Chapter Nine

I didn't know what to expect Monday morning at school considering what had happened on Friday and on the weekend, but it definitely wasn't the warm consideration of the entire student body and a few teachers. Even Mr. Craig had given me a small smile. This was insane, because he always yelled at me in class.

Usually when I walked down the halls, people would either ignore me as if I didn't exist, or smirk and make snide comments about either what I was wearing, what my hair looked like, or what they'd heard about me. None of these things happened during my long walk from the front door to my locker.

I opened the door, shoved my bag in, and took out my books for class. Dylan sidled up to me.

"People are talking about you."

I slammed my locker shut. "Why?"

"There's a rumor going around that you were Haven's best friend."

"Great." I turned around and looked at the student body looking back at me. Fear balled itself up in my stomach.

"I even heard some guy on the football team ask his buddy, if he thought you were hot."

"Gross."

He put his hands up. "Hey, I'm just telling you what I am hearing."

I started walking down the hall to my class. Dylan rushed to get in step with me.

"Everyone's just really wondering how the hell you managed to be best friends with Haven."

"Why? You don't think a perfect specimen of a person like Haven could possibly like a bottom feeder like me?" I glared at him, and increased my walking speed to get away from him.

"Hey, that's not what I think, Daisy." He rushed to keep up. "I wonder how you could have liked her."

I stopped by the door to math class. Dylan nearly bumped into me. I swiveled on my heel to look at him. "Haven was wonderful. You have no idea."

"Obviously."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"She was a stuck-up bitch, Daisy. She never said a kind word to anyone who wasn't in her world."

"She never said a mean word either."

He shook his head. "Maybe that's true, but she never even acknowledged you at school."

"She was different out of school. She wasn't like what you saw. She was kind and funny and smart."

He shook his head again. "It's just so hard to believe."

"Whatever." I was done having this conversation. I marched into my math class and sat down at my desk.

Everyone turned and looked at me. I stared at them, daring any of them to say something. I would've loved nothing better than to tell someone or all of them to fuck right off. But no one said a word. One by one, they turned back to whatever it was they were doing before I had caused a ruckus.

Disappointed flooded me. Two days ago, Adam or Shondra, two people from the group of fucks who loved to bully people, would've said something snide like, "On the rag?" or "What's the matter freak? Sad that you still don't have tits?" Two days ago someone would've tossed a balled up wad of paper at me the moment I walked into class. Now everyone was acting so polite, so careful. It felt like I'd stepped into an episode of the Twilight Zone. However cool that might've been, it didn't sit well with me.

Things were changing, the status quo was tilting. I wasn't sure I was okay with that. I was used to the way things were. Sometimes I got sneered at, or insulted, but it really didn't bother me. Because I had Haven to myself all behind their backs. It was like flipping the bird to a bunch of assholes when their backs were turned.

I liked being out of step from everyone. And Haven made sure I was protected.

This one time in math class, Haven had been waiting at the door for Paige and Jenna, who had both been in my math 10 class. When Jenna had passed by my desk, her backpack smacked into my head. I'm not saying it was on purpose, but it could've been. The point was she didn't give a shit that it had. Well, Haven made sure she came over to me and apologized without ever giving away that we were secret lovers. It was just something Haven would do. Over the years I'd seen her right some wrongs and offer help to those who didn't run in her inner circles. Dylan had been wrong when he'd said Haven was a stuck-up bitch. That just wasn't true. She was light and love but just didn't give it to anyone.

Mr. Craig walked into the classroom, shushing everyone. I cracked my knuckles of my right hand on my leg in anticipation. There wasn't a math class where Mr. Craig didn't say something disparaging to me. So I was ready for him. I was in the perfect mood to retaliate with something clever and so biting it would nip him in the balls.

"So I have your marked tests here in my hand." He held up a stack of papers.

Some of the students moaned.

I glared at Mr. Craig. I knew I'd done poorly on the test. I didn't understand the unit we'd been working on. I was barely holding onto a sixty five in math. He was definitely going to say something to me when he handed back my test. He wouldn't be able to resist being a complete dick.

He walked the room setting tests on desks and doling out nerdy quips about math and making snide comments to those who did poorly. I didn't watch him as he moved about. I stared down at my desk waiting for the bad mark and the insult that would come with it. I spotted his shoe next to my chair, but I still didn't look up. I wouldn't give him the satisfaction.

He set the test down on my desk, then walked on without as much as a sigh, a snort, or a tsk.

I raised my head and looked at the paper. There was a lot of red ink on the page as I expected. What I didn't expect were the words...Good try! With a smiley face next to a mark of 57% crossed out, and a 60% written instead.

I looked up at Mr. Craig who was back at his desk. He gave me a small smile and a nod, then stood and went to the board to start the class.

What the hell just happened?