"He's my neighbor and he gave me a ride to school today," I told her, rolling my shoulders and slipping on my tennis shoes. "I guess she didn't like it too well that he made her sit in the backseat."
Gabby's eyes went wide and she burst out in laughter. "Oh my god, I would have loved to see her face when he told her that." She shut her locker grabbing my arm. "Come on, we’d better go. If we are late, Ms. Appleberry makes us run extra laps." I followed her out the same door Piper and her minions left, which meant we were most likely about to have gym together. Yay! More icing to my non-existent cupcake.
Goosebumps pebbled up my arms walking to the freezing gym. A large group of girls were congregated in the middle of the room talking and laughing amongst one another. I squatted, getting ready to sit down when a loud voice boomed through the room. "Give me five laps, ladies! Get it moving!"
The group dispersed and everyone around me started to run up the stairs to the left. The overweight gym teacher that had handed me my uniform earlier was standing in front of the room with a huge megaphone clasped in her fingers.
"Welcome to gym class," Gabby huffed, rolling her eyes. We turned around, following the group of girls taking one stair at a time until we reached a huge, circular track that overlooked the gym. I groaned, breaking out in a slow jog.
"So what do you think of Atlanta so far," Gabby asked me, pulling her ponytail tighter, while we jogged in sync with each other.
"It's not too bad. I actually just got here yesterday so I haven't had much of a chance to do anything yet." I could feel my side already beginning to cramp up and my legs were starting to tire from my lack of being in shape. I had worked out with Tanner sometimes, in more ways than one, but all physical activity had been cut out of my life since he left me.
She looked at me and her smile started to grow until it covered her entire face. "Well, you're all everyone has been talking about since you got here this morning," she informed, eagerly, picking up her pace. "You're new and hot. Today's juicy gossip."
Chills ran down my spine and I shivered. "Great," I muttered, my voice laced with sarcasm. I had no interest in being the day's juicy gossip. My plan in Atlanta was to just go by unnoticed, graduate to make my parents happy, then figure out what the hell I wanted to do with the rest of my life after that.
She went quiet beside me and I glanced over at her from the corner of my eye. Her face was unreadable and she slowed down, breathing hard. "So uh," she muttered, stopping completely and looking around the gym struggling to find the words to tell me whatever it was. Girls passed us by quickly without a second look. Her eyes shot back to mine when she was ready. "I know what happened to you," she whispered softly, "at your last school." The chills I already had were magnified by a thousand. "The only reason I know is because my mom had to work extra hours to cover for your aunt when she left to go to the funeral. I'm pretty sure I am the only person who knows and my lips are sealed," she used her hand to zip her lips. "I promise."
A huge burden of pressure lifted off my back and I exhaled a large breath I didn't know I was holding in. "Thank you," I said, quietly, glancing down at my feet.
"Nobody has to know anyways," she chirped up. "We can just tell them you are from somewhere else? What about Brazil? You have that whole dark hair exotic look going on."
My eyes quit studying my shoes and moved back to her face. "You know they have accents and speak a different language there, right? It might be a sure sign I'm lying."
"Oh," she answered, scrunching up her lips. "Well shit, where do you want to be from? I will totally back up your story." The girl was growing on me already. She reminded me of Tessa and how we always had each other's backs.
"Might as well tell them where I'm really from. There's so many schools there I doubt they could put two and two together."
She nodded in agreement. "True and I'm pretty sure half of these people don't watch the news around here anyways. They are too worried about everyone’s business here."
"Ladies," we heard the booming voice through the mega phone again. We walked over the railing, looked down to see Ms. Appleberry standing in the middle of the gym pointing at our stationary bodies. "This is physical education, which means you need to start moving."
"Yeah skank, you need to move much faster than that if you want to burn off all that extra ass you have," Piper sneered, running past us and bumping me in my shoulder. She laughed, taking off away from us in full sprint.
"Don't ever take advice from a girl who bedazzles her gym uniform," Gabby shouted, loud enough for Piper to hear. In return, Piper spun around and flipped her off.
"Well, let's get moving," I grumbled and we both started jogging again.