Have you ever daydreamed about how your life might have turned out differently if just one thing changed along the way, or if you had approached an event in your life slightly out of character. That was what Sarah would think about a year later. Her junior year was following along the same path as usual - slowly moving through her days, keeping to herself, only interacting with acquaintances when needed, keeping the buffer around herself, staying quiet at home and school.

August had moved into September, while October was just around the corner. Life was about to get more complicated .

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Day 25 - end of September

Sarah was once again rushing out into the gym for another "power hour" of athleticism.  Although she couldn't saw she was an athlete, and nowhere near a jock, the past month and a half had really honed her body more than she thought was possible. Even though she was still the worst at almost everything Coach Bradford had them try, at least she could tell that her coordination and athleticism in general were getting better. She had been doing real well in the track module, sprinting being her best category. Now that they were focusing on volleyball, Sarah was the definite weak link. She could not get her arms and hands, wrists really, to hit the ball correctly, so it tended to fly pretty much anywhere other than where she wanted.

As they finished up the warmup and running laps, teams were beginning to form. Hopefully there would be an odd number so she could attempt to limit her time on the court.

"Hey, Sarah! You're over here with us."

Sarah was pulled out of her thoughts when Chris yelled in her direction.

Great. Looks like she was on a team facing off against Chris and Abby. She didn't really know any of her team mates other than in passing during class. One was in the trio of hot males that also graced her chem class. Leonard, or Leo, maybe. He always looked like he was pissed off. The three other girls on the team also looked annoyed, but that was probably because I had been added to the team. They were 5 on 5 to begin with. Coach was talking about how they would move into 8 on 8 later. 

Sarah took her spot towards the front, hoping to put off serving for as long as possible. As the play progressed, she had to admit to herself that she really did suck at this. Even though she could estimate where the volleyball was headed when it came in her direction, she could never hit it correctly. She probably looked like a flailing chicken, sometimes with it's head cut off, other times just crazy. What was wrong with her hand-eye coordination in this? She could tell the rest of her "team" was getting just as frustrated with her as she was at herself, but really there was nothing she could do...

As the latest ball was spiked towards her, the 'weak link' on the court, Sarah felt herself tripping over her own feet to try and get to where the ball was headed. As she started to pitch backwards, she felt herself hit another body, HARD. Her head making contact with something that gave her an immediate headache.

"Shit. Ouch." As she ricocheted off what she could only assume had been Leo, her body twisted and fell hard to the ground, making her lose her breath for a second.

"What the fuck is wrong with you?" Leo started into a berating that Sarah only half caught in her dazed mind. She didn't know how much time had passed before she caught her breath finally and realized he was still criticizing her "It's just a game of volleyball, can't you even see where you are going? Or is it your fat thighs and big head that cause you to be so bad at this? Anyone would be better at this then you."

Everyone was looking, watching her get bullied for missing a ball in gym class. What was wrong with this kid? It was gym...not like she actually thought she could play the game.

"Dude, I said, just let up." She finally heard coming from Chris on the other side of the net. It sounded like he might have said something else earlier as well, but Sarah was still feeling dazed.

The day had been a rough one. She hadn't done great on her Spanish test, at least she didn't think so, and that was on top her less than stellar English paper grade from earlier in the day. Lunch sucked when she realized she had forgotten her bag on the counter at home and there was a couple making out under her tree. Ugh...and she was PMSing on top of that... Her normal instinct to lay low and take a berating that had allowed her to make it this far with an alcoholic father flew out the window and a stronger side she had no clue existed buried beneath pushed forward.

"So sorry to have run into you. God forbid we aren't all as perfect as you seem to think you are. As you just mentioned, this is fucking gym class and not the Olympic finals of volleyball. Lay off." Sarah couldn't believe what was coming out of her mouth as the coach looked on.

"What is going on here?" Bradford finally chimed in. A bit too late for Sarah's thinking after she got her breath knocked out of her (yes, her fault) and then a jerk decided to start berating her.

"Since I obviously cannot hit a volleyball and now feel like shit due to the combo of hitting my head and this jerk's attitude, I'm going to the locker room. Maybe tomorrow I can be the required national champion volleyball player my team seems to deserve." Sarah brushed past the teacher, not even thinking about what was coming out of her mouth until she was standing in front of her locker. 

Shit...What had she done?

Quickly changing, Sarah decided to find somewhere to hide until she could sneak out to the bus.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

After what seemed like forever, Sarah finally heard the bell ring that would mark the end of the day. Trying to sneak out towards the busses, Sarah was weigh laid by a pair of striking green eyes. 

"Oh. Um. Excuse me. I need to get to the bus."

"Just give me a sec. I wanted to apologize for Leo. He can be a jerk. He didn't really mean it in PE earlier. He's going through things."

"Seemed like he meant it." Wow. He was even hotter up close. When Sarah had tried to edge around him to get to the bus line, this Greek God of a specimen had put up his arm to trap her between his body and the lockers to her right. The muscles in his arm vied with his eyes for her attention. Get ahold of yourself, Sarah. She thought. Good thing she was still pissed about earlier and feeling even more grumpy as her cramping body wanted to just get home.

"Well. He probably meant it at the time tied to frustration, but he is dealing with home life right now. His dad has been on him even more than usual, pushing him about school and football. He has high expectations and berates Leo all the time."

"Yeah. We all have shit to deal with. It doesn't make it ok to take it out on someone else. It seems like he is on his way to being just like his dad and you are right there saying nothing about it. How often do you let his bullying just slide? How often do you actually step in and not just play the silent, encouraging, bystander?"

She seemed to have made the Greek God speechless as he looked at her.

"Well. As you think about that. I need to go. My ride isn't going to wait for me."

Sarah quickly ducked under his arm and hurried towards the bus. As she looked back, he was staring at her like he had never seen her before. Like he was trying to understand what had just happened. Sarah realized that she had the same thoughts in her head. Today was just turning out strange. 

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

She had zoned out on the bus ride home. What had just happened? She stood up to two different, popular, guys and talked back to a teacher in the span of maybe half an hour. What had she done? This was not blending in, this was not keeping her head down and acting the loner. She better get her docile persona back in place before her parents got home from work.

Unlocking the door, she went straight for some candy. Maybe some sugar would help.

Her phone vibrated. It was a text from Chris. 

HEY. YOU GOOD?   

They had only shared numbers in case they needed to get ahold of each other for homework. Mostly just trading questions and making plans for doing the group work.

WE NEED TO GET THE STUFF DONE FOR COMP. TONIGHT WORK?

Since she probably couldn't ignore him, Sarah decided to make an excuse for tonight and push it to tomorrow. They made plans to meet up after school, but before his soccer practice. She would just ride her bike in so that she wasn't dependent on the bus. 

Was he actually checking in on her after the events in gym today? Was she making something a bit more than an acquaintance? Now that she thought about it, they sat together in both American Lit and Computers, chatting during lulls in class and working on assignments together. In the last month or so she had learned quite a bit about Chris and his aspirations. He was a center mid-fielder on the varsity soccer team, which was having a pretty decent start to their season. He also enjoyed English way more than her and thought about going into teaching. He had an ex girlfriend that was actually a senior and in Sarah's chemistry class, who often gave her dirty looks from her lab space with the green eyed Greek God. Sarah had lucked out and was able to work alone most days due to the odd number of students in chem. Chris also liked to use her as a foil when girls attempted to flirt with him during (and between) their two classes. 

Shit, she'd made a friend without realizing it...now what?