All His Attention

Chapter Four

Chapter Four

It was Monday afternoon and I had managed to avoid Michael and Jaxson so far without any problems. Jaxson was easy to avoid, especially since we weren't friends and he was rarely seen at school. Michael, on the other hand, was harder to avoid since he was my best friend and wasn't afraid to blow up my phone. Michael had bombarded me with phone calls and texts the second I had disappeared into the restroom with Jaxson. I didn't answer any of his calls and instead sent him a simple text saying that I was fine and that I would see him at school on Monday. That didn't satisfy him, but I turned off my phone for the rest of the weekend so I wouldn't feel as bad for ignoring him. I hated avoiding him, but I truthfully couldn't deal with him at the moment. There was so much shit going through my head, the last thing I needed was him demanding answers I couldn't really give him. I had no clue what I was going to tell him about Jaxson showing up at the park and dragging me away. I wasn't going to tell him the truth, but at the same time I didn't want to lie to him. All I knew was that I was going to have to tell him something and I was going to have to figure it out fast.

"Spears, have you reserved the pavilion at the park?" Chief Davis asked, poking his head into conference. I was sitting at the computer, waiting for students to start arriving for after school practice. The bell had just rung to signal that school was over, but since I had an off period my last period I was already in ROTC. I stayed every day after school for ROTC so there was no point in going anywhere during my off period, especially since the school was literally in the middle of a cornfield outside of town.

"Yes, Chief," I replied. He gave me a nod before heading into his office. Just then the first cadets started arriving, most of them being underclassmen. They chatted and ate their after school lunches while they waited for their practice to begin. They stayed in their certain groups, just like any high school with their cliques. Except for ROTC their cliques were based off of what team they were on. The girls, and one boy, sat in one corner of the classroom for unarmed team. It was filled with mostly girls since it was a bunch of hand clapping while marching, unlike the armed team which was spinning rifles while marching. The armed team sat on the opposite end of the classroom and was completely a male group. Girls were welcomed to join, of course, but since ROTC itself had very little female cadets, it was rare to see one on the armed team. Most female cadets were on the unarmed team, or they joined the other teams like air rifle or academics. No one was there for academics since they didn't really practice, but a coed group of cadets sat in the middle of the room for air rifle. I didn't blame the amount of kids there were for that group since air rifle was literally a team where you got to compete in shooting air rifles. It was a popular group, definitely more popular than the orienteering team. Once again there was no one there for the orienteering team since they didn't usually practice.

The last team was the honor guard, which sat at the very front of the classroom. The group of cadets were mostly boys but a couple of girls were with them. I was biased over the honor guard since I was their team commander the year before. Even though I was no longer the team commander, I still claimed it as my team. It had been my team since the end of freshman year, but it was time for someone else to take it over.

I abandoned my train of thought when my eyes landed on Michael striding into conference. Bags hung under his eyes and his short hair was a ruffled mess. He had a coffee in one hand and the other gripped his backpack that was slung against one shoulder. He looked like absolute shit and I had a feeling it was my fault. I still had yet to turn on my phone and I could only imagine how worried Michael was over me. The last time he saw me I was being dragged away with the most dangerous bad boy in town, he had no clue what happened to me. For all he knew I could've disappeared like anyone else the Knights got mad at.