Ness sat on the grass outside school, her back to a tree, eating her lunch alone, contemplating the fact that pretty much every girl in the school had been turned against her over the summer break by Kelly Riven, she hadn't been friends with many of them anyway, but Kelly and her group of followers had targeted the few she was close to and poisoned their minds. What Kelly hoped to get from it was beyond Ness, she guessed that the isolation was supposed to break her down and make her beg Kelly to be her friend but hell, she loved the isolation, she could concentrate on her work and avoid all the drama that inevitably surrounded large friend groups.
"what ya thinking bout Ness?" Zach said as he flopped down beside her
"Being alone but not lonely" she responded
"Still getting shit from Kelly?"
"Nah, not really, of course if she knew how much I like not being spoken to by her stupid friends, she would probably get them to never shut up so I'm gonna pretend it bothers me, at least until I get bored and then I'll smack her head into the sidewalk."
"Yeah, much as I would love to see that, don't get bored, eh"
"Well not till after graduation, so 3 years, that's a bit of a stretch"
"I'll get you into some other fights to keep your mind off it, speaking of which, I've got a detention tomorrow, so you need to double down if you want the crown." Zach goaded
"Fuck." Ness responded
"I think Aaron might've said something that needs a physical response" he suggested
"Really? What, when and where?" she brightened up "my knuckles have been itching to smack him"
"He suggested you and he had… just before lunch, locker room." Zach didn't give the details that he had actually heard simply because although Aaron was a dick, if Ness knew it all, she would most likely get kicked out of school if not actually end up in juvenile.
"Oh, did he?!" Ness jumped to her feet, "see you later" she called over her shoulder, Zach grinned having cemented another couple of hours with Ness.
The bell rang for the end of the day and Zach packed his books into his bag before heading to detention, Ness was already there when he arrived her bag slung carelessly over the neighboring chair.
"Hey" he said
"Hey yourself" she replied, sliding the bag out of the way "no Aaron in school today?" She continued with a grin
"Apparently he was scheduled for ball retrieval surgery today, I'm sure he'll be back soon."
"Pity, I was hoping he would choke on them" Ness replied sharply making Zach snort with laughter
"Do you think they'll ever realize that we use these detentions to get our homework done before we go home?" He asked quietly changing the subject.
"Hope not, I hate working at home, at least here it is possible to concentrate without anybody thinking you're weird for actually wanting to study, so many kids here just take it for granted that they will graduate, kinda hoping they don't. That'd wipe the smug looks off their faces." A cough from Mr. Ellery, the teacher monitoring the detention, brought their conversation to an end and they both got stuck into their work.
Two hours later, they were finally released, both having completed all their work with time to spare.
"My Dad threatened to have me pulled from Driver's Ed if I get any more detentions" Zach informed Ness
"Shit!" she replied, "does that mean the detention crown is mine?"
"I was kinda hoping you would hold back; you know you would miss me" his tone was hopeful
"Yeah but like I said, I hate working at home, you're taking my study group from me!"
"How about if we, you know, create our own study group, it could be at mine so you're not at home"
"Okay, but are you asking me to not fight?"
"Not on school time, I'm sure we can find plenty of other times to punch stupid people"
"Zachary Greene, that is genius! Well, pretty smart," she corrected, grinning.
"so that's a yes?" Zach asked
"that's a hell yes!" Ness replied holding out her closed fist that Zach dutifully bumped with his.
They walked along in silence for a while and Ness wished she could find the words and the guts to ask him out but she was afraid of spoiling the friendship they had, it was so important to her to have someone that understood the need to punch stuff, she glanced sideways at him and wondered what it would be like to kiss him, would his lips be soft or firm, firm for sure, like his body, he was solid and dependable and sexy as fuck, she shook her head to clear the train of thought before she got herself in trouble.
"Want to go to Santa Monica Pier, Saturday?" Zach asked, breaking into her reverie "there's a great soda place there and after we could go looking for a fight on the beach."
"Do you mean Soda Jerks? I love their rocky road ice cream!" Ness perked up "and we don't need to go looking for a fight, they find us easy enough, we could play volleyball though" she smiled.
"Trust you to know the place," Zach grinned "and rocky road is my favorite too! Do you wanna come in for a bit, show my parents the new study group we've formed, my dad can always give you a lift home later, save you the walk…"
"Yeah, sounds good, I don't mind the walk though, I've done it enough times over the last year"
"I know that, but my dad would go mental if he knew I let you walk home alone"
"Seriously? I can take care of myself or does he not know about my fighting?"
"He knows, he thinks it's my fault somehow, like I led you into fighting, even though I told him you arrived here as a fighter, he still blames me." Zach shook his head, his dad would or could not believe that a girl had chosen of her own free will to be a fighter.
"Ha! I'm so gonna play on that, I was such a sweet and innocent little girl, as sweet as cotton candy" Ness fluttered her eyelashes and framed her face with her hands "and then I met you and you turned me into a total badass brawler!"
"You know, I think I might actually take credit for that, I absolutely created the badass Ness Godwin."
"Fuck off! I made you! You were just a half-rate scrapper until you met me, I made you into a brawler, you had to, to keep up with my formidable form." Ness quirked her eyebrow up, her way of offering him a challenge
"I concede, although I refute the half-rate tag, I was at least a full scrapper…" They had arrived at Zach's house; he pushed the side gate open and led the way through the back door.
"Hey mom, you remember Ness" he said by way of greeting
"Hi Mrs. Greene" Ness added, using her sweetest, most innocent sounding voice
Hello, Ness, did my boy get you into trouble at school?"
"No, I was defending my own honor from scurrilous lies, Zach wasn't involved at all"
"Well that makes a change, at least"
"Best behavior now, no more detentions for me, Ness has agreed to be my study partner and keep me out of trouble." Zach interjected "We're both gonna stay as straight 'A' students all the way to graduation." He added, a wry smile played about his lips at the idea of staying out of trouble. Ness's answering grin was interpreted by his mom as agreement to the keeping him out of it.
"Excellent! So, who wants a snack?" She asked with a smile.
They stuck close together the next day, they didn't share that many classes, but they managed to watch each other's back and both had to restrain the other at least once before lunchtime.
"We need a reward system" Zach said as he bit into an apple sitting in the cafeteria at lunch,
"What, other than not getting pulled from Driver's Ed?" Ness asked,
"Well, yeah, cos that isn't hanging over you, so you could go off the deep end at someone without loss." He pointed out.
"True" she mused "So what did you have in mind?"
"Well, we both like the rocky road ice cream from Soda Jerks so I was thinking we could reward ourselves on a Saturday if we get through the week without fighting"
"Hmm, that could work… Ooh! We could say Jerks to pull the other out of fight mode and simultaneously insult the asshat!" Ness beamed at her idea, Zach just held out his fist to acknowledge her awesomeness and she bumped it, hard, harder than he was expecting, he almost fell backwards off the cafeteria bench making them both break out in laughter.