“I thought we could have a little girl time together. You know, have some fun, like the old days when you were pretending to be someone else.” She yanks me toward her, but I wrench myself away.
“Listen, Victoria, I was holding back last year … but if you lay a hand on me again, I’m going to knock you on your ass. I come from the other side of the tracks, remember?” I make no effort to hide the threat, and I mean it.
I’ve let her get away with too much already, but now that I have at least Wills with me, it doesn’t matter anymore. I don’t have to try to be good so that the boys won’t hate me. To be quite honest, Wills would probably be thrilled to hear that I finally stood up to the queen bitch. She’s tried to ruin our lives long enough, I think.
She raises her eyebrows at me and crosses her arms over her chest. “Oh, you think you can take me?”
I laugh and nod slightly. “I’ve seen and done things you can only dream of.”
She takes a step toward me. “Why don’t you go for it, and see how fast you get expelled from this school.” She grins wickedly. “Like Astor’s, my family has been here a long, long time, and there’s a reason I rule this school with him. So, you want to try to kick my ass? Go for it. We’ll see whose whole world is changed then.”
Therein lies the real reason I’ve never really fought back. I know that she’s right, and there’s nothing I can do about it. She knows it too.
“See,” she says, her voice purring. “Exactly as I thought. All bark … but no bite.”
She puts one of her claw-like nails to her bottom lip, and pretends to be thinking of something just now. I can tell from the look in her eyes that whatever it is, has been long, long in the making.
“I’ve had it with you and your attitude. Ever since you got here, you’ve been stealing things that don’t belong to you. I think it’s time that the real girls of Hawthorne took you down to your own level where you belong. Girls?” She smiles evilly, and suddenly Laura and Alisha have both reached for me and are pinning me face first against the wall so hard that I can’t break free, even though I try.
Fear and anger flood through me and I struggle as much as I can, but to no avail. How the hell are these girls so strong?
“What are you doing? Leave me the hell alone!” I shout at her, but she only laughs and digs her hands into my hair and twists it up in her fingers before giving it a good yank. It pulls my head back with it until I’m looking up into her gleeful face.
“Oh no way, you little bitch. I’m just getting started with you.” She yanks hard on my hair again, making sure I see the massive pair of metal shears in her hand. “We’ll see how Wills likes you without all this straw you’ve tried to pass off as hair.”
“Stop!” I yell, as I realize what she’s about to do. I try to break free again, but Victoria only pulls my hair tighter and her goons shove me harder into the wall. She takes her time selecting the perfect place to start, the scissors making a metallic slicing sound as each lock of hair is severed at the back of my neck in long, golden strands.
They don’t let me go until it’s all cut off, and then Victoria pushes me to the floor before I can regain my balance. I turn fast and look up at her, ready to get up and take her down for real this time. I’m seeing red, and probably would kill her if her words from earlier don’t slap me plain in the face.
She sees it too, and crouches down patronizingly to wave a finger in my face.
“Ah, ah, ah … no, no. You don’t try to take me on unless you’re ready to let it cost you your future. Got it? Good. I’m going to give you a warning. You stay the hell away from Astor, or things are going to get a lot worse. You’d better remember that.”
She turns on her heel, laughing loud as the three of them turn the corner and leave me there alone, in tears, sitting in the middle of a pile of my own severed hair. I reach my hands up and touch the edges of my hair. It’s choppy and it’s so, so short.
It takes everything in me just to clamber back to my feet. I’m shaking all over. It’s just hair … but it’s not. I feel violated.
I walk to the library in a daze. Dana and Wills are waiting for me when I get there; both of them look u
p at me with smiles that fade as fast as they formed.
Dana leaps to her feet with Wills close behind her. “What happened?” she asks, running over and reaching for my shorn locks—but doesn’t quite dare to touch me.
Wills just takes my face in his hands, his own expression sober.
“Are you okay?”
I shake my head and look down as the tears come anew. He pulls me into a big hug and holds me tight until I stop crying. When he lets me go, Dana takes my hand and looks at me seriously.
“This was her, wasn’t it?” she asks, and I nod silently. Dana closes her eyes and exhales slowly. “She really knows no bounds, does she?”
I’m still in shock. “Is it that bad?” I ask. “I haven’t been able to look.”
Neither of them says anything, and that’s enough.
Wills pulls out his phone and takes my hand. “Don’t worry. We’re going to fix it.” He starts walking with me toward the door and Dana grabs their books and comes after us.
I still haven’t been able to process it all, so I don’t think to ask where he’s taking me. I just follow dutifully, trying to shake the deep feeling of being defiled.