All The Pieces

I looked back up at her, completely ignoring the teacher trying to get everyone to shut up.

“Because so far, I find you interesting and I like you. You aren’t like the other girls,” I stated.

Her eyes looked away from her fingers and met mine. I went back to reading my book without another word. She stared at me for a few minutes. I could feel her eyes searching, trying to figure out something that wasn’t that complicated.

The teacher finally snapped a ruler against her desk. Everyone shut up and looked forward to finally pay attention. The teacher let out a huff before continuing her lesson, which I continued to ignore.

After the bell rang, I got up to leave the class. Viola was moving slowly. I glanced around at the people staring and whispering about her. One of them obviously seemed to be the leader of the group. She looked so smug.

I furrowed my brow and looked at Viola. She was avoiding them all. She was chewing on her lip feverishly. I wouldn’t be surprised if it started bleeding from being so raw.

The leader of the group caught my eye as she stood up strait and started walking forward. She met my eyes and smirked at me. I didn’t like the girl already. She and Viola obviously had a past from the way they looked at each other.

Or on Viola’s part, avoided.

“Hey, cutie,” she purred as she placed her hand on my arm.

I moved my arm away and looked back at Viola. She was hunched over in her desk, which we had trapped her in by standing in the isle.

“Who are you?” I asked curiously.

She glanced smugly at Viola before looking back up at me. “I’m Sierra Hoffman,” she stated as if I should be shocked.

“Um… Okay?” I responded. I finally decided to take mercy on Viola. “Come on, Vi. Let’s get going,” I told her, pulling lightly on her small hand.

She looked up at me, confused. Sierra glared daggers. “You seriously like this pathetic loser?” she scoffed, hands on her hips.

I glared at her. “Pathetic? You are pathetic. I bet half of you isn’t even real,” I snapped. “Loser? You are the loser seeing as how you treat people,” I added on.

I pulled Viola out of the classroom after that. I glanced over my shoulder at the shocked blonde. “Who the hell was that?” I asked Viola.

She wouldn’t meet my eye. She only stared at the ground.

“Viola?” I asked.

She ignored me still.

I lightly touched her arm. She stopped walking and I turned to face her. “That was Sierra Hoffman,” she mumbled.

Before I could question her further about the girl, she took off. I couldn’t even see the top of her head in the crowd of people. I sighed, knowing I probably wouldn’t be able to find her until we ran into each other again.

“Nate!”

I glanced over to see Vaughn smiling and waving. “Hey,” I greeted.

“What’s up?” he asked as we started walking towards our classes.

“Who’s Sierra Hoffman?” I asked him curiously.

Vaughn looked shocked for a second. “Um… Just some prissy junior. Why?”

I gave him a confused look. There was obviously a story behind the girl. “She and Viola don’t seem to… mesh the best,” I told him.

“What do you mean?” he asked. He stopped me and waited for an explanation.

I motioned back to my first period class. “She, Viola, and I all have math together. When we walked in, Viola seemed terrified to begin with. After class when Sierra came up, things were just…” I shrugged. “It’s just obvious they don’t have the best history.”

Vaughn sighed. He glanced down the hallway. “Poor Vi…” he mumbled.

“What happened?” I asked. It was bugging me that I didn’t get any of this. I wanted to know.

“She and Sierra had a… Sierra’s a bitch. Don’t ask her about it. If you ask anyone, ask Vi. She’ll tell you, but only when she wants to talk about it. It’s a touchy subject,” he told me.

“Oh… Okay,” I mumbled. I wanted to know. Badly.

He nodded before leaving to his next class. I nodded bye before entering my PE class. I wouldn’t be able to focus at all until I knew the story about what happened last year or whenever the big event happened.

As I sat along the bleachers with the rest of my class, my brother walked up. He nodded before sitting beside me. Zack kept his hood up and his eyes down a lot. He didn’t exactly mesh well with the athletes in schools, which seemed to be pretty popular here.

“Hey,” he greeted quietly.

“Hey,” I responded the same.

He rolled his eyes at my smirk. “You’re always an ass,” he muttered.

“You’re always high. What’s the difference?” I responded.

He laughed. “I can control when I’m high and when I’m not. You, on the other hand, seem to always just be an ass,” he stated.

I put him in a head lock. “Take it back!” I warned, pinning him on the floor and giving him a nuggy.

“Fuck! Come on!” he groaned, trying to wiggle his way out of my grasp.

I laughed, loving torturing my brother. “Take it back!” I repeated.

A few of the football players laughed and watched the two of us wrestle. The clapped and cheered. “Take down that emo pussy!” one of them called.

I glared at him. We may beat up on each other and fuck around, but I didn’t take well with other people messing with him. “Shut the hell up!” I snapped at him, letting Zack go.

We both stood up, him straitening out his sweat shirt. “Oh, now you’re defensive over the little cry baby?” the guy asked, laughing.

“He is my brother. I reserve the right to pick on him, but you guys on the other hand… Have no reason to,” I snapped.

Zack hit my arm. “Leave it be,” he muttered, beginning to walk away.

The three football players and I stared at each other. I finally just walked off to sit on the bleachers with the rest of the class. The football players glanced at each other before continuing to joke around. They looked like stupid buffoons. They were all probably stupid, too.

The teacher blew his whistle, signaling for everyone to shut up and pay attention. “Today is a free day. We will have it the rest of the week until your uniforms are required and you must dress down,” he instructed. He pushed a cart that was full of basketballs into the middle of the gym before going to sit down. No one made a move for the sports equipment. Guess all high school PE classes are the same.