Flight Risk

"Why is your brother taking us to school?" I questioned the next morning when Micki showed up at my front door, her older brother, Draven, sitting in the driver's seat of her car.

Micki rolled her eyes. "His car isn't working so my mom is making me let him use mine for the day so that he could take his ass to his mediocre job."

"Wow, you sound thrilled about him taking a year off college," I replied, grabbing my backpack from the floor inside the door and shutting the door behind me, making sure that I locked it.

She rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well, your brother went away and my brother stayed in town," she grumbled, even though her brother was a year younger than mine.

"He'll leave next year," I comforted, pulling the back door open as she climbed into the driver's side.

"Who'll leave next year?" Draven questioned, grinning at me in the rear view mirror. He lifted his hand in a wave. "Hey, Granger, how have you been?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "I've been alright."

Micki snorted as we pulled out of the driveway and I kicked her seat, rolling my eyes as she flipped me off over her head.

"What's all this about?" Draven asked, glancing between us. "Are you better than alright?"

"I'd say so," Micki grumbled.

I kicked her seat again. It wasn't just that she was implying something about Zacky and I, but it was that she was implying it to her brother, a boy turned man who used to like me for a short period of time.

"Ignore her," I demanded, shaking my head, "She doesn't know what she's talking about."

Draven nodded sarcastically. "Oh, okay. I'll play along." He turned his full attention back to the road and I bit my lip, knowing that he was going to bring it up again. This was Draven and I that we were talking about. When it came to me, he liked to stay in the loop.

"So..." he trailed off, talking to his sister, "Why is Granger more than alright?"

Micki rolled her eyes. "She has a boyfriend now, Dra. Why else?"

The smile on Draven's face disappeared and he glanced back at me in the mirror. I licked over my piercings and shrugged my shoulders. "Surprise," I cheered dimly.

Keeping his composure, Draven asked, "Who's the guy? Do I know him?"

I shook my head while Micki nodded. "You might!" she said loudly, clapping her hands. "Does the name Zacky Baker ring a bell?"

I tried to subtly kick Micki again, but the look on Draven's face told me that he'd noticed me trying to stop her words.

"Not really," he answered his sister, "Should it?"

Micki, not realizing that I wanted her to stop talking, continued, "He played baseball and hung around with Jimmy Sullivan, that really tall kid who used to terrorize everyone?"

Draven nodded. "Yeah, I remember that Jimmy guy. Can't say I remember Zacky as well but I think he was in my music theory class sophomore year." He turned a corner and then met my eyes. "You're dating one of those guys now?"

I frowned and crossed my arms. "What's that supposed to mean?" I questioned.

"Nothing," he defended, "It's just that his group of friends got into a lot of fights, and had a bunch of tattoos, and well, I can't really picture you and one of Jimmy Sullivan's friends together."

"You can't picture me with a man who has tattoos and piercings?" I asked sarcastically, studying my right arm, which was covered with stars.

"Well, I mean-" Draven sputtered, caught off guard, "Isn't he like thirty by now anyways?" he said finally, rolling his eyes as we pulled up outside the school.

"No," I grumbled as I climbed out of Micki's car, "He's twenty-one." I pushed the door shut harshly and waited for Micki as she stepped out.

Draven leaned over the passenger's seat and looked up to me with the same dark eyes that Micki possessed. "You know," he stated, "My offer still stands."

Micki looked to me and then back to him. "What offer?" she asked, crossing her arms.

I shook my head at her and spoke to her brother. "No thanks, Dra. I'm actually really happy with Zacky." Micki was still asking about the offer as I grabbed her arm and dragged her into the school building.

She stopped up both when we were standing down the hall from the gym. "What the hell was he talking about, Granger?" she questioned loudly, staring into my eyes with her dark ones.

I shook it off. "It was just something he said to me last year, Mick. Don't worry about it. I didn't except the offer."

"Are you going to tell me what it was or was it that bad?" she asked, then her eyes widened, "Did he proposition you!?"

"No!" I hissed, "He asked me out!"

Micki's eyes widened. "He what?"

I nodded. "Yeah, about a year ago."

Micki's face contorted into one of disgust. "Thank god you said no," she stated, "My brother is disgusting. Zacky's much more attractive."

I laughed and shook my head. "Draven isn't disgusting," I defended, the two of us heading towards the gym for an early softball meeting, "He's just not... my type."

"So, not covered in tattoos and spilling swear words."

I nodded. "That sounds about right."

We laughed and marched into the gym, grinning at the rest of our team as they shouted for us and called us over to them. We tossed our stuff down on the gym floor and plopped down next to them.

"Hey girls," I greeted, "How was your weekend?"

We chatted for a few minutes before our coach came walking out of the sports office, smiling at us. She dropped a large box on the ground and clapped her hands. We turned our attention to her instantly, the murmurs dying down.

"Morning, girls," she greeted, "I'm glad you all could make it."

"Why're we here?" I questioned, leaning back on my hands.

Coach Jamie turned to me and shot me a look. "If you'd be quiet I'd be able to explain."

I smirked as a the girls chuckled. I nodded for her to continue.

"Thank you," she muttered, "As I was saying. Thank you all for coming. I wanted to let you all know that our first game is coming up in just a few days and this year, we found money in the budget for a new style of uniforms."

We cheered loudly as she bent down and ripped open the box, pulling out a gorgeous uniform. They were black with orange trim and they looked more like baseball uniforms than women's softball, which I liked. On the front the word "Oilers" was written in orange and under that to the right were our numbers.
Our last names were on the back in orange and the numbers in white.

"These things are amazing," I gushed as the coach tossed me my shirt and then a pair of black pants with orange stripes down each side. "We're going to look great on the field!"

Micki winked at me. "I like a girl in uniform," she joked, pushing my shoulder, "And I'm sure Zacky does too."

I rolled my eyes. "And I'm sure Quinn will hate the way you'll look on the field," I replied, referring to the boy who she'd been dating on and off again. Switching between on and off every other week.

"Who cares what Quinn thinks," she retorted, "He's merely my plaything."

I laughed loudly and unbuttoned the uniform shirt. I pulled it on over the shirt I was already wearing and grinned at the look of it.

"You'll be getting long-sleeved Under Armor to wear under it, I just haven't sorted through the boxes yet," Coach told us, making me grin.

We all tried on our shirts and checked the sizes of our pants before we folded them up and stuffed them into our softball bags along with our practice uniforms.

"See you girls after school!" Coach yelled as we scrambled out of the gym at the sound of the bell, "First game is on Friday night!"

I smiled and headed to my locker to leave my softball things in there. I made sure my cell phone was turned down before I grabbed the books I needed and headed towards Chemistry.

The room was filled with kids who could care less about being where they were. I took my seat and dropped my book onto the desk loudly as the bell rang and the teacher turned around to face us.

She called our names and checked that we were there before she advised us to take out our notebooks and copy down what she was saying. Instead I dropped my head to the desk and wrapped my arms around my head to block the light.

"Ms. Granger, please pay attention. This is going to be on your Final," she said after only a couple minutes. She walked past and patted my shoulder.

I sighed and sat up. "Okay," I muttered.

Mrs. Cander nodded in approval as I pulled out a random notebook and filled to a clean page in the middle of the book. I grabbed a blue pen and started taking notes as she lectured. I ended up with almost four pages of notes about things that wouldn't really have mattered if I wasn't taking chemistry.

The bell rang forty minutes later and I headed out of the room like everyone else, stuck in a monotonous cycle of high school. I made it through the next couple of classes and then headed to lunch, about ready to walk right out of the building and to Zacky's house.

"Granger!" Johnny called as I entered the lunch room.

I skipped the lunch line. "Not in the mood, Johnny," I replied as I sat down at our table.

Johnny grinned. "Someone feeling left out because she doesn't get to go on tour?"

I glared at the sixteen year old. "Not helping," I stated, resting my elbows on the table.

Johnny just grinned and looked over my shoulder as Micki arrived. She tossed her self down onto the chair and looked to Johnny. "Game Friday," she stated, "You coming?"

Johnny nodded. "Oh, yeah. It'd be cool to see you guys play. Maybe I can get the guys to come along."

Micki rolled her eyes. "No girl friends," she muttered.

I chuckled and bumped her shoulder. "You've got Quinn. You don't need Brian."

She scoffed, "Doesn't mean I don't want him."

Johnny grimaced and shook his head at us.

"So, you'll be there?" I asked again.

Johnny nodded. "We all will," he promised.