Fearless

Petite Merdes

Chapter Four: Petite Merdes

Aaron sat next to me in our usual spot at the back of the classroom. Charlie, who's sub was an ass, had given the sub notes to go through with the class. The students were conversing, as the bell that signified the beginning of class had not rung yet. Sam and Rebekah walked into the room. Sam noticed Aaron and I, and started to pull Rebekah with him. Sam pushed Rebekah into the seat next to me, and then plopped down in the one next to Aaron.

Rebekah didn't glance at me as she got out a pencil, the notes sheet, and her giant spiral sketchbook. As I stared down at Rebekah and her drawings, I barely registered that Aaron had put his arm around Sam in the seat next to me. On the page Rebekah had turned to, was a magnificent drawing of two large wolves, mid-run in the woods as rain fell on the two of them. One was speckled with brown, black and white, the other was a pure black with white tips on the ridge of it's back, and the thick fur on it's neck. It was Aaron and I from last night.

Rebekah peeked up at me for a split second. "Where did you get inspiration for that?" I asked her. She slid the drawing a little farther away from me.

"I was out in the woods last night, and I saw these two wolves." she told me.

"Didn't it storm pretty heavily last night?" Rebekah had closed herself off from me, her blue eyes clouded over. She turned away from me and back to the drawing.

"Rebekah saw us in the woods last night," I whispered to Aaron, who stiffened slightly. He composed himself once again.

"Are you sure?" he asked me. I nodded my head. I motioned toward the drawing Rebekah was working on. Aaron looked at it for a second before pushing air out through clenched teeth. "That's not good, Michael. We need to throw the trail off of us, pin it on someone else."

"She can't possibly already suspect that those wolves were us," I tried to reason with him. "She doesn't even know that we exist." Aaron rolled his eyes and turned his attention back to Sam. I looked down at Rebekah.

"Rebekah?" she turned and looked up at me. "Eventually we're going to need to talk about what happened." she glared at me and went back to drawing. I sighed heavily and started to pay attention to the sub and the notes I was supposed to be filling out.

***

"Sam, I swear I had seen that wolf before. It looked so familiar, I just can't place where-" Rebekah stopped talking mid sentence when Aaron and I came up to their lunch table.

"Do you mind if we sit?" Aaron asked Sam.

He shook his head. "Not at all! We could use the company. It gets kind of boring when you talk to the same person all the time." Sam admitted.

"Yeah, I know the feeling." Aaron agreed. I kicked Aaron's foot under the table as hard as I could. He kicked me back.

"I heard that Clarence is having a party this weekend. We should all go." Sam told us. When none of us said anything, Sam took it into his hands to make us feel guilty. "C'mon guys! I know none of you have been to one of his parties, it'll be so much fun! We can get totally wasted if we want, or we can just dance and have fun. I really want to go, and if I have to I will go alone." at this, Aaron jumped up.

"I'm not letting you go alone." he said blankly. Sam smiled happily.

"Okay, Aaron is going. Rebekah? Michael? Are you going to join us?" Sam asked. I rolled my eyes.

"Fine, but only to make sure that you two don't get into too much trouble." I crossed my arms over my chest.

"If Michael's going then I'm going." Rebekah said quickly. I turned my head and looked down at her. Her face was read and she wasn't looking at anyone in the eye.

"Then it's settled! We're all going."  Sam clapped his hands together and stood from the bench. He grabbed Aaron by the hand and pulled him from the table, towards the exit. "You coming or what?" Sam called. Rebekah shrugged and started to follow them. I sighed deeply before doing the same. Aaron led us out of the building and in front of the woods, where a large oak tree had been planted some 100 years before. Sam plopped down by the trunk with Aaron at his side. Rebekah, instead of sitting down at the tree's trunk, climbed into it. Sam quickly spun around and reached into his backpack. He pulled out an expensive looking camera and pointed it up at Rebekah, who had found a good place to sit. There was a quiet click as he took a picture of her. Sam let the neck strap fall over his head as he leaned back down to where Aaron was sitting.

"You're a photographer?" Aaron asked Sam. Sam nodded.

"It's just a hobby. I take pictures of things that catch my eye, or things I think are beautiful. I make Rebekah model for me, and she makes me model for her. I take pictures, she draws." Sam told him. As Aaron thought this new information over, Sam snapped a photo of him. Aaron went bright red as he fought with Sam over the right to look at the picture.

Rebekah landed in a crouch on the patch of grass to my left. "Did you just jump down?" I asked her in disbelief.

"Maybe," she said before she grabbed her backpack and slung it over her shoulder. "Come on you petite merdes, we have to get to gym."

"What did she just call us?" I asked Sam as he started walking after Rebekah.

"I believe she just called us, 'little shits' in French." Sam replied before he jogged to catch up to Rebekah.

***

"Alright you sons a' bitches. Today, we will have the honor of playing one of the greatest games, ever invented." Coach Stevens said. He picked up one of the red balls off of the gym floor and tossed it up and caught it in the other hand.

"A game of skill, agility, cunning." He looked at the group of teenagers, positioned in a state of readiness to attack.

"A game, with one simple rule." He handed Rebekah the ball that was in his hand.

He looked her straight in the eye. "Dodge." as soon as the word was pushed into the air, a whistle was blown, and the teenagers were sent loose on each other. Sam and Rebekah were on the opposing team while Aaron and I were together.

I narrowed my eyes at Rebekah, who had just pelted one of my teammates in the face, giving him a severe nosebleed. "Walk it off, Colby!" Coach Stevens hollered at the poor boy. Rebekah tossed the ball in her hand up and caught it, much like Coach had done. I trained my eyes on her as I ran forward a bit and let the ball fly out of my hand. It soared across the gym straight at her, but it only connected with the wall she was standing in front of. Suddenly, she was a foot or so the left. She grinned at me before she threw a ball at me. I side-stepped out of the way.

Rebekah and I continued our little dance until it was only her, Aaron, Sam and me left. Sam was out after Aaron managed to get a ball to hit him in the back as he was fetching another one for Rebekah. "Screw you, Beck! I could've won!" he screamed as he ran off of the court.

I watched as Rebekah winded herself up. She was getting ready to throw again. She raised her arm like a baseball pitcher and hurled the ball at Aaron. It hit him square in the face. Aaron propelled backwards and stumbled into the matted wall. I heard a whizzing noise as I was about to turn away from Aaron. I jumped out of the way of the in coming ball. Rebekah gave me a sly smile before gearing up for the next throw.

I grabbed a ball and readied myself. I was not going to lose. Rebekah ran towards me, her ball raised. A strangled battle cry escaped her mouth. I ran forward and then threw the ball. I felt the hard rubber hit me right in the stomach. As I clutched my stomach, I faintly saw that my ball has missed it's mark. I had missed. I had lost. Fuck.