brothers.

14~ Eye for an Eye

"He's waving to me," Mildred said. "He's in my class."

"Oh." I felt a bit embarrassed. "But... you didn't wave back."

She shifted. "I wasn't... paying attention."

The bus jerked as it pulled out, slowly turning to exit the school. I leaned over to see out the window, watching as the large building moved out of sight. I remembered thinking when I was little that the world moved for us when we got in cars or buses. I chuckled to myself. I was so innocent back then.

I missed it.

I then focused on Mildred, who fidgeted, playing with her earbud cords. Her foot tapped as she whistled, looking out the window.

I narrowed my eyes. "What is it?" I asked. "You seem... weird."

She sighed, looking at me. "Listen, Diana... I heard some... things about you."

"Things? What things?"

"Well, I found out you're a foster kid, for one. And in my last class, they told me that you're with those guys in the back." She nodded towards Tommy and Harry, who were on their phones.

I bit my lip. I knew she'd probably hear about it, but... "I'm sorry, I-"

"Hey, no, don't apologize. I'm not mad or anything. And it wasn't like that was any of my business." She shifted in her seat. "But... that's not all I heard about you."

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I..." She nervously rubbed her nape, squirming. "I know why people are talking about you so much. Like, literally the entire school is talking about you."

I glanced at the brothers again. "C-could you tell me?"

She blinked. "You... you don't know?"

"Don't know what? Mildred, please, I want to know. People have been staring at me all day, and no one says why."

"You... don't know."

"Don't know what?!"

Some of the others glanced at me with disdain. I shrunk into my seat and lowered my voice. "Mildred, what did you hear about me?"

She gazed at me, looking at my foster brothers. They were now glancing at us as they spoke to each other. The people behind them were also in the conversation, their eyes on me.

"Well... it's pretty big. Like... really big," she started. "I don't know if you can even... handle it."

"What is it?"

The bus shook as we went over a speed bump, causing my backpack to roll off the seat next to me. It stopped in the middle of the aisle. As I reached over to pick it up, something hard hit the back of my head.

"Ow!" My hand raised up to rub the hurt spot. I looked at the floor, where an orange was rolling around with the movement of the bus. Laughter erupted from the back.

I whipped my head around, glaring at the backseat. A girl shook her head. "Hey, that wasn't us!" She jerked her thumb to Tommy and Harry, who were suppressing their own laughs.

Picking up the orange, I stormed over to them. My eyes moved to Harry's lap, noticing his lunch bag. My fury grew and I shoved the orange into his chest, making him grunt in surprise. "Is this yours?"

The other idiots laughed harder, hard enough that one of the boys fell off his seat. The rest of the bus stared at them, clearly unamused.

"Alright, here." A burly-looking guy reached over with a 10-dollar bill, handing it to Harry. I glared at them with indignation. "A bet?" I scoffed.