Victoria looks sure of herself as the rest of the students come into class, all of them taking notice of me either with a subtle glance or a full on stare. She scoots her chair subtly closer to me when Astor follows us in, pausing at the door to narrow his gaze at me, and I can tell she’s liking the extra attention. If it were up to me, she could have it all.
I know it’s going to be like this for at least the first week, but I can’t wait for that ‘new girl shine’ to wear off so I can just be left alone. The more eyes on me, the more likely I am to slip up.
There’s something about Victoria that just drips ‘fake girl’, and my vibes about people are rarely wrong, but she seems harmless enough. I’m off to a rocky start for my first hour on the first day, but I’m here, and by god I’m going to make it work, no matter how I have to do it.
Chapter 5
I get through English Lit with homework to study and a paper on Romeo and Juliet to write. Why high schools foist that old love story on all of their students every year in every place is beyond me. It’s such an unrealistic story, and I can’t see the romance in it at all … especially the fourth or fifth time around.
I take a seat in remedial algebra and just as I do, I see a gorgeous boy staring at me. He turns away the moment my eyes meet his, and he scowls darkly. He could be Astor’s brother, almost. He’s certainly as beautiful as Astor, though his jaw is sharper, and his eyes are a little darker and blue; the color of a storm-tossed sea. He has longer blonde hair and his body is much more muscular than any of the boys I’ve seen yet in school. It’s clear to me right away that he’s a jock, which leaves no surprise in my mind that he’s in remedial math.
I also think I recognize him from earlier. He was one of the boys bullying Thomas in the hall. That would explain that sour look on his face.
When I say my name during attendance everyone in the room turns to look at me. I’m sure that by now, my mouthy retort to Astor that morning has already made the rounds. News like that spreads before the thing in question even actually happens.
The teacher gets to the name ‘William Stryker’, and the pretty boy looks up in irritation at the teacher.
“It’s Wills,” he corrects coldly.
I wonder what his problem is. He probably would rather be out on the green kicking a ball somewhere then trapped inside, but I suppose only time will tell.
For the duration of class he keeps his head turned away from me; his eyes locked on anything he can possibly find going on outside the window of the classroom. It’s actually a pretty impressive feat that he doesn’t look back at me once, especially since there’s only six of us here and the teacher has had us all pull our chairs into an intervention-style circle.
It’s no skin off my back. I don’t care if Wills likes me or not. That doesn’t stop me from admiring the way the light catches in his hair, just for a second.
After class I’m off to biology and I’m glad to see that Dana is in the class with me. She’s a friendly face in a sea of stares and curious eyes.
“So …” I say, “What happened to you back there? You left me to be eaten alive by those boys.”
Her face whitens. “I’m s—sorry. I don’t like confrontation.”
The girl looks like she’s about to burst into tears, so I reach over and awkwardly pat her on the shoulder.
“Don’t worry. Aside from that mess in the hall this morning with Astor Hawthorne, everything seems to be going okay.”
Dana looks relieved, and I don’t bring it up again until we’re already at lunch after class. It takes everything for me to keep my composure at the sight of all the food. I have to remind myself that endless tacos are just a fact of life for these kids, not a novelty. Still … it’s going to be serious work not to balloon up with all this food suddenly readily available.
Dana, on the other hand, just keeps picking at her food until I ask her what’s up.
Her face turns pink. “Oh nothing I …” she pauses, then blurts out, “That girl who saved you this morning, Victoria … she didn’t happen to mention me, did she?”
“Why would …” I stop to think for a moment, and Dana fills the silence with a string of words stumbling over each other.
“She’s the most popular girl in the school, but she wasn’t always. We used to be friends, not that you’d know it now.”
That’s too true. Dana and Victoria, as little as I know either of them, are opposites in the social hierarchy of these kinds of places. If they were friends once, then Victoria would likely never admit it … and I think Dana should know that.
I give her a close look. She keeps babbling on about Victoria until it dawns on me like a sunrise, becoming much clearer with every passing second. This is more than just an obsession over a lost friend.
“You … you like her, don’t you!”
Dana is stunned. She gapes at me, mouth open and working like a goldfish.
“What? No!”
“Uh huh.” I point the shattered corn taco shell at her. “You’ve got a crush on her. A bad one too, from the looks of it.”
Dana looks a little embarrassed, but this time she doesn’t deny it. She just covers her face with her hands.