Misunderstood (A Neighbor from Hell YA #1) - R.L. Mathewson Page 0,59

head for the announcement board. She watched helplessly as he took his time pinning a white piece of paper to the board.

Once he was done, he walked away as she stood there, taking a deep breath and telling herself that everything was going to be fine. This would all work out for the best.

It would.

She just needed to remember that this was for the best. She could handle right field. She could do it, because this was just a temporary setback. Her mind latched on to that one word.

Temporary.

Because that’s what this was, temporary. Things would work out for the best. They always did, Mikey told herself that this was no big deal. It wasn’t. But no matter how many times she told herself that she still couldn’t seem to make herself move closer to that board.

“This is ridiculous,” Mikey told herself, hoping that it would be enough to get her to move.

It wasn’t.

Long after everyone else had left for the day, Mikey stood there, staring at the board as she repeated all the mantras and lies that she’d told herself over this past week, hoping that it would be enough and…

Found herself moving closer to the announcement board.

“It’s going to be okay,” Mikey told herself with a firm nod, because right field wasn’t the end of the world.

It was still a spot on the team, Mikey reminded herself with a nod only to find herself shaking her head somewhat frantically because it wasn’t going to be okay. She really didn’t want to play right field and no matter what she told herself it wouldn’t be okay.

Praying that this had all been a bad dream and that the coach had changed his mind, Mikey forced herself to walk up to that board and look for her name. Taking a deep breath, Mikey slowly exhaled as she searched for her name and when she finally found it, she…forgot how to breathe when she spotted the two words typed in black across from her name.

Right field.

*-*-*-*

What the hell was wrong with him? Cole couldn’t help but wonder as he once again found himself thinking about what Chloe said to him. Over the past week, he’d considered asking his friends about what she’d said but…

He didn’t care.

At least, that’s what he told himself but that didn’t explain why he suddenly couldn’t stop thinking about her. For the past four years, he’d barely noticed her and now, he found himself watching her whenever she was around, waiting by his locker just for a chance to see her, and taking the long way home just so that he could make sure that she got home safely all while telling himself that she was wrong. But…

He couldn’t.

Over the past week he’d noticed how other kids treated her, the way they ignored her, taunted her, and seemed to go out of their way to make her life miserable and Chloe let them. He didn’t know why that pissed him off, but it did. He watched as she sat by herself at lunch, pretending that she couldn’t hear the assholes at the other tables talking about her. He watched as she stood by her locker, pretending that she was looking for something so that she could wait until the last possible second before she had to go to class. He watched other students go out of their way to make her life miserable, and he wasn’t sure who he was more pissed at, Chloe for letting it happen or at himself for not noticing sooner.

As much as he would love to be able to say that it wasn’t his problem, he couldn’t do that. Not when he knew that Chloe was putting up with this bullshit every day. So, he’d started sitting at her table, glaring at whatever asshole ran his mouth until he shut up and left her alone. He made sure that she didn’t have to walk to class by herself. He sat next to her in class to make sure that she didn’t have to worry about some jerk throwing a pencil at her when the teacher wasn’t looking, and he made sure that he was there to–

“Stop it,” Chloe said quietly as she glanced up from her locker to look at him.

“Stop what?” Cole asked as he finished shoving the books that he wasn’t going to need tonight in his locker.

“Whatever you think you’re doing, just please stop. You’re making it worse,” Chloe said with a resigned sigh as she closed her locker and