Rules of Attraction

Chapter 1

As it fell to the ground and shattered into a million pieces all I wanted to do was choke Shane Moderini. He starts laughing, his stupid hat falling off his head as he bends over to slap his knees and lean against the row of lockers.

I glare at him, "Look what you just did! That was my final project Shane!"

His friends gather round snickering, and I see one of his two best friends, Clay laughing his ass off. The second of the two, Braiden, appears from the crowd and shakes his head, giving Shane a dirty look.

"Shut the hell up Shane," he growls.

He bends over as I do and starts helping me pick it up. The wood pieces were everywhere across the hallway. And as the crowd thins people walk over some of the pieces scattered around. I pull at my hair as my two best friends, Alexis and Mari, (pronounced like Mary) show up.

Alexis shakes her head, "I'm going to kill your brother Brooklyn."

Mari bends over, while Alexis can't because of her seriously short skirt, "He's such a jerk."

I look at her, still mad over what happened just a week before, "Oh you mean the guy you had sex with on my bed is a jerk? Really? Do tell."

Mari's face falls, "That's not fair Brooklyn."

I look up, realizing he's still here, "Why are you helping Braiden? Shouldn't you be laughing along with him?"

He frowns, "I saw you working on this, I was there. It took you days. What Shane did was not cool Brook."

I frown at the use of my nickname from him, "Yeah well it happened, and now I'll fail that class."

"That class that starts in three minutes," Alexis says.

I stand up, dumping the pieces in a plastic bag Alexis had pulled out of her bookbag, "Where did Mari go?"

"She ran off," Braiden says.

I let out a sigh and Alexis says, "Just tell your teacher what happened."

I roll my eyes, "Mr. Franks is not that forgiving. He's going to fail me and then I won't be able to take Peer Tutoring."

Alexis frowns, "Then make Shane tell him."

I snort as I open my locker she stands next to, "Yeah right. Shane wouldn't risk getting himself in trouble. Dad said one more strike and he would be sent to some boarding school for the rest of the year. It's senior year, no way Shane would ruin it to help me out."

And I was right, sitting in class Mr. Frank lectures me on the importance of running on time and not running late because accidents happen. I hold back rolling my eyes.

"Can't I make up the grade somehow?"

He gives me a stern look, "No. I'll give you half credit, that's the best I can do."

After picking out a turkey wrap with fries and a gatorade in the lunch line I find my usual table and take my usual seat by Alexis and Mari. It's only us at the table, and it's in the outskirts of the center of the cafeteria. It's the spot for the inbetweeners. We weren't popular, well Mari and I weren't, Alexis was a cheerleader, but regardless, it was the inbetween spot because we weren't nerds either.

We could have sat right by my brother and his friends if we had wanted to, but Alexis and Mari knew how I felt about them. They knew there was a never ending fight between me, Shane, Clay, and Braiden going on. They knew it had been going on since the first day of middle school, and they knew it was going to last until we were all near death.

"Hey guys," I say brightly.

Alexis grins, "So how did it go?"

Mari rolls her eyes and looks down at her phone, furiously texting.