Chapter 5 Tabitha
“Ugh. He’s such a loser!” I screech once we’re in the hall after class. “How could Mrs. Field put me near that guy?”
“Oh my gosh, Tabby,” Camila blurts, “you have no idea. I’m stuck with Diane Walsh. The girl clearly doesn’t get the hype around hair brushes and lip gloss. She’s a complete disaster area.”
“Did Diane call you mean and spiteful?”
Cammy double-takes at me. “Huh?”
I emphasize my nods. “That’s what that stupid boy called me. He even said I deserved everything coming for me. Like, he threatened me. Isn’t that a crime?”
“Oh my gosh.” She grabs onto my wrist. “Are you gonna report him?”
I huff and my chest aches. “I should report that cow of a teacher. She walked by when Kai was totally harassing me and did nothing except order me to pick up a stupid pen.”
“She’s gonna pay.”
My hands wind tightly, and three knuckles on each hand pop in unison. “If Mrs. Field thinks she’s won this battle by separating us, she has another thing coming.”
“Whoa, Tabby, you’re like totally unhinged.”
I stop in my tracks and take her in. “Huh?”
Cammy stops and faces me. “You’re talking like a maniac. I mean, do Yvie and I have to be worried you’ll come to school with a machete or something?”
“Who’s coming to school with a machete?” Yvette asks, meeting us in the hall.
Camila gestures at me with a weirded-out smirk. “Tabby. She’s totally going off the deep-end about Mrs. Field.”
Yvette’s eyes widen, and her chin drops as she stares at me. “What the heck, Tabby? Do you wanna kill your chemistry teacher?”
“What?“ I screech.
Hurriedly, I take in the faces of the student body passing us in the hall. The very last thing I need is a vicious rumor circling the school that I’ve turned into some crazy ax-murder.
I blink at my friends.
How exactly did our conversation switch to me being filled with blood-lust? I was complaining about a teacher and the idiot she sat me next to. What did I do to make Cammy turn on me? Wasn’t she on my side?
Cammy smirks, wagging her finger in front of me. “Don’t follow in your psycho brother’s footsteps.”
Yvie sniggers. “You must be talking about Drew, because no way is Freddy a psycho.”
“Keep that dreamy look out of your eye,” Cammy demands, “because if any of us are getting Freddy, it…”
“Hold it,” I blurt, stepping between them. “I told you girls. Brothers are off-limits.”
Cammy rolls her eyes. “Whatever.”
Yvie shrugs. “Yeah. I don’t care if you date my brother. We can totally trade.”
“Eww.“ I grimace. “And don’t call Drew a psycho.”
“Maybe he hasn’t hurt anyone,” Cammy says tentatively, “but he’s totally giving off don’t-mess-with-me vibes these days.”
“He just bleached his hair,” I mutter. “It’s not a big deal.”
“It’s weird,” Cammy insists. “The hair, the tattoo, and the attitude. It all paints a grim picture of him.”
Yvie nods along. “Tattoos are hot, but not that one.”
“Whatever.” I sigh. “Neither me or my brother want to hurt a teacher. Or anyone else, for that matter.”
Cammy pats my shoulder. “Sure thing, Tab. We believe you.”
The way Camila and Yvette giggle and share a look have me thinking this won’t go away quickly.
“Move along, girls,” Vice Principal Franklin says, striding past us. “You should already be at your next class.”
“Yes, sir,” we all chime in at once.
Yvie screws up her face. “It’s phys-ed next.”
At least that’s one bright spot on my school day. I get forty minutes of freedom if I can keep pivoting Camila’s attacks toward Jamie West. Yvie follows anything Cammy does, so if I can keep them focused on one target, it’ll be a piece of cake.
I cross my fingers behind my back. As long as I don’t say something that distracts them and they turn against me. But avoiding that scenario is like trying not to get blown up in a minefield of underground bombs.
I take a deep breath in as we enter the girls’ locker room. Amazingly, Cammy’s already locked on target. I guess it was a genius move after all to point out Jamie in the hallway before our chemistry lesson.
“Oh, look, she’s in her natural attire,” Cammy says, giving Jamie a once-over.
“The tomboy finally gets to be in shorts, instead of looking freakish in a skirt.” Cammy laughs, looking around at the other girls milling in the locker room.
“I mean, you’ve all seen her, right? Have you ever seen anyone look more unnatural?
It actually hurts my eyes to look at her. ”
Jamie tries her best to ignore Camila as she zips her bag.
However, when others join in with the laughter, it’s hard to put the group on mute.
Cammy easily gets people on her side because her reputation truly precedes her.
No one wants to be in the firing line, so they back Cammy any chance they get.
I’m in a lucky position. Even though she attacks me within a nano-second’s notice, it’s better to be close to her than afar.
The less she knows about a person, the meaner she becomes.
Cammy’s secret weapon is her ability to make up the most vile imagery.
When she knows someone, it takes the fun out of it for her, because she knows if it could be true or not.
With Jamie West, Camila has the most fun of all because we don’t consider her a person. She’s our plaything.
Usually, our targets have at least one person to help them flee the scene. But Jamie’s a helpless little lamb. She doesn’t have a single friend in the class because she hangs out with a bunch of gamer boys. Headed up by Kai Nelson. Or Malakai, as I found out today.
I tap Cammy’s arm. “Did you know Kai Nelson’s name is really Malakai?”
Cammy shrugs. “So?”
I notice Jamie tense at the mention of her friend, and reply, “I just didn’t know.”
“It’s not earth-shattering news,” Cammy says flatly. “Plenty of people go by nicknames.”
I’m surprised Cammy is shooting this down so quickly.
Usually she’d say something extreme, like he’s going under the radar because the cops are after him.
She’d even make up an elaborate crime to go along with it.
The fact she’s dropping it, and especially around Jamie, means she doesn’t want beef with Kai.
Is she afraid of what he might say in retaliation? If his protest against me in chemistry is anything to go by, the boy doesn’t go down without a fight. But I need Cammy’s help against him. I can’t survive the rest of the semester near that stupid boy.
As Jamie flees the locker room, it hits me that Kai might be the reason Cammy turned on me in the hall. She changed the conversation, talking about me against Mrs. Field, to dodge Kai as a subject. This is a wrong I need to right. I can’t let Kai think his intimidations have me beat.
“How does that girl even go to this school?” Cammy asks in frustration. “Tabby, you were so right. How she ever weaseled her way into a scholarship is beyond me.”
I throw my curls back into a ponytail. “I thought this was supposed to be an elite private school. But they’ll let anyone put on the blazer and tie.”
“And skirt, apparently,” Cammy says with a snort. “Ah, I can’t stand it.”
“Speaking of that Jamie girl… You know what I heard, right?” Yvie says, leaning in with a glint in her eyes. “About her mom?”
“Her mom abandoned her, didn’t she?” Camila asks, flicking her hair off her shoulder like she’s bored with the old news.
Yvie bites her lip, salivating from a juicy piece of gossip she hasn’t revealed yet. “I mean, what she did before she skipped town.”
She has me on the hook. “What did she do?”
“Oh my gosh, out with it,” Cammy says, still bored.
Yvie bounces in place, giddy before the words leave her tongue. “She was a stripper.”
“What?” Cammy and I gasp in unison.
Still bouncing, Yvie nods emphatically.
“How… How…” I can’t even form a sentence. This is mind-blowing. A stripper? In our town? No way.
“We knew Jamie West was a broke chick from Logan's Point.” Cammy’s grin grows as a sparkle dances in her eyes. “But this. Ah, I should’ve known.”
Yeah, maybe she should have. I’m actually surprised Cammy hadn’t already accused Jamie’s mother of this profession. But, I guess, because she skipped town so long ago, she’s been off the radar.
“Do you think that’s why she ditched her daughter?” I ask. “She was too embarrassed by her career choice to be in this town?”
“Imagine being abandoned by a stripper,” Cammy says, barely containing her laughter. “How disappointing of a child do you have to be?”
“Well, she does just stand there on mute all the time,” Yvie adds. “I’d get super annoyed if my baby acted that way.”
Cammy smirks. “And just when are you planning on having a baby?”
Yvie yelps like a frightened puppy, taking a quick step back. “No, no, no. I wasn’t saying that.”
“Oh my gosh, Yvie,” I swoop in, relieved the attack isn’t pointed at me. “Just which footballer are you trying to make your baby daddy?”
Cammy sniggers. “Or is it the baseball team these days?”
Yvie sucks in a breath and points at me. “She’s the one trying to steal Hayden from Cindy!”
Cammy slides in next to Yvie, pointing her laughter toward me.
Perfect.
That lasted about two seconds.
Cue Coach Oliver screaming at us to enter the gym for another forty minutes of hell.