The Ugly Duckling

Chapter 2 - A new friend.

Ryland POV.

I glare at Aiden as he doubles over laughing. I clench my teeth and patiently wait for him to finish. He finally stops after a couple of minutes and looks at my face. He must have found my expression funny because he starts to laugh again.

"Are you done yet?" He laughs louder and shakes his head at the same time. "Shut up!" I yell.

Aiden laughs again. "This is too funny."

I pick up the alarm clock from the side of my bed and point it in his direction. "Keep laughing, bastard."

"Ryland Delsavio!" I wince at mom's tone of voice. She walks towards my bed and stand in front of me. "What did you just call your brother?"

I wince again. "A bastard." I whisper.

"What was that? I didn't hear you."

"A bastard." I repeat, louder this time. I narrow my eyes at Aiden who is laughing silently in the background.

"Lord save my boys!" Mom dramatically throws her hands in the air. "Why are they like this? I haven't sworn once in the last sixteen years and look at you two!" she glares at Aiden and I. Aiden sighs, reflecting how I feel at the moment. "You could have taken something after me. Next time I hear any of you swearing I will wash your mouth with soap, you hear me?"

We obediently nod our heads. "Good," she takes a seat beside in front of me. "Now tell me what happened."

"Nothing!" I reply quickly.

Aiden tarts to laugh again and I glare at him.

"You can tell me, Riri."

I groan. "Don't call me that, mom. You know how much I hate that name."

She glares at me. "I'm your mother. I have every right to call you Riri. Now tell me what happened."

I groan again and shake my head.

"His baggage got kicked around."

I grab the pillow beside me and throw in at Aiden. He catches the pillow, laughs and runs out of my room.

Mom turns to me. "Do I want to know what happened?"

I shake my head. "No."

She sighs. "Should I be worried?" I shake my head again. "Alright. You take care of yourself and don't get into trouble."

"I won't." I reply as she walks towards the door.

As soon as mom leaves, Aiden jumps into the room.

"Well Rihanna-"

I throw the pillow at his face before he can finish his sentence. "Finish the sentence, I dare you. Mom isn't here anymore."

He picks the pillow up from the floor and glares at me. "Fine," he says. He walks over to the bed and falls onto it. "So, who is the 'firecracker'?"

"None of your business." I mumble.

When Aiden starts to laugh again, I pout and look away.

***

I scan the hallway as I make my way towards the gym, making sure that the girl isn't around. When I don't see her, I start to walk feeling relaxed. It's not that she scares me; i just don't want to put my jewels at risk again. I glance at my phone and curse and start to walk faster; at this rate I'll be late for basketball tryouts.

When I enter the gym, I walk over to the bleachers and put my bag down. The coach is already here and some students are present. The coach's eyes meet mine and he nods at me. I nod my head and start to walk towards him. The coach and I patiently wait for everyone to arrive at the gym.

He looks at me. "Collect the forms while I set up the obstacle course."

I nod my head and he turns around. I move my eyes to the group of students.

"Did you guys complete your forms?" I ask.

"Yes!" the loudest voice comes from the back of the group. I tilt my head slightly and see Chloe's smiling face. I grin give her a little wave and stop when I realize that I probably look like an idiot. She eagerly waves back with the form in her hand.

Oh right.

I shake my head and start to collect forms from the students that brought them back. I set the forms on the side bench beside my bag.

I turn back to the students. "Alright! Today all of you will be doing drills as a test. The coach has set up five stations that will test shooting, dribbling, passing/teamwork, court sense and defence respectively. The coach and I will evaluate you from the sidelines so that we can give you some feedback. We will base the results on these drills. If you haven't already changed then do so and for those of you who have changed, please form teams of six, pick a station and get start."

I smile and walk back towards the bleachers and take a seat. Coach takes a seat beside me and hands me a clipboard.

"You evaluate these students."

I nod my head and take the clipboard from his hand. I scan the names of students and look up. I look to my right when I hear loud noises. A group of students enter the gym and walk towards the bleachers. I recognize the girls from yesterday; I saw them right after the 'incident'. They see me and giggle. I smile and look away.

Someone stands beside me and I look up. My eyes widen when I meet the firecracker's eyes. I get up move away from her covering the front of my shorts with the clipboard. The coach also gets up and gives a confused look and the looks at the girl and then back.

"Are you ok?" he asks me.

I look at him and then the girl. Taking a deep breath I take two steps forward. Her cheeks were flushed and her head was angled toward the ground. She looks at me but quickly looks at the ground when she finds me already looking at her.

"Are you going to knee me in the groin again?" she shakes her head and opens her mouth but I cut her off. "Because I remember that I was helping you last time but instead of thanking me, you kneed me in the groin." I glare. She shakes her head again and I cut her off again. "I'd appreciate it if you left me alone; I have things to do."

I turn away from her not caring for what she's going to say or what she wanted to say. I push away the feeling of guilt when I see her walk away from the corner of my eye. I don't have to listen to her just like she didn't listen to me.

"A bit harsh, don't you think?" coach asks me. I shrug and pay attention to the students.

***

"You didn't tell me that you're going to be here!"

I laugh at Chloe's accusing look. I've known Chloe for three years; she just entered high school during my senior year. We met through basketball; I was trying out for the senior boys' team and she was trying out for junior girls'.

"I didn't know that I was going to be here either." I admit.

"Fair enough," she smiles. "I didn't think I was going to see you here again."

"I didn't think so either but it feels nice. It brings back a lot of memories."

"I bet," she says. "How did you even end up here anyway?"

I scowl at the bad memory. "Someone decided to mess with Aiden."

Her mouth opens and then closes it. "Explains a lot." She says finally

I nod my head. "You heading home?" I ask her.

"Yes, I am. But I have to pick up some groceries on the way." She tells me.

I pick up my bag and sling it over my shoulder. "Need a ride?" I ask her.

She shakes her head. "No, thank you. I'm going with my sister."

I look at her. "You have a sister?"

She nods her head. "Yeap. She's a year younger."

I nod again. "Are you sure that you don't need a ride?" I ask again.

She laughs. "Yes, coach, I'm sure. Well I better get changed."

I laugh. "Alright." I give her a tight hug and she screams in surprise and then laughs. I let go and step away. I give her a little wave and turn around to leave. I exit the gym and turn right. I take out my phone from my pocket and check for any missed calls. I roll my eyes when I see missed calls from mom. I slow down when I hear loud noises from the corner of the hallway.

"How can you do that to him?"

"Look, it was an accident." I frown at the familiarity of the second voice.

"You ugly fat bitch! You're lucky he even touched you. I can't believe you kneed him in the groin."

I clench my jaw and hands and run to the next hallway. Three girls surround the firecracker and my anger increases. They were the same girls from yesterday. I really hate it when people bully others. Two things both my parents have constantly taught me is not to bully others and don't let others get bullied. With this on my mind, I make my way towards the group.

"What do you think you're doing?!" I walk quickly towards firecracker and grab her hand and glare at the other girls. "I'm flattered but I don't need you to do justice for me; I'm capable of doing that for myself."

I start to walk and pull firecracker with me. We take some turns and don't stop unit we're outside. We keep walking until we reach the main gates. I let her go and look at her while she fixes the straps of her bag on her shoulders. She nervously bites her lip and stares at the ground.

"Which way are you going?" I ask her.

She looks at me with wide eyes. "What?"

I roll my eyes. "Which way are you going? East, west, north, south, forward, backward, left or right?" I ask her.

She points to the left and I nod. I start to walk but stop when I notice that she's not walking beside me. I turn around and look her while she stands there.

"You're not coming?" I ask. She shakes her head. "No?"

She shakes her head again and then stops. "I mean: I am. But you don't need to. I know my way home." She says.

"What if they come after you?" I point back to the school.

"They won't. You scared them."

I nod my head and watch as she walks past me. I stand there for a minute, giving her a head start and then start to walk behind her. She is lucky that the girls were only yelling and didn't get physical. I'd feel like the shittiest person alive if she had gotten hurt; they were yelling at her because of me after all.

We walk for a couple of minutes and she suddenly stops and turns around. "I told you that you don't need to come but you've been following me the entire time."

I shrug and walk till I'm standing beside her. "I already made up my mind when I asked you in which direction you were heading."

She sighs. "Let's keep walking then."

I smile. "So, what's your name? I can't keep referring you as the firecracker."

"You call me firecracker?"

I shrug again. "It was very fitting at the moment."

"Adeline."

"Adeline." I repeat.

She shakes her head. "It's pronounced 'Ada-lean'."

"Adeline. Got it." I shove my hands in my pocket.

"And what're you called?"

I laugh. "My name is Ryland."

"You're Aiden's twin."

"Yes, I am." I nod. We don't say anything to each other for a while. "You came to apologize to me today, didn't you?"

"I did."

"And I completely ignored you. I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault and you were right; you didn't do anything wrong and I overreacted. It's just that I've never physically so close to a boy before and you were really close. So I panicked."

I sigh. "Its ok."

"My house is just around the corner." She says. "I can just go by myself now."

I nod and awkwardly scratch the back of my head. "Alright. See you around."

She smiles. "See you."

I watch her retreating back until she's out of my view. I turn around and start walking. I take out my phone and glance at the time. It took about half an hour to walk here. Half a fucking hour! I groan when I remember that I brought my car to school today. Why didn't I just drive her home?

I quickly unlock my phone and call Aiden.

"Hello?"

"Pick me up." I demand.

"Aren't you cute? Now say please."

"Fuck you. I walked Adeline home and forgot my car at school."

"Why were you with her? You better not do anything to her."

"I didn't do anything to her. I just walked her home."

"Uh-huh. I'll be right there."

He hangs up and I put my phone back in my ass pocket. I walk back and forth as I wait for Aiden to arrive. I stop when I see a familiar black Lamborghini coming towards me. The car stops in front of me and I open the door. I throw the bag in and take a seat.

"Are we picking up your car?" he asks.

"No. I'll just get it tomorrow."

"I thought you didn't like Adeline."

"No, I think I just made a new friend."