Project Popularity

Chapter Sixteen

“So you’re saying that I somehow magically controlled the course of the ball and sent it flying in your direction?” I snapped at her, my patience thinning. “You’re delusional.”

“Ladies,” Principal Tanner chastised, folding his hands together on the table disapprovingly. “Be nice, please.”

“I’m going to sue you, Vandeviere,” Summer repeated, ignoring the principal and her lips quivered with anger, “and you will wish you had stayed invisible.”

It took all my self-restraint not to snap back at her. Summer Merrick, always the drama queen.

The principal sighed. “You are both free to go. Be more careful next time, ladies. “

I uttered “Thank you” the same time Summer gasped and exclaimed, “What do you mean we’re both free to go? Did you not hear what I’d just said? This lunatic here tried to hurt me!”

Principal Tanner cringed at the shrill in her voice. “Your classmates and your teacher have informed me that it was unintentional.”

“What about my nose?” she screeched in outrage, slamming her fists down against the table. The nerve of that girl… She had no respect for anyone. The guilt that I felt when I realized I’d hit her had diminished completely at this point. In a way, she deserved it.

“Miss Merrick, would you like to spend your lunch period in detention today?” Principal Tanner asked curtly.

I walked out after thanking Mr. Tanner again, rolling my eyes as I left Summer alone in there to pester the poor guy. She was seriously a piece a work. How did Luke manage to put up with that for two years?

I shook my head as I walked down the corridor inside the administration office, still hearing bits of Summer’s shouting even though I had closed Principal Turner’s door on my way out. Catching a glimpse of the clock hanging on the wall, I stifled a gasp when the time read twelve-fifteen. Two periods had gone by already. I had spent two hours wasting my breath arguing with Summer. Unbelievable.

I stopped cold when I found Luke, Adam, Bryce, Roger and Seth crowding the reception area, huddled together on a couch that looked way too small for five muscular guys. Lucy and Clara were talking to Mrs. Byers, the school secretary, and their eyes flew to me instantly when I came into their view.

“Jamie!” Lucy exclaimed, rushing to my side and throwing her arms around me.

An awkward silence ensued when Luke and Adam shot up from the couch simultaneously, throwing the exact same question- “Are you okay?”- at me. They seemed a bit stunned by the coincidence themselves, glancing at each other with a look of surprise spreading across their faces.

Seconds of silence ticked by before Luke cleared his throat and replanted himself on the couch, as if nothing had happened.

“Yeah,” I blinked, in a daze. “What are… What are you guys doing here?”

“We were worried about you, of course!” Clara cried, squeezing my hand. “Lucy said Summer clawed you!”