The driver came around and opened the door for us on Jaxson’s side of the car. With a minimal amount of wincing Jaxson slid out and offered his hand to me as I followed behind him.
“Maybe you should have taken another week off school,” I whispered as I came to stand beside him.
“Nope. A little fracture isn’t going to keep me out of the action.” He gave me that knee-buckling smile of his and a wink. “Besides, who else is going to run this school? Can’t let Trina get too full of herself.”
Laughing, I nodded. “Yup. Point taken.” Keeping my hand in his, we walked down the sidewalk and into the courtyard of the school. I could feel the eyes on us as we walked, and the hushed voices. I noticed him trying not to wince from time to time. The average person would never notice, but I was getting to know him well enough to see through the façade he had going on.
We’re back, bitches! I really wished I felt as confident as my thoughts were.
As we approached, out of nowhere, Gabriel and Preston appear at the doors to join us.
“Dude, the shitstorm has been intense,” Preston started just as we came into earshot. “Trina and the girls have been raging.”
“And?” Jaxson shrugged. “Let them bitch. What are they really going to do?” He glanced down at me and grinned. “My girl here already kicked her ass. Does she want seconds?”
“That was insane!” Gabriel raised his hand to give me a high five. Punching someone in the head seemed an odd thing to high five over, but I went along with it. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“If she’s as angry as you say she is, I imagine there’s a chance you’ll see it again.” I smirked, attempting to appear more confident than I really was in that moment. If she cornered me in the changing room before phys ed with her crew of loyal whores, then I was screwed. This wasn’t some action movie where I could take a bunch of them on by myself.
“Don’t know,” Preston said as the four of us walked through the double doors of the front entrance to the school. “She’s not really a physical-violence type.”
“Yeah, she likes the mental manipulation better. Physical bruises go away, emotional ones last a lifetime.” Gabriel added. “If there’s a secret you don’t want found out, make sure it’s locked away and you’ve thrown away the key.”
I groaned inwardly. Fuck my life. Where to start? The lottery win? The fact my mother was working at a diner when we didn’t even need the money? Boy, she’d have a field day with that tidbit of information. If my mom really wanted to work so badly then why didn’t she just open her own diner…
Holy shit! That was a brilliant idea. The idea struck me so hard, I nearly stopped in my tracks. I’d bring it up to her tonight and I’d offer to help her set it up and get it going. Maybe that would be the start of fixing our severely broken relationship! Me and my mom, partners running a business. It was perfect.
“Keira?” Jaxson gave me a little nudge, pulling me from my thoughts. “Good thing there’s no dirt to find on her.” I attempted to keep the look of indifference on my face.
“Great.” Gabriel shrugged, seemingly bored with the topic already and anxious to move on. “And in more exciting news! Ryan Gallant is having a masquerade party at his place in the Hamptons this weekend. It’s going to be insane. His last party of the season out there, so it’s a must-attend.”
“Who’s Ryan Gallant?” I’d never heard the name, but then again, I was new, with technically only two days of school under my belt.
“Dude! You haven’t schooled her on the who’s who yet?” Preston asked Jaxson.
“Whatever. Ryan doesn’t even go here anymore. He was relevant last year.”
Preston scoffed. “Ryan used to co-rule with Jaxson. He graduated last year, making Jaxson the man on campus.”
“With Trina at his side.” I looked up at Jaxson and chuckled, but was given a scowl as a response.
“Ryan dated Trina first and he dumped her after prom. That’s when Trina and I started dating. We only really dated over the summer and a bit during our freshman year but she had plans of us being together this year,” Jaxson explained, ignoring the random input by Gabriel and Preston. “I couldn’t handle her shit.”
“That’s why you need me,” I said under my breath. I got it. He’d screwed with her arrangement and I was the obstacle that had to be removed so she could continue on with her preconceived plan for the next year.
“People respect Jaxson,” Gabriel explained, giving his friend a pat on the back. “They hate and fear Trina. Fear isn’t the ideal route to becoming school president. With Jaxson by her side she had a chance. Now it’s going to be harder for her.”
“It would be hilarious to see her lose out to someone else,” Preston added.
At our lockers, I was surprised to see that no one had messed with my locker in my absence. I certainly wouldn’t have put it past Trina and her whores to screw with me by breaking in and leaving something disgusting inside.
Maybe I’ll run. I said to myself, though it was more a joke than anything else. I didn’t even know the school and I certainly didn’t have the pedigree for it. Pedigree…. Damn, the way I worded it made everyone in the school sound like goddamn show dogs. What would that make me? The mutt that was whelped out behind a barn somewhere?
Walking into our first class together after the assembly and homeroom I had to do a double take when Jaxson and I walked in to see Trina and Camila sitting in the front row. My gaze locked onto hers as I paused in the doorway. Despite the thick flawlessly applied make-up you could still see the faint traces of the black eye I’d given her. Served the bitch right.
Keeping my hand firmly in his, Jaxson led be across the room and purposely led me down the row that had her on one side and Camila on the other. Not wanting to fall for the whole tripping trick again, I kept my eyes peeled, but she didn’t stick her foot out or place anything else in my way. In fact, she smiled at me as I walked past, but the smile was not even close to being friendly. It was the smile you gave someone when you were about to fuck them up and they didn’t know it yet.
What in the hell did she have up her sleeve?
~*~ TT ~*~
Lunch went by smoothly; I even got to eat the lunch I’d been anxious to have the previous week but had ended up wearing instead. Jaxson’s table was busy with people coming by to say hello. Some tried to pump us for information about the status of the great Trina/New Girl feud, but we kept tight lipped about it.
As much as I tried to keep from looking in Trina’s direction, I kept feeling her eyes on me. And every damned time I’d catch her staring she’d just smile and go back to her lunch and chat with her followers. It kind of felt like I was trapped in the twilight zone or some -p dream.
This wasn’t how things should be progressing. Preston and Gabriel themselves had said she’d been on a rampage, but at the moment she was all peaches and cream. Was this some sort of mind game she was playing? If it was, I’ll give her kudos: she was playing a damned good game of it because I was royally confused.
“Do you want me to walk you to the gym?” Jaxson asked, placing a hand on each of my shoulders and staring down at me with concern in his dark eyes.
I frowned, giving it some serious thought before declining. What was going to happen would happen in the changing room. “No, I’ll be fine. Trina has something up her sleeve, I can feel it, but I don’t think a physical fight is it.”
“You’re right. Most likely not.”
“Besides,” I shrugged. “It’s not like I can have you with me everywhere I go. I’ll be fine.”
“I beg to differ. I can certainly be with you every second if that’s what it takes.”
I laughed; his loyalty and diligence were appreciated. Placing my palms flat on his chest I leaned into him and placed a delicate kiss on the side of his neck. “Thank you, but I need to do this alone.”
He didn’t look convinced but conceded, bending to give me a quick kiss on the lips. “In that case…. Late
r babes.”
As much as I would have loved to have stood there kissing him through the entire period, I knew I couldn’t, so turned and made my way to the changing rooms. I was very tempted to go to one of the bathrooms and change in there instead. I could completely bypass the gang of bitches then, but instead I sucked it up and entered the gym changing room. I was a tad on the late side, so to my relief the changing room was empty and I was able to get into my gym clothes without incident.
Maybe luck was on my side?
Maybe my fight with her had ended it all?
Placing my foot up on the bench I tied my first sneaker, and was in the process of tying the second when I heard the door open.
“Ah, Keira. Finally you’ve shown up, I’ve been waiting for you.”
My blood ran cold. I knew that voice and didn’t have to turn around to know who it was. Guess I wasn’t so lucky after all.
Chapter 16
Don’t let her know she can get to you, I coached myself as I finished tying my shoe and turned to face her. “Can’t say that I feel the same way.”
“I’ve had some time to give our situation some thought.” Trina approached me with a couple of her minions in tow. “And I think it would be best all around if we just bury the hatchet and all become friends.”
I gave her the side-eye, not really sure if I’d heard correctly. Surely, I hadn’t. Why in the hell would she want to be friends with me now? “You want to be friends? With me?”
“I don’t think us battling is really in the best interest of the school. You’ve proven that you’re a worthy adversary and I respect that.”
I raised a brow at her. What in the hell was her angle? This wasn’t adding up at all. She had me stumped. Should I come at her with aggression, or do I play it smarter and try to figure out what she was up to? I just didn’t want to come out of this looking like a fool.
“Appreciate it.”
She smiled, her little followers smiling along with her. “Good. Then how about we let this whole Jaxson thing go and we can all be friends?”
This whole Jaxson thing?
“I’m going to have to think about it.”
Her smile faltered, but she regained her composure with lightning speed. “This isn’t an offer I extend to people regularly; I hope you realize this.”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I eyed her. “I don’t doubt that.”
“Considering the rocky start we’ve had, I’ll grant you a day to consider it. Otherwise the offer is off the table and things will get very uncomfortable for you her at Greisbach high.”
“That’s kind of you.” The sarcasm was gripping from my tone, and seeing the way her jaw clenched it didn’t get past her.
“Good then.” She spun and strutted from the changing room, her hoes in tow.
Once they’d disappeared and the door closed securely behind me, I sighed a breath of relief. This was seriously unexpected, and there was no way in hell I would ever trust her. She was a viper.
Exiting the locker room, I was excited to see that the nets were set up and volleyballs were brought out. Most of the class was already out on the court and messing around.
Coach Monroe, a tall, slender woman who I would guess to be in her early thirties, blew the silver whistle that she had hanging around her neck and ordered us all to line up. At Greisbach Academy girls and boys had separate phys ed classes so I was severely outnumbered, without a single friend in class. At least for now I was the outsider. Glancing down the line of girls I noticed that close to half the class seemed to hang over Trina, but maybe there could be a friend among the girls of the other half. No one attempted to chat with me, despite my putting out an effort to smile and say hi.
Could I be on the cusp of going from outsider to untouchable? I honestly didn’t know.
“Ladies, since we had to cancel the volleyball team tryouts last week after school and since I have obligations after school each day this week, we’ll be having tryouts during class today.”
I got a sudden rush of adrenaline. I hadn’t missed out on the volleyball team after all! All concerns I had over Trina dissipated and 100% of my focus was on Coach Monroe.
“Those who want to try out will be playing at the net closer to us, and the others will be playing at the net further away. The decisions for the team will be posted tomorrow after school on the gymnasium door. Are there any questions?”
She was answered with a unanimous no and the girls quickly assembled to their respective nets. Eight girls from our class decided to try out. As luck would have it, I was one of those girls, along with Trina and three of her flunkies.
“We have up to twelve spots on the team and I have eight gym classes to pull from between myself and Miss Filipello so I’d suggest you play hard. Don’t let your spot on the team be lost because you didn’t give it one hundred and ten percent!”
Trina and her three followers immediately claimed one side of the court, leaving me with the other three girls. I had yet to learn my teammates’ names, but hopefully after tryouts today they’d know me a little better.
Coach Monroe tossed me the ball. “Serve it up, Keira.”
“Yes, coach.” I positioned myself at the serve line and spun the ball in my hands, getting a feel for it. I had to keep in mind that this court was much smaller than an outdoor court and the cement floors were not as hard to run in as sand. Though those things shouldn’t be too much of a factor.
“Hurry it up! We want to kick your asses sometime today,” Trina yelled, followed by a chorus of snickers from her teammates.
Game on! Tossing the ball up in the air I had a target in mind—Trina—and I never missed my mark. My hand drew back and the ball of my hand smashed into the ball, sending it spiraling over the net and directly at Trina with astounding speed.
I was arrogant enough to be surprised when she managed to bunt it to her teammate. The girls passed it successfully and sent it up and over the net. I watched as the ball landed at the feet of my teammate in front of me.
For crying out loud. I’d been tempted to go after it myself, but wasn’t about to push the girl with the long fire-engine red hair out of the way to get it. Perhaps I should have…. As the game progressed it was becoming quite evident that we were severely outmatched.
“Might as well just go to the other court,” Trina yelled. “We’d hate to keep humiliating you. Our ball.”
That was it! I’d had enough of her bullshit and taunts. I’d been enduring it for close to half an hour grinning and bearing it. Enough was fucking enough.
Snatching the downed ball from my teammate’s hands—yeah, that was rude, I know—I focused on Trina and her nasty little taunting face. What a fucking bitch. Narrowing my eyes, I tossed the ball tossed the ball up and hit it with as much force as I could, spiking it over the net and directly at Trina.
Bingo.
She grunted as the ball smashed her right in her smug little face, sending her toppling backward and onto her ass. She groaned as she lay on the gym floor, her minions running to help her up.
“You bitch! You did that on purpose!” She stood and swiped at her nose, smearing blood from her nose and across her cheek.
My mouth dropped. Ohmygod!
“I think you broke my nose!” She touched her nose and winced. Her band of merry sluts gathered around her, fussing like she was a damned queen of England.
Double and triple shit. I wanted to say something, but words refused me. I’d intended to give her a wallop with the ball, but not break her nose!
Coach Monroe blew her whistle and ran onto the court, assisting Trina to the office.
“Does this mean that we can’t be friends?” I knew I shouldn’t have yelled what I had yelled to her. It came out before I knew what was happening, and it caused the entire gym to go completely silent.
She stopped and slowly turned to me, sheer unadulterated hatred in her eyes. Our stares locked and I knew then and there shit was about to get one hundred times worse for me here at
Greisbach Academy.
~*~ TT ~*~
“I’m not sure if I want to laugh or shake my head at you right now,” Jaxson said, staring at me in disbelief after I told him what had happened in gym class. “I leave you alone for an hour and you start an all-out war.”
“In my defense, I didn’t mean to break her nose and let’s be honest, she could use a nose job anyhow.” It was my best attempt at humor. Not to be petty or anything, but her nose did have a little hump. You’re welcome, Trina.
“Well, I will say this. I picked the right girl to stand up to her. You’re pretty badass, newbie.”
Grinning, I gave him a playful punch to the shoulder. “Don’t you forget it. Seriously though, I really didn’t mean to hurt her like that. I mean, I meant to send her a message. They’d been trash-talking me most of the time. I just wanted to show them who they were messing with.”
He chuckled. “Oh, I think you certainly did that.”
Leaning back on the park bench in Central Park with a view of the lake, he motioned for me to cuddle up next to him. My smile widened as I snuggled tight to his warm, hard body. When I felt him tense under me, I remembered his rib and sat up a little, so I wouldn’t be putting too much pressure on him.
“I have a question for you then?” he said.
Turning my head, I looked up at him. Maybe he was going to ask me to be his girlfriend, for reals. “What’s that?”
A sly smile spread across his lips. “You going to make the team?”
He was such a goofball. Leave it to him to hear all the action that went down and wonder about the team. “I’m honestly not sure. It was one hell of a spike.”
“I bet it was. God, I wished I could have seen it though.”
“Once she gets her nose fixed I’m sure you’ll see another match. There’s no way in hell she’s going to let that go.”
“You may need to enter the witness protection program,” he teased, swirling a lock of my hair around his index finger and watching the strands slowly slip away.
Outsider: Upper East Side (Greisbach Academy #1) Page 11