Slow Down, it's all Legit

I was still the school teacher seducer though, so I had plenty of other things to worry about. Emmett just laughed at me when I told him all of the stories that had come from the rumor, but I didn’t want to tell Mr. Hurley because that would have been beyond weird. He was a good guy, but I was not comfortable telling him things like that. Emmett was still just one of us so I really didn’t have a problem talking to him.

We had moved on to playing football since I won the pickle ball match against Emmett. All the guys were totally cool with playing football and a select few girls, but most of the girls were very resentful that I had chosen the sport. I really could not help that I loved playing the game, but they apparently couldn’t help but hate me for it.

Whatever. I really did not feel like caring about some overly obnoxious, completely hopeless wannabe posers. I had better things to do than waste my time sweating over a rumor that so obviously had no crumb of truth to it. As if there was not enough drama on daytime television.

Emmett, Zander, and I were talking after class since it was the end of the day and Emmett told me about a local powder puff team that he thought would be great for me. I wasn’t so sure about that. Zander outright laughed in my face when the suggestion was brought to the table and that I so did not appreciate. And the fact that I knew exactly why he laughed made me even more upset at him, though I knew he was only joking.

He didn’t think I would do it because of my dancing. He thought that if I tried to do it, I would wimp out because, as I had been afraid of, I was first and foremost a dancer. But he didn’t know anything. Dancing was tough, and I don’t care who disagreed with that statement. They obviously have never taken true, hardcore dance classes before. If they had, there was no way they would be saying any crap about that sport.

Anyway, I told Emmett that I would have loved to do it, but I was focusing all of my energy on snowboarding at the time. After all, that was what I had been shipped to Mammoth Lakes to do in the first place.

Speaking of being shipped off rather unceremoniously to Mammoth Lakes, I had yet to talk to my father. I had called him numerous times in the time I had spent there, but he would never return my calls and I must say that it really hurt. Just because I did not want to be a dancer, he no longer wanted to be a part of my life. I didn’t think it was quite fair.

“Ber!” I heard being shouted across the nearly empty hallway, distracting me from my very unrelated thoughts. School had been over for a while, but Zander and I were still talking to Emmett. Of course, it was Mason that was calling me. He was the only one who felt it necessary to call me Ber.

“What do you want Mason?” I asked with an agitated voice. I was taking out the irritation I felt for Zander on him because that was easiest.

“Chill chica, what’s up with you?”

“Zander is just being stupid, that’s all,” I mumbled, knowing full well that Zander did not even know that fact yet.

“What, why? What did I do to you?” he wondered, completely confused by my random declaration of agitation.

I could see that Emmett did not want to stick around for the showdown that was sure to transpire so he started to walk away from the scene. A wise decision. Then again, he didn’t know about my dancing, so it was probably best so that I didn’t have yet another person in on the fact that I own leotards.

“I know what that laugh was about Zander, and do not try to act like you have no idea what I’m talking about because I know you do,” I hissed. “Just because I was a dancer, and now you know that it was legit, you think you can laugh at me when someone tells me to join a powder puff league.”

“Dude, why the hell would you laugh at her for something like that? You know she would be an amazing football player, probably more so because of the fact that she danced,” Mason reprimanded. I enjoyed the fact that he was on my side this time.

“Do you know what the shirt says that at least half the dancers I know wear? That shirt says ‘if dance was any easier, it would be called football.’ Maybe you would look at the shirt and think it was a joke but it is the honest to God truth. We worked so hard so that we could prove that we were contenders, serious contenders, as a sport. Believe it or not, we were legit.”

“I didn’t mean anything by it Amberlinne, seriously,” Zander defended. “It’s just that the thought of you playing powder puff football made me laugh.”

“I don’t know why you think it’s so funny, but it’s people like you that make dancers seem like a joke to everyone else. We work twice as hard to prove ourselves yet one sentence or laugh like yours can ruin the entire thing.”

With that, Mason and I left the school, leaving Zander standing there, looking very hurt and confused. Maybe I shouldn’t have gotten so bent out of shape, but it always made me so angry when people dissed my dancing. As if they would ever be able to do any of the things that we were required to do.

Mason made me feel better on the drive home, something I will forever be grateful for; he always knew how to make me smile. Whether I wanted to be cheered up or not, Mason was there to make it better. He was completely ridiculous, but at the moment, that was exactly what I needed.

Luke was sitting in my kitchen when we got home, looking very comfortable with a mug of something hot. When he saw us walk in, a mischievous smirk graced his lips and I knew that there was something up his sleeve. Mason realized that too.

“Luke, dude, what are you up to?” he wondered suspiciously.

“Well, I will have you know that there is nothing bad going on in my head right now,” Luke stated, sounding offended. We both stared pointedly at him. “Okay, there is nothing bad that concerns you two at this moment, let’s put it that way. But I do know that Shaun just bought a whole bunch of cooking supplies and he informed me that you were an excellent cook. So make me some cookies!”

“How on earth does Shaun know I can bake?” I asked. Luke only shrugged.

So, I decided to make the boys some of my famous double chocolate brownie cookies and, I must say, they were a bit too excited about it. Yes, my cookies were great and the name made them sound very appetizing, but they did not need to get so excited.

You would have thought they were falling in love when they ate my cookies. Seriously, they looked like they had just died and went to heaven with the way they smiled and groaned at the ‘amazingness of my cookies.’ Whatever that meant. They scared me most of the time, but I left them alone with the food and went to start on my homework.