Free Falling

Chapter 8 | Soooo...Did Any Of You Go To School Today?

~
"All the clouds in me
are raining."
~

"So you think you guys will fix this?" Alex asks me two weeks after the whole situation went down at Kara's birthday party.

Since then, our group has practically been split down the middle with Sierra and Austin on Kara's side while Dwight and Travis are on Jake's side. I'm pissed at them both so I'm not on anyone's side. While Chase just doesn't care.

Don't even get me started on Kara and Jake. Kara hasn't seen or gone near Jake since the party, and Jake's been avoiding Kara. If they see each other in the hallways, they go the long way.

At lunch, Sierra and Chase go somewhere, Austin and Kara sit together, the other three sit together, and I just ignore them all and sit at a table outside with Alex.

The only bright side to all of this is that I'm getting to know Alex better. I know the gang have their premature judgments about him, but he's not that bad.

"I honestly don't know. We've never been split from each other for this long." I tell him, sighing.

"Friends fight and friends make up. It's only been two weeks, just give it some time."

Two weeks is a long time for our group.

"Wanna share some of that positivity over here?"

"Listen it'll be okay." He says, reaching for my hand and giving it a little squeeze.

I give him a small smile, squeezing his hand back. The bell rings and we get up, throwing our trash away. 

Saying goodbye to Alex, I head towards Biology. As I'm walking, I feel someone push my shoulder slightly, and I turn to see Dwight walking past.

"Excuse you?" I call out, anger seeping into my voice.

"So that's what you're doing now? Our group is shit so you go hit on the new kid?" He asks, turning to walk away.

"Hit on the new kid? What are you talking about?" I ask him, pulling his arm to stop him.

"We all just saw you outside with him, holding hands and all of that. We aren't naive Emma, but maybe you are." He practically spits.

I'm getting really sick of everyone's attitude these days.

"You know what Dwight? I don't have to apologize for having friends outside of you and the group, if we even are a group anymore." I say, pushing past him. As I'm about to walk away, I turn around to face him once more.

"And at least Alex has actually been making an effort to talk to me. The only times you've talked to me in the past two weeks was to lecture me. So get off my back." I practically spit out.

And with that I continue my walk to Biology, leaving a regretful Dwight behind me. 

'~'

"Heading off to practice now?" Alex asks me as I'm gathering my stuff after government.

"Unfortunately." I tell him with a sigh.

"Isn't the captain of the cheer team supposed to be cheerful?" He asks with a smile as we walk out of the room.

"Sometimes it takes more effort to find the cheer." I tell him.

"Well-" he gets cut off by a high pitch voice and I groan inwardly.

Bridgett.

"Emma Richardson, you better be in top shape today. Don't think I haven't noticed you slacking recently."