Faults, Scars, and Guitar Strings

Chapter 43

Chapter 43

*Kayla*

"The lithosphere is the crust and the mantle, but the asthenosphere is just the mantle," I stated. "Then there is the troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere, and the thermosphere?"

"Yes," Maria replied, "and the three types of plate boundaries are divergent, convergent –"

"And transform," I finished.

She nodded, "Exactly."

"I think I've got it," I smiled.

"You do," she shut her book.

"Thanks for this study cram session. I needed it."

"You're welcome," she smiled back at me. "I've missed hanging out with you outside of school."

"Me too," I admitted. "I've been so busy with school we haven't had time to hang out or even have a Danes Over Bullying meeting."

"It's understandable that you're busy. We don't hold it against you, you know."

"I know," I said, "But you're my best friends; I need to make more time for you."

"Honestly, I think it's better if you relax and try to figure things out for now. The group will be okay. We've got it."

I sighed, "I know you care, but I'm tired of people assuming I can't handle things."

"We're worried because you already put yourself in the hospital once. We're not trying to treat you like you're fragile. We want you to know that we can help handle some of your responsibilities."

"I know, but I'm okay now. I promise I will say something if it gets bad again, but thank you."

"Okay," she nodded, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay. Like I said, I know you care I'm just tired of hearing everybody warning me against everything. I can handle myself."

"I know, but it's also our job as your friends and family to tell you how things are."

"I'll learn to be more understanding if you learn that I can take care of myself."

She smiled, "It's a deal."

"Good," I smiled back. There was a knock at the door and I stood up to answer it. "Hey, what are you doing here?" I asked Dylan.

"We have a problem."

I opened the door so he could come in, "What kind of problem?"

"Hey Maria," he waved to her.

"Hey, what's going on?"

Dylan turned to me, "I ran into Zack and Damen again."

"They did something didn't they?" I asked him. He nodded. "What did they do?"

He sighed, "They hate this new arrangement."

"How is this a problem?" I asked him.

"I haven't gotten to the problem part yet. We got into a huge argument over everything and they've declared war on us. They said that we changed the order of things; that high school is supposed to be about popular people and losers. They want to get it back to the way it was."

"They can't just do that," I argued.

"We have to stop them," Dylan said.

"I agree," Maria said, "What do we do?"

"Well nobody in school would actually agree to this," I told them. "Would they really be able to get enough people behind them to change things?"

"If we don't start paying attention to more people at school and making them feel even happier and safer then they might be able to convince a couple people," Maria said. "Everyone in the Danes Over Bullying group has been busy; too busy to have meetings and continue socializing with the community."