Warrior Beautiful

To my mama, for giving me my first unicorn and sparking a love that never died. I still believe in unicorns!

Please don
’
t let him be here today. Please don
’
t let him be here today
.

He was there.

Of course he was there; he was always there. Trey didn’t miss class. For a few seconds Scout debated on backing herself right out the door and skipping class, but Kylin shoved past her, nearly knocking Scout into the wall. Scout gritted her teeth but bit back a reply. Getting in a fight with Trey’s girlfriend right before her first class of the day? Not a great way to start her morning.

It was zoology, and it would have been her favorite period if she didn’t have the privilege of sharing it with Trey
and
Kylin. Scout pushed her light brown waves over her shoulder, straightened her spine and stalked in, choosing a seat as far away from her ex-boyfriend as she could.

It wasn’t that she minded Kylin. The problem was that Kylin minded Scout. It made things a tad awkward when they shared a class. Happily, Scout and Trey were both content to pretend the other didn’t exist, so she didn’t have to deal with him much.

Mr. Zornes, the teacher, breezed into the room. He was dressed in jeans and a t-shirt, refusing to give in to the whole stuffy ‘teacher’ thing. “Morning, guys. Get comfortable, we’ve got tests to go over.”

Almost the entire class groaned. Scout didn’t groan because she was fairly confident she did well on the test. And if she had to guess, she’d say Trey didn’t groan either, but she refused to look at him to check. They were battling over the highest grade in the class and leaving everyone else way behind. Scout planned it that way — because when Mr. Zornes assigned partners for the science fair, he would assign the highest grade with the lowest. That was the way he’d always done it. Scout was making sure there wasn’t a snowball’s chance she’d get stuck with Trey. Never mind the fact she loved every second she was in the lead. Was she bitter about their breakup?

Not at all.

They’d broken up over a year ago. She didn’t care. She wasn’t still in love with him. She wasn’t still devastated over his complete and absolute crushing of her heart.

Not at all.

“Scout, not surprisingly, got the highest in the class with a 98%. Congratulations.” Mr. Zornes winked as he dropped the test on her desk, and she smiled. She had worked her tail off studying for that test. Mr. Zornes passed the rest of the tests out without comment; he wasn’t cruel, and he didn’t want to draw attention to someone who hadn’t done well.

“So.” Mr. Zornes leaned on the edge of his desk, scanning the room. “I’ll give you a minute to go over your tests, and then we’ll go through them together. That will leave us with just enough time to assign partners for the science fair.” The class buzzed as they went through their exams. Scout flipped through hers and found the two questions she’d missed. Mentally she shrugged because they were hard questions.

It was Mr. Zornes’ policy to go over every test and show them the correct answers. He believed they learned better that way. He might have been right, if anyone actually paid attention. Scout tuned out and popped back in when he got to the two she missed, taking notes so she could study for the final. She had to beat Trey on the final. It was still eight months away. She didn’t care.

“So, the bell’s gonna ring any minute. Let’s hurry and get you paired up. We’re doing things a little differently this time.” He grinned like he should be congratulated, but Scout’s heart started hammering in her chest. “In the past, I’ve always done pairs according to percentages — highest with lowest, hoping that the student with the higher grade could have an opportunity to help teach their peer. But it’s occurred to me that this isn’t the way things are happening.”

Scout saw where he was going before he got there.
No, no, no, no, no
, her mind begged. But he ignored her telepathic pleading.

“So this year, we’re going to pair you with the person closest to you in percentage.” Scout felt like someone had karate-chopped her in the throat. “Scout and Trey, you two are together on this one. Given how you are both excelling at this class, I’m excited to see what you will come up with.” Across the classroom, a book slammed to the laminate floor, the echo bouncing off the walls. There were approximately four seconds of frozen silence, and then as one the entire class turned to stare at Kylin. She glared at Scout like somehow this had been her nemesis’ diabolical plan all along.

“Kylin, please pick up your book.” Mr. Zornes sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose as if he had anticipated this. Kylin slowly reached down, doing as she was told, but her stormy eyes never left Scout’s face. Scout contented herself with staring back mildly, wondering if Kylin ever ate. The girl was stick-thin and angry. All the time. In Scout’s opinion, she just needed to eat more and her entire countenance would improve.

Mr. Zornes went through the rest of the class, pairing everyone up without further incident or tantrum. The bell rang and they all got up to leave. Scout waited patiently, hoping Trey and his starving girlfriend would go too, but Trey hung back. Scout frowned, glancing over her shoulder at him, which she never, ever allowed herself to do. His thick eyebrows and unruly black hair, the multiple bracelets-but-not-bracelets that boys wore, the thermal shirt hugging his broad shoulders — these things distracted her, made her forget she hated him ever so much.

When he didn’t appear to be in a hurry to leave, she sighed and turned back to her teacher. “Mr. Zornes, can I talk to you?” she asked, hesitating near her desk, her finger absently rubbing a broken heart scratched into the wood.

“Of course, Scout, what’s up?” Mr. Zornes leaned against his desk and gave her a friendly smile. He was her favorite teacher, not because he was young and cool, but because he was
nice,
and she was counting on that niceness now.

“Can I do the project on my own?” Scout heard a sharp breath behind her, but didn’t risk another glance at Trey.

“That is a fabulous idea. Trey and I can work together.” Kylin rushed to the front of the room, her platform heels clacking against the ugly green fake tile. Scout had forgotten she was even still there.

Mr. Zornes tipped his head, considering Scout and ignoring Kylin completely. “The reason I paired you two together is because you’re my two best students and I was excited to see what you could come up with together.”

Scout shook her head, chuckling, but viciously. “Nothing Trey and I work on together ever turns out well, Mr. Zornes.”

“Wait a sec.” Trey stalked past her, his big arms crossed against his chest. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means,” Scout said between gritted teeth, “that I would work better on my own.” She turned back to Mr. Zornes, forcing a smile. “I want to be a Zoologist. Doing well on this project would look really good on college applications.”

Mr. Zornes opened his mouth to respond, but Trey beat him to it. “And what, you think I’m going to ruin that? Having my help on the project would—”

“He doesn’t even want to be a scientist! He wants to be an architect!” Scout pointed a finger at him like she was accusing him of the worst of sins, because really, she was.

“What does that have to do with anything?” Trey sighed, turning toward her.

“Why are you fighting her on this? Just let Mr. Zornes pair you with someone else!” Kylin screeched like an owl, and Scout winced as her eardrums threatened to rupture. Trey said nothing, just continued to glare at Scout. Mr. Zornes finally cleared his throat. “Scout, I didn’t realize you two had… issues, but I think it would be really good practice for you to learn how to work with those you find difficult.” He gave her an encouraging smile. “Think of it as character building.”

“I am not difficult,” Trey muttered.

Scout bit back a sarcastic reply and nodded, staring at the floor. “Yes sir,” she said instead. Grabbing her messenger bag off her chair, she spun on her heel and stomped from the room.

She fumed about it all day long — Zoology was her first class, and she was still beyond angry when she got to drill practice, her last class. Scout was on the drill team, so she got to school early to practice, and her last class just continued into practice until five p.m.

She’d loved to dance since she was tiny, but since the car accident a year ago, it was more pain and less fun. But she couldn’t quit. Her heart wouldn’t let her, no matter how much her body protested.
Stupid body
. Besides that, her little sister loved to watch Scout dance. She always had. If it made her happy, Scout would do it.

She tugged on her high tops, glad that they were working on their hip-hop routines. They needed the practice before the football game on Friday.

“Hey Scout.”

Scout looked up from her laces, tangling her fingers in the knot as she did. “Hey Andi.” She smiled at the petite, blonde, blue-eyed girl who was currently swearing at her locker. Andi always had trouble with her combination.

Scout didn’t have close friends. She preferred it that way, after realizing that when she needed them, friends weren’t really there for her. Only little sisters were. But she liked Andi. Of all the girls on drill, maybe all of the girls in the entire school, Andi was probably her favorite.

“Ready for today? Kamille is going to work us like crazy. She wasn’t thrilled with our performance last week.” Andi said as she toed off her sparkly ballet flats and dug in her locker for her high tops.

“She was right not being thrilled. We sucked.” Scout sighed, finally freeing her fingers. She pushed herself to her feet. “See you out there,” she called over her shoulder. Scout knew that she definitely hadn’t performed her best. The pain made her afraid. She hadn’t danced her best since the accident, and the rest of the girls seemed to have been dragged down with her.

“Scout,” Kamille called as soon as Scout walked out into the gym. She was the petite, full-of-energy drill coach, and all the drill girls loved her. Because she was so tiny, she looked more like a high school student than any other teacher in the building. And she was gorgeous — so all the boys loved her too. Besides that, she was an amazing coach, and they all hoped she could get them to the national competition again this year. They had been able to go last year, except for Scout. Because of the accident, Scout couldn’t compete. She had barely been walking again when the rest of them went to California for Nationals.

As Scout jogged over, Kamille said, “I found some stretches that might help your back. I want you to try them out every day before practice and see if it helps.”

“Okay.” Scout nodded, but the football team had started filing in across the gym, and Kamille had lost Scout’s undivided attention. Trey was on the football team. He was a wide receiver. “Why are they in here?” she asked, interrupting Kamille mid-sentence.

Kamille blinked at her before glancing over at the boys filing into the room. “They need to do sprints or something and the field is all muddy.”

Awesome
. Scout had already been forced to spend the morning with Trey. Twice in one day wasn’t something she should be expected to endure. She resisted the urge to throw a scathing glare over her shoulder and instead plopped herself on the ground at Kamille’s feet. “Want to show me those stretches?”