Chapter 4 #2
Principal Perkins rubs his hand over his jaw, his eyes now down by my feet. “I should probably check that too, just in case.”
He’s looking at my backpack. Shit!
“I’m going to be late to class,” I tell him.
“This won’t take long.” He motions to my backpack. “Give it here.”
If he finds the drugs, I’m done. Everything I worked for is gone, just like that.
“You want to fight me?” someone yells.
I look over and see Finn shoving a guy in the hall.
It’s Lars, one of the soccer players. He’s a junior and trying to become the next Finn by sleeping with as many girls as he can.
He’s okay looking, but nothing special. He gets girls by knowing what to say to get them in bed.
And he has an Australian accent, which girls seem to love.
“Go ahead and try, fucker!” Finn shoves him again.
“Boys!” Principal Perkins races over to them, grabbing Finn and holding him back. “Stop it, right now!”
“He came after me ,” Lars says. “I was just trying to get to class.”
“You’re a fucking liar!” Finn yells at Lars, who’s standing there, calm and collected, which makes Finn even angrier. “You ever take my shit again I’ll—” He stops, his jaw working side-to-side.
“I think you need some time to settle down,” Principal Perkins says, keeping hold of Finn as he leads him away.
Charlotte appears beside me. “What happened?”
“Finn was fighting with Lars.”
“I meant with your locker. Did he find anything?”
“No. I need to go. I’ll see ya later.” I grab my backpack and head to the bathroom.
Scarlett’s in there checking her makeup.
I swear she and her friends spend half their day in the bathroom, messing with their hair and makeup.
Most days, I don’t even wear makeup. I’d rather sleep in than take time to do my face.
Going in a stall, I reach into my backpack and find the small plastic sack. As I’m trying to open it, it slips from my hand and falls on the tile floor.
The stall door swings open.
“Whatcha got there, Trailer Girl?” Scarlett asks, chomping on her gum and staring down at the bag.
I pick it up off the floor. “Do you mind? I’m trying to use the bathroom.”
She snatches the bag from me, holding it up and smiling. “This is worth more than your house. Where’d you get this?”
“I didn’t. I found it. I was about to flush it. Now give it back.”
She holds it high in the air, out of my reach, because she’s so much taller than me. With her heels, she’s almost six feet, and I’m barely five four.
“Give it back.” I bite out the words, ready to climb on the toilet to get it if that’s what it takes.
“Finders, keepers.” She smirks, then whips around and walks off.
“Scarlett, wait!” I go to chase after her, but she’s already out the door.
Whatever. If she wants to risk getting caught with the stuff, let her. I should go report her, and then Principal Perkins can go search her locker like he did mine. But knowing Scarlett, she’ll hide it in her boobs. They’re huge. You could easily hide something in there.
Feeling relieved that it’s gone, I go to the sink and wash my hands, then head to class. I smile when I see Ms. Higgins, the only person at school who makes me feel like I belong here.
“Hi, Ella,” she says, meeting me at the door. “Do you have a minute?”
“Um, yeah, okay,” I say, wondering what this is about. Did she hear about my locker search and wants to give me a stay- off-drugs speech? I could totally see her doing that. She’s one of those people who feels the need to save everyone.
“I wanted to talk to you about your lab partner.”
“Rachel? What about her?”
“Her father was transferred to New York for his job so Rachel is unable to be your partner.”
“She’s moving? Now ? Before she graduates?”
“Her mother decided not to wait. The family is moving there this week.”
“Rachel’s gone?” As I say it, I realize I haven’t seen her since we got back from break. I thought she was sick, but apparently, she was packing up to move across the country.
“Anyway, it turns out that Nathan decided to drop the class, leaving another person without a partner.” She sets her hand on my shoulder. “Now I know you two don’t get along but I think this would be a good chance for both of you to put your differences aside and—”
“Wait. You’re not talking about Briggs, are you?”
She sighs. “It’s only for a semester and—”
“No. I’m not doing it. I don’t need a partner. I’ll work alone.”
“Everyone needs a partner. Some of the experiments require two people.”
“Then I’ll switch with someone. Anyone else would love to be with Briggs. He’s Mr. Popularity.”
“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Briggs says, coming up beside me, that smile on his face that seems to charm everyone but me.
“Briggs,” Ms. Higgins says, smiling back at him. “Just the person I wanted to talk to.”
“I assume this is about my partner? I heard he dropped the class.”
“Yes, he decided this class was too much with his band commitments and other activities.”
“Let me guess.” Briggs puts his arm around me, his hand squeezing my shoulder. “This is my new partner?”
“Yes,” Ms. Higgins says. “As you may have heard, Rachel’s family had to make a rather sudden move to New York, leaving Ella without a partner.” Her smile drops as her eyes bounce between us. “I trust there won’t be any problems with you two working together.”
“Of course not,” Briggs says, holding me tighter against his side as I try to pull away. “I’m looking forward to this. It’ll give me a chance to get to know Ella better.” He looks at me, his smile now a smirk.
“Great!” Ms. Higgins is beaming, like she just managed to get enemies to be friends.
She couldn’t be farther from the truth. Briggs and I aren’t even close to being friends.
And he’s not just an enemy. He’s a bully.
A bully who almost ruined my life with a bag of white powder he planted in my locker.
How did he do it, and why? Is he really that evil?
As much as he’s done to me, I never thought he’d take it this far, but now that he has, I need to watch my back. This is about more than being valedictorian, because seriously, why would he care? It’s just a stupid title. So why is he doing this? Does he really hate me that much?
What is this really about?