by Octavia June
Bullies of Ember High Series
Book One
BULLY SECRET
Octavia June
Copyright © 2019 Octavia June
All rights reserved. No part of this novel may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior permission in writing from the author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
https://octaviajune.weebly.com/
Table of Contents
Copyright Page
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Books by Octavia June
Chapter 1
JUST ONE MORE CHAPTER.
Or, at least, that was what I told myself.
But as I made my way forward, gripping my tray with food in one hand and my book in the other, I knew that I’d be finishing the book today.
“Melody!” I heard my best-friend’s voice and looked up. “Over here!”
Samantha was sitting at one of the tables and waving at me. A big smile spread across her lips, her brown eyes trained on me.
Just as I was about to smile back and head in her direction, I bumped into someone, my already shaky grip on my tray faltering.
A yelp escaped my throat as the tray tipped over, but there was no time for me to react or do anything.
A foul curse rang out, and I lifted my gaze.
Oh shit.
Aaron Oliveira, one of the hottest boys at my school, was glaring at me with all the hatred in the world, and then his hazel eyes lowered to his white shirt that now had ketchup and juice stains all over it.
“I’m so sorry,” I said as heat filled my cheeks.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” he yelled. “Do you still have eyes or did you eat them too?”
I gaped at him, wondering if I’d heard him right or if I was just imagining it.
Maybe I was wrong, but I had the feeling like every single person in the cafeteria was staring at me, which was definitely something I wasn’t used to.
“Leave her alone. Can’t you see she’s pregnant?” A dark-haired boy laughed, his blue eyes focused on me.
Rhys Blake.
One of Aaron’s best friends.
“Wait, guys. Does she work here or what?” Ethan Summers grinned as he ran his hand through his blond hair. “You don’t want to insult someone who cooks your food.”
“I don’t think she’s a cook. She just likes to eat too much,” Zack Haynes chimed in.
I was rooted to the spot and unable to move, my cheeks burning.
The four most popular boys in my school were laughing at me, and it didn’t even look like they knew that we had History together.
Hell, we were all seniors, and all these years, they hadn’t even noticed me. I couldn’t say I was surprised by that, but it was getting hard for me to breathe.
This so wasn’t happening, except it was.
And I didn’t know what to do.
Somehow, I forced my legs to move, and I hurried away from there as I clutched my book to my chest.
People were staring and laughing at me, and I stormed past Samantha’s table and headed straight for the exit.
I couldn’t stay in there for a moment longer.
“Hey, Fat Ass!” Aaron shouted after me. “Clean up this fucking mess first!”
Tears stung the corners of my eyes as I pushed the door open and rushed out into the hallway.
When I finally stopped, my chest was heaving. I leaned my head against the wall, gritting my teeth.
I should’ve said something to them.
I shouldn’t have let them laugh at me.
But it had all just been too much.
And the worst part was that I’d always thought Aaron, Rhys, Zack, and Ethan were attractive, and I’d even fantasized about dating them.
So much for that dream, huh?
As if boys like them would ever date a girl like me.
“Melody!” Samantha came running toward me, her brown curls cascading around her shoulders. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.” I nodded a little bit too fast.
“Those guys are idiots. You know that, right?”
“Yeah.” I did my best to push my tears back.
What they had said didn’t matter.
It was kind of funny, actually.
I’d always wondered what it would be like to finally get noticed by them, and now, I wished it had never happened.
“They’re going to forget about me,” I said more to myself than to her.
By tomorrow, no one was even going to remember what had happened, and unfortunately, I was going to remember it forever, but there was nothing I could do about that.
But we all had our high school traumas, and I supposed this was going to be mine.
“And you’re going to forget about them too,” Samantha said.
I only gave her a small smile that I knew wouldn’t reach my eyes. My cheeks were still flushed, and my stomach growled with hunger because I hadn’t eaten anything this morning.
“My mom made me sandwiches. Do you want one?” Sam asked. “We can go outside, away from those jerks.”
“Yeah, thanks.” I needed some fresh air to help me clear my head, but my thoughts kept flying back to Aaron and the disgusted look on his face.
Did he really find me that repulsive?
Or had he just been upset because of his ruined shirt?
No, I wasn’t going to let some jerk make me feel bad about myself, no matter how handsome he was.
I wasn’t going to let any of them from his little group to get into my head.
But I still couldn’t stop thinking about that one time when a stranger on the street had walked up to me and told me that with my long blonde hair and blue eyes I could be a model, if only I didn’t eat so much.
I pushed all those thoughts away and shoved them into a dark corner of my mind.
What had happened today was just going to be another bad memory.
Nothing else.
I wasn’t going to let it be anything else.
I was just bigger than most girls at my school, but so what?
Hell, maybe those boys were just messing with me like they did with everyone else. Maybe they didn’t even mean any of what they’d said.
All they wanted was attention, and they had plenty of it.
For the most part, I was one of the quiet, invisible studen
ts at my school, and I was sure I’d go right back to being one tomorrow.
And I was totally okay with that.
Chapter 2
AS I WAS ON MY WAY to my locker, I noticed something strange.
Whenever I passed by someone, they were glancing at me, giving me weird looks, or giggling.
What the hell?
Had they all heard about the incident in the cafeteria yesterday? I’d been hoping everyone would forget about it and move on to something more interesting, but apparently not.
“Are you all right?” Samantha asked me as she appeared next to me, her brow creased with worry.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I eyed her carefully.
“Um, didn’t you see it?” She lowered her voice, looking around us.
“See what?” I had no idea what she was talking about.
“Come with me,” she said, placing her hand on my arm.
I let her drag me with her to the bathroom.
When she closed the door behind us, she checked all the stalls. Her behavior was getting me worried, and I wondered what the hell was going on.
“Will you now tell me what’s going on?” I asked after she made sure the last stall was empty too. “We’re going to be late for class.”
“When was the last time you checked the Ember High Journal?”
I blinked at her.
The Ember High Journal was a website that someone had created when we were freshmen. It was private, and a password was needed to enter it, but everyone in our school had it and probably a few people who weren’t even students here.
All kinds of things related to our school and its students were posted on that website, including rumors, polls for voting the hottest student, and even different tests and exam questions.
The principal had tried more than a few times to have the website shut down, but somehow it always came right back up.
No one knew who was posting all that stuff.
“Two weeks ago, I think.” No one had ever mentioned anything about me, and recently, there hadn’t been any important or useful news, just a lot of bullying, which I preferred not to see. “Why? What’s wrong?”
Sam pressed her lips into a tight line as if she was debating whether to tell me or not.
“Please tell me. Wait, did someone post about what happened yesterday?”
Oh shit.
If I’d made it into the news, and everyone could read about one of my most embarrassing moments ever...
I didn’t even want to think about it, especially if it was told from Aaron’s point of view.
Hell, it probably was.
Everyone liked Aaron, Zack, Rhys, and Ethan, or wanted to become their friend. They were the popular guys.
The heroes of the school.
Aaron was the soccer team captain. Everyone loved him. Surely, whoever was anonymously posting all that stuff to that website felt the same way.
“Not exactly.” Sam grimaced. “I think it’s better if you don’t look at it at all. It doesn’t matter what it says. It’s all just bullshit, and everyone’s going to forget about it soon.”
“Whoa. What are you talking about?” Dread filled my stomach, and my palms were getting sweaty.
What the fuck had they done?
What the fuck had Aaron and his friends done?
For all I knew, one of them was behind the website, or all four of them.
“It’s just...” She sighed. “It’s going to be fine. Just ignore everyone for a couple of days. They’re all assholes anyway. You and I will survive this shit, okay?”
“But now I need to know.” If everyone could see it, then I had to know what it was. If there was something about me on that website, I couldn’t just pretend that it didn’t exist. “I need to know what I’m dealing with.”
Before Sam could say anything, I pulled out my phone and brought up the website.
I didn’t have to scroll far.
Nausea rose at the back of my throat as I saw what Sam had been talking about. What everyone had been talking about.
Someone had put up what they called a little game.
There was a photo of me, taken from one of my social media accounts, and then there was a photo of a huge pig right next to it.
The poster was asking for people to try to spot the difference.
My gaze fell on the comments under the photos.
No difference.
It’s the same thing.
I got nothing.
Same photo.
Which one is the pig?
Two pigs.
Melody is on the right?
My throat was so tight that I could barely breathe.
No. No. No.
My worst nightmare had just gotten even worse.
How was that even possible?
“They’re just saying all that because they’re assholes and they think they should do it to fit in. That’s all,” Sam said. “In a few days, they’ll grow bored and find their next target.”
“Who did this? Was it Aaron?”
She shrugged. “Whoever runs that website, I guess. And they’re probably friends with Aaron, or hell, he might be behind it all.”
“How do I take it down? They can’t just use my photo like that!” Panic gripped my insides, and I had no idea how I was going to walk out into that hallway again. Every inch of me suddenly felt huge and heavy.
“I’ll see if there’s a way for us to figure out who’s hosting the website. We can contact them to take your pic down.”
“Okay.” I nodded, but I doubted that would work.
If the photo came down, they’d just upload it again or move their website somewhere else. That was what they always did.
“How am I going to go out there?”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be right there with you. Just keep your head up. They can’t shame you or beat you down. I bet none of them would dare to say to your face any of that shit they’re writing. They’re all cowards. Just like all bullies. There’s something seriously wrong with them.”
Deep down, I knew that she was right, but I still thought that I was going to be sick. “Can we wait until everyone leaves the hallway?” I really didn’t think I could stand the looks and laughs right now.
“Yeah, sure.” She gave me a compassionate look. “I’m so sorry this is happening to you. Maybe we can go talk to the principal.”
“I don’t think that’ll help.” I just wanted the whole thing to be over, but when was that going to happen?
I had no idea, but I couldn’t crawl into a hole and disappear either.
I couldn’t let them win.
I wouldn’t do it.
Chapter 3
I HAD NO IDEA HOW I survived school for the rest of the day, but somehow I did.
But now I was standing in front of the mirror in my room with a scowl on my face.
I should do something to show everyone that they hadn’t defeated me and that their stupid comments didn’t bother me.
Why should they? I was healthy, and I didn’t even smoke and drink like so many of them did.
Maybe if I did at least one of those things I’d be skinnier, but did it really matter?
An idea came to my mind.
I grabbed my phone and put a wide smile on my face.
If Aaron wanted pics of me, he could have them, but they were going to be the best pics ever.
After taking more than a few photos in different poses, I went to check them to figure out which one I should upload all over my social media.
A frown creased my brow.
I deleted the first few because of my stupid double chin. Then a few others because my arms looked too fat. And ugh, my stomach really did look like I was pregnant. And my thighs...
I placed the phone on my desk.
No.
I wasn’t going to let any of that shit get into my head.
I’d been insecure about the way my body looked for almost an eternity, but I’d thought I’d finally accepted myself.
Maybe I was having some sort of relapse thanks to Aaron and his crew.
Gah.
I opened my laptop and took a seat in my chair.
My mood was really crappy right now, and I had to find something to lift me back up. Something inspiring.
I searched for the photos of plus-size models to remind myself that beauty came in all sizes, but I only ended up feeling more depressed.
Maybe it was just me, but those women all looked stunning and their bodies seemed well balanced while mine felt all wrong. Some of them didn’t look plus-size to me at all. Maybe I could look like them too... after hours and hours of retouching the photos.
Somehow, whenever I looked at other people, I didn’t see any of the flaws that I saw on myself.
If I imagined people as roads, there’d be narrower and wider roads, but only mine would be all bumpy.
But were my flaws even real or were they just in my head?
I’m fat.
I’m fat.
I’m fat.
The words echoed in my mind.
I may be fat, but at least I’m not like Aaron. You can’t fix stupid.
A smile tugged at the corners of my lips.
Was there anything I actually liked about my body?
Well, I loved my hair and my eyes. My lips too.
My boobs were kinda nice too.
I didn’t think I was ugly.
Most of the time.
But the part that I hated the most?
My gaze lowered down to my stomach.
Why couldn’t it just be flat? Or at least flatter?
Maybe I’d given up too early on the sit-ups that I’d been doing, but it just hadn’t looked like it was helping, so I’d eventually stopped doing them. But I was still exercising whenever I could.
And yet, that stupid piece of shit refused to shrink.
I hurried to my closet.
Maybe there was something I could do to make myself feel better. I still had some stomach shaping panties somewhere. If I could hide my stomach a bit, then maybe I could finally feel better about myself again.
Once I found what I needed, I changed my clothes.
I dreaded stepping in front of the mirror, but when I finally did, I tilted my head.
Huh.
My stomach was definitely less visible. If I wore a bit wider and shorter shirt that didn’t wrap around it, it might actually look good.