Take a Sad Song and Make It Better

Bailey's POV

“Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fu--”

“Mr. Barakat!!” An older teacher exclaimed, so astonished that she didn’t blink for a whole minute as she went on to scold him for language. As soon as her elongated speech was over and she walked away, Jack left off where he was before he got interrupted.

“--ck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck,” Jack continued to talk and Alex walked down the hallway beside me, counting silently. “Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…” The bell rang. “…fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck…FUCK! I was on a roll!”

“1,208. Damn, I thought we were going to beat it today.”

“Fuck man, I thought today was going to be the day too,” Jack said disappointedly. I rolled my eyes and chuckled. Alex and Jack walked me to physics everyday because we all had the same class, but all different teachers.

“I thought that was a record breaker? Last week you only got 884,” I said quietly.

“Nope,” Alex said. “Jack got 1,781 earlier in September. And that’s not even close to his record last year!” Jack laughed at the memory. “2,058 fucks in one passing time!” Both of the boys laughed at what Alex just said and I laughed lightly too. “Jack’s a fucking god! “

“Bye guys!” I said and we exchanged our three-way hug before we separated. I did the math in my head, that’s five “fucks” per seconds to break the record. I shook my head and laughed at the thought of Jack and Alex trying to break their record of saying fuck. I bet if the teacher hadn’t interrupted him, he would have broken it; his tongue was loose today. Maybe next Wednesday he would break the record during passing time.

School was pretty easy for me so I never dreaded it a lot or hated being there. The days usually flew by and especially now, with me in a feel-good mood, I actually looked forward to school everyday. I loved where I was at; waking up and getting a ride to school, breezing through my classes and enjoying my friendships, going home and running, then hanging out with friends and then I went to bed and got to do it all over again. Yeah, I was still hesitant, but Lutherville was doing just what I wanted it to do. I was taking it easy.

“So do you guys want to go see a movie tonight? I know Lisa had been talking about a movie with her friends, you want to come?” Alex asked me and Jack as we left our physics class rooms.

“Can’t. I’m grounded.”

“What for this time?” Alex asked, like it was one Jack’s normal occurrences.

“Well I’m not yet, but once I show my mom this detention slip,” Jack help up a pink piece of paper, “I will be.”

Alex snatched the paper from him and read it over. “‘Groping inanimate objects’?” I burst out laughing. “Nice one, man. It’s like Kurtovich is running out of reasons to send you to the office, she just makes up shit,” Alex laughed.

Jack started acting like a New York cab driver, “Aye, what can you do, what can ya do?” I chuckled at the two best friends and we all stopped at my locker so I could put my books away and Alex and Jack started talking about band stuff while I got out my English books.

“Hey beautiful,” Kaylie said as she approached my locker.

I opened my mouth to respond but Jack spoke up first, throwing his arm around my shoulders obnoxiously. He looked at Kaylie and smirked, “Well hey yourself, sexy.”

“Jack, shut up,” she said, not really paying attention.

“Anything for you, doll face,” he lisped and leaned over to try and give her an Eskimo kiss.

“Jack, you--”

“Say my name! I love it when you say my name! Say it!” Jack screeched, but was cut short once Kaylie punched him in the gut. I laughed and ducked out of his arm to start walking with Kaylie to meet up with Jade and Melanie so we could go to English.

“Bye, Ja-- bye!” Kaylie yelled, catching herself, causing Jack, Alex and me to laugh. I waved goodbye over my shoulder and we lost ourselves in conversation.

“So how’s your day?” Kaylie asked.

“Pretty good. I have lots of homework already and it’s not even lunch time.”

“Me too! It sucks, and it’s only Tuesday! Hey, wanna hang out tonight and do it?”

“Sure!”

“Awesome.” We started up the steps once we didn’t see Jade or Melanie at their lockers, assuming they went to class. “So you and Jack seem pretty good now,” she commented happily.

“Yeah, I’m still hanging in there,” I joked.

“But seriously? Last week was horrible! It was so awkward; you didn’t act like you usually do. Well, Jack actually was normal, which is unusual for him and you just seemed pretty bummed.”

I thought back to the week before when Jack acted really cautious around me. I didn’t really comment back, and Kaylie took it as a sign to let the subject drop so I didn’t have to get in to it. I had confided in her before about Jack and all those personal questions he asked me. She knew it bugged me, but didn’t really understand why. Kaylie never bothered me about it though, she just listened and offered advise and I loved that about her; she could always cheer me up or at least try and make me feel better.

“--and damn, those fuckers went by so fast!” we overheard Melanie talking to Jade as we walked in to the English room.

“Oo,” Kaylie exclaimed, taking a seat in the group of desks and trying to get on the conversation. “What went fast?”

“These hot douches at Starbucks yesterday. And I mean they were like, fine!” Melanie said, making a flushed face at the thought of them.

“Did you get their numbers?” Kaylie asked intrigued.

“I almost asked, but then they got on their freaking mopeds and started acting like tools, so I didn’t.”

“Damn.”

“Why are you so disappointed, Kaylie?” Jade poked fun at the brunette, “don’t you have a thing with that curly hair kid?”

Kaylie flushed almost as pink as her red highlights in her hair, not realizing anyone knew about that.

“Alan?” Melanie pondered and looked at me for a confirmation. I had no idea what they were talking about so I shrugged innocently, not hiding anything.

“His name’s not Alan,” Kaylie sneered with a grimace, pushing Melanie’s elbow off her desk. “If you need to know,” she said trying to hide her smile, “it’s Adam.”

“Adam?! The kid who streaked at Homecoming freshman year Adam?!” Melanie burst out. Jade and I had no idea what Melanie was talking about, but we both threw our hands over our mouths and snickered quietly.

“Melanie Flyzik!” our teacher said harshly, “you are supposed to be reading.” She gestured around to the rest of the class to prove her point about silent reading time. Sometime during our conversation the class period had started and we weren’t aware of it.

Melanie brushed off the lecture like it was a simple grain of sand on her pants and continued interrogating Kaylie a little more quietly. Melanie was the kind of person who didn’t give a shit about people who told her what to do. Even though I could never do that, I admired that about her. I think that’s why Jade always hung out with Melanie; they liked doing their own thing.

“Hey,” Jade whispered loudly to Melanie and Kaylie who were giggling at something Kaylie said. “I want in on this.”

I nodded eagerly in agreement. It looked like they were sharing memories about freshman year and even though I had no idea who the people the two were talking about were, I loved hearing funny stories. “Yeah, you guys have to tell us these stories,” I whispered.

The teacher shushed us again. “You guys really are out of the loop on these things. We definitely need a gossip night!” Melanie said excitedly, now earning irritated glances from our classmates.

“Melanie,” our teacher said coldly. “I’m warning you.”

Melanie rolled her eyes, but quieted down and opened her book and started to read or pretended at least, before she turned in her seat toward me and Jade. “We should have a sleepover,” she whispered.

Jade and I both nodded excitedly. Kaylie mouthed silently “When?” and Melanie pondered over the question.

“Soon as possible. We have major things to talk about.” She winked at Kaylie and Kaylie groaned inwardly. “Friday?”

“Yeah!” the other three of us whispered back quickly.

“Girls,” the teacher said, very agitated that her silent reading time was being taken advantage of. “This is your first warning. Melanie that was your last.”

==========

“Damn it.”

“Dude, that sucks,” Jade said sadly as she looked over Melanie’s detention slip after class.

“She hates me! It never fails!” Melanie slapped a hand to her forehead.

“Well maybe you should stop talking during silent reading then,” Kaylie joked at her long lasting friend. Melanie crunched her nose up and sneered at Kaylie.

“Hey!” we all heard a voice hell down the hall. Jack came running awkwardly up to us, having trouble because he had has backpack on. “Is that the slip of hell that I spot in your hand?!” he said excitedly.

“Yup. Wait, don’t tell me?!”

“Hellz yeah, bitch!” Both Jack and Melanie held up their detention slips and exchanged high fives. “Detention buddies, reunited again!”

Jade and I laughed and Jack and Melanie exchanged papers.

“‘Groping inanimate objects.’ That’s a new one. Nice, Jackie,” Melanie smiled up at him and patted his shoulder, congratulating him.

“‘Disruptive in class’? Come on, Mel. You can do better than that.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don’t tell that to my mom. She’ll punch you. And then me.” Melanie groaned again. “I’m so dead!”

“What happened to the Melanie I used to know?” Jack joked. “Afterschool, Friday detention sessions were our specialty!”

“I finally got my fiftieth one. That’s what happened,” Melanie exaggerated.

“Shit, how are we going to get home? Alex dipped out last hour and he’s usually our ride.”

Jade looked at me, clearly as confused as me and then asked for both of us. “What? Just get Matt to drive you.”

Jack and Melanie cracked up. “Are you kidding?” she laughed more. “I can’t tell Matt. He’d tell my mom.”

I made an ‘o’ with my mouth, kind of understanding but not really.

“You see, Baybay,” Jack started, noticing the confused look on my face. “Alex was the only nice fella’ that would stick around for me and Mel to bring us home from detention. Everyone else splits. Damn fuckers.”

“Wait, Alex ditched?” Jade interrupted. Jack nodded. “That fucker. Now I have to go to class today.” I rolled my eyes at Jade. It would do her good to go to Math more than once a week. Jade actually looked disappointed though, I guess it was nice for her to talk to Alex, one-on-one. I wasn’t really sure what they talked about, but she seemed happy afterwards.

==========

We got Matt to give us a ride without Melanie, telling him she had to stay after for a project. I don’t think he bought it, but he didn’t have proof, so Melanie was safe. He dropped us off at the end of our driveway; no one liked to drive up our driveway so no one ever did. Sometimes Clara even parked her car in the street because it was so steep that backing out can be one of the scariest things to do.

I walked up to the door with Jade behind me and searched through my things to find the key to the front door. Jade, being impatient snatched hers out and shoved past me to unlock the door. Before I could step in the door, I heard a throat being cleared in my peripheral and I looked over quickly.

After seeing a blur of blond, I jumped halfway to the roof and screamed bloody murder. Jade came back towards me to see what happened and I was trying to steady my heart that was now beating uncontrollably. I kneeled on the ground and tried to steady my shaking hands. She looked at me worried for a second, not sure what made me so scared but after she looked around, she gave me an odd look and was the first one to speak.

“Oh hey, Zack”

The “blur of blond” stood up from the porch swing he was seated on and walked over to us chuckling. “Hello, Jay.” He crouched down on one knee and maneuvered his head so he could look up at me as I was kneeled on the ground, looking at the wood on the porch, flustered and trying to calm my nerves. He chuckled lightly again and his breath blew my loose hair lightly. “Hi, Bailey.”

I laughed, still shaky, and stood up. “Hi, Zack,” I breathed out embarrassed. I felt my cheeks redden the more Zack smiled at me, obviously still amused at my reaction to seeing him.

I took in his gym shorts, ripped t-shirt and the couple beads of sweat that sparkled on his skin. “I’m not that scary, am I?” he mocked, making me laugh and I shoved him slightly back before I led him in the house.

“Let me go change and we can go,” I said excitedly. After school Zack always jogged over to my house so we could run together, but he was never usually this early.

After slipping on running shorts, shirt and shoes, I hopped down the steps and yelled a quick farewell to Jade who was texting away on her phone.

“So, did you sprint here or what?” I asked Zack after we had been running in silence for a while.

“Nah. We had an assembly today for Boy’s soccer going to state or some shit like that. I don’t know. So I just left instead of going to the gym.”

“Wow, you’re such a bad kid, Zachary.”

“No, I’m just not a goodie-two shoe,” he said, joking. I knew he meant it light heartedly because I always told him about school and he always would make nerd jokes at me in return, but this time I pretended to pout and be offended.

He snickered at my reaction and bumped my shoulder like he always did, this time catching me off guard and making me trip over my feet. I caught myself before I fell flat on my face but I groaned because I had embarrassed myself two times in less than twenty minutes.

“You suck.”

Zack just continued laughing, “No I don’t.”

I bumped him back and smirked up at him. “Fine. You don’t.”