Mark My Words

19 | Fight The System

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Since Rosalie was deemed "sick" at school, practice was out of the question. Any student suffering from an illness was instructed not to participate in extracurriculars that day, and so Rosalie stayed at home where she wouldn't infect the rest of the student body with her "germs". Her last bout of the flu steered her straight to an earful from Whitney Vasquez, who then became one of her casualties. Rosalie was certain that occurrence was on Whitney's List Of Reasons To Hate Rosalie, right next to #1: Is Dating Sami Griffin.

Rosalie kept checking the time, thinking to herself, Maguire's probably doing possession and passing drills. They're probably practicing shots at Joanna now. I wonder how frustrated Alyssa is right now.

The instant the clock ticked to five, Rosalie was checking her phone, waiting for an update from Ray. Sure enough, the moment Ray got ahold of her phone, she was texting Rosalie.

____________

RAY: Practice was awful without you.

ROSALIE: What why

RAY: Because Joanna was a little shit again.
You shoulda seen the look on Maguire's face when Joanna started missing shots.
Plz return and talk some sense into herrrr

ROSALIE: But you guys have Jade

RAY: Yeah, if we weren't too busy running SUICIDES. Ugh.
My legs and arms are dead. I'll send the death certificate your way.

____________

Her phone alerted her to a new text, dropping Joanna's name from the top of the screen. It was accompanied by a frown-y face and a "Missed you at practice, Captain." Rosalie slapped a hand to her face and groaned. It was hard to believe that she was babysitting a full-grown senior in high school.

She pulled up Joanna's contact and pressed the call button. It rang only once before a false cheery voice answered.

"Rosie! It's been ages!"

"You can't just give up on the team if I'm not there," Rosalie said.

"Aw, but that's no fun. Besides, I'm in this for you, not them."

Rosalie's throat tightened, and she had to internally scold her heart for stopping in that split second. "I don't care. We made a deal, in case you forgot."

"Rosie, my sweet Rosie, let me tell you a little secret," she said, and Rosalie rolled her eyes and prepared for the inevitable dramatics. "O'Gallagher gave me a deal I, just like any other gay, would have picked swimming because at the end of the day girls in swim suits are ideal. Would you not agree?"

"Well, that certainly does explain Sami's logic now," Rosalie mused. "Turns out you were right about all that. Don't go spreading that around school, though. He's got enough on his plate."

"You know I wouldn't. Outing other people is a shit move and if I wasn't already going to Hell, that'd be a sure ticket in. Sami can come out on his own terms." She stopped short, and Rosalie could fill in the blanks without stretching far. She wouldn't out Rosalie even when her sexuality was still up in the air.

"Yeah, I agree," she said at last, clearing her throat. She avoided a catastrophe with Khoshekh by sneaking in through the side door and entering through the garage. "But back to this swim thing. I honestly can't picture you as a swimmer."

"It almost happened. Believe it, Mason. Me in a bikini."

"Female swimmers don't even wear—"