The video of the scuffle in the arcade quickly blew up on the school district's forums. Many Eagles recognized Damien as their leader but shied away from the most after seeing the comments ridiculing him.
"What a scumbag, haha. That's why she broke up with him."
"Seriously? Why are men like this?"
"I swear not all of us are insane."
Conversely, Joan was placed on a pedestal.
"We love to see women supporting women :)"
"She should've punched him."
Damien monitored the forum with a close eye, reading through every message that was posted. And as his eyes flickered over the spiteful comments about him, he bit his thumb. Like Amarya, it was a bad habit of his. He tended to find that it was the quickest and easiest way to vent the anger burning his belly.
Damien's two front teeth gnawed at the skin of his thumb, tearing lacerations into his tanned skin. The comments fueled his rage toward Joan and his possessiveness toward Amarya.
All around him, he could feel the stare of his classmates burning his skin. Dozens upon dozens of snickers and rumors surrounded him, but Damien could care less about what others thought about him. Of course, that rule was an exception when it came to Amarya.
"Give up, man," Luka said, slamming a carton of milk down on Damien's desk. Luka pulled up a chair to sit opposite of Damien and rested his cheeks in his palms. "Don't embarrass yourself."
Damien chuckled. "Why would I be embarrassing myself?"
Luka's clucked his tongue at Damien's shamelessness. For as long as Luka could remember, Damien was a shameless psychopath. He was devoid of embarrassment, shame, and humility. In the wake of those missing emotions, arrogance, possessiveness, and anger filled in.
Luka sighed and pulled Damien's thumb away from his teeth and reeled in disgust upon seeing the gory remains of Damien's thumb. "C'mon, man. You don't need to do that."
"Fuck off," Damien muttered, yanking his hand out of Luka's grasp.
Damien refocused his attention on the video on his phone. And over and over again, he pressed play, basking in the glory of Amarya's beauty that seemed to illuminate through his phone.
On the side, Luka watched in horror as Damien replayed the video. Over and over again. He couldn't help but feel a chill run down his spine when he saw a fiendish grin make its way over Damien's face.
Luka humorlessly laughed as he stood up and backed away from Damien's desk. "Pscyho," he muttered to himself.
***
Terra Baskins. Oh, if only she'd been born into a better family. She would've had all the best boys wrapped around her finger. But much to her displeasure, she was born to a low-income, sluttish family.
Who knows who her father was? Her mother slept around with so many men; there were hundreds of possible candidates. While whorish, her mother was a beautiful woman. Terra had to give her that.
How else would have the dumb shit survived? Her mother was a moron—an elementary school dropout. And although she couldn't do basic multiplication, she was a wizard with makeup and seduction. She lured men with a subtle wink or a quirk of the mouth, and her body was intoxicating. Maybe if she were a little bit more educated, she would've been able to land the position as madame instead of mistress.
Terra always hated her mother for that. Her lowly birth meant that she'd be stuck in this rotten hellhole for years. She was desperate for a way out, and she'd do whatever was necessary to claw out.
So when rumors of a rich boy attending school in her district spread, she bit her chance.
Desperately, she lusted after boy after boy, urging them to show her any sign of wealth. But Terra never hit the jackpot. Instead, she hit the gangs. By accident, she'd managed to wrap the Dragons' leader, Julian Robins, around her finger. Although it wasn't who she wanted, Terra supposed it was better than nothing.
"Terra Baskins!"
Terra lazily looked up to find her teacher's stern gaze set right on her.
"Number five, please."
"Bitch," Terra muttered to herself.
She averted her attention from her nails to the math book placed on her desk and stood from her desk.
Her eyes scanned the assortment of symbols laying before her and began to run various calculations in her head.
She stood in silence.
Her teacher, who seemed satisfied to have caught Terra distracted, grinned. "Please pay att-"
"Five sine x," Terra announced.
Her teacher's eyes widened. She'd purposely chosen a hard question for Terra, confident that she wouldn't be able to answer it.
Embarrassed, she let Terra sit back down and continued on with her lecture.
Terra rolled her eyes at the wretched old hag. Unlike many of her fellow classmates, Terra had ambitious dreams. She dreamed of the luxuries shown on TV and a leadership position on the corporate ladder.
And to get where she wanted to be, she had to be smart. At least, that was what she used to think. When Terra entered high school, she quickly realized hard work wasn't everything.
Although she was smart, there was no changing the fact that her family was broken and her mother was absent. Terra couldn't even begin to dream of paying her college tuition. And a full scholarship? That was another impossible dream.
Just because Terra was smart didn't mean others weren't. But the difference between her and them was that they had the extra income to pay for after school classes, tutors, and an assortment of college admissions counselors.
As Terra settled herself back into her chair, she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. She narrowed her eyes, already suspecting who the sender was. And as she pulled out her phone, she wasn't surprised to see 'Shithead' texting her.
If Julian ever saw what she'd named him in her contacts, he wouldn't be pleasantly surprised.
"Hey babe, go to M High School today and try to link up with the Black Lion. Can you do that for me?"
Terra scowled. What did he think she was? His slave?
Her fingers rapidly tapped at her screen, and she replied with one word. "No."