Becoming Somebody

Chapter 17 - There's About to be a Girl Fight

On Tuesday Charlie was heading to 4th period after lunch when she got held up in the crowd in front of the West Wing. She pushed her way through to see what the deal was. One of her Sophomore classmates, a boy from the basketball team named Ryder, picking on a Freshman boy named Kyle.

"You're a pussy," Ryder said to Kyle, holding Kyle's backpack just out of his reach. Kyle was a nearly a foot shorter than Ryder.

Charlie immediately walked over, jumped up and snatched the backpack out of Ryder's hand. Thankfully, she could reach because she was 5'7'' and athletic.

"Knock it off, Ryder. Could you be more basic?" she said to him as she handed the bag back to Kyle, who looked shocked.

"He's a lame ass Freshman Charlie, why do you care?" Ryder was just as shocked at her involvement.

"No girl thinks that this," she motioned her hands at him for emphasis, "lame ass Jock vibe is attractive, Ryder. I'm just trying to help you here, bud," she said sarcastically.

Several of the girls in the crowd loudly agreed with her, and Ryder just scowled. Charlie headed to class, glad she could finally call out that kind of stupid behavior.

She finally saw Tony at school on Wednesday. He didn't know this but earlier that the day at lunch she saw him chatting up Maya Davies, the cute Freshman girl who won Homecoming Princess. Maya looked practically star-struck talking to him, and even from a distance Charlie could tell he was putting on the charm. She was already so mad at him for not messaging her or contacting her in any way after they kissed, that was the final straw. She just turned in the other direction when she saw him in the hallway.

She saw Cassius once before Thursday. They passed each other in the hallway, and he flashed her that smile again. 'Keep it together,' she told herself.

By the time he called her Thursday night she had paced around her room at least 1000 times and done 500 sit-ups, and that was on top of an afternoon of soccer practice. Her phone rang, audio only, not Facetime, and she breathed out slowly before answering.

"Hello?" she said, hoping it sounded casual.

"Hey it's Cassius," he answered.

"Oh hey," she said, pretending like she forgot he was going to call her. "What's up?"

"Not much I just got home, glad to finally have my phone back," he said.

To Charlie's surprise, they fell into a rhythm of conversation after that. Maybe it was because she wasn't looking at him, but she found it much easier to talk to him than she expected. He was funny, no surprise there. She had to try not to laugh too much, because she didn't want to seem like an airhead. Finally, they got around to talking about their date. He asked her if Saturday worked for her, which, of course it did. They were going to go see a movie, this new comedy starring one of Charlie's favorite actors. Once that was decided they got off the phone. She looked at the clock and realized they talked for over an hour.

The next day at school it was raining. Charlie loved the rain, but didn't love what it did to her hair. There was no way to keep a cute hairstyle if it got wet. She was in the girls' room trying to salvage her braids by pinning them when two Junior girls she recognized walked in. One was Megan Johnson, Jake Michael's girlfriend. The other was named Caitlyn. Charlie hadn't met her, but she had seen her around. Caitlyn walked over and stood next to her in the mirror while Megan entered one of the stalls.

"Bzzz," Caitlyn made a buzzing sound that seemed to be directed at Charlie.

Charlie stopped messing with her hair, and looked at her slightly confused.

"Bzz," she did it again.

"Can I help you?" Charlie asked her, thoroughly weirded out by this girl's behavior.

"What's that?" Caitlyn pretended like she didn't hear her, even though she clearly did.

Charlie, now pissed, turned to face her. "Why are you making that buzzing noise at me?"

"OH that," Caitlyn fake laughed. "I was just thinking about how you remind me of a fly."

"Excuse me?" Charlie said, squaring up to her. "What the hell is your problem?"

"You, because you're annoying, like a fly," Caitlyn responded, not backing down.

Megan came out of the stall and joined them by the sinks to wash her hands.

"Come on Caitlyn, relax," she tried to reign in her friend.

Charlie's heart was pounding so hard she could hear it in her ears.

"You think you're all that cause Cassius Green asked you out, don't you?" Caitlyn continued, not deterred in the slightest.

Charlie had no idea how this girl even knew about Cassius and her. "What are you-"

Megan grabbed Caitlyn by the arm and forced her out of the bathroom. Caitlyn went with her but made one last buzzing noise at Charlie before she left.

Charlie just stood there for a few moments, her heart still racing. She looked down and her hands were shaking. The sudden confrontation was so unexpected. She didn't even know that girl. In all her other experiences with bullying, she never just had a girl walk up to her and start insulting her. It was always more passive and subtle than that. Usually it was like, leaving her out of things, or talking behind her back. She didn't know what to do with this.

She texted Taylor when she finally calmed down. A Junior girl just tried to start a fight with me in the girls' room over Cassius!

Taylor wrote back, Wtf, are you ok? Like a fist fight?

No but she got in my face and called me a fly. It was so weird at first, then she asked me if I thought I was the shit because he asked me out, Charlie relayed.

Which Junior girl was it? Taylor asked.

Caitlyn something, I don't know her last name. Friends with Megan.

Taylor responded. Oooo. I think Cassius has been hanging out with her, or at least he was, before you.

Hanging out? Charlie asked. Or dating?

Not dating, someone just said they showed up to a party together awhile ago, Taylor explained.

Oh god. Was going on this date going to open a can of worms for her at school? And what did 'showing up at a party together' mean about Cassius and Caitlyn?