As Autumn Leaves (4 page)

This time the entire class groaned and complained, Kayla included. Group projects were hit-and-miss, depending on who was teamed together. This year, the only person she would want to be paired with was Hannah, or Ernie, but he wasn’t in this class. She hoped pairs were enough but then Mr. March said, “There will be groups of four….” Kayla frowned. There went that plan.

“I will let you pair with one other person,” Mr. March said, “but I will be matching up pairs. It’s a fair way to do it, instead of assigning the groups or letting you pick your friends. You’ll know one person you’ll be able to work with, but you’ll also have to make sure you work alongside others you may typically not. Go ahead, pick your one partner.”

Kayla and Hannah turned to each other. Given her short list of friends, Kayla wouldn’t dream of picking someone else, but she hoped she didn’t get paired with some specific people in class, especially Jason and his cronies, or the girls hanging off his every word now that he was single. Basically, none of the kids who bullied Kayla and Hannah. It would be awful, and would ruin the entire project. No way would Kayla be able to work alongside them.

After the pairs picked each other and the noise in the room settled a little bit, Mr. March went around with his clipboard and list, and started selecting the pairs. He seemed prepared for it—he possibly had an idea of who would pick each other or would go into a group. Kayla was relieved when Jason and his closest bud got paired with another group before Mr. March addressed Kayla.

“Kayla and Hannah?” Mr. March approached their desks. He jotted a note and then looked around the room at who was left. “You’ll be paired with Althea and Chantelle.”

“Okay,” Kayla said, looking over at Althea and smiling brightly. Someone she knew, other than Hannah, and someone she’d hopefully be able to get along with. Althea smiled back.

The groups weren’t scheduled any time to sit together and talk quite yet, but Mr. March did distribute packages of the four short stories they would be working with, and vocabulary lists to go through for the remainder of the class. Kayla couldn’t help but sneak looks over at Althea and her friend, and though she didn’t look back, she did seem relaxed.

This was going to work.

“WHY ARE
we going to a volleyball game?” Hannah asked, wrinkling her nose. She shoved her jacket inside Kayla’s locker.

“To show school spirit,” Kayla answered, shutting the door.

“I thought you didn’t do that anymore. You completely bailed on everything having to do with homecoming.”

“I don’t do it with pom-poms, but it doesn’t mean I don’t want the school to do well. School pride! It’s important.”

“Seriously?” Hannah gave Kayla a flat look. “After all the crap we’ve been going through, you still have pride in this school? This school sucks.”

“It’s not the school, it’s that some students in this school suck,” Kayla said. “And they have a problem that I don’t.”

Hannah burst out laughing, loud and braying, then put a hand over her mouth in embarrassment. She smiled when she dropped it away from her face, eyes lit with amusement. “I can’t believe you said that.”

“Me neither.” Kayla grinned. “I’m glad no one heard me.”

“It was pretty funny.” Hannah bounced on the balls of her feet as they walked toward the gymnasium. “I can’t believe Jason won’t let it go. What a douche bag.”

“You think he’s hot.”

“He is hot,” Hannah said. “Why are all the hot ones jerks?”

“I have no idea.” Kayla didn’t understand attraction like that, thinking people were hot, but she supposed there were some nice-looking people in her school. Aesthetically. She was much more likely to like a person if they were kind and funny over their looks, like Hannah. Or Althea.

“Doesn’t Jason play volleyball?” Hannah asked. “Why do you want to cheer him on?”

“I don’t want to cheer him on,” Kayla said. They started down the short flight of stairs leading to the gym, where sounds of a crowd were growing loud. “Girls play first. Let’s leave when they’re done.”

Hannah paused on her step for one second, then hurried to catch up when Kayla didn’t see the need to stop. “That’s why we’re here, isn’t it? Your new buddy.”

“Who, Althea?” Kayla asked. When she mentioned to Hannah after class she was happy with their project pairing, she didn’t think there was an issue. “I told her I would watch a game, yes.” When Hannah remained quiet, Kayla pressed. “What? What’s wrong?”

“I didn’t say anything was wrong.”

“Hannah, what?” Kayla asked as they joined the line to get into the gym.

“I’ll tell you after,” Hannah said, voice low so no one would overhear.

“Okay,” Kayla said, confused.

They made it into the gym and were able to find a seat near the back of the bleachers, making sure no one could sit behind them to overhear them. The gym wasn’t nearly as full as during basketball season, but Kayla was happy with how many showed support for the girls team. Both the Greenville Grenades and its opposition were warming up.

So were the JV and varsity cheerleading squads, off to the side doing stretches and keeping warm, prior to their opening routine before the game started. Kayla could’ve been there, had she stuck to it.

“Miss it?” Hannah asked.

“Nah.” Kayla shook her head. She didn’t care much when she looked over at the girls in their short skirts, with frilly hair and makeup plastered on. She missed the fun routines, but overall, she’d made the right choice.

“I would miss it,” Hannah said wistfully. She sounded like she missed something she had never had in the first place.

“You have band.” Kayla gave her a pat her on the arm. “Band is great too. I’ll come to the next recital you guys have.”

“Band,” Hannah said, scrunching her nose again. “There’s nothing popular about band.”

“It’s too bad we don’t have a marching band,” Kayla said. “Those are impressive.”

“That would be pretty awesome. Marching band is popular in the big schools!”

The crowd started cheering when the head cheerleader, Amy, went in front of them, making an announcement the game would begin soon but the JV cheerleading team would love to perform a routine for the crowd. The noise got louder in the gym, and the giggling JV team took its spot on the court, posing for the start of the music. As soon as it came on, they launched into a vibrant, high-paced routine.

Kayla clapped along with the rest of the audience, and couldn’t help but pick out small mistakes being made, how they fell out of sync or a missed step here and there. She could admit the team was solid and would make a great effort in their official competitions.

“Miss it now?” Hannah asked again when the music died off and the squad happily bounced its way off the court.

“Still a no,” Kayla said. “Although, okay, it can be fun.”

“See, I knew you did!”

Kayla rolled her eyes. “I do not. I like my dance classes better. But some parts of cheerleading would be nice to have.” As the squad stood at the side of the court waving their pom-poms, Kayla wrinkled her nose the same way Hannah so often did. “Okay, I do not miss those.”

“What, not classy enough for the great and wonderful contemporary dancer?” Hannah teased gently.

“Nope, not at all.”

The game began, and the crowd cheered for their team. Althea was the third to serve, and when the ball powerfully nailed into the floor, Greenville received their first point. Kayla hollered, which was enough to get Althea’s attention to look over briefly. Althea flashed a quick grin before focusing back on the game, getting the team another point.

Distracted by familiar laughter, Kayla glanced over to the far end of the bleachers to find the boys’ team sitting in a group to watch the game before getting ready for their own. Jason sat in the middle of it, a smirk on his face as he looked at Kayla.

“Oh God, they’ve seen us,” Hannah said. She groaned and dropped her face into her hand. “And they saw you cheering for Althea. This is a disaster.”

Kayla blinked, surprised. “A disaster? How is this a disaster? I’m cheering for the school! They should be doing the same.”

“They think you’re cheering for
her
.”

“I am!”

“And this is where new rumors will start.” Hannah looked unhappy by the prospect.

“New rumors? What?”

“The rumors of her and the rumors of you are going to mash into one and then there will be new rumors born of it. Like a hybrid.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“You really don’t, do you?” Hannah shook her head. “Do you not pay attention to the rumor mill at school?”

“No,” Kayla said dryly. “Given I’ve become such a large part of it, I try to avoid it at all costs.”

“Oh. Good point. But I know.” Not surprising as Hannah was up to date on the gossip. She liked to be in the loop with what was going on, even if she was on the outside looking in. “Apparently Althea likes girls. You know,
like
likes girls. She’s a lesbo.”

“Don’t say that, that’s rude,” Kayla immediately admonished.

“It’s what they’re calling her,” Hannah said. “Althea the lesbo.”

“And has Althea admitted it’s true or not?”

Hannah shrugged. “No idea. Does it matter?”

“Of course it matters!” Kayla said. “And besides, what does that have to do with me?”

Hannah waved her hand dismissively. “It’ll probably be something about the two of you being in a love affair and that’s the real reason you didn’t want Jason, you were using him as a front.”

“Oh my God, who’s going to say that? That’s not true, I’ve barely had a handful of conversations with her. And none back then.”

Hannah held up her hands defensively. “I didn’t say it’s true, I said it’s what’s going to go around. I can see it on Jason’s face.”

When Kayla looked over, Jason glanced between the court and back at Kayla. In the moment, she could see how Hannah could be right.

“Let them say it, I don’t care,” Kayla said. She did care, in a way, because she hated there were rumors going around about her. “Althea and I are friends, and that’s the truth.”

Hannah was unnaturally quiet, and Kayla sighed. “What, Hannah? What’s wrong?”

“Are you really friends with her?”

“Sure, I guess. Or could be, anyway.”

“Even though she’s… you know.”

“Hannah!” Kayla turned to her friend. “We aren’t certain, and it’s not our business even if we were. And, seriously, would it matter? Ugh, please don’t tell me it would matter to you.”

If something like that mattered to Hannah, then someone like Kayla could matter to her too, if she ever found out. It scared Kayla, the possibility of losing a friend over something like that, but if Althea was gay, it shouldn’t matter. It shouldn’t.

“I guess it doesn’t,” Hannah said slowly.

“I’m the Ice Queen, does
that
matter?” Kayla asked. She tried to keep it playful, but her heart pounded in her chest, and the contents of her dinner threatened to spew all over the bleachers.

Hannah laughed. “No, no it doesn’t matter.”

“Good,” Kayla said, hooking her arm through Hannah’s. She raised her eyebrow. “Does a friendly gesture like this matter? You never know what they’ll say about us.”

“Oh my God, I would love it if they said that about us,” Hannah said with a giggle, leaning against Kayla more bodily. Kayla liked the warmth of being close to someone like this, when it was sweet and friendly with no pressure.

“If you say so,” Kayla said. “So let’s forget it, okay?”

“Okay. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything by it.”

“I know,” Kayla said. “Let’s just watch the game.”

They cheered loudly when Althea scored another point for Greenville.

KAYLA HUMMED
as she walked up the stairs into her apartment building one day after school. Imagining a new dance routine she’d like to try, she almost missed seeing Althea at the mailboxes in the front foyer.

“Hi, Kayla,” Althea said, drawing Kayla’s attention as she pressed the button for the elevator.

“Oh. Hi! How’re you?”

“All right,” Althea said, gripping the keychain in her hand tighter. She tucked the few envelopes from the mailbox under her arm as she walked to the elevator to stand next to Kayla.

“Great game the other night.” While she shared English class with Althea, they hadn’t had time to talk in the last couple days. Kayla felt weird seeking Althea out, since they weren’t exactly friends, and they hadn’t started on group work yet for their project.

Althea smiled widely, any pent-up awkwardness seemingly washing away. “I saw you there.”

“I told you I would watch a game,” Kayla said. The elevator dinged as it opened at their floor. “Congrats on the win.”

“Thanks,” Althea said, gesturing for Kayla to go into the elevator first. “I’m glad we won.”

“Me too.” Her thumbs hooked into the straps of her backpack, and she stood straight and awkwardly. She didn’t know why being by Althea made her so nervous. She pressed the button for the third floor. “So. English partners, huh?”

Althea snorted. “I hate group projects. I can’t believe he hasn’t told us what it’s going to be yet. He’s kind of weird.” Althea pressed the button for the fifth floor.

“I like him,” Kayla said, an urge to defend her favorite teacher. “I bet the assignment will be fun.”

“Maybe,” Althea said. “I haven’t read all the stories yet.”

“We’re supposed to by tomorrow,” Kayla said. She paused. “But, uh, me too.”

The elevator stopped on her floor, and the doors opened in front of her. Sad for the short ride and with no excuse to talk to Althea anymore, she reluctantly stepped out. “See you tomorrow at school.”

“Hey.” Althea put her hand in front of the door, stopping it from closing. She looked unsure, then shrugged when Kayla tilted her head questioningly. “Want to come to my place to do the homework? Like, read through them. I hate English, but you usually seem to know what’s going on.”

Warmth spread through Kayla’s chest. She appreciated being noticed for her aptitude for English, though she hadn’t realized it was worth being noticed for.

“Sure,” Kayla said. “I think my mom is out tonight, but I’ll text her to let her know I’m doing a study group.”