"Well Mantle the Magnificent is a jerk"
"You wound me Pussycat"
Gemini was a part of the Pussycats, but she stuck to the back of crowds. She wasn't shy by any means. She watched. She listened. She knew more about people than their own best friends...
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"He got a taste of Pussycat magic and he couldn't resist." ~Josie McCoy
****
The practice ended up being amazing. It was kinda weird considering it now included Archie, but I was glad Josie finally opened up to him more and let him come to a practice. He helped a lot with the songs so I was confident the show would be amazing. We bid give Archie a chorused bye as he walks out of the room.
I grabbed my phone nervously and checked my messages. My phone lights up with twenty messages from Veronica.
"What's wrong Gem?" Valerie questions as the they join me around my phone.
"Remember how I was telling you about what Veronica was saying about Chuck's stupid playbook?"
"Yea, what happened?" Melody questions prompting them to move closer to me to read the messages over my shoulder.
The picture was on full display on my screen. A picture of scribbled hand writing with my name on the page, twenty points next to it, and Reggie Mantle's name scrawled across on the other side.
"Oh my God." Josie breaths next to me.
"They are such pigs." Melody chimes in. Josie and Valerie nod in agreement.
I was too angry to reply, so I grip my phone tightly and stomp out of the room.
"I need a girl's night." I seethe as they scramble behind me. I pluck my keys from my pocket and angrily stomp out into the night to my car. I roughly grab the handles of my bag resting in the trunk and pace back into Josie's house. I slam the door behind as I walk back in. I drop the bag onto the floor and rush into the kitchen where Melody is getting out ice cream from the freezer.
"Before you Hulk smash the house into pieces."
"I can't help it, I'm mad." I snap and grab the spoons from the drawer and some bowls form the pantry.
"Well, we pretty much covered that." Josie answers from the kitchen door.
"Why would Reggie do that?" Val voices to all of us.
"Because he's stupid." Melody answers her scooping more ice cream int our bowls. I scoff shoving ice cream into my mouth from the tub and point my spoon at them.
"I don't know, but I plan to find out."
"Gemini?" Val questions after a silence of me shoving ice cream into my mouth and gasping in air as I begin to feel my eyes prick with tears.
"Yea?" I sob into my spoon.
"Do you like Reggie?" She questions softly grabbing a stool and pulling to the kitchen island and drop herself on it. I nod as the tears finally stream down my face and look up at them.
"Reggie?" Josie gasps in disbelief.
"I mean what did you expect, it's been years and he's been treating her like the last football on earth." Melody gulps down her bite of ice cream. "It was bound to happen."
"Yea, and everyone knows Reggie has always been different with her." Val adds, "That, that was really surprising though."
"I mean, I thought- I just- I don't know-" I cry harder as Melody reaches over and rubs my back soothingly as Val grabs me into a hug.
"He got a taste of Pussycat Magic and he couldn't resist." Josie jokes at us and smirks as we all laugh.
"We'll get him back, if that's what you want?" Josie offers to me. They all look at me in questions, fully ready to lead him to he gates of hell if they have to. I shake my head at them and lay my head back on Val's shoulder.
"I'm gonna find out myself."
---
It had been only one day since the girls broke into the school and found the playbook with my name and apparent worth written in it. I hadn't seen Reggie in school yet, which I was thankful for. I went about my classes regularly, without him and even witnessed Chuck and his friends get kicked off the team without him.
It felt weird, I guess I had gotten used to Reggie walking me to every class and sitting with me too. Even now the whispers and the stares were worse as I walked by myself down the hall. I guess they had gotten used to it too.
"Gem!" Someone yells from down the hall. I look behind me coming into view of Reggie Mantle shoving his way through people to get to me. I grabbed my bag tighter and quicken my pace away from him to my last class of the day.
The crowded hallways served as protection from him as he failed to get to me in time before I got to class. I stumbled into the room with him still yelling behind me. Everyone glances at me and turns back to their conversation un-interested. Betty and Veronica look up at me in sympathy and gesture me to the third seat at their table.
"Hey, Gemini, how are you?" Betty asks lowly.
"I'm okay." I answer and pull my things from my bag setting them on the table.
"No you aren't." Veronica bluntly states. I sigh leaning forward before turning to look at them.
"No, but I will be." I nod as the teacher begins the lesson. Veronica smiles proudly at me and faces the front also. Betty still throws a small comforting smile at me before following Veronica's actions.
Truhtfully I wouldn't mind it if I never talked to Reggie again. I could face other things on straight ahead and never be bothered, but Reggie Mantle was a completely different football game. I know promised I would find out the truth by myself, and or rain down hell, but that went out the window when I saw him. I know he's an ass, I know he can be an absolute jerk, but he never did that to me. I was his friend, and somewhere in the middle of him treating me, as Melody said, 'like the last football on earth' I started to like him. I couldn't help it. If I could reverse this I would, I would have never had that conversation with him in the hall, where he changed most of his attitude. I would reverse the party at Cheryl's after the formal. I would reverse what made me fall for him.
