It's Friday morning, I'm standing outside of the band class waiting for Dinah to arrive. Where is she? It's 25 past 7 and she still isn't here. I'm considering waiting for her in the band class but why should I? The only reason I'm attending band class is because of her. If she isn't here, what's the point of me being here? I sigh, desperately needing to know where my girl is. It's times like this when I wish I followed her to school, that way I'd know where she is.
"Normani." I'm startled by the sound of Mr. Cowel's voice when he opens the door. "How long have you been out here for? Come inside, don't be shy." Pfft. As if I'm shy. I'm waiting for someone actually, ugly.
"Okay." I reply with a forced smile on my face. I walk past Mr. Cowel and take my usual seat. I sigh when I see Dinah's empty seat, fuck where is she?
"WhoreMani's here." I hear Zendaya whispering to Quincy. I couldn't care less at the moment though, my main priority is Dinah, she's nearly half an hour late. I hope she's okay.
Seconds, minutes, the whole half hour goes by and there's still no sign of Dinah. She never misses band, sure she's been late once or twice but she's never missed it completely. When the bell rings, that's when I lose hope and accept that I won't be seeing Dinah anytime soon. Standing up, I make my way out of the choir room, trailing behind everyone else. My eyes land on Camila, I hurry to her side.
"Hey Camila." I greet politely. "Do you know where Dinah is?" Camila's giving me a weird look, she's probably wondering why I'm asking.
"Erm...hi." She replies quietly. Camila picks up her pace, walking down the hallways faster. "I'm not sure where she is." I roll my eyes, she's her best friend, she should know.
"How do you not know?!" I shout, getting angry now. I know I shouldn't be shouting at Camila, it's not her fault Dinah's not here, but I can't help it.
Camila stops walking, she turns to face me clearly not impressed by my attitude. "I think you need to calm down, Normani." She says, looking at me curiously. "Why do you care anyways?"
Why do I care? Is she fucking serious? "Why the hell shouldn't I care?" I snap, not bothered by the listening students.
"S-sorry, I didn't mean it like that." Camila looks at my clenched fists and worries. She doesn't need to worry though, I'm not going to punch her...not yet. "It's just, I didn't think you even spoke to Dinah, I'm just a little confused as to why you want to know where she is."
That makes sense I guess. "I just-"
Camila quickly cuts me off before I even get a chance to speak. "Are you going to hurt her?" Camila's not so frightened now.
"What? No of course not, I would never hurt her." I can't believe I'm hearing this. "Why would you even think that?"
"You're a cheerleader...people like you want to hurt people like us." Camila states.
"Yeah, people like you, not people like Dinah." Maybe I shouldn't have said that out loud, yeah that was pretty bad. Camila will probably go and tell Dinah about this conversation, god knows what she'll tell her. Knowing that little bitch, she'll twist the story, she'll turn Dinah against me. I can't have that. I can't have that at all.
"FUCK YOU." I shout, pushing Camila against the lockers. "You're right, I'm just a cheerleader, now piss off." I didn't mean to sound so aggressive, I guess that just slipped out too?
Camila hurries down the hallway before I have the chance to hurt her again. This is so fucked up, I'm taking all of my anger out on the people Dinah loves the most, what a fucking bitch I am. But then again, she should know where my love is, she has Dinah's number, she should have texted her or something. Yeah, that's right, Camila's to blame here, not me.
I'm currently sitting in math class, one of the classes I share with Dinah and she's not here. Maybe she's sick? Nah, she can't be sick, she was fine last night when I saw her. Maybe she...oh who am I kidding, Dinah's never ill, she's probably just slept in or something? Hopefully that's the case, I'd hate to think my love is ill and I'm not there to tuck her in bed and give her lots of cuddles and kisses. Maybe I should go to her house, if she's ill she needs someone to take care of her, that someone has to be me, that's it, I'm going, I'm leaving this school and I am-
Cut from my thoughts by Dinah. "Sorry I'm late Mr. Felix." My girl says, panting as she rushes to her seat, sweat dripping from her forehead. Dinah's dressed casual today, she's wearing a plain gray baggy T-shirt with a pair of dark jeans and some trainers. My girl looks adorable. Her hair is tied up in a messy bun and her glasses keep slipping down her nose forcing her to push them back up with her finger.
"Where have you been Miss. Hansen?" Shit face asks.
"I-I lost track of time, sir." Dinah answers, feeling nervous by the amount of attention she is getting. I wish everyone would stop fucking staring at her, can they not see how uncomfortable they're making her?
"So you think it is acceptable to turn up late to my class?" Mr. Felix raises his voice. I watch as Dinah shakes her head.
"N-no, it's not acceptable." Dinah says in a soft voice barely above a whisper. There's silence for a few moments, I'm hoping Mr. Felix just leaves her alone now, she's explained herself, what else does he want? My angers rising, the dickhead is just staring at her like he's waiting for her to say something else, what else does she have to say moron?!
"Detention after school, Miss. Hansen." Mr. Felix says, making me gasp. Detention?! My girl can't get detention, she hasn't done anything wrong, she was only a couple of minutes late for goodness sakes. It's times like this when I wish it was legal for students to attack teachers, this idiot deserves to be punished, he deserves a good kick up the backside.
"Okay." Dinah whispers, breaking my heart by that small reply. She doesn't even try to argue with Mr. Felix, she just accepts the punishment, how could anybody do this to her?
Detention at this school is horrible. The room is filled with ugly sweaty people who take drugs, steal, awful people. My girl is going to be in that room, all alone with no one to protect her. What about if they try to talk to her? Offer her some candy? Oh god, knowing Dinah she'll politely accept not wanting to hurt their feelings. She'll come out high as a kite, eyes rolling, hands shaking, my god! I can't let this happen. I'm going to have to wait outside of the room for her, making sure nothing bad happens. She'll appreciate that. It'll certainly put my mind at rest.
"See me after class, Dinah." Ass face says, walking over to his desk. "Don't assume I'll forget because trust me, I wont. If you leave this classroom without seeing me first, you will be in even more trouble, do you understand?" Dinah nods her head. Pfft, as if Dinah would even try to get away with it, she's not like that, she wouldn't do that.
The bell rings sooner than I would have liked. Throughout the lesson, my eyes glanced in Dinah's direction on several occasions. Every time I saw my beautiful girl I couldn't help but smile, she looked so cute doing her work, there should be a class dedicated to Dinah, where my eyes get to watch her for a full hour, I'd really love that. I pack up my books and take my time leaving the classroom knowing Dinah has to stay behind to talk to Mr. Felix.
I stand outside of the classroom waiting for Dinah, I don't know what I'm going to say to her when she departs from the room but I know I'm going to say something. Maybe I could tell her how much I love her and how I want us to be together. If only I had the courage to do that though. Maybe I could tell her how pretty she looks today, that's honest, she looks amazing. As usual. When Dinah finally leaves the classroom, I'm lost for words. Her eyes glance in my direction, my throat goes dry as I see a shy smile appear on her face. This is the part where I have a heart attack and die, I'm sure.
"H-hey." I greet, stuttering for some reason as I approach her. My girl looks down at the floor and then to my face, blushing when our eyes meet. She's blushing over me. Yay.
"Hi." She replies, giggling. You'd think anyone that had just been given detention would leave the classroom with steam coming from their ears, furious with the bastard teacher, but Dinah, she's come out happy. One of the many things I love about her, she doesn't dwell on things too much.
We begin walking down the hallway together, I can see people staring but once again I honestly couldn't care, let them stare. Let them stare at me of course, I wouldn't want to make Dinah feel uncomfortable again. "You missed band this morning." I say, trying to make conversation.
"Yeah, it's my little brothers fault." Dinah replies, pushing her slipping glasses back up her face.
"Oh?" I say, acting as if I don't know what brother Dinah is referring to. Dinah laughs and turns her head to look at me. My hearts stopping again.
"Yeah, my Mom and Dad couldn't take him to school this morning so I had to." I understand that, but her brothers school isn't that far away, how was she late? I hear Dinah laugh. "We get all the way to school and Seth tells me that he's forgotten his lunch. Seth is my little brother by the way." Yeah, I know that. "So I had to walk all the way back up for his lunch, walk all the way back to the school and then I realize I've forgotten my school books."
"Not having a good morning then, huh?" I chuckle, earning another soft laugh from Dinah.
"A terrible morning, I've just been going back and forth, it's my fault though so I can't really blame anyone else." I'd blame Dinah's little brother but I don't think she'd be happy about that.
"At least you got here in the end." I say, trying to make Dinah feel better. Dinah agrees and nods her head. "It sucks you got detention though." I add, still not happy with Mr. Felix.
"I deserve it." Dinah sighs. I furrow my eyebrows, completely disagreeing. She didn't deserve detention, pfft if a cheerleader or a jock walked in late, dick face wouldn't have said anything.
"Hey, you don't deserve it. You were only a few minutes late my l- Dinah." I quickly correct myself before I let a few words slip out. I see Dinah glance at me again.
"I'm not really looking forward to detention, I'll miss band class again." Dinah sighs, her smile faltering. I hate seeing Dinah sad, I don't want her to be sad, I want her to be happy.
I need to cheer Dinah up somehow. An idea pops into my head, I smile to myself, knowing this will make Dinah happy. "At least you wont be alone in the detention room." Shit, is this really going to work?
"What do you mean?" Dinah asks, tilting her head to the side. We reach Dinah's locker, she opens her locker door, placing her books inside still waiting for my answer.
I gulp. "I have detention too!" I blurt out. Dinah's eyes widen, a look of relief and worry on her face. Hopefully she wont ask why I have detention.
"Why do you have detention, Normani?" It sounds like she's mad at me. "What have you done?" I can't help but smile, she's actually worried about me, she cares why I have detention. Even though I don't have detention really but you know..
"I-I never handed my English homework in yesterday." I'm not even sure if I have ever gotten English homework but I suppose it's an alright lie. Dinah's eyes widen again, Dinah being Dinah always hands her work in on time. "I know, it's bad, right?"
Dinah nods. "Why didn't you hand it in?" She asks, her voice sounding slightly disappointed. I'm running out of lies, what else can I say? Oh, I suppose I'll just use the obvious excuse,
"I forgot." I say, hoping Dinah will believe me. It looks like she has believed me. Thank god. I hate lying to my love but I must sometimes.
"You should keep a diary like I do, that way you wont forget." I smile, knowing which diary Dinah is referring to. I do have a diary, a Dinah diary, I can't tell her that though, she'll think I'm a creep or something.
"Maybe I'll get one." I smile at my love.
"I'll see you in detention then?" Dinah asks, I quickly nod my head. I watch as Dinah walks down the hallway, a permanent smile never leaving my face. She makes me so happy. I've never been a fan of detention but if Dinah's going to be there, I can imagine it's going to be pretty good. All I need to do now is do something bad so I actually get detention, that shouldn't be too hard. One thing never leaves me head, just one small thing...
Dinah never stuttered whilst talking to me. I didn't make her feel nervous. Progress.
It's lunchtime now and I still haven't gotten detention. Jesus Christ, how hard is it to get detention around here? I've tried loads of things, I've screamed at teachers, I've called Mrs. Robins an ugly bitch, still, nobody has given me detention. Mrs. Robins ended up running out of the classroom crying which made me feel a little guilty, she still could have given me detention before she decided to break down though. I know a few things I could try but maybe they'd be too risky, I don't want to do anything that could possibly get me expelled. I just need to try something else. I need to get detention before the end of the day.
"You're not eating today?" Lauren asks me as I sit down at the table in the cafeteria. I shake my head, how can I eat at a time like this. I'm running out of time.
"Not hungry." I reply, searching the cafeteria for Dinah, she's around here somewhere, I just can't find her. After a few more seconds of searching, my eyes finally land on her.
"Well, suit yourself. Just don't moan to me when you're starving at cheer practice." Lauren's comment pulls me away from Dinah. Cheer practice? What? When?
"What cheer practice?" I ask curiously.
Lauren rolls her eyes. "Do you not listen to anything? We've already told you three times today, mandatory practice after school, not my decision." Lauren says defensively.
Well this is great, this just messes up my plans even more. First I tell Dinah I have detention then I can't even get detention then to make things 10x worse, my friend tells me we have to practice after school, why is this happening to me today?
"I actually have plans after school." I say, watching Lauren's eyes widen. "I'll come to practice tomorrow though." I'm hoping my friends facial expressions change, I don't like the way she's looking at me.
"Firstly." Lauren puts her finger up. "Tomorrows Saturday, Normani. Secondly." Lauren puts another finger. "Missing practice can affect your status on the squad making it almost impossible for you to ever become captain. And thirdly."
"Blah blah blah." I cut her off, sick of hearing Lauren's voice. "I honestly don't care about being captain anymore, just please, can you cover for me?" Hopefully my friend will.
Lauren sighs. "I'm not even going to ask what you're up to because I'm afraid I'll hate the answer. What do you want me to tell coach D?" I smile widely and throw my arms around Lauren.
"Thank you thank you thank you!" I hug her tighter, earning a laugh from my friend.
"Let me go, Mani." Lauren laughs, trying to wiggle her way out of my embrace. "Just tell me what to say."
I think for a moment, do I want coach D knowing about the time I've been spending in band class? Absolutely not. Do I want her knowing I have detention? Good excuse but it wouldn't work. Knowing coach D, she'd probably end up getting me out of there, pulling me away from my love. No fucking way. "Tell her I'm ill, I've had to go home because I'm not feeling well."
Lauren furrows her eyebrows. "You do realize she'll probably come knocking at your door?" I do realize that. That's fine.
"And she'll get no answer, I wont be in." I smile. I can see Lauren wants to ask what I'm doing and why I'm missing practice but she knows by now that asking just leads to an argument.
"Alright, I'll tell her you're ill." She sends me a shy smile before returning her attention back to her food. I look back at Dinah and watch her eat her sandwich. Hopefully I'll get detention somehow.
It's last period now and I am completely sick. Why can't I get fucking detention?! Ergh, it should be easier than this. Mr. Greene is going on about something ridiculous, no one in the class is even paying attention to him. I'm sat with my elbows on the table, bored shitless. The girl next to me is doing nothing but pissing me off. Don't you just hate it when people pretend they're playing the drums with their pens? The sound is fucking annoying.
"Will you shut the fuck up?" I whisper, leaning over the table getting closer to the girl. She lets out a fake laugh and shakes her head causing me to frown.
"Is this bothering you or something?" The girl asks. Obviously it's bothering me, if it weren't I wouldn't have said anything. Stupid girl.
"Can you just stop banging your pen off the table, it's pissing me off." I say, hoping the girl will stop. She doesn't though, in fact, she starts banging louder. How has Mr. Greene not said anything to her yet?
"I'm so sorry it's bothering you." The girl says in a sarcastic voice. That's it, I'm about to punch this fucking bitch, I honestly hate people like her. There's no need to bang your fucking pen!
"Give me that bitch!" I lean over the table and grab the pen out of the girls hands and end up throwing it across the room.
"Ouch!" I hear Mr. Greene yell, holding onto his head with his eyes closed. "MISS KORDEI, DETENTION AFTER SCHOOL!" He screams, his words making me so happy. My eyes shift from the teacher to the girl.
"Oh my god, thank you so much!" I squeal with happiness at the girl next to me. She's looking at me like I'm some sort of crazy person. One minute I'm ready to kill her and the next I'm thanking her. God knows what she must think of me.
"Are you high?" She asks me bluntly.
"No, I'm just so happy, I have detention, can you believe that?!" I can't stop laughing, I'm being stared at by most of the people in the classroom but I just don't care, I finally have detention, that's all that matters.
"You're fucking weird." The girls says to me before continuing with her work. I shrug my shoulders, the way I'm acting, I guess I am weird, I'm not arguing with that one.
After class I make my way to the front of the class, ready to accept my punishment. "What you did was very inappropriate Miss Kordei." Mr. Greene says to me. I nod my head in agreement.
"I know, I know. I best get myself to detention then, I don't want to be late, sir." Mr. Greene hands me the note which I gladly accept and gestures for me to leave the room.
"Oh Miss Kordei, you better show up at detention." Mr. Greene doesn't have to worry about that at all, I wouldn't miss it for the world.
"I will." I shout, hurrying out of the classroom and towards detention. This is it, I'm going to spend a full hour with my love, it doesn't get much better than this.
When I reach the detention room, I peek my head through the door to find Dinah already here. I'm not surprised, Dinah would have been the first one here just to make sure she doesn't get in further trouble. I enter the room and make my way over to Mrs. Ramiro, throwing the note from Mr. Greene on the desk.
"Take a seat anywhere Miss Kordei." The old woman tells me. I know exactly where I am going to sit, right next to my love. I quickly make my way over to where Dinah's sitting and take a seat next to her.
There's a few other people in the room. As expected, the sweaty ugly people, the drug addicts, the 'too cool for school' people, the usuals. Dinah smiles at me when I sit down.
"Hey." She greets. I'm happy because she looks happy to see me. I'm not surprised, the people in this room look pretty intimidating, it's no surprise she's happy to see me, it must be nice for her to be around someone who can protect her.
"Hey." I reply, taking off my cheer jacket and placing it on the table. "Have you been here long?" I question.
"Only a few minutes." Dinah tells me, taking out a pen and paper. "It's not as bad as I thought it would be." I frown at this, I expected Dinah to say it was terrible in here. How she longed for me to be with her, to protect her.
"Oh." Is the only thing I can say. I look over to see the old woman reading book, she's probably too deaf to hear us talking. "How are you?" I ask.
Dinah stops writing on the piece of paper and looks up at me. "I'm good, how are you?" I'm blushing again, I know I am.
"That's good. I'm great." I'm on top of the world to be honest, my girl is sitting beside me in detention. I can't think of anything better than this.
"So, what did I miss in band class?" I don't know what Dinah missed, I was too busy worrying about where she was to even care about what was going on around me.
"Nothing much, just a few people singing and playing their instruments, that's all." That's honest, I did hear people singing and playing around with the instruments they brought.
Dinah frowns. "Oh." I'm curious to know what she is thinking. "Mr. Cowel didn't tell you about me?" What? What about my Polynesian queen? Did that little bitch talk about my Dinah and I didn't even realize.
"I'm not sure what you mean." I'm desperate to know what Dinah is talking about. I hope it's nothing bad. "Is everything okay?"
"Yeah, it's just I'm choregraphing the routines for the classics." Dinah tells me, making me gasp. She's choregraphing the routines?! That's amazing! I'm so proud of her, she's definitely going to a brilliant job. It also means I'll get to spend more time with Dinah since she'll need to show me the routines. My baby will dance in front of me again.
"Dinah, that's great!" I say louder than I should have. The old woman looks up from her book and shushes me. I roll my eyes and turn back to face Dinah. "You must be so happy."
Dinah shrugs her shoulders. She doesn't seem so happy about it, I wonder why that is. "I guess." She says in a quiet voice. Somethings wrong. I can tell.
"Hey, what's up?" I ask, wanting to know. I really want to comfort her by putting my hand on her back but I don't want to make her uncomfortable, she might not be ready for that yet.
"It's nothing." Dinah says, shaking her head. I really want her to tell me, it's obvious something is bothering her and that isn't acceptable, she's sad and it's killing me.
"Please tell me, Dinah, please." I beg. Dinah looks away from me and picks up her pen. She begins drawing shapes on the piece of paper, clearly ignoring me. "Please." I whisper, hoping she'll tell me. I don't want her to shut me out.
My girl sighs. She puts her pen back down and rubs her forehead. "Mr. Cowel doesn't want me performing at the classics." My eyes are almost bulging out my sockets. My girl isn't allowed to perform at the classics? Why fucking not!
"What?!" I shout, immediately apologizing afterwards as I accidently startle Dinah. Mr. Cowel better have a good reason to prevent my girl from doing what she loves to do.
"Because I'm shy in front of loads of people, he think's I'll ruin the performance." Dinah looks even more heartbroken than I do. Mr. Cowel is an absolute idiot, how dare he do this to Dinah.
I can't believe I'm hearing this. I move my chair closer to Dinah and lower my voice. "So instead of performing, he's making you choreograph?" I frown, this can't be right.
"Yeah." Dinah mumbles. "He said that way I'll still be taking part. I'm a little upset about it but teachers are always right, aren't they?" Dinah looks at me with sad watering eyes. I'm going to kill that bastard, I'm going to kill him.
"He's completely wrong, Dinah. You..." I move even closer to her until I can feel her breath on my skin. I can't ignore the shivers going down my skin. If only the circumstances were different. "You are amazing Dinah, you're way better than everyone in the band, Mr. Cowel shouldn't do this to you. You shouldn't let him get away with it."
"What am I supposed to do, Normani?" I've never seen Dinah look more vulnerable, she's practically crying in front of me. I'm trying so hard to hold back the tears. "I-if I argue with him, he'll kick me out of the band, I love it in there, my friends are there."
"Don't worry about it, okay? We will sort it out on Monday." I don't know what I'm going to do but I have to do something, Dinah really wants to perform at the classics, she shouldn't be forced to do something else, it isn't fair.
For the remaining time, me and Dinah talk about other things. She tells me more about her family, what she likes to do in her spare time. I love listening to her, even though I already know everything about her, it's so amazing hearing her speak, knowing she isn't afraid of me. I love how comfortable she feels around me. It's all I've ever wanted. I tell her a bit about myself, how I love pizza, not mentioning that she's the reason behind it though. I also tell her about my Dad and what it's like to be a cheerleader. Obviously there is a certain things I can't tell her, but I love sharing things with her.
"So, can I drive you home?" I ask Dinah as we walk out of the detention room. I hope she says yes this time. My girl doesn't say anything so I continue. "It's just I'm going in that direction anyways to get home."
Dinah stops walking. She turns to face me and tilts her head. "How did you know where I lived?" Shit, I should of thought about that before speaking. How do I know where she lives? I can't exactly tell her that I watch her every night, what the hell am I supposed to say?
"Erm..." Say something Normani. "I-I just..." Open your fucking mouth Normani and say something. SAY ANYTHING! "I-I've saw you, walking home when I was driving past." That sounds believable?
"Oh alright." Dinah continues to walk. I let out the breath I'm holding in and follow Dinah. "If you don't mind, I would love for you to drive me home." Dinah says in that soft voice of hers. I'm smiling again, she's finally getting in my car. I shake my head at her, of course it's not a problem to drive her home. Its an honor.
I lead the way to my car, we both get in and the first thing I notice is a picture of Dinah above my steering wheel. The picture I always keep in my car of her. Sometimes I like to pretend we're together going on drives and that, I often like to look at the picture. I quickly grab the picture before Dinah notices and I throw it down on the floor next to my foot. Thank god Dinah was too busy putting her seatbelt on to notice.
We drive to her house in silence. I don't turn the radio on because I like to listen to the way she breathes. It's calm and soothing. I really want to close my eyes and block out all sounds apart from her breathing but I can't, I'd crash the car.
I pull up outside of Dinah's house and turn to face her. "Thank you for driving me, Normani." Dinah says, unbuckling her seatbelt.
I smile. "Anytime." We share a few more looks before Dinah leaves the car and hurries inside. Not wanting to look suspicious, I drive away from her house deciding I'll just come back later.
When I'm a safe distance away from Dinah's house, I pull over and stop the car. I take my phone of my pocket and quickly take a picture of the passenger seat, the seat which Dinah's ass has just been in. I can still see the little marks which she left. Adorable. I take a few more pictures before running my hand over the seat, loving how warm it is through Dinah. It feels amazing touching the seat that my girl has recently sat in, I never want the mark to go away. I never want the seat to get cold.
It saddens me knowing I wont be able to speak to Dinah properly until Monday morning in band class. Thinking about the band reminds me of Mr. Cowel. The bastard who is not letting Dinah perform at the classics. How dare he hurt her like that. How fucking dare he.
Instead of driving home I take a detour, straight to Mr. Cowel's house...