Let's Play a Game

Let's Play a Game (19)

“How cute,” Zach snickered from his seat. “She looks completely dumbfounded.”

Ethan shrugged. “She’s always found dumb.”

I slammed on the breaks in front of Ethan’s school, which was only a few blocks away from the house. I didn’t get why he couldn’t just walk to school since it would have only took him five minutes at the most.

“Get out,” I ordered, not even waiting two seconds after he had gotten out of the car to drive off.

Zach did nothing but laugh, and I was glad that he didn’t speak to me on the way to school. I could barely deal with one Deveraux brother, let alone two. I’d probably crash the car on purpose if he had spoken to me.

But when I got to school, things were different. Zach and I walked inside together, and people immediately began whispering. It scared me for a moment, and I immediately thought that everyone knew I was living in his house now.

“Maxynn!” a new voice suddenly cried, and I turned to see Kate practically wadding toward me. I didn’t know if it was because of the baby or if she was making herself run that way because of the baby. “Maxynn! Is it true that you and Zach had sex?”

I nearly fell over before shouting, “What?”

Kate nodded furiously, then informing me on how it was all around school that I had spent the night at Zach’s and how kids had overheard Ethan saying that we spent the night together. Not only that, Aveline was even extra pissed at me and Johnny was looking for me.

I had to tell Kate that I didn’t have sex with Zach, and I was glad that at least no one outside our group of friends and Aveline knew that I lived with Zach. That would have been even worse, considering that that was true.

And I had to deal with whispers and stares all day, but I ignored them because I wasn’t going to let something that wasn’t true bother me. Zach and I had slept together, and we had really only slept. There was nothing more than that.

I bumped into Aveline right in front of our last period class, the one where we were partnered together. She looked so angry at me that it wasn’t even funny, like all the other times were.

“You’re such a slut,” she scowled, her arms crossed over her chest before walking into the classroom. I just stared at her, not believing she had just called me something that would describe her. I walked into the classroom after her, ignoring the stares I got from everyone.

All day, there had been rumors going around that Zach and I had finally slept together. I knew it was because of Ethan, who had shouted that morning in front of people that went to our school. I had to explain to Johnny that it had been a huge misunderstanding, but Zach refused to deny any of it.

So during the last period of the day, I was happy that we were going to get out of school soon. But unfortunately, this was the class I had to deal with Aveline and our project, and Aveline hated me even more at that moment than ever before…

So when Mr. Ranch rolled in buckets of clay, I couldn’t help but make a face. I had a feeling we were all about to get very messy.

“You and your partner are going to be creating small sculptures together using this clay,” he informed us. “Whatever you two decide to create will be due at the end of the period.”

This was ridiculous. This wasn’t art class! If I had wanted to take art, I would have taken Ms. Cassidy’s class, even though it was now being run by some woman named Ms. Norton since Ms. Cassidy was on maternity leave… But still. Art was still art.

Aveline glared at me from her desk beside mine as Mr. Ranch started passing out the clay to all of us. Neither of us were excited about spending time together, but we both knew that there was nothing we could do about it.