See chapter one for disclaimers

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Chapter 5

"Shit! I knew I shouldn'ta got outta bed this morning," Raven groaned in frustration, as Phil led the way to the massive football field, holding two economy-sized bin-liners in each of his hands.

"You have gotta be kidding me!" Phil exclaimed with childlike exuberance, walking through the crowded throngs of Thursville High fans. "This is great!" He glanced around at all of the people present, most of whom were squashing themselves into the packed bleachers. Proud parents gazed indulgently at their oh-so 'talented' offspring, something that Raven inwardly envied, having never been appreciated herself. Scowling, she emitted a low grumble from her pursed lips, snatching a bin-liner from Phil's clumsy hands. The deafening noise of the crowd and the cheerleaders' high-pitched chants were slowly driving her insane. And I've only been here for five fuckin' minutes!

"Oh yeah, really great Phil," Raven growled, tossing the gawky boy a pair of gloves before putting her own on. She lifted a hand to her face, inhaling the dour odour emanating from the rank rubber."Jesus-Fuckin' Christ!!" she exclaimed in disgust, fighting the urge to heave. She rapidly removed her hand as far away from her nose as was feasibly possible, before the offensive smell assaulted her senses once again. "They friggin' smell like a cat just peed and did God knows what else all over 'em."

Phil looked down at his own hands distastefully, his nose wrinkling in revulsion. "I'll take your word for it." The smile soon returned to his face though, as the jubilant sound of the school band marching by reverberated around the stadium. His eyes lit up upon detecting the smell of hot dogs drifting through the sultry air. "You gotta admit it Raven, there's a sort of ...exciting atmosphere about all this." Phil motioned with his hand as two teams of buff football players ran confidently onto the field, each convinced that they were God's gift to every woman on the Earth's surface.

The fans in the crowd suddenly went wild, and the cheerleaders chanted and cartwheeled to the best of their limber ability. Raven grinned as she noticed one little blonde yelling a decibel louder than all the others. Good God- that Nicky sure has got a mouth on her, she thought gleefully, watching the said person somersault easily through the air. Wonder what else she can do with that talented body of hers...Bad! Down girl! Raven snickered wickedly to herself, shaking her head ruefully. She had to smirk at Phil's eagerness. "Oh, it's just sooo thrilling, seeing boys strut around in ridiculous uniforms, chasing a rubber ball..Hmm mmm, I can see where all the excitement stems from.... " Raven drawled, shaking her hair out of her face and rolling her shoulders. Even though it was nearly dusk, the heat was heavy and oppressive, causing trickles of sweat to trail down her back. "The American Dream lives on!" she added, snickering sarcastically.

Phil looked sadly at his friend. "You obviously ain't used to all this town tradition and stuff, huh?" he asked, leaning casually against the back of the bleachers.

Further down behind the wooden benches, concealed by inconspicuous shadows, Raven could see a few teenage couples making out. She watched as their bodies moved desperately against one another and the vivid image of golden blonde hair and sweet soft lips drifted into her mind.....Thwack!

"What the....?" Raven spluttered, standing to attention, her eyes scanning for the attacker. Phil's hand waved in front of her tense features. She quickly grabbed the appendage and crushed it painfully.

"Arrggghhh!" Phil winced in pain. Raven quickly let go, realising who it was that she was hurting.

"Don't ever do that to me again Phil!" Raven hissed angrily, shoving his rubber-gloved hand away from her.

"S-s-sorry..." He stuttered. God, that girl was strong! Someone's been eating their spinach.....

"No," Raven amended quickly, holding her hands up in apology. "I'm the one that's sorry. I...I over reacted, Phil." She looked into his mud brown eyes that glinted so trustfully back at her. "It's just that where I come from, anyone that surprises you like that, doesn't usually intend to play nice wid ya. Know what I mean?"

Phil nodded slowly. He knew that his new friend had come from a rough background. According to his mom, Raven's mother was cheap trash and had been more trouble than she was worth when she had lived here in her younger days. But Raven was different. He knew that, he was positive of it, even if no one else was willing to give the dark haired girl a chance.

"It's ok, Rae." Phil said , a small smile gracing his features. " Just ferget about it, 'kay?"

" Sure thing." Raven agreed, relieved to let the discussion drop. She stood up straight and walked towards a pile of recently dumped rubbish. She lent down and scooped up a handful of trash, depositing it into the black bin-liner. Raising a dark eyebrow she motioned for him to join her. " But don't even think for a second that I'm gonna forget about you gettin' us into trouble today...."

Phil grinned as he scooped up a sticky bar wrapper and placed it into his bin bag.

"That wasn't my fault and you know it!" Phil laughed at the growl aimed in his direction. " Anyways, pickin' up trash isn't that bad of a punishment....."

"Maybe not. If it wasn't for the fact that we're pickin' up after a coupla thousand folks......" Raven grumbled in her low husky voice, as she tried to avoid a squishy present that had obviously been left behind by some canine creature." I can't believe I'm doin' this..."

Phil just chuckled good-naturedly as they continued with their messy task.

*****************

"Wooo!" May cheered loudly, shaking the bright yellow and blue pom-poms frantically in the air. "Go Brad! Go Carl! Yeah!!!"

"Thursville rules!!" Stacy chimed in, jumping up and down energetically. Her fellows cheerleaders squealed shrilly in heartfelt agreement.

After that rather successful bout of cheering, the popular girls sat down on their bench for a quick rest and a drink of water. After all, they wouldn't want to cheer for too long, it just wouldn't do for them to work up a sweat now, would it?

Stacy sat next to her best friend and gave her a friendly smile. Nicky returned the smile with a quick grin of her own, her emerald eyes glinting briefly with affection before she returned her gaze back to the game.

"Brad's playing really well," Maria stated, as she sat down on the other side of the blonde girl, readjusting her pony-tail.

"Yeah." Nicky mumbled, turning to silently regard the chestnut-haired girl beside of her.

"Sooo," Maria ventured, smirking at Nicky for some unknown reason. "Has anyone asked you to The Dance yet?"

Nicky glanced uncomfortably at Maria for a moment and was just about to answer, when Stacy interjected.

"Don't be such a bitch, Maria!" the redhead snarled, her curly locks bouncing around her oval face as she turned to glare at Maria, who was trying unsuccessfully to suppress a smug smile. Nicky frowned at the cantankerous brunette, not expecting the taller girl to act like anything other than the bitch she was.

"You know that Brad and Nicky have been going steady for ages now." Stacy continued in defence of her best pal, putting her arm around the strangely silent blonde girl. " So of course, she and Brad are going to The Dance together. Aren't you, Nicky?"

Nicky snapped to attention and smiled happily, her eyes having momentarily caught a glimpse of a certain tall, broad-shouldered girl and her dorky friend....picking up litter no less! Wonder what she did wrong this time? Nicky pondered, a huge grin finding its way to her lips as she saw the dark haired girl grumble in disgust to herself, having just picked up something truly fowl. God she is so cute sometimes...

"Huh? What?" Nicky said with a puzzled frown, swatting away the hand waving obstinately in front of her face. Her cheeks coloured as Maria followed her gaze, eyeing the object of her avid interest suspiciously.

"Ha!" Maria laughed, flouncing to her feet as she pointed at the duo who were cleaning up the mess around the bleachers. " So that's what Principle Greener made them do!"

Nicky frowned in concern at the mention of Greener, remembering the confrontation that she'd recently had with him. She gently shook off Stacy's hold and stood up as the rest of the cheerleaders turned around to see what all of the commotion was about.

"Why, what happened?" Nicky said worriedly, chewing her bottom lip in apprehension." Not another fight, surely?"

"Nah," Donna chirped in. " I was in the same math lesson with them this morning."

Nicky nodded her head, waiting for the girl to elaborate. " Annddd....." she stressed, impatient to hear about her Raven.....Huh? My Raven??? Don't EVEN go there girlfriend! Nicky shook her head, as though to get rid of all of the confused emotions that had been clouding her thoughts for the last week or so.

"Annndd, " Donna drawled dramatically, quite enjoying being the centre of attention for a change. " They got in trouble for stabbing Mr. Penkez in the ass with a protractor...."

"They what!?!" Nicky exclaimed, the amazement on her face matching the rest of the groups. " I don't believe you!"

Donna stood her ground and huffed, offended that a fellow cheerleader would not take her word for it.

"You do that, Nicky." Maria spoke up as she circled the group, then turned back towards the football game. "But in the mean while, don't ya think it's about time we started cheering for our boys?"

At this, the rest of the girls quickly reformed their routine stance, pom-poms high, ready for battle!

"After all," Maria continued, standing in place next to Nicky, whispering in her ear, so only Nicky alone could hear her comment. "We wouldn't want our guys to think we're neglecting them, would we?"

Nicky held her own pom-poms above her head, guiltily avoiding Maria's steady gaze. Her eyes quickly scanned the crowds one last time for the dark haired girl. When she couldn't locate her, she sighed deeply before returning her attention to her boyfriend, as he lead the team to victory like the star athlete he was.

*****************

" And so if you hold the paint brush just so, you'll be able to....."

Raven yawned as the art teacher, Miss Keeny - dubbed the 'blonde bimbo' by some especially innovative students - droned on and on about painting techniques, pretending that she actually knew what she was talking about.

"Then just simply shake off the excess water....No, no Marvin!" Miss Keeny shouted at the ginger-haired boy, who was waving his paint brush around frantically like a magic wand. "Not like that. Look! You've put paint in poor Melissa's hair...."

At this, the previously placid girl jerked her hands to her head and when they came away with pink goo she screamed in horror, running out of the room as if a banshee had been nipping at her ass.

"Hee, hee," Raven cackled quietly as she herself purposefully placed a well aimed glob of illuminous green paint on the back of Phil's shirt.

Unfortunately Phil turned around at the wrong time, resulting in his face suddenly changing to an interesting shade of putrid green.

"Raven!" He cried out in surprise. Quickly he grabbed a brush of his own and ready for retaliation, he liberally coated it with purple paint before chasing after the retreating brunette. "Here, Ravie, Ravie!"

Raven chuckled mirthfully, enjoying this brief bout of immaturity almost as much as her friend.

"Now Phil," Raven admonished, her countenance etched with the most repentant expression she could muster, considering the circumstances. She retreated a little. "You know I would never intentionally splatter you all over in that, um, ridiculous green paint, now don't you?"

Phil continued to stalk his prey, his glasses steaming up with the husky heat in the classroom.

"Raven," Phil taunted, waving the brush just centimetres before Raven's mischievous face. "I'm gonna have to get you back or....."

"Philip!" A squeaky voice screeched from across the classroom. Miss Keeny made her way over to the two embarrassed students, swaying her hips a little more than was necessary. Phil's face changed to a deep red within a matter of seconds, while Raven quickly tensed her shoulders and adopted a cool does-it-look-like-I-give-a-fuck? stance. A plausible and very effective defensive mechanism if ever there was one.

"Is this really the sort of behaviour you think I expect from my students?" The woman's bleached blonde hair flipped across her shoulder as she glared in annoyance at Phil's guilty countenance.

" I...I...err..." Phil stuttered helplessly. This little spectacle had drawn the rest of the classes' attention, making the gawky boy feel even more of a clutz.

"You...you....errr...what?" Miss Keeny sneered. If there was one thing she couldn't abide by, it was useless, unattractive dorks like the one standing dejectedly in front of her, who wasted everyone's time and space with their unpopular presence. God, she'd had enough of losers when she herself had been a school student.

Rachel Keeny turned around to observe the astoundingly beautiful girl who had been messing around with this little jerk. She had noticed the leather-wearing student instantly, almost as soon as she had strode cockily into the classroom slightly later than she should have.

Why the hell would this young ...Goddess, Rachel exhaled deeply as she took a closer look at the tall girl, take a risk of losing face with her fellow peers by being caught associating with this loser?

"You got it wrong Miss Weeny." Raven spoke up, sneering viciously at the now startled woman. Phil, who had been squirming with discomfort and humiliation now stood straighter, his head held high, ready to support Raven's attack. "I started it," Raven declared cockily as she pointed to the large glob on Phil's shirt and face, feeling smug satisfaction as the teacher's face turned red with frustration at being disrespected by a good for nothing nobody. Even if it was an incredibly good looking nobody.

"I...I...how dare you?" The woman squealed, slamming her hand down on the desk, her ample breasts heaving in exertion. Her heart rate increased ten-fold when those glacier blue eyes froze with deadly intent upon her.

"Coz I don't give a shit what you or anybody else thinks." Raven snarled, baring her sharp, pearly white teeth at the shivering woman.

Oh God! Rachel thought silently, her mouth gasping as she took in the blazing glory of fearsome anger that was concentrated directly at her. She could feel her nipples grow hard and the sudden rush of intense, wet desire that flooded through her quaking body forced her to clench her thighs tightly together. She could hardly control the urge to rub herself up and down this amazing creature.

"You can't speak that way to me..." Rachel whispered faintly, walking towards the classroom door. " Report to detention this evening....the both of you." With that, the bleached-blonde teacher rushed to the nearest restroom to take care of her discomfort.

"Ohhh, not again!" Phil shouted in frustration. The thought of doing another round of litter duty did not appeal to him at all. He still couldn't believe Raven's audacity in standing up to the teacher, though it shouldn't have surprised him all that much - he had seen her do and say more or less the exact same thing to Mr. Penkez last week when his protractor had unexpectedly disappeared up where the sun certainly didn't shine.

Raven ignored the few admiring and respectful glances that were shot her way from the other students, as she turned and frowned at Phil.

" You do realise it's all your fault..." Her deep contralto rumbled with mischief, as Phil's eyes bulged with something akin to amused disbelief.

****************

"You're to stay here until each and every one of you has finished that essay." Mr. Jones, the sub teacher huffed sternly, as he frowned disapprovingly at the small group of teenage riff-raff. Each of these troublemakers must have broken school rules one way or the other to have ended up in the mediocre sized library, that held an endless amount of old, dusty and obviously rarely-used books.

"Cool!" Phil grinned as he looked at the assignment that had been given to them.

Raven and several others, shot him a disgruntled frown. Raven glanced down at the blank page of paper before her. Now all she had to do was fill in the lines with words of wisdom.....

"I think I preferred pickin' up dog shit." She scowled menacingly at the blank paper in front of her, which remained stubbornly unintimidated by her fierce gaze.

"Rae, it's ok!" Phil whispered enthusiastically, shuffling his chair next to hers." I done this essay title last year and got a good grade on it." Raven graced him with a 'so what' look, apparently not impressed with this information.

"Well, it means I can get both of our essays done in about, oh..." Phil looked down at his water proof, night-glow, super calculator watch. "...In about 40 mins or so."

Raven smirked, raising that damn eyebrow of hers.

"So that means we can be outta here by 4:30?" Raven estimated. She leant back in her chair and stretched hers arms over her head. "Good, coz I'm fed up of havin' to explain to my pratt of an uncle why I keep being held back after school." She turned her gaze back to the studiously working Phil. Leaning forward she whispered," And I don't think he believes me when I tell him that I'm part of the cheerleading squad!"

Phil chuckled at the image Raven's statement portrayed. Rae and pom-poms did not seem to mix.

"I wouldn't mind being part of the cheerleading squad..." Phil mumbled wistfully. Raven's dark brow rocketed at this comment.

"I, uh, I meant I wouldn't mind being able to see all those cute chicks prancing about half naked in front of me all day." Phil quickly amended, ignoring the teasing glint in Raven's sapphire eyes.

"I know what ya mean, " she mumbled under her breath, absently scratching her arm in silent contemplation.

The sound of several books crashing to the linoleum covered floor captured Raven's attention. Embarrassed jade green eyes darted anxiously around the room. Raven silently smirked in glee.

She took a quick glance at the now dozing Mr. Jones before springing out of her plastic chair and strutting towards Nicky, who was momentarily preoccupied picking up half a dozen hard-back books.

"Need a hand?"

Nicky looked up and swallowed, her mouth suddenly dry as she regarded the leather clad figure towering over her. She simply nodded her blonde head, as the taller girl knelt down beside of her and picked up the last couple of books.

"Here ya go," Raven said, as she passed them to Nicky. Nicky held out her hand and gasped in shock as Raven grabbed her arm. The brunette's tapered fingers slowly caressed the length of her slender hand, starting at the smooth underside of her wrist and leaving a trail of red hot heat as they stroked their way across her soft palm, where they came to an abrupt halt. Oh my God...we're holding hands!

Raven gazed deeply into the blonde's startled green eyes, recognising the intense hunger that resided there, knowing it was reflected in her own bright blue orbs. Raven raised her other impatient hand to Nicky's upturned face, tucking tendrils of stray blonde hair out of the smaller girl's eyes.

"Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?"

Nicky trembled as those deep, husky words escaped from Raven's red lips, her heartbeat practically thumping out of her chest in anticipated excitement. Raven cupped Nicky's face in the palm of her strong hand, stroking the velvety soft skin. She gently smiled and felt her own breath become shaky as the smaller girl leant into the warmth of her hand, unconsciously nuzzling her warm palm. Ever so slowly Raven bent her head towards Nicky's parted lips, deeply breathing in the other girls sweet fragrance as her mouth descended......

"Raven! Rae! I've finished the...." Phil's statement froze on his lips as he stopped and took in the meaning of the scene in front of him. What the...?

Raven quickly released herself from Nicky's hold, standing up abruptly, her throat constricting as she glanced down guiltily at the small blonde who still looked up at her with a somewhat dazed expression on her flushed face.

"I th-think I sh-should g-go." Phil stuttered, switching his gaze back and forth between the girls' faces, both flushed with heavy arousal. He quickly stepped away from behind the book stand where the two girls remained, stunned by what had almost occurred.

Nicky suddenly snapped out of whatever funk had taken over her.

"Why did you do that?" Nicky shouted, drawing the attention of the other students. She stood up, her hand pressed to her face in sudden panic. Everyone was staring at her! Had they seen what was happening between herself and Raven?... but seen what exactly? Raven hadn't actually done anything, but wasn't she about to kiss me...or was it me that was trying to kiss her?

Nicky stared at the beautiful girl, who's face only moments before had been hovering heatedly above her own, but was now as cold and still as a statue. Nicky stumbled backwards and ran out the library, leaving the books she had been collecting for an assignment neglected on the linoleum floor.

Raven rubbed the back of her heated neck is discomfort. The whole room was staring at her, she noticed under heavy eyelids. Why'd I have to go and do that!? Now it'll be raging around the school that I'm a raving lezzie who pounces on any available girl... Raven berated herself, rubbing the back of her neck in frustration. In situations like this only one thing could be said....." FUCK!"

TBC