Open My Lips

I opened my eyes so fast, it hurt. Standing in front of me was Adam, Steve, Marissa, and Jade. Adam was dating Marissa, and she was the girl whose wrist I bumped the other day, earning me a beating from Adam. Steve is Adam’s best friend and was dating Jade, who is Marissa’s best friend. I didn’t like any of them, because I’ve gone my whole school career being tormented by them. I looked over to the Bangkok’s and everyone was still staring at the commons, except one person, Matt.

He walked over to me and the group, as I stood up. I was not going to go down sitting. If they wanted to hurt me, they could, but I would be standing up when they did. I looked into Adam’s eyes and was just about flinch away, when Matt stood in front of me.

“What do you think you are doing?” Matt asked Adam. By this time, his brother and sisters had noticed us, and came over. They made a circle around me, with Matt in front, Brandon to my left, Kasey to my right, and Monica behind me.

“We just wanted to talk with our favorite mute person in the school.” Adam said faking sweetness. “After what happened in front of the school, she has to answer to what she did.”

“And what exactly did she do?” Kasey growled.

“She disrespected us, in front of the whole school. That’s not okay with us, we’re the rulers of this school and she will NOT disrespect like that. So, we’ve got to teach her a lesson.” Marissa told them with a sneer.

“Hold it. I don’t think she did ANYTHING to you guys. We’re the one’s who actually disrespected you, so why don’t you try and teach us a lesson? Or are you the type of bullies that only pick on people who don’t stand up for themselves? Because I’m telling you know, you do NOT want to get on Kasey’s bad side, and I think you’re already there.” Brandon said looking at Kasey, who was glaring at them so badly, it gave a new meaning to ‘If looks could kill.’ “And you should realize who you’re talking to. I’ve seen you all around the club before, and I know that you like to pick on people….I’ve seen it and it’s going to stop in the club. At school, we can’t do anything about it, unless you’re picking on Raychel, then we CAN do something about it. It’s called banning you from the club. What do you think of that?”

“Y...yo...you wouldn’t really ban us from the club would you?” Jade asked, now scared. I know that the only reason Jade is a friend with them is because they found out a secret about her family. Her family is a family that uses people to gain something, that’s how they became so middle class, from a poor family. Now she’s so used to being popular that if they didn’t go to the clubs, she wouldn’t be popular any more because they would blame her for not being able to go to the club any more.

“We would.” Monica said. “We take care of the people who our father tells us to take care of, and right now that’s Raychel. So don’t you dare blame her for disrespecting you, when we’re the one’s who did.”

“Now, if you all know what’s good for you, you would leave now and not speak of this encounter to anyone, because we WILL know if you did or not.” Matt said. “Kasey, do you have anything to tell this low lives?”

Kasey just shook her head, I could tell that she was trying so hard not to lose control…so I did the only thing I could think of at the time, I set my hand on her arm, and as she turned her head towards me, I smiled and mouthed ‘Thank You’. You could see the anger in her calm down, and she smiled back.

They’re not worth it. I wrote. They just think they’re so great because they know how to intimidate people, but they’re not. I know people in this school 10 times better than them, but they intimidate everyone, so the school doesn’t know about them. As I wrote this, I noticed that Adam, Marissa, Steve, and Jade all left, because I had the Bangkok’s attention, so they knew they’d be able to get away.

After everyone read what I had written, I continued down the hall, towards the weight room. The weight room was in the west wing with the history classes. Our history teacher, Mr. Orr, was an amazing teacher, when he remembered to stay on topic. If he got off topic, then the whole class period would be spent on that topic, so it took us a while to get to a new subject.

Our weight room was huge! It was as tall as the gym, and it was two floors. On the 2nd floor, there were treadmills, and weight lifting, and all the normal things in a weight room, but on the first floor, it was a dodge ball court. Our school was REALLY into dodge ball, and we were in the tournament every year. The gym teacher only picked the best of the best to be on the team. I was one of them, because I could catch anything coming at me. My father used to make me run around dodging things, because he knew I would need it sometime in life, and he was right.

“Are you kidding me? You guys have a DODGEBALL court?” Brandon exclaimed. “How? Why?”

Our school built it because we’re in the tournament every year and they want the team to practice. I wrote in my notebook.

“Well, I see this, but where are the actual weights?” Brandon asked me, looking excited.

I made a motion to follow me, and I started walking up the stairs. Mr. Miller was walking down the stairs as I started walking up. I noticed the dodge ball already, so instead of continuing up the stairs, since we were only on the 3rd step, I jumped over the railing, landed, and started running towards the other side of the gym. As I turned around, I caught the dodge ball, before it could hit my face.

“Well done Raychel! That was amazing, as always!” Mr. Miller yelled to me. I just smiled and through the dodge ball back at him, he didn’t have the reflexes as I did, so I hit him in the stomach. I made the ‘you’re out’ movement, and he just laughed. “Very good Raychel, I knew you’d be able to get me out, even from over there!” he continued down the stairs and finally noticed the Bangkok’s.

“You four must be the Bangkok’s, am I right?” Mr. Miller asked as he got down to them. They just stared at him.

Yes, these are the Bangkok’s; I’m showing them around the school because my father asked me to. Brandon wanted to see the weight room and we were just on our way there when I saw you. I wrote out and gave him the notebook.

“Ahh, I see.” Mr. Miller said. “Well, Brandon welcome to the school. Actually welcome to the school all four of you. Do any of you have any inkling to be on the dodge ball team?” Mr. Miller looked at all of them. The only one who looked like he wanted on the team was Brandon.

“I would love to be on the dodge ball team Mr. Miller. How can I get on?” Brandon asked looking very eager.

“Well, you’d have to show the captain and the co-captain what you’ve got. When do you have a study hall?” Mr. Miller looked at him.

“We all have study hall 8th period. So if the captain and co-captain have study hall that period I’ll like to come in and show them what I’ve got.” Brandon told Mr. Miller. Before he could answer, I ‘told’ him not to tell them that I was the captain yet. He understood.

“Well, I know that the captain and co-captain both DO have study hall that period, so I will tell them that they need to come here instead. If your family would like to come and watch, they’re more than welcome!” Mr. Miller smiled and walked off.

I started walking up the stairs, knowing that they would be following me. As I got up the stairs, I saw that David was in the weight room, just like always. He looked up as I came into the room and smiled at me. David has always smiled at me, when no one is around that is. I guess that he saw someone behind me, because he stopped smiling. I looked behind me and it was only the Bangkok’s. I sent him a reassuring smile, meaning that it was okay, that they were okay.

“Oh my goodness! This place is HUGE!” Brandon exclaimed. I let him walk around and look at all of the equipment. “This place is bigger than our old school’s gym and weight room combined!”

I smiled with pride, knowing that this school wasn’t really anything until my father came and started making it better for me. I walked over to where David was lifting and gave him a scolding look, for he was lifting without a spotter.

“I know, I know, but you weren’t here and Mr. Miller was here, but then he left, so I couldn’t find anyone.” David said lifting the weights with difficulty. I walked behind him and helped him lift. In my mind, I was calculating how much he was lifting. The last time I was in the weight room with him was about a week ago, but I didn’t expect him to be able to lift 40 more pounds than the week before. I looked down at him as he was standing up and he said, “I know, I know, but I’ve just got to get up there! Everybody else who comes in here can lift up to 250 pounds, but I can only lift 200.”

I looked at him, and started writing in my book. David, you’ve got to stop pushing yourself so much! You know that you’ll get there when you get there! You don’t have to strain yourself and pull a muscle, then you’ll have to sit out for a while, and we can’t have you missing Dodge ball! I gave him the book, and after he read it, he looked ashamed.

“You know what? You’re right! I’ve got to stop doing this to myself, but Raychel you don’t know what it’s like! You’ve ALWAYS been able to lift up to 250 pounds EASILY!” David just couldn’t understand that it’s not my choice, it’s not my fault my father started training me when I was about 5 years old! Now it was my turn to look down, but it was out of embarrassment.

I didn’t notice it, but everybody was around us. I looked and there was Matt, standing behind me, kind of glaring at David, and Brandon was looking at the weight set, and then me, and back again. Kasey and Monica where just standing there, looking around the room.

“Can you really lift more than 250 pounds?” Brandon asked me excitedly. Instead of answering, I walked over to the chart in front of Mr. Miller’s office. I showed Brandon the chart, and he started reading it over. David came over and started looking at the chart too. He started to explain what the chart was.

“Every Friday the school has a free day, and everybody has to come into the weight room and lift as much weight as they can, 10 times. If they put too much on, where they can’t lift it 10 times, then they have to get weight off and do it again, until they CAN lift it 10 times. If you lift it 10 times quickly, then you have to put MORE weight on.” David explained, looking as his name. “This is a list of EVERYBODY’S name in the school, and what the weight is that they can lift. If you look in the Fs and look for Farley, you’ll find Raychel.”

Everybody crowded around, while I went and got the weights onto the set. I put 320 pounds onto the set. Last week I had lifted this much and I figured that it would be pretty simple to lift it this week. I laid down and got David’s attention, to come and spot me. He walked over and stood behind me, helping me to get ready to lift it, when somebody said something.

“You cannot be helping her lift that much! Nobody her size can lift that, and still look like she has no muscles!” I looked around and it was Matt, and I thought Of course it’s him! I walked over to him, took my hoodie off, and showed him my arms. They where ALL muscle, and so was my stomach, but I wasn’t about to show him that.

“Wow, and I thought that Matt could lift a lot!” Kasey said amazed at my arms. “It looks like you’ve been at that for a while!”

“Well, seeing as her father made her work out daily, ever since she was 5, I do believe that she HAS been at it for a while.” David said laughing a little. I glared at him, and knowing him, he knew what I wanted. “Alright, let’s do it Raychel.”

He lifted the bar into my arms, with my help of course, and let go. I just let them stay there for a little while, and I heard Matt say, under his breath, “Of course she’s only going to be able to keep it there.” As he finished saying that, I started to lift it…it was perfectly fine to me, I didn’t even lose my breath, and I lifted it 20 times, instead of the 10 times we’re supposed to. After I got done, I set it back on the hold, and stood up.

“Raychel, you know that this Friday you’re going to have to lift even more than that right? And then Adam’s going to hurt you again.” David said looking down…so I HAD seen him when I was getting the crap beat out of me…interesting.

“Adam does what!?” Matt said looking at David for an explanation. “What do you mean again? And you just let him do it?” Matt was getting mad, and Brandon and his sister’s were looking like they were scared. I don’t know much about Matt, but I know the signs of people getting mad enough that they’d hit something. I started backing away, looking at Matt scared, I didn’t know what he was capable of and that scared me more than Adam does.

“Matt, calm down…you can’t just go getting mad at David and let your anger out!” Brandon tried to reason with his brother, but he couldn’t get through to him, no one could, and I knew it…even if I didn’t know Matt that well.

“You just sat there and let Adam hurt Raychel? What kind of friend are you? Are you kidding me? You didn’t even try to stop him?” Matt was getting even madder, second by second. I could tell David was scared, because he’s never been the person who got the beating, just saw them a lot. I didn’t know what to do but I know that I had to help David, because he’s the only person I’ve ever had that actually talked to me, even if it is in private.

Even though I was scared, I started walking towards David and Matt. I got in between them and just stood there, looking at Matt trying not to show that I was afraid of him right now, but I guess it showed any ways because he looked at me, and then looked down at his hands, which he had put into fists, like he was about to punch someone. He looked back up at me, and he looked so ashamed of himself, and I could tell that he didn’t really want to hurt someone, well besides Adam, and that he was surprised at himself that he couldn’t control his temper. He uncurled his fists and started backing up looking horrified.

“I…I…I…” Matt tried to talk, but he couldn’t. I looked back at David and he was as white as a ghost. He looked at me when I looked at him and I could tell that he was really scared, even now.

“Raychel, I’m sorry but I’ve got to go…I know that we still have 10 minutes left til class, but I’ve got to go.” He started walking away, and when he got far enough, he started running away. I watched as he left and was sorry that he had even brought it up. I looked back at Matt, but instead of my either happy face or my blank face, I put on my worst face anyone had ever seen, my glare. I’ve glared at Adam before and even HE’S been scared, so I knew that Matt would regret getting so mad. I glared at him and the old saying ‘if looked could kill…’ was much in effect.

“Raychel…” Matt started, but I held up my hand as to say, Don’t even try and started walking away. I knew they would follow me, but I needed to let out some of my steam…if I just held it in until after school dodge ball practice, I’d be fine and I’d have a lot of steam to let out on my teammates, mainly my co-captain, Adam.

As I started down the stairs, I could hear the Bangkok’s talking quietly and, even though it’s wrong, I listened in on the conversation.

“Matt, how could you be so stupid!? You know we’re not allowed to get kicked out of this school, or it’s home schooling with Taylor…and you know how tough mom is on her, imagine if we ALL had home schooling by her!” Kasey said to Matt.

“I know, I know, it’s just that there’s something about this girl that makes me get protective and I haven’t even known her 20 minutes yet!” Matt said, admitting something I figured he didn’t want me to hear. After he said that, I stopped listening because I knew it was wrong and we needed to get to the next room.