by Mae Doyle
I stumbled backward from my friends, but still they didn’t turn around. Luckily, I didn’t have to fake the tears burning the backs of my eyes. Sucking in a huge breath, I turned and ran from the dining hall, pausing long enough to grab my backpack from my table. I slammed the double doors open and tore through them, not looking where I was going, which is why I ran straight into someone.
The person didn’t step back when I ran into them, and I looked up, tears streaking down my face. Between crying and my nose, it was hard for me to breathe, and I sucked in air through my open mouth.
“You look like shit.” Jackie sounded bored, but he reached out and grabbed me by the shoulders, holding me in place so he could look at me. “What the hell happened to you?”
“Maggie and Harper,” I gasped out, “they turned on me. Are you happy now? You guys are doing it – taking what I love from me, and you had to take my friends. You bastard.”
Tears poured down my cheeks but I didn’t even try to wipe them away. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to brush them away fast enough, so instead they dripped off of my chin.
Jackie reached out and brushed a tear from my chin. His thumb was strong, but his touch was soft. I looked up at him as he sucked a tear off of his skin. He tilted his head and looked at me. Whatever kindness I thought that I’d seen in his blue eyes earlier was gone now. They were dark and stormy, and he smiled, a grin that made my heart stop and my stomach flop.
“You taste delicious when you cry. But, honestly, Rosita, I thought that you would be able to hold out a little longer than that. It’s disappointing to know that you broke this fast.”
“I haven’t broken.” My skin burned where he had wiped away a tear, but I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want him to know the effect he had on me. If he knew…then I’m sure that the rogues would use that against me.
“Sure you have. You’re halfway out the door now. Shall I call your mom up and tell her to come get you?”
I clenched my hands into fists, enjoying the way my nails digging into my skin helped drag me back to the present. “Leave my mom out of it. She did nothing to you.”
He shrugged and rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say, Rosita. I just want you to know that we’re all enjoying watching you fall apart.” He gestured at my nose. “That looks like it stings. Tell me again how in the hell you managed that?”
“You know exactly what happened, Jackie, now move. I have to get to class.”
“Oh, you’re not going to class, Rosita. We have something else planned for you. Come on.” He took a step towards me and I backed up, feeling a bit of panic rise up in my throat.
“Not a chance, Jackie.” My feet felt itchy and hot and I slowly turned them, angling them to my classroom. I had a long way to run, and I was fooling myself if I thought that I could get away from him without him catching me, but I was going to give him a run for his money.
“Don’t make a scene, Rose.” The voice came from behind me and made the hair on the back of my neck stand straight up. It was Kaleb. I knew his voice from anywhere.
“Or run.” Brett sounded bored. “Although, I wouldn’t mind giving chase. There’s nothing else going on right now, is there, boys?”
Fine. They had me surrounded. Even if my friends were to walk by right now, I knew that they wouldn’t stop to help me. They couldn’t. They had to make sure that they saved themselves, and spending any time with me was sure to put them in danger.
“What are you going to do to me?” My voice only wavered a little, which I thought was pretty good considering the fact that I wanted to cry.
Jackie chuckled and walked up, clapping his hand on my shoulder. “It’s not what we’re going to do to you, Rosita. It’s what you get to do. Let’s go.”
Chapter 9
The warning bell for the end of lunch rang as the four of us walked out of the main building and into the quad. I heard the ringing and quickly did some mental math – there was about fifteen minutes for me to get to home ec before I would be counted late.
Everyone knew that showing up late to class would give you marks against your name, and the last thing I wanted to do was give Mr. Taylor a reason to join in the student body in trying to drive me out of the school.
“Okay, what’s going on?” I whipped around and stared at the boys. They all wore the same expression on their faces – mild amusement. As different as they all were, they all made my heart beat faster when I was with them, even when it felt like it was me against them.
Like now.
“Give me your backpack.” Brett walked forward and pulled it off of my arm before thrusting a stick into my hand. It looked a bit like a staff. It was longer than I was tall and thick enough for me to easily grip without it being too heavy for me to handle. I gave it an experimental swing and then looked back at them.
“What’s this all about? Do I get to take a free shot at each of you?” The thought of hitting them with my stick was appealing, although I didn’t think that was what this was about.
Jackie scoffed. “Right. Like you’d survive one minute fighting us.” He stretched and my eyes widened as his shirt pulled up and revealed his perfect abs. This was not the time to be thinking about what the boys would look like naked.
But I was.
What was wrong with me?
“So what then?” They didn’t answer my question, but they didn’t have to. Behind them I saw the harpies walking up. Amelia was leading her pack of bitches, as usual, but she was swinging a staff that looked just like mine.
There was no way that they wanted to two of us to fight, was there? I mean, that was insane. As far as I’d come since my accident, I still had trouble moving fast and twisting my body. Amelia had to know that. That’s probably why she had such a huge grin on her face.
“Hey, gutter rat. You ready to party?” Her voice was light and friendly but she had a sneer on her face.
“I…no.”
“Good.” She stopped a few feet from me, slowly tossing the staff back and forth between her hands. “The problem is that your face got partially rearranged yesterday, but the rest of you doesn’t match. I mean, I saw your scars, so I already know that you’re already a freak, but the rest of you doesn’t look as terrible.”
A freak? I swallowed hard, keeping my eyes on her as she slowly started to circle around. If she got behind me then I knew that I was in trouble. I had to keep her from getting behind me.
“Yeah, a twisted, scarred, gutter rat with a broken nose.” She lunged forward, swinging her staff so quickly that it looked like a blur before it cracked down on my hand. I managed to keep from dropping my staff when hers bounced off of my knuckles, but I did cry out.
“Why?!” My voice echoed across the quad. This is not how I wanted this semester to go. I wanted to go after the council and take them down along with the rogues and the harpies. They had me cornered right now, though, and I had to fight back if I was going to be able to get my revenge. Even as I wondered what kind of school allowed for students to fight in the quad, I knew that I had to stay on my game or Amelia would kick my ass.
Taking a deep breath, I stepped forward, swinging my staff as hard as I could. Even though I thought that I was moving quickly, Amelia quickly stepped out of the way, laughing as my staff hit the ground next to her. She countered, hitting me square on the ribs.
I gasped, falling forward, and only barely managed to step forward and catch myself. There was some laughter from the rogues and the harpies, but I didn’t look at them. I didn’t have the time.
“You think that you can just stroll in here and be the leader of our vocal group?” She swung the staff again, this time aiming for my head, but I was able to get mine up in time to block her. Hers bounced off and mine vibrated, my hands sore and aching.
“You think that you’re so hot shit just because your dad died?” She snarled, lunging forward and swiping at my feet. I tried to jump but I couldn’t get off of the ground quickly enough and she caught the back of my left a
nkle, smacking it so hard that I fell backwards onto the ground.
In a flash, she was on top of me, her staff inches from my face. “You need to leave, Rose.” Her voice was a growl.
I bucked up against her, trying to knock her off of me, but she held me still. Her knees were digging into my sides, and she slid her staff down my face and rested it against my neck. My staff forgotten, I clutched at her jacket, trying to push her off of me, but she just laughed.
“I’m sorry, did you say something?” Her face was just inches from mine as she spoke, and I could smell her minty gum. As she pressed harder with her staff, I found it more and more difficult to breathe. Each breath was smaller than the last, and I didn’t have enough air to answer her.
She knew that. I could tell.
“Amelia.” One of the rogues called her name, a warning, but she didn’t move. Her dark eyes were locked on mine, her pupils dilated with adrenaline.
“That’s enough.” It was a different voice, but still a rogue. Amelia blinked like she was having trouble focusing on my face, then lifted up a little on her staff. Immediately, I took a huge breath of air, enjoying the way that it filled my lungs.
She smirked, and in that instant I grabbed her hair, yanking it hard down to the side. She screamed, falling off of me, and I scrambled up to my feet. My heart was pounding and my throat ached, but I was out from under her.
“I’ll kill you, you gutter rat.” Amelia stood up, still gripping her staff, and swung it over her head to bring it down on mine. I ducked, purely out of reflex, but the blow never came. Slowly, I opened my eyes and looked up. Brett had grabbed the staff from the air and pulled it from Amelia. Her rage was now focused on him.
“Give it to me.” There were bright spots of red in her cheeks and her perfect ponytail had fallen out thanks to me pulling it.
“You’re done, Amelia. You got what you wanted.”
“I didn’t. She’s still alive.”
Jackie stepped between the two of them. “You can’t kill her, Amelia. You’re done. You’ve settled your score with her for now, and we told you that you’re not allowed to hurt her.”
Not allowed to hurt me? What the hell did he think was going on? How in the world could I expect people to leave me alone when the rogues didn’t even enforce the rules that they had about me not getting injured at school?
Amelia ignored him and looked past his shoulder to lock her eyes back on mine. “We’re not done, you gutter rat. Watch your back.”
I bent over, grabbing my knees and trying to breathe. My head was light and swimmy and there was darkness on the edges of my vision.
“You okay?” Kaleb rested his hand on my shoulder for a moment, and I stood up, shaking him off. “Rose, are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I lied, standing up and stepping away from him. My throat was on fire and every swallow felt like a million knives dragging down my skin. Even though my ribs weren’t painful yet, I knew from experience that the worst of the pain was to come, probably in the middle of the night, when I was all alone.
When nobody was there to help me.
“Rose,” he started to say, but I turned away, kicking a staff out of the way and grabbing my backpack from the ground. I didn’t know what other shitty games they had planned for me, but I wasn’t about to stick around and find out.
It’s not like I wanted to go to home ec, but I was learning something about Taylor Prep. These kids thought that they made all of the rules, but that’s only because nobody had ever tried anything different with them.
I was different, and I was done.
Chapter 10
The rest of the week was no better. Not only did I not get to sit with my friends since they were now terrified to be seen with me after I got the shit beaten out of me in the middle of the quad, but we didn’t have nearly as many classes together as we did the last semester.
As hard as I tried to learn about the council, students shut up whenever I was near them. I couldn’t get anyone to talk about the council in front of me, and I knew that asking direct questions would only get me hurt.
Friday after algebra I made a break down the hall and cut across the quad as quickly as possible, ignoring the light drizzle. It seemed like all week it had been raining and there wasn’t any way to get away from the constant cold feeling it left in your bones.
Even though I’d booked it as fast as possible, I was still one of the last students to get to the gym. Mrs. Dorn was standing by the door, holding her clipboard and frowning, when I jogged up. I couldn’t very well explain to her that the reason I was late was because my ribs were bruised from getting my butt kicked on Tuesday, so I just apologized and told her I would hurry faster next time.
“You better. Now get in there and change before I make you run laps.” She turned back into the gym and blew her whistle so that everyone turned and looked. I locked eyes with Harper and Maggie before I ducked my head and scooted off to the locker room. They’d both gotten special permission to leave campus to get their hair cut, and while their hair was a lot shorter than at the beginning of the semester, they looked stylish.
I wanted to tell them that I liked it, but I knew that I couldn’t talk to them. I had to avoid them as much as possible if I was going to be able to protect them.
My heart pounded the entire time I changed, but nobody came in to harass me. Being late had that benefit at least, although it did run the risk of pissing my teacher off. Finally, I was dressed, and I pulled my hair into a high ponytail before walking out into the gym.
The class was already set up to run drills and I walked over to the end of the line. Sara was in front of me and turned around for just a second before rolling her eyes. “Ew, it’s Rose. Shouldn’t you be in the hospital or something after having your ass handed to you?”
It took all of my self-control, but I ignored her. If I was going to make it out of here in one piece then I needed to focus on the leaders at the school, and the harpies definitely weren’t it.
A loud whistle cut through the air. “Ok, girls! You’re going to be running suicides this morning because most of you are slower than molasses. Make sure that you bend down and touch the line before turning back or you will run them again, by yourself, with everyone watching. Ready? Go!”
She blew the whistle again and the entire class took off running to the middle of the gym. My entire body was screaming at me to stop and sit, but I tried my best to keep up, chasing after them as fast as I could go. By the time I made it to the middle line, however, everyone else had touched it and was running back.
I saw immediately how this was going to go.
Panting, I bent down and slapped the line, groaning as I stood back up. My ribs were screaming for me to sit, and whenever I twisted my body, I felt a stab of pain shoot through my core. Instead of giving up, however, I turned back to starting point and started to jog.
The entire class was coming towards me. Sara grinned as she ran up to me. I saw her glance around quickly, then her foot shot out. Even though I saw it all happening in slow motion, there wasn’t anything that I could do to stop her.
I tripped on her foot. Even though I wasn’t moving very fast, I was running as quickly as I could, and I felt my body start to fly forward. I threw my hands out in front of my face and managed to catch myself, but as I slid across the gym floor I left behind bits of skin.
Immediately, I curled up into a little ball on the floor, holding my hands as tight as possible to my body. I heard the shrill cry of Mrs. Dorn’s whistle and rolled over to look at her. She marched towards me, her lips tight and a frown creasing her brow.
“Miss Bennett, I thought that you said you would be able to participate in my class. What was this?”
“I tripped.” Slowly I pushed myself up to my knees and then stood. Everyone in the class had stopped and was staring at me. Even though I wanted to find Harper and Maggie in the crowd, I knew that making eye contact with them was one of the worst things I could do right now.
“You tripped?” Her voice was dry. “On what, pray tell? The floor?” When she raised an eyebrow, the whole class started to laugh.
“I guess so.” My hands were burning but I didn’t want to give Sara the satisfaction of looking down at them. “Do you mind if I sit out right now? I guess that I’m not in quite as good shape as I thought.”
“I guess you’re not. That’s disappointing. You may not sit out, but you can skip the rest of the suicides. I want you walking the edge of the gym for the rest of the period.”
I nodded. That didn’t seem too bad, especially considering that she was going to make everyone else continue to run and work out for an hour or so. I started around the gym, making sure to pace myself so I didn’t get too tired. She blew the whistle and the class started running again.
The problem with walking while everyone else ran was quickly obvious, though.
“Slut.” Amelia ran past me, throwing the word out at me from the side of her mouth. She was the first one to call me names as I walked, but not the last.
“Whore.”
“Loser.”
“Gutter rat.”
I’d been ignoring what they were calling me as they ran by, but this last one made me look up. I saw Harper run away from me, her short hair incredibly obvious as she jogged away. Even though I was grateful for the warning that something was probably going to happen, I was exhausted.
Sighing, I bent over and took a few deep breaths. Was it ever going to stop?
The assault?
The attacks?
Before I could feel like I was wallowing too much, however, Mrs. Dorn’s whistle pulled me from my thoughts. My head snapped up as I looked at her. “Get into the locker room and shower and change, ladies! You don’t want to go to lunch smelling and looking the way you do now.”
“Rose doesn’t have to shower. She didn’t do anything but just look ugly all period.” Amelia was talking to Kelly but kept her voice loud enough for me to be able to hear her.