The Special Girl Read online

  The Special Girl

  Delany McCarthy

  Contents

  Preface

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Epilogue

  First edition January 1, 2021

  Copyright © 2021 by Delany McCarthy

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means without the written permission from the author, except in the use of a brief quotation in a book review.

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead; is purely coincidental.

  Preface

  As we move through life, the things that hold importance change, people drift in and out of our lives like a revolving door, relationships evolve or end. As maturity sets in, we realize what it is we want out of life. Some of us are lucky enough to catch it and hold on to it but some of us let it slip right out of our hands.

  Chapter 1

  Zack

  The yelling and screaming is almost deafening as I make my way into the gym and slip behind the bleachers. My group of motley misfits are already there. Most of our classmates are in the bleachers hollering in anticipation of the pep rally about to start for our school’s football team. My friends and I don’t do pep rallies. We prefer to hide out under the bleachers and catch a smoke. Max, Benny, Aidan, Lindsey and Piper are already there. “Yo bro, where were you?” Max yells over the noise of the gym. “I got held up by Phillips last period,” I say referring to my English teacher and take a seat next to him on the floor. We sit against the wall under the bleachers crowded with the entire student body. Benny and Aidan give me a “what’s up” chin tilt. Lindsey and Piper both wave hi. Mr. Mc Daniel, our principal starts to talk into a microphone and the gym quiets down as he rambles on about the football team and their high expectations this coming season. Benny rolls his eyes at us. None of us really cares about the football team. We all sit quietly in our hiding spot. Benny and Aidan are sharing a cigarette. The girls are playing on their phones. I just sit with my eyes closed, waiting for this to be over.

  After a bit, Max elbows me and gestures for me to check out what’s going on in the gym. I join him, Aidan and Benny peering through the slats of the bleachers. The cheerleaders are posing in the center of the gym floor waiting for their dance routine music to begin. They are posed in a bent over position with every girl’s ass facing our way. “Check out this view man,” whispers Max. Benny and Aidan quickly strain to see also. Piper and Lindsey sneer at our reaction to the cheerleaders on display and continue swiping away on their phones. The music begins bellowing from the sound system and they start their dance routine. Max says to us with a smirk, “Which one of those pieces of ass would you tap?” Aidan says without hesitation, “Maura McDevitt.” Benny says chuckling, “Same.” Max grins, “Any of them!” I glower, “None of those stuck-up bitches!” This earns me an approving smile from Lindsey and Piper. Skeptically, Max sneers, “Come on man, you mean to tell me if any of them would be willing, you wouldn’t be takin’? I don’t believe you!” I reply, “I don’t think any piece of ass is worth the trouble any of them would be! And you know it!” Max shrugs and throws another glance at the cheerleaders as they finish up their dance number. He says without looking away from them, “Maybe you’re right but...” smiling, “It might be worth it.” Me, Max, Aidan and Benny laugh as we sit back down and wait out the rest of the pep rally.

  Me and my friends are the opposite of the jocks and cheerleaders. We don’t usually participate in any extracurricular activities. We don’t care what everyone thinks of us. We don’t look like them either. No khakis or polos for us. Our look usually consists of black clothes, skinny jeans and boots. We all have at least one tattoo or piercing. As soon as we turned 18, which was recent, we each headed to the tattoo shop. Benny has the most tattoos. He has two arm sleeves. He also has a skull and cross bones on his right calf and a pierced lip and brow. Aidan has a cross with his dad’s name on his back. Max has several random tattoos on both arms and a pierced brow. I have a tribal tattoo on my left upper arm and a dragon on my chest over my right pec. That’s all I had money for so far. Tattoos are expensive. It’s not like either one of my parents would fund that.

  The girls in our group also have unconventional looks. Lindsey has hair the color of a clear blue sky, a tattoo of Medusa with snakes for hair on her upper right arm and multiple facial piercings, eyebrow, lip and nose. She is a stereotypical emo girl. Piper is more lustful biker chick. She has long dark burgundy hair, a nose piercing, and a body that does not quit. She also has a tattoo of roses that rises from her right hip to just above her bikini line. I know this because I’ve seen her naked body many times. She also has a tattoo of small birds taking flight on the back of her left shoulder. She usually wears a lot of makeup and dark lipstick. Piper isn’t the kind of girl to hold your hand or need sweet talk. She is more take your clothes off and get to it. And she mostly wants to get to it with me. She may look different, but she catches the eye of every guy that sees her.

  The girls on the cheerleading squad are prissy bitches. They walk around school like they own it. I never speak to any of them and they pretty much act like me and my friends do not exist, which is fine with me. I am not really into phony high-maintenance girls. They are always fixing their hair and reapplying makeup. I hear them in classes bragging and one-upping each other. They exude fakeness. I can’t be bothered nor am I attracted to that. I am more into girls with substance. Piper is not that girl either. When I am with her it is more about two people using each other to fulfill a need. It is just easy to mess around with her. No strings, no drama.

  I know Max said he would mess around with any of those girls if given the opportunity, (fat chance!), and Aidan and Benny said Maura McDevitt was on their radar, but girls like that and guys like us do not mix. I mean yeah some of them are hot but honestly, to me, their personalities make them unattractive. And unfortunately, there is a big group of the popular people at our school. One more year and we won’t have to see them anymore.

  Some of my friends will barely graduate. I’m pretty sure Max is close to failing out and then he will have to get his GED. Piper is also not doing too well with grades. The rest of them should make it to graduation. None of them are planning too far ahead of that. Piper will probably work at the hair salon her mom runs as she does now, shampooing and making appointments unless she goes to school to be a stylist. Lindsey works the counter for her uncle at his auto parts store after school and weekends. She enjoys it and will probably continue working there. Benny wants to become a tattoo artist and he is already talented at sketching. He designed all of our tattoos. Aidan idolizes his brother and talks about following him into welding. And God only knows what trouble Max will cook up after high school. I suspect he will continue working for my dad with me in construction.

&nbs
p; I naturally do well in school without any effort, always have. But I do not plan on going to college. I cannot wait for school to be over this year, I do not fit in at school except for with my friends. I cannot imagine how awkward it would be trying to fit into a college crowd. I will probably take on full-time hours at my dad’s construction company.

  Chapter 2

  Zack

  Senior year rolls by swiftly. My friends and I stay to ourselves at school and the jocks and cheerleaders ignore us, like usual. Max and Piper hang in there and make it to our last marking period of the year, looking like they may graduate after all. I am starting a new elective class today, cooking. I picked it because I figured it would be an easy way to end the year. I get to the cooking classroom well before the bell because my class just prior to this one is two doors down. I enter the classroom and take a seat in the back row, one seat in from the door. I glance around and see lots of popular girls, a couple cheerleaders and a few jocks sitting in the middle and towards the front of the room chatting away to each other. No one acknowledges me, as usual, and I notice a quiet loner type girl in the front row. In my head I figure this girl will probably be my partner if we are paired up, which I predict will be the most likely scenario with the number of kitchenette type work areas available compared with the number of students in this class. Just as the bell rings, Maura McDevitt runs into the room as the teacher is closing the door. She takes the very first open seat she sees, right next to mine.

  Maura

  As I was leaving 8th period calculus class, my teacher, Mrs. Wells, calls me forward to talk. She encourages me to come to her after-school study session to help improve my grade in this class. Math has never been my forte. I’m more of an English girl. I’d rather write a paper or read a novel than do math homework. I also do not want to spend my time after school with a bunch of math nerds trying to explain calculus to me. I know I should, but I really don’t want to. I can’t use cheerleading practice as an excuse because cheerleading is over for the year. We don’t cheer for Spring sports and we just had our last cheer competition last week. So, what do I do? I lie and tell her I am scheduled to work after school. I really do have to work today but not until 5pm. I work as a waitress at Sprinkles, an ice cream parlor in town. Hopefully, she doesn’t know I’m lying.

  Since she stopped me, I am now very late getting to my last class. It is also the first day of this class as it is only for one marking period. As the bell rings and I see the teacher closing the door to the cooking class, I rush by her and plop down in the first empty seat I see. As I catch my breath, I look up and lock eyes with one of the guys from the grunge bunch, as my friend Lana calls them. They are a group of rough looking guys and a couple of girls. Most of the guys creep us out. They glare at us like they are undressing us with their eyes, especially Max. He was in a class with me and Sara last year. He was always staring at us and leering at our chest or ass. It made me feel dirty.

  This guy is named Zack, I think. He is the good-looking one with the sexy eyes. Not that I can ever see them. His wavy chocolate brown hair is slightly longer on top and is usually cascading into his face hiding his chestnut eyes. He has bulging muscular arms and a provocative tattoo that peeks out of his short sleeve shirt when he doesn’t have a jacket on, like today. He never really looks our way. He has a mysterious vibe to him but not in a threatening way. I’ve never been this close to him so I can’t help but check him out further. He is so much better looking up close and he smells really good; woodsy, manly, sexy. What the hell am I thinking? He seems to side eye me and I get embarrassed at the thought he knows what I am thinking. I give him a small toothless smile, but he gives me a nasty look like I just pissed in his Cheerios and then looks back down.

  I glance around the room and spot several of my friends. Mia gives me a questioning look. She must have seen me looking at Zack for a beat too long. As the teacher starts speaking to us about the way she conducts the class, I realize that we will be paired up with a partner. Most of the students in this class are friends of mine so that will not be a problem. Or so I thought. I suddenly comprehend that we are being paired by the teacher and she is pairing us up by how we are sitting. No, no, no!

  “Mr. Deaton, Miss McDevitt, you will be in workspace number 4,” I hear as the teacher points to a kitchenette. Oh crap! I glance over at Zack. He doesn’t really look at me. Instead, he picks up his bag and heads over to the kitchen marked #4. As I gather my belongings, I look up and see Mia is with Cameron and they are hysterically laughing. Mia is holding her stomach in laughter as Cameron says something to her and then peers at me. I ignore them and head over to my assigned area and new cooking partner. I know I have to make the best of it. I pull out the chair and have a seat at the little table that would be hard pressed to cater to more than two people. Zack is standing by the oven. Mrs. Lingle, our cooking teacher, must notice he is the only person still standing in the class. Everyone else is seated at their tables with their new partners. Even Sara seems comfortable with the loner girl she has been paired with, even though I know that Sara is seething that she wasn’t paired with one of the jock guys as Mia has been. Mrs. Lingle tells Zack, “take a seat Mr. Deaton, Miss McDevitt doesn’t bite.” This seems to start up another laughing fit for Mia and Cameron. Mrs. Lingle says, “that’s enough now please,” as she turns to look at them. Zack pulls out the chair and stuffs his tall muscular frame under the table as he pulls in his chair. We both look up at the same time and I am held in place by those piercing brown eyes. I feel a pull like I have never felt before. It is almost like he can see my soul.

  Zack

  What the fuck! How did I end up partnered with one of the stuck-up cheerleader bitches from hell? And why is she looking at me like that? Wait did she just sniff me. Shit I hope I don’t smell. Did I remember deodorant today? I fucking hope so! Okay. I can do this. I just need to relax and not give her the satisfaction I give two fucks. And of course I don’t smell. She’s just fucking with me. Breathe Zack!

  I relax and start to comprehend; this teacher is talking. She is describing the first assignment. Crap! I didn’t hear most of that. Something about picking between brownies and muffins or something. I could go for a brownie, or a muffin. Sounds good to me! Then I hear my name. “Zack, Zack, Zack?” Maura calls. I didn’t even think she knew my name. “Yeah?’ I bellow. “Which do you want to bake; cookies, brownies or muffins?” she asks rather nervously. “I really don’t care. You choose,” I answer. “Well how about muffins? Is that alright with you? If it’s not, we can make one of the others,” she offers. “Muffins are good. But I never baked anything before. I really don’t know much about cooking at all,” I say. She looks at me and smiles, “Well it’s a good thing you were paired with me then. I’m an awesome baker! I have been baking with my mom since birth really. Be prepared to be awed!” She laughs. Well hell! I wasn’t expecting that! I figured she would be disgusted with me and snicker at anything I said. But instead she embraced it and is looking…. hopeful?

  Maura gets up and goes over to where Mrs. Lingle is speaking with some of the other students. She hands out papers to everyone surrounding her desk. Maura comes back with a slight grin on her face. She looks up at me with those baby blues and says, “We are making chocolate chip muffins! My favorite!” She shows me the recipe she just received from Mrs. Lingle and then starts to open cabinets and retrieve bowls, a metal cupcake pan and cupcake liners. She then goes to the food pantry on the other side of the room. I see her having a conversation with Cameron Loomis at the pantry. He looks up from their conversation and eyes me for a second before saying something else to her and grimacing. She walks away frowning, with her arms full of ingredients we must need to bake the muffins. She drops the items on the counter in our assigned kitchen and smiles up at me. Damn! She does have a great smile. I give in and give her a small smile back. She doesn’t seem to be as bad as I thought but I am still unconvinced. What was she talking to Cameron about? Are they planning to mess wit
h me? I don’t know yet.

  Cameron is a class A tool! He is a jock and is always bragging about his cheerleader conquests in the locker room in gym class. He also thinks he is a tough guy but I’m pretty sure he isn’t so tough without his posse of jock friends. I am sure he is saying something about me to Maura. Whatever he is up to, I am ready for his punk ass!

  I realize Maura has moved over to the refrigerator and is pulling items from there. I’m just standing, leaning on the oven waiting for her to return. I feel like a dumbass. She is running all over the room getting our supplies while I stand here looking stupid. When she returns with a container of milk and a stick of butter, I ask her, “What can I do?” She gives me another bright smile and asks me to turn the oven on to preheat at 400°. I turn around and turn on the oven and put the temperature at 400°. She returns from the refrigerator with a few eggs. She places them carefully in a small bowl she had placed on the counter earlier.

  “Okay what’s next?” I ask. Maura smiles again and pulls something out of her pocket. She pulls her long blonde wavy hair back into a high ponytail and secures it with the round band thing she had pulled from her pocket. She says enthusiastically, “Now we bake!” She puts a big bowl in front of me and tells me to measure out flour, sugar and baking powder according to the recipe and put the ingredients in that bowl. So, I get to work scooping sugar into a measuring cup and pouring it into the bowl. Then I get the flour and check the recipe before scooping that into a measuring cup. Maura busies herself cracking the eggs into the small bowl and whisking them together. When she looks over to me, she starts to giggle while eyeing me. I am confused at first until she points to my black t-shirt. It is now dusted with white flour. I look pretty messy. No wonder she is laughing. I chuckle. Suddenly the uncertainty I held for Maura starts to disappear. Had I been wrong? Maybe she wasn’t the stuck-up bitchy cheerleader I thought she was after all. I guess I’ll soon find out, as I must work with her the rest of the semester.