A Dare With The Player

Chapter 9: The Girl With Taste

Sometimes I forget. I forget that this was where I used to be three years ago, that I pretty much spent my entire childhood here, that the people I used to know back then were still here just a little grown up like me.

I walked the halls of Eastwood High like it was a place I haven’t been to, but technically, I have been here. It just didn’t last long enough before everything went to s**t. I had only been here a few months, the first semester was just about to finish when I had to suddenly leave.

Leave school. Leave all the things I had gotten used to back then. Leave the country, the friends I made all throughout the years, the memories that were instilled in me.

Leave what little happiness I had left.

“Hey Tiano!”

Out of nowhere, someone had shouted a nickname of mine. I turned around to see the same girl I met in the bus stop earlier and who missed her bus because she was so distracted.

She walked up to me, her miniskirt bouncing up and down and almost showing her even tinier shorts underneath.

“How about we continue where we left-”

She was about to place her hand on my shoulder, but I quickly moved away. Eyes staring straight at her in an aggravated way.

“Don’t you ever call me that again,” I said irritated before slamming my locker shut.

She looked at me shocked and scared, her eyes widened and her mouth open. I doubt she was expecting that, but I didn’t care.

That nickname… I had almost forgotten it as well. Or at least I tell myself that I have, but in reality, it was a nickname my so-called mother gave me. Her little Tiano, she used to say, but I was no longer that. It was made clear to me when she decided to leave without even a single word so I made sure that nickname was buried with my memories of her.

“S-sorry! I didn’t mean to!” The girl quickly apologized, her eyes looking at me in a pleading manner.

I honestly don’t even know her name, nor do I really care to know it. She’s just going to be a girl I met the other day.

I didn’t bother to respond as I turned around and continued my walk to the outside of school. I had about a few minutes to spare until detention and I needed some fresh air.

As expected though, the girl and some others were not giving up easily. Even though I had already shown a bit of aggression on my part, she didn’t care. Nor did others. They continued to follow me as I walked outside blabbing about how they wanted me to go out with them and whatnot.

Usually, the attention wouldn’t be so bad, but because my thoughts were now filled with the person I hated the most, I was not really in the mood to entertain anyone else.

I brushed the longer part of my hair with my fingers down to sort of just make them all around me disappear. As I continued to walk and they bothered me, I tried my best not to just lash out at them.

“If you’re not busy, you can come to our-”

“I’m busy,” I responded in a split second, not bothering to look up at them as I pulled my phone out that still had my earphones connected to it.

“Oh…” The girls said in unison, clearly disappointed.

I didn’t wait for them to say anything else as I plugged the earphones in and at least they quickly got the message that I didn’t want them around anymore as they walked away one by one.

Fucking finally. Some alone time.

I sighed as I let myself drown in the music coming from my earphones.

I hate all the morning chatter

I wish I could dull it down

Disaster after and after

I wish we could cut it out

A lot of my music was indie, songs I doubt anyone in this school even knew. Sometimes I listen to alternative metal or rock music, but when I’m feeling mellow I choose mellow songs. When I’m feeling angry, I go for louder music to overpower my own emotions. Music has saved me in a lot of ways, just as photography did. I would say art overall has been a solid anchor in my life by far.

After the song and some much-needed fresh air, although I still had more time to dilly dally, I decided to walk up to the detention room anyway. As I was doing so, I unfortunately passed the Principal’s office at the wrong time.

“Cristiano,” my father said as he got out while I had only gotten a few steps past.

I didn’t bother turning around. I stood there and sighed.

“Detention on your first day? Seriously? Why are you being so difficult?” He exclaimed in disappointment and dissatisfaction. Nothing new.

I shrugged my shoulders. “É apenas vida (it’s just life).”

“Cri-”

“Good afternoon, Principal!” A couple of students suddenly passed by and greeted him, fortunately making him stop from continuing to lecture me.

I saw my clear opening and decided to take it as I continued to walk away with the students. I knew he wouldn’t be able to call out for me again because he didn’t want to embarrass me and himself and I was right because I freely kept walking away without so much as another word from him.

I guess school wasn’t so bad when I had some kind of immunity from my father.

My phone buzzed and I looked down to check who it was. Not that there were many other options as not a lot knew my number.

Talk when you get back home.

Psh. Whatever. I placed my phone back in my pocket unbothered.

When I got to the second floor where the detention room was, I was a bit stunned. Compared to the first floor, this looked like it was a completely different building except for the similar tiles used in the hallway. There were no lockers on the sides and no unnecessary students loitering around as well as that distinct noise that you only hear in a high school. Not really sure what it is, but it’s just… different.

I liked it.

Still listening to my music, I walked to the detention room and found a spot at the end of the classroom by the window. I put my feet up on the chair in front of me, increased the volume on my phone and exhaled deeply.

Time for some relaxation.

Just like everything in life, it doesn’t really last long as the door opens and the teacher shouts at me.

“Mr. Ferreira! Feet off of the chair!” He demanded.

I groaned internally as I did as told, as much as I didn’t want to, but didn’t bother to look to where he was. I instead fixated my view on the outside world, the tall trees right outside the window. This was much more peaceful.

I wasn’t in the mood to listen. Frankly, I wasn’t in the mood for anything anymore. I just wanted to sit here and stay in silence, but it turns out, my father and the Principal had other plans in store for me.

When I heard the teacher announce that detention had been changed from the usual just sitting around doing nothing to cleaning the gym, I was clearly less than amused.

Sneaky old man was getting his revenge for my wrongdoings. Tsk.

I could tell Thalia was also not pleased by the new discovery. I had unknowingly dragged her into this mess. My sincere apologies, daredevil.

Albeit this, I didn’t want to do anything more so knowing now that my father had a hand in the whole thing. I was not going to succumb to his wants. Over my dead body.

Once the teacher was away, I went back to my original position - feet up on the chair and just taking in the calm scenery. This will be over in about an hour and a half. I was set on staying like this… but a little someone was not too keen on that plan.

“Aren’t you coming?” Thalia asked me in an obvious impatient tone and when I didn’t respond, she started making her way to me.

Mr. Gibbins said we need to clean the gym and he knows if we’ll do it or not.” She said as she stood right next to me, her hands in front of her chest in a demanding manner.

It was actually cute how she repeated the task even though I know she knew that I heard what he said. How considerate.

Still, I wasn’t doing it. She doesn’t know so she doesn’t understand. She’ll get over it, though.

“Suit yourself. I’ll be downstairs and I’m cleaning half of the gym. The other half is yours if you want to do it or not,” Thalia said, making sure to give me my own responsibility.

Huh… fair play. She could easily just say she had done her part and I didn’t. Smart girl you are, Donovan. Not that I didn’t think she was, but she does continue to amuse me.

Either way, it’s still not going to make me move.

Because of that, I think I had pulled her last string and she stomped her way out of the classroom. I watched as she grudgingly walked out and the further she got… the more I somehow felt something brewing inside of me that I don’t think I’ve ever felt in a long time.

Guilt? Was this the feeling of guilt building up? Was I feeling guilty that I made her feel that way because of my hardheadedness?

When she slammed the door closed, that was when I kind of got the answer to my own questions and it was… true.

I sat on my chair, contemplating whether or not my determination to not follow my father was worth pissing off Thalia. I tried to push away the thoughts, scrolling through the internet, reading about random things, trying to watch whatever movie there was, and all sorts of things.

But each time, I just went back to thinking of her. An unlikely cycle I didn’t think was possible, but here it was.

Eventually, as unexpected as possible from someone who didn’t usually give a s**t about others… I gave in.

“Ah, god damn it, fine. You win, Donovan. You win.” I muttered with a huff as I got up from the chair, grabbing my things and making my way to the school gym.

I can’t believe I’m doing this s**t. I can’t believe she got me to do this s**t. Something about her made me feel like angering her was something I shouldn’t do. Maybe because she’s the sister of T?

Yeah. Yeah. That sounds about right. That’s totally it. I just have this small tiny innate responsibility to be nice to her because she was also a friend way back then, too. Yeah.

When I got to the gym, I didn’t really have anything in mind but to get it all over with, but what I opened the door to surprisingly and undeniably made me… smile.

Thalia seemed to be too engrossed in what she was doing. She wasn’t just cleaning, she was having a full-on concert in the gym. Singing, doing small dance moves, all while wiping the windows down. It was insanely cute, not going to lie.

I know she didn’t hear me and because this was entertainment at its finest, I decided to keep it that way. I went back out of the gym to get to the cleaning room for supplies, but while I was doing so I accidentally spilled cleaning agent on my shirt. I had no choice but to wash it off and let it dry while I got to cleaning.

After that, I went back to the gym and funny enough, she was still there, having the best concert of her life.

All of a sudden, something else got my attention. That song. I know that song.

I feel much older

Since we’ve met

The love between us

You give what you get

I bit my lip as I smiled slightly, amused. She’s listening to indie music. Someone else beside this godforsaken school listened to actual music. Huh… I am even more visibly intrigued. This girl had taste. A good one, at that.

Amidst that, I still had all this cleaning s**t to do and I didn’t want to stand here like a creep just watching her. I closed the door, making sure to make some noise so Thalia could hear my arrival.

She did. She quickly turned and at first she had this confused expression, but was immediately changed to this flabbergasted look of sorts. Honestly, it was pretty hilarious the way her expression changed so fast and I was wondering why until I remembered - right, I took my shirt off.

“Take a picture. It’ll last longer.” I told her to tease her because seriously speaking, it was just so fun how affected she got every time.

Her eyes looked like it was shooting laser beams from them directly at me. “Bite me.”

I continued to annoy her until she had enough of it, telling me to leave her alone. Ah, Donovan, you enthrall me.

After she evidently showed her annoyance towards me by flipping her hair and continuing to clean her side, I had to get to work too.

This wasn’t really anything new to me. Back in Brazil I used to take side jobs for extra money as there were times I kind of just disappeared on my own in another city. I did a few things, cleaning, bussing, etcetera. I learned a few tricks during those times and one of which was to drip the cleaning solution on each window first, let it stay there for a few minutes while you’re finishing the other windows then go back to all of it and wipe. Effective and efficient.

Thalia was not aware of such a trick, but I knew from the way she cleaned that this wasn’t her first time either. I knew T’s family as a kid and they were not those typical judgemental rich people, even though they are filthy rich. It’s one of the reasons I liked being friends with T and the twins back then because they were much different from all the stuck up ones.

It was nice to see Thalia still have the same values… just with a little more spice.

As I was almost finishing up and looked over to Thalia who started earlier than me, but was still not done, I decided to share with her the easier way to clean. If this was any other person, I really wouldn’t care, but like I said, I had this feeling of responsibility for my friend’s sister.

She seemed to be distracted, muttering something to herself as I got closer, but it was fortunate I had my focus on her because out of nowhere, she accidentally hit her bucket behind her and was about to tumble backwards.

Every part of me rushed to get to her, somehow jumping and sprinting at the same time, I didn’t even know that was possible until I made sure not to let any harm come to her.

Fortunately, I was a little closer and I moved fast enough to get to her, holding her steady with my arms underneath her back.

Sheesh. That was so close. She was inches away from totally hurting herself and that would have been very bad.

After a few seconds, I suddenly realized there was something warm on my chest and I’d be lying if I said I didn’t slightly blush.

But right after I saw a chance to further tease her, because hey, it’s fun.

“Enjoying yourself there, Donovan?” I asked with an amused smirk and her cheeks evidently blushed.

“Sh- shut up! Help me back up!” She demanded instantly and I softly chuckled as I helped her back up on the bench.

Right after she was able to recompose herself again, it was obvious she still was a little flushed about what happened while I stood there smiling amused at her.

She then cleared her throat and put her hands on her hips and pouted at me before speaking up. “N- nothing happened, okay?!”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. Happened where?” I asked in a calm tone.

“A while ago! When I fell and you- you… wait a second…” She paused momentarily, her brows furrowed in thought before looking back at me now with a face of obvious realization.

She lifted her chin up and smiled at me gleefully. “We should get back to cleaning.”

“Speaking of cleaning, let me teach you something that will finish the job in half the time. Come here,” I motioned for her to follow me, grabbing her bucket as we got to the top where the windows were.

There I explained to her my tip or trick and it was cute the way she looked so stunned and frustrated she hadn’t known it earlier.

“You could have told me!” She expressed her annoyance.

“I doubt you would have even heard me through the personal concert you were having,” I told her and she blushed instantly.

“Wha- I- I was not having a concert!” She immediately denied the accusation and in a very confident manner at that.

You know, I was starting to realize this girl was somewhat good at acting.

“Don’t sweat it, Donovan. You’ve got taste. That I can tell. Now shall we finish this cleaning? I’m about ready to take a long and hot shower an hour ago.” I told her and she giggled.

Her eyes lit up and she smiled widely just as a ray of sunshine directly hit her and for a second, a very quick second, I think my heart skipped a beat. Or am I just imagining things?

Ten minutes or less later and with my cleaning trick, we finished way faster and we were out of that gym in no time.

“You got a ride, Donovan?” I turned to see Thalia looking at a phone that I was sure was an old model a few years back.

She must be using it in exchange for her having misplaced the other one.

“Y-yeah, my brother’s still here. I’ll wait for him here after his Football thing. Do you have a ride? Is the Principal still here?” She asked and I had to suppress the discomfort in my expression.

Damn it, why did she have to mention him? Well, it’s technically not her fault because he is my father and I guess she thinks we’re close like she is with hers.

I shake my head. “Nah, I’ll probably walk or something. Fresh air is good. I can wait here until your brother gets out. Night is coming. Dangerous for pretty girls like you to be out all alone here.”

She reacted for a split second from what I said. Success.

But was quickly replaced with a sour attitude as she looked at me with a raised brow. “You need to stop thinking all girls can’t defend themselves. I took up self-defense classes for six months, just so you know. Boys like you with pretty faces need to watch out too, not just girls.”

Feisty. I like that.

“You think I have a pretty face?” I smirked at her and she clicked her tongue at me.

“I- whatever! I’ll be fine! Goodbye, Cristiano.” She waved me off before turning around with her arms crossed in front of her chest.

Even when I can’t see her face, I can imagine her making that same annoyed and pouting look. I softly chuckled. Cute.

Just as I was beginning to walk away, I put my hands in my pocket and felt something, making me remember. I then mischievously smiled.

Oh, right… I was going to do that.

“Oh, Donovan.” I called out for her as I turned back around.

She did the same, turning and looking at me with a less than amused face although I could tell she was also a little interested as to why I went back. Maybe?

“If you’re just going to tease me again then I suggest you turn around and continue what you were doing earlier which was walking away unless you want me to show you what I learned in self-defense classes.”

The little feisty daredevil was on a roll, but that didn’t faze me at all. In fact, it actually made this even more fun.

I walked closer to her until I was merely a few inches away. I noticed her stiffening up a little, but she was of course trying her best not to make it too obvious.

It was when I leaned in closer to whisper into her ear that she could no longer hide what she was truly feeling - smitten.

“No teasing here. I’m just giving you back…” I took the phone out of my pocket and quickly moved my hand behind her and in a one second move, slid it inside her back pocket without touching anything else. “What you lost.”

When I stepped back, her face was redder than a tomato and she was obviously at a loss for words.

I was now really trying my best not to burst into laughter looking at how embarrassed she had gotten as she was most likely realizing and processing things.

“See you around, daredevil. I enjoyed the video, by the way.”