Dreamcatching

Chapter 5

Nora and Brooke parted ways as Brooke went to Personal Finance (or P. F. as they liked to joke; a class otherwise known as "Positively Fucked"). The teacher was a complete spaz who thought the "F" in finance was synonymous with the failing grades he gave out like candy. The man was ruthless. Nora turned into room A3, where she was taking Indigenous Art and History.

"See you later, witches!" Brooke called out to Nora and Cala, who had just joined their twosome in the hallway before Brooke had to leave for P. F. "Meet me after school by the South fence, Cala," Brooke yelled with a wink before finally turning, "I heard somebody did something with another somebody that you might want to tell me about!"

Nora looked at their friend with raised eyebrows and Cala turned three shades of oh shit red. Frantically, she scanned the halls to see who all had heard. Then Cala cursed Brooke a river.

"I'm gonna kill her."

"You and Rudy?" Nora whispered.

Cala drilled exasperated holes into her eyes and then turned back towards the now-vacant hallway.

"Damn it, Brooke!"

Nora laughed and wrapped her arm casually around Cala. "It's all good. I got you. Come on, let's go get lost in class."

One thing the two of them shared was a passion for art. The project work sucked them in and spit them out, neither one knowing nor caring where the time went as long as they were creating.

"Thanks," Cala huffed.

"No worries," Nora replied.

"Sooo...you gonna spill the tea about you and Rudy, or what?"

Face-palming herself, Cala whined. "Not you too!"

"Just kidding. Just kidding. Tell me when you want to," Nora grinned. "Meanwhile, let's go before all the good seats are taken."

They ran inside and Nora sat down with Cala at the only open table. Donovan was sitting there, too, and Nora frowned. Like all her other courses, Nora shared Indiginous Art with him. This coincidence had never bothered Nora before now.

Brooke's recent comments played themselves over in her mind. Nora stopped a little short as she sat down on her stool. She bit her lip with a grimace as she said hello.

"Sorry about earlier, Donovan," Nora started to say. "She shouldn't of said all that out there by the lockers."

Donovan gave Nora a bewildered look before leaning forward. "What are you talking about, Nora? What did she say?"

Relief poured over her. Oh, thank goodness. He hadn't heard them afterall. "Ahh, nevermind. It was nothing."

Nora quickly looked away and over-busied herself to distract Donovan from her foot in the mouth episode. "You got an extra pen I can borrow, Donovan?" She asked, the one pen she had found in her bag not working.

"Sure," Donovan replied. "Anything for my girl, Nora."

The little red hairs on the back of Nora's neck stood at attention "...my girl, Nora?" She thought to herself. Was Brooke right? Was Donovan into her? She didn't have time to respond to herself, however, because Eamon Richards never gave her a chance.

Eamon was their high school rugby MVP, and he wore his smugness like a bad rash. During her junior year of high school, for one drunken moment, Nora and Eamon had hooked up. They didn't seal the deal, so to speak, but they did share a hot minute at a party one night. Afterwards, Eamon let people assume what they wanted, just about destroying Nora's reputation with the team, and around school.

It didn't matter that the rumors about her were false and exaggerated. The damage was done. The only saving grace was that Donovan had been there that night. He'd interrupted them, in fact, Nora now realized with a start.

Nora'd had three Blue Moons that night. She was a lightweight and had been feeling no pain when Eamon found her and they started making out.

Banging around in some jock's weightroom, which she had mistaken for a bathroom at first, Nora realized that she and Eamon were moving a little too fast. Her head was spinning and she was afraid she was going to pass out. She'd managed to back away from Eamon, and was leaning on the door to leave as he tried to coax her into staying inside. She remembered saying, "No, I should go," but Eamon had been insistent. As soon as little warning bells started going off in her head, though, the door behind Nora flung open. As she fell backwards, she was both surprised and relieved to have fallen into Donovan's arms.

Ever since, Eamon had been up Nora's ass for a second go at her.

"Nora's your girl, Donovan?," he laughed. "That's a new one. Then again," he said with a sneer, "Maybe she is. Who knows with her? She gets around, if you know what I mean."

Nora had no time to react. Her own anger hadn't even kicked in before Donovan had Eamon up in the air by his throat, the tips of his shoes desperately scrambling for purchase. "Apologize to her, Jackoff," he growled.

Eamon's eyes bulged out of their sockets as Mrs. Shaw shrieked from the front of the classroom. "Oh my Go-"

Donovan had tuned the rest of her words out, though and spoke over her. "I said apologize, Asshole."

It was all Eamon could do to choke out his lame, "I'm sorry," before Donovan dropped him like a bag of rocks.

Mrs. Shaw, on the other hand, was by their side in an instant. "Donovan, get out! OUT!" She shouted. "You, too, Eamon! The both of you get out and go to the principal's office!"

As Nora watched in horror, Donovan calmly gathered his things, turned to tell her he'd see her later, and left, stepping over Eamon who was still lying on the dirty linolium floor in a heap.

Mrs. Shaw eventually shoved Eamon up and out of her classroom.

Nora looked around at her classmates and tried to catch her breathe.

She'd no clue what the hell'd just happened. (Though a small and primal part of her'd been secretly turned on.)