Leena and Kelly never thought that they would have to ride the bus to school. After seeing Leena’s vandalized car, they both called their friends and told them that they needed a car ride to school. However, everyone they called was either already at school or didn’t answer the phone. Their parents weren’t home, and they couldn’t ask their neighbors because their mother told them to never socialize with them.
While riding the bus to school may seem like a normal thing for school age children to do, it did not seem normal to Leena and Kelly. As soon as the girls stepped onto the bus, a musty, mildew like smell made its way into their nostrils. Neither girl wanted to touch anything because they feared that they would catch something. None of the high school students wanted the girls to sit with them so they were forced to sit in the front with the younger children.
Although Leena and Kelly were sitting in the front, they could hear roars of laughter coming from the back of the bus. They knew that they were probably the main subject of the laughter and they didn’t like it. But what could they do about it? They were completely out-numbered so giving “losers” a piece of their mind was out of the question.
During the entire bus ride to school, they felt completely out of their element and did not want to experience something like this ever again.
Leena and Kelly were the first two high school students to get off the bus. They had never been so happy to see school before in their lives. Both girls breathed in the fresh air. It didn’t smell that fresh, but it was a lot fresher than the air on the bus.
Leena pretended to ignore the looks that Kelly and she were receiving from onlookers.
Kelly noticed and tugged on her sister’s arm. Leena gave her an irritated look. “Why’s everyone staring at us?” she said in a low voice to Leena.
Leena rolled her eyes. “As if you don’t know.”
Kelly sighed. “This is because of that stupid bus ride, isn’t it?”
Leena nodded.
Kelly put her hands over her heart as if she was having a heart attack. “How are we supposed to get home?”
“Hopefully Mom and Dad will come and get us,” Leena said hopefully.
“You know they won’t,” Kelly said in an even lower voice. Many people were walking by them, and she didn’t want people to know what they were discussing. Leena quickly caught on and lowered her voice as well.
“Well, we’ll have to figure out something because I’m not riding that germ infested piece of crap back home,” Leena complained.
Kelly hoped that her older sister would figure out something soon because she didn’t want to ride the bus back home either.
Both girls knew that they would be the hot topic for the day but then again they were always hot topics. However, this time would prove to be different.
Kaci smiled as she looked at pictures of Skylar and herself on her phone. She enjoyed hanging out with him the other day.
While they were eating at a Chinese restaurant in the mall she revealed to him that Cami was scared that he was going to get her pregnant. He blushed and reassured Kaci that he wouldn’t do something like that to her. He actually wouldn’t mind marrying and starting a family with her someday. Of course he didn’t tell her any of this because his shyness always got the best of him.
Then she convinced him to go shopping with her which didn’t take much convincing because he loved her so much already. Kaci knew that boys weren’t like girls when it came to shopping so she made a mental note to keep their shopping excursion short and simple. In the end, she chose several long sleeve shirts and a few pairs of jeans for him. Skylar liked all of them and Kaci was surprised when he paid for the items. She tried to convince him to let her pay since she couldn’t afford to buy him a gift for his birthday but he refused.
Afterwards, they left the mall and took a walk around the lake which was several miles away from his parents’ house. Kaci loved being by the water and Skylar knew it.
As soon as she saw the lake, she reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone. She then grabbed Skylar by the hand and found a spot near the lake that she liked. He blushed uncontrollably and Kaci smiling up at him only made it worse. They posed randomly while she snapped away. Her favorites were the ones that she took while they were standing in front of the lake.
As she looked at several more pictures, one caught her attention. It was a picture of him sitting on the grass staring at the water while the wind blew through his hair. She loved his black hair. He usually wore it shaved close to his head but he had since grown it out to just above his shoulders. She especially loved it when he would wear his long hair in a ponytail.
She loved a lot of things about him such as the way he smiled, the way he laughed, the way he treated her, and the shape of his lips (although she had never kissed him). She sighed to herself as she began to realize what she had been thinking. She couldn’t believe that she had been thinking these things about him. Skylar was her best friend and would always be just a friend, wouldn’t he?
She jumped suddenly when she heard the classroom door slam. It was Kelly and she had a frown on her face. Kaci heard her mumble something as she walked to her desk.
She didn’t know what her problem was and she didn’t care. So far she had been having a great week and she was not about to let Kelly ruin it.
Once Kelly sat down, she knew that people would either ask her questions or ignore her altogether. Ever since Leena and she had arrived at school, everyone had been acting weird. Normally every morning girls would flock to them to see what new designer threads they were sporting or try to talk to them so that they could seem cool for a few minutes. People would always snap pictures of them which made them feel like they were celebrities, but none of these things occurred this morning. Instead people had been gossiping about them and many refused to speak to them.
“Kelly, what’s wrong?” her friend, Erin asked.
She slung her purse onto her desk.
She really didn’t want to talk about it because she still couldn’t believe that she had actually ridden a school bus. “Someone vandalized Leena’s car so we were forced to ride that thing they call a bus.”
“Oh my gosh! Are you okay? What am I saying? Of course you’re not,” Erin said.
Kelly rolled her eyes. “So why didn’t you call me back?”
“I did but you didn’t answer!” Erin replied.
Kaci’s ears were now alert. What’s got her panties in a knot this time? She checked the time on her phone. It was 8:04 A.M. Ms. Harris was late but of course this was nothing new. She was usually fifteen to twenty minutes late each morning. Sometimes she did not come to class at all which usually would lead to the students being sent to the gym or getting a substitute teacher. She was a single parent and had a four-year-old son who was very sickly and had to be hospitalized often. If Ms. Harris couldn’t get a babysitter, she would bring her son to class. She would neatly lay his blue and black checkered blanket on the carpet. Then he would sit and play with his toy cars while sitting on it behind her desk.
Ms. Harris had introduced him to Kaci after class one day. His name was Cody, and he was a nice kid. The day that Ms. Harris introduced them he offered Kaci a chocolate chip cookie that his mom had made. This made her feel a lot better because she had had a tough morning dealing with Kelly. She wasn’t quite sure what his illness was or why he was sick all of the time, but Kaci worried whenever she didn’t attend class.
Erin seemed taken aback by Kelly’s outburst. “You don’t have to be so rude. I was taking a shower, and I called you but you didn’t answer.”
Kelly could tell that she had hurt Erin’s feelings but she didn’t care. If she would have answered her phone, this wouldn’t be happening. “Why should I have answered your call? If you would’ve answered when I called you the first time, I wouldn’t have ridden the bus.”
“I was taking a shower so I didn’t hear the phone ring, but after I was finished, I called you back. I would have picked you up but you
didn’t answer,” Erin said.
“I didn’t want to. Like I said before, you should have answered it when I called you the first time,” Kelly repeated as she took her nail file out her purse.
Hearing Kelly talk to her this way made her want to end their friendship. Erin shook her head and said, “Forget it, Kelly.” She never thought that her own friend would act this way towards her; she didn’t want to believe that Kelly was as self-centered and cold as she was making herself out to be right now.
She allowed herself to be befriended by Kelly and after two years of friendship (or what she thought was a friendship), she had had enough. She didn’t want to do anymore of Kelly’s dirty work. She didn’t want to belittle people and laugh at their pain even though she didn’t think it was funny. Now she didn’t feel bad for rubbing the inside of a toilet bowl with a cotton swab and rubbing it all over Kelly’s pillow.
“Whatever,” Kelly said as she rolled her eyes.
Kaci looked at her phone. It was 8:21 A.M., and Ms. Harris still hadn’t arrived. She hoped that someone would hear the girls arguing because she was getting tired of hearing Kelly’s annoying voice all the time.
The entire classroom was quiet. Everyone was watching Kelly and Erin. It was obvious by the looks that they were giving Kelly that they were on Erin’s side. She didn’t like that at all because if it weren’t for her, Erin would still be what she considered “a nobody.”
While Kelly may not have thought that she was out of line, several of her classmates did and they were quick to let her know it.
“She said she would have taken you to school, but with that bad attitude, I wouldn’t take you anywhere,” a female student was quick to say.
“That’s why your sister’s car was vandalized!” another student added.
“Nobody likes you and your sister anyway. Ya’ll are just stuck up rich people,” a guy said. He paused for a minute before continuing, “Hey, wait a minute. If ya’ll are so rich, why are you attending public school? Don’t rich people send their kids to private school?”
“Yeah, your parents are lawyers by the way,” another student added.
Leena and she have always wanted to attend a private school, but their parents wouldn’t allow them to do so. They explained to their parents that their classmates did not understand them and that they should be with other creative minds that were more like their own. I’m not supposed to talk to the neighbors, but I have to go to public school, Kelly thought.
She looked over at Erin who now refused to even make eye contact with her. Somehow she knew that their friendship was over. So what if it was over. She didn’t need Erin; she would probably be better off without her.
“This is the longest she has ever been quiet,” a student whispered to another.
“Kelly, do you like that new bus smell? That you never smelled before. Going all through your nose,” a male student sang.
The class erupted in laughter. Kaci even found herself laughing.
The laughter ceased when the door was suddenly opened by Nurse Atkins. She had a diet soda in her left hand and slowly took a sip while eyeing the class suspiciously. “You guys need to learn how to use your inside voices,” she said before taking a large gulp of soda. “Your substitute will be here shortly.”
“Why can’t you teach us?” a male student asked.
“Because I don’t have a teaching license or degree.”
“You have to have a license to teach? Whose dumb idea was that?” a girl asked.
“I don’t know, honey,” Nurse Atkins answered. She glanced at her watch and then said, “I have to go but just remember to use those inside voices.” As soon as the door closed, it was as if she’d never opened it.
Everyone turned their attention back to Kelly.
“Stuck up rich girl,” a girl mumbled and rolled her eyes at Kelly.
Kelly had had as much as she could take from these people. She grabbed her purse and stood up.
“Aw. Looks like we made the princess angry,” a girl said as she wiped fake tears out of her eyes.
“You people are all acting ignorant, selfish, and childish, and I don’t want to deal with you anymore. I’m leaving,” she announced.
Several students snickered.
“You guys have been rude to me ever since I got here this morning. You’ve been using your broken English to insult my intelligence and I do not appreciate it.”
“What the hell is she talking about? Nobody here has used any broken English,” a girl said to her friend.
“I don’t think you want to go there,” Erin said frowning.
Kelly put one of her hands on her hips. “Or what?” she said raising her voice.
“You aren’t in a position to call anyone names. After all, you are basically a criminal.”
Kelly tried to hide her look of discomfort but it was very obvious.
“Every time you go to the doctor you get a prescription and sell it to someone,” Erin announced.
Many students gasped.
“You’re a drug dealer?” one student inquired.
Kelly’s eyes widened. “That’s not true!”
“Yes, it is. Whoever is buying those prescriptions from you could have a serious addiction and you’re contributing to the problem. So if someone who you sell to dies, then their blood is on your hands.”
Kelly rolled her eyes at Erin. “It’s not true and even if it was, it wouldn’t be my fault. If they died it would be their own fault for being an addict.”
“But you are the one selling it to them, so you are contributing to the problem,” Erin argued.
“Like I said it would be their fault for being an addict.”
There was an unsettling silence in the classroom until Erin broke it. “Kelly, you have a serious problem. You’re selfish and you don’t even care if someone dies from medication that you sell them. You are the lowest of the low, and I don’t want to be your friend anymore. I’m sorry, but I can’t be friends with someone who does what you do.”
“Who cares?” Kelly asked, as she applied lip gloss to her pout. She inserted the wand into the tube and a smirk appeared on her face. “By the way, you look fabulous today.” She strutted as she made her way to the door as if she was on a runway. She then turned to face her ex-friend once again before adding, “Of course, you would look so much better in those jeans if you would drop those extra ten pounds.”
She had spent enough of her time entertaining these people. It was time for her to leave.
Many students rolled their eyes at Kelly and some even called her names. Many of them had a newfound hatred for her. Finding out that she sold prescription medication to people and seeing how she’d treated Erin didn’t make it any better.
She really did think that she was better than everyone else, with the exception of Leena. She didn’t care if she hurt other people whether it was through selling prescription medication or through the words that she spoke.
She may have sold prescription meds before but that was in her past. The extravagant life that she lived today provided her with enough luxury that she no longer had to resort to such measures.
What a bitch, Kaci thought.
Chapter 27