Free Margarette (Violet) by Johi Jenkins, K LeMaire

coach
ultimately has to blow a whistle. Mikey gets sacked into the ground as the play
goes off with one out-of-place cheerleader crossing the line of scrimmage.
    Margarette makes it to the bleachers pretending
nothing out of the ordinary is happening behind her. The guys stare as she sashays
her way out of the field and into the parking lot. The boys on the field start
howling like dogs until the coach turns and smacks one of them in the head with
a clipboard. Then all of the players start clapping, except for Mikey, and only
because he got the wind knocked out of him.
    It looks good for an exit, but she doesn’t leave.
There are too many people in the parking lot for her to just walk out, so she
hides under the bleachers. There she crawls through the bars supporting the
seats and sits by the rows of empty fuel barrels that contain gas used for the
lawnmowers. The field attendant keeps the barrels covered with faded blue tarps
that are unraveling at the edges, wrapped in elastic cords, to protect them
from the weather. They are placed at different heights, with old school banners
on top, affording her some privacy.
    She crumples hidden behind of two barrels set further
back from the rest, under the bleachers. She feels almost safe tucked within the
supporting structure and the barrels, and stays there for almost an hour as the
field empties around her. Alone, the adrenaline wears off and she finally cries.
She doesn’t make a sound as the drops stream down her face. Her hands grasp at
the tears as if she could push them back in, but her eyes flood through her
fingers.
    Tommy walks up the bleachers and sits down right
over Margarette’s hiding place unaware that she is there. She dips her head and
drops even further down to the ground realizing it is him. Then to her utmost
surprise, she hears what sounds like faint sobs. Tommy is crying .
    Her heart sinks, crushing the air in her lungs.
She slowly gets up and moves from the striped shadows of the stairs back from
where she came. She knocks an unused paper cup next to her feet.
    Margarette closes her eyes and grits her teeth;
Tommy stops making noise. When she looks up again, the bench is empty. She
quietly turns around and continues to move to the end of the bleachers. She
twists her body around the edge of the structure to check the coast is clear,
but there he is.
    “It’s you,” Tommy says.

Chapter 6.             Under the Bleachers
     
    “Me?” Margarette asks.
    Tommy advances on her, his eyes traveling down her
body, noting her outfit. Their blue seems to reflect the cobalt of her stolen
uniform and it disarms Margarette for a second. “How long have you been here?”
    “I didn’t hear you crying.” She regrets saying
that instantly.
    Tommy looks away, but doesn’t say anything about
that. Instead, after a pause he says, “I came to tell her we didn’t do
anything.”
    “Oh,” she whispers, assuming he means Sharon.
    “Do you think she’d believe that we didn’t do
anything?”
    “I really don’t know how to answer that.”
    Margarette thinks back about her little after-school
encounter today. The way Sharon acted, there is no way anyone could tell if the
promiscuous girl would understand, or even how she would react to whatever
Tommy told her. Margarette isn’t sure how serious Sharon was with Mikey, so she
decides not to even mention it. Telling him about her conversation with Sharon
wouldn’t do much. If he knew Sharon was thinking of having sex with all of the
boys, he wouldn’t know what to do about it. She looks in his eyes for a second,
but can’t tell him a word. She changes tactics.
    “Tommy, what if she doesn’t believe you? I mean,
would you believe her if people said…?”
    “They already have,” Tommy says, and his voice
sounds far away. He moves under the bleachers with Margarette into the striped
shadows.
    There’s a long pause.
    Finally Margarette says, “Maybe it’s not true.”
    “I fricking walked up to her