4 04: The Day I Hit Her

JACKSON

As soon as Jackson stepped inside the school there was a hand roughly pulling at his arm and he had no choice but to follow blindly, looking at the person's back of the head and recognizing this to be Jett.

He rolled his eyes.

"No cheesy 'good morning' or flirting with girls today?" he snarked with a raised brow.

Jett laughed and took a second to glance back, teeth gleaming in the early morning sunlight with his signature smirk.

"Already did that while you were dragging yourself here, duh," Jett said. "You should've seen Dirk stumble over his words giving a girl his notes."

Jackson chuckled even as he ran along the halls, almost bare because of the students filing inside their own classrooms. He had to deal with his snotty sister earlier, whining about how her favorite sweater wasn't able to be laundered so she had to face the day in clothes she was only half-hearted about. Seriously, that girl never failed to give him a migraine. His mom hadn't been around as she was working which obviously left Jackson to help.

Great, just great. So he spent the morning washing and drying Lillian's clothes so she'd shut up. Thus why he was running late. How awesome of Jett to wait for him, though. But Jackson was sure Jett would make him repay somehow; their group of friends had a system like that.

"What was our first class today?" Jackson asked, yanking his arm from Jett's grasp and running beside him with relative ease.

"Gym with another class. It'll be easier to blend in since there's two classes so we can sneak in."

"Got it."

After hurriedly changing into their gym uniforms, both teens sneaked inside the gym building and went toward their class, stopping by the back and listening to the teacher yell something and then blow her whistle.

"Oh... dodgeball yippee," Lyle Godfrey said in a sarcastic tone. He turned to the two. "You'd think after a few accidents they'd totally scrape this horrible sport but why aren't they doing anything about it? Also, what took you so long? You know Miss Bitch always keeps an eye on both of you so you're already marked absent."

"Aw what?!" Jett exclaimed. A few heads turned towards their direction and he gave them all a charming smile, some of the girls swooning and giggling over him. Jackson rolled his eyes, amused. The perks of being a popular guy, he guessed.

Jett Levisay was well-known in the campus as a total hottie and all around amicable guy. He was an all-star football player and could chat with anyone, even those he wasn't close with. With a sharp jaw and a body that most men would kill for, most of the students were in awe with him, especially the females of course who fawned over him.

Jackson himself was also well-known partly because he was Jett's best friend and partly because of his own skills of swimming and art. He had his own admirers and could hold up a few conversations with a few people as well but Jett was the more sociable one of the two of them.

Their friend group also included Dirk Williams who was a large buff guy with a warm heart, Lyle Godfrey—the smart one among them, and Rodney Hayes who was a total idiot but was a loyal and overall good friend. Jackson liked to think Rodney was the glue that kept the five of them together.

Miss Bitch (as everyone called her when they were alone with no teachers) sharply glanced at them and smirked. What the heck?

"Oh so I see Misters Arden and Levisay are actually here."

"Is she doing this on purpose or what?" Jett muttered to him as he narrowed his eyes at the middle-aged teacher.

"Well I'll turn a blind eye on this one but I'll mark you both tardy instead of absent. Now both classes divide yourselves into teams and the rest, sit down on the benches and wait your turn!" Then she blew the whistle again as everyone scattered and talked amongst themselves.

"All right everyone who wants to play and who wants to sit on the benches and avoid getting hit?" their class president Grayson Katz was asking the whole class.

Naturally, Jackson wanted to be in but Rodney stepped up and told him he wanted to play so Jackson agreed and waited for the next round.

Jett seemed to be a prodigy at sports since he was able to hit at least six people already and was dancing around the side of the gym with an infuriating smirk that made the other class glower at him and target him instead. The players in the other class were dwindling and some were screaming or even running around, trying not to get hit.

Dodgeball really was a ferocious game.

"Yeah go Jett!" Dirk hollered, jumping on his seat. The whistle sounded and the teacher gave him a stink eye that made Dirk shrink and pout.

Jackson's brows furrowed when her back was finally turned. Then he looked at Dirk.

"Don't worry about her; she's just a spiteful woman who wants to ruin our teen years."

Dirk chuckled. Lyle gave a comforting smile and patted his shoulder.

"Jackson's right. Ooh look: Jett's facing off against a girl."

Jackson chuckled and saw indeed that only two players were left: Jett and a girl from the other class who had a dodgeball in her hand with all the other dodgeballs on Jett's side of the gym. She had a fierce and determined expression with her eyes locked on Jett as if willing him to lose.

"She's going down," Jackson said confidently. "Jett doesn't go easy, even on girls."

The whistle sounded long and hard on the gym and the girl jumped upwards and smacked the ball flying towards Jett before he could even reach for a dodgeball. Everyone held their breath and gasped as he was hit on the side of the face, the boy tumbling backwards and hitting the floor with a resounding smack.

Then the other class cheered and stood up, the girl laughing gleefully as she proclaimed victory for her class.

"WHAT?!" everyone in Jackson's class screamed as girls swarmed over to Jett, frantically asking if he was hurt or okay.

Rodney guffawed and held his stomach, tears in his eyes.

"Man, what the heck?!"

Jackson couldn't agree more.

So as Jett came to him with the marks of a dodgeball on the side of his face, Jackson swore that he'd avenge his friend and bring that girl down. Luckily she was playing the next game too so Jackson had plenty of chance to try and hit her with the ball.

So yeah he lost to her. She seemed familiar though. Jackson couldn't figure out why.

Class ended soon and everyone was gathering into their own friend groups. As he was fixing up the balls, he spotted the girl who beat him and Jett and suddenly had the impulse to throw the dodgeball he held toward her. So he did, not thinking anything much of it.

What he didn't expect was for the ball to actually hit her on the head. His eyes widened and he could feel his friends' stares on him silently asking why he did that but he didn't pay attention to any of that, only the murderous stare at him.

Jackson's brain clicked and he recognized that face too, his first instinct being to scowl at her.