Well, maybe not Mr. Lafereira since he was the reason that she was in this mess. He really shouldn’t have called on her, especially since he knew better than most teachers what her stubborn mouth was capable of. But for some reason, he’d felt it was necessary to prove that she didn’t know when to quit. There had been seventeen other students in the room who were more than capable of answering his question, but had he asked any of them a question about Robert E. Lee’s role in the American Revolution?
No, because for some reason the deeply disturbed man enjoyed it when she pointed out when he was wrong, which unfortunately for the sake of their education, was often. She wasn’t sure what his degree was in, but it definitely wasn’t in American History. He was constantly getting dates mixed up, his facts wrong, and could never seem to answer any of their questions without having to refer to the large history book that he kept open and ready on his desk. So, when she’d politely pointed out that Robert E. Lee had been in the Civil War and that he might want to seriously consider other vocations it had somehow enraged him into assigning everyone a ten-page paper due first thing Monday morning that had really been his fault for calling on her.
“I hate you!” one of the cheerleaders screamed, sobbing hysterically a bit at the end there.
“You ruined my life!” someone else added, but she really wasn’t sure who since they’d all decided to start screaming at her.
She should shut up and let them get it out their system with the hopes that it would be enough to get them to give up on their plan to shove her in a locker and seal it with cement, but once again, her mouth refused to stay shut.
“It’s only a dance,” she pointed out, reminding them that it wasn’t the end of the world, but that’s when she realized that she’d made another tactical error.
“It’s Homecoming!” someone yelled as though that meant something to her.
“I had to mow fifty lawns to pay for this thing!”
“It’s the biggest dance of the year!”
“I had to eat lettuce for a month to fit into my dress!” one of the girls screamed as she gave up trying to grab Joey and decided that it was time to shove the cabinet onto its side.
That was right around the time that Joey decided to abandon ship.
Taking a deep breath, she tightened her hold around her bag and jumped from the cabinet, managing to take everyone by surprise and—
Fall flat on her face with a pained groan.
It wasn’t the smartest thing that she’d ever done, but at least she was off the cabinet, she told herself as another pained groan escaped her. As she lay there, most likely dying from internal injuries, she couldn’t help but wonder if they would be willing to forget this whole thing now that her short, and somewhat depressing, life had flashed before her eyes. When she felt a pair of strong hands wrap around her arms and drag her to her feet, she couldn’t help but regret her decision to turn down her grandmother’s generous offer to homeschool her so that she wouldn’t end up in a situation like this one.
And yes, having the rest of the school turn on her and demand her head on a platter had been something of a concern for her grandparents. If only she’d listened, she thought absently as she was carefully placed on her feet and found herself looking up at her brother’s disapproving face. She couldn’t help but notice that he really didn’t look all that pleased to see her.
That kind of hurt since she was very happy to see him.
“What did you do now?” Jackson asked as he shot the group itching to get their hands on her a look of warning, which was probably the only reason they weren’t dragging her off toward the lockers by now.
“Umm,” she mumbled, shooting a nervous glance around the room to find the rest of her third period American History class glaring at her, “I may have questioned Mr. Lafereiria’s ability to teach high school history.”
He didn’t say anything, but then again, he didn’t have to since she was well aware that she’d messed this one up. When he shook his head with a sigh and grabbed her bag, she nearly wept with joy as he gestured for her to move her butt.
“Sorry,” she said, shooting the angry crowd that most likely wouldn’t be asking her to sign their yearbooks a nervous smile.
“She didn’t mean it,” Jackson said, reciting the line that he’d been forced to use since she’d learned to talk and making her once again wonder why she couldn’t learn to keep her mouth shut.
“Let’s go,” Jackson said, wrapping his large arm around her small shoulders and dragged her out of the room before she could open her mouth and say something to make this worse.
Not that she was even sure that it was humanly possible at this point.
“Joey,” he said with a pained groan as he led her toward the cafeteria, “what did we talk about?”
“Many things,” she mumbled pathetically when she saw who was waiting for them in the hallway.
Reed Bradford, her brother’s best friend, the school’s bad boy, breaker of hearts, her neighbor since she was two, and her self-appointed babysitter.
“You find her in time?” Reed asked as he pushed away from the lockers and joined them, making her hate him even more than she already did.
It didn’t matter that he’d saved her from an angry crowd determined to get their revenge, she hated him, always had and always would.
“Yeah, thanks, man,” Jackson said as Joey grumbled a “See you later,” and ducked out of his reach. She hurried toward the cafeteria before she had to listen to the jerk ranting about how she had no business being in high school.
As she was forced to duck inside the janitor’s closet when the angry mob that wanted nothing more than to tear her apart stepped into the hallway, Joey decided then and there that she was going to do whatever it took to finish school early and when she did, she was going to leave this town and never come back.
Chapter 1
Present Day
“Try again,” Reed said, keeping his gaze locked on the sophomore sitting across from him, shifting nervously as she tried to come up with a better lie to explain why she was sitting in his office instead of in third-period Biology class where she belonged.
“It was, umm, already there when I got there,” she said, licking her lips as she tried to meet his gaze head-on, failed, and settled for staring down at her lap.
“You can do better than that,” Reed said, absently tapping the half-empty pack of cigarettes that she’d been caught red-handed with against his desk as he waited for another bullshit excuse that would explain why he’d found her hanging out behind the gym, smoking.
“I really can’t,” she finally admitted with a heartfelt sigh.
“That’s it, Jen? No excuses?” he asked, admittedly disappointed, because he’d expected a hell of a lot more from his favorite repeat offender.
“There’s really no excuse for what I did, Principal Bradford, is there?” she said, giving him a “What are you going to do,” look that had him rolling his eyes because he knew what was coming.
“I mean, I guess that I could blame it on my broken home, but that should really go without saying. Then, of course, there’s peer pressure,” she said, sighing heavily as if the weight of the world rested solely upon her small shoulders.
“You were alone,” he pointed out.
“Which only proves how detrimental peer pressure can be,” she said, reaching over and helping herself to the bowl of hard candy that he kept on his desk.
“I see,” he murmured, leaning back against his chair as he considered her. “And this is really the best that you can come up with?”
“With a public education?” she asked before nodding. “I’m afraid so.”
Reminding himself that smiling would only encourage her, he cleared his throat and tossed the pack of cigarettes on the desk and reached for her folder, noting that it was probably the thickest student file he’d ever come across. He thumbed through it, all while Jen sat there, humming to herself as she waited for him to decide on her punishment.