Ball of Fire- A Dexella AU

II

DEX DIZZNEE WATCHED as Marella Redek walked out of the cafeteria. He wondered what she had done this time. Dex had heard many rumors about the girl, but he never really believed any of them unless he heard it from the person themselves. He had learned first hand that rumors weren't good things. 

The rumors included fighting or even murder. That the tiny blond girl who had just walked out of the cafeteria had possibly killed somebody. Or that her father was in the mafia, and threatened the administrators to let her in. Or that she didn't have parents at all and was actually a secret orphaned spy that had targets to kill all over the world and now she was coming for their school. 

Firstly, Dex said to anybody who would listen, that that was stupid. Secondly, he explained to the others who were still there, you should at least give the girl a chance. This was high school, after all, everybody needed at least somebody to at least try to be friends with hem before judging. Thirdly, well, he never really had a third. Usually, nobody was listening to him by now. 

'Or maybe', Dex thought, as he started to pack up his sandwich into his lunchbox, 'she just really likes the rumors because it gives her attention.' 

He then shook his head. 'Why am I even thinking about her so much? Jeez, I'm not usually this nosy about people.' 

He slung his backpack over his shoulder, placing his lunchbox inside,  and slipped through the doors Marella had just exited from. Usually, Dex ate his lunch as quickly as possible and hightailed it out of the cafeteria before anything bad happened to him. 

He usually spent the rest of the time with his Mom, (it was lame, he knew), who worked as a guidance counselor for the school. She was always busy, (Foxfire High had lots of problems obviously, as shown from the recent cafeteria scene), so Dex usually just chilled out in the waiting room, doing homework for his AP Physics class, or tinkering with some of his dad's old car parts. 

However, when he opened the door, he saw two blond girls, both of which he towered over sitting in the plush chairs in front of his mother's desk. 

The both of them turned when the door creaked open and Dex stood in the doorway awkwardly, automatically looking down at his feet. 

"Dex!" Juline, his mom called out, waving Dex over. "This is perfect timing! Come, come, sit down." 

She pointed down at a wooden chair in the corner that Dex usually sat on, and with great reluctance, he dragged the chair over towards his Mom's desk, as far away from Marella Redek as possible. Just because he didn't believe the rumors didn't mean that he wasn't terrified of the girl. 

"So," Juline started, "If you didn't realize already, sitting in between you is a new student to our school! Her name is Sophie Foster, and I have called you guys here to be student buddies and company Sophie around the school for about the first two to three weeks or so." 

Marella raised an eyebrow and coughed. "You want me," she pointed at herself again for emphasis. "Me. To be a student buddy?!"   

Juline sighed. "Yes, Marella. I chose you for two reasons. One is that you transferred here in the middle of a school year as well, so you understand the type of situation Ms. Sophie here is in. And two," she sighed. "Is that, Marella, to be honest, I feel as though, being your student counselor, that it is my job to advise you. So, in my eyes at least, I believe that you are currently in a very unhealthy environment-" 

"What?!" Marella quickly exclaimed, and stood up out of the chair, not that it increased her height by a lot. "My parents are fine!" she said quickly. 

Juline looked at her suspiciously. "Marella dear, I wasn't talking about your parents at all, I was talking about who you surround yourself with at school." 

Marella's face turned fiery red and she sat down, mumbling an apology.

"I'm very sure that you aren't blind to the fact that your friends, especially one specific friend at that, aren't such good influences. I'm hoping that buddying you with Ms. Sophie over here will hopefully give you a chance to see, that you don't have to stay with your first friend forever and always, especially if they're a terrible person." 

"I don't think you're supposed to call other students terrible people, Mrs. Dizznee," Marella remarked, not commenting on what Mom was saying. 

Mom sighed and turned towards me. "Dex, since you're here, you've officially volunteered to be Sophie's second buddy! Since you have lots of experience with Foxfire High," she turned towards Marella and Sophie, "he's my son, you know," she said, patting me on the shoulder. "He's been going here as soon as it opened!" 

Dex felt his cheeks flush. "Mom," he hissed. 

Juline looked confused for a bit but then made an 'Ohhh' face. "Sorry honey, I forgot about the whole, 'teenagers need to stay cool' and 'parents are lame thing'." 

Dex had believed that his face couldn't get any redder. He was wrong. He saw Marella scoffing with an amused expression on her face, and he felt his cheeks go even redder. 

'Shoot'. he thought. 

Soon, he was somehow in the hallway, leading the new girl around the school. It was funny, he hadn't even remembered agreeing to his Mom's plan, and yet, here he was. 

It was the first time he had ever really gotten a close look at Sophie Foster. Upon closer inspection, he saw her big brown eyes and long eyelashes. He also noticed that her blond hair was slightly wavy at the ends, and shone under the light. She was... really, really, really pretty. 

He was knocked back to Earth as Marella Redek sighed. "So, since I've been forced against my will to do this, I guess I might as well go along with it. Would you like the real me introduction or the introduction that you're supposed to say when you meet new students?" 

Sophie looked slightly taken aback, and I noticed that one of her hands went up towards her eyelashes before falling back down to her hair. "Real you? I guess?"

"Good," Marella said. "Okay, hi. My name's Marella, and because you're new you probably don't know who I am. But I'm one of the many bitches in this school. Yes," Marella said, seeing Sophie's expression, "I openly curse. If you have a problem with that, then we may have to go back to the counselor because I can be forced to help tour you around, but they can't stop me from cussing." 

Sophie froze a moment and then nodded repeatedly. "Yeah, that's fine. Loads of people in my old school used to curse, so I'm fine with it. I was just a little shocked cause you're so short and all, and don't seem like the type to..." her voice faded off after seeing Marella's expression. 

"Okay, firstly, I'm not short! My growth spurt just hasn't come yet okay?! And secondly, what does being short even have to with anything like, people always say, I didn't think you did this cause you're short, I don't think you would do that cause you're short- What's the problem with being short!? Like, COME ON people that don't even make sense!" 

Sophie and Dex turned towards Marella, Sophie looking confused, Dex looking just straight-up terrified. 

Well, he thought. I guess I'm gonna be spending three weeks with Marella Redek. Gods, please save me.