with it when we get to that point."
"I have to go to the bathroom. I'll see you in class."
We separated and I went into the bathroom. I had needed a pick-me-up after my long weekend and drank coffee even though I didn't care for it. It made me jittery and have to pee way more than usual.
I stepped out of the stall and was washing my hands when I heard the lock and looked up.
Melissa.
With her were the two girls Jax had kissed from the bonfire and the girl who had made the fish breath comment the first day of school. The same girl Morgan had wrapped his arm around before school.
They stood blocking the door with looks on their faces that I thought were only reserved for bitches in mean girl movies.
"Can you please move?" I threw my paper towel in the trash and faced them. There was just the five of us in the bathroom, to my dismay.
"We need to talk." Morgan's plaything stepped forward and I took a step back toward a stall.
I knew the predicament I was in. I wasn't a fighter and there were four of them. I wasn't sure how much locking myself in a stall would help besides putting me closer to becoming a swirly victim.
"Talk?" I could make it into the stall I had just come out of, but wasn't sure I would be able to lock the door in enough time. My body would be able to hold the door shut.
"Morgan is mine. I want you to stay away from him."
"Not a problem. Are we done here?" I was inches from the stall when Melissa lunged forward and grabbed me by the ponytail.
She was strong and she slammed me against the section of wall between the stalls. "We aren't done."
I suppressed the urge to scream for help or fight back. I didn't need to make this worse on myself. "What else?"
"We have papers due in two weeks. You'll write them for us." Of course that was what Melissa wanted. She had to take summer school every year.
I couldn't do that. "We'll get caught." I flinched as Melissa grabbed shoulders and spun me around so my face was against the wall.
I attempted to free myself, but her nailed thumb pressed against the base of my skull. "How hard do you think I have to press to cause damage?" The other girls laughed.
"Let me go."
"Stay away from them." Melissa shoved me and my chin hit the wall, my teeth piercing my lip. "Ta-ta for now."
They were gone before I could even turn around. I spit the blood coming from my lip into the sink and held a paper towel to the split skin.
The bell rang and I groaned. In all my years, I had never gotten a tardy. The goody-two-shoes in me wanted to cry, but the new side of me was pissed and wanted blood.
An eye for an eye.
I walked out of the bathroom and almost ran into Officer Thomas. "You're late."
No shit, Sherlock. "Four girls jumped me in the bathroom." I moved the paper towel away from my lip and pointed. "What are you going to do about it?"
He had already started walking away and stopped, turning back to me with a scowl. "I don't like your attitude."
I don't like your face. "My apologies. I thought your job was to serve and protect."
"Get to class." He turned and walked off.
How much were the Tritons paying him to ignore me? Instead of heading to class, which I was late to already, I went straight to the office.
"Excuse me. Is Mrs. Miller in?"
The secretary looked up from her computer and her eyes widened. I knew my hair was half falling out of the ponytail and there were a few drops of blood on my shirt.
"Don't you mean Mrs. Angela, the nurse? Mrs. Miller took a leave of absence. We aren't sure when she'll return."
My stomach dropped. "What do you mean she took a leave of absence? I just saw her on Friday!" My voice cracked. "She didn't say anything about leaving and said I could come to her anytime."
"Sometimes life happens. Let's get you into the nurse's office."
I was freaking out. Instead of listening to her or asking to see the principal, I walked to English on a mission. Maybe if other people saw what they had done to me, they would be on my side.
I threw the bloody paper towel in a garbage can and pulled open the door to English with