Reversing Roles

Chapter 5

"Hey, man, did you hear about that new girl?" Joey asked Grayson, as they finally found an empty table to sit at in the cafeteria. The boys had just spent the last twenty minutes in the school library, studying, and now they sat opposite each other, sliding their blue, plastic trays onto the table-top, then placing themselves on the seats, too. Grayson glanced around the cafeteria, searching desperately for one, bright pink streak in amongst gorgeous black locks. "Grayson?" Ever since first period, when he first laid eyes on Alyssa, his mind had been on nothing else, not even the History test next period. "Grayson, bro?" She was honestly like no other girl in the school. They'd only spoken once, very briefly, like, literally three words, but Grayson felt it there, a spark, almost instantly. Sounds cheesy, I know, I'm well aware.

"Grayson! Where are you, man?" Joey's voice disrupted his thoughts. Grayson coughed.

"Oh, uh. Sorry, I'm here," he stuttered.

"Dude, where's your head at?"

"Uh, you know. Just focusing on that damn History test," Grayson lied. Joey shrugged.

"You scared that you're going to lose?"

"What? Never!" he cried, a warm smirk showing an appearance on his lips. Joey shook his head and chuckled.

"Anyway," Joey began, again. "With what I was saying earlier; did you know there's a new girl in our grade?"

"Yeah, she's in my Maths class. Her name's-"

"Is she hot?" Joey interrupted, eagerly. Grayson scowled.

"It's not all about looks, Vega," he growled. For some reason, he found himself becoming quickly annoyed, and defensive.

"Woah, man," he surrendered, holding his hands up in front of his chest, in surrender. "Calm down." Grayson stared up into his eyes, then let out a large sigh, rubbing his temples. This girl was getting him worked up. Joey peered at him, curiously. He didn't really know what to say, so he just gave him a, "You okay, man?" look. Grayson nodded, removed his glasses from his face, and cleaned the glass on his shirt. Suddenly, Joey nudged him from across the table. "That must be the new girl."

Grayson looked up in the direction where Joey's outstretched arm was pointed to. And, sure enough, Alyssa King came fearlessly striding into the cafeteria, with Jade Rivers clutching to her side. The whole room went dead silent for a moment, as a thousand pairs of eyes studied the girls closely. Grayson's jaw dropped. She's hanging out with Jade Rivers? He thought.

"She's hanging out with Jade Rivers?" Joey whispered to him, as if reading his thoughts. "She's the rebel of the school." Grayson nodded and gulped, not taking his brown eyes off the dynamic duo, who were winding around table after table. Honestly, Jade Rivers scared the shit out of Grayson, but it wasn't as if he was going to admit that to anyone. Soon, everyone who was gathered in the cafeteria was sharing whispers amongst their table, but Alyssa and Jade didn't seem to notice, nor care. Grayson's eyes slowly travelled up Alyssa's body as she wound around another table. Suddenly, his eyes widened, as he spotted what was wedged between her index and middle fingers. A lit cigarette. She's been smoking...?

As the pair passed a table full of hyperactive basketball players, one of them, Josh Mason, had the nerve to lift his hand high into the air and slap Alyssa's ass. A gasp rippled through the room. Grayson's fists balled up, and turned pale white, and he gritted his teeth. Then, he did something he'd always dreamed of doing, but never thought he'd actually have the guts to do.

He was going to stand up to Josh Mason.