His Second Chance Mate

Chapter 10

“Maaaaddddddddyyyyyyyyy! Kaaaaaattiiieeeeeee!” A voice broke through the silence of the clearing.

Both of jumped at the sudden noise, whirling around to see a brunette barreling her way across the clearing towards us. My eyes widened in alarm. 

I put my arms out, whether to stop her or catch her, I honestly didn't know. It took both Katie and me to stop Dani’s momentum. We caught her up in a hug, all three of us letting out an uff at the impact she'd made. 

She pulled back immediately, bouncing excitedly on the balls of her feet. I rubbed my chest. That had hurt! Dani however seemed to be totally unaffected. She had a truly ungodly amount of excitement for 5 in the morning and I was the one who’d been up all night. 

“Finally! You guys! I was looking everywhere for the two of you! What’d you go so far away for?”

Katie and I shrugged in unison. I looked back at the buses. I hadn’t realized it at the time, but as Katie and I talked, the both of us had wandered pretty far away. Both buses were almost totally empty by now and the large clearing looked a little smaller with about 120 students standing in it.

Looking around, I realized with a bit of alarm that Dani’s yells had attracted a lot of attention, and I had to force myself not to turn away and pretend I didn’t know her. I immediately felt bad for thinking that way, but I couldn't help my reflexive reaction. For me, attention had never been and would never be something positive.

This wasn’t the first time I was amazed by Dani’s lack of self-consciousness. Sometimes, I wished I could be that way- totally uncaring and unaffected by what people thought of me. But I don’t think I could ever be that way.

Loads of people had turned to look at Dani as she made her way- loudly- across the clearing, but she didn’t look the least bit daunted. Meanwhile, I tried not to shrink away from the looks that were being thrown our way- and not all of them were friendly, though I suppose that was understandable. 5 in the morning wasn’t really the best time for loud noises. Most people were barely awake. And Dani was being loud. Very loud.

But by now, I could tell that being loudly exuberant was just part of her personality and I knew I had to accept it as a part of her, if I wanted to continue being her friend. And I really did want to.

Shreya, Shriya and Mackenzie had caught up to Dani and crowded around us. It gave me a feeling of relief to see that I wasn’t the only one embarrassed by Dani’s yelling. All of them seemed to look resigned at the attention. I supposed they were all used to Dani’s lack of volume control. Not that they looked very happy about it.

Shriya sharply slapped the back of Dani’s head. Dani whirled around with a glare, rubbing at the back of her head, clearly ready to fight whoever it was, though she backed down at the look on her best friend’s face.

“Can you please stop doing things that draw attention? Especially when there are no holes in the ground for me to disappear into.”

“Sorry.” Dani said simply, not seeming very sorry at all.

“But I was just excited. We’re finally here!” She squealed in excitement.

A cross looking Mackenzie cut in, still looking half-asleep. “We all are, you nut.”

Dani sniffed. “Well you don’t look it!”

Shreya started to snooze on her twin’s shoulder, not even bothering with the rest of us. I had to smile. At least someone here had their priorities in order here.

Mackenzie growled. “That’s because it’s the middle of the night!”

I broke in. “The sun’s rising right now.”

Dani clutched my arm in support. “Yeah, you tell her Mads!”

Mackenzie aimed her glare at me and I raised my hands in surrender.

“But it’s clearly the middle of the night.” I corrected hastily.

Dani dropped my arm, muttering that I was such a coward but Mackenzie nodded imperially, before moving to snooze on Shriya’s other shoulder. The poor girl groaned aloud and looked at the rest of us with a pleading expression, but we only laughed at her.

Katie finally took pity on her and carefully transferred a sleeping Shreya onto her shoulder. None of us were sufficiently suicidal enough to touch Mackenzie.

I looked at Katie out of the corner of my eye, but she was laughing at something Shriya said. Was she totally over what we talked about or was she just pretending to be?

I definitely hadn’t been ignoring her, but it was really easy to get stuck in the chaos of these girls. Not that I didn’t like it. But I didn’t want Katie to feel out of place or upset. No matter what, Katie would always come first for me.

After a long time, I didn’t feel out of place in a group. I felt warm and included and happy; and I really didn’t want to ever let go of this feeling, but if Katie asked me to, I probably would.

Right now though, Katie was smiling and laughing the way she always did, so I decided to stop overthinking. She wasn’t the type to keep her feelings locked in, so I’d figure out what she was thinking sooner or later. I resolved to pay more attention to Katie.

A weight settled on my shoulder and I jumped, only to see Dani trying to settle on my shoulder. I wasn’t really used to touching people, other than Katie and my parents and even that was kind of rare, so I froze for several seconds, before forcing myself to relax. I felt like, with these people around, I would need to get used to it soon.

Still, the sight must have been comical, seeing as Shriya and Katie immediately burst out into giggles at the sight of us. I could guess why. Dani was significantly taller than me, by at least a few inches. 

I couldn't help but laugh at the picture the two of us were making. I didn't even need to see it to realize that we looked like a bad circus act. 

Finally, she gave up with a pout.

“Why can’t you be taller?” She whined, stomping a foot on the ground.

“I ask myself the same thing everyday.” I answered solemnly, which was the truth. Both my parents were on the taller side, so it really made no sense for me to be stuck at this height.

Katie laughed. “We aren’t allowed to bring up Madeleine’s height. It’s a Rule, with a capital R.”

Shriya and Dani cackled evilly at that. I took a deep breath and waited for the jokes that were bound to come. Shriya took the first shot.

“Oh really? Why ever not? She’s the perfect height- to be an armrest, I mean.”

Katie burst out laughing at that. All I could do was roll my eyes and shake my head at this. I should have seen this coming. Shreya, Shriya and Dani were all pretty tall. Mackenzie was the shortest of the four of them, but even she was still taller than me, not by very much in my estimate, which was a small comfort.

“Hey! Don’t make jokes. They’ll all go over her head.”

I glared at Katie- honestly, how could she turn on me so quickly?- but she was barely paying attention to me, more focused on laughing. Like the best friend I was, I hoped she’d choke on her laughter. Shriya was still laughing, quietly, in an attempt not to disturb Mackenzie, but Dani seemed to have no such reservations. She was bent over and almost howling.

I stomped my foot, playing along.

“If I’m short, then my temper is even shorter.”

The three of them laughed even harder at this and I had to bite my lips to hold back my own laughter. If they had been anyone else saying these things, I probably wouldn’t have taken it so lightly. Though I wasn’t really the type to go and pick a fight, I still would have been pretty upset. The feeling of overhearing people talk s**t about me was something I’d never forget. But being teased by a group of friends felt totally different.

Dani seemed to want to say something, but she couldn’t stop laughing. The rest of us looked at her in concern, but she waved us off. Finally, standing up straight, she took several deep breaths.

She was visibly trying to control her laughter and not being very successful at that. Valiantly, she raised a hand, and pet my hair, like I was a dog.

“Awwwwww, you’re almost tall enough to be taken seriously.”

The ending of her sentence was swallowed by her laughter, but it was still understandable. Katie and Shriya were set off again, laughing like a bunch of deranged mental monkeys, and this time I gave in and joined them.

Our laughter was brought to an abrupt halt as Mackenzie lifted her head up and gave each of us a menacing glare. Her voice was a literal hiss. “I’m going to kill each and every one of you when I wake up properly.” 

The four of us froze, before breaking out in silent giggles.

Mackenzie didn’t try to go back to sleep, instead crossing her arms and looked around grouchily, setting us off again. Shreya still hadn’t moved and looked like she was deep asleep, even though she was standing. Now that was a talent I was truly jealous of.

Slowly, the four of us caught our breath, our laughter petering out. With nothing to talk about, we turned five pairs of eyes towards the beautiful sunset in a comforting quiet. For some reason, surrounded by friends, it looked even brighter than before.

The logical part of my brain intruded on my musing, telling me that it was more likely that the sky was brighter because the sun had almost fully risen by now. I quietly sniggered to myself.

Still, it sounded better to be all sentimental, so I decided to go with the whole ‘surrounded by friends’ thing.

To be fair, it wasn't entirely a lie.