Page 50

“Oh, no. That won’t be necessary. My mother taught me you only apologize when you’ve done something wrong. Not when you tell people the truth—no matter how repulsive and vomit-inducing it may be.” Her head bobbled back and forth in that pompous brat way as a devious smirk twisted one corner of her mouth upward. She acted as if she’d won something.
“Well, if your mother taught you that, I see the pile of shit didn’t fall too far from the heifer,” I quipped.
One of the other girls snorted before quickly covering it with a throat clear. I didn’t see who it was, but at leastsomeoneover there must not have been half bad.
Ignoring my comment, Alice said, “Well, it’s lovely your mother was able to impart thatlovelybit of wisdom on to you.” Alice didn’t give anyone the opportunity to smart off to her again. She placed her clipboard under her arm and clapped her hands together. “Everybody up and outside! Let’s go. Get on the track.”
I had no way of knowing if I could make it that far or that long, but I certainly planned to try.
Everyone bitched and complained on the way to the exterior exits, shooting angry looks at Alice instead of the person whose fault it was—Becky. As I passed Alice, she tapped my shoulder.
“Hang back for a sec.”
There were a few girls in earshot, and they turned and laughed as they walked backwards. Becky being one of them.
“Either you’re in trouble for talking like the gutter trash you are, or you and your new girlfriend need a moment alone.”
She laughed and turned before heading out. I decided not to dignify that with a response. She was a piece of shit, and nothing I said with a teacher present would affect that girl in any way.
When they were all outside, I turned to the gym teacher. “Yep? What’s up?”
“I just wanted to say thanks for that. Normally, I don’t tolerate that kind of language, but I’ll make an exception this time. I knew why you did it.”
I smiled. “Yeah, it was a risk, but it was one I was willing to take. Not that you needed the help. You’re clearly sarcastic and witty enough to handle her on your own. Still, I couldn’t help myself.”
“I’m glad you did. Seeing the look on her face made it worth it. However, seeing the look on her face when I kick her ass up and down that track and she fails the assignment will be even better—pardon my language.”
She turned and headed toward the door, and I followed, suppressing my laughter. Even if I flat fucking sucked, I hoped Alice did exactly as she wanted to. I didn’t mind losing to Alice. I wanted to see the look on Becky’s and Harper’s faces when an “old woman” outran them.
When I made it outside, the sun greeted. It was warmer now than it had been during the fire drill, but it still felt incredible. The class made it out to the track, and within a few minutes, Alice had the assistant waiting out there and caught up on what we were doing. They’d keep everyone’s time—including Alice’s.
It wastoughat first. It took me a while to get back into the swing of things, and I fell behind. My anxiety didn’t help, and I kept worrying something bad would happen. The longer I ran, though, the more in sync my body became. I more than made up some time and passed all those assholes who had to stop and walk for minutes at a time. A couple of them even threw up in the grass off the side of the track. I was exhausted, and my body was certainly a bit out of shape, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I’d convinced myself it would be.
I was a lot slower than I had been the last time I timed myself, and I had to walk several times, but I still finished ahead of everyone else—except Alice. She beat me by a full thirty seconds, but I was right behind her. The best part was that I completed the whole two miles. I wassohappy it wasn’t more than that because that was definitely my limit. At least I had a baseline now, and I could work from there.
Now that Asher wasn’t being a total dick, I wondered if I could get that key back.
“You’ll be hearing from my father,” Becky snapped as she passed Alice on the way inside. “He won’t let you fail me for this grade.”
“You had the option to apologize. You chose wrong. I’m sure your father would be much more agreeable with this than the immediate expulsion youwouldhave received had we taken this to the headmistress. Actions have consequences, Miss Butler. Besides, you are your father’s child. I’m sure he’swellaware of negative consequences by now.”
My eyes widened, and my jaw dropped. I had to turn my back to them to keep from laughing my ass off because the shock on that spoiled brat’s face nearly took me out. I waited for the telltale frustrated grunt before turning to watch her stomp her foot and spin away to storm inside. I smiled and gave my new favorite teacher ever a nod of appreciation before heading inside also.
Everyone headed into the locker room to the showers—the part of the day I dreaded the most. Like the toilet stalls in all the bougie restrooms, the showers in the locker room were the same. There were shower stalls with tiled walls that went from floor to ceiling with real doors. They looked like wood, but I figured that was just a coating used since wood would be terrible in a locker room.
All I had to figure out was how to get undressed without anyone being able to take pics or video. I wasn’t completely sure, but judging by what happened earlier, I was relatively sure at least one person had tried to film me and got frustrated when they couldn’t.
I waited as long as I could and headed into a stall with a towel and my moisture proof bag of clothing. I’d put my boots in the locker and locked it, so they were safe. I had no idea how this plan would work, but I had high hopes. They couldn’t steal my stuff if it was all in the stall with me.
God, you sound paranoid as hell, Tempe.
Paranoid or not, I didn’t trust those girls as far as I could throw them, and I sure as hell wasn’t letting my guard down during my most vulnerable state.
Locking the stall door, I stripped and stuffed absolutely everything into the bag. I hoped my uniform wouldn’t get wrinkled, but I didn’t really care. This was a trial anyway. I pulled the drawstring tight and began to shower.
Loud music played, and one of the girls started to sing in another shower. Her voice was absolutely terrible, but I wasn’t about to say anything. I just wanted to finish up and get the hell out of there.
While shampooing my hair, a weird scratching noise appeared over the music. It stopped pretty quickly, so I continued. Unfortunately, my distraction cost me, and I got soap in my eyes. I reached for my towel, holding it in front of me and wiping my eyes.