Artemisia High

6 | Turning Heads

Wednesday had always been a good day for Scarlet. It meant half the school week was over and the weekend was fast approaching. Good things always happened on Wednesdays. In fact, she'd been born on a Wednesday.

But this Wednesday was far from good. Since it was only the third day of her senior year, Scarlet expected everything to be chill, but that couldn't be further from the truth.

Cheerleading tryouts were today, but that wasn't the cause of chaos...sort of.

After their last class ended, Émilie pestered Scarlet to hurry up so they could be the first ones on the field. After all, punctuality made for a good first impression. Also, they'd have the locker room to themselves. That was perfect for staking out a spot. Clearly, Émilie was planning for the future, but Scarlet was just trying to make it through the next few hours.

Scarlet tried to open her locker quickly, but that made her flub the combination twice. Then, once her locker was open, Émilie started grabbing things and throwing them in Scarlet's backpack all while Scarlet did the same.

Once they reached the locker room, they saw they were not the first ones there. There were two other girls already in the locker room, one whom Scarlet vaguely recognized and one even Émilie had never seen. The two were speaking rapidly about something, but they were too quiet for Scarlet to hear. Occasionally, though, they giggled loudly.

Émilie and Scarlet changed into their athletic clothes for tryouts. Then they walked out onto the field where the girls from the locker room and the coach were. Scarlet had to shield her eyes from the bright California sun, and when she did, she noticed something dreadful.

"You didn't tell me the football team would be here!" Scarlet whisper-shouted to her best friend.

"I didn't know," Émilie said. "I guess they have to use the space, too."

"Why did their tryouts have to be today?!"

Émilie clearly wasn't disturbed by their presence like Scarlet was. Sure, Scarlet may have been overreacting, but as she scanned the faces of the potential team members, she felt a sinking feeling in her stomach. All of them were familiar for the wrong reasons. Except one.

"Who's that?" Scarlet asked her socially knowledgeable friend. She pointed to a guy sitting away from the huddle of players in the bleachers. He had dark, olive skin and messy, black hair. His eyes were a piercing green.

"He just transferred here from some school in Nevada," Émilie said. "Nobody knows him."

As she continued scanning the players, she noticed another boy she didn't know. He looked similar to the lone wolf but had lighter hair and brighter skin. And he was sitting with all the other boys.

Before Scarlet could question Émilie further about the mystery man, the cheerleading coach called them onto the field. They were too close to the bleachers where the footballers sat for Scarlet's liking.

As Scarlet was not-so-subtly staring at the new guy, she heard a familiar voice.

"Hey, Scar," Roland said, "when do I get to teach you the true meaning of your name?"

"That's not my name."

"It should be."

"And Imbecile should be yours. Your mother just wasn't clever enough to think of it."