The Way to Game the Walk of Shame(12)

Just as I left my AP English class, some girl jostled my shoulder, making me fall back into the doorway. My books and binder smacked to the ground and flew open. Various articles for next week’s newspaper edition sprinkled the floor. I cursed under my breath and knelt to pick them up, wincing as my shoulder throbbed. I turned to stare at her, but she had already faded into the hallway crowd.

“Seriously?” I muttered, stretching to reach my scattered books. My fingers had just closed around my blue binder when Todd Herbert, the unspoken leader of the pack of Neanderthals from lunch, smacked my butt.

I jumped to my feet, but he just smirked and gave his buddies a high five. I narrowed my eyes at him.

The reason people had never gossiped about me before was because I never gave them a reason to. I never did anything wrong. Unlike Carly, who never cared what people said or thought of her. Secretly, I envied that. I couldn’t be like that. I preened with pride when people complimented me, and my stomach turned when I got a dirty look. Dad said what people thought of me affected the outcome. Granted, he was talking about court cases and the jury, but it’s all basically the same. No matter what people said, appearances did matter.

But I was sick of it. Evan was wrong. Things didn’t get better. My name was even scrawled on the toilet-stall door with Wite-Out, paired with the words WHORE + SLUT. I had waited until the bathroom was empty before attacking the door and breaking three nails in the process. And I was sick of everything. But most of all, I was sick of doing nothing. Screw appearances.

“Hey, idiot!” Without thinking, I snatched my binder off the ground and threw it at Todd. It hit his shoulder with a loud, satisfying smack. Score! I fist-pumped the air in celebration just as he turned around with a scowl.

Crap. Maybe I should have thought this through. I backed up a step when he stalked toward me, and—whoosh!—suddenly Carly flew in like my knight in a blue cardigan and jeans and shoved him aside with her shoulder. He stumbled backward against the lockers.

She groaned and rubbed her right shoulder. “Damn, that hurt!”

I grabbed her. “Carly! Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” She turned to Todd. “But I swear you’ll get a lot more than that if you bother either of us again.” She waved her hand for him to come forward. “Try me.”

His nostrils flared, and he lurched toward us.

With a yelp, I grabbed Carly’s shoulders to pull her back and out of his way when a tall back obstructed my view of Todd. A very familiar back that materialized out of nowhere.

When did Brian get here? I peered up at him and poked the center of his broad back to make sure I wasn’t imagining things. He turned to look at me, and his frown deepened. His hand lightly touched my arm. “Are you okay?”

I nodded. “I’m fine.”

Carly cleared her throat. “I’m fine, too. Thanks for asking.”

“I know you are. Nothing could bother you.” Brian gave her a quick grin and turned away. “You know, Herbert, picking on two girls kinda makes you look like a wimp.”

Cursing under his breath, Todd took another step toward us just as Mr. Peters stepped out of his classroom. “What’s going on here?”

The hall had been crowded during our fight, but everyone faded backward and practically evaporated as soon as a teacher showed up. Our group remained quiet. Even if we didn’t say anything, the evidence was pretty obvious. My books were still scattered on the ground. My binder was even at Todd’s feet, and Carly was still rubbing her shoulder.

“Nothing, we just had a little accident, but everyone’s fine now,” Brian smoothly lied. He bent down to grab my books. “Nothing to worry about. Right, guys?”

“Right, it’s nothing,” Carly chirped with a beaming grin.

Todd’s eyes flickered between each of us—lingering on me for the longest time—before landing on Mr. Peters. After a long and agonizing minute, he shook his head. “Yeah, everything’s good.”

Mr. Peters didn’t look like he believed us, but he nodded. “Then why don’t you guys go home? School’s over, you know. Ms. Simmons, can I talk to you again?”

“Uh, I guess so.” I turned to Brian and Carly. “Do you guys want to wait for me?”

Carly frowned. “I have to go to theater practice. But I’ll talk to you later.” She gave my arm a tight squeeze and turned to Brian. “Take care of her, okay?”

“’Course. I’ll be here, Taylor.”

With a nod, I let out a low, deep breath and followed Mr. Peters into his classroom. He sat down behind his desk, picked up a pen, and tapped it against the side of his desk. I shifted my weight side to side as I waited for him to speak.

“First the late report and now this accident.”

I ducked my head a little. “I know. I’m sorry, it won’t happen again.”

“I hope not. But you’re clearly too distracted these days. I think you should take a break from preparing the Career Day presentation. Drop off your materials tomorrow, and I’ll have Lin take over.”

And just like that, my dream of wowing the Columbia alumni—along with my chances of actually going to Columbia—faded away. “But—but you can’t. I’ve been working on this for ages! You can’t just give it to Lin. She’ll mess it up.”