Don't Complain If You Can't Win

"Meet me at our lockers," she said bluntly as soon as the phone on the other end was picked up. There hadn't been any greeting of some sort, but just a single demand she wanted to get through.

"What? Leighton?" Courtney asked from the other end, slightly shocked and confused of having her best friend that she hadn't talked to all summer finally call.

"Yeah, it's me, Court," Leigh said into the phone as she shoved her books into her bag and using her shoulder to hold her cell to her ear as she finished getting ready for the first day of her junior year. "Just, can you please meet me at our lockers when you get to school?"

"Okay, yeah, Leigh, I'll, I'll meet you there," she replied with a slight twinge of hesitance in her voice. She hadn't heard from her best friend in months since she last told Leighton not to call until she was herself once again.

After hanging up the phone, she dropped it in her bag and slipped on her black, turquoise, and white flip flops that matched her outfit before heading for the front door, stopping in a mirror on the way. Leighton smiled and flattened her turquoise v-neck and white undershirt before turning to the side and examining herself. Once satisfied, she tucked strands of her brown hair behind her ear while smiling, grabbed her keys and headed to her new car she got since she just recently got her driver's license.

Kids were everywhere as she pulled into the student parking lot; many of them were talking about the parties that had happened over the weekend and how "shit faced" and "wasted" so-and-so had gotten. When Leighton finally found an empty parking space, she shut off her car and got out, locking the doors and coming around it to get to the main building. She noticed the people parked next to her staring as she walked, but she didn't care. Self-consciousness flew out the window for her a long time ago.

A slight smirk was held along her face as she walked through the corridor of the school and headed down the hall to her locker. It was the first time in a long while where she actually felt good about herself; months went by where she literally felt disgusted with who she had become because a few guys, some who didn't even attend Towson High, had gotten the best of her with their horrific torture that she just had to change herself. And that, she did. Leighton loved how she felt now; she felt like the typical "normal" teenager she would see in a movie or even walking down the hall of her school.

Leighton Warner was once again happy, maybe even happier with herself than she was before she was put in such a predicament.

About twenty feet ahead of her, she saw the familiar blonde digging inside her locker, piling in books for the new school year inside and adorning the door with a few knick knacks as decoration. Stopping for a brief second to inhale deeply and to prepare herself, Leighton move forward slowly and tightened her grip on her bag until she reached her own locker. She twisted in the combination without saying a word but noticing Courtney glance at her direction with a friendly smile before turning back to what she was previously doing. It took another moment for Courtney's head to quickly snap in Leigh's direction after she realized that was her friend.

"Oh my, God, Leighton?!" she shrieked, taking a step back.

She stood their smiling for a second and shut her locker closed. "Long time, no see, Court," Leighton told her, hoisting her book-free tote bag higher on her shoulder.

Courtney's eyes were as big as quarters as she stared at the girl, not really knowing what to say. "I'm speechless, Leigh! Look at you!" she waved her hands at her friend. "You're..you're...oh my God."

"I'm at my goal weight, Courtney," Leighton told her.

"You're so skinny, I mean, how'd you do it?" she, too, closed her locker and started walking through the halls. "You're a whole new person; look! Everyone's staring at you!"

"I know, it feels really good," she said genuinely. "I was strict on my diet and worked out constantly. I actually got myself a personal trainer at the gym who kicked my ass, literally." Leighton chuckled as they turned the hall.

A small smile was plastered on Courtney's face as she looked down at her gladiator sandals before looking back up at her friend. "You look really good; I'm happy for you, Leighton."

"Thanks, Court," she nearly whispered and looked down at the tanned tile flooring. "I really want to apologize for how I acted; I just hope we can continue on with where we left off?"

"I'd like that a lot," Courtney grinned happily.

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The pair laughed together, feeling happy about once again being together as friends as they sat at a picnic table eating their lunch in the quad. She popped a piece of dressing-free lettuce into her mouth as she told a story that happened to her over summer break to Courtney who covered her mouth in shock before bursting into hysterics. Leighton chuckled to herself and picked a crouton from her salad to set aside.

"I can't believe you pretended to puke and scared off your mom's date," Courtney laughed and picked up her turkey sandwich. "Before they even left the house."

"I wish you were there, Court, you seriously would have died! The look on my mom's face after he left and after she found out I was joking, was priceless!"

"You pretended to puke?" that familiar nails on a chalkboard voice sounded as two girls waltzed up to their table as if they owned everything. "Have you had so much practice that you are actually able to pretend now?" Vivian shifted her weight to one leg and checked her manicured nails.

"Yeah, Leighton, how many times did you have to throw up to get skinny?" Brooke shot at her which caused Leigh to roll her eyes and Courtney to raise an eyebrow.

"Please, I'm not bulimic like you, Vivian," Leighton defended and closed her salad container. Vivian gasped and glared harshly. "I have a healthy way of keeping in shape; I don't need to vomit up every meal."

"That was one time! Gosh, Leighton, get over yourself, would you?" She rolled her eyes at the two girls and threw away her lunch in the trash that was at the end of the table. "Anyway, I just came over to see if you'd like to go shopping with us. Y'know, like old times when the four of us were BFFs, at least this time, you can try on dresses and fit into them. Well, probably into the biggest sizes they have since you're still a little chubby."

With a disgusted sigh, Leighton stood up and pulled her bag over her shoulder. "Maybe some other time; I'm sort of busy doing my own thing with people who matter." She got up and walked away with Courtney in tow and ignored the comment Vivian made about her mattering more than anyone.

"I can't believe her sometimes," Leigh vented as they walked around the campus, waiting for the bell to ring, signaling the end of lunch. "She's such a, a gosh, for lack of better words, a horrible person! I can't believe I was actually friends with her!"

Courtney nodded in agreement silently. "Leighton? Can I ask you a question?"

"Of course," she smiled small and waited.

"How, um, how did you really lose the weight?" she muttered softly, hoping her best friend wouldn't take offense to what she wanted to know.

"I told you, Court. I maintained a strict diet and exercise plan. It's really easy to stick with now and I plan to keep using it for a long time," Leighton explained. "My trainer helped me and I hope to lose a bit more weight. I have the potential, I just don't want to lose so much at one time; it might make people wonder."

With a nod of her head, Courtney didn't say anything else. "You do believe me, right?" Leigh asked, stopping before the entrance of the building and taking a hold of her friend's arm.

"I do believe you, I really do, Leighton, it's just, well, a little mind boggling how you lost that much weight in like, six months maybe seven? I'm your best friend, I can't help but wonder if you really did it the healthy way you claim to have done it," she told her with a twinge of worry in her voice.

"Courtney, please don't worry. From the start, I vowed I wouldn't pull some crazy, dangerous, ridiculous stunt to lose weight in a way that could potentially kill me. And I didn't," she started. "I put all the effort I had into eating right and exercising a lot. I like my food; I wouldn't eat just to throw it back up or not eat at all. I swear to you and I swear on our friendship that I lost eighty pounds the right way," Leighton smiled. "I value our friendship more than anything."

"I believe you, Leigh," Courtney said and hugged her best friend as the bell rang. "I've got English now; what do you have?"

"Ugh, Chemistry. Wish me luck!" she chuckled and waved off her best friend as they walked in different directions to their classes.

Hoisting her bag up higher on her shoulder. Leighton headed down the hall to her Chemistry class she has been dreading all day. As she walked through the door, the loud voices of her classmates rose even louder as they sat atop their desks, talking to their friends. It seemed as though each kid competed to have the loudest voice because each second, someone would talk louder and louder. After groaning to herself, Leighton took an empty seat in the fifth row back from the door and waited for the teacher to arrive.

When he walked in, he shushed the class just as the bell rang and her classmates slowly quieted down. The teacher stood in front of the class and clasped his hands together, readying himself for his beginning of the year speech.

"Welcome class; this is Chemistry. I'm sure we'll all have such a fun year together," he started and the class groaned. "It's nice to see some familiar faces but to those who don't know me, I'm Mr. Hol-" he stopped from the classroom door being opened.

Leighton's jaw merely fell to the floor when he walked through, and seeing his face only made her heart stop. He walked in with a slight smirk, fixing his nose ring and the teacher just shook his head. "Ah, Mr. Merrick; it's good to see you in my class once again," he said sarcastically.

"Oh, c'mon, Mr. Holden! How could I not come back to be in my favorite teacher's class again?" Zack announced with just as much amount of sarcasm, if not more.

"Take a seat, Mr. Merrick; it'd be nice of you to show up on time for my class at least once this year," Mr. Holden told him and some of the kids who seemed to have known Zack snickered.

Leighton was too absorbed in Zack actually being in one of her classes that she couldn't seem to tear her eyes away from him. She saw him take a seat at an empty lab desk in the second row near the big window on the other end of the classroom; she saw him nod to this guy seated next to him as he whispered something to Zack. Leighton noticed him not paying attention to what Mr. Holden was saying, much like she hadn't been paying attention either. She even saw when he turned his head and locked eyes with her, that was when she finally tore her eyes from him and looked up at the teacher with a blush forming along her cheeks.

Biting the inside of her lip, she averted her head to look at Zack, her stomach doing a flip when he was still looking at her. Her heart skipped a beat when he smiled at her and gave her a head nod; her stomach flopped once more when she felt herself smiling back at him.