MORGAN'S POV
I scrambled through the halls like a freaking maniac trying to get to my locker. I kept glancing at my watch and because of that I kept tripping, but I quickly recovered and moved on in lightning speed. The students there kept giving me weird glances but I couldn't be bothered. Not when my spot was at stake.
"Damn girl!" Elle exclaimed when I slammed into my locker. I ignored her and went ahead to open it.
"Where is it? Where is it?" I muttered in frustration as I looked for my History textbook.
"Oh my God, Morgan. The bell hasn't gone off yet. You still have enough time."
"It's not the bell I'm trying to beat." I finally found it and slammed my locker.
"Morg…"
"I'll see you in History!" I yelled and started running again. I passed by Isaac on my way to class and he gave me a confused look when he saw the way I was running.
I got to the class room and peered in through the little glass on the door but I couldn't see anything. As I opened it, I got the shock of my life.
Sitting at the front desk, center row was Dylan fucking Park. I almost fainted right there by the door.
All my running was for shit.
He looked up and smiled at me, the evil in his eyes crystal clear. He waved slowly, mocking me with each movement of his hand.
"Oh darling, you've got to have longer legs than that if you wanna take my seat." I glared at him as he claimed the seat as his. Everyone knows I always sit front row center.
My breathing was labored and the side of my arm ached like hell from when I had hit my locker with so much force. I had done everything to get here before him, even being the first to leave my English class and still that didn't work. I wanted to wipe that smug look off his face.
"There's a spot for you right behind me. You should know by now that that's where you belong."
Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe out.
I walked gingerly to the desk behind him without breaking eye contact. The anger and hatred I was feeling, I made sure he felt it through my heated gaze.
The door flew open and students started filing in. Elle came in with Sasha and Ivy. She gave me a sad look and mouthed "I'm sorry" before heading to the back where they usually sat.
"Okay class, we will continue our discussion on WWII," Mr. Damocles said as he wrote the topic on the board and underlined it. He then sat down on the desk and looked at all of us.
"Now can anyone tell me the seven groups the Nazis wanted to eliminate?" Two hands were up in a flash. I glared at the back of Dylan's head hoping he will feel it and put his hand down. Of course luck wasn't on my side and Mr. Damocles pointed at Dylan.
This is exactly why I wanted the front desk middle row. The rest of us are practically invisible.
"The Jehovah witnesses, the genetically disabled, the Romani people, the LGBTQ community, the Jews, bench republicans and Freemasons."
"Very good, Dylan. Now…" Dylan turned to face me with a smug smile on his face.
"I bet you can't list seven facts Squeaks," he whispered. The pencil I was holding snapped into two. His smile intensified and I wished then that the pencil was his neck.
Mr. Damocles asked another question and even though my hand was up first, he chose Dylan.
No worries, Morgan, you just have to have longer legs.
"Girl, if you don't stop looking at Dylan and eat your food, I'mma have to just shove it down your throat." Ivy was giving me that serious look she always had on each time she was talking about something related to Dylan.
"Did you see him in class today?" I blurted out. Isaac, Elle and Ivy groaned. Sasha just rolled her eyes. "He just sat there answering questions like he was some kind of encyclopedia. I wanted to sit there answering questions like I was some kind of encyclopedia. I ran to that class."
"We know. We saw you," Isaac said. "My love, you have got to stop tripping because of him. You'll get wrinkles." I sighed and bent my head. I was letting Dylan stay in my head without paying rent and it was messing with me physically and mentally. If only he could just fall off the face of the earth.
"Isaac, why aren't you sitting with the rest of the team today?" Elle asked.
"Cause I wanted to sit with you guys and see what my baby girl was up to." He winked at me and I returned it with a tight lipped smile.
"You have got to stop calling me that, Issy."
"Yeah, people might think you're dating and that's just…wrong." He glared at Elle and she shrugged. Isaac turned to face me.
"Do you think it's weird, Morgan?"
"Yes, I do." He frowned. "You're my brother not my boyfriend."
"You know he called me Squeaks today?" I said after a while. Sasha picked up her phone and a few seconds later, my phone chimed. I read the message.
Sasha: He calls you Squeaks everyday.
"Thanks for pointing that out Sash."
"Stop obsessing. I swear if I hear one more word about Dylan from your mouth, I will have you over my knee in the middle of the cafeteria." Ivy's multi colored eyes were glistening in anger and I knew she wasn't joking. I choked back my next comment and listened to what Isaac was telling us. Sasha was looking at him like he was some kind of precious stone and I cursed my brother out for being so oblivious. God, boys are stupid.
"Hey Squeaks," Dylan called as he passed my locker after lunch. The universe was so cruel to me that we had our lockers on the same row which made it possible for him to mock me every single day. He was with Tyler and they both had on the school's basketball jacket. Tyler waved at me and I smiled back.
"Hey, Dylan, Monroe, practice after school. If you're a second late, I'll kill you." They both saluted my brother and went on with opening their lockers.
"Can't you just kick him off the team?" I whispered into Isaac's ear. He gave me a flat look.
"No. One, he didn't do anything wrong. Two, Park's one of our best players. I can't let him go because of you little one. And three, I'm not the coach." He tapped my nose and I smacked his finger away.
I watched as Dylan took his Literature text book from his locker and put it in his bag. He started talking with Tyler animatedly about some basketball game they were having next week. My view of him was blocked by Ivy's long body.
"You know, if you keep watching him like that, people might begin to think you like him. Have you ever heard of a stalker, Morg? You look like one." The bell went off and I told Isaac bye before Elle, Ivy, Sasha and I started walking towards our next class. The one fortunate thing that happened to me this year was that all my friends were in most of my classes.
"Nobody in this school will think that. Everyone knows how much I despise him and want him…eliminated." I took a seat at the front like I always did and Elle rolled her eyes, dragging her feat as she moved to the back with Ivy and Sasha.
Our Economics teacher entered the class once it was filled with students and shut the door which meant no one could leave or enter until her lesson was over. She didn't even give hall passes for those who wanted to pee.
Her class was as boring as ever but I had to open my eyes and ears for it. I couldn't afford to fail it seeing that it was one of the easiest classes I took. She gave us an assignment at the end of the lesson and told us that it was going to be sixty percent of our grade. We all knew she was lying; she didn't even get around to marking our assignments until a few weeks after we submitted it and she just ended up giving us the same score. The real test came at the end of the semester and that was the only reason why I even listened in class when she spoke.
I said goodbye to my friends when the bell rang for the end of school and headed to the gym to wait for my brother while he was practicing. He was my ride home since I hadn't really gotten around to learning how to drive yet.
I found an empty spot at the top of the stand and brought out one of the novels I was reading at the moment. Some of the boys were already there and I could see Tyler and Dylan hunched over a bench at one corner. I sneered at him.
"I thought you'd be waiting at the library." I moved my eyes away from Dylan to see Regina coming towards me.
Regina was my cousin who stayed with us since her parents were dead. She also had to wait behind but not because she couldn't drive-well, not exactly. Her car was seized after she crashed it while she was applying makeup and driving at the same time. Luckily for her, she escaped the crash without so much as a scratch. In addition to her car being seized, her entire makeup set was confiscated as well.
Regina was clad in something completely different from what she wore this morning when she left the house. Her blond hair had a red streak in it and she was wearing knee high boots with a really short skirt I did not know she had. The fish net top she was wearing did not hide the black bra underneath and her belly button. The base of her eyes was black and her lips were a blazing red. I guess my mom didn't seize all her make up.
"I always wait here," I said and moved my bag so she could seat beside me.
"What the hell is that?" she asked pointing at the book in my hands. I lifted it and pointed it at her.
"Wuthering Heights." She gagged.
"I hate that book."
"You hate every book," I deadpanned.
"Yeah, but that one more than the others." I chuckled and put the book back in my bag. I didn't think I was going to be reading it anymore.
"You're mom isn't going to be home now, is she?" I shook my head.
"Good, because I don't think I'll be able to change again until we get home. My other clothes are in my locker and I gave the key to Lily during lunch and forgot to collect it from her. In case she is though, I need you to go into my room and throw me my sweatpants." I furrowed my brows.
"Mom knows what you wore this morning."
"I'll just say I had a mishap in Chemistry or whatever." She kept quiet after that and proceeded to biting her nails. I knew something was up. She only did that when she was nervous.
Following her gaze, it landed on a lanky kid with brown curly hair who was sitting on one of the benches watching the game unfold before him. A smile crept on my lips.
"I see you haven't gotten over your crush on Oliver there." Gina didn't even bother to deny it.
"I went over to talk to him today in Chem class and he just looked at me, murmured God-knows-what and walked away. Can you believe that?"
"Well, it could just be that he's shy?" I suggested. She sent me an exasperated look.
"Shy? Oliver isn't shy. I've seen him talking with Mary Kate and Ashley like he was the owner of the freaking school."
"The girls from drama club?" she nodded. Those girls were like a different level of weird. I was weird and I thought they were weird. That just showed how weird they were.
A thought crossed my mind as I looked over at Oliver. He was smiling as he watched the game but as soon as his eyes met my cousin, he just froze. And when she waved at him, he looked away nervously. Oliver Madison was definitely shy.
"Just give him a little more time. He'll come around." To this day, I had no idea why Gina was crazy for him. I mean sure Oliver was sweet and all but he was so different from Gina. He was calm and was as harmless as a baby bunny whereas Gina was the definition of rogue and miscreant. They were complete opposites.
I was about to say something else to Gina when a sharp pain coursed through my left cheek. I was down in a second and when I managed to get up, I saw a basketball lying beside me. Gina's eyes were wide and her hands were over her mouth. My left jaw hurt like hell and I winced as I touched it and it hurt even more. Looking down at the court, all the players seemed to have stopped playing and were staring at me. My brother was looking like he just witnessed a high way accident and all the other boys were staring at me kinda the same way. All but one.
My eyes turned to slits as they landed on Dylan. He was smirking and my blood boiled even more.
That little twat hit me on purpose.
Gina was saying something with the rest of the boys but I didn't hear her. My mind was on Dylan and how to murder him without going to prison.
"Sorry!" he yelled. He did not look nor sound sorry at all. Isaac glared at him and he stopped smiling. He was saying something to him but I couldn't hear it since they were far away.
"You okay Princess?" Isaac asked as he jogged up the steps and stopped in front of me. I offered him a small nod in response as my eyes were still fixed on Dylan.
The bastard had the audacity to smile after almost disconnecting my head from my body.
"I'll talk to Dylan about it, okay? And when we get home, I'll put ice on it." He left to join the rest of the team mates. They continued the game but Dylan was asked to sit it out. Gina offered to cover up the dark mark with makeup but I didn't answer her. I was still glaring at Dylan who was staring right back with a triumphant grin on his face. He mouthed something and even though he was far away, I could still tell that it was the same strange words he told me every time he harassed me like this. Words that I had no idea what they meant but knew with every fiber of my being that he was mocking me. I hated those words.
Oh it's on.