“My team sucks, Michaela can’t score if her life depended on it,” he complained annoyed. He was still mispronouncing her name. Derek walked up to Michaela and stood behind her while she tried to shoot but missed, he caught the ball on the rebound. What he did next surprised me, her and just about everyone. He gave her the ball and picked her up and told her to shoot, she did and she scored and then waited to be put down, we all waited and watched, some even gawked. She was blushing like mad but he just smiled. I felt my face heat up in rage. Who the hell did he think he was! I walked up to him and pushed him, too caught up in my fury.
“Whoa,” he said looking at me with anger. I looked at him feeling like I could kill something. “You have a problem, pal?” he asked, making my anger spike.
“I’m not your pal,” I said through gritted teeth. Mickey put her dainty hand on his arm.
“Ignore him,” she said looking at him and ignoring me, which didn’t help my anger any. He looked like he was about to protest but she spoke quicker, “Anything, this is what I want,” she whispered, he sighed but listened.
“Yeah, ignore me,” I said pissed and walked away. No one spoke to me for the rest of class but they all stared, everyone but Mickey did. I knew that because I was staring at her. When we got into the locker room after class, Cody and Neil jumped me.
“What the hell?” Neil asked.
“Yeah, what was that about, you went crazy!” Cody exclaimed. Did I really? I had no clue! I thought sarcastically. Instead I just acted cool and collected, nothing like before or how I was really feeling inside.
“I hate Derek.” I shrugged.
“Get in line, but man, that was crazy and not cool,” Cody said, really exemplifying how uncool it was, if it was coming from Cody. “Over Michaela?” he asked chuckling.
“She stalks you,” Neil he added.
“You remember the list?” I asked trying to play it cool, they nodded confused.
“I’m just breaking a loser’s heart.” I grinned. They both slapped my back and roared with laughter.
“Dude! This will be the best heartbreak ever!” Neil grinned.
“You’ll go down in history, this is going to be epic!” Cody agreed energetically. If I’d learned anything today, it was that I was not only jealous of Derek but I was the one obsessed with Mickey. Mickey clearly couldn’t care less about me, it was me and no matter how many rumours I spread nothing could change that.
Michaela
I’d had fun with Gran but those legal documents and new information still weighed down on me over the entire stay and even while I baked chocolate souffle and we watched TV, I couldn’t stop wondering if we’d be doing this next year. When James came into English, I couldn’t look at him. Gran wanted me to forgive him but when he apologized, I knew it was forced but I also know he meant it. That’s why I gave the note to Emily who had History with him, telling him I accepted his apology. I was even more shocked when he wrote back. It wasn’t long but to the point. All he wrote in his sloppy writing was: I’m sorry. For everything. And my heart knew that I forgave him. I forgave him for everything.
“Derek give me the ball,” I said, getting annoyed. At first it was funny but not now, now I was just frustrated.
“This is too much fun.” He laughed. It was James, or rather I felt him watching and he didn’t look too impressed either, which only made me further embarrassed. I poked Derek hard in the navel. That ought to teach him, I thought, stealing the ball. When James used to steal stuff from me, I found it cute, not annoying.
“No fair.” Derek complained but I just stuck out my tongue feeling victorious. I wasn’t into PDA, so him flirting with me like this was very embarrassing. When I threatened to take away my baked goods, Derek looked so sad, he was begging me not to. He loved my baking almost as much as James did. I finally agreed under the circumstances that he would do anything I want and then we played ball. Derek was the first to score out of both teams which was no surprise, he was amazing at basketball. I still couldn’t score, even after everyone out of my team did and the pressure was only making it worse. James got the ball and dribbled it to the net avoiding everyone who tried to steal the ball, then he jumped and threw the ball into the net and scored, he was graceful in a way about it. I felt my cheeks get hot and quickly shifted my gaze to Tiffany who was sitting out. She looked at me with no smile, no frown either. After James scored Sam got the ball and passed it to me. I continued to shoot, getting both more annoyed and frustrated by the minute. Derek caught the ball on the rebound, passing it to me, I almost screamed when I felt hands around my waist, for some weird reason I thought they’d be James’ but they weren’t, they were too big. My face got hot and I really wanted to hit whoever held me.
“Shoot,” Derek said in my ear. “You can do it,” he whispered. To any other girl this would have been cute, to me it was just a piss off. I scored and waited for Derek to put me down, which took a lot longer than necessary. I was blushing terribly, knowing everyone was watching,
