Twinning

Chapter 33

I can feel my heart pounding in my ears as I pull up to the student parking lot. Harry and Marcel arrive at the same time as me and we all step out of our cars. Harry immediately steps over to my side and pulls me in for a hug,

"It's gonna be okay." He says, rubbing my back. "Marcel cares about you too much to not get you back on the squad." He whispers in my ear and I just nod slightly. I'm sure Harry and Marcel had a long heart to heart last night, especially because the two of them both seem pretty sleep deprived. I can hear Marcel sigh and I pull away from Harry and lock eyes with him.

"You ready?" Marcel asks and I kinda nod my head. He gives me a half hearted smile and we all begin walking inside. Coach Cummings is waiting in the gym for us and she then leads us to her classroom rather than her office, so we both take a seat. Because Harry wasn't part of this, he had to go wait somewhere else. Marcel and I sit silently as the coach gets her stuff together. She finally sits down at her desk and looks at me.

"Hello, Jennifer." She says, softly. "Marcel told me there's a few things we need to discuss. Shall we begin?" I swallow hard and just turn to look at Marcel for any help.

"Yes, Jennifer said that a cheerleader had been constantly harassing her, and I think it's important that you know what all happened." She nods for Marcel to continue, "first of all, the cheerleader who has been doing this is Alyssa." Marcel says, plainly. Coach Cummings then looks at me and I nod slightly and look down.

"Jennifer, what do you mean by 'harassing'?" She asks.

"Umm... Vulgar comments about my relationships with boys. Making me late on purpose and provoking fights." I say, trying to keep it as subtle as possible. She nods,

"and the fight you got into. Was that with her?" I turn to look at Marcel who looks back at me,

"Yes." I respond.

"No, ma'am. Jennifer did not fight back. She's not a fighter at all because she knows that would get her kicked off the squad." Cummings looks back at me,

"Okay... No I didn't get in a fight..."

"She made the blows and you did nothing?" Cummings raises her eyebrows at me,

"Yes, coach." Cummings sits there for a moment, thinking. Finally she looks back up at us and nods,

"I've made the decision to include Alyssa in this conversation. Is that okay?" My heart begins racing like crazy and I can barely think,

"Yes." Marcel answers. And Cummings gets up and walks out the door. The door shuts behind her and we're left in silence. I'm trembling, because I'm so scared. I take shallow breaths and just fumble with my hands as I sit silently in the chair. "Jen..." Marcel says, cautiously. I look up and my eyes meet his. "It's gonna be okay." He promises me. I feel his warm hand rest on my knee which makes me tense up even more. I look down at his hand and take a deep breath.

"Marcel." I look back up at him. "Move your hand." I demand. I can't really explain the hurt look in his eyes, but I know he's sad that I don't trust him. I mean... I do trust him... But him doing things like that just bring back bad memories. He's doing a great thing for me right now and I don't want to ruin it. Yes, I'm still scared of him. No, I don't think he'll do anything anymore, but still.

"I was just trying to comfort you..." He says, weakly. I sigh deeply and nod my head,

"I know, I appreciate it but I'm just... Jumpy..." I say.

"Yeah, okay." He says, a little irritated. He knows I'm scared of him, but I keep telling him I'm not. We're silent until Coach Cummings walks through the door again with Alyssa trailing behind her. As soon as we see her, Marcel and I both look straight forward and try our best to not make eye contact with her. The tension in the room has duplicated, or more so. Alyssa takes a seat in between Cummings and me.