While Jace’s answer when I broached the subject on Saturday was and I quote ‘ I don’t really care what any of those idiots think and neither should you,’ end quote.
So you see, he really had no idea poor thing. He thought it was enough to say hey we’re engaged this is serious and now everyone knows and everyone can go about their business.
Well, he certainly did not grasp the female psyche, and since Belle and Tammy and even Cassandra seemed to know more about Mandy and the lengths she would go to, I was more inclined to follow their lead on this one.
The plan was to act as normal as possible about the rock that now graced my finger. I wasn’t going to use it as a conversation piece, or beat people over the head with it until they gushed over it, but neither was I going to hide it.
I knew it was only a matter of time, before someone else, other than one of our circle, noticed the thing since it was as big as the bat signal, but none of us were going to bring it up.
I didn’t even make it to the door before the first gasp followed by whispers was heard. Jace was so engrossed with his guys, talking about the upcoming game this weekend that he didn’t seem to notice.
This was going to be the first game of the season and all the guys were excited, it was all they could talk about on Saturday at the pool and now this morning again.
It was weird, but as a cheerleader I really didn’t have much love for the game, until now. Maybe I had been missing the most crucial element of the cheerleading gig before, the cheerleader and the jock. But now that I had my own quarterback, things felt different.
By the time he kissed me at the door to math class and headed off down the hall, I had a following.
No one was more surprised than I, when my hand was rudely grabbed from behind, and a stormy faced Mandy glared down at my ring.
“Where did you get this?” Seriously, is she bent? This chick had watched way too much TV, who the hell does this crap?
I pulled my hand away from her and turned to my seat, but I guess she wasn’t done with me.
“If you’re trying to pretend you got that piece of glass from Jace you can give it up. Everyone here knows that we were practically beholden to each other since birth.
So, he might use you as his little cum dump for now, but there’s no way his parents would ever let him marry a nobody like you.”
“I think you mean betrothed, beholden kinda means you owe each other I think. As for his parents not accepting me, my future mother in law, or as she’s asked me to call her, mom, helped pick out my ring.” I held up my hand and smiled at my ring.
Some of the less cautious students were high fiving and taking bets it seemed, as to the outcome of our little turf war.
I wasn’t really interested. I wasn’t about to let her steal my joy. But I have to admit it felt good putting this crackpot in her place.
I had already dismissed her in my mind. The hardest part as far as I was concerned was over. She’d seen the ring and now the initial shock would wear off in no time at all and she’d get over it and move on. At least that was my big hope; it’s what I would’ve done in her situation.
I really didn’t know what I was dealing with here either, as I found out the rest of that day.
I was never able to prove who was behind any of it, but my disappearing books, the unattractive slur on my locker, and the broken chair leg that put me on my ass in chemistry, could not be seen as a mere coincidence.
“You have to tell Jace what’s going on.”
“No Belle, that’s just what she wants, she wants him to acknowledge her in some way, which he hasn’t done in the last few weeks or so.
I can put up with her childish tactics a little while longer, she’ll get tired eventually.”
“I don’t know Sian, what if you really get hurt? I don’t trust her, she’s...” Cassandra cut herself off, but that isn’t what was worrying me, no. It was the absolute venom in her tone that gave me a jolt.
“Cass are you sure you’re okay, is anything bothering you?”
She seemed to come back to her senses and tried backpedaling, but I knew there was something going on there, I just didn’t know what that could be.
“Listen, Mandy isn’t going to do anything, she’s just trying to scare me away, which when you think about it is pretty stupid. I mean what does she expect to happen?
I get scared and give Jace back to her? That’s really stupid don’t you think?” Or really crazy, but I wasn’t going to let my brain go there, too much to handle at once. I’d rather deal with stupid than crazy any day.
In the end I didn’t have to tell Jace anything, because one of his little spies told him every detail and I got in trouble for not squealing.
I’d forgotten all about his posse following me around, but damn, I hadn’t seen any of his teammates all morning.
When he came to pick me up for lunch he was not pleased, it didn’t take long for me to learn why. He grabbed my elbow and took me back into the classroom out of sight of the others.
“Why didn’t you tell me that they were fucking with you?” Crap, I could play this off, but I had to think real fast. You see, Jace had had this little pep talk with me last night after I’d spoken with my girls and again this morning in the car.
I was supposed to report back to him if anyone or anything got in my face. I on the other hand believed that as an almost adult, I was smart enough to take care of myself and wasn’t about to come running to him with every little thing, no matter how much he grumbled.