Naked In School

Feeling better, I headed to lunch.

CHAPTER THREE FRANKIE

Oh, man, I felt so bad for her.

Art got better, after she saw some of the drawings that just treated her scars as just another part of her. But the two hyenas that called themselves her best friends couldn’t bring themselves to do that. It sucked.

Lunch was worse.

I was behind her in the line the whole time. The first thing I saw was that rat Paul breaking up with her! That asshole-did it right in the lunch line, in front of everyone else. He walked up to her and said, "Cassie, I think we should break up. I can’t handle it," and walked away. I saw her shoulders slump-but I couldn’t get to her because she was eight or so people ahead of me in line.

What happened when we got out of line might have been worse. She went over to her usual table.

"Jeez, Cassie, do you have to eat here like that?" Laura said.

"Yeah, I can’t eat looking at you. It’s too gross," Missy pitched in.

"I’m afraid I’ll barf my lunch right back up," Laura continued.

Damn it all to hell, she looked like she was going to cry. I walked up to her, put my tray in my left hand, wrapped my right arm around her waist, and steered her away from them.

"You eat with us," I said. She gave me a grateful smile. "I’m sorry about Paul."

"Well, it wasn’t any big love affair," she sniffled. "I liked him, but it was only two weeks. It’s why he did it."

"And how he did it. That showed no class," I told her. She just shrugged, and by then we were at the table.

"Hey, Brazil!" Ed joked as Cassie approached the table. Natalie hit him. "Look. Boyfriend abuse. Why do I put up with this?" he lamented.

We all laughed. "How’s everything going?" Amanda asked us.

"Well, my best friends don’t want to eat with me because I’m too ‘gross and disgusting’, and the guy who I was dating just dumped me. Outside of that, everything’s fine," Cassie said.

"Oh, damn," Ed said.

"I just don’t get it," I said.

"What don’t you get?" Ed asked me.

"The whole thing. So, she’s got a few scars. Who cares?" Cassie beamed at me.

After that, the conversation turned to generalities, with Ed trying his best to get Cassie to laugh. He made the same joke I had thought of that morning, about The Program going through the baseball team one-by-one.

"Well, not me, because I opted out," Ty Christopher chuckled.

"Yeah, that’s because all those overblown muscles of yours would scare the children," I teased. Ty and I get on one another all day long.

"Better that than having to grab a tree when the wind blows, you beanpole," he volleyed back. "Anyhow, no. I opted out because they couldn’t guarantee that Emma and I would go through it together. She opted out for the same reason. We talked about it." He took a drink from his coke. "It’s not that we don’t trust one another, not at all. It’s just that if we went through it, buddied up with someone else, we didn’t think it’d be half as much fun. Look, all you guys that went through it made new friendships, and you all got boyfriends or girlfriends out of it. Well, I’ve been dating the love of my life for some time now, and I’ve got great friends. Even Gutierrez," he joked. "So, what would be the point?" he asked.

"I’m wondering that myself right now," Cassie said depressedly. I looked at her. "Look what I got. My friends insult me and I lose my boyfriend. It seems to work in reverse if you’re ‘damaged’." She sniffled, and said "Excuse me," and bolted out of the chair, sobbing, headed for the bathroom.

"Oh, fuck," I said. A quick look between Mike, Lily, and myself, and Lily got up and followed her. I stood up right after.

"Where are you going?" Ty asked.

"Some people need a talking to," I said, and wandered over to the table where Missy and Laura were sitting. Did I say earlier that I was easy-going? Well, yeah, 99 percent of the time. This was the one percent. I was furious.

"Well, look at this," I said, approaching them. "Cassie’s best friends. With friends like you, who needs homicidal maniacs? She’s in the bathroom bawling. I hope you’re happy."

"Fuck you, Frankie," Laura said. "Nobody told her to parade her scars all over the place."

"She’s doing it because she has to. Those scars aren’t just on the outside. If you had an ounce of compassion, you’d see that," I said. "You and that asshole Paul. He just dumped her."

"Well, do you blame him?" Missy said. "Who’d want to go out with someone who looked like that?" she said. Laura nodded agreement.

"I would," I said. "We’re good friends, and I’ve learned not to mess with a friendship, but based on looks alone? I’d go out with her in a heartbeat. She’s beautiful, scars or no."

"You’re crazy. They’re disgusting," Laura said.

"Well, Laura, let me tell you a few things-your eyes are too far apart. Your nose is huge. You have no tits." She looked at me in shock. "As for you, Missy, you could stand to lose twenty pounds, your mouth is ugly as hell, and your hair is a disaster area." They were dumbfounded. "And that’s clothed. If the two of you ever had the guts to do The Program, I’m sure I could find a lot more flaws. Now, I’m not much into insults, usually, because it’s obvious that I am no prize. But the two of you need to get off your high horse. And I haven’t even gotten into how ugly and repulsive your personalities are."

After that, I walked away-them gaping at me. Damn, that felt good. I had a feeling that Cass wouldn’t be too happy with me when she found out about that diatribe-but I had to.

I heard back that Lily had calmed her down in the bathroom. And she was better by the time I saw her last period, in psychology. We had a nice discussion in that class about how people react to visual stimulus-especially unexpected visual stimulus. The people in the class were nice to Cassie-good thing, since she was the center of that discussion-and it was fine. Of course, those two hyenas weren’t in that class.

We had an away game afterwards, and Cassie had band practice-she plays the flute. After the game-which we lost, our first loss of the season, dammit-I got home right in the middle of the dinner preparations.

I found Mom and Rosa, along with Tanya-Cassie’s sister-in the kitchen. I kissed Mom and Rosa on the cheek, then grinned at Tanya, who was rolling out homemade flour tortillas.

"Hey, not bad for a Ukrainian," I told her.

"Well, if I cut ‘em in half, put cheese in the middle and folded them up, they’d be varenniki," she laughed.

"Varenniki?"

"Ukrainian filled dumplings," she grinned. "Well, yeah, the recipes are different-varenniki are moister and stickier. But rolling dough is rolling dough." She looked at me. "Hey, so did you start today, you and Cass?"

"Yeah."

"I came over here before Cass came home from band practice. How did it go?" she asked.

"Not well. Can you please tell me why she hangs around with Missy and Laura?" I steamed.

"Oh, no. They gave her a hard time?" Tanya asked.

"A real hard time," I said.

"What are you talking about?" Mama asked.

"Well, Mama, they put me in The Program today." Mama just kind of put her hand on her forehead. Rosa and I looked at each other and mouthed "Madre de Dios!" with a grin.

"Oy, my baby is running around the school naked?" Mom said.

"Yeah. My partner is Cassie."

"Cassie, Tanya’s sister Cassie?" Mom asked.

"Yeah. She has a problem, so she requested me."

"She was in a really bad car accident when she was eight," Tanya told her, "so she has bad scars all over her stomach and thighs. She’s really self-conscious about it."

"Yeah, and she decided to do The Program, as kind of a cure. And the powers that be let her pick her own partner, for the support, so she picked me."