Afterlife || irwin

[ 10 ] 2014

[ 10 ] 2014

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"It feels kinda weird though, seeing all of this. It makes the whole thing all the more real. I'm dead, and now I'm buried too."

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For the next couple of days, some of the boys from the basketball team with Billy included, did not show up to classes. The principal excused their absence, and when most of them returned, they were just an emotional mess in the classroom. Harley didn't have any of her classes with her brother, as it was not allowed for siblings to be in the same class. But she had classmates who were on the basketball team and who spent most of class time with their head down on the table, wallowing in their laments after having lost the big game. A few of them even had emotional breakdowns in class.

Cindy was also not as perky and cheerful as she normally was. And it was because Billy's sadness was rubbing off on her. As much as she tried to make him feel better, it was too many things piled up that had gone wrong. The other girls on the cheerleading squad felt bad for them too and it was decided the next week at practice that they would ask the teachers for permission to organize a pity party for the boys during lunch hour, though they would not call it that in front of the boys. They would have pizza, ice cream, cake, and balloons. It was all in an effort to let the basketball team know that they had done their best and it was appreciated. Harley was surprised that the principal gave her permission for the party to take place. But most of the boys on the basketball team were twelfth years and it was understandable for them to be so upset. Many of them had scholarships riding on that game. 

Billy was lucky that he had scholarships from his other two sports, as well as from the science club to go on. But that didn't mean it made the defeat any less painful.

The Friday of that week, the girls were given permission to skip most of their classes to organize the party in one of the unused classrooms. Harley was only grateful she didn't have to be in class, especially now that Calum wasn't around. With Arthur conscious now, he was making sure Calum was finishing up his education. He had hired home school teachers for him and Calum was taking his classes at home. Arthur had dropped out of high school with only a few months to finish. He didn't want Calum to turn out the same. 

When everything was ready for the party, the girls pulled the basketball players from their classrooms right before lunch and led them down a hallway where there were several unused classrooms. Harley had always wondered why St. Genevieve's needed so much space for only five hundred students. But recently there were rumors going around that a very rich man was coming to visit the school. He was thinking of making a very charitable donation to the Catholic school, in order to make it transition into a school for kids from grades six through twelve instead of nine through twelve like it was currently. 

Harley and Cindy picked Billy up from his Government class right before lunch as was permitted by their principal. Billy was confused as to why his girlfriend and his sister were picking him up, wearing their cheer uniforms. He himself was wearing his black basketball hoodie with red lettering on the front and back. The front read St. Genevieve's Boys Basketball, while the back read Quinn 04. He still looked very upset and like he hadn't slept in days. But from what Harley knew, he was spending most of his time in his bed. The only time he left his bed nowadays was to eat, shower, or go to school. 

That he knew of, there were still two more weeks before they would go to their competition and there were no more games for the cheerleaders to attend. The only sports season left to the end of the school year was the cross country one. He would need to pull himself together in time for the last meet, which would take place just in time before the end of the school year, on the last week of school. Billy had a standing scholarship with USC for football, since they'd had a very successful season that year. His cross country scholarship was with UCLA, and given that they performed well at the state competition, he would be able to decide which of the two universities he wanted to attend. Cindy was trying to convince him to go for the cross country scholarship at UCLA, since she knew football players sometimes suffered heavy injuries on the field. But Billy was leaning more towards his USC football scholarship.