The only thing people will say about the pep rally now is how the entire varsity crew got in-school suspension on the first day.
Chapter Three
Celeste
“New girl,” a guy calls as a hand locks around my wrist.
It breaks me from the paralyzing spell I was under, but my feet won’t move. Water drips from me as the guy starts to pull me along. What the heck happened?
“Come on, I can see your nipples,” he shouts over the crowd that starts to hoot and holler. All their attention shifts from me and to a guy who’s pulling his shirt off over his head.
I quickly cross my arm over my breasts, letting the guy pull me from the auditorium. This is bad. Like over-the-top bad. The first fucking day of school and I've already embarrassed myself. How do things like this always happen to me? All the excitement that I tried to build up in myself about my new school has literally been washed away. I want to find a hole and jump into it.
“Where are we going?” I ask as the tall, lanky guy pulls me down the empty hallway. I’m thankful everyone is back in the auditorium so at least there’s no one here to witness my humiliation up close.
“You need a shirt.” When he stops at a locker, he finally lets go of my wrist to open it. I’m so grateful when he takes out a shirt and hands it to me.
“Thanks,” I mumble.
“There.” He points to the bathroom behind me, and I dart inside.
When I look at myself in the mirror, to my utter mortification he wasn't joking. You can see straight through my shirt. I always wear a thin bra because I don’t need any extra padding. I have enough of that on my own, but clearly it’s biting me in the ass now.
I swap my soaked shirt for the stranger’s, and I’m grateful at least one person was nice enough to try and help me out. I try to wring my hair out the best I can, then undo my braid. It’s a mess but hopefully it will dry quickly. I’m still a bit foggy about what happened because I’d barely walked into the auditorium before water came pouring down on me. I think a giant bird had a hand in it. Either that or I’m losing my mind.
My sneakers squeak with each step I take as I exit the bathroom. The guy is waiting for me, and I finally notice how tall he is and that he’s got shaggy blond hair.
“You okay?” he asks, and the concern on his face is genuine.
“To be honest, I’m not sure.” I let out a humorless laugh, wondering how the hell this happened. I really shouldn’t be surprised with how accident-prone I am, but this is a whole new level, even for me.
“I’m Emerson, by the way,” he says and shrugs a shoulder.
“I’m Celeste.” I sigh as I look around. “This is a dream, isn’t it? I’m going to wake up and this won’t be my first day at a new school where I showed everyone my boobs.”
Emerson lets out an unexpected laugh. “For your sake, I wish it was.” I groan. I don’t care if it’s the first day of school, I’m going home. “Think of it this way, you made a hell of an entrance.” I stare up at him. Is he nuts? “Or not.” He smiles as he presses his lips together and tries to fight it.
“Thank you for jumping into action.”
“Yeah, kind of figured you didn’t want everyone staring at you.”
“Please stop reminding me.”
“Honestly, I don’t think many people saw it. Well, your boobs at least. Crew stole the spotlight, which isn’t hard for him to do. Especially when he took off his shirt. Now that was a chest I enjoyed seeing.” He smirks.
“I’m not sure if I should be offended or not,” I say dryly, and this time he doesn't try to hide his laugh.
“I mean, for a chick I think your boobs are good. They're big, and straight guys dig that.” I snort at his attempt to make me feel better.
“Thanks.” I shake my head. “It was really nice of you. I’m going to call my mom and see about some clothes.”
“Give me your number so I can check on you later.”
I rattle it off to him and wonder if maybe out of all of this I might make a friend. After Emerson stores my number in his phone, he heads back the way we came. I go to my locker and pull out my bag and cell phone. I send a quick text to my mom, and two seconds later she’s calling me.
“What’s wrong?” she asks, and I can hear her grabbing her keys.
“A bird soaked me in water.” The phone goes quiet for a moment.
“Okaaaay.” She drags the word out. “I’m on my way, sweetheart.”
When she hangs up, I make my way toward the front of the building to wait outside on the steps. The second I see my mom I rush over to her car because I want to get out of here before everyone is dismissed from the assembly.
“I’m going to need to dye my hair,” I say when I open the door and get in. This sounds like a brilliant plan to me. No one will recognize me as the girl that got the soak down.
“Where are your glasses?” Mom asks, ignoring my comment.
“Gone.” They must have fallen off when I was doused with the water.
“Tell me what happened. Do I need to go into that school?” My mom is good at hiding her emotions, except when it comes to me. She’s breathing heavily, and her tight grip on the steering wheel gives away her anger.
“No, it was an accident,” I admit before giving her a rundown of what happened. “Thankfully someone else stole all the attention from me, and I was able to get away.” I let out a breath, hoping Emerson was right about no one seeing my nipples.
“Do you think the boy who took his shirt off did it on purpose?” she asks as she pulls into the driveaway of the little blue house we’re renting.
“Um, I don’t know.” I try to think back, but it all happened so fast I didn’t even really get a good look at his face. Emerson called him Crew, but I didn’t see much. “It’s all a blur.”
“Let’s get you out of those wet clothes.” I follow her into the house and go straight for the bathroom to take a warm shower and put on dry clothes. I toss Emerson’s shirt in the washing machine so I can take it back to him tomorrow.
“I made you lunch.” She motions to the plate at the small table that sits in the kitchen. “And I called to see about getting you another pair of glasses. I really should have gotten you a back-up pair, honey. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” I try to reassure her. I know she’s worrying over me, but I can’t help but wonder if there’s going to be some teasing in the days to come. Which is why I like the idea of dyeing my hair. My mom is never going to let me do it. If I wanted to dye my hair because I truly wanted to, she'd be down. Doing it to hide my embarrassment will never slide with her.
Mom rests her hip against the counter as she watches me eat my peanut butter and banana sandwich. It doesn’t matter how old I get, I could eat this every day.
“We’ve been invited to a party this weekend. I think we should go. We’ll get to meet some more folks from around here.”
I scrunch my nose. not sure how I feel about a party. “Are you working?” I ask and she shrugs. Meaning if something drops in her lap she’s not going to pass it up.