Crushes Over Papercuts- A Mid 90s Tale

Chapter 49

It was as if my suspension never happened. The next few weeks passed by as if nothing had changed and except for the inconvenience of having to hide my relationship with Ben from my mom (a price I would happily pay), life went back to normal. Friends, Ben, school, and track- everything was good...nearly perfect again.

Even Courtney's vendetta against me had calmed down. Instead of dirty looks or snide remarks when she passed my locker during practice, I got ignored, which suited me just fine. I was happy and free again.

Well, almost free.

I turned on my pager, tossed it into my gym bag, and headed to the field. Mom never paged me during school hours but she caught my off-guard a few times when I stayed late after track practice to work on pole vaults with Coach and Wendy. Once I even had to use Coach's office phone to return her page and she refused to let me meet the girls at Nicole's house later that night unless I put Coach on the line to confirm I was calling from his phone and not some pay phone somewhere else. She wouldn't believe my words without proof. It was embarrassing and annoying that Coach had to be a first-hand witness to the dysfunction that was mine and my mom's relationship but Coach, in all his stoicness, kept it from being awkward.

I don't know where or who she expected I'd be getting into trouble with at 4:45 on a school night, but it confirmed my suspicions that she believed those drugs in my locker were mine. Nothing I did or said would change that. The distrust in our relationship seemed to be the only permanent damage that lingered from my suspension.

There'd be no late practice tonight since we'd all be at the guys basketball game but I kept the pager close by anyway. It was easier that way. I was so distracted by the pager and what it meant for me with my mom that it took me a second longer to notice him.

I couldn't help but smile. We caught eyes and he walked down the silver metal steps as I ran towards him.

"I didn't expect to see you again until your game tonight," I told him.

"That's why I'm here." Ben picked me up in his arms. "I'm always at practice or in a game so I rarely get a chance to support you. And since I didn't have practice today, I thought I'd stay and watch you pole vault if that's okay with you."

"I'd love that!"

"Jenny! Get on the field!" Coach yelled out.

I gave a thumbs up to Coach then a quick kiss to Ben. "I've gotta go. See you after practice?"

He squeezed me tighter then let me go. "I'll be here."

I ran to the field. When I picked up the pole I heard his voice call out from behind. "I love you Jenny Bloom!"

"I love you Ben Avery!"

So much.

Wendy nudged me. "I thought she moved on."

I knew who I would see before my eyes found her. Courtney, in her perfectly awful self, stood motionless outside the locker room staring at Ben sitting in the stands watching me. Her eyes then darted to mine and a vein in my neck twitched. That icy stare of hers hadn't thawed at all.

"I thought so too," I told Wendy when I turned away.

I didn't dare look back but I also didn't think I could perform a pole vault knowing Courtney was watching me in that way. I pretended to stretch to buy some time and a few seconds later, from the corner of my eyes, I saw Courtney catch up to the rest of the cheerleaders.

 #

The final buzzer went off and the students and parents in the stands began to fill the aisles.

I leaned over to Tiff. "How confident are you that you can still pull off your mom's voice?"