Amongst The Water-Fresh Waters

Chapter 11: School Drama! Part 2

  (First Uploaded: March 2014 Dates updated: January or February 2018; October 30 2019; Jan. 16, 2020)

Kylie's friends freeze in fear expecting Finn to lash out on them for talking about him. But his chestnut eyes go right to Kylie. The table gasps. "Kylie! Don't let him get to you. He's a creep." Kaylee dramatically protests. Kylie slightly flinches and looks at Kaylee. Apparently, Kaylee's hatred toward Finn ran deeper than her hatred for her. Kylie ignores Kaylee and looks at Finn. She still doesn't know what to say, so she takes in his features. She never realized his dark hair is a little shiny. She looks at his perfectly square jaw. The one feature that caught her eye the first time she saw him. She can't figure out why it's so familiar. Then it clicks. It's her favorite feature in Jacob too. Her distant boyfriend who's been dodging her calls and ignoring her texts. She frowns when she remembers that he acted distracted the last time they talked over the phone. And she thought she heard someone else. Finn smiles at her, but his smile instantly fades when he realizes she's no longer smiling. He cocks his head to her right cheek and sees a tear rolling down. He gently wipes it off. He pulls back quickly. Kylie looks down at her trey of food. Unlike her friends, she hasn't been able to eat much. Kylie and Finn look at her friends. They quickly look away and start talking to each other. But Jakobe briefly glares at Finn. Finn ignores it and apologizes to Kylie. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have done that. That's something a boyfriend would do and I'm not him." Kylie quickly looks back at Finn sensing a bit of jealousy in his tone and he looks embarrassed and sad. She looks up at him as a lock of blonde hair falls out of her mermaid clip. "You probably shouldn't have, but he hasn't been much of a boyfriend lately." She sniffs and holds back a sob. She stays silent, not wanting her table or Finn to know that she and Jacob have been having problems. Finn once told her that too many people lie to him and she told him she'd always tell him the truth. But she doesn't want to tell him yet. She's not sure if it's even appropriate to tell him.

                             Once you told someone something, there was no taking it back. Kylie found that the hard way when Jacob told her he loved her a week into their relationship. Her response was and idiotic 'thank you'. She didn't want to say that, but she didn't want to hurt him if she told him it was too soon to say that. The next day at school he said it again and she said it back. She never got the courage to tell him they started saying it too soon. That was 2 years ago. Fourteen years old is a young age to be told those three little, but very HUGE words. Since then, she's been sure to think of what she wants to say before she says it. And definitely don't share too much too soon. Something she and Finn are already experiencing. They've already spent a lot of time together and it's getting to be too much for Kylie. Finn smiles at Kylie, he notices she's frowning again; so he focuses his attention on the group. "I know you guys have no reason to trust me. But don't believe all the stories you hear." Instead of sounding angry and full of rage, what everyone expected. He almost sounded defeated. Like someone took away his capability to defend himself. He stares down at the marble granite floor and weekly mumbles. "I hope one day we can all have a conversation without fighting...." He looks up at Jakobe. Then he looks at Kaylee finishing. "Or childish bickering." Kylie and Nicholas chuckle. Finn smiles at Kylie. "I'm glad I put a smile on your face." Kaylee looks at Kylie and her brother and rolls her eyes and scowls. She doesn't understand how they can agree with Finn.

                                 The tension is broken when the principal announces over the intercom, "Auditions will be held over the weekend for the new musical the Drama Club will be putting on this year. As requested by many students the musical will be...." There are shuffles as Mr. Sanders ruffles through papers. "It's The Little Mermaid. Auditions will be held today after school 4-8 pm and Saturday and Sunday 1 pm-4 pm in the auditorium." The cafeteria erupts into cheers. Kylie jumps a little from the students cheering. Finn smiles at her. Finn leans down at Kylie and whispers over the loud screaming and conversations. "I told you it was your favorite Disney movie." He says. He looks at Nicholas sitting to the left of Kylie and nods at him and smiles. "Hi." The cafeteria slowly begins to quiet down and goes back to normal. Jakobe looks at Finn, who is focusing on Kylie. "Finn, aren't you supposed to be over there with your new friends." Jakobe says. Kylie looks at Jakobe and rolls her eyes, sensing a bit of bitterness in his voice. "It's fine Jakobe." She looks at her brother next to her. "It's okay. Everyone can just chill. He's my friend, you guys can bud out if you don't want to see us together." Kylie's words flow out before she can think. She looks at Finn slightly embarrassed. "Sorry about that. I meant as friends. Not as a couple." Kylie embarrassingly looks at her friends staring at them. "You should try out. You have a great voice. And I know you can act, when you told me about the plays you were in back in West Virginia; I may have looked them up on YouTube and I found your school's YouTube channel." Kaylee looks at Kylie. "Wow. He really likes you. It's pathetic." Kylie and Finn look at Kylie, their cheeks flushed a little from embarrassment. Kaylee notices she accidentally said something out loud she didn't mean to. AGAIN.

                 Finn chuckles nervously and locks eyes with Kylie. Kylie shyly looks at her half-eaten food. "So you should try out for Ariel. I thought about trying out for Prince Eric. I'd like to be Sebastian, but I can't do that accent." Kylie looks back at Finn. "Ummmm. I'm not sure. I don't know if I'm ready to sing in front of anyone." Finn smiles at her. "I think you sounded lovely when I heard you at the Crab Shack. You had a bit of Ariel in your voice, you could totally play here. And your love for Mermaids and the Ocean and anything to do with the ocean. You'd be perfect." Kylies hands start sweating and her heart pounds faster. The talk of Mermaids and oceans and Finn wanting to be in a play where he is her love interest and she sings; It's just too much for her. "Finn, I think I ate something bad yesterday, and I don't feel well. I'll see you tomorrow for our surfing lesson and I'll think about trying out." She says quickly and rushes to the bathroom leaving Finn standing there as everyone is staring at him. Kaylee looks at Nicholas worried. "Is she okay?" Nicholas shrugs. He looks at Finn. "You really like my sister don't you?" Nicholas asks Finn honestly. Finn nods. "Yeah. But I understand she has a boyfriend. I like her as a friend. I respect her and I respect that she loves Jacob." Nicholas looks at Finn and notices that everyone else is no longer paying attention to them. They went back to their previous conversations about vacation. "My dad says she and Finn are going to get married someday." Nicholas says. He leans closer to Finn. "But I don't think she wants to. I think Jacob is lying to her. I'm only 11, almost 12, but I'm worried he's going to break her heart. I'm glad she has a friend like you." He looks at his friends. "They will come around eventually. They don't know my sister like I do. She's your friend because she sees something in you. Maybe one day we all can be friends." Nicholas tells Finn. After weeks of wanting Nicholas to talk to him, he finally does. He's glad he's talking, but he didn't expect him to sound so smart. Finn smiles at Kylie's brother. "Yeah. She told me she thinks he's hiding something from her. And I hope we can be friends too." He says referring to only Nicholas. But he doesn't want to let Nicholas know that. Nicholas nods. "I heard another girl's voice In the background when she was talking to him one day. And it wasn't his cousin or his 8-year-old sister." Finn drops his jaw. "What? So that's why she's been acting weird lately." Finn looks up at Kylie, who is walking toward them. "I'll try to spend less time with her so I won't create any tension between her and Jacob." He says and he picks his backpack up. Kylie waves at Finn. "There's no tension between me and Jacob. Why does he think that? Did you tell Finn anything?" Kylie looks at her brother. Nicholas shakes his head. "No. We talked as friends and I told him you and Jacob were probably gonna get married someday and that's when he left." Nicholas lies. Kylie looks at Finn and back to her brother. "Why would you tell him that? I don't want to marry Jacob." Kylie says a little too loudly. Her entire table looks at her. Kylie looks at them and picks her backpack up. "I have to go see Mrs. Francis." She says walking off leaving her tray. Brian looks at Nicholas. "Dude. I think you upset your sister. And I thought she was serious about Jacob." Brian asks curiously. Nicholas looks at Brian and shrugs. He has no clue what to say to him. He doesn't know how serious she is about Jacob anymore. He's pretty sure Jacob is going to break his sister's heart and he doesn't want her to be alone when it happens. But he can't tell her friends that. It's bad enough he told Finn everything he did. Nicholas sometimes tells people a little too much when he thinks someone he loves is going to get hurt. He didn't want to tell his dad because he would probably call his parents and have a long chat with them and with Jacob. Nicholas didn't want to cause any drama. Jakobe looks at Nicholas concerned. "She's doing the play." Nicholas looks at Jakobe. "Huh?" Nicholas says. Jakobe rolls his eyes not approving of Kylie's decision. "Mrs. Francis is the Drama teacher." He informs Nicholas. He looks at Jakobe and picks up his fork and takes a bite of his food. The group looks at Jakobe and shakes their heads. Kaylee huffs. "I can't believe she's going to do the play with Finn. She's not supposed to be associating with him." She says rolling her eyes. Kaylee picks at her pink nail polish again. Nicholas speaks up. "I think that's up for my sister to decide." He gets up and picks his and his sisters' tray up. He struggles. Finn is walking past him. "I'll help you with that." He says taking a tray from Nick's hands. Jakobe, Kaylee, and Brian look at them as they walk away. Kaylee snickers. "He's annoying." Brian looks next to him and glares at Kaylee. "He didn't even do anything. Besides you're the one who admitted he really liked Kylie." Kaylee rolls her eyes. "Yeah. I never said he should act on it. Or that he should try to be friends with Nick." Brian rolls his eyes and looks at Finn and Nicholas chatting at the entrance of the cafeteria. "At least he's nice to Kylie and Nick." Brian says. "That's all we really need isn't it?" He asks his friends. Jakobe glares at Finn. Finn looks at Jakobe for a moment but ignores his stare. "I guess. He doesn't need to be our friend. As long as he doesn't speak to me. I'll be fine." Brian looks at his brother. He shakes his head annoyed that his brother can't give anyone a chance. He only tends to give people a chance who Brian approves of and Kaylee also likes. It's like Jakobe needs assurance someone is alright before he gets to know them.