Maybe Too Protective

Chapter 4:

"That son of a butterscotch." She raved.

"I know, but I can't do anything about it."I sighed.

"WHy not?" She looked at me confused.

"They run the cheer show, cheer is my dream." I told her. She crossed her arms. "Cassie, I'm fine. Thank you for listen." I told her. "I better get home. She nodded and walked her own way, I walk mine. I jogging my way home and I bumped into someone.

"Oh my Gosh I'm so sorry." A male voice said and helped me up. That was when I saw his face. It was gorgeous, brown hair and matching eyes, perfect skin. I came out of my trance.

"No my bad. I'm really clumsy." I told him. "I haven't seen you around here before." I said.

"Oh yeah, I know you are a sister of the Smith's and I live this way. We come home about the same time, but I wait since I like my head on my shoulders." He explained.

"I see." I smiled. "So why do you come home this late?"

"Oh, I play football." He told me.

"Really? I haven't seen you out there before." I looked at him.

"Coach thinks I'm too small to be out on the field yet so he puts me in the weight room. He doesn't even watch. I mean, I could be eating a candy bar, but he wouldn't know." HE said.

"Hey, you should walk home with me tomorrow." I stopped. My house was to come in view shortly. He nodded. I turned to walk towards my house.

"I'm Lucy, by the way." I called back.

"I'm Zach." He told me. He turned to the right, walking down another street, I'm guessing to hide from my brothers. I reached my house, all my brothers outside again.

"Gosh, cheer practice takes so much longer than football." Mike said. A chorus of agreements came from my brothers. It was a normal rest of the night. Tyler was picking the movie, we had dinner, I showered, and fell asleep only waking up 4 times.

-----(Morning)-----

I laid in my bed, my alarm clock had gone off about ten minutes ago. I hear a knock on my door.

"Come in!" I called.

"Hey Lucy," Ryder walked in. "You aren't up?" I shook my head. Ryder sighed. "I know you were in pain yesterday Lucy. Can you tell me why?"

"Fine." I huffed. There is no way to avoid these people. Reluctantly, I pulled up my shirt, enough the reveal the bruise on my stomach. It had grown, gotten darker since yesterday. Ryder widened his eyes when he saw it.

"Lucy, where did this come from?" He asked concerned.

"I was in someone's way in cheer two days ago. They kick and I got hit. Accidents happen." I lied again. Thankfully he noticed none of the scars. I lowered my shirt.

"DO you want to stay home?" He asked. I shook my head.

"Nah, I'm fine. Can you just get me jeans and a t-shirt of some sort?" I asked. He went over to my wardrobe and pull out some skinny jeans and a t-shirt. "Thanks." I sighed and worked my hardest to show no pain while leaning up. In honesty it hurt so bad I could burst out in tears, but I couldn't let it show.

"You sure you're good?" Ryder asked one more time. I nodded. He didn't want to leave but he did. I changed and practically limped downstairs. There was now a bruise on my thigh, great. I practically slipped away from my brother's views. I jumped in the back of the car, ready to go.

-----(After school and Cheer)-----

I was on my way home from cheer when I heard someone behind me. I turned to see Zach right there.

"Hey!" I beamed.

"Hey!" HE smiled. "How has the day been?" He asked.

"Sucky." I sighed. It was true. PE was awful, so was the locker room, lunch, cheer, almost everything. I guess this walk would be decent.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Hey if it helps anything, I love them too." He pointed to my backpack.

"No way!" I laughed.

"It's true! I'm a nerd and I love it." He smiled. I laughed. We went on discussing different things before we got near my house.

"Thanks for cheering me up a little." I smiled at him.

"Totally. Tomorrow?" He asked I nodded. We split our separate ways. I followed my brothers inside, finished the movie and dinner, we talked for a little bit, I showered, did my homework I finally got after 4 days, and went to sleep.

The next day was normal. My body hurt, my classes bored me, locker rooms are awful, lunch was awful, cheer was grueling, walks homes were fun, and nights were fun. Zach had given me his number. For the short time I had known him, we were already really good friends. I hid it from my brother's, but that wasn't the only thing. I went to sleep that friday night, actually a little happy.

The weekend was fun too. I had some homework, but I finished it friday night so I had time to spend with my brothers.Zach and I had texted all week. I went on a run by myself and bumped into Zach. Amazing. I also got a chance to sped time with Max which was crazy fun too. I went to sleep Sunday night happy, only waking up 2. Little did I know Monday was about to be one of the worst days of my life.

-----(Monday Morning)-----

I awoke before my alarm clock again and walked over to the mirror. The bruises around both my eyes were gone. My stomach bruise was almost completely gone. It hurt much less now. My leg also felt better. My whole body was free of pain. Something I hadn't experienced in a while. I jumped into black jeans, my gery bobs, a t-shirt, a grey pullover sweater with a sun and moon diagram from B.C. times, and my hair flowing around my face.

I slid my phone is my back pocket, grabbed my two bags and slid down the banister of our stairs. I tossed my bags by the door and jumped into the kitchen and grabbed an apple. We all talked before getting in the car and heading out. I reached school and bounced inside. My I heard my brothers talking behind me before I got too far. Once inside, I was getting weird looks from people, but I ignored them and continued to keep my chin up. I was close to my locker when I felt something rip at the piece of cloth on my backpack you hang on the frame of a door. It was so powerful and surprising that I didn't have a chance to stop it from ripping my feet out from under me and I fell to the ground.

"Lucy!" A familiar voice spoke. Before long, Max was helping me to my feet.

"Thanks." I gave him a smile. One little jerk wasn't going to affect my mood.

"Any time. You okay?" He looked at me.

"I feel great. I mean, looked! My face is healed." I beamed, still in a good mood. He smiled and laughed a little bit. He was about to say something, but the bell interrupted.

"See you at gym." He waved goodbye as he walked the other direction. I rushed to my locker, taking out my homework and hurrying to math. I sat right before the bell rang. Perfect timing.

-----(Gym)-----

"Hey Lucy! How's the day?" Max asked. The teacher was nowhere to be seen at the moment.

"Other than the weird looks I keep getting, good." I smiled again. My face would hurt tonight from how much I was smiling. But in honesty, I was getting weird looks all day long and no one would tell me what they were from.

"Listen kids. It's Monday and I'm not in the mood to plan a whole work out, so we are just going to play dodgeball." The teacher sounded tired. He tossed about ten dodgeballs on the 50 line of the football field. He told us rules and boundaries. THen, he blew his whistle. I let everyone else race to the line. A few player from each side fell and went to sit on the sideline. Max came back by me, catching a ball thrown near his head. He threw it at some kid, hitting him.