Can I Make Her a Lesbian? Part 5

I woke up early, thinking about the events of yesterday. Sure, the date was fun, but something is up with Alli. I mean, it’s normal for a girl to have a bit of tension with her parents. But to hate her dad that much… And why was she banned from archery? It’s not like drugs or sex or anything. It’s just a game.
I got up out of bed and threw on a coat. I had searched the entire town last night trying to find Alli, and I knew she was still out there somewhere. I would find her today no matter what.
I stepped out of the house and started walking. But there was a familiar girl standing there, smiling at me.
“You’re a good person,” said May.
I frowned. “You’re the one who got me into this,” I said. “Alli would be perfectly happy now if it wasn’t for you.”
May nodded. “Yes, she would have. But, maybe this is for the best.” She looked up at the stars in the sky. “Not many people would be heading out to comfort her at five in the morning.”
“No,” I said, “this is normal. But, what do you want? I’m kind of in a rush.”
May put a hand on my shoulder. “You won’t find her no matter how hard you look today,” she said. “I know where she is. Follow me.”
She walked ahead. Mesmerized, I simply followed.
May kept talking as we walked. “You know,” she said, “you’ve had many opportunities to kiss Alli already. From blackmail to the date yesterday, to even today. Yet, you haven’t. Why?”
I sighed. “Because sometimes things are more important than yourself. I want her to be happy, that’s all. If I have to be your girlfriend in exchange of Alli’s happiness, so be it.”
May laughed. “Girlfriend?” she asked. “No, trust me when I say that I’m straight. You will be turned back to normal on Tuesday whether you pass or fail.”
We kept walking along the road until a familiar scene appeared before us. Oh damn, why didn’t I think of this before?
“Thanks May,” I said. “I owe you one.”
May shook her head. “This is the least I could do. You’ve already done so much for Alli, it’d be a total waste to let it end like this.”
I walked into the school yard that May had led me to, and out to the archery pavilion. But rather than hearing the whiz of an arrow, I was greeted with a complete silence. At least, until I heard a girl call out, “Mamma! Don’t leave me!”
I rushed to the archery pavilion. There, with a blanket over her legs, was Alli. Her eyes were closed, sleeping soundly. I guess she talks in her sleep or something. May was right. I could very easily sneak in a kiss right here. Her mouth was there for the taking, and I could break the spell.
I slowly moved my lips close to Alli’s face. Her soft lips were gesturing to me. They wanted to lock together. They wanted to end this.
And then I smiled and blew on Alli’s cheek. Her eyes bolted open immediately with a soft scream.
I felt backwards laughing. Alli looked at me shocked. “Sheesh, Liz, you scared me there!” she said. “How the hell did you find me though?”
I smiled. “Well, if I said that I found you on my own I’d be lying.”
Alli sighed. “May led you here, didn’t she?” I nodded. Alli looked out at the range. “That girl is far too smart for her age. She found me here the first time, and I guess she knew that I wanted you here with me.”
She pulled out her cell phone. “I tried to call, but my phone died. School’s locked, so I can’t charge it either.”
“Oh, I can see about that,” I said.
I pulled out my phone and dialed. “Hey, Dad, it’s Liz. Can you open the school’s doors?”
“Wow,” said Liz as we walked inside. “Is your Dad a security officer or something?”
“Nothing as glamorous as that,” I said. “He’s just the night shift janitor.” We headed downstairs to the home economics room and flipped on a light. I put on some water to boil, and then sat down.
“Now, Alli,” I said, holding her hands in mine. “It’s all right if you don’t want to. We all have our own little secrets. I have one myself that I desperately want to tell you, but I’m expressly forbidden to do so. But, sometimes, it helps to tell the truth. What happened yesterday?”
Alli sighed. “You know I’ve only told May about this before, right?”
I didn’t, but I guess that at least puts me in her friend zone?
Alli looked out the window. “This is a story of the past. About 20 years ago, before I was even born. See, there one was a girl named Natalie. Natalie Fisher. Have you heard of her?”
Hm, the name sounds familiar.
“Well, this girl had a gift for archery. Starting from the day she could walk, she would always have a bow in her hand. She continually won title after title, competing with people older than her. The gap continually widened too. At the start she was only competing with those a grade level ahead of her, and then she started to compete against those three years older than her, until finally by the time she entered high school, she was competing against adults.”
“At the Olympics of her Freshman year, she met a man who was from her own home town. He was quite a bit older than her – twelve years older in fact, but she accepted it as love. And so, they began to talk and date.”
“She never medaled at those Olympics. In the quarterfinals, her arm simply gave out. Overuse, the doctors said. Desperately, she swore she’d be back for the next Olympics and overcome her injury.”
“No doctor could have foreseen the recovery she made. Within two months, her arm was back to normal, and she was living a very happy life. She no longer was focused on just archery though, and instead had a lot of fun times with her boyfriend.”
“And then when she was sixteen, the unthinkable happened. She started to put on weight, and would get sick in the morning. And nine months later, she gave birth to a little girl named Alli.”
I thought so.
Alli nodded. “Yes, me. Alli Fisher. Named so because my mom and dad weren’t married at the time.” I stood up to mix some cocoa mix with the water that was now boiling.
“My mom naturally had to leave archery at the time to take care of me. She no longer had time for practice, and instead had to entertain me. By the time I was two and started to play with other kids in my play group, she started to realize the mistakes she made in her life. She had spent so long in archery, she never really had time to make friends. And when she finally found a boyfriend, she abused it, and it was her downfall.”
I poured the hot cocoa into glasses and gave Alli one.
“Thanks,” she said. She continued her story. “When I was about four, my mom saw me outside playing cowboys and Indians with the boys. I always was one of the Indians, taking plastic bows and shooting toy arrows. But my mom saw much more than that. She saw me with a perfect form, and shooting arrows far faster than they were ever intended to go by a four year old. She saw a prodigy.”
Alli took a sip. “Ow that’s hot!” she said, and poured in some milk. “Anyways, she and my dad decided to train me in archery. But they made a limit – three hours a day. I was to play with friends and concentrate on my school work at all other times.”
“The years passed, and I slowly became better at what I did. When I was ten, my mom gave me her own bow and arrows to practice with, telling me that I was going to be a girl that could surpass her.”
“Then when I was eleven, tragedy broke. My mom one day suddenly collapsed. We did everything we could to save her, but it was too late. She died the same day of internal bleeding.”
I blinked. “I’m sorry,” I said.
Alli shook her head. “It’s been seven years now, I’m over it.”
Alli took another sip. “I tried to resume a normal life afterwards. I practiced archery more than before, trying to live up to her legacy. But my dad, he took it hard. He began to get angry, and yell at me all the time. Bad turned to worse, and he started restricting my time practicing archery. Three hours became one, and one became thirty minutes. And when he watched me practice, he was always crying. It was as if I was reminding him of Natalie, and it hurt him.”
She was now drinking the cocoa freely. “Of course, I didn’t obey him,” said Alli. “I loved archery, and I loved what I was doing. And I was at the age where I didn’t want to listen to my parents. So I would head out to the woods in the middle of the night and practice shooting a tree.”
“My dad, of course, caught me one night practicing. At that point, all his rage flew. He snapped my arrows in half, took away my bow, and told me that I was forbidden from practicing archery ever again. He then told me to go to bed, and he was going to bury the bow so that I would never find it again.”
“As you could expect, I went into a period of depression. What really saved me was the church.”
I cocked my head. “Religion?” I asked.
Alli laughed and shook her head. “No, I never really was very religious. We just went to service on Sundays. But, we had a junior high fellowship there, and we had a mentor there. You know her, she’s a Biology teacher here and our advisor.”
“Miss Georgia,” I said.
Alli nodded. “Miss Georgia knew something was wrong, and took me aside. And for the first time in a long time, someone was on my side. She told me for the first time that I wasn’t wrong, and that I should be able to do what I please. So she helped me establish an archery club in middle school. Of course, I had to have a cover. So I ran for the student council, and was able to lie to my dad that I was needed for student council business all the time.”
She leaned back on her chair. “Of course, I knew this wasn’t going to be able to continue forever. I was a victim of my own success. The teacher in charge of the club was so impressed by my skills, she kept pushing me to try for nationals and maybe even the Olympics. But I had to keep turning her down. And so it continued on through middle school and into high school. Though at least here it is the students pushing for me to go for nationals instead of a teacher.”
Alli smiled. “Maybe I am becoming my mother,” she said. “But I’d like to think not. I mean, she got pregnant at sixteen. I’m already seventeen. Sure, I mean, people in this school call me ‘easy’ and all, but how many of them have actually gone on a date with me? You know Liz, you’re actually the first person I’ve ever gone on a date with.”
I blinked. “First?”
She nodded. “And you know, if you want to, I wouldn’t mind you being my first kiss either. You’re the only person who’s ever been here for me through thick and thin. Maybe you deserve a reward.”
She leaned in closer to me. This is it!
I smiled. “No,” I said. “I can’t accept a kiss like this. Kisses aren’t rewards, they are signs of love. And I will have to earn your love to get a kiss.”
Alli laughed. “Excellent answer,” she said. “You pass the test.”
“Test?” I asked.
She nodded. “That was just a test to see if you just liked me, or what my body can give you. If you could only think of yourself after hearing that story, you just don’t care about me. But you really do like me, don’t you?”
I smiled. “I told you I did.”
Alli sat back in her chair. “Wow, it’s already noon,” she said. “I’m going to go to the nurse’s office for a bit. I hear they have a nice bed there. Catch up on some sleep I missed. Though I’ll probably be practicing some archery tonight if you want to come.”
I shook my head. “Sorry, I have to visit a tutor for my math struggles. But tomorrow sound good? I’d be happy to stay after practice with you.”
She nodded, and we went our separate ways.