Keeping people from knowing my secret is going to be more challenging than I thought.
Chapter 4
Athena
“Where’s my breakfast?” My annoying step-mother’s squeaky voice screams from down the hallway. I know she’s talking to me. Who else would she be screeching at? I roll out of bed and check my clock; 6:45 exactly, just like every morning. I shuffle down the stairs and into the kitchen, yawning as I enter. Classes don’t start till 8:15, so I usually have plenty of time to get ready.
Picking up a pan and grabbing some eggs, I place the pan on the stove and crack eggs. One egg. Two eggs. Three eggs. Four eggs. I pour the eggs together and turn the burner on, waiting a minute before mixing them over the heat. The eggs slowly cook and scramble as I stir gradually. Once they’re done, I shovel two portions onto two plates, one for my stepmother and the second for Lexi. “Food’s done!” I yell and rush back up to my room.
As I walk up the stairs, I notice the pattering sound of rain hitting the roof. Lovely, just what I need.
When I reach my room, I peek out my window to see it’s pouring down rain. Sighing, I pull out my skinny jeans and a dark gray sweater that hangs down to my thighs. Not wanting to deal with my hair today, I pull it up into a bun. My eyes scan over my vanity, looking for the last thing my parents gave me. When I spot it, I carefully pick up the small silver necklace and hook it around my neck- the delicate ‘A’ hanging against my collarbone.
“Ready to go?” Mason asks, poking his head in my room. I grab my backpack and sling it over my shoulder.
“Yeah, let’s go.” We make our way down the stairs, and we pass the kitchen.
“Wait, you’re not eating?” Mason sounds surprised and worried. I keep walking, and he has to run to catch up.
“Not hungry,” I tell him as we exit the house. I open up my umbrella and hold it above my head. Like every day, we walk to school. I haven’t saved enough money for a car, and Alisha won’t buy me one, so we walk. I wouldn’t want anything from her anyway because she’d find a way to make me pay her. She already says that dad ‘left her two extra mouths to feed,’ and that’s why we do all the crap she tells us. I don’t want her holding anything else over Mason or me.
Since last night, the rain has dropped the temperature at least ten degrees, chilling me and making me glad I’m wearing my sweater. The rain slants, so I have to hold my umbrella slightly in front of me to keep it from soaking my clothes. I walk around a large puddle and send up a silent thank you that the school isn’t far.
When the school comes into view, we rush inside, shaking the water off our umbrellas. I wipe the stray water droplets off my glasses and tell Mason I’ll see him later before heading to my locker. I pull out the homework I did in class yesterday and shove it into my backpack. Closing my locker, I walk away, only to run into something. The impact is so sudden it causes me to fall to the floor. I land on my butt and glare up at the person. Lucas, of course.
“Watch where you’re going, nerd,” he spits, kicking my bag and effectively scattering its contents all over the hallway. I stand up, only for him to push me into the lockers. Familiar pain shoots up my back, and I lose my balance, falling to the floor again. My hands curl into fists, but I hold myself back from hitting him. I stay on the floor and pick up my stuff, which is hard because I’m dodging students who are walking.
A familiar tattooed hand grabs my book first. I peer into Drake’s eyes, then down at his outstretched hand. Hesitantly, I place my hand in his, and he hoists me up like I weigh nothing; I’m not saying I’m fat, but still. Embarrassed that he probably saw the whole thing, I look away to hide the pink tinge painting my cheeks. I bend down and grab my black bag, which is sitting at my feet, and stand back up, mumbling, “Thanks.”
I stash the book in my bag, and when I look back up, Drake is gone. How does he disappear like that? Is he trying to be Batman? Ignoring his weirdness, I walk to English and sit in my usual seat. Not even a minute later, a familiar blonde plops down in the chair next to me.
“Good morning, Button,” he greets with a goofy smile. His smile is contagious, and the next thing I know, I’m smiling too.
“Hi, Ross. What happened to your face?” I ask, feigning confusion.
“Uh, I was walking home yesterday, and I, uh… I got jumped by like five guys,” he stutters nervously, and someone in front of me laughs. I feel slightly bad about it, so I hold in my laughter as best as I can.
“Try getting beat by one girl,” Alec laughs, slapping his knee. He grins at me, and I can’t help it. A laugh bubbles out of me, and Ross looks away, clearly embarrassed. Oh, if he only knew.
“Yeah, he got beat by a girl in like five minutes. It was hilarious,” Alec teases, still laughing. Someone scoffs. When I look up, the wannabe Barbie group is glaring at me. I quickly look away and notice Drake sitting beside me. When did he get there?
I half expect him to pitch into the conversation, but he says nothing. Shrugging it off, I turn to the front and listen to Mr. Richards drone on and on about some piece of literature that has something to do with a hero’s death. Now and then, he looks at me. I try not to make eye contact.
The class passes painfully slowly. Every time Mr. Richards looks at me, I feel the need to run out of the room. He makes me feel dirty. He’s creeping me out, and I should probably do something about it.
When the class goes silent, I look up. Mr. Richard is staring at me again. “Miss Hale, I’ve called your name multiple times,” Mr. Richard says, his face scrunched up in anger. I close my book and set it on the desk.
“Sorry, I was- what did you say?” I ask. Mr. Richard frowns and leans against his desk.
“See me after class.” His words make me freeze and lift my eyes.
“But I-“
“No buts, Miss Hale. You weren’t paying attention, so I’ll be speaking with you after class,” he tells me more sternly, making me shrink back in my chair. I bite my lip, worrying it between my teeth as I dread the conversation coming. The rest of the class goes by quickly, and soon, the bell rings. I don’t notice my hands are shaking until I stand up and grab my bag.
I drag myself to the front of the room, ready to bust his face if needed. I don’t care if he’s a teacher. When I stop in front of Mr. Richard’s desk, I feel a presence at my back. I glance behind me to find Drake standing there with his hands in his pockets as he looks at Mr. Richards. “You can leave, Drake,” Mr. Richard says, but Drake doesn’t move.
“Nah, I’m good here,” Drake shrugs and sits on the top of a desk. I silently thank him as I turn back to Mr. Richards.
Mr. Richard turns to me with a scowl. “Athena,” he starts, sending shivers down my spine. “What kind of punishment would you prefer?” He asks, making my head snap up. What?
“Excuse me?” I ask, taking a step back. Mr. Richard notices this, and his scowl deepens.
“Extra work or detention?” He asks, his tone sounding angry. I release a breath that I didn’t know I was holding in. If Drake wasn’t here, I feel this conversation would take a wrong turn.
“I’d rather have detention. I don’t have time for extra work,” I tell Mr. Richards. He reaches into his desk and writes me a detention slip.
Drake
I watch as the sicko teacher rakes his eyes up and down Athena’s body. A wave of anger washes over me. I barely know this girl, but there’s something about this that makes my blood boil.
“I’d rather have detention. I don’t have time for extra work,” Athena hisses. Really? She was just reading; this is English class, so why does it matter? The teacher writes her a slip, and she takes it, booking it out of the room. Once she’s out of the room, I stand to my full height.
“Leave her alone,” I warn him. With that, I leave the room under the wide-eyed, scared gaze of my English teacher.
Ever since I met Athena, I haven’t stopped thinking about her, and I can’t figure out why. The first time I saw her, I noticed the hidden beauty. She’s s
o small and innocent looking but feisty. I know she’s probably heard people whispering about how my friends and I are bad boys, but the only thing that makes us bad would be the fighting or occasional anger.
When people think of bad boys, they think of players, bullies, and drugs- things none of us do.
Actually, we hate people like that.
No one should ever play with a girl, then throw her away, and bullies. They’re the worst. I hate bullies, especially that Lucas guy. Why does he pick on Athena, anyway? She’s so quiet and never gets in anyone’s way. Sure, she’s a little nerdy, but that’s no reason to bully her.
Shaking my head, I stop by my locker, where the guys are already standing around. “Hey, man, what took so long?” Chase asks as I open my locker. I pull out my History book and slam the door shut, thinking about the dirty look on the teacher’s face.
“I stayed back with Athena while she talked to Mr. Richard,” I tell him, and his face scrunches up.
“Good, I don’t like the way he looks at her.” Alec and Ross’s heads turn in Chase’s direction with raised eyebrows and open mouths. My face probably mirrors theirs. Chase rarely likes anyone outside of our group, so for him to say something like that is strange. Interesting but unusual.
“What?” Alec stutters. Chase looks up and shrugs.
“I said, I don’t like the way he looks at her,” he repeats before walking away and leaving us standing there like fish gasping for water.
“You saw the bruises, right?”
As soon as the words left Alec’s mouth, Chase’s head flies up. My eyes zero in on Alec, and I step forward. “What bruises?”
“The ones on her neck and wrists,” he says matter-of-factly. Questions fly through my mind: Where’d she get bruises? Was she being abused? Were her parents hurting her or a boyfriend?
“If someone is hurting her, we need to do something about it,” Chase speaks up, and I agree. There’s nothing worse than someone having to hide that someone is hurting them. We all saw what it did to Kim, Chase’s girlfriend.
“We will.”
Athena
I reach History in record time, sliding down in my seat and laying my head on the desk, with the wish I could disappear. I hear people walk in, but I don’t look up. When the chair beside me scrapes and groans, I peek from under my arm, expecting to see Drake, but it’s Chase. He studies me, nods, then faces the front.
Ignoring the odd fact that he acknowledged me, I lay my head back down. The chair on the other side of me moves, so I turn my head and find a smiling Mason, except when he notices my face, he frowns. “What’s wrong?”
“I was reading in class. When Mr. Richard called my name, I didn’t hear him, so he gave me detention.”
He narrows his eyes. “What else? There’s something wrong,” he demands. I look down at my desk, folding my hands together. I don’t want to tell him about the creepy stares Mr. Richard gives me, so I stay quiet. He doesn’t need more baggage.
“Mr. Richard looks at her inappropriately and tried to get her alone,” Chase says without looking at either of us.
Mason gives me an ‘are you serious’ look. “Why didn’t you do anything?” Mason asks, sounding kind of mad.
I put my face in my hands. “I don’t want to blow everything,” I whisper, and Mason sighs. It’s not that big of a problem. I can deal with Richards if I need to. I can always go to the Principal or handle it myself.
“I don’t care. You could get hurt here or there. I don’t want you to not protect yourself because of some stupid secret,” Mason whispers back. I nod, knowing he’s right. Dealing with Richards can’t bring much attention, so I don’t think it would expose anything.
“I’ll do something next time,” I promise, hoping for a second that everyone would just leave me alone. I watch Drake and the other two guys enter the room. Drake glances at me but says nothing as he sits in front of me.
~*~
The bell rings, signaling the end of my free period. Groaning, I get out of my seat and walk to the gym. If I could, I’d drop PE, but it’s a required class each year. Every student has to take PE of some form of it, and the other courses, like band or choir, didn’t sound appealing. So, like usual, I change into the terrible gym uniform when I reach the locker room. Again, I wish Coach would’ve made sure the clothes were more appropriate.
When I walk out of the locker room, I overlook Lexi until she trips me. I fall, my arms instinctively moving in front of me, sending shooting pain up my right arm. Lexi’s high-pitched laugh echoes around the gym as I push myself to my feet. Lexi and Lucas walk away laughing as I trudge to the bleachers.
Lowering onto the bench, I cradle my arm to my chest. Coach calls everyone to the middle of the floor. I can feel eyes on me, and I turn to see Drake fuming, his face red and lips pulled back in a snarl. We all walk to the middle of the floor and surround Coach. “Okay, so we have two choices: dodgeball or self-defense training. Pick,” He announces. Everyone yells dodgeball.
“Dodgeball it is,” Coach announces. “Okay, this half is team one, and this half is team two,” Coach points at me. Everyone to the left of me is team one. Everyone to the right is team two.
The teams split as Coach lines the balls up along the half-court line, separating the teams. I see Drake and Chase are on my team, along with several other students. As I watch the other team, Ross and Alec send annoyed scowls at Lexi and Lucas, who are on their team, and some other students.
Lucas eyes me and points threateningly.
I take time to stretch my arm, which hurts, but the more I move it, the less it burns. The sound of a whistle rings through the air, and before I can move, balls are flying everywhere. Ducking, I dodge as a ball flies over my head. I keep my eyes on Lexi and Lucas because I know they’ll aim for me. I jump to the left and duck again, barely avoiding the colorful round objects flying at me.
Two bodies come to my sides, and I see Drake and Chase out of the corner of my eye. What is up with these guys today? It’s like there’s one of them at my side at all times. Are they my protectors now?
“What are you doing?” I ask the guys, keeping my eyes on Lexi. She smirks at me and throws the ball, hitting Drake.
Neither of them answers me, but before he walks away, Drake whispers something to Chase. Once Drake gets out, Chase stands in front of me. “I’m not a glass doll! I don’t need you guys to protect me,” I yell, stepping out from behind him. Seriously. It’s just a game and a few balls. What made them think they should be my sentinels?
Anger fills me, so I step into the line of fire, letting myself get hit.
Passing the bleachers, I head straight to the locker room. They don’t even know me, and they’re already trying to insert themselves into my life- first Drake, then Ross, and now Chase.
When I get in the locker room, no one is there. I let out a frustrated yell and punch the wall, immediately regretting it. Pain shoots up my arm, making me cradle it to my chest again. “Mother of- freaking- holy mess!” I yell, bending over to lessen the pain. I curse myself. Why’d I think that was a good idea?
I take a few minutes to change back into my regular clothes before running my injured hand under cold water in the sink.
“Well, that wasn’t smart, but like, when are you?” A voice asks from behind me, making me jump and gasp. I turn to see Lexi standing there.
I roll my eyes. “Leave me alone, Lexi. I don’t feel like dealing with you today,” I tell her. She gasps. I look at her with narrowed eyes. “Go away, you little stuck-up brat,” I snap, and she steps back with wide eyes. Great, I’ve done it now.
“Mom is so going to hear about this!” She shrieks, pushing me. I fall back against the wall, the movement trapping my arm behind me. More pain shoots through my arm.
“She’s not my mom!” I yell at her, and a smirk stretches across her lips.
“I know. Your mom is dead,” she sneers. I gasp while watching Lexi stroll out of the locker room. Memories of my mom smiling and l
aughing turned into dark, sad memories of hospitals and sickness- of her pale complexion taking over her bright one.
Tears prick my eyes, and one escapes, rolling down my cheek.
“Crying is not a weakness, sweetie,” Mom told me. “I’ll be gone soon, but you must not hold your emotions in; it’ll only cause more hurt and pain. It’s okay to cry,” Mom had said, rubbing a thumb across my cheek.
Pushing the thoughts away, I wipe the tears away and change back into my regular clothes before leaving. The bell rings as I’m on my way out, so I make my way to Mason’s locker and wait there for a minute before he finally shows up.
When he notices my blotchy, red eyes, Mason moves forward and cups my cheeks. “What happened?” I curl my arms around his waist, needing one of his hugs, and bury my face in his chest. I haven’t had such a vivid memory of my mom in a while, especially not a memory from her last days.
“Can we leave now?” His eyes widen before he says yes, not wanting to make anything worse.
Turning around, I walk towards the front of the school. Almost as soon as I step out the front door, someone grabs my arm. I shriek and throw my left arm back, slamming my elbow into the person’s chest. With everything that happened in the last hour, my nerves are pretty shot.
The person releases my arm, so I spin around just to find Drake gasping for breath. I can see his anger, so I do what anyone would do. I run. Though, a shot of regret hits me. I didn’t realize it was him.
I’m supposed to be the tough fighter, but I allow my vulnerable side to take over at school. Sometimes it’s hard to balance both sides of my life. I don’t know when, outside of the ring, to let out my inner fighter. She’s harder to show when I’m at school, and I don’t know why; maybe because my parents always told me to stay out of trouble at school.
Not So Cinderella Page 4