Before Euphoria, There was Dawn

Chapter 16- New Friends

I stared wide-eyed as they hugged once again. Josh finally let her down and then turned to me. Nicole's eyes turned from genuine happiness to pure disgust.

"Do you need something?" she asked.

I just have the worst luck in the world, don't I? Josh threw his arm around her shoulder and smiled at me. "Nicole, this is Sunshine, also known as Tess. And Sunshine, this is my cousin, Nicole."

"Cousin?" I shrieked at the same time, Nicole said, "Sunshine?"

"You two know each other?" Josh asked.

Yeah, your cousin hates my guts for no reason. I wanted to say it out loud, but I saw how happy Josh was to see a family member. I couldn't take that away, so I just nodded.

"Yeah. We've been in some class...projects together?" I said, but it came out more of a question.

Nicole whispered something into Josh's ear before patting his arm, glaring at me and walking away.

Josh gave me a little smile. "I'll see you soon," he said, rubbing my arm before catching up with Bryan, who he had a class with.

I put my hand on my forehead and mentally screamed in frustration. I got my bag and headed to calculus because the hallway was already empty. I heard the footsteps behind me, and I knew who was coming.

Without any warning, an arm was slung around my shoulder. She looked at me and smirked. The other two came in front of me and smiled viciously.

"We missed our favorite little slut. How was summer?" Amy asked. I was surrounded by Nicole's three best friends. They hated me a lot more than Nicole did. I could still never understand.

They had never done anything serious enough to hurt me. It was just the way they jabbed at me with nasty comments that really had nothing to do with me in the first place.

"What do you guys want?" I gritted out. There was Amy, the second in command, and the gossip girl. There was no little bit of gossip or rumor that she didn't know about. She could also be the best person when information was needed. Amy had shoulder-length blond hair with hazel eyes. She had an average girl height, and she was paler than me.

Next was Winter, the one with her arm slung around my shoulder. A beautiful name for a devil inside, sadly. She was the sporty one of the group. She was a little muscular, tan, and really tall. I think maybe around six feet. She had gorgeous brown hair and bright blue eyes like me.

And lastly was Tamako, a beautiful Asian. She had long black hair that was always in a ponytail and dark brown eyes. She was petite, but I wouldn't underestimate her.

I never gave them the reaction they wanted and always walked away. It aggravated them that they couldn't get to me.

I rested my back on the wall and let out a huge breath that I had been holding. I stood up only to fall by tripping on my own feet. My clumsiness could be the death of me. My bag zip was open, and the pads I had inside had fallen out.

I quickly knelt down and started picking them up one by one. I had pads in case Kelsey or maybe Jessica needed one. Or a random girl in the bathroom. I was going to put them in my locker but never got around to doing that.

After picking up the last one, I watched as a pair of white vans walked closer to me. I looked up to come face to face with a cute boy. He gave me a quirky smile as I stood up. "I think this belongs to you," he said. He was holding one of my pads. My face burned with embarrassment as I took it out of his hand.