Underneath The Petals

My feet pound and thump down the school hallway, though little force was needed. Everyone always knew it was me when they heard that sound, with my strapped up combat boots, online exclusive from Hot Topic. If you didn't know it was me yet, though, you would be able to tell by my outfit. Apart from my boots, you would see I'm wearing a Joy Division Unknown Pleasures muscle shirt, along with my black lace up skinny jeans and pastel orange nail polish, along with green glitter eye-shadow, Blackheart Sure Shot Lipstick, and my blue ear plugs.

It is my birthday today, and it has been a pretty good one, at that. Not that I expected anything big, or special. I'm not one of the floral skirt popular girls. I'm one of the watch your back, she'll kick your ass popular girls. I'm, well, the bad ass. So as I walk to my locker at the end of the day, I am definitely not expecting a pink fake flower to be sticking out of one of the rectangular openings at the top that had floral skirt popular girls written all over it. This is something that should be given to one of them, not someone like me. So why was it in my locker?

I reach up and carefully pull it out of my locker. Yeah, it was fake, but I didn't want to mess it up or anything. I guess. It was pink, and it was girly, and, just, ugh. Why do I have this? I load my backpack with the essentials for the weekend, since, thank God, today was Friday. I decide not to put the flower in my backpack, or keep it in my locker over the weekend; I'll just carry it with me, and walk down to Callie's locker.

Callie Bedard was my best friend since elementary school. We became friends after Kiara Dambry, her best friend at the time, started ditching her and pushing her around more than she was used to. Kiara and Callie still talk, though, so since Callie is currently my best friend, I know a couple secrets Kiara has, even though Kiara hates me with everything inside of her field hockey stick brain. See, Kiara tells Callie something, Callie promises not to tell, and then Callie tells me, making me promise not to tell. That's how I came about to knowing that Kiara is secretly a lesbian, and only Callie knows. Well, I know now.

She's also secretly very insecure about herself, obviously. Why else would she hide it? I don't hide it. I don't even hide the fact that I have a major crush on her, on Kiara. Everyone in school knows, even Kiara herself. Hell, even my mom knows. I'm so lucky to have a chill parent. I don't give a shit about my dad. He left when I was too young to remember him. Have fun fucking Hawaiian twenty year olds, Dad, thanks for your support.

As I'm still walking down the hallway, speak of the devil, Kiara and her little clique of floral skirt girls are walking down the hallway, their heels click-clacking as they hit the cold floor. They're The Populars, with a long "e" sound. I can even name them all one by one. First off, there's Emily Nasca, a short girl with hazelnut colored hair and a nasal voice on the field hockey team, who might as well be Kiara's puppy dog, poor thing. Then there's Myra Monzac, also on the field hockey team, with brown eyes and hair and freckles across her face, which give her an innocent look even though she's actually the mean one. Then there's Christie Akiba, on the volleyball team. She has glasses and caramel colored hair. She's the least twig-like out of all of them, but that's not saying much. She also has freckles all over her face, and gorgeous green eyes. I used to have a crush on her. We haven't talked since I told her, the summer between elementary school and middle school.

Then there's Kiara Dambry herself. She's on the field hockey team and also in yearbook club, so she has special practices with the coach so she won't miss her other club. She's tall and skinny, with straight blonde hair and light blue eyes, and, if you look close enough, very light colored freckles across her pale skin, with a perfect complexion. She was walking with the other girls on their way to field hockey practice, since where she went for yearbook club was on the way.

I stopped when Kiara's shoulder's accidentally shoved me back, causing me to drop my flower and book-bag and stop. And, to my surprise, she also stopped. She turned around, looked at me, and giggled, but not a rude, prissy, bitchy giggle. She giggled, well, quite an adorable giggle.

"I'm so sorry, " she said, looking straight at me with a damn cute blush spreading across her face.

"It's fine, really, " I said back, trying to reassure her.

I bent down to pick it up, and out of the corner of my eye I could see her staring at my butt. I hid my blush by turning my face from her and awkwardly clearing my throat. An electronic and poppy ringing sound went off, and Kiara's index finger was up, telling me to hold. I didn't know what to do, so I just awkwardly stood there with my backpack slung over my shoulder, my flower in my hand, and my hair a mess. I heard a static type voice coming over the other end, but I could tell it was a girl.

"Oh, shoot, " Kiara muttered to herself. And then to whoever it was that called her, "What am I supposed to do? Can you drive me home? Ugh. It's cool, I'll figure something out. Kay-kay, bye!" she hung up, dragging out the "e" in "bye".

I came up with enough courage for two words. "What's wrong?" I asked her, sincerely concerned.

"Yearbook's been cancelled, and I don't have a ride home. I hate to ask, but, do you think you could drive me home?"

"Callie always drives me. I can ask her if - "

"Drama club's today. They need to do a bunch of rehearsals for the play in two weeks."

"Crap! I got here late for a birthday breakfast. Um, I'll try to call my mom," I say, reaching into my backpack, shoving books and crumpled papers and food wrappers anywhere I can to get my phone out.

I heard it start to ring, and, thank God, she answered. "Hello? Is everything alright, Dakota?" she answered the phone, sounding concerned. She doesn't normally hear from me until I get home from school.

"Hey, mom. Um, I'm at school, and I didn't know Callie wouldn't be able to give me a ride home, so, I was wondering, since you don't work on Fridays, if you could, maybe, possibly, give me a ride home?" Wow. You don't get much more awkward than that.

"Sure, of course, sweetie! I'll be there in a second!"

"And, um, a friend, too?" I didn't know what else to say. She definitely didn't think of me as a friend, but what am I supposed to say? The reason Callie and I are friends? No!

"Sure, sweetie. What friend is this?"

"Um, Kiara Dambry."

"Oh oka - Wait. Like, Kiara.. your.. crush?"

"Yes, mom. Hush. She's, like, right next to me, almost, " I whisper-yell into my phone. I look up to see if Kiara had noticed, but she was busy applying and reapplying lip gloss with a compact mirror practically shoved in her face.

"Oh! Gosh, I'm sorry, sweetie. She didn't hear me, did she?"

"No, mom, now, can you please pick us up?" I asked her.

"Oh, yes, I'm on my way. See you in a bit. Love you." She hung up.

"Hey, Kiara, my mom says she can pick us up an - " I got cut off by her phone giving one of those cute little bloop sounds, which I'm sure meant she had a text.

She touched her phone, and after a couple taps, I watched her eyes flit across the screen, showing she was reading, and then throw her head back and groan.

"Oh, God. What's wrong now?" I ask her.

"My mom is going out on a business trip for two weeks. My dad lives across the friggin' country, so I can't stay with him. She doesn't want me to stay alone, basically. Everyone has plans!" she throws her head in her hands, and I can tell she's had enough twists to last the week.

Kiara Dambry isn't used to complications or irregularities.

"Um, y'know, my mom's pretty chill, you'll probably be able to stay with us.." I trail off, unsure of what I may be doing to myself.

"Oh, really? Thank you, thank you, thank you!" she squeals, grabbing my hands and practically pushing me up against the wall.

She awkwardly backed away and cleared her throat. "Um, sorry."

Before I could respond, I heard my phone give off its own bloop sound, telling me I had a text. It was from my mom, telling me that she's out front, waiting for us. I told Kiara, and we were out the doors and in the back of my mom's SUV before we knew it.

"So, um, mom. Kiara's mom is going on a business trip for two weeks, and her dad lives on the other side of the country, and she can't stay home alone, and she doesn't have anyone to stay with, so, I was wondering if- "

"Yes, Dakota, Kiara can stay with us. It's no biggie. Kiara, sweetie, you can just make yourself at home. Can you show me where you live, so I can drop you off and just wait outside for you? Don't worry about rushing, or anything, we'll just park and chill. You can just, you know, unbuckle your seat belt and lean over." My mom smirked at me in the mirror. Real mature, mom.

"Okay!" Kiara agreed with her perky, enthusiastic voice.

She unbuckled her seat belt and leaned over, her short blue skirt coming up in the back. You could see her black lace panties start to show, making you wonder who she was preparing for.

"Oh, sweetheart, I have crappy hearing. Can you lean forward more, please?" Another smirk toward me in the mirror.

She pulled up her skirt, probably trying to get better balance, because, I don't know about you, but I always have better balance when I'm feeling a nice breeze. She obviously forgot how much skirts can reveal when you're in the position she's in. I try to tell myself not to look, but, well, how do I put this? She had a damn nice ass.

"Okay, sweetheart, we'll be right out here!" my mom said to Kiara and unlocked the doors for her to get out and get her clothes. Right when I was starting to get wet, right?

I watched as Kiara smoothed down her skirt, trying to play it cool, like her panties weren't showing - even though they were pretty nice. I stared as she walked off, her hips naturally swaying in a sexy manner.

"Mom, " I groaned, leaning my head back on the seat. "Mom, what the hell?"

She laughed, throwing her head back on the seat for a different reason. "Oh my gosh, 'Kota, sweetheart, you have it so bad for her."

"Jesus Christ, I know."

"And she's staying the night at our house. For two weeks!" she chuckled to herself, and then added, "I'm going to be scared to go in your room!"

"I know, Mom. Just.. turn on some music. Please."

So we sat and waited for Kiara to finish up and come back out. When she finally came out, she had so much junk in one of her bags that it couldn't be zipped up, and a pair of socks came falling out. She set her bag down and bent over to pick them up. I watched, of course. You know, maybe I should start going to those field hockey games.

"Okay, I'm all done! Sorry it took so long, I wanted to make sure I had everything. I didn't want you guys having to come back here, " she manages to rush out of her mouth, along with an awkward laugh at the end.

The car ride home was pretty much silent. Awkward, and silent. We had music, though, and I don't know if that made it better or worse. We finally arrived at my house, rolling up into the driveway. I awkwardly shuffled out of the car, lugging my back pack on along behind me. My mom got to the door first, unlocking it and flinging it open, heading to the kitchen, first thing. I started my way up the stairs to go up to my room to drop off my stuff, just as I heard my mom ask Kiara about food allergies. Mangoes, Kiara is allergic to mangoes. That won't be a problem here, though. Neither my mom nor I like mangoes. In fact, we pretty much despise mangoes. They taste terrible. I set my bags down on my bed, and quickly went down the steps, all responsible and mature looking.

"So, um, Dakota, where should I put my bags?" Hearing Kiara say my name sent shivers down my spine.

"Um, my room is fine. Here, let me show you."

I rushed upstairs, back to my room. I walked in, spread my arms out wide to the room with dark purple walls, if you could even see it under all the posters. "It's all yours, " I say, turning back to Kiara and smiling.

"Thank you, this really does mean a lot to me, " she grinned this time, letting me see her pearly whites.

"It's no big deal, don't worry about it, " I grinned back at her, my smile nowhere near as gorgeous as hers. "Do you want to watch a movie? Or TV? Dinner will be ready soon, but it'll help pass time."

"Oh! Yeah! Uh, what movies do you have?"

"Well, let's see. I have Superbad, The Hunger Games, Star Wars, Harry Potter, The Breakfast Club, The Wedding Singer, 50 First Dates.. Any of those sound any good?"

"Ooh! I love 50 First Dates! Can we watch that?"

"Sure!"

I popped the disc in, and for the next forty-five minutes we watched Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler across my television screen.

"Girls!" my mother called up from the bottom of the stairs, "It's time for dinner!"

We rushed down the stairs and went into the bathroom, washing our hands before sitting down at the circular glass table to eat. The food was actually really great.

"Miss Swarts, this is really good! What is it?" Kiara asked, her face intent on the food.

"Sweetheart, call me Sheila! And they're teriyaki pineapple turkey burgers."

"They're really good! Do you enjoy cooking?"

"Well, it's not really a hobby of mine, it's just kind of, you know, something I have to do, to keep things up and running! But, yes, I do enjoy it."

"Oh, well, that's nice. You know, I was wondering, do you guys have a good amount of grassy, turf-like area in your backyard? It's alright if you don't I was just wondering if I could practice my field hockey at all while I'm here. You know, I brought the equipment, and my uniform, and everything. It seems like we're going to be having fairly nice weather, nice enough for those short skirts they have us wear, " she says with a chuckle.

"Oh, you guys wear skirts for your uniforms? And I'm sure we have a decent amount of room."

"Yes, that is actually the traditional uniform, for around here, at least. Probably something about femininity."

Pretty soon, we were all done with our food, the plates in the sink. Kiara and I headed back upstairs, me flopping down on my bed. It was already eight o'clock, and I was ready to pass out. I still haven't figured anything out about that flower. Kiara reached for her bag, pulling out a big shirt that you could just tell had to go to the middle of her thighs.

"You don't mind if I just change into some pajamas right here, do you?" she asks me.

I don't know what I mind, but I shake my head. I was honestly just going to go to sleep in my clothes, I was pretty tired. I could tell her mind wasn't on the other person in the room. Her eyes were scanning my posters as she took off her top, her bra matching her panties. She pulled down her skirt, revealing said panties. My eyes grazed over every inch of her body, and I started feeling this rising, almost bubble-like feeling in my chest. It felt like.. love. I wanted to blush, and giggle, and just kiss her right on the lips right then and there. But I knew I couldn't. Because that girl is not mine to kiss. I won't kiss her unless I know for sure she's comfortable around me, until I know for sure we are even actually friends. But, as she turned around, showing the back of her long legs and her butt, that doesn't mean I can't stare at her. She slipped the big shirt on and turned back around, not having noticed I was watching her. She looked damn adorable with her hair up in a side ponytail, just her and that big shirt.

She must have been tired, too, because she crawled under the covers, where I was, while we watched the end of 50 First Dates, and then The Wedding Singer, and then the Harry Potter movies, in order. Kiara fell asleep somewhere in the middle of The Prisoner Of Azkaban, her head on my chest, not quite snoring, but more like a cute little purring sound.

I've always loved cats, but I love Kiara even more.