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“Junior.”
The poor girl looks up at Tiffany with a who me? look to her face.
“Yes, honey you. Candace, right? I need you to move for me. Bash was saving my seat but didn’t want to be rude. Everyone already knows that I’m rude, so sorry, not sorry. Buh Bye!”
Candace is sitting there for a second stunned, until Tiffany clears her throat and pantomimes this poor girl getting up and moving on with her hands. She quickly gathers her stuff and practically runs to the back of the room, looking like she wants to cry. As soon as she vacates the seat, Tiffany sits down and looks at us as if she did not just ruin this poor junior’s first day of school.
“Oh, come on. Sebastian didn’t want some crazy fangirl sitting here. All the girls in the school are already scared of me, so I decided to use my powers for good instead of evil. Relax, Bash. She was right—Carpenter always makes you pair up for the semester with the person you sit with on day one, and you should the thanking me. I’m kinda a chemistry genius.” I guess Tiff doesn’t realize that Bash is a secret science nerd himself.
Bash is sitting there, just staring at Tiffany as Natalie giggles. “Tiff, seriously, you made her cry.”
“Yeah, well, it’s better to be the one in control than the one everyone is trying to torture. You’ve known me for years, guys. I’m a control freak, I own that. I say what everyone is thinking but too afraid to say, and I’m proud of that. But I’m not a mean girl. I just make sure that they fear me. Fear is a form of control, and if they fear me, they won’t hurt the people close to me.
“Besides, you guys might have put the word out to the guys in school that the events of the party last Friday night is a no-go topic, but the girls don’t care what you say and won’t back off just because you said so. Let them see Natalie sitting with me, and no girl will even whisper her name. Trust me.” Tiffany reaches out and grabs Natalie’s hand. “I’ve got your back, Natalie.”
“Thanks, Tiffany. You know you’re a little scary, right?”
Tiffany laughs. “I better be more than a little scary.”
It turns out the junior was right. Natalie and I get partnered up. So do Bash and Tiff. Our foursome will also be working together throughout the semester.
Our next class is European History. Right before the late bell rings, Darby slides into class and into the only available seat, which happens to be directly behind Natalie. His left eye is swollen, black, purple, and turning yellow along the bruise’s outer edges. The other eye is not as bruised but is still slightly purple, but much less pronounced. There is a split in his cheek that has started to heal, sitting on top of the remnants of swelling and a fading purple mark.
His nose looks slightly swollen but straight. He must have had it snapped back into place. It may be four days later, but he is looking worse now than he did Friday night. He leans back in his chair and is just staring into the back of Natalie’s head.
Leaning over to Nat, I whisper, “Do you wanna switch seats?”
Before she has a chance to answer me, Ms. Scarpa, one of my favorite teachers in this school, shuts me up. “Mr. Ryan, do you have something you need to share with the class?”
Giving her my best kiss ass smile, I answer her. “I was just asking Natalie if she would like to switch seats with me, Ms. Scarpa.”
“While it is very nice of you to be concerned about her seating assignment, the late bell already rang. Translation, these are your seats for the rest of the semester. Now class, please open your laptops and pull up the syllabus to discuss. The sign-in sheet is already going around the room. Make sure that you are signing in next to your name so that your absence does not get reported to the principal’s office.”
I spend most of the class paying more attention to Darby than I do to anything Ms. Scarpa says. When he leans forward and taps Nat on the shoulder to hand her the sign-in sheet, he whispers something in her ear, and if it wasn’t for her looking directly at me and shaking her head no, I might have killed him then and there.
When the bell announcing the end of class rings, we all get up. Darby ducks out right away.
Grasping Nat’s wrist, I pull her back for a minute. “What did that asshole say to you?”
“He just said he was glad to see I was okay. I’m sure he didn’t mean it. The whole thing was strange.”
We walk over to her locker, and she stacks her books. When she turns around looking slightly frustrated, I pull her in and kiss her forehead. “Don’t let him bother you. If he says anything, you tell me right away. Okay?”
She leans her head against my chest.
I hold my hands on her hips and inhale her scent, staying like that until the warning bell rings.
Looking up at me, Nat straightens her spine. “Okay. I refuse to let him ruin the first day of school. I’ll see you at lunch.” She walks away. Her skirt swishing behind her.
I’m still leaning against the locker when Murphy stops in front of me. “What’cha looking at, QB?” He turns his head and sees Natalie walking away. “Oh, man. I do hate to see her leave, but I sure do like to watch her go.” The fucker laughs at himself.
“Bro. You should see your face, QB. I’m just kidding. Fucking relax. Come on. We’ve got gym next, and we need to get moving if we are getting to the other side of campus on time. You know coach gets pissed if we are late for his class.”
22
Natalie
Today flew by. I am already at my locker, gathering my things when Brady and Cooper walk up together. “And, how was your first day of school, Coop? Was it everything you hoped it would be?”
