Black to the Past

Chapter 5

Third period, Halle got up the nerve to text her mom.

Was late today. Got detention after school. I'll be home right after about 4 ok? - Halle

Not okay. I told you no excuses. Be here by 330.

Mom! You can call up to the school. I have detention.

I will call. If you do, you're on punishment.

Ugh!

That had not gone well. Halle would have to beg Ms. Hansen during eighth period to start detention the next day.

Fourth period was lunch for Meredith and Wilson. Meredith rarely ate anything at lunch, especially from the cafeteria but since she'd woken up late and had to ride with Halle she couldn't make breakfast and they'd had no time to stop even though they might as well had since they'd gotten detention anyway. The lunch line put her back in direct contact with Wilson. She happened to be right behind him in the pizza line which was the only acceptable food in the cafeteria at all.

"What's up, short stack?"

"Caught you looking at Halle this morning," she said with a flirty smile.

"Oh, you saw that huh," he said with a flirty smile of his own. He thought about how good Halle smelled and that made his smile bigger.

"Why don't you talk to her? Maybe that'll put a smile on her face permanently," she suggested.

"What is it with you two?" he asked seriously.

"I don't know. We were best friends. Now we just kinda tolerate each other. Like cousins," she laughed.

"Wow, that's something. Speaking of the devil," he nodded over her head as Halle walked in the lunch room with two girls on either side of her.

Wilson was looking dead at Halle and she at him. But obviously Wilson had missed something because Halle rolled her eyes at him, made a comment to her girls who looked his way and proceeded to roll their two sets of eyes and they all did an about face and walked the other way.

"Geez, just when you think you're making headway with that girl she flips on you," Wilson confided in Meredith.

"Ice queen," Meredith confirmed. "And you couldn't make headway with her, if you gave her head."

"Potty mouth," Wilson said laughing.

Meredith tsk'd with her tongue in cheek. She loved merriment and making the boys laugh and if that made her look like a slut at least she made friends instead of enemies along the way. She'd never given a boy head a day in her life so she didn't care what kids thought of her. She knew the truth.

"Eat with me," Wilson told, rather than asked Meredith. While Meredith had her own group of friends and could have her pick of tables of kids to sit with, she didn't mind sitting with Wilson.

She let him lead the way to a table with a couple of seniors from the football team. Looking around, because she could feel someone staring at her, she spotted the source. Halle was giving her the stank eye. Meredith brushed it off her shoulder, literally and smiled at Halle ruthlessly. She wasn't going to let a mean look from Halle mess up her entire day. Halle had already been at her throat, as usual, this morning.

Soon the table was full with boys and girls from 10th grade and up. Some of the girls she knew, they chatted about makeup and hair, some she didn't so she quietly listened when she didn't have any input. It was the middle of the year and the day had gotten off to such a bad start that she was enjoying the distraction. It didn't really matter to her whether she had detention or not this afternoon. Her mother wasn't likely to be home to judge her one way or another. And her mom's most recent boyfriend would probably be gone from his weekend stay.

Wilson was waiting for her when the bell rang. "What's up, Wilson?" she asked him.

"I want you to help me get with your girl," Wilson admitted. He was staring at Halle from across the cafeteria. Halle could feel his gaze, was curious, but not enough to seek an answer why.

"Why?"

"I'm interested," Wilson said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"Ugh, I mean, I get it. She's beautiful. She's smart too. But girlfriend material, she is not," Meredith laughed.

"I don't know. I feel like maybe she could be," Wilson begged to differ.

"Whatever, we're not friends. She hates me and she lets me know that on a regular basis. Let me hook you up with somebody else," Meredith offered. "How about Yasmine?"

"I've been there, done that."

"Everybody's been there, done that," Meredith chuckled.

"See my point," Wilson said with a chuckle of his own. He remembered what he liked about Meredith. He also remembered what it felt like to bend down a foot to try kissing her and how there'd been no spark there.

"Just let me think about it. You're just bored," Meredith noted with a frown.

"I'm not bored. I haven't been on a date in months. I haven't even wanted to. I've been keeping an eye on Halle. You think she's gay?"

"No! She's not gay," Meredith said loudly. A group of pansexual kids stopped in their tracks in front of them and stared at her and Wilson.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that," Meredith told the group. It was taboo to mention any type of sexual behavior in a negative way at Heights. She was actually friends with girls who now considered themselves boys who had changed their names, there were kids who were pansexual and Meredith just said whatever was necessary to keep the peace.

Wilson laughed and elbowed Meredith's shoulder causing her to bump into the kid next to her who happened to be Jalen from this morning's group.

He scowled at her disgustedly, "watch it."

"You're not really a nice kid, Jalen," Meredith told him. "It was just an accident."

"I doubt it," Jalen told her as he took a turn in the opposite direction to get away from her and Wilson.

"What is it with that kid?" Wilson asked looking after him. 

Jalen had heard the way Wilson asked what was with him and he got angry with himself. Meredith wasn't trying to be mean, he knew. But oftentimes football players or the other jocks pushed kids into him just to be mean or to see what he would do. Jalen was tired of being the poor kid. He was tired of being the kid that didn't have any money and no parents to show up for him when he did something important. He hated being colorblind! He didn't even know why kids laughed at his clothes. Michael tried to convince him that it wasn't because the clothes came from the GoodWill but it was because the clothes didn't match.