Chapter 27 | Mia's aggressive kicks

Isabella:

The first lesson of the day is PE.

So fun, I know.

It is even more extremely fun considering the fact I am stuck in a team where the girls treat each game like it's the Olympics. (Can you sense the sarcasm?)

"Isabella, why don't you...stand over there," a girl whose name I didn't bother to learn because she's rude, smiles falsely at me, baring her teeth thus causing herself to look like a freaky dog.

"Sure," I reply, walking extra slowly to where she had been pointing at, purposely trying to aggravate her and so far it's working; she begins to tap her feet against the floor rapidly and I'm surprised she doesn't drill a hole into the ground by the intensity she's beating the poor floor with.

"Isabella hurry up, we don't have all day for you," another girl whines and I peer my head to see Ivy sneering at me, surprise, surprise. Of course she would be on my team.

I narrow my eyes at her, her presence reminding me of the events that went down in registration.

I had arrived into home room after escaping from Aidan and his attempt in trying to expose me, to find Ivy waiting angrily for me by my desk. She had pounced on me after discovering that Lucas had gotten me McDonalds on the drive home after the party, absolutely fuming over the fact her boyfriend was buying another girl food.

Believe me. I hadn't been that proud of myself for devouring a 20 piece box of nuggets either.

Anyways, after yelling at me...and myself ultimately allowing her to (because her nails seemed to have increasing in length over the weekend and I was not about to get my face scratched up by this angry puta). She had sauntered away from me and back to Lucas, who of course, was completely oblivious to his girlfriends maniacal antics and began kissing him very passionately, in what I think was hopes into getting me jealous.

It worked of course. No it did not. Yeah it did. Nope. Nope. Nope. Shut up subconscious.

"Okay Mia, you're in Team A," Coach Parker announces pointing to my team, snapping me out of my fight with my highly irritating subconscious.

As Mia begins to approach the part of the pitch where our team is spread out, everybody groans - myself included.

"Coach does she have to play today!" The dog girl moans and several others nod their heads in agreement.

"Yeah please let her sit out!"

"Hey! Shut it all of you!" Mia shoots back at all of us, putting her hands on her hips defensively.

It's not that everyone was mad because Mia was necessarily bad at soccer (unlike me who had zero hand-eye-feet coordination) but because Mia was extremely competitive. So competitive in fact, that if she had the ball she would never pass to anyone else, thus making her a horrible team player...and also because she would take out someone's eye if deemed necessary in order to win...which was unlucky for the opposing team.

"No, I'm afraid not," Coach Parker replies, looking down at her clipboard.

"Please!?"

"No."

"Please!!!!"

"No and that's final."

After sorting out the teams and both team captains failing to persuade Coach to put Mia out of the game, we begin to put on our bibs and prepare for the game.

I grimace at the smell of stale sweat and God knows what else is on the bibs that clearly haven't been washed since forever, as I put it on.

The screech of the whistle indicates the beginning of the game and I begin to run around aimlessly, trying to make it seem like I'm playing when really I'm not.

I find myself out of breath is under 5 minutes and a pang of worry shoots through me as I hunch over trying to inhale as much oxygen as I can.

I used to be able to run for 20 minutes straight without getting out of breath and now I can't even run 5?

It's for the better. I quickly remind myself, trying to shake away the anxious feeling. I hadn't been running to improve my health or get my heart rate increasing or to increase my stamina, I used to run miles and miles and spend hours and hours at the gym to loose weight - very unhealthily as you all know.

I'll get back to the gym soon. I tell myself. To improve my stamina and that's it. Not to lose weight but to get stronger. I make a mental note to ask Mia and Grace if they'd be willing to come with me one day.

I take another deep breath and stand back up straight, peering around to see if Coach has noticed I've stopped playing. Big mistake.

The ball comes whizzing in my direction, just as I turn my head and hits me - smack bang on my face. I go flying to the ground and cry out in pain, feeling and seeing a warm pool of blood gushing from my nose.

The other girls briskly come and huddle around me and Mia in particular stares at me with a hand slapped around her mouth.

"Ohmygodsorrysorrysorry," she cries, bending down so she's stooping at my level.

Of course she was the one who hit me.

Coach blows the whistle and pushes the other girls out of the way to take a look at me. She crouches down and begins waving two fingers in my face.

"How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Er...two," I reply, my nose continuing to repeatedly spurt blood. I'm no doctor but seeing as how I'm on day two of my period (yes my period finally came back!) and the fact my nose has decided to become a bloody water fountain, it surely can't be good that I'm loosing this much blood so quickly...or is that some random fact I have made up in my head.

After doing a couple more 'how many fingers am I holding up?' (I honestly don't think Parker's tactic is effective at all), Coach concludes that I'm fine and sends me on my way to the nurses office with Mia to accompany me.

Cheers erupt from the other girls over the fact Mia is no longer is the game but promptly die down the moment she glares at all of them.

"Shut up all of you, or I'll break your noses with the ball like I just did to Isabella!"

My eyes widen and I hastily scramble up from the floor. "Broken nose?!" I exclaim, going to feel my nose with my finger. I wouldn't be surprised if it was broken, Mia's kicks were brutal. I wince as I press down on my nose to hard, causing even more blood to begin dribbling out of my nose. Oh this can't be good.

"I'm only exaggerating," Mia hisses from the corner of her mouth, calming me down slightly. "But I'm so sorry babe," she apologises whilst hauling me from off of the ground. "I didn't mean to hit you!"

"It's alright, it was an accident," I reply sighing, covering my nose with my hand.

Mia begins to guide me along the soccer pitch and out of the gates, towards the main building where the nurses office is situated in the main hall. "If it makes you feel better, it was almost about to hit Ivy but she ducked."

I snort but then cry out as a jolt of pain shoots through my face.

"That...ouch...does...ouch...kinda make me feel better."

We're about to head through the automatic doors into the school building when we're stopped by two people calling our names.

We pause in front of the door and turn to see Aidan and Lucas jogging towards us.

"Damn what happened to you?" I ask, my eyes widening at the nasty bruise forming on Lucas' cheek, just under his eye.

He lets out an exasperated breath. "Dylan almost killed me with the ball." His gaze then falls onto the hand thats clutching my bloody nose. "What happened to you?"

"Mia almost killed me with the ball," I sigh and Mia throws Lucas a sheepish grin.

"It was an accident," she points out just as Aidan laughs.

"Hey Mia, Isabella," he greets, smirking wickedly. His gaze stays on me a tad longer than necessary and I swear his eyes begin to twinkle evilly the longer he stares.

It's making me uncomfortable because I know what message he's trying to tell me and I shuffle on the spot under his gaze.

The four of us continue to walk towards the nurses office and both Lucas and I plop down on the plastic chairs situated outside.

Silence falls over us as we wait for our turn with the nurse. I'm looking down mindlessly at my scuffed up trainers not knowing how to fill the silence.

"So," Lucas says after a beat, clearing his throat. "Finally, you and Grace huh?"

Aidan nods and grins adorably and if it wasn't for his dark skin (which is smooth as hell by the way...damn. I really need to find out what moisturiser he uses) I'm sure he would be flushing pink at this point.

"So...when's the wedding," Lucas smiles cheekily at Aidan who rolls his eyes playfully.

"Ha ha very funny," he responds, punching Lucas on the shoulder. "But that reminds me of something I was supposed to tell you guys in the morning..."

I freeze.

"Er are you sure you didn't already tell us?" I laugh nervously. I don't know if it's the stress of Aidan possibly blurting out my secret or if it's the excessive amount of blood that I'm loosing but I'm starting to feel light hearted.

"Oh no I'm sure I didn't."

"What?" Mia asks, piqued with interest. "What were you supposed to tell us?"

"Oh y'know..." he begins vaguely, scratching his chin with his pinkie. That's right his pinkie. My eyes zero in on the slight gesture, especially as he refuses to remove his finger from his chin, twiddling it around weirdly for longer than necessary.

"Uh is everything alright between you too?" Lucas asks curiously, flitting his eyes back and forth between Aidan and I. "Isabella you've gone pale and Aidan...your pinky is...spazzing out."

"Everything's peachy," I respond, my voice coming out higher pitched than intended.

"Yup," Aidan nods his head, looking at Lucas. "Just thinking about how pinkies are fascinating," he explains before pausing to stare directly at me against. "You know, thinking about pinkies has just reminded me of something."

"A lot of things are sure reminding you of things today," I laugh and from my peripheral vision I see Lucas gaze at me weirdly as I begin to make a gesture with my hands that if he speaks I'll cut off his testicles, but either he doesn't understand my wild hand gesture or he doesn't really care about not having children in the future as he continues to speak.

"Hmm you're right Bella," Aidan agrees. "But I just remembered something you told me, quite some while ago actually...like back when we were-"

He's about to continue when the door to the nurses office flies open.

"Right whose next," the pudgy middle aged lady asks, seemingly bored.

"Me-oh." I fly up from my seat, the sudden movement too fast causing my light headed-ness catch up up with me and before I know it...I'm kissing the floor.

***

I wake to find three concern-laced faces staring down at me.

"Oh good you're alive," Aidan sighs in relief. before clutching my hand. "I'm so sorry Bell, I will never bring up what you told me when we were seven years old up again."

"Seriously what did you tell him," Mia groans, staring at the two of us in bewilderment. "It's killing me not knowing what you guys are talking about, just tell us already!"

Aidan waves his hand in a dismissive manner. "Oh it was nothing...just about how Isabella had a crush on Beck from victorious when we were younger."

Mia's face falls and her shoulders slump. "That's it?"

"Yup," I laugh nervously. "My crush on...Beck, he was so hot woohoo! Go Beck and his nice hair!"

"Nurse you sure she hasn't got like brain damage from face planting the floor or something?" Lucas asks worriedly, looking over his shoulder at the nurse who is perched on a chair behind the three of them, in the midst of taking a selfie on her phone - yes she used the middle aged mom angle.

She finishes pouting and snapping the photo before turning back to us. "Yes," she replies curtly. "Here's your ice pack." She throws Lucas an ice pack and he swiftly catches it with one hand. Hot.

Nope not hot. It's the brain damage talking.

She then waves her hand in my direction. "Now that she's woken up and her nose bleeding has stopped, can you get her out of here, it's almost break time and I need to get the staff room first for the good muffins before Susan from English steals them all."

"Nurse, you know how I'm dealing with severe blood loss...can you write me a note so I can go home and...recuperate." I ask her, batting my eyelashes.

"Yup me too," Lucas clutches his face bruise dramatically. "Ouch I'm in so much pain."

Aidan sends Lucas a blank stare. "I'm so grateful on your behalf that you didn't take up drama class this year," Aidan states blatantly and Lucas smacks him in the chest.

"Ouch, Lucas just broke my ribs, I need go home too," Aidan clutches his chest where Lucas had slapped, doing a much better acting job than what Lucas had done.

"Me too, me too!" Mia perks up from beside me. "My leg is broken, look." She stands up and begins to limp to emphasise her 'broken' leg.

The nurse stares blankly at us, not buying our act. "I can't send you two home," she finally says, pointing to Aidan and Mia and they both huff in annoyance. "But I could possibly send you home," she points at me and I fist pump the air in triumph.

"I'll get you a whole pack of muffins if you let me go too!" Lucas pleads, sending the nurse one of his typical panty dropping smiles, dimples popping out and all.

The nurse is unaffected by his smile but had perked up visibly when the muffins had been mentioned. "Okay, but I expect you to arrive with the muffins at 9 AM sharp tomorrow or I'll tell the principle you and your little girlfriend sometimes skip lesson and make out in the janitors closet."

Lucas' smile drops abruptly. "Er how do you know that."

"I have eyes everywhere," nurse states in a matter of fact sort of way before pulling out two slips of paper for our permission to leave.

After quickly scribbling down the note, nurse shoo's us out of the office and Lucas and I bid goodbye to Mia and Aidan who blatantly ignore us, jealous that we get to go home and they both have to go to math and Spanish class next period. They do however send us the lovely middle finger as we part ways in the hallway so they can go back to PE and Lucas and I can go to the reception to show them the note before leaving.

"Freeeeeedoooooom!" Lucas shouts as we finally exit out of the main doors and I snort in reply.

"Can you uh," I begin as we approach the car park but Lucas briskly cuts me off.

"Yes, I can drive you home."

I heave a sigh of relief. "Thanks." No school bus for me today whoop whoop.

He opens the door for me and I mutter a quick thank you before settling inside the passenger seat.

The drive back home is silent - minus the soft voice of Khalid coming from the stereo. I hum along as I watch the streets whizz past us in a blur.

"The last time you were in here," Lucas begins breaking the silence after a couple of minuets, his mouth curled into a little smile. "You were flat out drunk."

"Don't remind me," I groan, leaning my head back against the seat. "I still feel the effects of hangover."

He gazes sideways at me with one of his eyebrows quirked up. "You remember that?"

"Yeah, it was like 3 days ago, my memory isn't that bad," I snort, turning my head to look back at him.

"Yeah I know that but you were so drunk I thought you'd forget it all by the next morning."

"Nope," I tsk. "I remember it all."

He smirks, drumming his fingers against the steering wheel. "You down for McDonalds again then?"

I shake my head, my stomach squeezing at the thought. "No thank you, no more nuggets for me for a long time."

He laughs, completely oblivious to what I mean.

━

AUTHORS NOTE:

Helloooo!! Sorry I haven't updated in a hot min because I've been writing the homecoming chapters to replace chapters 14-17 and omg I kinda love them 😏

P.S I kinda don't like the last bit of this chapter but I'll edit it maybe when I'm struck with a better idea :)

** by the way i just realising some schools in america (i think anyways) do pe mixed but here in england from what i know most schools (i'm pretty sure anyways lmao) do it separate for the most part so yhhh this is what's going on if you're confused. just pretend this school does it separate :) **

Take care, lots of love - Mai x

OMG ALSO THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH FOR 5K READS :') I APPRECIATE IT SM!!!!