“Jason?” I echo.
“That’s me,” comes a masculine voice behind me.
I turn around. Jason is tall, intimidating and angry. A flicker of unease builds in my belly. Who spat on his cornflakes? His eyes flick up and down my figure before landing on mine with disgust. He’s got a shock of blonde hair that’s shorn on the sides, and his face is thin, pinched.
He almost reminds me of Draco Malfoy. I want to see his sneer to confirm.
He snatches my schedule out of my hands. “What’s your first class?” He groans, then shoots me a look of contempt. “Fucking Calculus. Way on the opposite side of where my class is.”
Jason’s bitter attitude sours my expression. “What is your deal?” I demand, grabbing my schedule back. He takes off, presumably to direct me to the Math wing, and doesn’t answer.
“I’m Ophelia,” I say to his back.
“I don’t care,” he growls. Suddenly, he whirls around, his hand finding my chest and shoving me back. I stumble into a girl, who glares at me.
What is wrong with the people at this school?
Jason steps close, but I stand my ground. I can’t let these people see that I’m weak. This is obviously some sort of first day harassment.
“Look, New Girl-”
“Ophelia,” I remind him.
“Tragic,” he sneers flippantly. Boom. Draco Malfoy look-alike contest won. And I don’t know if he’s referring to the fact that my name is old and out-of-date or of the horrible, tragic fate of my namesake, Ophelia from Hamlet. “You’d best start to understand some rules around here.”
“What’s your policy on bullying?” I quip. “No-tolerance??
??
His hand comes up again, but this time I dodge his shove. Fast reflexes thanks to track. But he cooly places it on the locker, leaning and bringing up his other hand to pick at his fingernails. Almost as if planned. Smooth, I think.
I glare at him. “Clearly not.”
“There’s a few things you need to learn,” Jason says, ignoring my jab. His haughty look makes me roll my eyes. Where does he get off? “There’s a hierarchy here. Older than you will ever understand. And we follow it to the ‘T’, just like our parents did, just like our grandparents did. And bumfucks like you, rednecks like you….” He leans in, but I jut my chin out. Even though I’m starting to feel ill about the absolute loathing in his eyes, I try to channel confidence. “Are at the very bottom.”
“I don’t care,” I say. And part of me doesn’t. But when his eyes flash darkly, I wonder if I said the right thing. “If you don’t like me. I don’t know what your fucking problem is, but you better check the attitude.”
He barks a laugh, and its cruel edge lodges a sense of suspicion in my chest. “Oh, baby,” he says, leaning in close. He smells delicious – a woodsy scent – and it’s deceptive. “It’s not me you need to worry about not liking you.” His voice lowers, almost as if confiding a dark secret. “It’s them. And if they don’t like you, then nobody does.”
* * *
Jason dropped me off at Calculus like it was a court-ordered community service act.
His sinister smile as he said, “Enjoy” made me feel like he wasn’t talking to me but the bunch of wide-eyed rich kids I’d just stumbled on. When I walk through the desks to the back, each of them bends their head furiously over their phones. An eerie sixth sense tells me they were texting about me.
Lucky me, I think sardonically.
“Hey,” I say, sitting down in the second to last row. The girl sitting next to me is pretty in a girlish type of way – round face, freckles and big green eyes. “I’m Ophelia.”
“Hey,” she says softly. She doesn’t look at me though. Nor does she introduce herself. She looks at her desk like it’s the most interesting desk in the world, that it will soon transform into a shuttle and blast her off into the moon.
That’s how interested she is in that desk.
Okay, what the fuck. I’ve been the new kid in school before – before Oklahoma, Mom and I had lived in Kansas. But maybe fourth-graders are different than seniors, because clearly nobody is interested in being my friend.
Jason, those two girls last night... What vipers’ nest have I stumbled into?
“What’s wrong with this place?” I ask, pulling my backpack out and readying my supplies.