Returning to school is never fun, especially after the weekend that Marley had. At least he got to relax most of Sunday after doing some homework and getting a short ride. His morning classes had flown by and now Marley sat down to lunch with his friends. Bent Fork School was small, the middle school was attached to the High School and shared most of the same facilities, including the cafeteria. The 7th graders were all eating now and there were less than 40 of them. Small classes like these tended to be tighter, everyone knows everyone, but social groups still form. There was a table of cool kids, rednecks, nice girls, mean girls, poor kids, but Marley wasn’t at any of those. Marley’s social group was clearly the ‘geeks.’

Marley joined the 5 other kids at his table and wondered if the school really expected him to eat this stuff they called food, he instinctively pulled his longish hair back out of his eyes and tuned into the latest discussion. “I’m just saying that Batman vs. Superman is dumb, it’s like how is batman going to beat Superman, I mean he’s freaking superman, Shane said. Shane is your archetypical geek; overweight, T-shirt, pimples, glasses, the whole nine yards.

He’s currently arguing with Mike, who is nearly the exact opposite in appearance, “Yes but you forget, Batman has technology, and he’s not all that worried about morality and stuff,” he argues.

“Well one’s “super” and the other’s a “bat” I’ll bet on the super over the bat,” this latest bit comes from Grace, the de facto leader of their group, a wild eyed, wild haired girl who seems to have a T-shirt with a snarky saying for every day of the week. She’s flanked on either side by her two best friends, Bess and Joelle. “Well if it’s Lance Armstrong, the unber biker,” how’d your race go?” Grace asks Marley.

“More importantly did you impress any chicks in your spandex shorts?” Shane asked. Geeze, what do I tell them? Marley thought. Lie and just say I missed my race, tell them it was fine, I don’t know what to say.

“It went OK.” Marley answered.

“OK, that’s it, you’ve been talking about this thing all year,” Grace said.

“Yeah man, did you win?” Mike asked.

“No, it was really hard, all the other guys were really good, but I got second,” Marley said.

“Second, that’s awesome Marley!” Joelle exclaimed.

“Yeah way to go man, did you get a trophy or something?” Mike asked.

“Oh, um, no just a congratulations,” Marley lied.

“Hey guys, I got good news, I got some new DVDs this weekend, want to come over to my house after school and watch?” Grace asked the table.

“What did you get, I’m not into some kind of girly anime,” Shane said.

“Stein’s Gate, the complete series,” Grace answered.

“Oh man, I’ve heard that’s really good,” Marley said. The entire table agreed that they could make it and everyone planned to meet at Graces at 5:30.

A girl approached their table, her long curly hair framed a face coated in makeup designed to make the 13 year old girl appear older, her clothes screamed prep, and her attitude said she was better than them. “Hey can you guys answer a question for me?” Brooke asked.

“We’re busy Brooke, go away,” Grace said.

“I’m talking to the boys,” Brooke said holding up her palm towards Grace. “So guys, are these girls like your girlfriends?” Each of the 3 boys had a different reaction, Shane seemed to think it was funny, Mike seemed to get angry, and Marley turned bright red with embarrassment.

“Go away,” Mike said.

“Humph, it’s an honest question isn’t it, or do you not like girls,” Brooke replied and Shane cracked up.

“How about you Marley, is one of these you’re girlfriend?” Brooke asked.

“Ummm, errh,”

“Don’t talk to my boyfriend you skank! Go be a ditz somewhere else” Grace said raising her voice.

“As if! You geeks are pathetic,” Brooke said as she sauntered off.

“You know what’s pathetic, your IQ!” Grace said, though it felt kind of hollow since Brooke and her preppy friends at the “mean girls” table were pointing and laughing.

“What did you think was so funny dickhead,” Mike said to Shane.

“I don’t know, it was a nervous reaction,” Shane replied.

Marley wasn’t paying attention he was looking at Grace with his jaw held open, did she just say I was her boyfriend? he thought.

“Come on guys, forget that moron, lets go outside,” Grace said.

As they walked to the yard, Marley and Grace hung back, “Did you mean that?” Marley asked.

For once in her life the girl who always seemed to have something to say was silent, she shrugged.

“You were just saying that because you had my back?” Marley asked.

“Come on before I make you take me to the Spring dance,” Grace said.

“Do you, umm, do you want me to take you to the Spring Dance?” Marley asked.

“I want you to do my bidding and help me take over the world, Mwhahaha” Grace laughed and with that they headed outside and Marley still wasn’t sure if he had a friend that was a girl or a girlfriend.

As the day progressed and Marley sat through his afternoon classes he couldn’t help but think of the adventures of his weekend. Over and over again he thought of the thrill of competing in his first race, but he also couldn’t stop thinking of the thrill of doing it as a girl. He wondered if at the next race, if he would make a fool of himself racing against the boys and if Paul, Mandy, and Amy are there he’d really have some explaining to do. His time in the girl’s locker room also seemed to be permanently etched into his memeory. A thought kept returning to his mind, but he pushed it out, he had other things to think about, such as getting Mom to let him go over to Grace’s after school.

“Allright you’ve got an hour to get your homework done first, then I’ll drive you over.” Lisa said as the May family ate a quick supper.

“Do you mind if I ride over, it’s only a couple of miles>” Marley asked.

“It’ll be dark when you come home, I don’t want you riding in the dark,” Lisa replied. “How about I come pick you up,”

“That’s cool, oh and Mom, there was something I was wanting to ask you about,” Marley said.

“What’s that?”

“You said that you did your hard training when me and Ann weren’t with you, is that your Tuesday and Thursday rides?” Marley asked. Tuesday and Thursday mornings Lisa taught afternoon classes at the college and usually went riding in the morning.

“Yeah those are my hard days,” Lisa answered.

“What do you do that makes them hard?” Marley asked.

“Intervals and drills, what’s up kid?” Lisa asked.

“I want to be faster, so I guess I need to train harder,” Marley said.

“Hmm, well it’s hard to train hard when you’re watching DVDs with your friends,” Lisa laughed. “I tell you what, I’ll try not to overdo it tomorrow morning and then Wednesday night when we usually ride I’ll try to show you some of the harder training, OK?”

“Awesome,” Marley said.