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“Trashy.”
Amanda’s head whips around to look at me, and I realize too late I spoke aloud; oh well. The moment her eyes land on me, she rolls them and gives me a look of disgust. I ignore her. As I walk past Mai, her foot pops out in front of me as if to trip me. I simply hop over it and keep walking as if it wasn’t there.
I can’t keep the smile off my face as I hear them stomp away.
“You know you probably shouldn’t poke at them like that?” Roderick says as I reach him. I just shrug because he’s probably right, but they started it, and I’m not doing anything wrong; just being petty. We both know I could do so much worse.
“I was hoping that having you demonstrate would help keep them off your back, but it seems like they’ve already decided to target you.” He says as he reaches for his water, and we head back towards the locker rooms together at a slow pace so we can talk.
“They don’t worry me. I can handle a few bitchy girls.” I tell him, and he huffs.
“I’m not worried about you handling them or not. I know you are more than capable. I was just hoping you wouldn’t have to, is all. You have a lot going on right now. We all do. Not having to deal with them would have been better.” He says, stopping at the water fountain to refill his bottle. I stop with him and lean up against the wall while I wait.
“I was serious about the weight lifting and nutrition, by the way.” He says, looking up at me while the bottle fills. His eyes rack over me from head to toe as if assessing me.
“If you're interested, I can change your Monday kickboxing class to weights, and you can meet with the advanced class on Wednesday.” He looks back at his bottle as he twists the cap on and heads to the locker rooms.
“We can talk about meals when we get home, and I can show you which foods are easy and best to help you gain more muscle now that you have the choice.” He says, and for a moment, I don’t know what to say. Roderick hasn’t been mean to me exactly, but this almost feels like an olive branch and one that has me more excited than I want to admit. “That is if you're interested.” He quickly adds.
“Of course I’m interested,” I tell him as excitement courses through me. “I’ve been fighting to stay in shape for years, but it wasn’t exactly easy when you have no idea when your next meal will be.” I tell him, matter of fact
He looks over at me and nods, his face set in a serious expression that wasn’t there a moment ago. We reach the doors to the lockers, and he turns to head into the guys, but I speak up just before he walks away.
“Roderick,” he turns to look at me, “thank you.” I tell him with a smile.
His lip twitches up the tiniest bit as he looks at me.
“No problem. Now get changed before we’re both late to English. We can talk about this more at home after school.” He says before he ruffles my hair just like he did this morning and goes to change.
I turn to go into the girl's room, my hand on the door before my brain fully processes what he just said.
Home.
Is that what their house is to me?
Can I let myself have a home?
I shake the thought away before I let myself get too far into it, before I let myself want that to be true.
No, I don’t have a home, and until this shit is put to rest, I won’t. I can’t.
* * *
The restof the day is much the same. I go to English with Roderick, and he sits next to me. People look at us with shock clear on their faces, and some look at me with anger. I ignore them all. Roderick helps me with the lesson, and I tell him about the study session. He offers extra assistance if I should need it.
I text Zander all day and Hazel a bit too. Trent also checks up on me a few times.
After history, we head to the car, where Spencer and Zander are already waiting for us. Zander asks me a million questions about my day and wants to know how I like classes so far. I explain most of it. He seems less than thrilled about Leo and Trent, but he doesn’t say anything, so I keep going. He gives a good laugh when I give him a dark look about him, knowing Roderick was my teacher for kickboxing.
We head back to the house, and Roderick cooks while Zander and Spencer disappear for a while. I stay and offer what little help I can be and try and watch what he’s doing in hopes of learning new things to cook. Tonight he’s making Enchiladas, which he said is a Mexican dish. I’ve never even heard of it, let alone tried it, but I’m excited to, especially with how good it smells.
After he throws it in the oven to bake, we sit down, and he walks me through things that are good to eat and snack on that we have in the house already. He also promises to take me to the store this weekend to help me get more protein-rich foods. According to Roderick, a huge part of muscle building is the protein you take in. Which was, of course, the thing we got least of while being held. I take in all the info he gives me because, at the end of the day, I have no idea about any of these but based on his build, I would like to think he knows what he’s talking about.
We eat and head to bed. I’m not sure about the others, but this day was a lot for me, and by the time my head hits my pillow, I’m out.
By Saturday, Jade seems to have gotten the hang of her classes. I got her Monday kickboxing moved to weight training, and while she seems to have a strong dislike for math and history, she’s been spending a lot of time in books trying to catch up.
I may not have wanted her out in the open, but I can see that school was a good idea for her. She’s naturally a people person, much like Zander, and while attention makes our job harder with so many eyes on her, it seems to be making her happier.
