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I wasn’t lying to my friends, but even as I spoke, there was a part of me that worried about the harpies. It was easy to think that they wouldn’t be an issue and that everything would work out in my favor when I wasn’t face-to-face with any of them, but that was all about to change, and I knew it.
Chapter 6
New year, new schedule. Thanks to Kaleb, I’d managed to pass algebra 2. There was definitely a pattern about me needing his help and him coming through in a pinch, and now that I was in statistics and probability, that wasn’t going to change. After homeroom I went to math, then Spanish, voice, and physics. On Tuesdays and Thursdays I had philosophy, creative writing, international business, and accounting.
It was exhausting. I wanted a break but knew that there wouldn’t be one anytime soon. The best thing to do was keep my head down and work as hard as possible so that I didn’t have issues with my grades. That, and studying all the time was a great way to try to avoid the harpies.
One thing that you couldn’t say about Taylor Prep was that they didn’t prepare you for the world. I had no idea how I was going to handle all of my classes, but I would know a little about everything when I graduated, even if that meant that I only knew that I didn’t want to continue with something. Like accounting. I mean, really? Who in the world wants to put numbers and check marks in little boxes? Not me.
“Accounting?” Brett dropped my schedule onto the table and raised an eye at me. “You’ve got to be kidding me, Rose. How in the world are you going to handle that?”
I scoffed and took a bite of my all-organic zucchini breakfast muffin. “You don’t know. Maybe I’m a whizz at accounting.”
Kaleb snorted into his juice and I shot him a dirty look. “Hey, I’m not saying anything,” he told me. “Just be glad that I’m your math tutor, that’s all. If it weren’t for me…”
“I wouldn’t even be here, I know.” Sighing, I pushed my plate away. “You guys, these classes are ridiculous.”
Jackie grabbed my schedule and read through it quickly. “You’ll be fine, Rosita. The only classes that you have by yourself are voice and creative writing.”
“No, I’m in creative writing with her. I switched from business proposals and grants.” Kaleb waived his cup at me. “I think that my gifts are better suited to poetry from the heart, not trying to get people to donate money for something, don’t you?”
I did. I had kept every single poem he’d written me over the summer. Even though I had them all memorized, I’d brought a notebook of them with me back to school. They were tucked in the bottom of my trunk, and not even Harper or Maggie knew that they were in my room.
We got up and walked to homeroom together, talking as we cut through the quad. It had rained the night before and the grass was muddy, but we were all careful not to slip. Before we made it to the building, however, something came flying at my head.
Screaming, I threw myself backwards and tried to duck, but my feet caught a slick of mud and I fell down, hard, on my ass.
“Rosita! Are you okay?” Jackie was by my side in an instant, but Brett and Kaleb looked around to see what had happened. Before I could answer him, another thing came flying at us, this time smacking me on the shoulder and breaking apart with a splat. The stench that came from it made me gag. Something smelled horrible, and there was a slime oozing down the sleeve of my jacket.
“Shit that hurt!” I rubbed my arm and picked up the broken eggshell. “Eggs? Who in the world is throwing eggs at me?”
I shouldn’t have had to ask. Jackie reached for my hand to pull me up to stand, but another egg flew at me, then another. The rogues ducked, trying to block me from getting hit, but they couldn’t stop the attack.
Eggs pounded the ground around me, some of them smacking me in the hair and on my body. I shrieked with each hit, the smell of rotten eggs making me feel like I was going to throw up.
“Stop it!” Brett’s voice was loud and commanding, but even he couldn’t make the person attacking us stop. The eggs kept coming until I was covered with dripping yolks and whites. Jackie pulled me up to my feet, my three rogues flanking me.
“What the hell, Amelia?” Jackie stepped in front of me and, for the first time, I noticed that my boys were all covered in egg, too. They’d tried to save me but just ended up putting themselves at danger. We were all dripping with egg and I was covered with mud.
What a fine way to start the first day back as a senior.
Amelia was laughing so hard that she could barely speak. She was bent over, clutching her stomach, with Sara and Kelly at her sides. They both held empty baskets and had looks of triumph on their faces.
“You should have seen your faces!” Amelia crowed, finally straightening up and wiping tears from her eyes. “You guys were terrified!”
That was it.
She could attack me. I’d already survived one year of her bullshit.
But attacking my rogues? Not gonna fly.
Ignoring the way that Kaleb grabbed my arm to stop me and how Brett tried to get in front of me so that I couldn’t keep walking, I pulled away from my rogues and marched up to Amelia. She was still grinning when I walked straight up to her, pulled my arm back, and landed a slap across her face.
“You bitch.” My voice was quiet, but the smack across her face was loud enough to silence the quad. Everyone who had been standing around laughing when we were being egged turned to look at us. “You need to back the fuck off.”
Amelia rubbed her cheek and grinned at me. “Big words from a little gutter rat who has a dirty stripper for a mom.”
“Shut up.” My teeth were clenched together and I felt my hands form into fists but I couldn’t move. If I moved, then I knew that I would attack her. The last time the two of us fought in the quad she definitely came out on top. Even though she didn’t have a staff to use to beat me now, I didn’t trust that I could win in a fight.
