Remnants of Shattered Innocence (Unedited First Draft)

Chapter 8 (September 30, 2004)

"Okay class, remember to do all the problems on page one hundred fifty-seven. Have a good day!" Mr. Galvino called out as all the students pushed their way into the hallway.

Almost immediately, Skylar's friend Stacey was walking beside her.

"So how was your weekend? I went snowboarding this weekend and it was so fun!"

Stacey rambled on about her snowboarding trip and Skylar listened quietly as they walked to their lockers. Skylar, Stacey, and Katie's lockers were all beside each other. Katie had to bribe the former owner of her locker with a date just to get the locker next to Skylar's. Stacey kept talking about her trip while Skylar opened her locker.

"Sounds like you had a blast," Skylar said when she finished.

Just then, Katie walked up to her locker.

"Hey Skylar!"

"Good morning Stacey," she said much less enthusiastically.

Stacey threw her a quick wave as Skylar said bye and walked away. Stacey and Skylar had four out of five classes a day together.

"You really should have come. You would have had a lot of fun," Stacey said, walking into their history class.

The rest of Skylar's day was like a blur. It went by slow, as usual, but by the end of each class it seemed that she couldn't remember anything she'd learned. At the end of the day, she met up with Katie to walk to softball practice.

Katie always made fun of the way Skylar looked in her softball sweats. She was mocked Skylar as they walked.

"So, are you going to play catch with me today?" Skylar asked, ignoring her comments.

"I suck at softball. I have absolutely no coordination and you're asking me to play catch with you?" She said laughing.

"No one else on the team will play catch with me. They say I throw too fast."

"It's because you're better than them."

"I'm too good to be on JV, but I'm not good enough to be on varsity. It sucks," Skylar said, sitting down on the bench and changing into her cleats.

"Big fish in a little pond, eh?" Skylar turned as she heard a familiar voice.

"Jimmy!" she cried, jumping up and wrapping her arms around his neck.

She locked her lips onto his until Katie cleared her throat.

"Uh, can you guys wait for another time to suck each other's faces off?" she asked, sounding slightly disgusted.

"I'll be waiting in the car, Love," Jimmy said as he pulled away.

Skylar planted another softer kiss on his lips before letting him go.

"See you after practice!" she yelled, waving as he walked away.

Katie sat down on the bench as the rest of the team trickled onto the field. Skylar took her position as catcher while they played mock games. She always had a lot of fun playing softball. It was one of the few things that could occupy her mind completely while she was playing.

After practice, Skylar called her mom before getting into Jimmy's car. She didn't answer, so Skylar left a message.

"Hey mom, it's Skylar. I'm going to Katie's house after school, so if you need me you know where to find me. I'll be eating dinner there, too."

Skylar hung up the phone as Jimmy threw her bag into the trunk of his car. He drove to Katie's house blasting the Dropkick Murphy's the whole way there. Skylar sat in back with Katie gossiping about Katie's new boyfriend.