Scream, to Be Heard

Chapter 3
“Guitar? For real?” Jack was impressed. He too had never heard of a female guitarist at the school. It had been almost 4 days since he had gone over Bailey’s house, and the only one giving him shit was Rian. Jack joked, but never really meaned it.
“Did she do anything weird?” Was the main question he got. He didn’t understand why his friends were getting so interested; it was his problem, not theirs. If you could call it a problem.
“Well she was kinda sassy. Like she...huh. I don’t know how to describe it” Had a brain, perhaps? Alex didn’t know really if girls were supposed to be, you know, intelligent or not. He was just some stupid kid honestly. Didn’t know what was what. Rian thought he did, however. He tried to instruct the taller boy on what was the correct thing to do.
“They make you think they’re normal, and then BOOM. They suck you in and take you as one of their own.” He was just bullshitting him now. She was a girl, not some venus fly trap. As Rian lectured, Alex spotted Bailey down the hall with some of her friends. They all wore very tight jeans, not something you saw too often in 2005. The other kids made fun of them for it, but quite frankly Alex liked the look. He studied the girl some more. Her hair was blonde (not like you didn’t know that already), which cascaded down her back and shoulders in loose waves. That too was an unusual style, because most girls wore their hair straight. She was taller than most of the girls in the school, but still shorter than Alex at about 5’ 8”. Bailey wasn’t the thinnest of girls, but she wasn’t fat either. It just suited her. Rian’s hand waved in front of his face.
“What the fuck are you looking at man?” He laughed. The shorter guy turned around, hoping it was some hot girl. But he didn’t see one. So he just assumed that Alex was going insane.
“I have to go back over there tonight,” Alex added, “So I have to leave practice like 10 minutes early.” Jack and Rian couldn’t believe what they were hearing.
“Wasn’t it you that said there’d be no ditching practice because we have this show? C’mon Alex, what’s up?” All he could do is stick his hands in his pockets and shrug.
“I’m not ditching, I’ll still be there.” The boy looked to his feet at his battered grey converse. The sound of clapping made all the boys looks up in Bailey’s direction. Her and her 3 friends were randomly dancing and clapping. Alex smirked, but thankfully nobody saw it.
“See what I mean? THEY’RE WEIRD.” Alex cocked an eyebrow at Rian.
“Maybe you’re the weird one.” Jack snorted at that, but Rian whacked his arm and he shut up.
“I know what’s going on here, Alex. You like her, don’t you?”
“What? What the fuck man no I don’t like her!” Alex couldn’t believe Rian would jump to such a conclusion. The only girls Alex liked were the skinny ones that didn’t do much except, you know, have sex. Which was totally fine with him.
“Alright, whatever. C’mon Jack let’s go.” Alex rolled his eyes and went off to his locker, which was conveniently next to where the drama kids were standing.
The entire time he was standing there, she didn’t say a word to him. One of her friends was dramatically reciting poetry, which partially bothered him but he didn’t say anything. He and Bailey had caught each other’s eyes as he was about to leave. Alex ‘sup’ nodded her, and in exchange she smiled. A genuine smile. Alex didn’t know why that made him feel so good inside. Maybe it was the fact that her friends were all now looking at him, surprised that someone as attractive as him would be associating with the drama kids (not to toot his own horn or anything) or maybe it was because of something else. He thought about it for a second. '….nah it’s gotta be the first one.' And he walked into Algebra II with a ridiculous grin on his face.