Sky

We've been back at school for around a week so far.

Which means; I've seen the faces of people I hate...and just people in general. But then again I always prefer the second semester to the first because we get to do so many more activities; like club competitions, field trips, the talent show, and of course, junior prom.

And obviously, with school comes studying.

You know that thing you despise that causes you so much pain and suffering yet you can't quit it?

No not your ex, I'm talking about math! Seriously if you thought about your ex you have a problem, get over it; there's a reason you broke up.

Speaking of math, I've gotten way better at it so I'm really happy. I actually enjoy math class more than some other classes now.

History, I'm looking at you.

The girls and I are at the cafeteria, Peter is held back with photography because they're discussing submissions to the contest we modeled for. 

Now he has Brianna to model for him at his internship. I'm not jealous, in fact I'm so happy he has this chance, it could really help him out if he wants to make a career out of it, I'm just annoyed at how Brianna managed to make herself the hero once again.

I really need to become more social, like Luke has told me, it doesn't matter how good you are at something, what matters is who you know.

Society sucks, but you gotta adapt, I guess. Let's hope these so called adults leave us an earth to live in, seriously how hard is it to actually care about nature? Humans confuse me.

"Nah, new years is overrated." I munch on my apple. "I literally spent my new years eve driving over people with my brother."

"In a game, right?" Nat asked concerned.

"Sure." I trail off mysteriously just to mess with her. She scoots away from me and we laugh.

"I dropped my phone on my face when it hit midnight." Anna recalled.

"Hey, ladies!" A chirpy voice greeted us as she sat on our lunch table. "If I can call you that, that is."

"Aw, got bored waiting for puberty to hit?" Laura says sarcastically with a roll of her eyes and I don't even try to hide my laughter.

"Not what Pete said." She recovered from the shock and smirked, and I nodded along sarcastically to get rid of her faster. "Anyways, did you enjoy being in the crowd while I got a certificate again?"

"His name is Peter. And sorry to break it to you, but almost everyone fell asleep at the assembly." Nat forced a smile.

"Yeah, plus it's not like you were the only one, tons of kids got the same certificates." I tell her.

"You're just jealous I know more languages than you." She laughs and my head snaps up as I glance at my friends with a knowing look then turn back to her.

If there's anything I overachieve in, it's foreign languages. I've always loved learning about different cultures and their languages, and learning them has been easy for me, like I have some magical ability to pick up on multiple languages. Of course, I personally like to achieve in silence, only letting my close friends and family know.

Brianna just made the biggest mistake by bragging to me about this.

"How many do you know?" I ask with a knowing smile.

"I know three." She scoffs at us like she's superior. "More than you will ever know."

I'm wearing my red leather jacket today, so I'm feeling quite confident. I chuckle and stand up facing her and crossing my arms as I stand straight, because leaning is for losers.

"I was fluent in three languages by the time I was five." I tell her with a smile. "And now I'm actually fluent in five languages, and learning my sixth. Just because I don't announce it to the world doesn't mean you have the right to come and talk down to us like you're some sort of royalty, because you're nothing but a jerk, and trust me, you don't need to go around and brag about that because everyone already knows that."

The look of defeat on her face is priceless, but it's quickly wiped off when she hops off our lunch table and gets in my face to seem more intimidating, which she isn't, so I don't even back away despite how much I hate being close to this monster.

"Peter doesn't."

"Is that all you can say now?" I furrow my eyebrows. "If you think you're getting to me by being friends with him, you're wrong. Jesus, Brianna you're 16 for god's sake. And you say I'm the childish one?"

"I'm surprised you even became friends with Peter-"

"Girlfriend." I clarify as I turn to sit down again and she rolls her eyes.

"Whatever. As I was saying, it really shocked me considering the people you have as friends." I stop in my tracks and glance at my friends, seeing Laura angry while Nat holds her down, and Anna is bowing her head and picking at her food with a fork. I snap my head towards Brianna and walk closer to her again.

No one gets to talk about my friends like that.

"What the hell does that mean?"

"I mean, look at them, they're so pathetic. Even you could've done better." I open and close my fists in fury as I hold myself back from hurting her.

"Shut up." I say through gritted teeth.

"Anna, you know, blue isn't your color, but I guess that's the best your kind could do."

"I said shut up, Brianna." I warn her again.

"I mean I know it's hard to look good with that skin-"

This time I don't say anything. I slap her, cutting her off from saying another word. I could see Anna run out of the cafeteria with tears falling down her cheeks followed by Laura, I nod at Nat silently telling her to follow them and that I'll handle this.

"Don't you dare talk about my friends like that ever again." I say sternly. "Don't you dare speak to anyone like that ever again. I warned you to stop and you didn't. I took your shit for years but my friends are where I draw the line. If I ever hear you talking like that again I swear I will do much worse than a slap. It's 2020 for god's sake, and you're still being racist? Get over yourself Brianna."

She held her cheek with her hand, a shocked and afraid expression on her face. 

"Sky, principal's office, now!" The supervising teacher yelled and I looked over at her.

"She was insulting my friends!" I point at her, trying to explain myself.

"Both of you, go to the office." I grumble, picking up my bag and going over to the office with one last glare at Brianna.

I pass by Peter on the way and his grin turns into a frown when he sees my angry frown followed by Brianna who now has a red hand mark on her cheek.

"Pete-" She started to say but got cut off by the teacher yelling at her to keep walking. I send Peter an apologetic look before I continued to walk away, my thought solely on my friends and if they are okay.

"I never expected this kind of behavior from you, Sky." Professor Blackwell sighed.

"I know."

"Then why did you do it?"

"Because she insulted my friends and was racist." I say.

"I did no such thing!" Brianna exclaimed. "I was just asking you about french because I know you speak it too-"

"Sky, you speak french?" He asked me surprised and I nodded.

"Yeah but I never told anyone, so that proves that Brianna is lying!"

"How dare you!"

"Both of you, stop!" We grew silent and looked away from each other. "You're both incredible students, so I'll let you off with a warning, and I won't call your parents. But I need you both to apologize. And Brianna, bullying is highly unacceptable, and racial slurs have a strict punishment."

"But she's the one who hit me!"

"I trust Sky had her reasons." I smile softly. "However that doesn't exclude her from this. If this happens again I have no choice but to suspend you both."

"Yes, Professor." We nod.

"Now apologize."

"I'm sorry I was mean to your friends." Brianna rolled her eyes.

"And I'm sorry for using violence, but I'm not sorry for defending my friends."

"Sky." He gave me a warning look.

"What? I'm not going to lie!"

Soon we're free to leave the office and I see Peter waiting for us outside the door. 

"I have to go check on the girls, I'm sorry, I'll explain later." I tell him and run to look for the girls, not looking back to see Brianna fake crying into his chest.

I look in the cafeteria and their lockers first and then I check the bathrooms and find them in one of them.

"Hey, how are you guys?" I ask softly, putting an arm around Anna to comfort her. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Anna sniffles. 

"It's okay if you're not." I rub her back. "We're all here for you, if you ever want to talk or cry or punch someone, we're your gals."

"I know." She smiles. "The girls already calmed me down, so I'm fine, really. Nat told me you slapped Brianna."

"I did." I chuckle. "I know it's bad but it felt good, and I don't really regret it."

"Thanks for always sticking up for us." Nat smiles. "It really means a lot."

"Don't thank me; it's my job as your friend." I tell her. "Don't ever hesitate to talk to me, okay? I've got two ears and it's about time they listen to something other than those stupid counselors taking our free classes."

Anna lets out a chuckle and I smile, happy that I made her laugh. I look over at Laura and find her smiling as well.

"So what happened to you?" She asks me.

"We got sent to the principal's office, but he just let us off with a warning thankfully." I tell her.

"Come on; let's go spend what's left of lunch." Nat chuckles and leads us out of the bathroom.

"Shit, I lost my apple." I pout then laugh, seeing the smiles on my friends' faces. We walk into the cafeteria and immediately Tim, Owen and Aidan come over to us and praise me, having seen what happened in lunch.

Brianna might be adored by the teachers and every student who wants to be popular, but the rest of us know how she really is, and the fact that I stood up to her is kind of huge.

Not surprising, but exciting nonetheless. 

"Dude, that was awesome!" Tim grins as he shakes my shoulders and I laugh.

"I hate that I hit her, but honestly I don't find it in me to feel bad." I laugh. Yeah I'm so going to hell for this. And for me and Tim's dark humor...at least there's hell-hounds there, I'd pet them.

"Your boyfriend doesn't seem to be happy." Owen trails off pointing behind me. I look over my shoulder seeing an angry Peter walking over to us. I turn to my friends and tell them to go on without me, so I could explain to Peter what happened.

"Hey-"

"Don't hey me." He growls. "What the hell, Sky?"

"Dude, calm down." I furrow my eyebrows, glancing around then taking his hand and leading him out of the cafeteria for more privacy. He snatches his hands from mine and I roll my eyes, trying to ignore the pang of hurt I felt. "Just follow me."

"You hit Brianna." He states madly once we get to an empty hallway. "What the hell were you thinking?"

"I wasn't-"

"Damn right you weren't." He crosses his arms and I let out an annoyed huff. Why isn't he listening?

"I wasn't thinking because she was insulting our friends."

"Yeah, like she'd do that." He scoffs and my jaw drops at this. How naive can he be?

"Look, you don't know who she is." I say in a scary calm tone. "She looks down on everyone and makes fun of everyone, especially us."

"Don't lie to me, Sky." He raises his voice. "She's been nothing but nice to you and you hit her."

"She's only nice when you're around because she wants you all to herself!" I exclaim. "She's never been nice to me. If you've even heard a fraction of what she calls me and the girls you'd never look her way."

"It's hard to believe you when you're the one who's turned against her first, you've always been jealous of her."

"What?"

"Now you're playing dumb?" He lets out a sarcastic chuckle. "She told me how you two used to be friends but then you let your jealousy take over and you started being mean to her."

"And you seriously believe her over me?" I ask hurt. I could feel my heart shatter when I see the answer in his eyes. "For your information, she and I were never friends; I used to be friends with Eve and she left me for Brianna. I never once said a bad word towards her until she became too much and made fun of my friends, I was tired of listening to her, so I started talking back."

"Sky, you hit her!"

"I'm not proud of it, okay?" I yell in frustration, taking a deep breath and blinking away any tears that might fall. "I'm not perfect like her. I don't even want to be perfect. Yes, I hit her, and I hate that I did it but if I could turn back time I'd do it again. Because my friends matter to me and I will never stay silent when it comes to them. I thought you'd be the same, that you'd actually listen to me and believe me, but just like Eve you're leaving me for her.

You always told me I'm a great friend to you yet when it comes down to what really matters in a friend you start yelling at me and take her side instead of the people who had your back this whole time you've been here. Peter, I'm not Brianna, and I'm tired of being compared to her. So if you believed her over me, then maybe we shouldn't be friends."

"Maybe we shouldn't." He says sternly looking at me with cold eyes, a complete opposite of how he used to look at me. I could feel the tears in the back of my eye, but I refuse to show any weakness in front of him anymore.

"Then never speak to me or my friends ever again." I say and leave him, wiping my eyes as soon as I turn away from him and walk into the cafeteria to sit with my real friends.

I'm so nervous about this chapter lmao, I really hope I didn't mess it up.

I really hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, please let me know what you think.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this, I really appreciate it, even if you're a silent reader.