Dibs! (Lesbian, GxG)

Chapter 10

Dedicated to @Lostnmusicnbooks (mostly because they made a good point) 

(For some reason I can't make a proper dedication; maybe it's not working for me)

My head feels like it's going to explode after all the things I've put up with in the classes and at lunch. The teachers have apparently decided not to talk to each other about homework and tests; I'm supposed to be studying vigorously in half my classes for the tests that are all going to take place in two days, and the other half are assigning big projects that all need to be worked on for the next two weeks. 

     I'm probably going to end up going over my dose by the time all that chaos is over.

     Lunch contained people who, every time they see me, snicker and turn to whisper. I figured the whole 'dibs' thing would blow over, considering that it happened about a month ago. I guess Jules has a bigger reputation than I thought.

     "Are you sure you told me everything you know about Jules?" I ask May at one point. We're in her room at her dad's house. She's supposed to be at her mom's today, but May invited me over, and I'm far more comfortable with the dad's place, mostly because I've been here longer. 

     She puts down her phone and looks at me. A corner of her mouth curves up. It quickly goes down as my best friend answers, "Just about the 'dibs' ritual thing she has."

     An awkward silence comes up. "Does that mean you know some other things about her?"

     "If I tell you the rest--" May starts. The phone beeps at her side, and she ignores it. "--can I ask why you're curious?"

     I ponder. "'Know thy enemy'?" I attempt.

     She laughs. "I doubt Jules would be an enemy, but okay. That works." The phone beeps again. Growling in annoyance, May grabs it and turns it off. She must be really interested in our conversation to do that.

     "Well, her last name's McCall, if you need to know that," May starts. "And she's got three older brothers. The youngest one graduated last year. You remember Randy, don't you?" she asks.

     I'm caught off guard. "Randy McCall?" I ask, my pitch going up. "As in, first-chair violinist, purple-tie wearing, Randy McCall?" May nods. "Damn. I never knew he had a little sister."

     Honestly, I had a crush on the guy. What high school musician wouldn't? He's more talented than I am, and he manages to not, well, act like a douche about it. If I remember correctly, Randy's the one who won the "lottery" practically unheard of at Fife High--a full ride music scholarship to a university. We have the football players who have the usual full ride scholarships, but it's the "music" part that we almost never have. Randy pretty much broke the pattern there.

     "Are you still here with me, Callie?" May teases. I nod, and she smiles. "Just making sure, because I'm not done telling you everything."

     "There's more?"

     "Yep. Jules lives in a cookie-cutter type neighborhood--" I already know that, I interject in my head, "--and she was the only person in the McCall family to attend at a school in the Edgewood district before she transferred to Fife. Apparently, something big happened there, but I don't know what."

     Almost immediately I ask, "What school?"

     "I don't know, junior high?" May gives me another look, this one most likely saying, Should I be concerned about you? "You can ask Jules yourself, if you're that in need to 'know thy enemy'." She uses air quotes for the last three words.

     I mentally file the suggestion in the 'possibly' category. "How do you know all that?" I wonder. "I don't see you as the type to go and ask your person in question directly."

     "That, my dear, is called high school," May says. "If you know the right source, you'll be able to get every detail you need."

     "You're saying someone at our school has information about Jules? For no apparent reason?"

     My best friend shakes her head no. "Randy had a junior girlfriend his last year of high school," she says. "I just went up to her and asked what she knew about Junkie Jules. She was more than happy to provide the info."

     "Oh." That makes a little more sense. I watch as May turns her phone back on. Within thirty seconds, several dings interrupt one another as they all notify her that she has texts. She goes through them all and, judging by her fingers tapping the screen, replying to them.

     She finally puts down the phone, clearly annoyed. "Mom won't shut up about how I apparently love Dad more than her, just because I decided to go here," she says.

     "That must suck," I admit.

     May chuckles. "You should know that," she says. "Wasn't it that--"

     I quickly go back to the subject before she can complete her question. "Who was the girlfriend?"

     She thinks about it. "She's a senior now, so even if you want to go to her, it'll be kind of hard, what with the upperclassmen having completely different classes than the rest of us," she says thoughtfully. "Hang on, I'm trying to remember her name." A couple of minutes later, May suddenly says, "Annalee Norris! I knew she had an odd name!"

     "Annalee?" I repeat. "That's not an odd name. I have a cousin named that."

     May snorts. "Didn't you tell me the cousin was the one who likes to eat paste?"

     "Yeah? And?"

     She raises her hands up. "Okay, I can ignore the irony as well," she says. Once again, her phone beeps. "For fuck's sake, what now?!" May grabs her phone and reads the screen. Reminding me about my own phone, I pull mine out and check for any messages, either text or call. To my relief, there aren't any. I don't like it when people send a lot of messages, expecting me to drop everything I'm doing and answer.

     "What's going on?" I ask May when she puts it away again.

     "Now Mom wants me at her house in the next hour," May reports. "I swear she gets clingier every time I'm over here."

     I reach over and pat her on the head. "There there," I say.

     She laughs. "You're so weird when you're comfortable with someone," she notes.

     "Isn't that common with everyone?"