Chapter III

            I got the ride to school from my friend and while waiting at a red light I sent a text to Timothy.

            Hey, where are we meeting before school because I'll be there in like ten minutes? I waited for a response. We had a pretty good morning already after our conversation about the dreams we had the night before.

            We can meet up at the kiosk by the gym if you want to, but its all up to you. I am a few blocks away from school though. On a bus you know that takes like 15 minutes. lol

            I sent back a smiley face and was happy that he was giving me quite a bit of control over where our relationship went and at what speed. There were so many guys nowadays that thought that they had to have all the control, but Timothy wasn't like that.

            Ashley and I pulled into the parking lot, found a spot, and waited a few minutes before Ashley spoke. "Is everything alright Cat? You've been acting kind of strange lately, and you know that I worry about you like a sister." There was a thick concerned tone surrounding them now.

            "Yes, I am ok. I am actually better than ok, but not too hopeful. I am crushing seriously on a guy that I am supposed to despise, but something changed all of a sudden between me and him and now I am really worried if we are right or not. We haven't made anything official as far as dating, so now we are just in the really awkward spot of being stuck between worst enemies and best friends."

            "It’s Timothy, isn't it?" The tone accusing her, almost like she had done something wrong. The tone had a hint of conviction, like confirming your worst fears.

            All I could do was nod. "I'm actually heading to meet up with him now," was all that I said before opening the door and heading towards the kiosk to Timothy now. I had some amount of excitement trying to get to him.

 

            Timothy saw Catherine. She was wearing a pair of jeans, tennis shoes, and a band shirt, as always. He wasn't sure that there were many days that he hadn't seen her in either a band shirt or a tank top with something covering the straps to make it within dress code.

 

            "Hey you." I heard his sweet voice that had been talking throughout my dreams last night.

            "Hey yourself." Timothy knew he sounded corny as hell, but whenever he was with her, he really didn't care what anyone else thought about him.

            "You wanna walk somewhere with me? There's a few things that I wanted to ask you, but needed to see your face for."

            A hesitant smile crossed his face. "Is that a good thing? Or a bad thing?"

            "I think that your opinion of that is going to be depending on your answers. I am hoping that its a good thing." Timothy nodded as he slightly grasped my hand. He began leading me to somewhere that I was unfamiliar with. There was a little courtyard area with a nice little gazebo that was quiet and secluded. It was behind the JROTC building which was probably why I had no idea of the area.

            "This is a nice area. Maybe it can be our spot later on?" This caught me by surprise; did this mean that he wanted us to be a long term item?

            "Maybe. Graduation is in three days. I was wondering how you felt about me? I know how I feel about you, but I have no idea about what you are thinking. I want to know if you like me or not; I want to know if you are always this way around all females or just me; I want to know if you want to be there for me."

            "How about this? Wait until graduation and you will have all the answer to all of them then. That I can promise, for sure." He shot a smile towards me. He made my heart fly higher than it had ever gone before. There was so much to him that I wasn't sure if it was too real to be true or if this was what I had been looking for all of my life.

            "Ok. I will agree to that, but you better be right or you will definitely owe me." I smiled slyly. There was something about challenging him that I really enjoyed. Maybe it was his facial expressions or maybe it was the way he got a more devious mindset.

            "Are we meeting up after school again? I mean, if you want, because I only live like 5 minutes away from you driving."

            "Yeah, that's fine. I will see you after school. Here?"

            "Gotcha." With that the first bell rang and we both took off our own ways to make it to first period. I walked around the school arriving at the band hall with a smile on my face.

            Ashley walked up behind me and tapped on my shoulder. "So, how did your meeting with Mr. Enemy go?" She lightly chuckled at that knowing there was a slight distinction between enemy and Mr. Right.

            "It went fine. And you don't have to worry about giving me a ride home this afternoon because he said that he would walk me home. However, I might see if I can go to his house though. Maybe try to get some rifle tips because if I remember correctly, Kathy said that he did AFJROTC back in Alaska."

            "Oh, ok, so are things getting serious with him?"

            "I'm not sure. I think that there is potential for it, but I should know by the end of graduation."

            "Think about this girl, that could be his way of saying there is no chance now. If you know by the end of it then he could take off before you see him after it and there is no chance of finding out the actual answer. I don't want to see you get played by a total jerk, that’s all."

            "I know. That's the first thought that passed through my mind because of all of the jerks that I have been with in the past, but I don't think that he is runnin' game honestly."

            "I hope that you're right about that..." Ashley let her words sink as she went to sit with the rest of the saxophones.

            I went to the percussion room and got out my mallet bag and composition book. I proceeded to the office to ask a question about the composition class.

            "Mr. Mosely, is it ok if I take a xylophone or bell set to a practice room and work on our final project for MC?"

            "Yeah, Cat, go ahead just make sure that there are enough mallets out for the class to use. I know that you want to perform this before graduation for the rest of the directors. I also know that you wanted to make a recording of the other 3 parts too."

            "Thank you." I proceeded to the practice room with my bell set. I had the marimba, vibraphone, and xylophone part down, but I couldn't seem to get the last few measures of the bell part to sound just right. I could let the bells drop out, but the drastic change in timbre wasn't what I was looking for. The bells had to continue and finish to the end of the piece.

            My phone buzzed in my purse causing a little rustling sounds because of my pocket change and stuff.

            Hey beautiful. I just wanted you to know that I was thinking about you.

            Oh really? Why would you be thinking about me now?

            I am trying to figure out how to answer all of your questions before graduation without directly answering them today.

            Why would you want to do it that way?

            It adds to our game that we seem to thrive on, Darling.

            :) I can second that.

            I decided to keep working on my piece. Hopefully something would come to me and make this last bell phrase really ring out above the rest.

            After a few minutes of dabbling with different runs and arpeggios, I finally found something that I liked in comparison to the accompaniment of the trio behind the bells. I looked back at my phone because I had turned it to silent so I could focus for a little bit.

            3 unread messages?!?!?! All from Timothy too!

            Hey, Timothy, I have a question?

            Yeah?

            Is it ok if I call you Tim instead of Timothy all the time?

            Yeah, if I can call you Cat instead. :D

            LOL sure. That's what most of my friends call me anyways unless they are upset with me.

            I got to put my stuff back before the bell rings so that I can make it to second period on time.

            Ok beautiful. I will see you at lunch for a few minutes if possible. :)

            I packed up my things, put them in the percussion room and went placed the bell set on top of the cabinet and then grabbed my bag. I listened to the last bit of announcements and then headed to the door just in time for the bell to ring.

            The crowded halls were hectic. All of a sudden, I felt a hand on my shoulder. Unaware of whom it was, I spun around on my heel and grew defensive. After I saw who it was, my shoulders relaxed and I was able to breathe again. "Hi, you scared me."

            "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to do that." The apology was sincere to his soul.

            “It’s ok. I’m just not used to people coming up behind me and trying to get my attention. Normally people just scream my name out from the other side of the hall.”

            “Ok, I’ll remember that so I don’t scare you anymore. I will see you after school. They got me going in to help with rifle team during both lunches.”

            “Ok that’s fine. I will meet you at the spot we went to this morning ok?

            He nodded with some happy intentions, I smiled and walked down the hall to my second class as I watched him saunter away.

Author's Note

Here is chapter 3! Working on chapter four tonight and the rest of this weekend.