I will fight for you

Terrance found it really hard to interact with anyone except me. Whenever I saw him in the classroom, or in the corridors, he would always be by himself. And he seemed to be thinking about something. His expression so serious that it's scary. At the same time, he would avoid people. He would even avoid looking at anyone he didn't have to. On the one hand, I liked that he only had eyes for me. On the other, I felt like this isolation isn't good for him. At the same time, I hadn't been able to do much to help him. People disliked Terrance, not just because of his behaviour, or because he is a foreigner, but also because of me.

It is cold and cloudy today, so I am not really looking forward to exercise class. The grass is wet and sank under my feet. I glanced over at the boy's group while we did stretches. They were warming up by jogging around the school track. Terrance is taller than the other boys, so I am able to find him quickly. He caught me looking and waved to me, but I pretended to ignore him.

"Did that weirdo just wave at us?" Fifi said, and a few girls started laughing. "The balls on that guy."

Fifi is the leader of the group of girls that I usually hang out with. We have some respect for each other, and so give off the illusion that we are friends. But really, I don't like her at all. She is so fat that she struggles to touch her knees, but then, somehow, is shameless enough to say rude things about Terrance. But, because of her influence in the school, I couldn't really do anything to her.

"That dog was probably waving to Sophie."

I glared at the girl that had made this comment, and her group immediately went silent and moved away from her. The girl realised her mistake and tried to get away, no one did anything to help. Although I never tried to defend Terrance, I had made it clear since I joined high school that I wouldn't hold back on anyone that bad-mouthed him.

I walked up to the girl and I could see that she was shaking. What kind of expression was I wearing? I recalled that she was from the gymnastic club.

"I hear you are pretty flexible."

"Y-yeah." The girl seemed a little confused by what I said, but finally caught my eye. She seemed to relax a little.

"Then, can you show Fifi how to touch her toes." I looked over at Fifi as I said this. Fifi's mouth dropped. If I were anyone else, she might have lost it and started a fight, but she knew that I am just as crazy as she is.

"I-I" The girl looked from me to Fifi. Her legs were shaking, and she looked like she was about to faint.

"Hey, what are you so worried about?" I put my hand on her head and smiled. "I'll even help you."

It took a moment for the girl to understand what I was about to do, but it was already too late. I kicked the back of her legs to make her fall onto her knees. Then held onto one of her hands, so she couldn't brace herself, and pushed her face into the mud.

* * *

I knew the event with the gymnastics girl would come back to bite me, but I didn't think that it would happen so soon. Charlotte and Toby caught me as I left the classroom for lunch break.

"Sophie." Charlotte glared at me. "We need to talk."

"Ah, I still don't have all the supplies for the event."

"This is not about the supplies. This is about Isabel from the gymnastics club."

"Isabel?" I actually didn't know that was her name.

"Don't act dumb. The whole school knows what you did." Charlotte said.

But I just shrugged in response, and walked past her. "I'm hungry, see you."

Isabel wouldn't dare report what happened to a teacher, and, even if she did, it was hardly that big of a crime. A few tears and I could weasel my way out of it.

"Sophie, don't walk away from me." Charlotte called after me. "This doesn't just affect you, you know. Do you ever think about anyone except yourself?"

I ignored her. Charlotte got worked up over the smallest things. And I couldn't help but notice the irony in what she said. I wasn't like she was doing it for me either, she just wanted to keep up the reputation of her stupid club.

* * *

I was so glad to be finally out of school. I stretched and yawned, and glanced over to Terrance, walking beside me, who copied me. His arm span was almost twice as large as mine.

"I saw what happened during exercise class today." Terrance started. It was rare for him to start conversations. Usually, I would be talking some nonsense the whole way to the bridge where we go different ways, and Terrence just liked to listen. But I was feeling a little worn out today, so I hadn't said anything. I wonder if I had made him worry.

"Oh, and what do you think happened?"

"You got into a fight with another girl. Did she do something bad to you?"

"Nah, she just looked at me the wrong way." I said, waving away his question. Terrance laughed, and I gave him a jab to the side. His body was firm, I could feel his muscles through his shirt. "What's so funny?"

He didn't reply but put his hand on my shoulder, and pulled me closer so that our bodies were touching. Since we are already at the bridge where we would go our separate ways, we stopped there for a bit. And I rested my head on Terrence's chest. Usually, I would have put up more resistance against this kind of thing, but I am so tired. And Terrance is so warm. I felt like I could fall asleep standing.

We watched the sea for a little while together before going home.