Chapter 33 Ray

I took another glance at the stands. The game was about to start in about ten minutes and Melodia was nowhere to be seen. I guess she really had needed to be somewhere else.

I felt a frown on my face as I thought about the admittedly weird but still nice girl. When I first met her, I thought I was dealing with another one of my creepy fans. Learning she was just shy and had trouble talking to people was such a relief. Plus it was always nice to have another friend I could count on. Not enough of those around these days.

It was weirdly refreshing having someone around who liked me for me instead of my face and sports skill.

I took one last glance at the stands to see if she was there before turning towards the pitch and… I quickly glanced back as I spotted her giant head of black hair in the stands. She was near the bottom… and standing next to Anna and her friends. Better go see what that was all about. If they were messing with her again, the least I could do was give her a hand.

I felt a bunch of mixed feeling as I walked towards the stands. When I had first met Anna, my first impression was a dorky girl who cared about other people. The more I saw her, the more I liked having her around. But ever since getting partnered with Melodia, I’d seen a new side of her. A crueler side I hated.

I knew Melodia said she’d done something to make Anna think she was a bad person, but I had trouble believing that. Mostly because it was hard to see her as anything but a shy but otherwise nice person.

I reached the stands as the four girls spotted me. Despite the tense atmosphere from last time, things felt weirdly calm. Except for Anna who looked tense enough for a photo of her to be in the dictionary next to the word.

“Hey girls,” I called as they watched me approach. I kept my eye on Melodia in case she looked like she needed help getting out of there. “What’s going on?”

“I’m okay,” she said before the rest of them could say a word, “we made up.”

“Yeah, once we figured out Melodia just had trouble talking, it was clear skies from there,” Rashell grinned as she threw her arm around the other girl in a hug. I could see Melodia blush underneath her hair, but she was smiling so I guess it was okay.

“Yeah, and I guess from your perspective it looked pretty bad huh,” Anna was blushing and nervously rubbing the back of her head, “sorry for getting you caught up in all this.”

“Oh, okay then,” I felt a bit lost. How did things turn around so quickly? Was there some sort of context I was missing? Oh wait there was, Melodia has said as much. She had done ‘something’ to make Anna think she was a bad person. I didn’t pry because it sounded personal but it was still annoying to not know. “If everything’s fine, I’ll head over to get started…”

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“Wait,” Melodia rose to her feet as I stopped in place, “something I need to say… alone.” I raised an eyebrow at her as the rest of the girls all stared at her.

“Oh sure thing,” Anna awkwardly laughed as she started leading the other two girls away. “I’ll leave the two of you to talk and…”

“Anna” Melodia interrupted her, stopping Anna in her tracks. She slowly turned back around with a worried look on her face. Melodia sighed and smiled at her. “Not what you’re thinking.”

“Oh, okay then,” Anna sat back down as Melodia got out of her seat and came over to me. We walked back behind the stands and tried to ignore the other three girls who were probably still watching us.

“So… is Anna okay?” I asked as I glanced back at the bleachers. “She seems a little off,”

“She figured out the truth.” She simply stated as I looked at her blankly. The truth? What truth did she figure out that would make her act like…?

“Oh, she found out about the whole trouble talking thing?” She nodded.

“She hadn’t had the best time since, blames herself for a bunch of stuff,” Melodia awkwardly glanced over at the bleachers. “I’ve forgiven her but I don’t think she’s ready to forgive herself yet.”

“I see… But at least you managed to explain yourself to them right? And all on your own too,”

She took a deep breath and braced herself.

“That’s what I wanted to talk to you about. I wanted to say that I was sorry,” well that wasn’t what I’d been expecting.

“Sorry about what?” She hadn’t done anything worth apologizing for… had she?

“You offered to help me talk to Anna and the rest and I told that I wanted to solve it by myself. I should have accepted then and there.”

“What happened to wanting to handle this on your own? Isn’t that what happened?” I pointed out only for her to stare at her feet and her face to turn bright red.

“No, my brother did most of the heavy lifting. He pretty much did what you were probably going to do,” she admitted. “All it took him was one conversation and I was on the same page as the rest of the girls for once.”

“Wait, it was that easy?” I could only stare as Melodia covered her face with her hands and slowly nodded.

“All it took,” she mumbled out of her palms. “I feel so dumb, I could have solved this ages ago.”

“But at least the four of you are on good terms now right?” She let her hands drop as she nodded again. “Then enjoy that and ignore the rest.”

“You’re right,” she smiled as I heard the buzzer for the teams to meet. “Sounds like that’s your cue. Go on and win this for South Palm Middle okay?”

She stretched her fist out as I let out a single chuckle. I met her fist with mine before heading off to the pitch.

“Don’t worry, we’re going to win this soccer match…” I ignored the way she twitched when I said the word ‘soccer’ “with no trouble.”

We split off as Melodia headed back to the stands while I headed to the pitch. Waiting for me was the rest of my team.

“Finished talking to your not-girlfriend?” I rolled my eyes at my old friend Latchky as he snickered.

“I just finished talking to some friends, yes,” I informed him before he placed his hand on my shoulder. He got a weird glint in his eye and I suddenly knew I was going to get caught up in something stupid again.

“So have you heard these weird rumors going around town? About the random vandalism acts?” His grin stretched from ear to ear as my life flashed before my eyes.

“Please don’t tell me you want to start looking into them like some sort of kid detective.” I said that, I already knew the answer.

“I swear this won’t go like the other time,” he reassured me as the coach finally got to us and we had to cut the chatter.

A few minutes later, the game was in full swing and we were doing as well as I was expecting. Whenever I had the chance, I glanced over to the girls in the stands, just to make things were all okay between everyone. And every time I did, they were.

We won the game, but I was left wondering what had happened between the four of them. Now there was a mystery worth solving. I’d rather spend my time figuring that out instead of whatever stupidity Latchky wanted to get us caught up in.