And She Kissed Him . . .

Angela Fishers smiled, flashing perfect teeth, as she handed out pizza bites and chips to her giggling teammates. She did this every year for the novice cheerleaders to get to know their captain. It was a typical group; mostly blondes with a sprinkling of brunettes, all with IQs birds would be ashamed of. All were wearing tiny pajamas in various shades of pink that barely covered more skin than their uniforms.

She reached the last pink sleeping bag, and flashed her smile. Chelsea Adams did not return it.

Interesting, someone wanted more than lady-in-waiting. Someone wanted to be queen.

Angela flashed another smile, this one with perfect eyebrows raised. Good, she could use the challenge.

0 0 0

Jason Andrews shook the brown hair out of his eyes, and focused them back on his computer screen. Two more pages contrasting Macbeth to Hamlet. Only two more pages, and then he could sleep.

0 0 0

The challenge came in sheep’s clothing. “Truth or dare?”

“Dare.” All the cheerleaders widened their perfectly eye-shadowed eyes, and open their lip-glossed mouths. Angela smirked at Chelsea, round one to her.

“Fine.” A malicious gleam entered Chelsea’s eyes. “You have to kiss Jason Andrews tomorrow, on the lips – in public.”

“Jason- who?”

“Jason Andrews, that English nerd who’s a total teacher’s pet, brown hair, green eyes, looks like he slept in his clothes.” A few of the more daring cheerleaders giggled, before being silenced by Angela’s glare.

“Fine.”

“And if you chicken out, Angela darling, you turn over your captainship – to me.” Round two to Chelsea.

“And if I do, Chelsea dear, you drop out of the squad, and read a love poem to ourdearly beloved teacher– Mr. Connors.”

Chelsea’s mouth hardened, “Deal.” Round three to Angela.

0 0 0

Jason Andrews scribbled down his last sentence of his essay, and sat back in his computer chair. He was satisfied.

0 0 0

Jason slammed his locker door closed, then cursed as he realized he’d left his Physics textbook on the shelf. Still muttering obscenities, he turned the combination on the expanse of shiny metal that was out to get him.

“Hey.” A silky voice behind him stopped his ranting mid-word. Blonde hair, blue eyes, short cheerleader uniform – Angela Fishers was there in the flesh. He ran a hand nervously through his brown hair, and then decided to go straight to the point. She was pretty, sure, gorgeous even. But when would these cheerleaders learn, he was not their doormat?

“I’m not doing you homework for you. I don’t care what you the other bloody nerds to do, that’s there problem. I’m not awed by social status, and I - ” She laughed, soft and warm, cutting him off.

“I wasn’t asking for that.”

“Then what the hell . . .” Suddenly her mouth was on his, and he couldn’t speak anymore.

What?

0 0 0

His kiss was sweet and soft. How long had it been since she had tasted sweet? It was gentle, hesitating, almost asking her permission to continue. Yes, she urged with her mouth, increasing the intensity until he responded. It wasn’t soft anymore, but she didn’t mind. There was electricity tingling through her veins. It was over, the bet was won, and yet she couldn’t tear herself away. It was addicting.

0 0 0

She tasted like vanilla.

“Do you want to go out with me?” He ruffled a hand through his hair; she liked his nervousness.

“Sure.” She smiled. He liked her smile.

0 0 0

Her friends laughed at her, and made fun of “Beauty and the Nerd.” She broke up with him two weeks later.

0 0 0

“Who has the answer? Miss Fishers?” Mr. Connors, the most hated man in school, cut into her exhaustion.

“Mmm . . .” She muttered unintelligently.

“Was Hamlet sane or insane? We’re waiting, Miss Fishers, for your opinion with bated breath.”

“Sane.” She hesitated, looking desperately around the room for help, any help.

“Wrong, Miss Fishers. I suggest you actually think past your too-short skirt and the boy in front of you to actual schoolwork. If I could just throw out the idiots in this school . . .” Angela’s face burned, as giggles were quickly suppressed throughout the room.

“But sir . . .” she protested, pleading with her eyes for him to stop, but she could see in his too-stiff posture that he would not.

“I . . . Mr. Andrews?” Jason’s hand was thrust solidly in the air.

“Sir, I agree with Angela. Hamlet was definitely sane.”

“That very interesting, Mr. Andrews, but as I said that opinion is clearly wrong. Now Miss Fishers . . .”

“How can an opinion be wrong? Shouldn’t a good English teacher know the difference between a fact and an opinion?” Titters echoed throughout the classroom.

“He saw a ghost, Mr. Andrews. I think that’s a degree of insanity.”

“You think, Mr. Connors. Isn’t that also an opinion?”

“He challenged the king’s authority, Mr. Andrews.”

“Maybe the authority needed to be challenged, Mr. Connors.”

“Very well Mr. Andrews. Prove it.” There was a nasty smirk playing on the teacher’s face, and victory in his eyes. He would have order. He would have control.

Jason only smiled. “Many experts define insanity as the inability to tell right from wrong. Hamlet refused to kill Claudius while he was praying; this shows he knew what was morally right.”

“Again very interesting, Mr. Andrews, but . . .”

“I’m not finished, Mr. Connors. Hamlet was also able to construct an elaborate plot to tell if the ghost was telling the truth. Can the trap with the play, really be the work of an insane man? Did you not see this in your, no doubt, thorough perusal of the play?”

Mr. Connors was turning red. “Detention, Mr. Andrews.”

“For what, sir?”

“Disrespect.”

“I didn’t realize it was disrespectful to tell the truth, sir.”

“Mr. Andrews, this is insolence. You will be quiet.”

“Mr. Connors, this is a public classroom, you don’t own it. I am entitled to state my own view whether they disagree with yours or not.”

Mr. Connors’ face changed into a brilliant shade of fuchsia. “Mr. Andrews, I have never been spoken to in such a tone before.”

“Maybe it’s about time then, sir.”

“Detention!”

“Mr. Connors, do you really want me to explain my detention to the principal? That you were threatened by a seventeen –year –old who had actually read the play?”

“Get . . . out . . .” Mr. Connors gasped, pointing at the door. His face had moved past fuchsia into an almost indigo.

“With pleasure, sir.”

And he left . . . Angela watched him go.

0 0 0

“Thank you.” She found him as he was pulling his scattered papers into folders. “Thank you for standing up for me.”

“No problem.” He smiled, and touched his hair in an all-too-familiar gesture. As he did, a paper fell from his pile and onto the floor. She bent to pick it up.

A - Hamlet’s Insanity

She smiled as he blushed.

“Thank you.” And she kissed him.

0 0 0

His friends told him she was using him, that she was only dating him for good grades and homework answers. He broke up with her.

0 0 0

She saw him creep into the school parking lot, one day after cheerleading practice. His lip was split, and his nose was bleeding.

“What happened?” He didn’t answer, only turned sad green eyes to her.

0 0 0

“And I beat up that nerdy boy yesterday . . .” Angela’s newest boyfriend laughed. “What was his name . . .?” Jarred, James . . .”

“Jason.” The word came out cold and clipped.

“Yeah that was him.” He reached to sling an arm around her waist. She pushed him off.

“I didn’t realize that you were so weak, that you needed to beat up someone to make you feel important.”

“Baby . . .”

“Don’t call me baby. If you are so weak that you are threatened by a nerd, I want nothing more to do with you.”

“Baby . . .”

“My name is Angela, not baby.” She pushed off his hand again.

“Baby.” He dared her to challenge him. Did he think she was weak? She would have laughed if she weren’t so furious.

“We’re over, Chris, ended, done, fin. Maybe if you hadn’t beaten up Jason, you could ask him what those words mean.” She glared at the rest of her lunch table. “I don’t date the pathetic.”

0 0 0

“Thank you.” He was waiting by her car, laughter in those beautiful emerald eyes.

“You’re welcome.” She murmured, and she kissed him lightly on the cheek. “Should we give us another try?”

“It might be fun.’ She laughed, and the laughter was warm.

0 0 0

He made the varsity basketball team. She broke up with him.

“I don’t want another jock.”

0 0 0

“So Angela, are you over your geek?” Chelsea approached her in the girl’s bathroom, smiling nastily.

“Of course.” She snapped, rubbing baby blue eye shadow onto her lids.

“Good then. You won’t mind that I’m dating him.” Chelsea flicked a strand of perfect blonde hair from her shoulder, and then casually applied lip-gloss.

Angela fumed.

0 0 0

“How dare you date her! She’s just using you to get to me. She’s a mean-spirited, back-stabbing . . .”

“Angela.” It was strange how that one word from his lips broke her defenses, brought her choked tears to her eyes.

“ . . . Devious, nasty . . .”

“Angela, I don’t like Chelsea.”

“What?’

“I agree with you. She’s a back-stabbing Chiquita, with her own agenda.”

“Then why would you give her the idea . . .?”

“Angie, I was hoping someone would get the right idea.” Angela blushed; she ran her hands thorough her hair nervously. “Angela, you’re . . . you’re my drug . . .. Like nicotine, morphine, heroin . . .”

She kissed him, and when they broke apart for breath, she smiled. “You talk entirely too much.”

0 0 0

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”

“You did.”

“I’m sorry.”

“A quarterback, Angela.”

“It was only a kiss. It’s done all the time.”

“I don’t want part of those games, Angie.” He broke up with her.

0 0 0

Angela floated on a cloud, held up above the world on alcohol and adrenaline. Her hips moved to the rhythm of the song, and she barely noticed the drunken hand on her back.

Suddenly her dance partner was kissing her. His kisses were hard and fast, never stopping, never hesitating. She shook him off.

“Angel girl.” He slurred. “Play nice.”

“I don’t want to. Please, I don’t want this.” She said, her feet were stumbling, and the world tilted as she walked.

“But I want to.” Chad’s mouth was on her again, hard, and his hands were exploring more than her back. She tried to pull away, but he wouldn’t let her go. He was too strong.

Then just as suddenly, he was gone, and a pair of familiar green eyes was glaring at him.

“She said she didn’t want to kiss you.”

“Who are you?” the boy asked, ridiculously trying to look insolent while drunk.

“That doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that I’m her knight in shining armor right now, and that you’re pathetic waste of space.”

The boy clenched his hands into fists. Jason simply smiled. “Fight me when you’re sober. I don’t kick dead dogs when they’re down.”

His words were the red flag before the bull. Chad swung, but Jason wasn’t there. A fist connected to Chad’s stomach, and he doubled over. He dove for Jason’s feet, and they tumbled into a table of drinks, hands and arms flailing wildly.

They were fighting, fists pounding, and the sound of glass breaking filled Angela’s ears. The scene was dancing crazily in her eyes, and just as it all became too much, Jason was there again. He dusted his hands on his jeans, barely looking at his bloody opponent.

“C’mon Angie. I’m taking you home now.” He handed her his coat, and they walked out of the door, past the drunken hands reaching, and the wild music playing. She took his hand, and they interlaced their fingers.

0 0 0

She woke up, in a strange house in a strange room, with a headache throbbing in her temples. The smell of coffee lingered in the air, and she followed the scent to the kitchen. He was there, smiling at her. Aspirin was one the table, along with a feast of pancakes and scrambled eggs. And there was coffee; she reached for it with shaking fingers.

He shifted on one foot awkwardly, and ran a hand through that brown hair. “My parents won’t be home until tomorrow, but I found some food, and well, I thought you might be hungry, and . . .”

“You’re amazing,” She said, breaking his stream of rambling thoughts, and she kissed him.

0 0 0

“I love you.” Angela murmured at graduation, as they threw their caps up high into the air. Her sapphire eyes met his green.

“I know.” And this time he kissed her.