The Gods of Song and Poetry

Chapter 15 - Two Simple Things

Chapter 15 - Two Simple Things

After lunch was American Literature. Mr. Parker was my favorite teacher, and English was always my favorite subject. That made it easier to put aside my fight with Cindy and the anxiety of knowing I was planning to ask Kelly out in a few hours. Mr. Parker started by arranging us into groups of four, with our desks clustered together. He said we would be using these groups to discuss things we read and wrote, and when we did group projects. Luckily, Cindy wasn't in my group.

Cindy wasn't in Physics or my study hall either. That gave me time to gain some perspective. I could see how, from her point of view, she was being a good friend. But, now what? Let's say Kelly and I did start dating, and Kelly reached a point where she was comfortable dating openly. What then? Could I be friends with someone who thought my love life was an abomination? I felt like I needed to choose between a friend, and being able to love, or at least date, openly. Cindy didn't seem like much of a friend when I thought of it that way, and that hurt.

I spent quite a bit of free time in the remaining two hours imagining arguments with Cindy in my head. I imagined what I would say, and what her response would be. Was she doing the same? I guessed she was probably praying for me if anything. Towards the end of study hall I forced myself to stop worrying about Cindy and focus on Kelly. Practice started a half hour after school so that the girls from the co-op schools could make it here in time. That gave me about fifteen minutes to catch Kelly alone before she and the other girls would head into the locker rooms to get changed.

The bell rang, and I went straight to my locker to drop off my stuff. Then, I went to the bathroom to get changed into my workout tights and t-shirt. Sure enough, by the time I dropped my school clothes off in my locker, Kristy and all of her friends, plus some other girls from the team, were hanging out in the commons area in front of the cafeteria.

Normally I would have walked right up to the group and ingratiated myself, joining the conversation. Today I felt awkward. Kelly was talking to one of the junior girls. I think they were talking about their Precalculus class. I decided to talk to Kristy, Pixie, and DJ, who were in a little cluster.

"How was the first day?" I asked.

"Good, Ani," Pixie answered. "How was yours? Everything okay?" She and DJ looked at me with concern.

"Oh, you mean with Cindy. Did Kristy fill you in on the basics?" They nodded their heads. "I don't know. I mean, I believe she cares about me, but how can I be friends with her? If I ever do find someone that makes me happy, she'll be sad for me." I just shook my head. "Honestly, I don't want to think about that right now. I'll start ranting."

"Well you should rant!" DJ stated. "If she wants to throw around her backwards attitudes about love, she deserves to get put in her place! I need to bring her to our church so she can see how a congregation actually practices acceptance instead of judgmental bull crap! When I see her, I'm going to tell her she needs to treat you better than to..."

I felt my phone buzz and pulled it out of my waist band. I took it out, still trying to listen politely to DJ's pontification. It was a text from Kristy, who was standing right next to me.

Kristy: Kelly is totally checking you out in those tights!

My first instinct was to look at Kelly, but I caught myself. Instead I looked at Kristy. She was smirking and her eyebrows were raised. I crossed my arms and put my right hand on my mouth to hide a small smile. I started to become extremely conscious of how I was standing and how form fitting my tights actually were. To my knowledge, no girl had ever checked me out before.

"Let's go get changed," Kristy said to Pixie and DJ. She walked towards the locker room.

"Thanks DJ," I said as she wrapped up her lecture. "It really does help knowing that the people who know me best are okay with me. Well, besides Cindy. I really don't want people to start taking sides, though. That never helps."