Twenty-Five

                                    

                                          
Most people will admit that they didn't like high school. I was definitely one of those people. Actually, I hated it, with everything in me. The academic part wasn't so bad, but the social side was hell in all senses of the word. 
                          
I hated watching kids get teased and pushed around; I hated seeing girls try so hard to be likable, only to get laughed at, but most of all, I hated that I didn't stand up for them. It wasn't in my nature to leave my comfortable little bubble. Sure, I'd stood up for myself before, and I could throw a decent punch, but that was only when I got pushed too far. 
                          
I'd been fairly optimistic on the drive to school, following Torrin. With Blake and Kellan there, things had to be at least tolerable, right? It wasn't until I killed the engine of my pickup on the cement pad of the lower parking lot that all of my hopes went flying out the window. 
                          
Crawling from the passenger seat of a red Honda Civic a few feet away from me was a freshman girl in a pair of shorts she would probably get sent home for wearing. A senior boy had pulled up at about the same time I did and she purposely kept her back end to him, exaggerating the swinging of her hips as she walked. While that was bad enough, a handful of senior girls stood together, and--quite loudly--voiced my thoughts about her making a fool of herself for no reason. As usual, I couldn't bring myself to say a word. 
                          
Instead, I leaned back in my seat with an irritated sigh and ran a hand through my blonde waves. 
                          
Some things never change. 
                          
Kellan and Blake's arrival a few minutes later interrupted my session of self-abuse for being a wimp. He swung his shiny, black Ford onto the cement pad at my right and revved the engine with a grin. 
                          
"Hey, cowgirl!" Blake hollered, leaning over Kellan to flash me a smile. 
                          
"Get off," he muttered, though he didn't actually seem irritated. 
                          
He killed his engine and the pair of them hopped out before crowding up to my open window.
                          
"Ready to give us a tour?" Blake asked, blue eyes sparkling in excitement. 
                          
"What you see is what you get," I shrugged, motioning to the sprawling two-story brick building with faded green trim in strange places. The building was ancient; it had been erected in probably the forties. My grandparents were in one of the first graduating classes, and my parents had followed. Now my brothers and I were the third generation of Paxtons to attend Fairview Junior/Senior High School. 
                          
"Where do you guys usually hang out in the mornings?" Blake cut in, swinging the fraying strap of her red and black backpack higher up on her shoulder. 
                          
"Um, Charlie and the boys would always stand in the stairwell there, by the window," I pointed up to the open space one floor above the school entrance. A handful of freshman and sophomore boys were already huddled in the small area, talking and laughing. "But it looks like we'll have to find somewhere else, now."
                          
"What, why?" Blake gawked at me. 
                          
"Because there's already people there?"
                          
"So? What are they, freshman? Seniority rules. We just gotta kick 'em out!" 
                          
"Blake, that sounds like a pretty good way to make enemies instead of friends," Kellan commented hesitantly. 
                          
"Like I care," she shrugged, already taking a few more steps towards the doors. "It's not like I want to be popular anyway."
                          
Kellan and I shared a glance, both shaking our heads, before following Blake up the covered flight of stairs into the school. 
                          
"So, where are we going?" She asked, looking slightly lost.