Chapter 6|Go hug a cactus you asshole

We arrived at school late. I had never been late to school in my life. It was kind of a fear actually, I just hated being late.

Ryan didn't seem to care, in fact he was whistling to himself, without a care in the world. Me on the other hand, well I was freaking out.

To make it worse we had the same class first. Which meant we'd walk in at the same time, and with teenagers being the losers they are, that meant they'd assume things that most definitely weren't true. That would start rumours and it goes on. It's a vicious cycle.

I was walking ahead of Ryan, as if I thought that the few extra seconds would decrease my chance of detention or public humiliation in the form of Mrs Hartley. Her villain name would be Giganta Woman.

I came to a stand still outside the classroom of hell. Letting out a breath I twisted the doorknob and gently pushed the door. It squeaked a loud squeak, causing all heads to turn in my direction in a Mexican wave type motion. It would have been cool if I wasn't practically shitting myself.

"Ahh Miss Harper, I'm so glad to see that you've finally decided to grace us with your presence."

Yes, she was that kind of teacher.

I didn't say anything because she was the kind of person who got satisfaction out of other people's humiliation.

I felt a presence behind me, which I knew was Ryan, but I didn't dare to turn around.

"And Mr Martinez,"she said with a smirk, wheeling towards us in her wheelchair. I noticed that the closer she got, the bigger her double chins got. More like quadruple chins actually.

"Yessir!"Ryan shouted, I couldn't see him but we was probably mock saluting.

Mrs Hartley rolled her eyes, shifting in her chair. I watched as the slight motion shifted her body weight, causing her stomach to wobble like jello. Feeling suddenly nauseated, I forced myself to drag my eyes back to her face, which wasn't a hell of a lot better to look at.

"Miss Harper, care to explain why both you and Mr Martinez are late at the same time?"she asked, raising an eyebrow challengingly.

Not really.

I gulped. "Uhh...well, my car wouldn't start so I started walking, then Ryan gave me a ride-

"I'm sure he gave you a ride!"some asshole shouted from near the back of the class, triggering hooting and catcalls from the brain dead football players. One too many concussions.

A chair scraped and before I could locate the source of the disruption, the person was up and out of their seat.

"Go hug a cactus, you asshole,"said a voice which unmistakably belonged to none other than my best friend. This was followed my a loud thump. Tara had smacked him over the head with her notebook.

"Bitch!"he yelped, cradling his head.

"Oh, go and step on a Lego would you?"she retorted.

"That's quite enough, Miss Ward,"Mrs Hartley scolded.

Tara huffed, falling back into her seat.

"Now,"Mrs Hartley said, clearing her throat,"You don't really expect me to believe that excuse, do you?"

"Yes,"I replied.

"Well I don't."

"Well you should."

"Why should I, Miss Harper?"

"Because that's what happened!"I exclaimed, throwing my hands in the air. "If you don't believe me then ask him, he was there too,"I said, pointing to Ryan over my shoulder.

"Mr Martinez?"She said, gesturing for him to explain.

He sighed dramatically. "What she said,"he replied, patting my head.

I batted his hand away.

"I still don't believe you,"she said, blankly.

"For gods sake,"I muttered under my breath.

"How the hell did you get hired?"Ryan piped in suddenly.

"Excuse me?!"Mrs Hartley spluttered.

"Well you clearly have major trust issues, don't like teenagers and weigh more than a sumo wrestler, so how did you get hired?"

"I-I, that's personal information,"she stuttered.

"Sure, sure,"Ryan said, turning and waltzing toward the door.

"Where do you think you're going?"Mrs Hartley spat, the tips of her ears turning red.

"Detention,"he grinned,"you were going to send me there anyway,"he skipped out of the classroom, leaving me standing awkwardly with my hands clasped together.

I looked around the class and back at Mrs Hartley, then at the class again, unsure what to do. Tara coughed loudly to catch my attention. She pointed to me and then to the door.

"I uh...I'm just gonna go...yeah..."I muttered, shuffling out of the classroom.

As I walked down the corridor I subconsciously glanced behind me every few seconds, just to make sure that Mrs Hartley wasn't coming to run me down.

I wandered toward the detention room, not exactly knowing what to expect. I'd never had a detention before and I wasn't really looking forward to it either.

When I reached the door I was a little disturbed. Blocking the small window on the door was a sheet of paper roughly taped on the corners. It read 'FUCK YOU'. How welcoming.

I grabbed the doorknob and twisted it. The door didn't budge. I frowned, Ryan just said he was going to detention so surely the door wouldn't be locked. I tried again, using more force this time, still no luck. I huffed, blowing a few loose tendrils of hair from my face. I stared at the door for a few moments, analysing it. Then I got an idea. I felt my hair, locating a hard metal object. I pulled the bobby pin from my hair, crouching down beside the lock. I carefully twisted the bobby pin around in the lock, I'd had to do this once to get into my own house-Jasmine locked me out.

"Gotcha,"I cheered as I heard that satisfying click sound.

I stood up, brushing the imaginary dust from my jeans and shoving the bobby pin in my pocket. I twisted the handle again, but this time it was loose enough to open. The door swung on its hinges, revealing a bare looking classroom. There was a solid wooden desk set at the front of the room where I assumed a teacher would be, but there was no teacher to be found.

"Sunshine you made it!"

I swivelled my head around to see Ryan, along with Lee, Justin and Kyle.

I frowned. "No Alex?"

"Nah, his mom would kick his ass if he got a detention,"Justin replied,"she is one scary lady,"he shuddered.

"You only think she's scary because she chased you down the street with an umbrella,"Lee snickered.

"True story,"Kyle added before Justin could defend himself.

"So why didn't you guys just unlock the door for me?"I asked, sitting in between Kyle and Ryan.

"Now where's the fun in that, sunshine?"Ryan smirked.

I glared.

"How did you get in?"Kyle asked.

"With a bobby pin,"I answered.

"What the fuck is a bobby pin?"Justin wondered aloud.

"It's a hair clip thing,"Kyle replied.

"How do you know that? Do you wear them?"Justin smirked.

"I have three sisters, dipshit,"Kyle said, dragging a hand down his face in annoyance.

I laughed quietly at the exchange between the two.

"So you're a badass and a perv. That's an odd combo, luckily for you we seem to share that combination, Sunshine,"Ryan whispered in my ear.

I shivered at his close proximity and the coolness of his breath. My cheeks stained red, but I had no idea what he meant.

He had the thing about me being a badass completely wrong for a start, plus I was not a perv, well not really.

Fortunately the rest of the guys seemed unaware of our exchange. I brushed off his comment and listened into Lee and Justin's conversation. They were debating on who was hotter-Stella, one of Erika's cronies, or Annie.

"Dude! Have you seen Stacys boobs, they're like two fucking beach balls,"Justin exclaimed.

"Yeah but Annie's legs man, can't get past those legs.."Lee replied dazedly, as if he was visualising her legs.

I glanced over at Kyle, who seemed disgusted, looking away from the two as though they were complete strangers. Ryan looked thoroughly amused, a half smirk permanently etched on his face.

"Nah, boobs overrule legs. Legs aren't really good for anything, with boobs you can-"

"Feed babies,"I cut in, filling the space where something that I didn't want to hear was about to be said.

Both Justin and Lee turned to me with confused looks.

"You know because babies drink milk....never mind,"I mumbled.

"What's your view on the topic, sunshine?"

"Huh?"

"Boobs or legs?"Ryan asked, staring intently.

I thought about it. "Well I have both,"I replied,"And legs have proven most useful so far."

"See, I told ya!"Lee whooped, slamming his fist down on the desk in front of him. He was definitely thinking of legs in a different context than I was.

I rolled my eyes. How old was he, five?

"Sorry about them,"Kyle said, nudging my arm,"they're not housetrained yet."

I cracked a smile. "You just need to keep them on a tighter leash."

"I'll keep that in mind."

~*~*~

"Why is it that the only day I'm not at school, all the exciting shit happens!"Tara whined, stomping her feet.

"I wouldn't call it exciting,"I muttered.

"It is fucking exciting!"Tara yelled, attracting more attention than she intended to.

"Shh, you're louder than Jasmine on Christmas morning."

"Sorry, sorry,"she replied, a little quieter than before,"but you can't deny how exciting this is."

"Remind me why I should be so excited again,"I said, hoisting my bag strap further onto my shoulder.

"Well firstly,"she said, slamming her locker and grabbing ahold of my arm, dragging me towards the cafeteria. "You practically shamed the two most hated people in the school, on the same freaking day. Congrats on that, by the way. Then at lunch you sat with Ryan Martinez and his group. Not only that, but they invited you to sit with them. If the Queen of England was here I don't think she would get an invite, so girl that means something."

"Uh huh, sure,"I said, not knowing what to say about her long winded explanation. There was one thing that annoyed me though. "Why do you call him Ryan Martinez?"

"Uhh, because that's his name?"she said, but it came across as more of a question.

"I know that's his name, but why his last name?"

"I dunno, he's Ryan Martinez, everyone calls him that,"she shrugged as we entered the cafeteria.

I thought about that for a moment, and even as I trailed behind Tara I caught snippets of conversations. Conversations about how ugly Tina's dress was, how great Jack's party was, how some poor girl was so drunk she fell down the stairs. It annoyed me how people gossiped. They gossiped about everything, from trivial crap, to bad choices others had made and even family issues like someone's parents getting a divorce. It was sickening to think that someone would talk about another person like that, for what? Two seconds of fame?

Ryan's name seemed to appear frequently, which wasn't really surprising. I guess everyone had their own perception of who he was. A few words people used to describe him were cocky, arrogant, jerk, asshole, annoying, friendly, hot. They definitely got the last one right. Clearly these people had judged his whole personality on the ten second conversation they had with him. Maybe he was in a rush, maybe he was in a bad mood. Or maybe he was just hungry.

I sighed and shook my head to clear the thoughts. I realised I'd just defended Ryan in my head. I dragged a hand through my hair and trudged behind Tara until we reached our table.

I sat down at my usual place, grabbing some healthy snack shit from my bag that mom insisted on buying. Tara sat across from me, pulling a jar of Nutella and a spoon from her bag.

"Soooo,"Tara said, dipping her spoon into the chocolatey goodness.

"What?"I asked suspiciously.

"Well there's this party on Friday-"

"No."

"You didn't let me finish! I was going to ask if you could come-"

"Tara you know that's not my scene. I'm not into being sandwiched between a bunch of drunk, hormonal guys who haven't figured out deodorant yet,"I interrupted.

"Just listen to me woman!"She hissed,"what I was going to say, before I was so rudely interrupted twice, is will you come just to keep an eye on me. You don't have to drink or anything, but just make sure Clara doesn't do something she'll regret. You know what I'm talking about, right?"

I did know what she was talking about. 'Clara' was Tara's alter ego, making an appearance when Tara was on the tipsy side. She was a French ballet dancer, which tended to cause a multitude of problems. Firstly, Tara couldn't speak a word of French, unless you count curse words, so she spoke in gibberish with a terrible French accent. And secondly, she had two left feet. You never hear of ballet dancers having two left feet, so usually by the end of the night she was covered in her own drinks, other people's drinks and occasionally, if she'd managed to drink enough alcohol without spilling it, her own vomit from all her spinning around. Nasty.

I was the friend who stayed sober just to make sure she didn't do anything stupid. She was about to eat someone's pet goldfish once, but I was there to stop her. She claimed that it was a goldfish cracker. Another time she had tried to sell her shoes to some stranger. That was pretty funny though, considering he had no idea what she was saying with her 'French' accent.

"Fine,"I said, holding up a finger so she wouldn't squeal until I was done. "But, I refuse to wear makeup or heels."

She nodded her head, letting loose an excited shriek.

"You're the bestest friend in the whole fucking universe!"she said, lunging at me across the table, before I could escape.

I pulled back, but her arms wrapped around my neck like a vice grip. She was practically laying on the table, with her feet suspended in midair and her stomach flat on the table. We were getting some strange looks, but one great thing about Tara was that she didn't care what the hell everyone else thought of her.

"Feeling the love today, aren't you sunshine?"a voice said from behind me, causing Tara to gasp.

"You know it,"I replied, using Tara's temporary surprise to unwind her fingers from around my neck. This triggered another shriek, this time for a different reason. She slid off the table and onto the ground with a thud.

Ryan slid into the seat beside me, which was empty as usual. I noticed that the other guys had also arrived at our table, it was quite confusing as to why they had decided to sit with us average people. Alex took the other empty seat next to mine, while Justin and Lee sat at Tara's side of the table. Kyle offered a hand to Tara, who was still sprawled on the floor, mumbling insults at it.

I watched as Kyle pulled Tara from the ground. He smiled at her, but it wasn't a friendly smile, it was a holy-hell-I-want-to-kiss-your-face-off smile. Tara seemed oblivious, flashing a toothy grin before sitting down. Kyle sighed and followed suite.

"So,"Tara said, settling into her seat,"what brings you guys to loserville?"

Alex choked out a laugh. "Loserville?"

"Loserville,"she confirmed with a nod.

"It was Ryan's idea,"Lee added.

All heads turned to Ryan.

"Well, Sunshine sat at our table yesterday so I thought it was our turn to pay her a visit,"he shrugged.

"Wait, wait, wait,"Tara said suddenly. "Sunshine? Did I miss something?"

I sighed. Here we go.

"That's what he calls her,"Justin filled in, pointing between the two of us.

"Why am I only being told this now?"she asked, directing her question towards me, pointing her Nutella covered spoon at me. "I'm taking back that hug I just gave you. You don't deserve my love."

"Fine you can have it back, I never wanted it anyway."

"Fine,"she replied, crossing her arms and sticking her chin in the air stubbornly.

"Girls are so weird,"Lee muttered to Justin, who nodded in agreement.

I looked at Tara and she looked at me.

"Ow, fuck!"Lee yelled, lifting his leg to inspect it. Two reddened marks could be seen on his shin.

"Weird maybe, but also violent,"Tara giggled. High fiving me across the table.

Friendship repaired.

Tara and I were very different people, some might even say opposites. We had disagreements all the time, but that was just our thing. We always made up eventually, usually over something food related.

I was so caught up in my own thoughts that I didn't even hear the intruder approaching. I should have heard her because those heels sounded like freaking thunder.

"Hi Ryan,"she purred, latching herself onto his arm and bending down so her boobs were almost bashing his face.

"What do you want?"he said harshly,

shaking her hands off his arm.

"I want to talk to you,"she said seductively,"alone"she clarified, seeing our curious stares.

"Nope,"he replied, popping the p.

"Please, it's important,"she said through gritted teeth.

"And so are my friends,"he said, gesturing around the table,"so if I was was going to let you talk to me, which you're already doing anyway, then you could say whatever you wanted to say to me, in front of them."

"It has nothing to do with them,"she hissed.

"If it has something to do with me, it has something to do with them. And what would be so important anyway? Were you going to apologise? Were you going to apologise for fucking some college kid in my house? In my room? Huh, were you?"

"I-I,"she stuttered.

"Were you going to apologise for breaking into my house when no one was home? Or maybe you were going to apologise for cheating on me. Was that it?"his voice gradually rising in volume with every word.

Her eyes filled with tears, but I didn't feel sorry for her one little bit. I wondered why a guy like Ryan would ever have a girlfriend like Erika. He could have any girl he wanted, yet she was his girlfriend. Well ex girlfriend.

He stood up abruptly, silencing all conversations and turning all heads. Erika was pulled upwards with him because she was sitting so close.

He stood over her, towering above her.

"If you ever fuck with me, my family or my friends again, you'll wish your father checked the expiry date on that condom."

And then he walked out, shoving past a blubbering Erika on the way out of the cafeteria.

I was a little dumbfounded. But Tara was enjoying the show. She was grinning like a kid in a candy store, watching Erika's makeup run down her face in little streams, while shovelling spoonfuls of Nutella into her mouth.

The funny thing was that no one came to help Erika, not even her followers.

~*~*~

Chapter 6 done!

Erika to the side

If people are actually reading and liking this book, please comment because otherwise you're just a ghost reader.

Fun fact for you; more than half if the characters I've introduced are blonde. I don't even know why, it just happened.

Any ideas on who has Hazel's sketchbook?

Until next time.