Instead, he squeezed his eyes shut and crushed the giant snowball I forgot he washolding into my hair, grinding it just hard enough that my bun fell apart.
I screamed.
Jay groaned.
Jax rolled off me, laughing hysterically.
My cheeks heated with embarrassment, and then it got even hotter as my embarrassment turned to rage.
Instead of dusting myself off and trying to save my bun, I scurried to scoop up as much snow as possible and slammed it into his face, smearing it all around.
“You’re such a jerk!” I yelled.
Jay hauled me back quickly as Jax made a grab for me. He whispered in my ear, "Don't make it worse, Brey. Just go inside and get cleaned up. My mom just made lunch for us.”
Jax was standing with another snowball ready to launch and glaring at both of us. "Would you stop babying her, Jay? After winter break, us upperclassmen get to teach the underclassmen a lesson. You know Sophomore Kill Day includes her too."
My eyes widened.
I’d heard about the water balloons launched at underclassmen on their way to school in the fall.
I'd heard about lockers being filled with pudding and about the lockers being stuffed with underclassmen as well. The high school administrators turned a blind eye to the bullying that happened. They called it just a little bit of good old fun.
I called it torture and wanted no part of it.
I whipped my head to Jay. “Please walk with me to school next week?”
Jay smirked at me like I was silly. “I got you. Don’t worry about it.”
Jax grunted. “You can't walk her to school. It’s tradition,” Jax said, abandoning his snowball to glare at us like my idea was outrageous.
“He can do whatever he wants,” I screeched.
“People are going to start to think you two are dating with how protective Jay is of you.”
Jay and I shrugged our shoulders in unison. Jay never really cared much about anything. He just wanted to have fun and wanted everyone to have fun around him.
For the first two years their family lived next door, he was the one who never asked why he couldn’t ring my doorbell or why he couldn’t come over. He mentioned once that he wanted me to hang out later than normal. When I said I couldn’t, that my dad would be home, he didn’t ask why that mattered.
After being homeschooled for so many years, he was the first friend I could trust and the breath of fresh air that I’d needed for a long time.
I begged and begged my parents to go to a public school after getting a taste of friendship. When they finally agreed, the darkness lightened up a bit, the clouds cleared.
The first day of sophomore year opened my eyes though.
I hadn’t realized how mean people in school could be and how territorial girls were of the Stonewood brothers.
Jax distanced himself immediately. He didn’t have time for Jay or me when he was captain of everything and enjoying every girl who looked his way in school.
Jay didn’t miss a beat though. Our friendship was an immovable force even when every one of the girls he hooked up with hated me. His friendship made me unpopular. Girls didn’t want to be my friend even when they realized my father mingled in all the same circles as their parents. I was the girl whose dad owned a big local business and who got to live next to the Stonewoods. That made me enemy number one.
I was a threat and a target.
And Sophomore Kill Day was going to be difficult to suffer through.
I felt the panic seeping in. It wasn't being stuffed into a locker or getting hit with paint-filled balloons that scared me. I could handle all that. I didn't even care if I got made fun of or picked on. If I came home from school looking a wreck or a phone call from the office was made, my father would resort back to claiming homeschool was the best option to raise a proper lady.
I knew better. He'd find something wrong with the studies my mother put together or he'd find fault in my work ethic.