Ups and Downs - Chapter 2

Recap:

Amber's boyfriend Thorn, broke up with her for popular girl Scarlet on her birthday. Ash played guitar for popular neighbor Azure, and is gonna give her lessons. Fern thought about West, a boy who used to bully her, and about the recital at the end of the trimester. Blaze just played with his trucks.
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Chapter 2 - Haze

October 20:

(Amber's POV)

Seeing Thorn parade around the school with Scarlet made me want to vomit. Sure we broke up, but no one wants to see their ex with another girl the day after.

Let me say something about the schools here in Washington. Kindergarten through sixth grade is elementary school, seventh to ninth is junior high, and tenth to twelfth is high school. I'm in ninth grade, so it's my last year at Skyview middle school.

As I was getting some stuff out of my locker, Scarlet and Thorn passed me. Thorn didn't notice me at all, but Scarlet smiled cruelly at me. For some reason, that was enough to make me break down crying. Thankfully, Scarlet had turned her head away already.

The bell rang, and everyone rushed to class. I slumped down against the lockers, trying not to be noticed. I really didn't know why I was crying. I didn't think it was because of Thorn, probably just because Scarlet's just so mean. But that somehow made me cry. I'm crazy, I thought.

By now everyone was in their classrooms. But I just sat there, trying to calm down.

"Are you okay?" Came a voice from my left. I whipped my head around to find a guy leaning against the lockers next to me. He had sandy blonde hair, and deep blue eyes. He was wearing a brown plaid shirt, faded jeans, and plain white sneakers. He spoke with a slight southern accent. He looked concerned. And he was very cute.

"I'm fine," I said, drying the last of my tears off my cheeks. I actually did feel much better.
"You're sure?" He asked.
"I'm sure," I said, standing up. He still looked dubious, but a smile from me convinced him otherwise.

"I don't think I've seen you before," I said.
"Oh yeah, this is my first day," he replied.
"Okay, I'm Amber," I said, finally introducing myself.
"Haze," he said.

"Okay Haze, do you need any help finding your classes? We should really be in class by now."
"Actually, I do. Algebra?"
"Oh, I have that first too," I said, smiling.
"So where to?" He asked, glancing at all the different halls and doors.
"This way." I led him down the hall to our left, then turned right. It was the first door there.

I turned the handle, and walked in.
"Late, Ms. Hill," Mrs. Trussel said, glaring. Grimacing, I glanced back at Haze and saw he had the same expression.
"Sorry," I mumbled, plopping into the first chair beside me.

"And you must be Haze!" She exclaimed. "Come here, come here."
Haze did what she said and stood next to her.
"Introduce yourself."
"Hi, my name's Haze Forester. Um, I just moved from Montgomery, Alabama. I'm new here obviously." He looked rather nervous.
"That's fine. Take a seat," Mrs. Trussel said, sort of interrupting.

Haze walked around the room to the seat behind me, as there were no other seats, not including the front row. No one ever sat in the front unless forced to by Mrs. Trussel.

"Continuing with the lesson before this interruption..." The teacher went on. I heard scribbling coming from behind me. Moments later, someone tapped on my shoulder. I turned slightly to see a small piece of paper in Haze's hand. I took it, and read,

Is she always like that?

I smiled, grabbed my pencil, and wrote back,

Yeah, pretty much. Bet you love this school already!

I put the paper on my shoulder, and a second later felt Haze take it. A soft chuckle came after.

Sarcasm was probably the one and only thing Fern and I both had in common. It just came naturally. All you had to do was twist the sentence. Easy.

The rest of Algebra passed without Haze giving me back the note. As the day went on, it turned out we had a lot of the same classes together. At lunch we sat together at a table in the corner. The twins were gone until Monday in Olympia, so we were alone.

After the final bell had rung and we were walking to the front of the building, Haze turned to me and asked, "So why were you upset this morning?"

"You see him?" I asked, pointing to Thorn, who was getting stuff from his locker, Scarlet beside him.
"Yeah. I've seen him all day. Seems kind of..." Haze searched for the right word. "Fake, I guess. Like he doesn't care for anyone but himself." Despite myself, I smiled.

"Well, his name's Thorn. Yesterday, on my birthday by the way, he broke up with me."
"And now he's with her?" Haze asked incredulously, staring at Scarlet.
"Yeah. I saw them this morning and just started crying for some reason," I told him.

After a moment's pause, "Well happy late Birthday." I half snorted. That was unexpected.
"Thanks," I said. He grinned at me.

Looking ahead, I saw Ash motioning for me to hurry up.
"Sorry, gotta go. See you tomorrow!" I exclaimed, running towards him.
"Bye!" Haze called.

"So how was school, little bro?" I asked. Ash and I walked home everyday instead of taking the bus. The school was just so close to home that it just didn't make sense to take the bus.
"Good," he said bluntly. I knew something was up.
"And Azure?" I asked, grinning. Ash sighed. He knew he'd been caught.
"She acted like she didn't know me."
"Why?" I was confused.
"That's just how she is. Around her friends she's the popular girl. There's no way she'd let them know that she knew me. So who's that guy you were talking to?" I smiled at Ash's attempt to change the subject.
"Someone," I said, being as blunt with my answer as he was with his.
"Yeah, okay," he muttered.
I sighed. "Haze."
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(Fern's POV)

Ugh! That boy was so confusing!

We were in P.E. playing hockey pin-down. The rules are that you basically just have to hit a puck into another person's pin.

Well, every time West got back from the line for a pin, he would set it down right next to mine. And if mine got knocked down, he would hit his own one down to stand next to me in the pin line. Meaning that he could always set his pin back next to mine.

When I confronted him and asked about it, he just said, "I don't know," in a mocking tone. And so every chance I got I would hit that puck right into his pin.

Unfortunately, I sucked at hockey. More times than not I had accidentally struck my own pin with the hockey stick, causing it to fall. The clatter of West's pin would ring out a second later, and I'd curse under my breath.

At one time when West was on my left, so I didn't have to deal with it, I just resolved to stop playing. And I stood there, stick in hand, only defending the pin if I had to. And it worked. West was frowning. And then, from the tiny place that had somehow allowed him to pass the advanced placement test, an idea came to him.

Puck after puck came from my left side, so fast I could hardly block them. Fortunately, someone hit West's pin down and he went to stand in the pin line, giving his pin to Clover, one of his two best friends. She smiled at him before going to set it down on the other side of the gym. His other best friend, Birch, stood in front of him.

As I watched, West started whispering to Birch. Birch eventually nodded, and West turned away with a smirk on his face.

When Birch had gotten a pin, he set it beside mine where West's used to be. I was confused, but just shrugged it off. And then West had a pin to my right. It was then that I realized what they were doing.

Let me tell you, it's hard to block pucks coming from two different directions. The only good thing was that it gave me a lot of pucks. At one point I was able to knock down West's pin. As I pumped my fists in the air, a resounding clatter from behind me made me whip around. And can you imagine what I found? My pin lay there innocently, a suspicious orange puck beside it.

Glaring at Birch, I snatched the pin up, stalking towards the line. And thankfully, that was when the bell decided to ring. I sighed and ran a hand through my hair.

"Jade!" I called. She looked up from the pucks she was hitting to the bin. Everyone was cleaning up. Jade was my best friend. She'd stuck up for me ever since kindergarten when West bullied me.
"Yeah?" She asked.
"Did you see what West and Birch were doing to me?"
"I did near the end. I tried to help you, but I was on the other side of the gym," she explained.

Jade had very blonde hair that was almost white. She had a jade green streak in it on the right side. Her eyes matched the color of the streak. Her lips were a pale, vibrant pink. She loved to wear two shirts at the same time, as she said it was different. I had always agreed with her on that, but never did it myself. Jade was slightly shorter than me, but then again, I had always been the tallest girl in the class.

Gym was the first thing we had in the morning, then we went back to the classroom. Our classroom could only be described as odd. Mrs. Polar was the best teacher in the world. She let us put our desks anywhere we wanted. And the furniture, too.

Of course the boys moved their desks behind bookshelves, meaning Mrs. Polar couldn't see them. So she made a rule that only she could move her own desk. And she put it halfway between the girls' side and the boys'. Another rule was we could only move our desks once a month, so the boys had to stay there until a week ago. Now they've given up, going into groups of boys randomly around the room.

All the girls except Clover, Jade, and I were in one big group. West, Birch, and Clover sat together near me and Jade.
We were right in the front.

I think we were Mrs. Polar's favorite students. I mean, I'm not a nerd. I don't study hard and all that. Getting good grades just comes easily to me. And that's good, because then I can focus on other things, like getting West to stop bugging me.

Thankfully, the rest of the day passed uneventfully. I went to get Blaze from the kindergarten classroom, and we rode the bus home.
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October 21:

(Fern's POV)

"It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday. Everybody's looking forward to the weekend, weekend," I sang quietly as I entered the music room. It was the beginning of the last day of the week.

As I sat down in my spot, I looked around. Clover had settled down in her spot next to mine. Her hair was green. No really, it was. She had dyed it last year. I bet you're thinking; Why did everyone in your class dye their hair green? No, only Jade and Clover had.

The guitars were up on their hooks and the piano was beside me. My favorite instruments. The blue chairs we used when playing the guitars were stacked behind me. Mr. Loyer was walking toward the front of the room.

I had always found his name funny. Mr. Loyer was anything but a lawyer. He was hilarious. Serious when needed, but he could make anyone laugh at any time.

"Okay everyone. Today we aren't gonna play the guitars. We need to talk about the Fall Recital," Mr. Loyer started. A familiar thrill built up when he said the Fall Recital. Unfortunately, this was one of his serious times.

"So it's going to be this coming Monday and Friday, next week. You can bring a violin, cello, flute, grand piano, whatever, but-" We all laughed. Mr. Loyer seemed confused. And then he realized what was so funny and chuckled himself. "Well, don't bring a grand piano, but you can bring any instrument you want to play. The only thing is, you can play just once. After that, you'll have to wait for the Winter Recital."

West raised his hand.
"Yes, West?" Mr. Loyer asked.
"Can we sing?"
"Anyone can sing, West. Any other questions?" The teacher answered seriously.
West glanced at Birch, amused. He then raised his hand again.
"Yes?"
"At the recital, can the person performing sing, or do they have to just play an instrument?" West rephrased.
"Good question. Yes, the voice is considered an instrument, so yes, you can sing," Mr. Loyer told him.
I sighed. Good.
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Comment replies:

TeeHee - Thanks, I will.

Jordie - That's what I was thinking. But I just kinda wanted you guys to get used to each character. The next chapters will be different. Thanks!