What We Lost In The Winter

Chapter 17

 

Gym is terrible, as expected. Changing in the locker room is a terrible way to start the day off. At least my gym clothes were still in Gabi’s locker. I half expected them to be stolen.

“Okay! Everyone get in your basketball teams!” Mrs. Wood announced after we did our warm ups. I found the “Blonde Squad” and for the first time was able to know who was on my team. Sammi was on it, which I actually hadn’t realized. Of course, during gym yesterday I had no idea who she was. She was just another face. Now that I’ve spoken to her and know that she lives so close to me, it’s different. Kamryn, who I sit next to in English, is on the team too.

“Becca,” someone says.

“Yeah?” I turn around. It’s Amy, our team captain.

“You actually live on Haymire?” she asks.

“Um, yeah,” I nod.

“Okay, so you know how there’s a brown house right by your backyard? And there’s a gate that separates your yard from theirs?” She tries to describe the scenery of my yard.

“I think so?” It came out more of a question than anything else. I honestly haven’t been paying too much attention the the barren landscape behind my house.

“That’s Teagan’s house,” she says.

“Really?” I say, or ask, I guess.

“Yeah. And I’m in the red house close to that,” Amy smiles.

“Cool!” The smile on my face is actually natural. Amy Raina seems pretty nice.

“Amy! Be quiet!” Mrs. Wood shouts. Amy rolls her eyes and turns to face the front of the gym. The gym teachers go on to declare who will be playing who and who will wear the disgusting pinnies and what games will be going on on what court. We end up against “Team Number 2.” That means virtually nothing to me. I don’t know who’s on that team or if they’re any good at basketball.

“Team Number 2” ends up having Alex, Nicole, Ari, and Gabi. I’m playing against my friends. Great. Mrs. Wood blows the whistle and the games are in session. I assume I’m not going to touch the ball again, but then I hear someone shout my name. I look up just as I’m standing in the perfect spot to shoot and Sammi passes me the ball. I catch it, thankfully. I look around, there’s nobody I can pass it to and I’m open and beneath the basket. I shoot. I score. I’m shocked. I actually just scored a basket. Even when I played basketball, I never scored.

“Good job,” someone says. I’m not sure who it was.

“Thanks,” I smile. The game continues and I get passed the ball more times. I never shoot again, but I get the ball. That’s good enough. Mrs. Wood blows another whistle and it’s time to go change into our normal clothes. Ugh. I really dislike changing in the locker room. Literally everyone can see you and there is no privacy and it smells like 80 million different types of perfumes and deodorants.

Alex waits for me after gym. I remembered to bring my math stuff with me this time. We make our way down the hall and to math. Mrs. Meldrum talks for half the class about algebraic stuff. Her voice is so high and squeaky— it seriously gets annoying. It makes it impossible to concentrate. Eventually the bell rings and it’s time for English.

The girls at my English table don’t stop talking once the entire period. We basically spent the entire class brainstorming again, but this table barely brainstormed at all..

“What should I do for this?” Taylor Rosales asks for at least the fifth time. “There’s going to be a dog. And the dog’s going to get hit by a car. Or maybe her brother should get hit by a car. Or the brother and the dog.” She bursts out in hysterical laughter and is joined by her friend, Jade. I’m not exactly sure how that’s funny

“That’s so morbid!” Jade exclaims while trying to catch her breath.

“I know!” Taylor laughs.

“Mine’s worse,” Kamryn, the girl sitting next to me, says with a smug face. How could her’s be worse? Taylor’s was pretty depressing.

“Ooh! What’s your idea?” Taylor asks, suddenly intrigued. Why?

“So, it’s a prequel to this novel I’m writing. In the novel he’s sixteen, but in the short story he’s in fourth grade and he has cancer. Read this,” Kamryn hands over her notebook which she’s been scribbling away in for the whole class.

Taylor and Jade look over her notebook and scream at something she’d written. “Does he die?” they ask in strange unison, and then burst out laughing because they’d jinxed each other.

“Becca, read this,” Kamryn steals the notebook from the duo and hands it to me. I read the first sentence, “When I grow up, I want to be alive.” Okay. That’s worse than Taylor’s. That is incredibly heart wrenching. I can’t even bring myself to read the rest of the page.

“I wanna see!” Camden exclaims. I forgot he was in this class. Kamryn hands it over, smiling.

“So does he die?” Jade asks again.

“Not in the short story,” the author says to her victim.

“Well, obviously not if he’s in the novel. Does he die in the novel?” She presses hard against the table.

“I can’t tell you.” It’s honestly amazing the amount of power a person can have with a fictional character.

“No. I need to know. Does. He. Die. In. The. Novel,” Jade begs.

“It’s a cancer book,” is all Kamryn says. Although I don’t want to admit it, we all know he’s going to die in the novel. It’s a cancer book. And the love interest always dies in cancer books. It’s the depressing truth. I mean, have you read The Fault In Our Stars? The bell rings, signaling the end of English. I meet up with Alex and Lydia as they leave their last class.

“Becca!” Alex shouts when she sees me.

“Hey guys!” I smile. I find it funny how just yesterday I didn’t know anyone. Look at me now. I know people.

“Ready for science?” my friend asks. I’m not exactly sure which of the two it was. We go to science. We do science-y stuff. The bell rings. It’s time for lunch.

Okay, so I stopped doing the Part 1/Part 2 of each chapter so just deal with it.

Sorry I've been so inactive. I promise I'll be adding more soon. I have the whole story finished, now I just need to upload it.

A while ago I asked if you would be interested in a series of short stories as a followup to Winter. I decided I'm going to write it, but it's not going to be about Becca and her friends at Redo. It's going to be about a girl named Annie (Becca's childhood best friend who is mentioned in the first chapter). Becca and Lily will make an appearance at some point, as well as Jackie and Delaney. I hope you guys will read it!

Question of the Chapter: What are your thoughts? Is Becca fitting in naturally at her new school? Are the girls at her English class table going to accept her into this group?