Surviving High School

Mean

"I'm not crying."

"Yes, you are."

"Fine! I'm crying. I tripped up the steps and banged my knee and it hurts, okay?"

Ben just looked at me like he didn't believe me, but I didn't really care. I just wanted to get this day over and done with so I could go home.

"Come on, let's get to homeroom before the bell rings," I said.

We walked in silence towards the classroom when I heard a commotion across the way. Ben and I looked over and saw Edward and Victoria having a heated argument. He was shaking his head vehemently at something that she was saying, and then Victoria looked over his shoulder and glared at me. I quickly averted my gaze, but the damage was done. Victoria stalked over to me and leaned in close enough for me to smell the coffee on her breath.

"Stay the fuck away from Eddie or I will ruin you."

After delivering her warning, she knocked her shoulder into me and headed off down the hallway. I just stood there, stunned. Ben wrapped an arm around my shoulder and asked me if I was okay.

"I guess so," I stammered out.

Truth was, I was in complete shock from what had just happened. I missed everything that happened in homeroom and didn't even try to pay attention in English. How could I? My life was officially over. Victoria had staked her claim, marked her territory and threatened me. But how could I stay away from Edward when he was my lab partner? I guessed I could ask Mr. Banner for a new partner. I turned to Angela and Ben and asked them what they thought.

"Bella, you can't let her get to you. She's just trying to intimidate you, and you're letting her," Ben said.

"Well, of course I am. She's intimidating! She scares the shit out of me," I replied. Didn't they understand that?

Angela looked at me and rubbed her hand over my back. "Just ignore her. She likes to pick on people and thrives on getting a reaction out of them. Besides, do you really want to give up being lab partners with Edward?"

Angela made a valid point. This would probably be the only time in my high school career that I would get to be near Edward and talk to him, assuming that I managed to form any words and not knock myself out again. I took a deep breath, centered myself and calmed my nerves. I could do this.

The remainder of the morning flew by, and before I knew it, it was time for my favorite class of the day: gym. And we all knew how much I loved gym. We were still playing badminton, and since I owed a certain person a beat down for picking on me yesterday, I might have accidentally smacked Mike with the badminton racket a few times.

"Oh I'm so sorry, Mike! I didn't mean to hit you," I told him after I hit him for the third time with my racket.

Mike, being Mike, just smiled and told me it was okay. He knew that my hitting him was due to my clumsiness. Poor clueless fool. Somehow, Mike managed to win against the other team. Afterwards, Coach Clapp told us that we would be starting volleyball the next day.

Mike turned to look at me and asked, "So ... you any good at volleyball?"

I just stared at him. "I can barely walk, I can't hold a badminton racket and you want to know if I'm any good at volleyball?"

"Good point," he laughed.

Hopefully, Coach Clapp would see just how much of a danger magnet I was and he'd let me write an essay on volleyball or something rather than making me participate. After changing out of my horrible gym clothes, I met up with Mike and we headed toward the cafeteria. I did my best to avoid running into anyone, particularly the star quarterback. As we were standing in line waiting to pay for our food, someone bumped into me from behind.