, what? You mean the girl nicknamed Lincoln Log? Arms big as tree trunks?"

"Yes. That's the one. Yes."

"Why don't you tell me these things?" I pace back and forth, sticking my hands through my hair and trying to breath.

Coach stops me and sits me down on bench near the lockers, and says, "Here you try this." She holds up one finger. "One. You breathe in."

I do it.

"Now you count One Mississippi. Then exhale." I look at her like she's done lost her mind. "Two Mississippi. Suck in."

I blow it all out. "Coach."

"No. You do it." I roll my eyes and suck in and then after she says, "Three Mississippi." I let it out. "Now...you feel better, eh?" She slaps my back.

I shake my head.

"You'll do fine. I've always told you if you need to, take a hit and drop like the rock."

"The Rock? I know what you mean but the rock is the wrong way to say it!" My heart hammers against my ribcage and I think it wants to leap out and take a long shot for the door.

Coach Lisander tapes up my hands and slides my gloves on. Maybe I would've had a better chance at fighting Donny, but now I realize what this is all about. Bringing the whole school along to see me go down. Beat down...

Shit.

Donny. Lindzey. The Bitch Squad. I look out and there's black-eyed Billy too, sitting with his Juggernaut friends. I slip away again from the curtains back inside the locker room and return to my bench, uncertain about any of this.

I can't help but grunt and shake my head. "Those fucking bastards." I say to myself.

"Which ones?" Annabelle chimes in as she slips through the curtains behind me. I whip around on my seat to see that she's smiling, good, at least one of us is. "Big crowd out there."

"I'm glad you're in a good mood."

"Yeah. Unicorn boy." she smiles giddily.

"Will I ever meet this unicorn boy or is he just a fantasy? Please tell me he doesn't really have a horn in the middle of his forehead."

"No, but he does have a nice one between—"

"Oh that's just gross."

Coach Lisander comes in and throws my red and blue robe over my shoulders. "Come girls, nuff chit chat. Let's have good time. All right?"