Catching you

1

Haley Scott

Defeated by yet another cancelation of my boyfriend of one and a half years I let my forehead lean against my locker.

My cheery mood about our date this evening is gone the instant I read his text.
Believe me, I'm usually a happy person, but since Dean started dancing with his new partner Cecilia the green-eyed monster became a constant part of me. It does not help that he spends more time with her than with me, but I try to be as understandable as I possibly can. I know that dancing is a very important part of his life and more often than not I have the feeling that dancing is his top priority. I knew what I was signing up for, when Dean asked me out, but recently I find myself more disappointed and unhappy than ever.

"If you keep this up you'll get a permanent mark on your forehead!", the voice of Laura, my best friend, chides me.

I pull back and smile softly at her. I do not know why I always try to cover up my emotions, but I do not want to burden her with my problems. However, I cannot fool her and she knows instantly that something is wrong.

"Don't tell me your dance boy canceled yet another date, becaus of his stupid partner?", Laura seethes at me. Her usually soft brown eyes harden and her short black hair falls into her face as she places both her hands on her waist to make her frustration about this topic clear.

I cannot meet her eyes and instead look at my white converse and nod my head.

"And Cecilia isn't stupid. She's actually really nice..", I begin to defend her, but Laura stops me by placing a finger on my lips.

"Honey, you're too nice! You don't even know her personally! When I see Dean I'll give him a piece of my mind!", Laura declares and pulls me along for our next period.

I want to stop her, but an ugly part of me is grateful that someone will finally tell Dean that I am suffering. I shake my head to clear my mind of those negative thoughts and pull Laura to a stop.

"You're right! But I think it has to come from me! I have to get up my nerves to tell him I'm not okay with how things are going between us.", I concede looking into Laura's now soft brown eyes.

Laura smiles triumphantly at me and whispers to me: "Finally I see that I'm rubbing off on you, but we seriously have to work on the being mean part!"

I chuckle at her behaviour and together we make our way into our first class this morning.

Laura and I know each other since kindergarden and where best friends since the moment she threw mud at me. I know what you must think now, but Laura was pretty upset about the fact that her own mother just left her here. Laura thought that if she behaved badly, her mother would come and pick her up immediately. She did not expect me to follow her lead and we had a muddy blast. Since that moment we were more or less inseparable.

We take our seats and our teacher Mr. Terman enters the classroom. Immediately all chattering stops. We know better than to interrupt him and his lessons. Mr. Terman is a former marine and expects us to behave like we are marines as well, which means respect, dicipline and no talking. Even though it sounds bad, he is actually a very good teacher.

Just as he is about to start his lesson the classroom door is hastily opened and a boy comes rushing in.

I immediately recognize him as Jason Taylor. Although we never really talked with each other, Jason is often in the same classes as I. He is always surrounded by his football team mates, but I get the picture that he is not your typical jock. During the classes we share I got to know him as a nice and well prepared student, who takes school seriously. Jason never bullies anyone and if he takes notice of someone doing that he intervenes immediately. I always admired him for his bravery, but I also was aware of the fact that nobody wants to mess with him or with his team mates.