9 hurt (9)

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"Shit!" My eyes also widened in alarm, not expecting this to happen so soon. Oh, no, here he comes! And, a baseball bat? Seriously?! Was he a gangster now?! But did it matter?! I had to escape for my life before he got nearer and do some actual damage!

My heart pounding at the speed of light, I started to run towards the opposite direction, not caring if it would make me look like a coward. Not caring if he would lord it over me for the rest of my life. I was panicking, and when you were panicking when it came to fight-or-flight situations, there was no more argument. You had to fly.

I barely made it two meters away from the lockers when I heard the sound of Marga's evil-witch cackle from behind, then I froze mid-run. It took me five, slow seconds before I realized what was going on.

There was no France. There was no baseball bat. There was only Margareth Sanderfield making fun of me because she felt like it.

Oh, for the love of—!

"Marga, you witch!" I turned around with a dark scowl, intent on wrapping my hands around the girl-who-called-herself-my-friend's neck and choking the life out of her. "I hate you!"

"No, you don't," she gasped in between her cackles, still laughing so hard she had to put her hands on her knees to support her own shaking self. "Oh, my gosh, Clarey-girl, the look on your face was priceless! And you said you're not scared, huh? You practically ran for your life, for chrisakes!"

I felt both my cheeks going a violent shade of purple. Crap, I just made a fool out of myself again, huh? Stupid, stupid, stupid!

"Stop it, you little twit! It's not freaking funny!" I pushed her shoulder from too much annoyance and because she was still so weak with laughter she staggered backward to the wall. That didn't stop her from laughing, though, and I was afraid it would take until tomorrow for her to finish.

Oh, mon deux!

Good thing the other students in the hallway giving us weird looks didn't have any idea what was making Margareth laugh this hard or I would die of humiliation. I would so get her for this, she'll see!

Urgh, I was becoming such a violent, vengeful girl in a matter of just one day! I wonder whose fault that was?

"Care to share the joke?"

A familiar voice spoke from behind me and I whipped my head in time to see Harold Joshua Delamar coming towards me with a curious expression on his face. Two of his teammates were flanking him on either side like the loyal lackeys they were, but I didn't waste my time looking at them. My eyes were zeroed in on my brother's pale face.

Just like that, my annoyance towards Margareth was forgotten, and even my internal dilemma with France. Here was another creature standing in front of me who still needed to pay for ditching me yesterday and this morning.

Time for a little collection. I advanced on him, a look of absolute betrayal painted on my face.

"Harold Joshua Delamar, I'm going to kill—"

But before I could execute my plans of jumping on his back and pulling all his hair out like a mad monkey, one of the lackeys, whose name was Renzo, I think, moved as quick as lightning to put himself between me and my brother, effectively blocking my way.

"Back it up, princess," he said while holding his hands up to stop me. "I wouldn't do what you're thinking if I were you. Cap's not feeling very well as of the moment, so I suggest you give it two weeks before you consider of killing him again. Just not today, Clare-bear. Please."

"Aw, come on, man, I'm not a mute kid, I can very well speak for myself, thank you very much," H.D. complained from behind him, while I just stood there, scowling deeper in confusion.

"What do you mean, he's not feeling well?" I demanded, trying to get past Renzo to see what the hell was going on, but being the huge, basketball player that he was, he easily blocked me again and placed restraining hands on my shoulders. Damn, these hands are strong, I mentally mused but raised my head to glare at him. "Do I really look that murderous to you? That's my brother, Renz, I can go to him if I want to."

H.D. chuckled humorously. "Get your hands off of her buddy, if you don't want to be included in her death list. You know how she gets when you don't give her what you want."

Renzo hesitated for a moment, before sighing in defeat then unhanding me. He shook his head when I smirked at him but then stepped aside. That was when I finally saw my brother clearly for the first time, and my loud gasp reverberated across the halls.

"What happened to you?!" I approached him slowly like I would a skittish cat, my gaze falling from his face to his right leg that was enclosed in a cast.

That's why he looks so pale. He's in pain.

I bit my lip to keep from bursting out crying. H.D. noticed it though, and limped forward to get closer to me.

"Don't you dare cry over this, carebear. It's not a big deal. Just a busted knee and a sprain but nothing that can't be healed in a few week's time. It's okay, little sis. Shhhhh."

I only realized that my tears were already falling freely when he put an arm around me and pulled me to his chest.

"I said, don't cry," he chastised gently, like he did back when we were kids and I bawled because he hurt himself falling off the tree trying to save Maemo, my cat, but he didn't want mom to know so he did his best to calm me down with children's songs. This time, though, he didn't sing because duh, we were at school! Instead, he whispered in my ear, "You look ugly when you cry, what would the whole school think? That I have an ugly sister? No way! So please, stop it, before you ruin my amazing reputation."

"Shut up!" I pushed at his chest, but gently, because I didn't want to hurt him more. I wiped my tears harshly away then glared at him. "How did you manage to hurt yourself, huh? Mom's always telling you to be careful, now what's this?!" I pointed at his injured leg but I couldn't even look at it without wanting to cry again. Gods, that looked bad.

"An accident during practice this afternoon. Bad fall, landed on his knee and twisted his ankle. Coach had been telling him to take a rest and go home early but he's just too damn stubborn for his own good. Wouldn't even sit down for a second." His other teammate, Darell, was the one who spoke, with a hopeless headshake. I only now realized that he and Renzo were probably with H.D. because they were supporting him and helping him walk.

I chewed on my lip again.

"Yup!" Renzo agreed. "It's not like you still have anything to prove, brother. I mean, you're captain now! You should've just listened to Coach and this wouldn't have happened to you."

"W-wait, what?" I looked at the three hulking boys in confusion again. "He's captain now? I thought the tryouts for that is still in two weeks?"

Renzo shrugged. "Coach changed his mind, obviously. And anyways, he didn't even need other candidates because he's already set his eyes on a certain stubborn, male Delamar for the position. The tryouts was just for formality." He clucked his tongue disapprovingly and looked down at me. "We all think your big bro deserves it, princess, but would you mind reminding him to stop taking life so seriously once in a while? Coz it's not good for him. Not good at all."

We all eyed H.D.'s injured limb, totally agreeing on that.

My brother rolled his eyes, and it was clear he was getting uncomfortable with all the scrutiny. "Alright, that's enough gossiping for today. Carebear, mind driving us home?"

"Of course, not. You really have to ask?" I gave him a 'duh' look as he handed me the keyfob which he had been holding all along. "Um, guys," I said addressing both Renzo and Darell a little shyly, "could you help him walk up to the parking lot? I don't think I can—"

"You really have to ask?" Darell mimicked my tone earlier, and I looked at him in surprise, because he wasn't usually the type to talk much or joke around with people unless he was very close to them. And we weren't even close to being close, let alone 'very' close. He just winked at me, though, and I was stunned for three seconds there.

"Clare? What are you standing there for? Let's go!"

It was Marga, who'd gone quiet and speechless up to this point, who broke my trance and gestured for me to move my butt. I blinked and shook my head to clear it and when I looked, the three boys were already five meters ahead of us. Cussing, I scrambled to catch up.

Fracking Darell and that unexpected wink.

I stared at the back of his head with narrowed eyes as he walked in front of me and Marga, supporting H.D.'s injured side opposite Renzo all the way to the car. He shouldn't have winked at me! Now he was making me overthink things, such as, did he, perhaps, maybe, just maybe, have a crush on me?

Ew! I cringe at my own self sometimes. Way to go for being such a presumtuous lass, self! A wink didn't always have to mean anything! Stop it, just stop it! Darell Phillips might be one of the most gorgeous jocks in the whole school and had his fair share of drooling fangirls but he was my brother's friend and teammate, meaning, they were off-limits, and anyway, he wasn't even my type—which was, of course, beside the point since he didn't even like me, I was just assuming things because of a stupid wink, bla bla bla bla bla, I had to stop this senseless and ridiculous train-of-thought—right about now.

I hid a sigh of relief when Margareth took my attention to bid me goodbye then she got into her car first, but she looked distracted. Also, I didn't miss the odd expression on her face as she drove away. And she didn't even say one word to H.D., either to say goodbye to him or sorry about what happened.

Was something wrong with her? She was just pranking me five minutes ago before the three boys arrived... What happened in between then? Did I miss something?

I decided to ask her all about it tomorrow. For now, I had an injured brother to drive home so my full focus was needed so we didn't get into a car accident. With a determined sigh, I made my way to the blood-red Vios where Renzo and Darell were lingering by the passenger side then squared my shoulders.

Time to be a good sister.

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