His body is well-muscled in the arms and shoulders, over his
chest and his back, and his torso tapers down to a narrow waist. He’s probably a model for designer underwear on weekends.
He’s focused on the smaller boy he’s taunting when he looks up at me and our gazes meet. He stops speaking in mid-sentence and stares. A strange look comes into his eyes. As he’s sizing me up, the boy he was teasing turns to look at me too. He’s a run of the mill high school boy; nothing out of the ordinary. When he looks at me he blushes bright red, his whole face and neck, all the way to his ears. The beautiful bully sees this and laughs, giving him a shove.
“Looking for a girlfriend Thomas? You wouldn’t know what to do with a woman if she came with an instruction manual.”
The boy, Thomas’, eyes drop to the floor and the bully shoves him again, pushing him down onto his hands and knees.
I’ve been bullied so badly and so often, that it doesn’t matter that he’s not doing it to me. He might as well be. Rage bursts into flame inside me and I snap.
“I’m sure he’d be a better boyfriend than you!”
The beautiful face contorts into shock, and then bitterness, and the scowl on it is all for me.
I stoop to help poor Thomas to his feet, and I see that somehow he’s blushing even harder. He’s so embarrassed and ashamed. He runs off, leaving me to face the bully alone. Well … Dana’s still here somewhere, but I think she’s slowly melting into the wallpaper behind me.
“Why don’t you date him, and then you can tell me all about it,” the bully shoots coldly, his brown eyes burning into mine.
I know right away that I’ve made a terrible mistake.
Great. I’ve made enemies already and I haven’t even gotten to my first class yet. This is not how I wanted to start off at my new school. It might be the right thing to do, standing up to bullies, but is it what Sadie would do … or the old me?
Suddenly a strong female voice sounds loudly behind me.
“Are you jealous already, Astor? She just got here.”
I turn on the spot and see a very pretty girl my age who is obviously one of the popular girls at this school. She’s the type who, despite being in the exact same outfit as all the other girls, including me, somehow manages to look far more stylish than most of the rest of us.
“Give her a little time so she can really have some good reasons to hate you,” she continues.
The beautiful boy, Astor, is just about to smart off to her when she holds her hand up in the air, her palm facing him, and shuts him down. She smiles at me instead.
“Hey! I’m Victoria. As in Queen. You’re new to the turf, so I’m going to help you out. You don’t want to go getting into a fight with the likes of Astor Hawthorne. He thinks he rules this school.”
“I do rule it!” he fires at her bitterly.
Victoria rolls her eyes and slips her hand into the crook of my arm, steering me away from him.
She looks over her shoulder and calls back, “Just because your family founded it almost a century ago doesn’t make it yours, Astor.”
“It sure as hell does! It’s called a legacy, Victoria! You’d know that if you had one!” he growls irritably at her, but we’re already leaving the hall and walking into class. Dana is nowhere to be seen. She must have fled when I wasn’t paying attention. Good to know I can’t count on her if the going gets rough.
Yet another reason to befriend someone with a little more … spirit.
“Hey, thanks. That was surprisingly … nice.”
I stop Victoria before she drags me into the classroom. She might be exactly what I’m looking for. She’s practically perfect, with dark hair and dark eyes framed with thick, equally dark lashes. I normally can’t stand preppy girls, but I’m going to have to suck it up and just be friends with her. I’m sure there’s something about her that I can like, if I look hard enough.
“No worries!” she bubbles back at me, sitting me down beside her at the back of the classroom. “Astor is a jackass and he needs to be reminded of it once in a while. I’ve got your back, sister.”
She brushes a long strand of hair off her shoulder as she gives me a quick once-over. “I don’t even know your name yet … but I can already tell we’re going to be good friends.”
I might have made some enemies … but it looks like I’ve just made an equally powerful ally. I’ve seen it happen before in every other school I’ve ever been to, except never to me, until now. One word from a popular girl, and suddenly you’re in. It’s surreal to me, and I can feel that I’m hungry for it. This is exactly what I need to happen.
“Thanks!” I smile brightly at her and try to channel Sadie’s obnoxious perky cheerleader spirit. “I’m Sadie White.”
“Sadie.” She rolls the name over on her tongue. “Sexy Sadie. We’re going to have so much fun!”