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“Watch where you’re going, freak!” some a*****e said, ramming hard into my arm, causing my books to fall on the ground. I spun around to see who the ******** was, but whoever it was had fled. I grumbled and dropped to pick up my books. I was the new girl in school for the fifth time in my life (not counting elementary school). My mom never found a boyfriend she liked for very long, which resulted in us moving around a lot to live with some guy or other she’d met online or wherever. So far the current guy wasn’t a complete a*****e – but everyone at my new school was. Just because I was the new girl, just because I happened to be a little chubby, just because I happened to have baggy clothes instead of those lame-a** tight halter tops and skirts that most (okay, pretty much ALL) girls my age wore.
“Hey b***h, why don’t you go back where you came from?” A tall blond guy sneered. I turned and got ready to punch him when someone grabbed my hand. I turned around to see who had stopped me. Another tall guy, this one kind of muscular, with this crazy afro-style hair on his head had grabbed my arm.
“What the ********? Let go!” I shouted, trying to wrench myself out of his grip. The blond guy raised his eyebrows.
“He’s not worth it,” Afro-guy told me softly.
“Shut up Ray, this doesn’t have anything to do with you,” Blond guy said.
“Why don’t you shut the ******** up Brian and go bother someone else?” another voice said, and I turned to see two more guys standing with Ray. One of them had longish black hair and a glare on his face. The other wasn’t much taller than I was with short black hair. What, so now I couldn’t even fight my own fight? I needed guys to back me up?
“Whatever,” Brian said, rolling his eyes. He left, and Ray finally let go of my arm. I adjusted my backpack strap on my shoulder and looked at the three guys that were still standing there.
“I’m Ray,” the guy with the Afro said. His voice was kind of weird – it was too soft to belong to someone so big. He stuck out a hand, like he was expecting me to shake with him or something. I didn’t, and he pulled his hand back.
“I could’ve taken him,” I said. Shorty snorted and then laughed. I glared at him.
“What, just because I’m a girl you think I couldn’t have taken him?” I asked, starting to get angry again.
“That’s not what he meant,” Ray said, glancing at Shorty, “right Frankie?” Shorty – Frankie – shrugged.
“It’s just that, you don’t want to mess with Brian. You might get the best of him now, but then he’ll send his friends after you and you won’t stand a chance,” the dark haired guy said. Whatever, I thought. I really didn’t feel like arguing with them right now.
“Hey, do you have lunch right now?” Ray asked. I thought about lying and saying no, but decided against it, and I nodded.
“Do you want to come with us?” he asked. Well, it’ll be easier than eating alone, I told myself, and so I nodded again. I didn’t even know who these guys were, and I wanted to hate them for not letting me beat the crap out of that Brian kid, but at least they weren’t acting like assholes.
Instead of walking in the direction of the cafeteria, though, the three of them, led by Frankie, walked in the opposite direction, and then out a set of doors in the side of the building. I followed them, a little wary because I really didn’t want to get in trouble on my first day. Once outside, they walked around a corner of the building into a kind of hidden area, away from any windows. Frankie sat down on the grass and folded his legs Indian-style.
“Um, are we allowed to be out here?” I asked as the others sat down as well. They shrugged.
“Who cares?” Ray asked, “Have a seat,” he said. I sighed, but sat down, making sure to keep enough distance, but not too much. I searched through my bad and found the lunch I’d packed – a peanut butter sandwich. I hated peanut butter, but Donald (Mom’s new boyfriend) didn’t buy lunch meat, so peanut butter was the only kind of sandwich I could have for now. I glanced at my mashed sandwich and decided I wasn’t hungry. And that when I was getting home I would borrow Mom’s money and car and buy some real food.
“Mind if I smoke?” The still-unnamed black-haired guy asked, pulling a pack of cigarettes out of his sweatshirt pocket.
“Um, actually yeah, I do,” I answered, wondering why he’d bothered to ask. He shrugged and put the pack away. Wow, maybe these guys weren’t going to be as bad as I thought.
“So, um, what’s your name? How come you moved here? Where are you from?” Frankie asked.
“My name is Nicole, uh, Nikki. We moved here because my mom met this guy or something, and we moved in with him,” I answered.
“Really, who’s the guy?” The still-unnamed black-haired guy wanted to know.
“Donald,” I said, wondering why they wanted to know.
“Does he have a whole bunch of tattoos and s**t?” Frankie asked.
“Yeah, but how did you know that?” I asked. The three of them exchanged looks. Okay, this was getting kind of weird.
“That’s Gerard’s dad,” Frankie answered finally. I was going to guess that Gerard was the name of the black-haired dude.
“What? That doesn’t make any sense. Donald lived alone before we moved in,” I said. But now that I thought about it, Mom did mention something about Donald having kids.
“Well, yeah, Mikey and I only stay with him every other weekend. We mostly live with our mom,” Gerard replied. I nodded. There wasn’t much to say now. It was weird that I’d just met this guy today and he happened to be the son of my mom’s new boyfriend. That was a really weird coincidence.
After another five minutes of awkward conversation, the bell rang and I had to go back inside for class, which I did. I went through the rest of my school day without seeing any of the guys, and without pissing anyone else off. Just barely.
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Um, so? Thoughts?
