45 Days to Save the Bad Boy

One

"I'm good Georgie, how are you?" Peter replied politely. This is why I never do anything about my bullies. They are so polite to me. And I would make it worse if I tried anything, but mostly because I wouldn't want to ruin the mutual politeness.

"Fine thank you Peter. How has your day been?" I ask, like I do every day.

"Oh Georgie. Georgie, Georgie, Georgie. You polite little girl. My day has been fine. Now tell me Georgie girl, why didn't you eat your lunch today?"

"Oh silly me. I was folding Jay's laundry last night and one of his socks got folded into my sandwich. When I checked my sandwich today, I saw the dirty sock and felt so bad about it, I punished myself by throwing away my lunch. I don't deserve to eat if I can't properly clean my friend's clothes," I said, ending my made up story with a tear and a bowed head to enhance the dramatic effect. Drama queen Donna nodded appreciatively. She always liked when I made up a dramatic story for why I wasn't eating lunch.

"I didn't give you any laundry," Jay said. Poor Jay.

"But how else would your sock end up in my sandwich?" Acting confused was hard. I was ready to burst into either tears or laughter.

"I put it there after gym!" Jay announced proudly.

"Jay. How did you make it to senior year?" Peter asked him. "Go back to your table and keep your mouth closed about this."

"Don't forget your sock!" I called out to him as he turned and started the walk back to the jock table. Jay came scurrying back to my table and grabbed his sock, giving me a smile.

"Thanks Georgie. See you tomorrow!" he said cheerfully.

"Bye Jay!" I said. As soon as he turned around, my smiling face fell. Whenever Peter sent Jay away, it meant something bad was going to happen to me. "So Peter, what will it be today?" I asked, my voice wobbling as I tried to pretend I wasn't afraid.

"Well Georgie, we're unhappy with you today," Peter said, gesturing between himself and Harry. "And so we need to teach you a lesson."

"What did I do this time?" I asked. If I was going to get bullied, I liked to know why.

"Harry here is mad at you because his girlfriend dumped him. I'm mad at you for more personal reasons."

I looked at Harry sympathetically. "Jane broke up with you? You two were adorable together. Aside from Percabeth, you were my OTP. Jarry forever, right? Or, maybe not forever, but for a while. I definitely thought the two of you would last longer than Jeanette and Joey."

Jeanette and Joey (the goth and the comedy king) looked at me incredulously. "We broke up after a day," Jeanette told me. My mouth formed an O.

"Sorry. Well congratulations Harry, your relationship did last longer than them!"

"Enough!" Peter slammed his hand on the table. Usually, this would make people look over here, but since they all knew what was happening, it was old news and they didn't care. "Come on Georgie, get up."

I grabbed my bag and cleared up any trash on my table I had missed. Then I slowly got up and looked at Peter.

"Jeanette, Joey, Donna, you can go," Peter said rudely.

Crap, I was really screwed. Yeah, yeah, less bullies, but at least the four he sent away know when to stop. Harry has anger issues and Peter seems particularly vicious today. I'm more scared now than I was last night when I thought I might have to save Breton from zombies and killer spiders.

I wish my dad would mysteriously show up and tell some random person that his daughter Georgie Talbot needed saving and they have 45 seconds to do it. It would help in this situation. Of course, my dad disappeared 17 years ago, and he wasn't going to come back now.