186A/N: Um, basically the same thing I said in the last chapter. Yeah..
For the first time in weeks, the three of us walked out of class together. "That was so amazing!" Carrie exclaimed, punching the air with her fist. I raised an eyebrow at her. She laughed at me. "The equation! You were absent the day we learned it, and you could still do it! You are a genius!" I shrugged, feeling a blush creep up my neck.
"It wasn't that great." I muttered. Carrie eyed me as though I'd just told her the Earth was flat. Funny thing, nowadays it's hard to even imagine the Earth being anything but round. But really, if you'd lived in the medieval times, with things that couldn't be explained, and no satellite images of Earth, you really wouldn't have believed that it wasn't flat. Get what I'm saying? Okay, so maybe you don't, but that's normal. Hardly anyone gets my jokes. It's depressing really.
"Are you kidding?!" Carrie exclaimed. I sighed, adjusting the strap of my messenger bag as I separated myself from my friends, and headed off to math.
I met up again with Carrie and Don in lunch. It was our third to last "class" of the day, and by far my favorite period. We sat at the same table as Kelly, Carrie, Carrie's best friend Dawn, and Dawn's twin brother, Philip (commonly referred to as Phil or Philly), Don, and myself. It goes almost without saying that it was an interesting period. I walked in and was immediately pounced on by Carrie, Don and Kelly. Evidentially they'd been talking about me. I hated it when they all ganged up on me. It was harder to resist them. The mentality of the group or something. I really should pay attention in psychology. . . Maybe then I could resist them better. Or maybe not. I bought my lunch and sat down. Kelly eyed my lunch, a diet soda, a salad and low fat ranch dressing.
"What are you doing?" She asked me. I glanced down at my lunch and saw nothing wrong with it. I looked back up at Kelly, and saw she was prodding Carrie, who frowned at my lunch too.
"What's that?" She asked, meeting my eyes.
"Uh, it looks like a salad." Don said, stealing one of my tomatoes. I didn't object, I didn't particularly like tomatoes. Kelly shot him an icy glare.
"Right. But she's eating it." She said. "And a diet soda. Plus she's not wearing her necklace." She turned to me. "Are you on a diet?"
I just stared at her, knowing shock was registering on my face. "No."
"Robin-"
"I am not on a diet!" I insisted. Don looked worried now too.
"Well, you did get a salad every day last week. . ."
"And low fat dressing!" Carrie put in. Dawn and Phil looked over at me too, both with disapproving looks that matched my friends'. I bit my lip.
"You're on a diet." Dawn said. Stated actually. Like it was a fact. Which it was. "Admit it." I dropped my plastic fork.
"It isn't my idea." I said, and stood up. "It's my mother's. So if you guys have a problem with it-"
"Damn right we've got a problem with it!" Carrie exclaimed. "Robby, you're already thin!" Actually, I wasn't. According to my doctor I was slightly overweight, but that didn't make any difference to my mom. I'd put on a couple pounds since the beginning of the school year. So she'd put me on a low fat diet and started dragging me to the gym with her every other day.
"Talk to my mother." I spat, and got up from the table. "If you've got a problem with it." I stalked out of the cafeteria, heading for the bathroom.
"Wait! Robin!" I braced myself for the worst. If Don had run after me, I must have stunned the rest of them into silence. He grabbed my arm, as though he was afraid I would bolt. Not that I wouldn't. . . I would, but not immediately. "Robin, what'd you mean by that?" I raised an eyebrow at him.
"Mean by what?"
"Now's not the time to play goldfish." Okay, now I bet you're wondering what he means by "paying goldfish." Well as it turns out, a goldfish has a memory span of thirty seconds. So if it's happy, it thinks it's been happy all it's life. If it's dying, it thinks it's been dying all of it's lonely little life. Sad, isn't it? "What'd you mean by ask your mom?"
I sighed, pulling myself away from him. "You don't wan to know." He grabbed my arm again.
"What if I do?" I eyed him, then pulled out of his grip again.
"Believe me." I said. "You don't." I ducked into the girl's bathroom, thankful he couldn't follow. When I returned to the table ten minutes later, no one said a word about the diet. As usual, I felt detached from their conversation as I picked at my salad. None of the would understand. They just wouldn't.
I slammed the front door shut and dropped my bag on the floor, locking the door behind me again. No one was home, and for that I was glad. That meant my mom couldn't drag me down to the gym right away. Dumping the mail on the table on my way past, I walked over and pressed the play button on the answering machine, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen. There was only one, and it was from my mom.
"Honey, I'm coming home early today, the shoot ended earlier than expected. I should be there around three, so get your stuff around and we'll head over to the gym, okay? See you at three. Bye." I glared at the answering machine. So I was five pounds overweight. Big deal! The front door opened and I glanced up to see my brother walk in.
"Brendan!" He raised an eyebrow at my cry of excitement.
"What do you want?" He asked.
"What makes you think I want anything?" I asked, trotting up to him.
"Because you're happy to see me." I sighed, stopping my bouncing.
"Okay. Fine. Could you get me out of here? Mom wants to take me to the gym again!" Brendan laughed.
"Good luck with that one."
"You're not going to help me?"
He laughed, and headed upstairs to his room. I muttered a few choice words under my breath and opened the freezer door. I guess I can be thankful about one thing. My mom's healthy food craze had not made her stop buying mint chocolate chip ice cream. My favorite. The condition of her buying it was that she could never see me eating it.
Wasn't it just my luck then that my mother decided to arrive home at the exact moment that my hand made contact with the box? Yep. My luck indeed.
"Honey?" I looked around the door of the freezer and sighed. "You ready to go?"
"But mom, I've got a lot of homework!" I protested. I didn't really like going to the gym, mainly because I felt I didn't need to. But, my mother figured that I was just as insecure as she was and decided to drag me along with her. I sighed, and shut the freezer.
"You can do it when you get back. Now come on." I sighed again. I seemed to do that a lot around my mother. Why couldn't my mother be a normal parent, and decide homework was more important than how much I weighed? Shaking my head, I grabbed the bag she made me keep packed for the gym and followed her out to the car.
"Bye guys!" I heard Brendan call from upstairs.
"Traitor!" I shouted back, slamming the door behind me. Okay, so I've got some issues with my siblings, but hey, who doesn't?
He shouted something back, but since the door was closed I couldn't hear him. I groaned, climbing into the car next to my mom.
I knifed through the water, trying to work out all my anger. As I reached the edge of the pool, I flipped smoothly and pushed off the side of the pool. About halfway to the other side of the pool, I heard someone dive into the lane next to me. When I reached the edge of the pool, I paused to catch my breath. I pulled my goggles off and slid on my glasses, blinking as my eyes adjusted. I was waiting for my breath to return to normal before I started on another set of ten laps. My eyes slid to the only other person in the pool with me. While my mother worked on the machines, I preferred to spend the hours swimming in the pool.
The other person was definitely a guy, I could tell that from the bare upper body. It was rather muscular. I couldn't help smirking. They turned at the other end of the pool, and I sighed. I'd caught my breath and should start my laps again. I slid my glasses off and pulled on my goggles. After making sure my hair was secured behind my head, I pulled myself up out of the water. I completely ignored the other swimmer as I got up on the starting block and readjusted my goggles. The fact that the other swimmer had stopped barely registered in my brain as I curled my toes around the edge of the block, then grabbed it with my fingers. I muttered the start instruction under my breath. "Take your marks." I positioned myself. "Go." I pushed off, and dove cleanly into the water. I could feel the power behind my dive carry me most of the way down the pool, adding to the power of my strokes. I flipped at the other end, shoving off as hard as I could. By the time I reached the other end of the pool the other swimmer was still there.
"Robin?" I squinted at the blurry figure, and then pulled off my goggles and grabbed my glasses, slipping them on. I blinked.
"Don? What are you doing here?" I asked. Don grinned, his wet hair plastered to his face.
"Could ask you the same thing." He said. "I didn't know you belonged to the gym."
"I don't." I said, hauling myself out of the water. Don followed suit as I snatched up my goggles.
"Rob, wait!" I ignored him, grabbing my towel. I had not expected to run into anyone I knew at the gym. I never had and figured I never would. It was a little embarrassing for me, especially since it was Don. Mainly it was because he was a guy, and the swimsuit my mom had packed me wasn't exactly my favorite. It was extremely low cut, and had a completely open back that cut off just at the small of my back. The legs were cut up right at my hipbone. Much more revealing than anything I would normally wear in public. But I was usually the only one using the pool. "Robin!" Don grabbed my arm, sliding to a stop in front of me. I glared at him. "What'd I do?" His caramel-colored eyes searched mine for something, and I continued to glare at him.
"It's not your fault." I said, trying to get out of his grip so I could get to my towel. I felt a little exposed, especially since it was Don, a guy and my friend. "I just didn't expect to run into anyone here." Don raised an eyebrow.
"Okay. Sorry. So you're embarrassed about working out?" I bit my lip, and shook my head.
"It's not that." I said, and left my eyes fall from his, landing on his chest. I swallowed. I had never noticed how built he actually was. I shifted uncomfortably, and lifted my eyes again. Don's eyes fell and traveled down my body.
"Ah." His eyes lifted back up to my face, and a small smirk spread. "Nice suit." I glared at him, and tried to pull out of his grip. Unfortunately, my sudden movement threw us both off balance and I shrieked as I plunged backward into the water, Don right after me. Water poured into my mouth and nose, and my back hit the bottom of the pool. Twisting, I pushed my feet off the bottom of the pool and shot up out of the water, sputtering. A few seconds later Don surfaced, coughing. I shot him a glare as I hauled the upper half of my body out of the pool. He kicked his way over to the side, still coughing up water. I managed to make myself stop coughing and take a couple shallow breaths. I knew that if I tried to take a deep breath, I'd start coughing again. Not a good thing. After another moment, Don quieted too, and sighed. laying his head on the smooth tile floor.
"Sorry." He said quietly. I nodded, pushing myself up out of the water. Don followed, the water cascading off his body. "Robin, wait!" I grabbed my towel and stalked into the girls locker room before he could stop me again.
"Honey?" I ignored the knock on my door and kept my face buried in my pillow. It was my mom's fault anyway. I was mad at Don, and it was all her fault. "Honey, your friend's on the phone." I sighed, and pushed myself up, walking over and opening the door. My mom handed me the chord less phone and shut the door again.
"Hello?"
"Robin?"
"No. It's the Easter Bunny. What'd you want Don?" He sighed.
"Look, I wanted to apologize."
"You already did."
"Well, you're still mad at me."
"So?"
"So I felt the need to apologize again." I sighed, flopping back down on my bed.
"You already did."
"Well, I'm doing it again. I'm-"
"Don, look. It wasn't your fault. Neither of us knew the other was going to be at the gym. It wasn't a big deal."
"Well, you're making it seem like it."
"I'm not mad at you." I informed him. "I was mad at someone else."
"Who?"
"It's not important."
"Right."
"Don, I don't feel like talking right now, okay?"
"Well, too bad."
"I can hang up on you, ya know."
"Yeah, but then I can throw pebbles at your window." I sat bolt upright in my bed.
"What?!"
"I'd be forced to drive over to your house, call Carrie and find out which window is yours, and throw pebbles at it."
"Don't you dare."
"Don't think I wouldn't.
"I know you would. Which is why I'm going to tell you right now that if you do that I will be mad at you."
"Fine, but the threat stands. Spill it." I sighed. "Why were you upset about being at the gym."
"I already told you that it was the suit Don. Not you."
"Sure. I did embarrass you though."
"What's your point?"
"Robin. . ."
"Fine!"
"You'll tell me?"
"No. Fine, as in I don't care if you throw pebbles at my window! It's not your business and I'm not going to tell you!" I hung up and clenched my fist around the phone, resisting the urge to chuck it across the room. My mom wouldn't be too happy about that. I lay in my room for at least an hour before the phone rang again.
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