The Perfect Candy

Chapter 3: Boiling Points and Shattered Glass

"Yes ma'am." Did she want to? No, but that hardly seemed to matter. Glancing back at her things, she walked reluctantly towards the classroom door and began the walk to the football field.

Candice wanted to drag her feet, put off her search for as long as possible, but responsibility had been drilled into her since she was little. She only had to get through detention and the walk home, and then she would be home where she could shower, do her homework and everything would return to normal. She worried that that wasn't true, and that this was only the beginning of complications. Her thoughts switched to Seraphina; surely the other girl would be satisfied with today's win and Candice would be nothing more than a distant memory. After all, it wasn't like Candice had any plans to actually steal Matt.

Even as she thought it, she turned the corner of the school building, heading for the football field in search of Cooper, and saw him plain as day, leaning into a girl against the ticket booth, that girl's red hair blowing in the wind. Candice felt a prickle of anger as she made her way towards the couple. Cooper's dark brown hair was just long enough to look tousled on top but kept short in the back and sides. She knew without seeing his face that those gray eyes of his would be mocking and his lips, when they were less occupied, would be curled into a devilish smirk. She'd never spoken to him, but she had eyes. She'd seen the way he was around the school. He wouldn't care one little bit that he was making out with another guy's girlfriend.

When she reached the two of them, she cleared her throat and shifted her feet, arms crossed as if warding off the awkwardness she felt she was stepping into. When neither person moved, she took a small step forward and tapped Cooper on his shoulder. "Excuse me."

"Get lost," Seraphina said a bit breathlessly, before diving right back into the kiss.

The prickle of anger she'd felt started to build. Candice liked to believe she had virtually no temper. She was a practical, logical and reasonable person and anger was something she believed served no productive purpose. Everything that happened today was starting to build up. She cleared her throat again, "Excuse me, Cooper, but Mrs. Taft is looking for you."

Cooper pulled away from Seraphina who came up for air, ready for a fight. "Listen bitch−" She cut herself off, her eyes widening when she saw who'd interrupted them and then her painted red lips curled into a sneer. "Oh, it's you. Haven't you learned your lesson by now, little girl? You're not in charge here. Beat it."

Candice's face grew hot, but this time, it wasn't embarrassment she was feeling. She'd spent the entire day dealing with one chaotic thing after another; an entire day in wet jeans, an over-large t-shirt, and squishy shoes. Her hair and clothes smelled of spoiled milk, she was serving detention for a fight she hadn't even started, her palms were scraped from the fall she'd taken in the lunchroom...and here stood Queen Seraphina, arms wrapped around a boy who most certainly was not her boyfriend, thinking Candice would bend to her will. A girl could only take so much; everyone had their breaking point, didn't they?

Before she could really stop and think about what she was doing, Candice drew back her shoulders and lifted her chin. Her eyes narrowed dangerously, and she completely ignored Cooper as she shouldered him out of her way to come toe to toe with the other girl. "If you think that I'm intimidated by an entitled, spoiled brat, just because of the incident earlier, I assure you, you've got another thing coming. I may not have been out to ruin your relationship this morning when I accepted a ride from him due to the pouring rain, but I promise you he'll be all too well informed of this little incident of you, lip locked with some other guy."

Seraphina's eyes widened as her outrage grew and before she could respond, Candice's gaze was snapping over to her next victim, Cooper. "And you are missing detention. If you don't go now, they'll be having a nice chat with your parents. I would also really stop to consider your extracurricular partners more carefully; god only knows where she's been." She cast Seraphina one more disgusted look, and if she saw the flicker of interest and amusement in Copper's eyes, Candice ignored it and spun away to stomp back into the school.