True Blood

I shut my bag in my gym locker, changed into the required gym uniform (a pair of small maroon shorts and a dark grey shirt) and went out to where the rest of the class was gathered. The bell rang in the main part of the school, barely audible over the loud conversations of the others.
Bored and feeling a little cranky from the sudden audio shock I had received minutes ago, I slouched over to the brick wall of the gym and leaned against it, propping my right foot up behind me and folding my arms, allowing myself to eavesdrop on everyone around me. It wasn’t something I did often, but I was tired of putting up a mental fight all day. And besides, a vast majority of the girls at my school thought predominantly of only two things: losing weight and sleeping with guys, which got very dull to listen to after so long. Still, it shocked me how horrible these girls were to each other behind their backs. There was this one girl in my English class that was giving her best friend’s boy friend blowjobs every night. I often wonder what happened to morals. Like musician Jack Johnson says, where’d all the good people go?
“Every one cut the chit chat and go down to the track. We’re running the mile today, and by we, I mean you all.” Groans followed the teacher’s statement, but I was already walking towards the long sandy track. Unnerved by my unexplained determination, a good portion of the class rushed ahead of me, pushing each other and laughing all the way to the track. The mean people stayed behind me, worrying about their hair and makeup. My running shoes crunched on the loose sand of the track as I walked to the inside of the loop, moving to the very back of the group massed at the starting line.
The gym teacher started the timer. The very front people bolted ahead of the group, racing each other just to putter out within the first two minutes.
I stayed near the back, staring at the ground in front of me as my feet pounded on the track, randomly wishing I was allowed to run sans, or without, shoes.
In front of me, a girl peeled off of the group she was running with, falling back to run near me. She wasn’t thinking about doing anything mean, but I wasn’t about to provoke an attack.
“Hey!” she greeted cheerfully. I wiped a bead of sweat off of my forehead and smiled briefly at her, nodding once.
“I’m Jenna.” I nodded again.
“I know. You’re in two of my classes.” Although I couldn’t remember which ones. I just remembered her as a considerably eccentric person. Most of the time she was nice, but most of the time she was also crazy. So yeah.
“I wish we didn’t have to wear shoes right now.” she added after a few minutes of silence other than the sound of their shoes. I stared at her in what must have looked like disbelief.
“Really?”
Jenna flushed a little but nodded. “Yeah. I know people spit here and animals take dumps and other things like that, but still, it would be so nice to just feel the dirt between my toes. Sounds crazy, huh?” she added, laughing at herself. I shook my head.
“Not at all. I was thinking that before you showed.”
“No way? Great minds really do think alike.” She finished warmly. Even with my bad mood, I couldn’t keep from sincerely smiling back. She still wasn’t thinking of something nasty, like tripping me or table-topping me later, which had happened before.
One might wonder why I just let them when I know what they are going to do all along. The reason is because if they don’t do the little things, then they’ll get frustrated and aim higher in their tricks. I’d rather be shoved onto grass than pushed down a flight of stairs.
Jenna was staring at me like so many others did when I hadn’t heard them.
“Sorry, I didn't hear you.” she laughed. She was an easy laugher.
“Am I that boring? Or maybe just annoying? I’ve been told that one by all of my teachers more than twice this year.”
I shook my head, sweat dripping off the end of my nose. We were on our third lap. “You’re not so annoying. I was just thinking about something else.”
Jenna chuckled and repeated her question. “Come to my house later? We could work on homework together and stuff.” It was more of a statement than a question.
“I’ll have to call my parents...” I mumbled. I could feel myself closing up. Jenna wouldn’t have it.
“They won’t mind though, right? You just hang around here after school gets out anyways. Surely they’d like you to get some extra social interaction?” I shrugged.
“Nine minutes flat.” The gym teacher shouted at us as we finished our fourth lap. “Nice job ladies.”
I rolled my eyes as I heard the gym teacher thinking that that was one of the worst miles she’d seen run. At least I ran the thing, unlike the people who were walking and still on their second lap.
“So I’ll see you after last class then? We can walk to my house together; it’s not far from here.” I sighed, seeing there was now way for me to win this argument.
“Yeah. I’ll call my parents at lunch, but they’ll probably say it’s okay for me to go.” Elation filled Jenna’s mind as I wiped my face on the inside of my shirt. I still had no clue why she was suddenly so interested in me, or why she wasn’t plotting my demise.
“Awesome! See you then then!”
“Later.”
The rest of the class, the teacher had us watch a video about yoga. We were dismissed ten minutes before the bell rang to change back into our school clothes. In the locker room, I got my backpack out of my locker and went to the bathroom to change. I hated changing in front of all of those girls and hearing what they thought of me and the other girls. I slipped into my jeans and tee shirt and changed from running shoes to Vans. Stuffing my shoes in my locker, gym clothes in hand, I walked to my regular school locker, got out my books for next class and put my clothes in. He was around; not quite close, but in the vicinity.