Chapter 1
“Look, I’d love to do this another time, but I’ve got another appointment,” I plead to my tormentors. Today, they’ve decided to change things up a bit; instead of torturing me after school, we’re doing our thing in the deserted cafeteria. I was supposed to be in the Principal’s office 10 minutes ago.
“What happened to your hair?” Thomas jeers. “You look like you got into a fight with an electrical outlet—and lost” he continues.
“Yours doesn’t look much better,” I retort. “Stop trying to cut it with a plastic knife.” I try to look for a way to duck out of the room.
Thomas’s buddies are blocking the way. “Tommy’s Turds,” I call them in my head. Looks like I’m stuck here. And it doesn’t look like they’re too happy about my comment.
“You gonna take that, Tom?” S says. We just call him “S”, because no one knows his real name. It’s probably something embarrassing, like “Stacey”.
Jeff steps forward and shoves me into the wall. I instinctively bow my head so it doesn’t slam into the hard surface. He calls me something that I won’t repeat. I just take it. There’s nothing I can do.
Tom and S join Jeff in pushing me around. Today’s not as bad as other days. I’ve gone home with bruises and broken fingers before. I just protest a little and whine so that they don’t think they’re being too soft.
I guess Tom got bored, because he’s yanking on my hair now, knocking my head into the wall. They throw insults at me, and I just tune them out and wait until they’re done.
It’s times like this that I wish I were homeschooled. Then I wouldn’t have to deal with idiots like Tom, S, and Jeff. Or the rest of the school, for that matter. Things weren’t always this bad. Not before Xander and Kiera left. I actually had friends when they were here. Xander was popular, so no one messed with his friends. But when his family moved away suddenly, people started picking on some of his not-so-popular friends. Me in particular.
Kiera could have run with the popular crowd if she’d wanted to, but she wasn’t shallow enough. She’d always make sure I was okay, even though she had absolutely no reason to care. She moved back to Ireland last year.
Tommy and his goons get bored, and finally leave me alone. After 2 years of them bullying me, I still can’t figure out why. I’ve never done anything to them. I guess it’s just because I’m an easy target.
I’m kind of a special case; I don’t fit into any of the groups of people here. I’m a nerd, but I get into too much trouble to hang out with them. I get in trouble enough to be counted with the “punks”, but I’m too smart for them to accept me. I’m relatively attractive, so I could hang out with the “Populars”, but I have absolutely no interest in fashion. Not creative enough to hang out with the hippies, and not sporty enough to hang out with the Varity team. I can’t even hang out with the “normal” people, because I’m not normal enough. So I’m my own group.
I lean heavily on the table, assessing my injuries. Just bruises. I’ll be fine.
As soon as I feel like I can walk, I retrieve my laptop from my bag. I hack into the school system and excuse myself from school tomorrow and the next day. What, you’ve never done that? Well, it may be wrong, but I can’t show up to any classes like this. The teachers would ask too many questions that I just don’t feel like answering. Besides, I never do it unless I have to. This is simply one of those times.
I close the laptop down and start down the hall, hoping that everyone is still in classes.
