The Nerd

Twig

"Hey, pretty lady." A tall boy says, smirking coming beside me.

I look over at him and back at Clayton.

Clayton sighs, "Come on James, give her a break."

The boy pouts but, turns around walking away.

"I don't think I'm ever gonna get use to this." I say.

Clayton shrugs his shoulders, walking off. I follow behind him.

He opens a door and we walk into a big workout room. I follow in letting the door shut behind me.

"So, first thing we have to do before you even think about joining a gang is you have to be able to protect yourself," I nod in response, "Since your right hand is broke, we are going to do other things that don't require your hands."

Declan walks in as Clayton finishes his sentence.

"Hey twig." He says, walking past me.

I scoff, "Really?"

He shrugs his shoulders, setting his duffle bag on the bench.

Clayton finishes wrapping up his hands and goes over to the punching bag. He was wearing a white tank top and black basketball shorts. He punched the bag a couple times and it swings out far.

"Wow." I say, in surprise.

He chuckles.

"That's a lot of force." I say.

He walks over to me, unwrapping his hands.

"We would work on that today but, you know." He says, looking at my cast.

I look down at it as well.

"Take off the jacket." He says.

I take off my jacket, setting it on the bench.

He walks over to the mats and I follow after him.

"Okay, first thing we are gonna do is crunches." He says.

I nod my head.

"Do you know what those are?" He ask.

I just stare at him, "okay let's get this straight, I'm just not athletic I'm not fucking stupid." I say.

He shrugs his shoulders.

I pull my long curly hair into a high ponytail. I lay down on the mat putting my hands behind my head.

"Okay, now try and give a me a crunch." Clayton says standing beside me, looking down at me.

I try to pull my upper body up as I scrunch my face in pain but, I fail miserably and fall back on my back.

I let out a sigh, Clayton looks down at me and raises and eyebrow and then looks up at Declan.

"Declan," Declan pauses from hitting the punching bag again, "Come hold her feet," he says, nodding towards me. Declan sighs, walking over to us.

He stands in front of my feet and steps on them a little to hard,

"Ow!" I yell at him.

He smirks, "Woops my bad." He says, letting off some of the pressure.

Clayton rolls his eyes, "Now try" he says to me.

I try again and get not even half way up before falling on the ground.

Clayton gets down on one knee beside me, placing one of his hands on my upper back.

I try again and he helps push me up as I complete a crunch, "okay good now 19 more to go," he says.

We spent the whole rest of the day doing exercises that don't require my hands and teaching me how to swing when punching. Then we said our goodbye to the gang and now Clayton's driving me home.

We pull up in front of my house, their was a lot more cars than usual, I furrow my eyebrows in confusion.

I unbuckle, "Bye Clayton." I say, getting out slamming the door not even giving him time to answer back.

I walk up to the house, pushing open the door. It was quiet no one was in the living room. I set my bag on the ground by the door.

"Gammy?" I ask, walking to the kitchen.

I walk in and see a two men in black dress suits standing in front of my Gammy as she cries. They hear me walk into the room and turn they're attention to me.

"What's wrong Gammy?" I ask, walking over to her.

She looks at me and starts crying more. I wrap her in a hug as she cries for a couple more minutes in my arms.

She pulls back from me and wipes her eyes with her tissue, I scan her face in confusion,

She sighs, look at at me "Samantha honey, your grandpas passed." She says, looking at me with a sad face.

My heart sinks to the bottom of my stomach and instantly feel like I'm going to throw up, my heart beat quickens and I let my arms fall from her shoulders as I back up. I look at the people around me and then back at Gams.

I look down at my shoes, "I'm gonna head up Gams," I say, my voice cracking at the end.

I put my hands in my jacket pockets, rushing out of the kitchen. I yank my bag off the floor and run upstairs. I throw it in my floor and shut my door. I slip off my converse and run onto my bed burying my face in my pillow as tears stream down my face.

****
It was currently 3:30 in the morning and I've been up all night crying. I heard Gammy open the front door about an hour after I came upstairs, signaling the men left and then I heard her bedroom door shut so, I assume she went to bed.

I threw the pillow off me, crawling out of bed. I sniffled walking to my bathroom. I washed my red face and brushed my teeth, using the bathroom. I walked back into my room, rummaging through my drawers, I picked out some clothes throwing them on and throwing my dirty clothes in the floor.

I checked the time on my phone that read, 3:45 a.m. I took of my glasses setting them on my nightstand, turning off my lamp and crawling into bed.