Middle Summer Nights

Chapter 4 - Some Others

As the months went by, I got closer to the few people I had met. I even introduced some to each other. I introduced the Mischievous Harlie to the Starlit Morgan and Defying Prince. They got along, really quickly. Turns out, Harlie's boyfriend was in band as well. We all bonded, and we all were close. But that didn't mean we had to keep our group off limits.

I met two more people, one of the most bipolar girl and one of the most dramatic boy I've ever met. Kayla Rivera and Triston Duke. I'm not saying they're a bother, but I definitely don't speak to them anymore. I met them the same way I met Prince, in band. On a Friday, I was chosen to help them clean the band room at the end of class.

"Alright, alright, alright," Said my band director as he rubbed his headache out of his head, "Listen Up. Since today is Friday," everyone groaned in annoyance, "I need three of you to help clean up the messes that you all make. For this week, it's Sheppard, Rivera, and Duke."

       As the bell rang, and the students stampeded out of the band hall, I sat in my seat. Watching with amusement as kids pushed and pulled around, almost as if they were dancing. I was snapped out of my gaze as I remembered there were two other with me. I looked up from my chair and saw two kids, a female and male, about the age of myself. Both opposite way towards each other. I took a closer look at the two people.

Rivera , I assumed the female, had raven hair that went to her back. Each piece of hair seemed straight, but had their little stance a different way. She had tan skin, and it seemed as if annoyance dropped off it. She was wearing a plaid shirt, with dark holed jeans. She had dirty converse on, but it seemed perfect for her. She had dark freckles that almost blended in with her skin if you didn't catch them. Her eyes were a dark oak color, with irritation glittering in her eyes. Under her glorious eyes, were dropping bags. She had an awkward stance, but you could tell she was an athlete.

Duke, I assumed the male, had messy chestnut hair that seemed to cascade around his face. He had dark, emerald eyes that had a yearn to it. His skin was pale, showing he had gotten no sun. His lips were droopy, you could tell he wasn't happy. His skin had pimples, not everywhere but placed in random spots.  He was wearing a bright green t-shirt, with dark blue nike shorts. He had black flip flops, even if it was the middle of fall. You could tell he wasn't athletic, as his figure was skinny and small.

       Rivera sighed out of annoyance and turned towards me, "Can you organize music and clean the chairs?"

       I nodded in agreement, and smiled lightly at her. She looked back and nodded, a small smirk coming back my way.

       She then turned towards Duke, "Can you sweep the floors and put all the stands in the corner?" Duke nodded and rolled his emerald eyes.

       A few minutes went by until someone broke the silence. "Hey Kayla," Duke said, "where's the broom?"

         Kayla looked annoyed at him, "Why don't you fucking look, Triston?" Came out of her mouth. I was shocked and looked at the both of them. There was severe tension in the room. Triston glared at her hard. They were in a glaring contest, and it felt like forever.

       "It's over here, Triston." I spoke up, my voice cracking a bit out of nervousness, pointing at the broom. They both looked out of their contest, and saw me.

       "Thank you, at least you have the decency to be kind, um." He was struggling at the end, trying to figure out my name as he stuck his nose up to Kayla.

    "Gracie." I said with smile. Triston nodded his head to me as a thanks, and quickly began sweeping. Kayla just looked at me and quickly continued cleaning. I could almost see the anger bouncing off of her.

       After what felt like a dreadful hour of tension and awkwardness, we finally finished up cleaning. I looked around, relieved of the hard work we put to make the room spotless. I saw Triston packing his things. As well as Kayla.

        "So what instrument do y'all play?" I asked the two other people, breaking yet again the silence.

      "Precision." Kayla mumbled as she zipped up her bag.

       "I play the clarinet, but I'm moving to base clarinet soon." Answered Triston confidentially. His pride was obviously one of his major flaws, " What about you?" He asked.

      "I play the trumpet." I said as I finished up packing my backpack. The other two out on their backpacks, and slowly walked towards the door.

        "Hey, wait up!" I said, as I went towards the other two. They looked at me, confused as to what I was going to say. "I wanted to say, good job! And I was wondering if I could have y'all phone number so we could chat." I smiled, trying to convince them to give me their numbers.

         "Sure, why the hell not?" Kayla said as she handed me her phone to put her phone number in.

         "Hey, I wanna join in." Triston jokes as he puts in his phone number too. I smiled at both of them with excitement. We then lock the door and go to the front.

      "Well, bye guys!" Triston says as he races to his moms car. Kayla's parents hadn't came yet, and neither had mine. I looked around the parking lot, as Kayla was silent.

     "You had guts, you know?" Kayla said as she looked straight into the parking lot.

    "What do you mean?" I laughed awkwardly, confused as ever.

       "You stood up. If you wouldn't have smiled at me earlier, I might've had my anger gotten out of control." She said, emotionless as she still looked onwards.

       "Um...thank you?" I said, wondering what she meant.

      She turned towards me and smiled as a car pulled up. "You really are something, huh." She went into the car, and turned towards me before leaving. She smiled and waved, never loosing her gaze off of me.

    I smiled and waved back, wondering what she meant. I knew we would be friends. She was confusing, but amazing.