Thorns of a Rose, part two

The next few days passed, and they were great.  Rose and I hung out almost every day for the rest of that week.  The only time we weren't together was when I was at school, or when we decided to go to bed.  Even when we went home for the evening, I lay awake for a while just thinking about her.  I couldn't understand why I was so obsessed with her.

The week end couldn't come fast enough.  But when it did, we spent almost all of it together.  I showed her around town.  Places like the high school, the parks, and some of the stores around.  Saturday we stopped and got ice cream at the local shop, and on sunday we spent the day visiting the parks.  The two days just kind of blended into one amazing scene really.  But Monday came all to fast.  Unlike the week ending, I wanted the week end to last for ever.

Monday was the first day of school here for Rose.  I wasn't sure if she had been to a school this big before, but she seemed very interested in all the people that came in after we walked in the doors.  In all, there were two hundred and fifty people in our graduating class, and another six hundred people in the two grades below ours.

"What classes do you have?"  I asked after we visited the office to get her schedule, and school books.

She pulled the schedule out from underneath her books, and fumbled around a little bit until she got everything situated just right.  "I looks like I have triginomatry first, and then Biology second."

"Trigonomitry?"  I asked looking shocked as she said it.

"Well, yeah.  Math is really easy for me, and I have skipped a few classes in school before."  She replied as her face turned bright red.

"That's impressive."  I said, short of anything else to say.  "Lets get to your locker, so you don't have to carry all of those books around.  Here, I'll take some of them for you."  I said as I took her trig book, and a couple of others.

We turned a corner, and headed to her locker just down the hall.  I pointed her in the right direction for her math class, and bid farewell for the moment.  In all, we had second period, fourth period, and fifth period together.  Three out of six classes, that's not bad.

Second period came around kind of fast.  Rose and I meet up in front of the biology room, and walked in together.  The class was buzzing with talking, and laughter.  People all around us stopped as soon as Rose walked in though.  They all looked at her, then me, and then back again.  Like they couldn't believe that she was walking in with a loser like me.  It wasn't so hard to imagine their amazement though.  I didn't have any friends until now, and having them stare as I walked in with a girl that was as amazing as her must have sent their brains into over drive.

The bell rang, and Rose and I took a couple of seats near the back right next to each other.  No body was really paying attention to our teacher as class went on.  They glanced back and forth every so often, as if they thought seeing Rose and I together was some sort of joke or illusion.  The end of the period came, and I walked Rose to her next class.

On our way to Rose's class, a couple of the more popular girls decided this would be a good time to jump in and introduce them selves.

"Hi!  Rose, right?  My name is Trina, and this is Anna."  The first girl said as she butted me out of the way.  "We can take it from here Neal, you don't want to be seen with some one like him."  She finished as she shot me a nasty look.

Rose looked at Trina, who's hand was stuck out as if to shake, and just giggled.  "Gee, how could I have been so blind?  You know, I have always wanted to hang out with a group of superstitial girls like you!  I just love how fake you act to some one's face, and then smack talk them behind their backs.  Oh, it's always been my dream!"  She said sarcastically, and then shook her head violently.  "Oh, sorry.  I think I just had a nightmare on my feet.  Who are you?  Come on Neal, you still need to show me where my class is."

I couldn't help but laugh the entire way to Rose's next class.  "That was amazing, just thought you should know that.  No one has ever talked to Trina like that, and she deserves a lot worse."

Rose looked at her feet, embarrassed at what she had done.  "I shouldn't have acted like that.  No one deserves to be treated as anything but an equal."  She stared at her feet for a second more, and finished her thought with "It was pretty funny though, wasn't it?"

"Yeah, it was!  I gotta go, see you next period Rose."  I said as I began to back peddle, and walk away.

Fourth period was spanish, and pretty un-eventful.  We spoke our lines, and then took a quiz.  All the while, Trina shot us ugly looks from the other side of the room.  I couldn't help but laugh inside every time I caught her glancing over at us.  After spanish was lunch.  Rose and I sat together, in the corner of the lunch room talking about class, and some of the people in our grade.

We went from lunch to gym class.  This was the bane of my existence.  Gym had always been just another reason for the other kids to beat up on me and not get into trouble for it.  We stood against the wall, as our teacher explained today was volleyball day.  I wasn't bad at sports, but some of the other kids were much better than I was.  We separated into teams, and Rose made it a point to be on my team.  The class wasn't half bad with her by my side, and in the end we had won two of three games by a landslide.

After gym was study hall for me, and normally I left school early and skipped class.  This time, I stayed and actually did some home work.  Most of the time I just doodled on the pages of my note book.  I was so pre-occupied thinking about Rose that it was hard for me to do any work.  As soon as the bell rang to end school, I was gone.  I went straight to meet Rose outside her last class.  With out fail, she was waiting there for me.  It was a good sight to see.

We set out for home almost immeadiatly.  We didn't waste time talking to others around in the halls, no one really wanted to talk to us any ways.  Not after what Trina had been knocked down a couple notches.

We were about half way home when we realized that there was a group of people following us.  It was a group of the football jocks that had apparently decided to skip practice.  They were laughing, and talking to each other.  We couldn't make out anything they were saying, we just knew that they were following us.  We were almost home when we rounded a corner, and found another group of them waiting for us.

"What's up Neal?  Who's your girlfriend?  Shes pretty."  One of them called out from ahead of us.

I recognized him at once.  It was the captain of the football team.  His name was Derreck Moldstrom, and he was huge.  He was the biggest kid in our school, and could probably crush me with his bare hands if he wanted to.

"Hey Derreck, I see you managed to get out of practice today...  Maybe your coach had enough of you and your brain dead friends.  Probly went and quit because he can't stand how dumb you really are."  I called back, and all of his friends laughed and jeered as he stared at me with a blank expression that turned to anger.

He came straight up to me, and pushed me against the wall of one of the shops.  "What'd you say to me punk?"  He asked, now seething mad.

"In short, I called you dumb.  Can you wrap your mind around that?"  I poked, and then realized it was one of the dumbest things I have ever done.

Derreck pulled his fist back, and swung with all of his might at my head.  Having been their punching bag for so many years, I learned a few trick of my own.  I ducked, and he punched the wall.  He pulled back in pain, and then went to grab me.  I slid right, and he just missed his grab.  I then ducked again, under his arm and brought my knee up into his stomach.  I didn't think I was very strong, but he still dropped like a sack of potatoes.

Derreck kneeled on the ground, trying to catch his breath.  He managed to get two words out before he resumed trying to breath;  "Get him!"  was all he managed.

In a split second, his friends started to move in.  I knew I couldn't take all of them at once.  I looked at Rose, and she knew instantly what we needed to do.  I mouthed the word "run" to her, and she nodded.  I grabbed her hand, and we sprinted together all the way home.  We came bursting through the door, and locked it behind us.

I looked at Rose, with fear in my eyes.  I knew we were faster than any of the jocks, but they still knew where I lived.  It was only a matter of time until they retaliated some how.  But all of my worries just fell away when I looked into Rose's eyes, and saw the excitement in them.  We couldn't help but laugh at this point in time.  We just broke down, and started laughing so hard we fell to the ground.  That is where we were when Ashley came home.  Ashley just looked at us like we were crazy, and went to her room.