No Easy Answer

\"I hate you! I never want to see you again!\" Jaime yelled so loudly, everyone in the high school hallway turned around to look at the striking blond as she continued her tirade. \"You are DEAD to me!\"

\"Jaime, baby,\" Darren glanced uncomfortably around the hallway, trying to keep control of the situation. \"Come on, don\'t be like that. You know I love you. I\'d never cheat on you. I mean, come on… look at you. You are the hottest girl in school. Why would I cheat?\"

Looking into the bright blue eyes of her football-star boyfriend, Jaime pouted. \"Really?\" she asked, taking a step closer to him.

\"Jesus, not again,\" a voice came from behind the couple, causing them to turn around and look with disgust at Elle Knight. \"God, can we get through ONE Monday this year without you two having this same fight over and over and over… in front of MY locker? Here, let me make it easy for you two…”

Tossing her long dark hair over her shoulder, Elle turned squarely towards Stoneville High’s most popular couple. “You, the jock asshole, are going to swear that you didn\'t cheat on the ditz over here while laying on an offensive number of cheesy compliments, even though half the people at this school saw you making out with some cheerleader at a kegger this weekend. Then you, the conceited bubble-head, will hem and haw until finally giving in to the total lack of self-respect you seem to have by forgiving this moron and celebrating with a blowjob in the parking lot. See, there, all done. Now can I get to my locker?\"

A round of laughter broke out in the hall, causing Jaime\'s face to turn bright red in embarrassment. \"What would you know anything about relationships?\" she put her hands on her hips as she looking scathingly at Elle. \"It\'s not like any guy in this school would ever consider going out with a loser freak like you.\"

\"Good one, babe,\" Darren encouraged Jaime, who smiled at him happily as she took a step closer to him.

Rolling her eyes, Elle wasn\'t about to dignify Jaime\'s lame retort with a response. Besides, a girl like Jaime wouldn\'t be able to comprehend the notion that a girl like Elle did date – just not any of the idiotic, self-pleased, trend-following guys she went to school with.

Instead of saying anything to defend herself, Elle simply shoved Jaime slightly towards Darren. \"Well, I\'m glad we got that all cleared up,\" she said as she turned her locker combination. \"You two are back together, and I can get to my books now. You know, books?\" she added as she pulled out a few, closed her locker, and turned back around. \"You know, Darren, those big heavy things with words that you probably can\'t read any better than my nine year old brother can?\" Without another word, she walked down the hallway, smiling to herself as Darren sputtered in an unsuccessful attempt to think of a response to Elle\'s latest insult.

“Always campaigning for that seat on prom court, aren’t you?” Elle’s friend, Kelly James fell in step with her. “Sometimes I think your desire to be well-liked and popular really keeps you from saying what’s on your mind,” she finished dryly.

Entering the homeroom she and Kelly had first period, Elle chuckled. “You know me,” she answered wryly as she took her normal seat. “Always trying to make people like me.”

Shaking her head, Kelly knew better than to try to persuade Elle to act any differently; if her pleas since they first became friends in junior high had done no good over the past six years, it was highly unlikely Elle would suddenly change with only four months to go in their senior year of high school.

Besides, Kelly secretly envied Elle’s strength and the way she always told people what she thought. Sometimes, Kelly wished she was more like Elle. In most ways, they were complete opposites. Elle wore her long, dark hair wild; Kelly always kept her lighter hair in a neat bob. Where Elle liked to dress for drama, with bright colors and eclectic styles, Kelly generally wore jeans and plain tops. ‘Not to mention,’ Kelly thought sadly to herself. ‘Elle is exotically gorgeous, while I’m generically plain.’

And their appearances were just the tip of the iceberg when it came to the differences between Kelly and Elle. For the past four years, Kelly had been on student council; Elle opted to write for the lit-mag. While they both did well in school, Elle excelled in writing and history, where Kelly’s strengths lay in science and math.

Even when it came to how they dealt with people around them, they were as different as night and day. While Elle seemed to look at most of her classmates as unwashed miscreants whose mere existence served to torture her (and was always ready to announce this fact with the slightest provocation), Elle was generally shy, trying to blend in to the faces in the crowd – which was often a hard feat when being friends with Elle.

However, despite their differences, Kelly and Elle had always meshed well together. Their completely mismatched views on life and the world seemed complimentary, not opposing. ‘Besides,’ Kelly had thought to herself often. ‘If I didn’t have Elle as a friend… I would have no one.’

Even though she managed to deter most of teens they went to school with from even looking her straight in the eye, Elle did have a group of friends outside school. Most were a little older, although some were from other high schools in the area, outcasts, freaks – the Elle’s of their respective alternate universes.

Kelly, on the other hand, really didn’t have any other friends. Sometimes, she wondered why someone as vibrant as Elle even wanted to be friends with her at all; as far as Kelly was concerned, she was the epitome of the word ‘boring’. But since they had first met in seventh grade – when Kelly was being teased in the gym locker room for not wearing a bra yet and Elle jumped to her defense – they had been inseparable.

“Okay class,” Mr. Venedor, the homeroom teacher, clapped his hands together to get everyone’s attention. “We have a new student today. Everyone say hello to Sandy McDouglas.” Clearing his throat, the middle-aged teacher motioned towards the boy standing beside him.

“Sandy?” Will, one of Darren’s teammates on the football team – and one of the most despicable people in the school, in Elle’s opinion – used a taunting voice. “Isn’t that, like, a chick’s name?” A small number of students chuckled across the classroom, and Will high-fived the guy next to him.

“Clever,” Sandy replied immediately, rolling his eyes. “I hope coming up with that brilliant insult didn’t take away from the incredible brain power it is going to take to smash beer cans against your head tonight.”

As Will looked with shock at Sandy, not having expected a comeback, Elle laughed out loud. When Sandy looked over at her, she gave him a friendly smile – which was not something she did often to people in school. ‘Not bad,’ she thought to herself, bringing her pen to her mouth and chewing thoughtfully on the cap.

While not drop-dead-gorgeous, Sandy was definitely cute. Messy dark hair fell into his hazel eyes, and the smirk he threw towards Elle was definitely sexy. She also liked the fact that he was wearing a Sex Pistols t-shirt; having similar musical tastes was always a requirement in any guy she might be interested in.

As Mr. Venedor, hiding his own smirk at Sandy’s retort to Will, pointed the new student to an empty seat, Kelly covertly watched the glances shared between him and Elle. There was definitely a spark there.

Throughout homeroom, Elle tried not to notice that Sandy kept casually looking in her direction. The truth was, knowing how to react to a boy she might be interested in at this school was a new endeavor for her. While she had dated guys in the past, she usually met them at shows or through friends outside of school; knowing how to flirt between the hours of 7:30 am and 3 pm was something new entirely.

As the bell rang, effectively ending homeroom, Kelly and Elle gathered their belongings. Elle, however, seemed to be taking longer than usual, and Kelly quickly realized why.

“Hey,” Sandy said as he approached the two girls, his bag thrown haphazardly over his shoulder as he looked at them nervously.

“Hey,” Elle smiled at Sandy. “Welcome to hell.”

Laughing, Sandy visibly relaxed as he started exiting the classroom beside the two girls. “I promise, this school is no worse than any other high school,” he told them as they walked down the hall. “I should know; I’m a military brat. This is the sixth – and hopefully last – school of my high school career.”

Raising her eyebrows, Elle smiled. “You should have said that you were kicked out of your last five high schools,” she told him. “At least it would have given you that bad-boy mystique. By the way, I’m Elle… and this is Kelly.”

“Well, thanks to that genius in class,” Sandy’s eyes sparkled in amusement. “I’m sure you know that my name is Sandy. But it’s nice to meet you both. And as for the bad-boy thing… it’s kind of hard to pull off when you don’t quite weigh 140 pounds.”

Laughing, Elle paused in the hallway and looked at Sandy. “Well, I guess that’s true,” she told him. She had noticed he was thin, but his t-shirt showed that he was also toned. His frame was definitely nice. “Anyway,” she paused in the hallway, leaning against the wall. “You at least had the good sense to find the two people in this school who don’t suck completely.”

“I can see that,” Sandy smiled happily. “Besides, it looks like I may – inadvertently and through no fault of my own – have some issues with some of the lower forms of life at this school, so it’s always good to have people to watch your back. And Kelly here seems like she could kick some ass if it came down to it.”

Blushing, Kelly was surprised that Sandy even remembered that she was standing there. He and Elle seemed so caught up in their conversation, she had assumed he hadn’t noticed her; but now he was looking at her with a grin, a mischievous look in her eyes. “Don’t underestimate me,” she joked uncomfortably, but smiled a little when both Sandy and Elle laughed out loud.

“I never will,” Sandy promised, patting Kelly’s shoulder lightly. “Anyway, will you guys do me a favor and look for me during lunch today? Something tells me I’m not going to be invited to join the football team at their table.”

“Absolutely,” Elle enthused, blushing slightly at her own exuberance. Normally, she avoided showing any interest in a guy, but right now she couldn’t help herself. Sandy seemed funny, confident, smart, cute AND he had good taste in music. How could she not be interested? “If you don’t get killed first, that is,” she added jokingly, trying to save some face.

“Great,” Sandy took a few steps away from the girls and gave them a little wave. “I’d owe you. And it was really nice to meet you both. Oh, but Kelly? I have to say – it’s kind of tough to talk to someone who won’t let you get a word in edgewise. Just a word to the wise, okay?”

Turning pink, Kelly knew Sandy was just joking, but before she could think of anything to say in response, he had turned around and headed the opposite way down the hall.

“Wow,” Elle turned to Kelly with a wicked grin. “I never thought I’d say this about any guy that went to this school, but he seems really cool. Don’t you think?”

“Sure,” Kelly looked down at the floor as she and Elle started heading towards their next classes. “He’s nice.”

“Yeah,” Elle enthused, a big grin across her pretty face. “But he’s also… sarcastic, and witty, and… he’s cute, don’t you think?”

Looking away, Kelly hoped Elle didn’t see the blush growing deeper on her cheeks. “Sure,” she tried to sound nonchalant. “I guess. In his own way.”

“In his own way? In MY way,” Elle giggled as she pulled her books closer to her chest. “God, who knew that I would finally be interested in a guy that goes to our school in February of our senior year?”

“Who knew?” Kelly echoed with a weak smile, then bit her lip as she followed Elle down the hallway.

-----

Lunch had started ten minutes ago, and Kelly was starting to get antsy as she waited at her normal table for Elle to show up. She had also been glancing around while she waited, in case Sandy had come into the cafeteria, but neither person had arrived.

Suddenly, Kelly felt her stomach drop as she watched Sandy and Elle enter the lunch room together. Sandy was laughing at something Elle had said, and in return Elle had playfully bumped her shoulder against his. “I guess they don’t really need me around,” Kelly mumbled to herself as she watched them approach the table.

“Sorry we’re late,” Elle smiled obliviously at her friend as she sat down at the lunch table. “It turns out Sandy’s in my creative writing class, so I showed him around the school a little before we came to lunch.”

“No problem,” Kelly replied, looking down at her sandwich, hoping her undeserved annoyance didn’t show.

“You’re friend is insane,” Sandy told Kelly, forcing her to look up at him as he sat directly across from her. “I was just telling Elle that she’s lucky she’s a girl. With most of the shit that comes out of her mouth… well, if she was a guy, she’d get her ass kicked on a regular basis. And I speak from experience.”

Giving Sandy a small smile, Kelly nodded. “Yeah, you seem like the type… who gets his ass kicked a lot.”

A big grin breaking across his face, Sandy tilted his head and looked right into Kelly’s eyes. “There it is,” he told her brightly. “I knew deep down you’re more of a wiseass than Elle and I put together. All it took was some time.”

Smiling a little, Kelly couldn’t help but notice that Sandy’s eyes had a thin auburn ring around the green. “That’s me,” she rolled her eyes. “A spitfire of contemptuous commentary.”

Raising his eyebrows, Sandy smirked. “Exactly,” he said in an even tone, taking Kelly off guard.

“Anyway, Will deserved to have me mock him,” Elle continued, seemingly unaware of the blush that was quickly rising over her friend’s neck as Sandy looked at Kelly. The color disappeared quickly, though, as his gaze moved back to Elle.

As Sandy and Elle starting a quick banter about high school social orders, Kelly sat back, a bit dejected. She supposed she was jealous of the attention Elle was giving Sandy. Normally, Kelly was the only person Elle was nice to; now, though, Kelly could burst into flames or melt into a puddle on the floor and she didn’t think Elle would be able to pry herself from Sandy long enough to notice.

But, deep down, Kelly knew there was something more to it than that. Each time Elle easily made a joke that started Sandy chuckling, Kelly’s back tensed up. And each time Sandy glanced over at Kelly, giving her a friendly wink or smile, her stomach tightened. Kelly couldn’t, for the life of her, figure out what was bothering her.

“Anyway,” Kelly came out of her own thoughts when she heard Elle’s voice turn unfamiliar – uncertain, even. Glancing over at her friend, Kelly immediately noticed that some color had suddenly filled Elle’s cheeks. “As I was saying, there’s a show going on this Friday… Nothing big, just some local bands… So if you wanted to go-” Looking up, Elle gave Kelly a pleading glance before continuing. “Well, Kelly and I are going if you want to tag along.”

Looking over at Kelly, Sandy tilted his head and smiled. “Is that true, Kelly?” he asked, his voice teasing. “I wouldn’t be too much of a bother if I go with you guys?”

Elle had never even mentioned the show on Friday to Kelly before now; but, to be fair, Kelly had turned down Elle’s offers to accompany her to see bands play enough times over the years that Elle had all but given up. Right now, though, Kelly could see the desperation in Elle’s eyes. It was obvious she liked Sandy, and Kelly knew the right thing to do would be to go along with the request.

“As long as you’ve got my back if I get into a throw-down,” Kelly finally replied, causing both Sandy and Elle to break out in laughter.

“You’re pretty funny, you know,” Sandy said to Kelly as he finished chuckling. “You should try talking more. You never know – you might like it. Even if you don’t, it keeps me smiling.”

Biting her lip, Kelly watched as Elle and Sandy started talking about the type of bands that would be playing at the show; but she couldn’t help feel a little warmth deep inside as she ran Sandy’s words through her head.

“You should try talking more… it keeps me smiling.”

-----

“Advanced Physics. Party.” The voice behind Kelly made her jump a little. Turning around, she was surprised to see Sandy standing there; she hadn’t seen him since lunch, and certainly hadn’t expected to have him in her last-period class with her. “So are you a science nerd?” Sandy asked, no malice in his voice.

“Oh, um, no,” Kelly tried to deny the fact as she sat down at her desk. “I’m not… I mean…”

Smiling, Sandy took the seat beside Kelly and shook his head. “It wasn’t meant to be an insult,” he said, his voice kind, causing her to look up. “I was just joking. I just meant that my dad – The General, as I call him – is the one who insists I take this science stuff. He’s sure I’m going to turn around one of these days and decide to become an engineer for the army.”

“Oh, that sucks,” Kelly was relaxed a little by Sandy’s friendly demeanor. “And yeah, I guess I’m kind of a science nerd. So if you need any help catching up…”

“I am SO going to call you on that,” Sandy grinned at Kelly as the teacher entered the front of the classroom. “Maybe today even. Are you busy after school?”

Her mouth dropped open, but no sound passed through Kelly’s lips; she was too much in shock. Instead, she just shook her head and silently sent thanks to her science teacher as she tried to get the class’s attention.

Sandy had smiled and nodded before turning towards the front of the classroom to listen to the teacher, but Kelly wasn’t able to focus. Instead, she was berating herself silently. ‘He wants your help with physics,’ she told herself. ‘That’s the only reason he asked you to hang out. Plus, he probably also wants to find out more about Elle…’

With that thought, Kelly’s heart sunk a little. That feeling was quickly replaced, though, with one of complete confusion as Sandy looked over at her and raised his eyesbrows, smirking at her.

‘It all has to be in my imagination,’ Kelly quickly pulled her gaze from Sandy. ‘I’ve barely said two words to him. Besides, Elle’s beautiful and funny and wild and they have all this stuff in common…’

Still, it was hard for Kelly to ignore the warm feeling in her stomach whenever Sandy would look her way. This was going to be a LONG afternoon…