Part 2
I wandered aimlessly this morning, trying to find my classes without too much trouble and without too many mishaps. Another boy wished me good luck, but I laughed and told him that there wouldn't be a fight. He looked disappointed. I hoped that I was right.
Jazz didn't appear until late afternoon again, and I didn't see her until the end of school. The brunette from my first class at this school was leaning against the locker wall as I passed. She glared at me and I stared back, but Jazz almost slid over to the girls side and started to talk. She looked up and caught my gaze. She was probably telling the girl what to do to me. What did I expect anyway? I think that the only answer to that is: a friend. I looked away. When I looked back, the girl was walking away and Jazz was leaning in her place. I sidled up to her. "She a friend of yours?" I asked.
"S'pose"
"Oh" I replied. There wasn't much else to say. "About the other day…" I began.
"It was a spontaneous kiss." Jazz said bluntly, "a fleeting, momentary feeling. Nothing else." Jazz stalked off and I left to go to a cheerleading audition that they were holding. I figure that it may take my mind off Jazz, and anyway, there would be no ride home for me today.
Cat
Jazz walked past her classroom and continued on through the corridor. Fang nudged me and pointed so I nodded to indicate that I'd seen her. I wondered what she was doing. Four days into the school year and I already knew that I wouldn't be doing too well. Fang's eye had healed up pretty good from her fight the other day. I knew that she still wanted to beat that little girl, but unless Jazz said so, Fang wouldn't cross her. I also knew that I was with Jazz on this one. What was the point of breaking the girl in early? A little contest was what we needed. Even though I knew the girl had a feisty spirit, she wouldn't be much of a match for any of us.
We stood outside in the parking lot this afternoon, the school buses pulling out around us. "Tom skipped town last night." Fang said as she walked over to us.
"So?" Gabby asked.
"So, we can't collect off him either." Jazz said from where she was leaning against the hood of Fang's car. Gabby looked up sharply, obviously the thought hadn't occurred to her.
"What are we gonna do?" She asked. Gabby swept through us, scatttering rubbish on the way.
"Nothing. There's nothing to do." She answered for Jazz.
Jazz glared at her but didn't do anything. "She's right." She said finally. We all looked expectantly at her. "Fuck them both." She said. Fang and Bes smiled. Fang cursed. Jazz turned to her. "What?" She spat out at her.
Fang turned to look at our leader. "I give a damn what happens to them. That's my money."
"Do you really?" Jazz asked, speaking with a venom in her voice. Fang backed down, remembering what had happened the other day when she'd challenged Jazz.
"Fine, the money doesn't matter" She replied after it seemed the silence would go on forever. Jazz backed away and returned to leaning on the car, with her usual casual demeanor.
"What about that new girl, what's her name, Phat?" Fang asked trying to releive a bit of the tension. She worsened it.
"Her name is Cat." Jazz replied icicly.
"You're working on it right Jazz?" Bes asked. Jazz gave a slight nod.
"She's mine, and if you touch her you'll be sorry." She hissed before stalking off again. She was becoming an expert at sudden exits.
A few minutes later, Fang broke the deadly silence. "I don't see how she gets her. I'm bored." Bes nodded her agreement. "Come on Bes, lets go find a toy to play with." She walked away with Bes following her. I saw them begin to tease a younger boy near the doors to the school. "There's something wrong with Fang." Gabby said. "I don't like being left out either but she's being so different."
"Yeah." I nodded my agreement. "she's acting strange." Gabby reached over to brush my platinum blonde hair away from my face.
"Come on, lets go find some footballers to play with."
I laughed. "Now you sound like Fang
I couldn't figure out if this girl meant something to Jazz or she was just a passing novelty. I hoped it was the latter. I also hoped that this girl didn't mean enough to her that she would break up the gang over her. Or break my heart.
Mel
"Hey Jazz! Wait up. Where're you going?" I shouted as I jogged over to the older girl. She turned and looked at me. Well, really, it looked like she looked through me. Her eyes just seemed to stare ahead as if she wasn't looking at anything but seeing everything at the same time. I slowed when I got up to her. She smiled.
"Cat, hey." She said.
"Hey yourself." I replied. "Where are you going?"
"To meet Mel and the others."
"Why don't you just say that you're going to meet your friends?" I asked.
"I don't have any friends." She said, giving me a sad look.
"Sure you do." I said. "You mean to tell me that out of all those girls you don't have a real friend?"
She nodded and smiled. "That's what I said isn't it?" I nodded and looked at her. I'll be your friend, I wanted to say, but I didn't dare. Her head tilted to one side. "Maybe Mel. Define friend."
"A friend, is someone who stands by you no matter what." I said finally. Her eyes looked funny suddenly. And suddenly I knew. The gang weren't true friends, they stood by Jazz out of fear, not friendship. She turned to me, looking normal once again. "So what's been happening?"
I smiled. "Well, I made it onto the squad."
"Squad?"
"Cheerleading squad." I smiled. She smiled back.
"Congratulations. We'll come see you some time." One of the other cheerleaders called out to me and as I turned back to say goodbye to Jazz, she was gone.
Cat.
"Fuck you!" Fang screamed before turning to walk off. She turned as if she had changed her mind. "Why is she yours, Jazz? Everyone is bored! Why can't you let us have some fun? She hasn't given us anything but trouble."
Bes joined in. "Yeah, we want some fun too." Jazz stood and looked like she was bored of them. "You touch her and you won't live to regret it." She said quietly. Shit, Fang, you're gonna get yourself killed.
"Now why would we leave her alone?" Fang asked.
"Because." Jazz said. Her voice sounded like a throaty growl. Jazz looked up past Fangs head as if she was going to leave. Although I knew that she was still concentrating on Fang's movements. Fang swung at her, expecting to knock her down but Jazz was ready for her. She ducked and moved to the side.
"Stupid bitch!" Fang screamed. No-body could see who had the upper hand over the next few minutes. Fang landed a solid punch across Jazz's jaw, but Jazz just grinned and delievered a swift kick in Fang's stomach. Fang groaned but kept thrashing out.
"You like her, don't you?" Bes asked. She ran to grab Jazz's elbow, but the darker girl shook her off. "More than I like you right now." She hissed before sending another jab Fang's way. Bes reached out for Jazz's arm again, letting a thin trickle of blood start to form where her nail ran along the skin. Jazz turned, startled. Bes stepped back Gabby moved into the group of them. "We've got to stop this!" She cried, "how can we show others who's in charge if we're falling apart?" That seemed to make sense to Jazz who pulled Fang up from the floor where she was quivering. "Listen to me," She growled, "You WILL leave that girl alone. Or else. How many times do I have to tell you?" Then, she stalked over to where I was watching on the grass. She walked past me, tweaking my hair as she did - as if nothing was wrong.
"What's going on with you?" I asked Fang later on. She shook her head and tears began to form in her eyes. "I don't know." She whispered.
Mel
I had just gotten comfortable under the tree when Jazz arrived. She sat casually beside me, leaning back on her elbows. "Hi." She said. Its hard to describe her voice. It's almost a purr, but its kinda like a growl too. And it sounds so velvety and smooth. "Hi yourself." I replied. Pulling out a notebook. I didn't want to talk to her. She didn't get the hint and stayed where she was.
I looked up, ready to tell her where to go. Her jaw was slightly bruised and there was a cut above her eye. There was also a long thin scratch down her arm. It looked like she had been clawed. Her top covered another bruise on the top of her stomach. She noticed me looking and absently touched a finger to her jaw.
"What happened to you?" I whispered. She shrugged. "Nothing."
"Yeah, that's what they all say. What does the other person look like?" I asked, slightly smiling.
Jazz grinned. "Worse than me." She answered. Her eyes seemed to glow like a cats when she smiled and now they looked like they would light up an entire street.
"What were you fighting over this time?" I asked.
"Well, Fang and I, argued….over you." She replied, looking away.
"Oh Jazz!" I cried, "Don't! Don't fight over me!" I reached across to her, but withdrew my hand when blue eyes froze me to the spot. "I'm not worth it, Jazz."
"Hell, Cat! Of course you're worth it! If you weren't, I wouldn't have done it." She smiled. "You were worth this cut and that bruise." She pointed dramatically at the offending marks. "You need to believe in yourself, otherwise there's no point in me fighting for you." She crouched beside me and looked into my eyes.
All of a sudden my eyes felt watery. "Thank you." I whispered. She leaned across the distance that seperated us and pressed her lips against my cheek. I closed my eyes, enjoying the sensation. I opened them to see Jazz's friend looking at us. "Erm…Jazz?" She looked to where I pointed. The blonde girl looked ready to kill someone. Probably me.
"Mel." Jazz said. She got up and left quickly.
Cat
"Hey! Hey Cat!" I heard somebody call. I turned back into the throng of people and looked for someone who might have called me. I couldn't see anyone but I stepped into an alcove just in case someone wanted to catch up with me. The hallway emptied within minutes, the students rushing to get either off campus or into the cafeteria. I was planning to go sit under my tree again.
Jazz appeared beside me without me realising and I looked at her, surprised, after not seeing her since her friend caught us.
"Hey." She breathed. She was out of breath from fighting the current of students to get to me.
"Did you call me?" I asked, looking past her to see if there was anyone else out in the hall.
"Yeah….yeah, I did. You don't mind?" She seemed unsure about something.
I shook my head. "No. not at all. In fact, I was resigning myself to having to read a chapter of The Hobbit with no company." I smiled.
"Whatever." She said, raising an eyebrow gracefully.
I led the way out to the tree and she didn't say anything else until we were both on the grass.
She looked about. "Aren't you going to go off campus? I don't want to keep you here."
"Only seniors can do that." I replied. She shrugged.
"Screw the rules." She seemed back to her original self. I felt like she had turned on me like a dog would turn on somebody who has kicked it. She seemed to be…evil again, and it scared me.
"I'd like to think that there are some people here who follow rules." I said sarcastically.
She sneered but didn't say anything. "You don't like it here do you?" She asked softly. Her mood seemed to have changed again. I didn't know where she was up to. I shook my head.
"I hate this stupid school." I replied.
"You calling my school stupid?" She asked.
"Your school?"
"Well, not in the sense that I own it, but I run it." I didn't say anything. "What does that mean?" She asked sharply.
I looked around "What does what mean?"
"The silence thing. What are you thinking?" She asked.
I shrugged. "It means that I hate this school and I wouldn't want it if you were paying me." I replied. Might as well be honest, I thought to myself.
"What do you expect me to do about that then?" Jazz asked bitterly.
"You figure it out." I said before walking away from her and the tree. I stopped and turned. She was still sitting there, looking bitterly at the sunny school, the football game on the oval, the nerds under a tree not far away. I walked back. "Ok. You leave." She turned and looked to see if I was joking. I tried to keep a straight face.
"What?"
"If this is your school, then this is my tree." I replied to the icy question. She looked at me to see if I'd gone mad. I sat down under the tree and stared back at her.
"Your tree?"
"My tree."
"I'll fight ya for it." She smiled. Before I knew it, we were both laughing our heads off and rolling around on the ground. "Don't you have to terrorize someone?" I asked, and Jazz laughed.
"Yeah, actually." She replied.
"I was joking!" I shouted after her as she walked off. She responded with a wave.
Jazz.
Jazz waited under the tree during lunchtime today. I met her out there as soon as I got out of physics. She had passed me in the hall and said that's where she'd be. I asked her what the rush was, and do you know what her answer was? "Gotta run. I've got to find the french room." I couldn't stop smiling all through english and history.
"Hey." She said. I threw my books down at her feet.
"Is that the only greeting you know?" I said.
"Who got up your nose?" She replied and I laughed. After a minute she joined in. I don't know why we laughed. It wasn't very funny. But it felt good. I liked Jazz's laugh. It started as a throaty purr and worked its way up to a chuckle, but sometimes, she sounded like she was giggling more than anything. Other times it was like she was laughing but no sound came out.
"Jazz." I said, after we'd stopped. "I've got to ask you something."
"Yeah?"
"Will you teach me how to fight?" I asked.
She looked at me as if I'd grown another head. "I thought you didn't like fighting." She replied.
"I don't" I answered, I hurried on as if I had to get it all out before it bit me. "I don't, Jazz. But I think that I'll need to know some stuff if I'm gonna stay in LA, and if you won't help then I'll have to find a teacher, and that'll cost money and-"
"Cat. Cat!" She cried. "Shut up. Ok, ok, I'll help you." She seemed to be laughing in that silent way of hers. "But I need a favour."
"What?" I asked, sitting up on my hind legs.
"I need a passing grade in english." She said, looking very embarassed with herself.
"Oh? Is that all? Sure you wouldn't like to marry a prince too?" I asked, teasing her. She playfully slapped at me and settled in against the tree.
"When?" I asked, now suddenly excited at learning a new skill.
"When what?" She sighed.
"When can we start?"
"Start what?"
"Training!" I screeched.
"Oh. Are you sure you don't want to marrry a prince as well?" She teased.
"That as well." I smiled. She stood up and I followed suit.
"Drop and give me twenty." She said.
"Twenty what?" I asked.
"Twenty push-ups!" She huffed.
"Jazz!" I whined. " I only want you to show me how to punch someone."
So we stood there for the rest of the lunch hour practising punches and follow throughs. Silently I hoped that I'd never have to use these techniques but I appreciated Jazz showing them too me.
"My house tonight?" I asked after the bell rang.
"Um…nope. I've got stuff to do." Jazz replied. She began to walk off.
"Bye!" I called after her and she raised a hand in farewell.
Cat
One of the footballers sidled up to me quietly. "Hey." I smiled.
"I'm learning latin." He replied, I looked confused, "would you like to come home with me and help me practice oral declinsions?" I laughed loudly and noticed Jazz turn from the cheerleader she was talking to to look at me oddly.
"No thanks." I grinned at him.
He smiled. "I shouldn't have asked." I frowned, "you're Jazz's girl, right?"
I looked away. "I'm nobody's girl." The footballer slunk away and OI turned to go onto the field. For some reason, the cheerleaders cries were grating on my nerves tonight.
ABCDEFG
Cheer us on to victory
HIJKLMN
We will get the ball again
OPQRSTU
We will get your quarterback too
WXY and Z
We will make it look easy.
I pressed a hand to my forhead. Immediately, Jazz was at my side.
"Are you okay?" She asked quietly.
"Take me home." I whispered back.
Jazz led the way to the Harley and straddled the bike. She held an arm out for me. I grabbed on and pulled myself over the seat behind her. I wished for a helmet but didn't say anything. Suddenly it thought of something. The bike should have been lower…but it wasn't a bike…there were more trees…but Jazz was still in front of me…only it wasn't Jazz…it was someone else. There were other people too, but I didn't know them. And I wasn't me…but I was me at the same time.
I shook my head and noticed that Jazz was staring at me. "You ok?" She asked.
"Sure." I replied. "You remember where I live?"
She nodded and the bike roared to life. It wasn't until later that I got to ponder my strange déjà vu. Although it wasn't really déjà vu if I'd never done it before though was it? Maybe it was a premonition of what was to come. Although I don't think Jazz is the type to rescue me on a large horse in the middle of a forest.
We got to my apartment building and I practically had to pry my fingers of Jazz's jacket. I was so scared on that bike. I swear it must have something against me. Its almost like the darn thing has a mind of its own. "Gee. Thanks." I said as I pulled myself off the bike. It hurt the inside of your legs too. "You wanna come up?" I asked her.
"Nope. I've gotta do some messages." She replied. "See ya kiddo." Jazz called and gave a smile before pulling out off the driveway.
Cat.
"Well?" I asked. Gabby walked straight over to me and sat down.
"I don't want too." She said.
"Don't be so stubborn." Bes screeched from by the car. Bes adjusted her hair and shoved a few pins in to hold it. "If you can't beat them, join them." She said. Bes and I wanted to ask the new girl Cat into our group. I wanted too so that Jazz would know I didn't hate her for capturing Jazz's feelings. After all, she's just a novelty, and I know that Jazz will come back to me in the end. Jazz had seemed happy with the idea when we asked her yesterday and now we were trying to get the others to agree. I think Bes only agreed to get back in Jazz's good books. That's a point, I wonder were Jazz was today. She didn't turn up to any classes and her bike wasn't in the car park at all. She does this every now and again and just disappears off the face of the earth for a few days.
"I don't want her either." Fang said.
Gabby smiled at her. I didn't think that she would want her in the group cos the girl gave her some trouble on the first day. Gabby holds grudges longer than anyone I've ever known.
"Lets take a vote."
We all agreed that majority ruled. "Who wants Cat?" Bes asked.
She raised a hand and I raised one for me and one for Jazz. Fang and Anne looked put out but they had agreed to the vote so there was nothing else they could do about it. We went off immediately to see the new girl, even dragging Fang and Anne with us so we looked united in the decision.
Mel.
At least the cafeteria is ok now. I was pretty surprised when Gabby and the others came over to me about a week ago. I was sitting under our tree in the yard when I looked up from my book and saw a large pair of boots. "Cat, right?" the boots said. I looked up. "We're Jazz's group. Do ya wanna hang with us for a while?"
"Where's Jazz?" I asked, searching the faces for my friend.
"She's gone."
"Gone where?"
"Dunno, she does this all the time."
"Oh"
"So?"
"What?"
"Do you wanna hang? If we're all missing her, we might as well do it together."
That made sense. "Sure." I nodded. Mel and Bes were really nice to me at first, it took the others a few days to begin to talk to me. But even now, Fang and Gabby, the girl from my first day here, don't talk to me. Even if I try to start a conversation, they either ignore me or walk away. I don't know what I can do.
We were sitting in the cafeteria today. There was a group of boys dancing on the tables and one grabbed Fang's waist and all of a sudden she decided to dance with them, getting a bit raunchy with two of them. Yet when she saw me watching her, she walked out. I don't understand
Gabby and I seem to be getting on ok now. She and I went for an ice-cream after school today. Cheerleading practice seems to be getting in the way of me hanging out with them even more though. It was sorta like Gabby was trying to make up for Jazz not being here. She assured me that Jazz did this all the time. She'd just disappear and then come back as if she'd never been away. No body knew where she went and nobody asked either. They just lived with it.
"Are you sure that she'll be alright?" I asked for what seemed like the fiftieth time all day. I had sat myself facing the main doors in case Jazz just happened to walk through them. Fang was filing her nails into sharp points and Mel and Bes were playing Poker. I'd been trying to help Gabby out with some math questions but found that I couldn't concentrate.
"Cat!" Bes whined. "She's fine."
"Has she called you?"
"No." the older girl looked upset and turned back to her game.
"Then how do you know that she's fine? She could be dead in a gutter somewhere!"
Fang gave a high-pitched laugh.
"Somehow I don't think so." Fang said, chuckling at the idea.
"Cat." Gabby said, "She'll be fine. Really."
"Really?" I asked
"Really." A low purring voice replied by my ear.
I jumped. "Jazz!" I cried as I leapt up to hug her. She wrapped an arm around me for a minute before pulling away. Her smile said that she was glad to see us. She didn't need to put it into words. Startled eyes looked up out of the faces of the others. They'd obviously never seen her hug someone else who wasn't part of their group.
"So where were you? What were you doing? What happened? Did you miss us?" I asked before she'd even said hello.
"Nowhere imparticular and yes, I did." She said, answering the first and last questions.
"You must have been somewhere." I persisted.
Jazz turned to me, her eyes icy blue, "I was out of town." She said firmly as if that should end the discussion. "Can we drop the twenty questions now?" She snapped. I dropped it and turned back to Gabby.
The bell rang a few minutes later, and everyone disappeared apart from jazz and Mel who waited. I stopped by the door, expecting Jazz to follow me out, but I turned and fled when I saw her hug Mel and then watched as she kisssed her pruposely. Mel saw me over Jazz's shoulder and winked, her blonde hair tangled in jazz's fingers.
Cat