Her Secret Saviour

Chapter 2

Having eaten and now feeling much better, Alissa sat in her usual seat in maths waiting for Mr Reed to appear. He was always late and would always look puzzled when the bell rang and he hadn’t finished his lesson.

She always sat in the back, it was a window seat and was the furthest away from the door. This meant that she could watch to see everyone coming in and, once the lesson had started, she could daydream out of the window without being noticed. It was the same for every lesson and due to her status in the school, no one dared to take it from her. She remembered the last time it happened, a new boy had started last year and thought he was doing himself a favour by hiding in the back ground. He was so wrong! As I stepped into class and saw him, so did the handful of football players that were in here too. They immediately rushed over, picked up a leg each of the chair and moved him to a different table before replacing it with an empty one for me. His face was a picture and everyone laughed. She hadn’t seen him in that lesson since.

Although it was funny at the time, Alissa never actually wanted them to do it or to have anyone feel like that because of her. She didn’t ask to be treated the way she was. But then again, she never did anything to stop it either.

The thing was, that Alissa wasn’t really the person that everyone thought she was. Like Tom, she put on a front and tried to feign confidence at all times. Most of the time, she felt lonely. Her friends only wanted to talk about boys and cheerleading. Yes, she was the captain of the cheer squad but that was because it came naturally to her; she could flip, twirl and dance for the whole match without getting tired. As for boys, well there wasn’t anyone in school that was better looking than Tom. He had a typical bad boy look: tall, broad shoulders with blonde hair and blue eyes. But with Tom, his blonde was more golden than Alissa’s and his blue had flecks of grey. Alissa knew that the bad boy status he had gained was only so that he could be one of the lads and keep his position as captain of the football team. In truth, he didn’t really have it in him to do anything ‘bad’, and no matter how much he chatted on to the lads about what happened between them behind closed doors, he never really managed to satisfy her.

The classroom door burst open but it was someone panicking that they were late. However, shortly after, a teacher came in and murmurs stopped.

“Mr Reed will not be making this morning’s session. He has asked that you start looking through your revision guides and make a note of anything that you are struggling with.”

Well that was great. What a waste of time. Maths was something else that came naturally to Alissa and she had no need for revision guides. This wasn’t something that she kept hidden, she wasn’t someone that liked to appear stupid like some of the others girls. That just wasn’t her and she saw no point in demeaning herself just to try to get into someone’s pants. She’d be hard pushed to get any support from Tom anyway. He was sweet and loyal, but he wasn’t very academically minded.

After gathering her belongings, she checked the clock and realised that she had about 45 minutes until her next lesson, American History, so she went in search of something to do. Her friends, and most of the rest of the squad, were in different maths sets so she couldn’t call on them, and Tom was in science. Instead she thought she may as well get started on organising tryouts and the new routine.

Following the initial disruptions to the day, her other lessons went smoothly and the final bell sounded. Alissa had decided that tryouts would be tomorrow and cheer would move to a Wednesday, this meant that any new members could take part in the first session. Subsequently, that meant she had nothing to do except find Tom.

Tom had been away at some sporting camp for most of the summer and although they’d texted, she hadn’t really seen him much. Even when he got home, he hadn’t been round as Joel was at home. But now, she knew that the house would be empty for at least an hour or two. She made her way towards his car when she felt a pair of strong arms snake around her waist.

“Do you need some help getting out of that dress?” Tom said in a sultry tone, making sure it was loud enough for his mates to hear.

“Hmm I’m sure I can manage to sort myself out thanks.”

This retort got a laugh from the boys behind them. Alissa just couldn’t help herself but it served him right. For once, she wished that he would at least try to treat her like a lady and not have to put on a show for the others.

Tom tried to stifle his embarrassment as he unlocked his car and got in. Sometimes he really wishes that he didn’t have an entourage with him all the time at school. It meant that everything he did was scrutinised. But giving it up meant losing his status with the football team and with that, his friends.

Alissa joined him in the car and he started to pull out of the space.

Without taking his eyes off the road, Tom asked, “Do you need me to take you anywhere or do you just want taking home?” He sounded annoyed. Alissa knew that it wouldn’t last long, especially once she’d told him her plan.

“Well, I was thinking that you could help me out of this outfit.”

“Haha very funny,” he snorted. “You know you don’t have to show me up all the time.”

“And you don’t have to treat me like a plaything and talk to me like that just because you’ve got an audience.”

“What are you talking about, you love that sort of stuff, knowing that they all want you.” He was starting to mumble, Alissa knew this meant that the truth was about to come out and this was something that he didn’t do often; Tom didn’t really know how to express his real feelings. “I’ve had it all day, all of them talking about you in that outfit, all of them thinking that they’ve got a chance with you. But what’s worse is that I know they’ll be going home and thinking of you whilst they’re in the shower… I hate it.”

Alissa paused for a moment. Tom had never said anything like this to her before.

“Did you stop them?”

“What do you mean, did I stop them doing what?”

She sighed. “Did you stop them from talking about me like that or did you just let them carry on and join in like you normally do?”

“What do you want me to do Lissa? Can you imagine if I said anything like that, they’d laugh their heads off and I’d never live it down.”

The car stopped in front of the house.

“Whatever Tom, are you coming in or not?” She knew that Tom would never be that person and she’d given up trying to get him to be a long time ago. For now, she just needed him to focus on her. She needed a release.