Breaking Deluce (2 page)

“
Wow Mona, that’s cold. You don’t remember Vanessa? She’s only gone to school with us since elementary school,” Becca scolded.

Mona looked at Vanessa again as a hazy fog clouded her mind. She tried to shake it off, but that only caused a splitting headache. The pain caused her to fall to one knee, a voice spoke into her mind, “Vanessa...”

The voice was almost hypnotic. It was like some outside force was trying to control her. Visions and images that felt real were flashing vividly in her head, though she knew at the back of her mind that they weren’t—she was standing here, in the gym of Ellensburg High. She continued to fight the invasion of her mind, but suddenly, the images stopped, along with the pain, and she rose back to her feet. “I’m sorry, guys, I was just kidding. It was a bad joke,” she lied. “So what are we doing at this station?”

The girls snickered for a bit before Becca finally read from a sheet of paper she’d been holding. “It says we have two minutes to do as many push-ups as possible. One of us is supposed to time while the other two do push-ups and then we switch.”

“
How many did you two do last time?” Mona asked.

The girls giggled and Vanessa replied, “4.”

“
6,” Becca added.

“
Oh my god, you are such a man!” Vanessa teased.

“
Am not!”

Becca slapped Vanessa on the arm and they started bickering back and forth. Vanessa stopped and looked at Mona. “What about you Mona?” she asked.

“
Around 20,” Mona replied.

“
Okay Becca, I take it back. You aren’t a man, Mona is.”

The blondes started to giggle again. Mona just stood there annoyed. “Let’s just do this,” Mona chided. “You two go first.”

Mona grabbed the stopwatch while two blondes go into push up position. “Go,” Mona said she as she clicked the timer.

The two blondes sat there in push up position, as if they were playing a game of chicken to see who could go last. After thirty seconds or so had passed, Becca was the first to cave. She started doing push-ups very slowly, and Vanessa started shortly after. It was clear that they weren’t trying very hard and after two minutes had passed Mona called, “Time.”

The girls collapsed as if it had been a hard workout.

After a minute of rest they rose to their feet. “Okay Mona, your turn,” Vanessa teased as she grabbed the stopwatch from Mona’s hand. “Ready... Go!”

Mona wasn’t ready, but she quickly dropped to the ground and started doing push-ups. While she wasn’t the most athletic or even very coordinated, she did believe in “practice makes perfect.” After ten years of doing push-ups in P.E. class, she had gotten pretty good at them. She was lost in focus and was surprised when she registered Vanessa’s voice interrupting her reverie—“Time.”

When Mona rose to her feet she noticed Damon across the gym. Her face turned a little pink as the feelings from earlier returned, and her heart started beating a little faster. He looked back at her across the gym and she realized she was staring again, so she quickly turned and followed the blondes to the next station.

When they got to the next station, Becca read aloud from the sheet of paper with the instructions on it, “It says we are supposed to sit against the wall for five minutes, using our legs to hold us up.” She grabbed the stopwatch and the three girls lined up against the wall. “And here we go,” Becca said she clicked the timer.

The three girls sat in silence while the timer slowly clicked away. Mona’s mind began to slip away in thought. Before she realized it, and entirely without meaning to, she found she was looking at Damon. She hadn’t noticed before, but he had been paired up with Jason. She watched as the two boys competed at the different stations. Damon seemed to be driven to beat Jason. Every time Damon beat Jason, it ate at Jason and he started stepping his game up. To the boys it was like the world around them had ceased to exist. They were locked in a battle of wills, both refusing to yield.

A hand suddenly obstructed Mona’s view as Vanessa snapped her fingers. “Hey, we’re done. Geeze Mona, crush much,” Vanessa teased. “Come on, we have to climb the rope now.”

Mona followed Becca and Vanessa to the ropes. The two blondes went first as they stepped up to the rope and grabbed on. Mona’s eyes followed the girls as they climbed; she couldn’t believe how high the ropes went. They stretched to the ceiling of the gym which had to be at least fifty feet high if not higher. Becca slowly climbed until she was three-quarters of the way up, then things became difficult for her. Every time she tried to pull herself up further, she would slip back down. She finally gave up and began to climb slowly down. Meanwhile, Vanessa had made it to the top and was already sliding back down the rope. When she got to the bottom, she hopped off and looked at Mona with a devilish grin. “Your turn,” she said.

Mona grabbed the rope and looked at Vanessa, who just stared back at her. It gave her an uneasy feeling but Mona ignored it and started to climb the rope. Every time she pulled herself higher, she heard the rope groan, but she pushed on. When she reached the top, she quickly saw why the rope was making noises. The top of the rope was partially frayed, as if someone had cut into it from both sides. She watched as the final strands started snapping in half. When she tried to slide down the rope, it broke. Mona barely had time to scream. With her eyes closed, she waited for the pain to come.

Damon was watching Mona as he did the wall sit. He had seen her staring at him but had no clue why. When the rope snapped, he leapt into action without thinking, sprinting towards the falling girl. As he ran he noticed the blue safety net had been moved. If the girl landed, she was going to land on the unforgiving hardwood. He jumped forward as he reached out for her, then. cradled her against his torso as her limp body fell into his arms. His momentum carried them onto the blue mat with a loud
thud
.

Damon laid Mona out, making sure to keep neck straight as he checked her for injuries. Slowly, she opened her beautiful brown eyes, only to find that he was staring back into them. “Are you okay?” he asked.

Mona was about to answer when Mr. Affholter shouted, “What’s all this commotion out here? What are you all standing around for?”

It was at that moment that Mona and Damon realized everyone in class was staring at them and what had just happened. Not for the first time that day Mona again felt her face burn with embarrassment as Mr. Affholter saw what everyone was looking at and hurried across the gym. He reached down and grabbed the rope, examining the frayed end of it as he asked, “What happened? Is everyone okay?”

Mona sat up to answer him. “I was climbing the rope and when I got to the top, it snapped. I shut my eyes when I fell and the next thing I knew I was opening them to everyone staring at me.”

“
How do you feel? How did the safety net get this far away?” Mr. Affholter asked.

“
I feel a little woozy and I have no clue how the safety mat got moved. It was under the rope when I started climbing.”

“
The how did you end up on the mat?”

“
I did that, sir. I saw her falling, saw the mat was gone, and I knew if she hit the floor she could die. I ran and dove as I caught her. My momentum carried us onto the mat,” Damon explained.

“
Well, are you okay?” Mr. Affholter asked.

“
I feel fine,” Damon said, standing up to reveal both of his knees were completely skinned and bloody.

“
I want you both to report to the nurse’s office. Damon, help Mona to the nurse and get your knees checked out,” Mr. Affholter instructed.

Damon crouched down to help Mona up. He could feel a sharp pain in both knees—the adrenaline from saving her had worn off. He grimaced as he held out his hand to help her up. “Hold on a second. I want to see if I can stand up on my own,” she said.

Mona took a deep breath and slowly tried to rise to her feet. Just when it looked like she was going to be fine on her own, she became light-headed and started to fall.

Damon caught her. “Easy now, I got you,” he said, throwing her arm over his shoulder. “Let’s take this slow, okay?”

“
Okay,” Mona smiled. They gradually hobbled their way out of the gym.

When they got outside, Mona stopped. “Is everything okay?” Damon asked. “Yeah, everything’s fine. I just never thanked you. If you hadn’t caught me, who knows what could have happened. I could have died,” Mona said as she looked into his blue eyes.

Mona couldn’t believe how calm and collected he was after everything that had happened. His hair was even more tousled than usual, but that only made him more attractive to her. Mona decided to stop thinking. She tilted her chin up and just went for it. He was caught by surprise as her soft lips landed on his. After the initial shock wore off, he grabbed her firmly as their kiss intensified. She couldn’t believe she was doing this—right in the middle of the hallway, no less—but it just felt so good.

A door slammed in the distance, startling Mona into breaking the kiss. She looked at Damon and said, “Umm... Yeah, thank you.”

They walked the rest of the way to the nurse’s office in relative silence. They each had a slight smile on their faces from the moment they had shared.

When they got to the nurse’s office, they found the school nurse fully immersed in the book she was reading. Damon knocked on the door and the nurse jumped, then set her book down. “I’m sorry kids. It gets boring when no one’s here and it’s a really good book,” she explained.

Damon ignored what she said as he spoke, “Mr. Affholter sent us. There was an accident in gym class and she fell.”

“
Oh my! Are you okay? Have a seat on the bed here and let me look at you.”

Mona climbed on the bed while the nurse put on latex gloves and reached in her drawer to pull out a light. The nurse looked at Mona and asked, “Do you have any pain anywhere? Headaches or dizziness?”

“
No, not really,” Mona replied. “I was a little woozy earlier but it seems to have gone away.”

The nurse grabbed Mona’s head and held her eyes open as she flashed the light first into one then the other. The nurse put the light away and held up a finger. “Okay, keep your head still and follow my finger with your eyes,” she instructed.

The nurse slowly moved her finger left to right, from up to down. Her eyes followed Mona’s pupils as they shifted around; when she stepped away, she said, “Well, it doesn’t look like you have a concussion or any serious injuries. I would like you to take it easy for the rest of the day. Here’s a note in case anyone gives you any trouble. Now, why don’t you switch, and I’ll look at your friend’s knees.”

“
It’s really no big deal,” Damon protested.

“
I will have none of that. Get on this bed right this minute, young man!”

Damon sighed before complying. Mona slid off the bed as he hopped on.

The nurse changed her gloves and crouched down as she inspected Damon’s wounds. “Well, it’s a good thing you came in. These wounds could have easily gotten infected if not cleaned and treated,” she explained.

The nurse slowly cleaned his wounds and applied antibacterial cream. When she went to put on a bandage, she realized his cuts were bigger than any Band-Aids she had. She grabbed some bigger sheets of gauze and some medical tape. By the time she was done, it looked like Damon had two big knee-pads on. He shook his head; he knew how well this was going to go over with the guys at school. “Okay you two, get on back to class now, and if you feel funny don’t be afraid to come right back and see me,” the nurse instructed.

They both gave a smile and a nod as they walked out of the nurse’s office, but they were silent as they headed back towards the gym. They kept looking at each other, wanting to talk, but not knowing what to say.

When they got to the entrance to the girls’ locker room, Mona turned to speak “Look, about earlier...”

Damon quickly interrupted, “Hey—would you like to go out this weekend?”