Chapter 8:

Mr. Thomas left Amee alone in math the next morning. She'd beat him into submission, and he accepted her new found talent. She spent her class helping other students at his request.

She arrived early for her English class, and slid into her seat at the front of the room. April sat next to her quietly. Amee wrinkled her nose pondering why April was wearing so much perfume, she almost gagged.

“Holy crap, April, did you spill the perfume bottle on yourself?”

Amee whispered harshly.

“No...just one spray as usual, why is it that bad?”

April looked self-conscious suddenly.

“Yes, I’m trying not to gag here.”

Amee held her hand over her face. Then her eyes bulged out as Chris Walker strolled by and she felt slightly sick.

“You feeling sick again Amee?” A

pril asked her hand reaching to steady Amee’s shoulder.

“No but that was rancid...didn’t you smell that? I wonder when the last time he had a shower was.”

Amee kept her voice low.

“I didn’t smell anything Amee, are you sure you’re not imaging things? Sometimes when I get sick all I can smell are turnips. It’s vile.”

April shivered at the memory. Amee shook her head and closed her eyes trying to push the smells away after a few seconds of concentration the room was back to its normal stale smell.

“Ya, that must be it, everything’s fine now.”

Amee shrugged it off and opened her copy of King Henry IV part I. It wasn’t long before she lost herself in its pages. Amee could always tune out the world all she needed was a book. Once she opened it and read the first few words other worlds and times came alive in her mind. She found herself sitting in a tavern, surrounded by rowdy patrons, Henry standing with one foot on a bench. His dashing good looks set him apart from the crowd, he waved his hands with great emotion ale sloshing over the sides of the tankard he held. He was telling a story of a joust... Amee felt an elbow hit her side. A few blinks later she was sitting in her English class all eyes on her.

“Oops.”

She whispered. Mrs. Hope waved down a few chuckles with her hands and shushed the class. She didn’t give Amee a chastising look, she was quite used to Amee’s flights of fantasy and appreciated Amee’s ability to see stories rather then read them.

“Okay Amee’s a four, continue the count, please.”

And people called out numbers in order through the class.

“What did I miss?”

Amee whispered to April.

“We’re making groups to act out different scenes in the play, I wish I could get into Shakespeare like you do.”

April whispered back, shaking her head.

“Don’t blame me, Henry the fifth was handsome.”

Amee said in a slightly defensive tone.

“Did he happen to look like Gabriel?”

April snickered. Amee sunk into her chair and her cheeks began to burn.

“Maybe there was a slight resemblance.”

Amee muttered to herself, her blush deepened. April laughed.

Mrs. Hope’s English class passed without further mishap on Amee’s part. Amee found she couldn’t concentrate on the class. Every so often she’d hear someone talking, or catch a scent that would distract her. The sounds were so loud. The smells were so strong. It was overpowering. It was all Amee could do to hold off from rushing out of class until the bell rang. April watched her rush out with a quirked eyebrow.

Amee rushed out of her English class and moved towards the school exit. She needed to get outside. The other students made everything feel so close, she started to hyperventilate. She barrelled into a firm chest and felt herself get tangled up in someone’s arms. She glanced up. Gabriel looked down at her, worry crossing his gorgeous blue eyes.

“You alright?”

Gabriel asked, Amee struggled to disentangle herself.

“I need to get out of here!”

Amee cried their school bags had become tangled with each other’s arms and her struggles only proved to make her situation worse. Without another word Gabriel pulled her towards the school doors and out onto the football field. Amee’s panic started to subside and now that she was calm she had little trouble pulling herself free from Gabriel’s school bag. Amee gulped in the fresh air. Gabriel stepped back once he was free. Amee glanced up and saw a piece of gauze on his forehead. She reached out towards it then pulled her hand back.

“I’m sorry.”

“What happened back there, you looked like you were having a panic attack.”

Gabriel made a move to step closer, but then thought the better of it and stayed where he was.

“I don’t know, I just kinda freaked out.”

Amee bent over, she was still panting from the panic attack.

“I’m sorry about your head, Gabriel.”

Amee was amazed at herself this was the second time in two days she got two full sentences out in his presence.

“Hey it’s no big deal, not the first time I’ve had a head injury, well okay it’s the first time a girl I was trying to ask out caused it.”

Gabriel smiled. Amee nearly fell over when she heard what he said.

“Y... me...?”

Amee stammered, full words were beyond her at this very moment, as was coherent thought.

“What?”

Gabriel sounded worried.

“Are you feeling worse?”

“Umm, so....so... well... ya.”

Amee smiled, then she bolted. Gabriel watched her flee and scratched the back of his head.

“Strange girl.”

Gabriel shook his head.

Amee’s felt her feet start to move of their own accord. The building started to blur slightly she reached a corner and stopped, but it was too sudden. She left herself sprawled on the ground in a very awkward position.

“Wow she can run.”

Gabriel watched her vanish behind the corner of the school, and then he winced when he heard the crash of metal and pavement. He rushed towards the source of the sound.

“Amee?”

Gabriel knelt down beside Amee’s crumpled form.

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“I’m fine, doing great. Yep.”

Amee said through clenched teeth. She could feel blood seeping from one of her knees. The jeans she borrowed were going to get stained. Amber is going to kill me.

“Here let me help you get to the school nurse.”

Gabriel stood and held out his hand. Amee shoved his hand away and stood up on her own, she wobbled a bit her right knee was banged up pretty good. She tried to put weight on it and regretted her decision immediately as pain shot through her.

“I told you I’m fine!”

Amee blurted out and put her hand out to the school wall to steady herself.

“But your leg’s bleeding, a lot.”

Gabriel pointed at Amee’s knee, her jeans were starting to turn a deep purple from the blood.

“I won’t be running any marathons but I’ve had worse. Why don’t you go play doctor with someone who wants it!”

Amee huffed.

“Hey, I’m just trying to help. What’s with the attitude?”

Gabriel’s eyes narrowed, apparently his patience did have a limit.

“If you hadn’t have said you were going to ask me out then I wouldn’t have run away and crashed into the bicycle rack!”

Amee’s voice had risen to the volumes she usually reserved for her mother. It took her a second to realize what she just said and her hands moved to cover her mouth in a vain attempt to silence it. She wobbled once again and lost her balance, putting her right foot on the ground was a bad idea. She fell head-long into Gabriel’s arms. He caught her deftly.

“So now would be a better time since you can't run away again?”

Gabriel chuckled as he helped Amee stand up straight again.

“Who’s putting you up to this anyway? Jane? You tell that bi-“

Amee was about to start on a tirade when she saw a look of utter confusion cross Gabriel’s face.

“You’re doing this because you like me aren’t you?”

Amee felt about two inches tall when she saw the look of hurt on Gabriel’s face.

“I’m such an idiot, of course the one time someone I actually really like asks me out and I accuse him of trying to tease me. Fat and stupid...that’s me! Okay go ahead tell me you hate me and get it over with so I can go get stitches. I gu-”

Amee’s eyes started to fill with tears.

“Shh.”

Gabriel’s finger touched Amee’s lips gently.

“Do you want to hang out on Friday night there’s a new horror flick starting, I’d like very much to be the one you clutch onto when you’re scared.”

Gabriel moved his finger away from Amee’s lips. She opened them to answer, and then she sealed them firmly. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

“Yes.”

Amee said after taking a few seconds to formulate the answer without a squeak coming out.

“Umm can you help me to the nurse’s office now? Please?”

Amee whimpered.

“Yes.”

Gabriel laughed softly and scoped her up into his arms gently. He pulled the school door open and started to walk through the school hallways. Amee put her arms around his shoulders to hold herself up. They passed several people who gave them odd looks. April stood along one of the hallways her mouth agape. Amee sighed she’d have no end of the questions now. Amber watched them pass, Amee couldn’t tell if she was mad, surprised or both. Jane was there too, the look of shock on her face was priceless. There was fury behind those blue eyes now. Amee allowed herself a moment of mental gloating.

Mrs. Norris looked at the pair as they arrived in her office. Amee showing up in her office bleeding was a common enough occurrence it didn't surprise her in the least.

"So what happened this time?".

"I seem to have surprised her at the wrong time and she fell over an old rusty bike rack."

Gabriel smiled, Amee laughed.

"Well at least you're in better spirits today Amee, Bring her in and help her sit down, you better get to lunch Gabriel. You haven't had any dizzy spells have you?"

Mrs. Norris was busy looking for a pair of scissors and first aid gear.

"No, Ma'am, not a single dizzy spell, you know us football players, skulls as hard as rocks."

He winked at Amee and walked out of the office. Amee blushed a deep crimson.

"You can take the jeans off or I can cut them, I don't think at this point it will matter they look ruined."

Amee shrugged in response and pulled the jeans off, at least this way she wouldn't have to wear jean shorts all day in October.

"He's quite a looker isn't he?"

Mrs. Norris asked, as she started to clean the area of the cut with alcohol. Amee stared out the door where he left not even noticing the pain. Mrs. Norris paused and looked at Amee's face then back at her knee.

"Is it that bad?"

Amee looked down at her knee, it wasn't hurting half as much as it should be, which was worrisome, that usually mean something really bad happened.

"Well no, it's not that, but where is the cut? This much blood I swore you were going to need stitches."

Mrs. Norris waved at Amee's unblemished skin on her knee. Which was something else totally uncharacteristic, Amee had scars almost everywhere, it came from being the world's clumsiest person. But there it was, a perfect clean knee.

"I swear I fell on glass."

Amee fumbled for her borrowed jeans pulling blood covered shards of glass out of the denim. She held them up to Mrs. Norris.

"See?"

"I've never seen anything like it, does your knee hurt?"

Mrs. Norris picked up a longer piece of glass off the floor it looked like it had been suck at least half an inch into Amee's knee at some point.

"No, what is going on Mrs. Norris?"

Amee started to feel panicked. Her stomach clinched, she was going to throw up. She hoped off the bed and stumbled to the sink and had some dry heaves, they passed. She felt Mrs. Norris's hand on her shoulder.

"Are you alright Amee?"

Mrs. Norris asked softly.

"No, I'm not alright, I should be in the hospital right now, that was in my leg!"

Amee pointed at the long shard of glass.

"Maybe it was just a funny bone injury, and someone else fell there first, and you just got covered in their blood. I can't imagine how we could explain it any other way."

Mrs. Norris turned away from Amee and started to clean up the mess. Amee didn't say anything, but she knew she'd felt that glass in her leg, deep in it. She couldn't bend her knee because of it.

"Well you can get dressed and get back to class, I'm glad it wasn't as serious as it looked."

"Thanks Mrs. Norris, sorry for the scare."

Amee pulled her sister's ruined jeans on. At least it wasn't her fault. At least she didn't think it was. She picked up her bag. Lunch it was. The blood on the jeans didn't bother her so much today. Gabriel had asked her out. That alone was worth a thousand more days of high school torture. She slid into the seat across from April in the cafeteria. Of course she was greeted by a look of intense scrutiny.

"Spill it, I want juicy details, leave nothing out, even the smallest figure of speech could mean something special!"

April asked in a harsh whisper.

"He asked me out, I said yes."

Amee said quietly and started to eat the salad April had bought her.

"That's it! I thought you were a poet, a hopeless romantic! And that's all you got for me?"

April said, perhaps a little too loudly. More than a few eyes glared at her. She responded with an offensive gesture and went back to staring at Amee.

"Well it sounded better then, he tried to ask me out so I smashed his head into a locker, then he tried to ask me out again and I ran away and face planted myself in cement."

Amee shrugged. April laughed then put her hands of her mouth to stop herself when she noticed the hurt look on Amee's face.

"I'm sorry, you have to admit it's funny, come on."

April tried her best to keep the snickers to a minimum.

"Ya hilarious!"

Amee pouted, but then she smiled and giggled softly as she thought about it.

"Okay it's funny."

"So what are you going to do on your date?"

April dropped her fork on her tray, the food all but forgotten in her quest for juicy details. Amee shovelled her food into her mouth between answers.

"Some horror movie."

Amee shrugged.

"You going to eat that?"

Amee pointed at April's plate of salad. April shook her head, so Amee grabbed the plate and started shovelling that down too.

"You are going to burst out of those jeans if you keep that up."

April said softly.

"Thanks Mom!"

Amee muttered but continued to clean the plate off.

"Hey I'm just trying to save myself the work of dealing with you after you end up bursting out of your jeans in front of the whole school. That's the kind of tragedy that would take me months of BFF therapy to help you overcome."

Amee's mind drifted away from the conversation with April. April was too busy with her math homework to notice Amee was on remote control. Amee touched the back of her neck gingerly. She could feel the metal. She shifted in her seat. The rest of the day wore on. Amee was on autopilot even though cheerleading practice. She couldn't have told anyone what she'd done in science, or even what act she was on in her battered copy of Macbeth. She felt detached. Cheerleading practice felt much the same way. She went through the motions, well her body did, no one seemed to notice. Then reality came crashing down on as she heard a soft thud and a cry of pain.

"She dropped me on purpose!"

Jane cried from the ground, she glared up at Amee and clutched her right arm. Amee looked down at her hands, then the other cheerleaders. She tried to remember what she had been doing, it was a simple lift. Jane being the lighter of the two ended up on top.

"Nonsense, you lost your balance, stop blaming others for your mistakes. That doesn't fly around here young lady!"

"I lost my balance because she made me lose it! I felt it, her hand shifted!"

Jane said through tears of pain. The coach looked at Amee. Amee tried to remember. Jane had been saying something quietly about being stuck with the dyke looking up her skirt. Amee remembered being angry, but she only shifted her hand to help Jane keep her balance. She had no intent to hurt her. Though she did remember Jane being heavier last practice.

"I...I might have, but I felt her losing her balance so I tried to compensate, I didn't want her to fall and hurt herself."

Amee looked down at Jane. The assistant coach was already looking over the injury.

"I think it's broken, she needs to see a doctor."

The assistant told the coach.

"Practice is over for today."

The coach looked at Jane, and Amee, then frowned.

“I’m not sure what your problem is you two, but sort it out.”