“No, the opposite. It was so immaculate, my mom asked if I spent the whole time cleaning—which I pretty much did,” Aaliyah laughed, “I vacuumed the carpets and hallways four times, and blotted that one spot Dylan bled on more than I care to remember. It was a fun party, though, wasn’t it?”
“For sure,” Val smiled, “Although, next time I wish you’d warn me before I almost get dragged into a strip poker game. I was like legitimately freaking out for a minute or so there.”
Aaliyah laughed, “Yeah, sorry about that. I didn’t think you’d mind.”
“Well I mean, you saw how bad I was. I would’ve lost all my clothes in a second.”
“That’s a good point. But on the other hand, it’s not like you should be ashamed of your body.”
Carrie looked actively distressed by their conversation, “I’m with Val on this. Playing games like that is just—immature.”
“It may be immature, but sometimes being immature can be fun,” Aaliyah argued, “It was just an innocent game.”
Val was torn between the two; she wasn’t sure she agreed with Carrie, but on the other hand the game on Friday hadn’t seemed so innocent. “If I were to play strip poker or a game like that,” she said, “I’d want to do it with guys I knew really well, and trusted to—like not brag to their friends or something.”
Aaliyah laughed, “Okay, next time we do it, I’ll let you hand pick who we play with. Sound good?”
“Sounds good.”
The rest of the half-period rushed by; Val was surprised that she had become such good friends with Aaliyah in such a short time, although she reasoned that their personalities were so similar that the friendship made sense.
Everyone seemed interested in what had happened at Aaliyah’s party—even Keenan asked about it in Italian—and as a result Val got tired of telling the story. In Chemistry, Keenan tried to press Val for more details—like why she’d allowed Dylan to drive her home, and what her parents had said when she appeared home without getting a ride from Dad—but Val repeated the same vague answers she’d given earlier.
After the end of school, Val took longer than usual putting her things back in her bag; Mr. Phillips’ lesson of the day had required a calculator, and Val was having trouble getting hers to shut down. She finally decided to put it away without turning it off, figuring it would shut down by itself when the batteries ran out. Val looked up to find that the only other people still in the room were Jenny and Mr. Phillips; Jenny approached the teacher’s desk.
“Mr. Phillips,” Jenny said, “Can I change seats?”
Val gulped, and headed for the exit; she was almost certain that the reason Jenny wanted to move was because of her.
“Why do you want to move, Miss Curtis?” Mr. Phillips asked.
“I can’t see the board. There’s—glare.”
Val’s hand closed around the handle; she tried to open the door quietly.
“There aren’t any windows in this room, Miss Curtis. I don’t see how there could be glare. But, I suppose, if you can’t see—“ Val left the room before he finished his sentence; part of her wanted to stay to find out how the conversation would go, but she felt it would be wrong to intrude any more than she had to.
The conversation must have ended soon after Val left; less than a minute after Val sat in her usual seat in the cafeteria for Student Gov, Jenny joined her. She tried to sit with the Trio, although the three girls were barely welcomed her.
Sophia quickly struck up a conversation, “So Val, we have to start planning the Homecoming dance. Do you have any ideas?”
Val nodded, “A few. I was thinking we should have a theme—“
“Of course we should have a theme!” Jenny interrupted, “What kind of dance doesn’t have a theme? Geeze Val, you’re so brilliant.”
Val gritted her teeth and ignored the other girl, “But it should be something that’s not usually done. I was thinking like a ‘Luck of The Irish’ night or something, cause our school color is green—“ she trailed off, unsure how her friends would respond.
“I dunno,” Ella looked off into the distance, “I can’t really see it.”
“Yeah,” Zoey agreed, “What would we do to make it Irish?”
“Well we could all wear green, and like four leaf clovers and—“
“Dumb,” Jenny interrupted again.
“I’m just trying to come up with ideas,” Val huffed, “It’s not like I think this is the best idea ever. I’m just trying to get the ball rolling.”
“I think it could work,” Grant came to Val’s rescue, “Personally, I think wearing a green tux would be cool.”
“Yeah,” Alex smiled, “That would be cool. And you could think of other things like that that would be related, you know. Like get U2 to play a couple of songs.”
Val laughed, “Yeah, right. Like we could do that.”
“You haven’t seen our budget yet,” Alex pointed out, “If we spent it all on flying Bono out here and setting him up in a great hotel, who knows, he might just do it. I hear he’s big into charity.”
“I didn’t know we were a charity case,” Jenny sniped.
“What harm could there be in trying though?” Alex asked; every one of the freshmen but Jenny nodded enthusiastically.
“But what would we do for the Homecoming Assembly?” Ella asked; the freshmen were responsible for setting up the assembly as well as the dance, which took the form of a competition between the different grade levels. “Like what would the different classes do? Last year I hear they did superheroes: the seniors were Superman, and the juniors were Batman, and so on. So what would we do for that if the theme was ‘Irish’?”
Val shrugged, “We could do different Celtic deities. Like—well, I don’t know any. But you get the point.”
“That would be awesome!” Grant declared, “As long as we don’t get saddled with a stupid one.”
“I still don’t see the connection,” Jenny announced to no one in particular.
“Our school colors are green and gold; it works,” Val explained.
They continued discussing the possibilities; everyone seemed to be excited for the assembly and dance by the time Student Gov finished, even though they were still a month away. She was surprised that Avery didn’t come to Student Gov; the senior didn’t seem like the type of girl who usually missed something so important to her. She hasn’t retaliated for the Porter rumors yet, Val thought, worrying what Avery might be planning.
Since the freshmen were only brainstorming anyway, Val decided they should go home and reconvene on Wednesday to discuss whatever new ideas they all could come up with. Val’s hopes of arriving early to soccer practice dimmed when Colin accosted her on her way out of the cafeteria.
“What are you planning on doing for Homecoming?” he asked.
“We’re going with an Irish theme, cause it fits with our school colors.”
Colin cocked his head, “But our mascot’s a knight—“
“Yeah, but I’ve never really gotten that. I’ve seen leprechauns with gold and green, but I’ve never seen a knight look like that.”
“You’ve never seen a real knight,” Colin pointed out.
“Yeah, that’s true. But I’ve seen them in movies.”
Colin laughed, “Oh, excuse me then. If you’ve never seen it in a movie there must never have been gold and green knights.”
“Hold up, are you saying there were actually gold and green knights?”
“Naw, that would be stupid,” Colin grinned, “I mean, have you seen our mascot? He looks dumber than the Gentry Lion.”
Val nodded, “Well there you are. That’s why we went with Irish. We were thinking that like for the assembly each class could be a God.”
“Do you know who the Irish gods are?”
“No,” Val admitted, “But we know they have them. Who knows, maybe it’ll be a learning experience.”
Colin frowned, “You know, the three years I’ve done this the class competition mascot
s have always been pop culture icons. Like superheroes, or famous musicians—that one was cool, cause the Seniors had Kiss and they all used face paint and—anyways—I guess what I’m saying is no one really knows who the Irish Gods are.”
“Yeah, but—I don’t know, I think it’s worth trying. I’ll look up the Irish Gods though, and see if there are at least four good ones.”
“Maybe—You wanna hear my suggestion?” Val nodded, and Colin continued, “I would do famous mythical creatures related to Ireland. Like leprechauns, and druids, and—I can’t think of any others, but you get the point. Just about everyone knows what leprechauns are, and druids are easy enough to explain—honestly the seniors will probably choose to be leprechauns.” Although the freshmen were allowed to select the Homecoming Assembly and Dance theme, the selection of mascots within that theme was ordered from oldest to youngest, meaning seniors always got first pick.
“Are fairies Irish?” Val asked.
Colin shrugged, “They probably had fairies. That’s a good idea; and you only need one more, then.” He looked at his wrist; for the first time, Val noticed the very expensive watch attached to it. “Whoa, you have to go to soccer practice, right?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Better go, if you don’t wanna be late.”
“Oh, alright. See you Wednesday!” Val walked toward the locker rooms; she checked the time on her phone and increased her pace. There were only five more minutes before the practice was set to start.
Even though she was the last girl out of the locker room, Val made it to the soccer field with a few seconds left. Mr. Swinn nodded as she arrived, “Alright, everyone’s here. I brought our new jerseys—they’re here somewhere. Oh wait,” the coach frowned as he looked at the parking lot, “I might have left them in my car. Hang on girls, I’ll be back in just a minute. Run a few laps around the field while I’m gone.” He jogged away from the gathered team; Avery took off first, bounding towards the white line that marked the soccer field’s edge. Val was close behind, along with the rest of the team; she caught up with Avery halfway through their first lap. The older girl scowled and ignored Val, who was fine with the response. At least she didn’t try to trip me or anything.
Val fell back on the third lap, even though she still managed to finish with the first group of girls. Val and a couple of others panted with hands on knees while they waited for everyone else to finish.
Avery strutted up to Val, “Awh, too much for you?” She smirked, “Maybe you should take up a less demanding sport. I hear the bowling team has an open spot.”
Val stood up straight then, and forced her breathing back to normal, “This isn’t too much for me. In fact, I was just taking a break before my second set of laps.” She glanced at the parking lot to make sure Coach was still far enough that she wouldn’t delay practice by running more laps, and then took off.
It quickly became clear that running more than she had to was a bad idea. Val developed a stitch in her side a quarter of the way through her fourth lap, when Scarlett joined her.
“Didn’t want you to be the only one running a fourth lap,” Scarlett explained.
“Thanks.” Val’s normally confident stride had fallen to a lope as they started on their fifth lap. To her surprise, she noticed the entire team start out after her and Scarlett.
“What are they doing?” Val asked Scarlett.
The redhead shook her head, “I dunno. Following our example, I guess.”
When they finished their sixth lap around the field, Val again struggled to control her breathing. Avery finished a half minute later; somehow she didn’t look tired at all. “Good idea, running extra laps. Good way to sort out all the girls who are in shape versus those who—desperately need to lay off the twinkies,” she looked at Val’s stomach meaningfully.
“I’ve never eaten a twinkie in my life!” Val rolled her eyes, “Besides, I know I weigh less than you.”
Avery ignored the dig; she turned to the team, the majority of whom had finished their extra laps. “Let’s all be sure and thank Val for her wonderful suggestion! Great idea, Val!” there was no hint of sarcasm in her voice; Val noticed several angry looks from her teammates.
“Yes, great idea,” Mr. Swinn agreed, “Although the purpose of a pre-practice jog is really more to wake you girls up than to tire you out—“ he waved a hand dismissively, “Oh well. Here, have a look at your jerseys!” he held up a green jersey trimmed with shimmering gold; Val’s immediate impression was that under any other circumstances she wouldn’t be caught dead wearing such a garish ensemble, but she held her tongue.
“Wow, great jerseys, Coach!” Avery cooed, “Is that mine?”
“Yes ma’am. Number one, like always.” He handed the jersey to Avery, and pulled out more jerseys, calling out names as he handed them out.
“Hunter!” Val stepped forward; “You have your choice of a couple of numbers, since you’re one of our Freshmen. You can be zero-zero or—“ Coach looked down at his feet, where several jerseys lay strewn, “—or sixty-nine.”
“Oh—sixty-nine will be fine,” Val didn’t enjoy the prospect of being zero-zero; it had always seemed like a non-number for sports to her, since single zero was also a legal number. She took the plastic package with her jersey in it from Mr. Swinn, who continued handing out the rest of the packages.
Val ripped the plastic open, and was momentarily surprised to find another jersey below the mainly green one. This one was—if it was possible—even worse; it featured gold as the primary color, with green trimming. Val hid a look of disgust, and looked at Scarlett, who was unwrapping her own jerseys a few feet away. They shared a look that revealed the other girl felt just the same as Val about their jerseys; Scarlett shrugged and traded her old jersey for the new one. Val slipped the green jersey on over her other clothes.
Once everyone had put their jerseys on, Mr. Swinn gave them some drills to work on. “Who here can juggle?” Everyone’s hand went up. “Good, good. And how many of you can juggle more than a hundred times?” All hands but Val’s and Avery’s went down; Avery flushed with anger when their eyes met.
“Prove it,” Mr. Swinn tossed them each a ball from a large sack he had brought along with the jerseys. Avery caught hers, but Val dropped the one Coach tossed at her; Avery and a couple of other girls laughed loudly. “And the rest of you,” Mr. Swinn emptied the bag of balls in front of him, “Grab a ball, grab a partner to keep count, and get juggling.”
Val stayed where she was, and so did Avery; Mr. Swinn motioned for them to start once the rest of the team had spread out. Val dropped the ball and kicked it up with a knee, falling into a familiar rhythm as she kept it in the air for ten bounces, then twenty, and thirty. Around twenty-five bounces she slipped up and her ball fell nearly to the ground, but a well-place kick sent it shooting back into the air. Val headed it and then returned it to her knees. She managed to get to seventy before a sideways knee sent her ball spiraling in the wrong direction; Val desperately kicked to the side, and even succeeded in touching the ball, but it fell to the ground a few feet away. Avery smiled as Val walked over to retrieve it; her gloating was cut short when her own ball went flying toward the far goal. “Sorry, it slipped away from me,” she said to Mr. Swinn before moving to retrieve it.
They continued juggling for a long time; Val managed to reach a hundred touches twice. Avery only accomplished the feat once, although she swore that Coach had miscounted when he told her she’d made it to ninety-eight before dropping the ball. “Impressive,” Mr. Swinn commented. Then he blew his whistle to signal the end of the drill and set them to a passing drill very similar to the one from last Wednesday. After the passing drill, practice ended with a skirmish, as Val had come to expect. She ended up on the opposite team from Avery, and the older girl was not gentle with her slide tackles, one of which sent Val sprawling face-down into the grass.
“Hey!” Coach yelled, “I shouldn’t have to give out yellow cards in practice! For God’s sake, Av
ery, take it easy!” She didn’t though; Val had quite an excellent collection of bruises when practice finished.
In the locker room, Avery used the locker right next to Val’s; it wasn’t her usual spot, and Val found it disconcerting to be in such a vulnerable position right next to a girl who obviously was not fond of her.
Avery waited until Val had stripped down to her underwear, and then said, “So you like to steal boyfriends, huh?” her wild look dared Val to defy her.
“I didn’t take anyone’s boyfriend,” Val gulped and resumed changing, trying to seem calm.
“That’s not what I—or any of the rest of us—heard. Isn’t that right, Selin?”
A stocky girl with jet-black hair responded, “It’s not what I heard. I heard you’re quite the little jezebel.”
Val stared wide-eyed at the girl, what did I do to make her mad at me? “Nothing happened. You can even ask Porter!” she pleaded.
Avery laughed, “Of course you’d both deny it. But something obviously happened; all the signs are there.” She locked eyes with Val, “You’ll be happy to know I ditched the cheating bastard, so he’s all yours, homewrecker.”
“Hey,” Val breathed a sigh when she noticed it was Scarlett who had spoken, “Let’s all just calm down, okay?”
Avery twisted her head around slowly, “Do you believe this liar, Scarlett?”
“Yeah, I do actually,” Scarlett squared her jaw, “What reason would she have to lie?”
“Oh, I don’t know—maybe avoiding my wrath?”
Scarlett actually laughed—Val admired her courage, given the situation—“Your wrath, Avery? What are you, a sixteenth century witch?”
Scarlett’s courage made Val feel brave too, “No, she thinks she’s queen of the school!” she joked. Several girls within earshot laughed.
Avery closed the short distance between her and Val; the tips of their noses touched. “I said I didn’t hate you before—I do now. You are fucking dead. Your life is over—and if you disagree, that’s just because you haven’t realized it yet.” With a huff, Avery stormed off.