As I Am

Chapter 17

Samara's POV:

I'm taking my time getting to class considering I'm already late. I walk towards my locker to get a snack, but as I get closer I notice Cameran leaning on my locker. "What are you doing?" he looked confused by my question. "I need to talk to you." I urged him to continue with a slight nod.

"Well I saw you earlier with that guy in the gym." was he following me? That's weird. "Ok and." He seemed surprised by my attitude, but what was his point.

"I just think you should be careful." I'm never careful, but he already knew that. "Thanks for the heads up, but I think I can handle myself." I pat his shoulder and walk to class.

I spent the rest of my day thinking about cheer and dance tryouts. I definitely like dance better than cheer, but cheer keeps me in better shape. I have to practice my counts for tomorrow which makes me hella nervous.

The bell rings and everyone darts out the door. I however take my sweet time really not wanting to go home. As I get to my car I see someone leaning up against it. At first I thought it was Cameron, but as I got closer I realized it was the boy from earlier.

"Can I help you with something?" I laugh hoping he knows I'm joking. "Nah. I just wanted to see how everything went after the gym earlier." Hmm so a follow up... interesting. "Oh well fine I guess. Tryouts aren't until next week so I still have time to practice."

He nodded and then it dawned on me. "How did you know this was my car?" He laughed at my confusion and then pointed to the butterfly sticker on my sliding door. "This is the same butterfly you have tattooed behind your ear, so I just made a wild guess."

We talked for another 20 minutes finally knowing his name is Ace, typical. After a while I realized I still needed to practice my dance. "Crap. I'm sorry to cut this conversation short, but I really have to go practice for dance tryouts."

He didn't look disappointed or hurt more understanding than anything else. "I can help if you don't mind. I don't have anything else to do." I took a minute to think about this and take into account what Cameron told me earlier. But then I came to the conclusion that I don't actually care and I'm gonna do what I wanna do. "Yeah, sure. Hop in."

We pull up to a park which is where I usually go to practice. We hop out of my car and I lead the way to my practice spot.

"So what kind of dance are we talking?" I look at him confused cause everyone knows that our school only has majorette to make the black kids feel "welcome" whatever that means.

"Majorette. How could you not know that's the only type of dance our school has." I laughed at his lack knowing. "Hey don't laugh at me I'm not involved with our school. I don't care about school spirit."

"Well you should know if we're going to be friends I am big on school spirit and school involvement." He rolls his eyes and smiles at me seemingly mesmerized by what he sees. I shake off my nervous feeling and tell him to start "Yes" by Beyoncé.

(Her counts)

"Damn if that's school spirit why did nobody tell me." He look completely taken away after I finished my counts. All I could do was laugh at the look on his face. "I'm being so serious that was sexy."

I get a little flustered knowing I haven't really ever dance for a boy before. "You think so? You don't think it was too much?" He quickly shook his head no and followed up by saying I should poke my ass out more.

I couldn't take him seriously and died laughing to the point I had tears in my eyes. "Keep laughing but I'm serious," he comes closer to me and flicks my forehead, "and it's not funny."

I hummed in response and laid back on the grass looking at the sky. "Do you know Cameron? He has blonde hair umm his twin sist-"

"Yeah I know him. Why?" I looked over at him to see he's intensely staring at me. "Well we used to like talk sort of I guess," I didn't really know what we were, but I tried to explain the best I could, "anyway he told me to 'be careful' with you."

He raised an eyebrow at me as I sighed " I guess I just wanna know if I really should be. Careful you know?"

He laughed a little before responding. "I'm gonna tell it to you like this, I've done some questionable things in my past, but I'm not that person anymore." He looked up from his hands, "You don't have anything to worry about. I'm not a bad person I promise."

He seems genuine, but the only way to know if he was sincere was to get to know him and that's exactly what I plan on doing. "Well it's good to know your not a bad person or else I wouldn't be friends with you."

He laughed while helping me off the ground. "Are you hungry? We could go get something." I look over at him after asking my question and he has this sly smirk before nodding his head.

We drive to this small cafe not far from the park called 'The Hut' everyone comes here, mainly on Friday nights after football games but it still seems to be busy more often than not.

We order our food and sit at a booth in the far back corner of the cafe near a window. "So why do like cheer and dance? Isn't like a lot of work and conditioning?" I laugh at his grimace towards working out.

"It can be a lot of conditioning, but it's not that bad once your used to it. I like cheer cause I've been doing it for so long and dance just," I pause for a second thinking of what to say, "dance is sensual, it makes me feel good about myself."

He hummed in response before our food was brought to the table. We talked more and got to know each other better before I drove him home.

"It was fun hanging out with you today. See you at school tomorrow." He smiled at me before hoping out of my car. "Oh and good luck with tryouts make sure to tell me how it goes." He gave me a pointed look.

"Obviously, you might be the main reason I make the team." We both laughed before we said our goodbyes and I headed home.

I took long hot shower before thinking over everything that happened today. I really like Ace, but I can't help but think about what Cameron told me. I have a long road ahead of me. I sigh before drifting off to sleep.

Hey guys sorry for not updating in a while but I hope you like this chapter and be sure to leave some suggestions on what you want to see in the next chapter🤍