Charms

Chapter 5

“Can I help you?”

“Yeah.”

“How?”

“With a lot of things.” He did the cute half smile.

“Like?”

“Not sure yet, but I’ll get back to you.”

“I’ll look forward to it.”

“You should.”

She rolled her eyes.

“How are we going to do this?” She asked.

“Do what?”

“The mythology work.”

“Ah.” He sounded disappointed “I’ll come over yours tonight”

“I can’t-“Before she could continue he got up, saluted and escaped.

“Does he always do that?”

“What? Make decisions without your input? Yeah, pretty much.”

“It’s annoying.”

“You’ll get used to it. Come on, we best get to P.E”

Ellie crammed her timetable in her back and stood up.

“Does he always flirt too?”

“Flirt? Hell no, you sure you have the right guy?”

‘Oh’ her heart sank.

“Not with anyone?”

“Only people he likes and before you ask, no he’s not with anyone. He doesn’t really do relationships.”

“I wasn’t.”

Alice smiled.

“Yeah, alright.” She giggled.

Ellie put her bag in the locker next to Alice’s and sat down.

“Here.”

Alice smiled and handed her a pair of shorts.

“Thanks.”

She unbuttoned her jeans and put the shorts on. Ellie could hear snickering coming from the opposite side of the locker room, she looked over and saw the queen and her bees. Roxy grinned, rose to fingers to her eyes and then pointed at Ellie. A cold shiver went down her back.

“I don’t like the looks that she giving you Ellie.” Alice pointed out.

“I don’t know what I did wrong.”

“Must be that time of the month” Alice laughed.

Ellie hoped she was, as weird as that felt, she thought that by the time she has finished she will ease up. A woman stood in the door way; with a clipboard in hand. She was young, but her eyes said otherwise. She was pretty, nothing about her made her look unattractive. Her sleek black hair cascading passed her shoulders, she had a curvaceous figure, even with the tatty navy shorts and matching navy polo shirt she looked beautiful.

“Hurry up ladies, we haven’t got all day.” She rolled her eyes and shouted “Tina! This is P.E not a beauty contest, stop piling on make-up, that goes for you too Roxanne.”

Her voice was soft but held authority, everyone made their way past the teacher and out onto the tennis courts. Alice led the way and Ellie followed. Ellie tried to pass the woman in the door, but she got in her way.

“Who are you?”

“I uh- I’m”

“I uh, spit it out.”

“Arielle Dayne.”

The woman’s eyes widened and took a step back.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Excuse me.”

‘What the hell?’ She thought.

She brushed off what just happened and found Alice on the courts. Ellie did not enjoy P.E, she had not managed to hit the ball once, Ellie tried again, throwing the ball up in the air and swinging her racket. She missed. A hoard of laughter came her way, she looked to see who it was, to no surprise it was Roxy and her followers.

“Ellie,” Alice shouted “ignore them.”

She let out a deep breath, threw the ball up again before she could swing to hit the ball she felt a sharp pain on the side of her head. For a moment, she thought her ball had fallen on her, but when she saw Alice rushing over she knew that it was not her ball. Alice put her arm around Ellie and walked her off of the courts into the changing rooms.

“What the hell is her problem? I know that she’s a bitch but still. What did you do?”

“I accidently bumped into her.”

“Jesus, that’s not worth this torment”

Ellie touched the lump that was slowly forming on her temple.

“Wait here.”

“Wait no, what are you going to do?”

“Beat the crap out of her.”

“No, don’t.” She tugged on Alice’s shirt.

She sighed and slumped down on the bench. Ellie smiled to herself, the thought of someone sticking up for her made her happy.

“What?” Alice asked.

“You, you’re crazy.”

“Hey!” She protested “I’m saner than a lot of people in this school.”

“Like anyone would willingly beat up Roxy”

“I’d do anything to hit her, just need an excuse.” She laughed.

Ellie felt the throbbing protrusion and flinched.

“I have some pain kills in my locker if you want some?”

“Please.”

They got changed back into their clothes and made their way to Alice’s locker. Ellie’s headache had transformed from bearable to excruciating. The lump, now, a blackened mark was sore to touch. Ellie plucked two small capsules from Alice’s locker and took them with a mouthful of water.

“What lesson do you have now?” Alice asked.

Ellie fumbled with her bag and grabbed the folded timetable.

“Geography.”

“Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow then, unless you and Clark want to skip studying for today.”

“Yeah, that sounds cool. Will Clark be okay with it?”

“He will be” She got her phone out of her pocket, pressed a few buttons and held it up to Ellie.

“What?” She asked.

 “Put your number in, I’ll text you later where to meet us.”

She took the phone, pressed a few buttons then hit ‘save’ and handed it back to Alice. She pressed a few more buttons then held it up.

“Look pretty.”

Before she could protest Alice had swung around the Ellie’s side and snapped the photo.

“Best go, ciao.” She stuck two fingers up to represent the peace sign and left to go to her next lesson.