“Oh. I see,” I said, a little wide-eyed.
He looked curiously at me. “You didn’t know, did you?” he asked, understanding my nervous stance.
“Nope. But it doesn’t matter. I wouldn’t change a thing of what I did back there. If she wants to retaliate, it’s up to her. I don’t grovel to anyone,” I said firmly.
“Well, you have my support. If you need backup from the Vengeance of the Thirds, you give me a shout out,” he said, reclining on his bed.
“So what about you? Aren’t you afraid of her retaliation?”
“No. And I don’t grovel either. That’s not how I roll,” he said, adopting a cool position on the bed for show. He was funny. I liked him.
After that we chatted for a while, exchanging life stories. Seth was a real sweetheart. I was really glad I’d ended up his room-mate. He told me he’d been going to this school since he was little, and he pretty much knew everybody and everywhere around the place. He also told me about his parents and that they lived in another state, that he had no siblings and that basically he was pretty much loaded too. Not like Tiffany, but enough. Even though I was still a little skeptical and apprehensive about him, Seth was nothing but open and kind towards me, not one ounce of “bratty” about him. He offered me his friendship without judging me, or asking for anything in return.
I wasn’t used to trusting people easily, but Seth broke through my protective barriers within half an hour of conversation. His smile was warm and confident. The future at Sagan didn’t seem so gloomy any more: Seth was like a light at the end of a very dark tunnel.
After a few hours, he went out to meet some of his friends, and I spent the rest of the day unpacking and talking to my mom on the phone. I skipped the whole mud incident, and my current living arrangements – she didn’t need to know about those – and just told her everything was fine my first day at school. Tomorrow, Monday, would be my first official day with classes and teachers; I would have a lot more things to talk about after that. I went to bed early, and didn’t even hear Seth return to the room.
I woke up the next day with the sound of his alarm clock pounding in my ears, and his heavy hand crashing over the snooze button. I could only discern a mess of blond hair from beneath a pile of soft blankets on the bed next to mine. I smiled under my covers.
Monday had started!
Chapter Twelve
The Vengeance of the Thirds
It was early, so it was still dark outside the window, but I was so excited that I couldn’t stay still in bed for one more second. Even though this day wasn’t that special for everybody else here, since it was week two of their second semester and they’d known their routine, classes and teachers already for half a year, for me it was my first day of school.
Seth got up from his bed and went to the bathroom, shirtless but with sweat pants on. He didn’t seem to mind having a girl sharing the room with him.
He soon emerged all dressed up and with his hair fully styled. How he could manage that amazing hair in so short a time, I would never know. He noticed me gawking and smiled.
“So, looking good?” he teased lightly, smoothing the side of his hair.
“Yeah. Not many people can pull that hair off, but you totally manage,” I mused. He really did. Waves of blond locks pushed tightly upwards in a small mohawk. He looked really good.
Seth beamed, satisfied with my answer. “Better hurry up and get ready quickly, Joe, otherwise I won’t be able to give you the tour!” he said, winking and putting his sneakers on.
I jumped out of bed and darted to the bathroom. I was showered and dressed in ten minutes, with my baggy blue jeans and gray sweater on, hair high up in my usual ponytail. That earned me raised eyebrows from Seth.
“Whoa, that was wicked fast! I have never witnessed a girl get ready so quickly. You’re something else, Joe Gray.”
I shrugged my shoulders and grabbed my backpack, deciding to take that as a compliment.
Seth walked with me to his locker first, and helped me find mine afterwards. Then he showed me the school venues, pointing me first to the west wing, where the girl’s dormitories were. The boy’s dormitories were in the east wing. The classrooms were in the middle of the stone building, and at the back were located the basketball court, pool area, music auditorium and theater. The building in its entirety was three storeys high, and apparently the third floor was designated as the teachers’ private quarters along with some exclusive students’ bedrooms. Third-floor students didn’t have to share rooms. No wonder obnoxious Tiffany was up on the third floor.
The school looked like a gigantic old monastery. Everything was built with gray, dull blocks of heavy stone. The hallways were freezing cold, and constantly swept by a chilling wind.
Then the bell rang, indicating the start of classes, ending my tour around the school. I wasn’t sharing any classes with Seth today, but after we hastily exchanged our timetables I saw that we were in many classes together over the week. That cheered me up a bit. Seth walked me to the door of my first classroom and waved me goodbye, disappearing to find his own.
I glanced inside the room and rolled my eyes, mentally cursing the Gods of Destiny. Of course, my very first class, on my very first day at school, would have to be the same one as Tiffany-the-freaking-Third’s and her cheerleading squad from hell. Why was I even surprised? I looked at them and they all sneered at me in unison, like they’d rehearsed it!
So typical. So damn predictable.
I huffed, annoyed, and walked in, sitting on a chair at the back of the room, a few chairs behind Tiffany’s place. Then began a series of whisperings and backward glances in my direction. I took the time to study my situation. I decided I wasn’t going to follow the old, done-to-death script of high school teen movies. I wasn’t going to stand for any bullying from bleached pompom squads.
I watched them huddle in front of me, yapping and sneering. They were like a bunch of hyenas. And I was the new blood entering their prairie. They were testing the ground, checking to see what kind of animal I was. Was I a lion? Or a feeble baby deer?
If I started walking round with my head low and sagging shoulders, I was doomed. They would tear me apart and eat me alive. I could not show any sign of weakness. This was trial time. So they thought they owned the place. I’d show them. I wasn’t going to fall into Bambi category, if I had any say in it!
And I should definitely stop watching the Animal Planet channel so much …
I rearranged my stance to a more assertive, imposing position. I didn’t care what anyone thought of me. I was beyond those petty blonde things in front of me. The teacher entered the classroom and glanced at a piece of paper in his hands.
“Good morning, class. Settle down now, please,” he greeted, looking at the paper. “So, it seems we have ourselves a new student attending Sagan this year. Joe Gray, raise your hand, please?”
I held up my hand, and the teacher nodded in my direction. I heard one of the blondes from Tiffany Squad whispering (a little too loudly) in front of me.
“Oh my God! She has a boy’s name, and apparently dresses like one too!” She giggled evilly.
I rolled my eyes. The teacher bellowed from the front of the class. “Miss Gray, why don’t you come up here and present yourself to the class?” he commanded.
Okay. That was my cue. I would set my future by these next few minutes. I mastered my nonchalant face and cool facade. It was now or never.
“I don’t mean to disrespect you, sir, but everybody knows I’m the new kid at this school, and you just told them my name. So how about we consider my presentation done? I’m sure you have a busy schedule today; we don’t have to waste any more time,” I said, casually crossing my legs and flipping my book open, faking interest in the pages in front of me.
The teacher looked baffled for a moment, but then nodded and stuttered the pages we needed to be reading. Alrighty, that was easy! I smiled, satisfied with my Oscar-winning performance. A few students were glan
cing at me curiously, some even looking impressed. I was now officially a lion on the prairie!
I was focusing hard on my book, but risked a quick glance up. Tiffany had turned around on her seat a couple of chairs ahead of me, and was looking intently in my direction. There was definitely a strange look passing over her face … Before I could figure it out, she turned quickly away. Good as I was at reading people, I was having a hard time deciphering that girl; she was really good at covering up her emotions!
The rest of the class passed uneventfully. I thought I was in the clear from then on. Everything was sorted and my time at that school would be peaceful and undisturbed. Apparently, I was very naive.
It turned out Tiffany was in almost every class with me that Monday. And she did her absolute best to make my life a living hell! It was a constant stream of bullying, teasing, smirking, sneering, laughing in my face, making snarky remarks at my name, at my clothes, my bag, my shoes, the way I walked, the way I sat, the way I breathed. I felt like I was being hazed as part of a military training session.
I guessed that was the beginning of The Vengeance of the Thirds. Seth had warned me about it and I hadn’t quite believed him. I tried my best to hold my ground and deflect all her attacks, but by the end of the day I was feeling down after all the emotional abuse. I walked into our dorm room feeling like Rocky Balboa after a beating … Which reminded me, I should definitely watch those movies with Tristan some time. The thought made me smile, despite the hellish day I’d had.
Seth was hunched on his bed flipping through papers spread all around him. He glanced at me and winced. “Wow. Bad first day, huh?” he asked sympathetically.
“Bad doesn’t even begin to describe it,” I mumbled, throwing my bag on the floor and flopping heavily on to my bed. Then I told him about The Revenge of the Thirds. He was instantly pissed off.
“She can’t do this to you!” he shouted from his bed. “Do you want me to talk to her?”
I leaned on my elbows, smiling weakly. I hardly knew him and he was acting so over-protective. That was sweet of him. “Seth. I’m a big girl. And NO, you will not talk to her! I can handle this, please!” I said, trying to calm him down.
He looked upset. “You think I can’t help you. That I’m intimidated by Tiffany?” he huffed.
I stood up and moved to sit next to him on his bed. “No, I don’t think that at all, Seth. I just need to fight my own battles, otherwise it’s you who will think I’m some poor, weak, whiney girl that needs a man to defend herself from the mean girls. I can’t have that.” I nudged him in the ribs. He chuckled at me, somewhat appeased. “But I know that you’ve got my back, if I ever need you. It means a lot to me, thank you.”
“All right, then. As long you know that,” he said, blushing a little and turning back to his papers.
“What is all this mess anyway?” I asked, peeking over his shoulder at all the scrumpled sheets spread over his bed.
He looked embarrassed, but then grabbed a piece paper and showed it to me. “It’s kind of a song I’m working on … It’s all drafts and roughs for now, but maybe I can turn it into something presentable,” he said, scratching his blond locks. “It’s been a little tricky, though. The words won’t come together anywhere. But the basic idea is here … somewhere.”
“You’re a songwriter?” I asked, surprised.
“Oh, well, yeah, I guess you could call it that. I’m in a band. It’s mostly me and Sam writing the songs for now. The other two just stand at the side and criticize everything we write. We haven’t managed to come up with a good catchy song yet. Maybe this could be it.” He stared at the paper like he was daring it to contradict him.
I looked at the scrawled lyrics. It was a mess. I was glad Mom had paid for my music lessons. I could hear the tune strumming in my head as I read the music sheet.
I grabbed a blank piece of paper and started jotting down a few notes, taking bits and pieces from here and there, and asking about things that weren’t clear to me at first glance. Seth answered promptly, clearly a little surprised. Then he got really excited by my suggestions, so I kept going. When I looked at the clock, I realised we’d been working on his song for hours!
He kept staring at my sheet and then back at his messy pile of notepads, muttering “brilliant” to himself. I was happy that he liked my rearrangement of his lyrics. All I had done was put things in their right places, fixed some notes, balanced the rhythm and rhymes, and the song was there, right in front of us! He thanked me like a dozen times, holding the new lyrics on his hand reverently.
“I can’t wait for the guys to see this! It’s so good, they won’t believe it!” He beamed happily.
“I’m glad I could help. If you need a hand with other songs, let me know. Your drafts were really good, Seth. You just have to work on assembling your ideas, that’s all.”
My phone vibrated and I jumped, startled, off the bed. I picked it up and saw “Mom” flashing on the screen. “Hey, Mom. What’s up?” I greeted half-heartedly. Tiffany’s bullying had taken all the cheer out of my voice, and Mom noticed. I walked back to my bed, leaving Seth absorbed in his papers.
“Hey, munchkin, what’s wrong? You sound sad,” she asked, worried.
“Nah, I’m just really tired. First day is always hard,” I half-lied. I still didn’t want her to know about my run-ins with Tiffany. I could handle this problem myself. “So what’s new with you?” I asked.
“Well, today I got all of Tristan’s paperwork finally settled! As soon as I have my car back, I’ll be able to take him to school!” she said happily. “So if people ask, he’s your half-brother, all right, honey? I already called the school explaining the whole situation. How are you feeling, by the way? Any sickness?”
“No, I’m fine, don’t worry, Mom,” I said, relieved. “Huh … how’s Tristan doing?”
“He’s fine! He’s in his room now, listening to music. I took him shopping today! He needed a whole lot of new clothes for school. I didn’t know buying clothes for boys could be so much fun!” she exclaimed excitedly.
“You think buying clothes for anybody is fun, Mom,” I muttered.
“Oh, but he’s so much better than you at shopping. He doesn’t fight with me every step of the way, and actually accepts my suggestions.”
“That’s because he doesn’t have a clue what to wear,” I retorted.
“And you should’ve seen the look on the faces of the girls at the store! They were practically asking to go inside the changing room with him! I had to mount a guard outside, so he wouldn’t be bothered! I think you’re going to like his new look!” she said happily.
I bet I will, I thought to myself. Anything looked good on him.
“So, that’s all news for now. I gotta go, honey! I’ll call you tomorrow, bye!” Mom said, hanging up.
I turned my phone off and spent the rest of the day picturing Tristan in his new clothes. And then I remembered that he was supposed to be my half-brother now. That was … kind of weird. I sighed, wishing I were there with him. I went to bed early again and had a restless sleep. I suspected that tomorrow was going to be another hellish day with Tiffany on my case.
And it turned out I was right. I left really early to have my breakfast in peace, thinking that maybe Tiffany and her squad would still be in bed, but there she was. My own private nemesis, standing in the middle of the corridor waiting for me, with her bitchy squad at her flanks. Oh boy. It was really, really, early. I wasn’t even fully awake yet! Couldn’t she give me a freaking break? I sighed heavily and lifted my head up, walking towards her in a very bad mood.
“Gray. I need to have a little word with you before classes start,” she commanded, signaling to an empty classroom on her left.
I shrugged and entered the room. I could easily beat the crap out of her if I needed to. Maybe even take a few of her cheerleaders too. I was brown belt in Aikido and yellow belt in karate. I had been very into extracurricular activities back in my old town.
??
?So, Gray,” she began, leaning against the teacher’s desk. “After the try-out we gave you yesterday, I think you must have learned your lesson by now. I’m going to give you one more chance to apologize to me. And an opportunity to redeem yourself. You apologize now and carry my books all day long, and all is forgotten. What do you say? It’s your last chance, remember that. If you thought yesterday was bad, I was only warming up. I can have you expelled, if I want to.”
I stared hard, focusing all my energy into trying to fish all I could out of her. She was right. She could have me expelled in a snap of her pretty rich fingers. But she would never do it. I could see it in her eyes. She was lying. She was lying bad. About everything.
“You know what? You go ahead, do what you think is right,” I said. “I’m not going to apologize, because I don’t have anything to apologize for. You’re the one with the attitude problem. You should be the one apologizing! You think treating people like crap earns you respect? They don’t respect you!” I said, pointing to her cheerleaders. “They fear you and they idolize you, but they do it only because of your money. Lose your dollar bills, and you might see there’s not one single ounce of real friendship in any one of them.”
I turned to leave, but then remembered one last thing to say. “Just leave me alone, Miss Worthington the Third, and go back to being a horrible, shallow and cruel human being. At some point in your life, you’ll need a true friend, and you’ll realize then how truly poor you really are,” I said, walking out and closing the door behind me.
I headed for the cafeteria and finally had breakfast alone and in peace. The rest of the day was a blissful reprieve. Tiffany wasn’t in any of my classes that day. One or other of her cheerleaders were, but they didn’t dare to say or do anything to me without their leader. They didn’t even dare look at me. That felt good.
I shared a couple of classes with Seth, too. That was a breath of fresh air. He always sat next to me, making jokes and goofing around, earning me a few jealous glances from the girls. I had so much fun with him that it almost made me forget about the whole incident with Tiffany in the morning. I wasn’t worried about it, though. I knew Tiffany didn’t really hate me. I had seen it. Even after all I said to her. I wondered if maybe I had been too hard on her back there. Nah. Probably not.