Amity

Chapter 23: The Power of the Voice

"Hey, it's Megumi. How's it going?" McManus asked from behind the desk as Megumi stepped inside of the office. As a whole, the office didn't look at all different. The dozens of sports trophies were still displayed on three cabinets behind the short end of the L-shaped desk. "Things going okay between you and Dré?"

"With Dré, yeah. His whore, not so much."

"His whore?"

"Yeah. That Samantha woman." Her anger intensified at the mention of that name. "Have you seen how Dré looks today? I know he can't be comfortable with that hot shirt on."

"Yeah, I guess Dré forgot to tell you about her. Honestly, I don't like her just as much as you do. I had the-" he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose as he cleared his throat, "misfortune to meet her and her parents when I was in the police department. Can't really say I'm surprised that they raised a bit- um... well, you know how she is."

Megumi nodded, then remembered why she came into the office in the first place. "Oh, I wasn't able to find my classes yesterday. Is it okay if you show me to the other classrooms?"

"Sorry, Megumi, but thanks to Dixon's attack, I'm up to my neck in paperwork." That was kind of hard to tell with the empty desk standing between them. "Tell you what though, I'll write an excuse for you and Dré to skip your first class so he can show you around. Sounds good?"

"Yeah. Whatever happened to Principal Dixon, anyway?" she asked as McManus began writing on a thin sheet of paper.

"Oh, he got canned. Or, at least he's getting canned. Putting his hands on a student was the last straw. So now, I'm the interim principal for the goddess knows how long." He ripped the first slip of paper off a small, spiral-ring notebook and began writing on the next sheet. "Because fixing all of Dixon's screw-ups is definitely what I want to do when I grow up." He grunted in disgust as he ripped off the second piece of paper. "You remember how to get to the pool, right?"

Megumi nodded as she took the slips of paper. "What did you mean by 'goddess?"

"Amian thing. You'll be using that a lot after your second year there."

"Huh. Well, I'm gonna head to the bathroom and brush my teeth first."

"Okay. Just make sure that you pay attention to Dré and junk. Now, go on. Get yourself all gussied up for your future husband."

"Excuse you?"

"Oh, nothing. Nothing at all."

~~~~~

"Proud of yourself, Wolf-Boy?" Coach Falls asked as Dré walked up to the pool doors. "Thanks to you, we might not even make it to state this year."

Sure that's because of me and not your severe lack of coaching skills? Dré would have asked if he had the guts to. Instead, he said, "What do you mean?"

"Thanks to you wanting to play hero, our starting Center is concussed and we lost Dixon as well. So, are you proud of yourself?" he repeated.

"You mean for finally sticking up for myself? Yes, I am. Proud as an Olympic medalist."

Falls growled in his throat as he tightly balled up his fists, and Dré knew exactly why. Since his crutch had been taken from him, Coach Falls actually has to rely on the players to make high enough grades to stay on the team. A joyous feeling swelled in Dré's chest. "Just... get in there, Wolf-Boy," Falls said in a low growl.

"Certainly, sir."

The strong chlorine smell had barely made him cough as he strode inside, but the fumes added with the uncomfortable contact lenses made his eyes burn. The students all gave Dré an evil glare. Just as well, Dré never liked them anyway. He noticed, however, that enormous blob, Peewee, was missing, as well as his snake-like best friend. Today might just be a good day after all.

"I was told by Superintendent McManus to have Dré show me to the rest of my class, coach," he heard Megumi's voice call from behind him. He quickly spun around at her handing Coach Falls two slips of paper, radiating in pure, unaltered beauty.

Coach Falls muttered under his breath as he snatched the slips of paper from her and surveyed them quickly. " Get this piece of trash out my sight."

Dré bit down on his tongue to keep him from saying, "Screw you too, sir." Instead, he just walked beside Megumi, hoping to get some type of positive response from her. She hadn't even batted an eye at him. Silently, she turned around and started walking down the hallway.

Guess she's still mad. What can I say to calm her down, he asked himself as he caught up to Megumi.

"So, I'm guessing that you don't really like Samantha much."

"Really now? What gave me away?" she asked with so much sarcasm that even Dré could detect it.

"Look, I'm sorry about how she acted. I really am. I had hoped that you guys would have met in a different way, but I guess that it really wouldn't change much."

"Oh, understatement of the millennium, dude. I want to slap the taste out of her mouth, and I bet that if I met her under different circumstances, I'd still want to knock her teeth in."

"Yeah, she seems to have that kind of effect on people," he said with a forced laugh.

"So, how you two met each other?" Megumi asked as they left the building. The humidity was already beginning to affect Dré. He felt as if he was being smothered by the air and his shirt.

"Well, since he's the one who's over Aquatic Aerobics-"

"Not the coach, dummy. I meant how you met your whore."

"Ah. That's the million-dollar question, huh?" He stuffed his hands in his pocket as he looked up at the cloudless sky, trying his best to recall how they started going out. "Uh... It's a bit hazy. The only thing I remember was some of the jocks had stolen my lunch in the cafeteria. To make things worse, just about half of the school was in the cafeteria and were cheering them on. So, I had to shut them up."

After a moment of hesitation, Megumi asked, "So you fought them?"

Dré couldn't help but grin at his own foolishness. He had fought three football starters, each of them mountains compared to him, risking his already humiliating reputation as the school's punching bag, just for something he didn't plan on eating. "Yeah," he finally said with a chuckle. "Kinda stupid of me, now that I think about it. I didn't even want the lunch. I just remember an angelic song going through my head. It encouraged me, made me feel like I stood a chance against them. The funny thing was that I actually won. It was like I was being controlled by a completely different force or something, like my primal instincts kicked in at the last minute.

"After the fight, Samantha came and congratulated me. She even gave me money to replace my lunch. Ever since then, I guess we've kind of been an unofficial couple."

"Unofficial? I don't know. Sounds like bullshit to me."

Dre gave a heavy sigh. "Yeah. I know. I just wish that I could break this hypnotic... spell she has on me. Like, she's always treats me like trash, to be honest." 

"Then why not just dump her?" Megumi asked, inclining a thin brow.

"I tried, but God, when I see her beautiful face and her that sweet voice, it makes me feel like I need to be with her. I don't like her, but it's better than being alone, right?" He smiled at her, a remorseful, forced smile.

"Honestly, no it's not," she said with resentment in her voice that stung. She pulled a sheet of paper from the front pocket of her satchel and handed it to Dré. "Here. Think you may need this to show me to my classes." Her voice was much softer. Dré figured it was partially because she heard how harsh her tone was.

True, but harsh.

"Wait. You have Beginner's Japanese as your distance learning class?" Dré asked as he scanned her schedule. "I thought you spoke Japanese."

"I do. It's basically my native tongue."

"Then why, no how are you even in this class?" He knew it was a stupid question, considering how the students are often placed in random classes.

"They didn't know that I can speak it," she said with a smile.