“And African American. You are new to Holden’s world. I think he’s liking what he’s seeing,” Mai added.
Carson thought about her own looks. She felt discarded since her father left. When she was younger, she knew she was cute. Now she wasn’t so sure. If she was all that, then her father would still be in Texas and not across the country.
Holden appeared out of nowhere to escort her to class. At lunch he sat down at a table and waited for the bell. When it rang, he grabbed her hand and walked in the direction of her class.
He was even there after the last class of the day. It was Friday. He wouldn’t see her all weekend. But he wanted to spend some time with her. Instead of their usual hangout by the bike racks, Carson steered them to the picnic tables to wait for the buses to load. She knew that would put them front and center. Right in Jessa’s line of sight.
They said to put the plan into overdrive.
As he sat down on the table, she looped her pinky finger through his and leaned away from him. He pulled her into him and whispered in her ear. She began to laugh. But she stopped and watched Jessa coming toward them. She was followed by an even larger group of girls. They seemed eager to watch Jessa send Carson home in tears before the weekend.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the prince and the pauper.”
“What do you want, Jessa?” Holden asked, trying to get rid of her. Carson had a different plan.
“Jessa, go away. You want what I have. You are just jealous.” She turned her back on the entourage and went back to her conversation with Holden. To her, the mean girl was invisible. She surprised everyone by standing up for herself with her obvious diss. Not many people had the courage to mess with Jessa.
“You turn around and look at me when I’m talking to you. Or I’ll embarrass you both out here,” she warned.
“Jessa, go!” Holden demanded. “Just leave her alone.”
“No, she’s the one who pretended to be my friend. She knew I liked you. But she went after you anyway. I’m the one you should be consoling, not her. She’s trash!”
Carson turned around to face her enemy. She could see the hatred in Jessa’s eyes. She had never been disliked so much or so publicly.
“That’s right,” Jessa spat. “You were thrown away just like trash! You are a homeless, begging squatter! Where’s your Will Work for Food sign? Holden deserves better than you. But don’t worry, he’ll tire of you. Just. Like. Daddy.”
Carson moved to get closer to her. Holden held her back.
“What? You gonna hit me? Is that how you do it in yo’ hood?” She laughed and her entourage laughed too.
The plan wasn’t working. Where was the principal? The vice principal didn’t come over either. Emma and Mai were nowhere in sight. She had stood up for herself. But now everyone was laughing louder.
She shook herself from Holden’s grasp and boarded the crowded school bus. Luckily, the first row was still vacant. She slumped down in the seat. She felt defeated and alone. With nowhere to turn, she closed her eyes and let her head rest against the window.
He’ll tire of you. Just … like … Daddy. She shook her head, as if this would stop the automatic replay. It didn’t work.
Chapter 12
In Your Face
Carson had attempted to stand up for herself. But there were too many of them. Jessa was too powerful at this school. She was thinking about a different plan now, one to get her away from this awful place. From Holden. From Jessa.
When the bus rounded the corner, she knew she could no longer see Summit. She opened her eyes. She stared out the window. A tear rolled down her cheek. She quickly wiped it away.
Be strong , she commanded herself. Where were Mai and Emma? This was their stupid idea anyway. The plan totally failed.
They were dropped off in the crowded mall parking lot each day. Carson got off the bus and looked for her mom’s car. She heard a car’s horn and saw her mother in a convertible Mustang, waving her hand like crazy.
“Do you like it? Mom got us a new car.” “How can we afford this?” she asked her mother glumly.
“Since when do you worry about my bank account? We are fine. Now let’s take a drive across the bridge.”
The wind seemed to blow away the difficult week. It was still fall, but it felt more like summer. A warm front had swept through Texsun City. It was a wonderful day to enjoy a drive. Carson looked at her mother’s carefree smile. It was contagious. They pulled over at one of the food trucks by the pier. After ordering hot dogs and cheese fries, they watched the ships being guided into the harbor by barges.
“So how was it?” her mother asked, reading her daughter’s body language. “How did it go?” Carson knew that she was referring to their conversation earlier in the week. She hated to tell her mother what she was going through at school. She didn’t want her to worry.
“It was hard, like you said.” She twirled her fry in the cheese before taking a bite.
“Hey, look at is this way. You don’t have to worry about it coming out anymore. It’s done. It can’t be done again.”
Carson knew that her mother was right. Jessa had used every piece of information she had. But Carson was still standing.
“Now you just heal. Mama is slowly trying to piece our lives back together. You have to find a way to do the same.”
They rode back over the bridge as the sun started to set. The once warm temperature was turning cold. They wanted away from the water’s breeze.
At home, Carson went to put on her comfortable pajamas. It was movie night with her mom. She heard a knock on her window and knew it was Jody. She raised the window, and the night air instantly cooled her room.
“Have you been on Friender?”
“No, why? I’m just getting home.”
“There’s video of you today at school.”
Carson booted up her computer. She stared at it with Jody, cringing as she watched the whole after-school confrontation.
“That’s so embarrassing,” Carson said.
“Read the comments.” Jody slowly scrolled down the page.
Carson skimmed. It was an I-hate-Jessa campaign. All of her victims were coming forward. Some of them past friends. Some who had left Summit because of her. And others who had been afraid of becoming a target.
“Oh my! It worked. Emma and Mai said she’d come unglued. They told me that I would be the one to expose her.”
“You planned this?” Jody asked proudly. “That’s my girl. Never a victim!”
She didn’t know if that was true. She had felt like a victim as she retreated to her bus. She had even felt like running away, but she hadn’t. She read the comments again, proud of herself for outsmarting Jessa and taking away just a little of her power.
Carson knew that Jessa was somewhere out there reading the comments too. She had to realize that her reign of terror was coming to an end.
Chapter 13
The Hometown Favorite
Carson walked into Summit Middle School on Monday morning. Everyone seemed to know her name. She didn’t know what to think.
“Hey, Carson!”
“What’s up, Carson?”
Mai and Emma were waiting by their
lockers with huge smiles on their faces. “It worked,” Emma said proudly. “Everyone is on your side.”
“Nobody wants to be Jessa’s friend
anymore. Even her own crew is turning against her,” Mai added. “She even has her own hashtag, the most beautiful bully.”
Carson was a little less amused. It was just a matter of time before Jessa came up with another plan. She fully expected her to go down swinging. “I have a feeling this isn’t over.”
Later in the morning, Carson was pulled out of math. She had never been pulled out of class before. She was sure it wasn’t good.
When she walked through the door of the front office, she saw her mom’s face. She was now sure that she was in trouble. “Mom, what’s wrong? What are you doing here?”
>
“I don’t know. The school called me. Are you in trouble?”
“No,” she said adamantly. Then she replayed the video in her head. She was afraid it would be used against her. The principal’s secretary told them that she was ready to see them.
Mrs. Buckley said she was concerned about a video. It had been circulating over the weekend. Carson had played a big part in it.
Her mother’s head turned quickly to her daughter. “You didn’t mention a video.”
Carson looked around nervously, not meeting her mom’s eyes. Her mother knew that look. It meant trouble.
“Is there anything that you want to tell me before I press play?” Mrs. Buckley asked.
Carson shook her head, ready to let the chips fall where they may. Her mother watched the video in amazement as a group of girls surrounded her daughter. Her grip on Carson’s hand tightened as the group closed in around her.
When it was over, she looked at her daughter through new eyes. She then turned her attention back to the principal.
“What are you going to do about this?” she asked Mrs. Buckley.
“I’ve already spoken with the young lady. She assures me that this will not happen again. She said that she was defending herself against Carson and her friends. Is that true, Carson?”
“She is a liar.”
“She claims that you have been targeting her all week. I’ve made a lot of allowances for this program to work. I don’t want my veteran students to feel threatened.
“Were we watching the same video? My daughter was the one targeted. And I didn’t see any friends. I only saw one boy who was trying to protect her from that mob of girls.”
Carson’s face was buried in her hands. She felt like she was going to explode.
“Jessa is pure evil. She hates me. All of the girls here are afraid of her. She knows that she can get away with anything. She knows that you always will take her side.” She looked directly at the principal. “Those are the allowances that are being made.”
Carson showed the principal the Friender posts. She showed her what others had gone through because of Jessa. “That’s who she is, Mrs. Buckley. You had to have known bullies when you were in school. She’s a cheerleader. She’s pretty. Her parents are rich. But she doesn’t like herself. We are paying the price.”
Her mom watched as Carson turned into a fighter right before her eyes. She proudly addressed the principal. “My daughter has said enough.”
Mrs. Buckley stood up to let them out. She shook Mrs. Roberts’s hand. “I didn’t know.”
“But you should have.”
By the end of the day, they had all been called down, mean girl after mean girl. It was a parade. None of the girls reappeared in class. Jessa was the last one called into the principal’s office. The rumors were true. Jessa’s crew had turned on her.
“It was her idea!”
“I was just watching!”
“It was Jessa!”
They were all trying to save themselves
from being labeled a bully. Jessa was the easiest to throw under the bus. Her actions had made it easy. They all pleaded down to a lesser sentence. They had been threatened with forty-five days at the alternative center. A three-day suspension seemed more doable.
Jessa and her mom retreated from the office, defeated and angry. “Your father will definitely have the last say on this one,” she promised her daughter as they left the school with enrollment papers for her new school, Texsun Alternative Center (TAC).
Chapter 14
What Do You Want?
Carson and Holden sat under a huge oak tree during lunch. The holidays were approaching. Neither wanted to leave for the break without getting some idea about their relationship. He had questions. And she was finally ready to address them.
He played with a blade of grass as he gazed over the horizon, trying to avoid eye contact with Carson. He looked as if he had a lot on his mind. “You know there were a lot of rumors circulating after Jessa was sent to TAC.”
“Yeah?” she asked, knowing that he wanted more.
“They say that you just used me to get to Jessa. That’s what the guys are saying in gym.”
“You’ve been so good to me, Holden.”
He laughed. “You’re not denying it. So it’s true.”
“No … I mean yes … I mean no.” She began to shake her head.
“Well, which one is it? You either used me or you didn’t.”
“Listen, it started out that I was just hanging out with you to make her mad. We knew that you were her hot button.”
“We? There were more people in on this? Y’all probably had a good laugh at my expense, huh? I believed that you liked me.” He looked hurt, and she felt terrible.
“Holden, it wasn’t like that. We were already friends. We were already hanging out, and then you offered to walk me to classes. It just kind of happened. I don’t know.”
“So, tell me the truth now. Jessa is gone. You don’t have to hang out with me at all. What do you want?”
She thought about that for a while. Nobody had ever asked what she wanted before. Her mom and dad got a divorce. Nobody asked what she wanted. Her dad remarried and had a new baby. Still nobody asked what she wanted. The constables came to their house and kicked them out.
They bounced around from friend to friend. Lived off charity. Nobody asked Carson’s opinion.
Then things started looking up. Her mother bought a smaller home in their old neighborhood. And this one was directly across the street from Jody. Recently, she replaced their broken-down car with a new convertible.
This question was definitely a first. What did she want?
“I want to hang out with you. I want to go places with you. I want you to meet Jody.”
“Are you saying that you want me to be your boyfriend?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never had a boyfriend before.” He looked sad. “I don’t even know what I’m supposed to do with a boyfriend. But you are the first guy I’ve ever wanted to get to know. You are the first person that I just can’t seem to get enough of. Can we just start there and see where it takes us?”
He smiled. “We can do that. But hey, no more secrets.”
“I promise. No more secrets.” The bell rang. They walked back into the school with their fingers intertwined.
“Hey, Carson!” she heard as she walked through the halls.
“Hey!” she always replied happily, starting to fit in at her new school.
She descended the school’s front stairs to meet up with Mai and Emma, ready for a sleepover at Emma’s house. After three months at SMS, Carson had been through a lot. She had made some friends, gotten rid of an enemy, and learned a lot about herself along the way. She had to admit it, she liked Summit Middle School. She was still uncomfortable. She was still anxious. But she knew that she was going to be all right.
Want to Keep Reading?...
Turn the page for a sneak peek at Shannon Freeman’s next book in the Summit Middle School series: Silentious.
ISBN: 978-1-68021-007-1
Chapter 1
A New Beginning
It was a cold, crisp day in Texsun City. Mai Pham sat in her room, listening to the crashing waves at the nearby beach. She was excited. More than excited. She was elated. She’d never felt this way before.
After Christmas break there was usually nothing to look forward to. Just the monotony of school. The kids at Summit Middle School were always so excited when they returned after the holidays. Mai thought about the delight in their voices as they caught up with friends and bragged about their gifts and vacations.
But Mai’s life wasn’t set up that way. Her family didn’t even celebrate Christmas. Friends were minimal.
This year was different, though. In the fall a new student transferred to school: Carson Roberts. Mai knew she had found a kindred spirit. Quiet Emma Swanson felt the same way. Neither fit in with the popular cliques. But the three girls had created an unbreakable b
ond.
This semester Mai was happy to return to school. She was ready to see her new friends. They made her feel free, even though her parents, especially her father, kept her on a short leash.
Mr. Pham ran a tight ship. She dared not cross him. The first time she had ever disobeyed him was because of Carson. When the girls’ PE lockers were broken into in the fall, her father ordered Mai to never hang out with Carson again.
But Mai went straight to her mother that very day, barging into her master suite. Her mom was in her enormous closet, choosing an outfit for a church meeting. You really couldn’t call it a closet. It was more like another bedroom. It was that impressive. There were at least one hundred pairs of designer shoes, glass cabinets for her handbags, and a jewelry island in the center of it all. There was even a comfortable sitting area.
“Mom, Father is being unreasonable. You know I’m not to blame for my clothes being stolen. I did nothing wrong!” Mai had said.
“Calm down, Mai. I’ve already spoken with your father. Everything will be just fine,” her mother had said. “I’ll handle him.”
“You didn’t have my back at school. You never stood up for me.” “That wasn’t the time. I needed the facts. I like Carson. Just don’t let your father know that you two are still friends until I can win him over.”
Mrs. Pham winked at her daughter. Mai threw herself at her mom and gave her a tight hug.
“Thank you, Mom!” she’d said excitedly. To this day she had not received word that her new friendship was okay. So she kept her mouth shut. The last thing she wanted was for her father to find out. He was not to be disobeyed. But Carson and Emma were all she had. She wasn’t going to give them up.
As Mai went downstairs for breakfast, she could hear her little sister talking. Lan was two years younger, but they looked a lot alike. With their heart-shaped faces, dark eyes, and silky black hair, they were striking.
The Pham girls clung to each other. There weren’t any school events that they were allowed to attend: no socials, no carnivals, and no fundraisers. Their father was strict. If it wasn’t an event with their church, they were not allowed to go. That meant many nights at home and many nights together.
The Most Beautiful Bully (Summit Middle School) Page 5