* * * * *
The morning dragged by. I kept my schedule with me, as I’d forgotten all my room numbers from yesterday due to all my stress. I even got turned around headed to Basic Computers (it was only thanks to Penny I went the right way) and again when headed to Language Arts. Hey, memorizing the school layout hadn’t been my priority yesterday.
Kristina shot me dirty looks in the hall and seemed to be at every corner today. She’d probably heard some rumor that I’d insulted her again. Which I hadn’t. Sure, I stood up to her when it came to my friends (which led to scary moments sometimes), but even I wasn’t dumb enough to actually insult her. No one who wanted to avoid a messed-up face ever did. I just wished she’d go away. Her glares made it hard to concentrate on my schedule and where I was going.
It wasn’t until my walk to World Issues did anything exciting happen.
“Hey!” someone called right in the middle of the crowded Social Studies hall.
I jumped, whirled around, and nearly got run over by a big group of girls in the process. Sean ran up to me, out of breath. He patted his backpack as if to make sure it was still there.
“I have something for you,” he said between pants. “I’ll give it to you after Acting. I don’t want people to see me giving you this.”
“Give me what?” I asked, stopping in the river of people.
The look on his face said it was serious. “I did some research. That’s all I’m going to say.”
“Research on what?” a nasty voice echoed nearby. “How to be a bigger loser?”
Great. Not them.
Josh and Kristina stood there, close enough to breathe in our faces. The two of them grinned as if Josh had cracked the best joke in the history of the world.
I couldn’t deal with it all anymore. My lips started moving before I could stop them. “What do you know about research? You two probably don’t even know how to read.”
Sean’s mouth fell open. I’d broken the Number One Rule of School Survival. Thanks, big mouth.
Josh’s nose flared dangerously as he spat on the floor. Yeah, the floor. Gross, huh? Kristina’s face turned the color of a bad sunburn and her fists clenched into bricks. She spewed a long string of insults at me right there in the middle of the hall. I won’t repeat them here, because none of them were rated G.
People stopped around us to stare. A ring of people started to form—the universal sign of a fight. Kristina kept calling me every nasty thing you can think of. Sean shot me a nervous glance. It might be a good time to go.
I turned—yeah, stupid—and cut my way through the crowd. Sean came right behind me, breath blowing against my back. I braced for Kristina’s fist to land on the back of my head, but it never came, probably because Sean was blocking its flight path. I owed him one. It wasn’t so much the fight I was scared of. It was suspension—I’d have to spend too much time alone if I couldn’t go to school. Why had I opened my big mouth?
Once out of the hallway, I turned to ask Sean about what he wanted to give me, but he’d disappeared.