Rising Strength

Chapter Four

All ready half way through her first class and Hadley was getting more attention then she would have wanted. Everyone was not only staring at her but also whispering about her as if she wasn’t even there. She was begging to get agitated, which she knew would begin to show on her face. Once the bell rang she stormed out of class, not bothering to hide her irritation. The whole school was acting as if she was some thug or an alien sent to take over their school. 

She continued to storm about the school, all the way to her locker. She found it ridiculous how no one bothered to talk to her, instead they were acting like children. She banged her locker open like Jacob did and dropped off the only book she had so far. As she looked down at her schedule she overheard some girls whispering about her just two lockers down.

“I heard she was in a gang and she moved here to get away from the cops.”

"Well I heard that she ran a huge drug operation in her old town and was here starting a new ring.”

  “I overheard Jared say that she had tattoos all over her back.”

  “How would he know that?”

  “According to him, last night she snuck him and Travis into her room and well you can fill in the rest.” 

Before anything else was said Hadley slammed her locker shut and glared over at the group of girls. The girl’s coward behind the open locker door, afraid that she would do something to them. Hadley just scoffed at all of them, her clear blue eyes boring holes through the locker door, then she walked towards her next class. She could stand the stares and the whispering about her appearance, she just couldn’t stand all of the gossiping. She knew that if she ever crossed paths with the two boys that the girls mentioned, there would be hell to pay.

 

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 By lunch time everyone was aware of what happened this morning at the new girls locker. There were different versions of the story, but they all said the same thing. She wasn’t happy, no one knew why. Some thought that it could have been that she ran out of drugs, others thought that one of her deals fell through. Emmett wasn’t really sure what to believe, all of the gossip was turning farfetched as each person told it. He was beginning to think that everyone was just making things up as the day went on. There were different rumors about all the bad things that she’s done, even one of her sleeping with a couple of kids from the school. Emmett knew that none of the rumors could be true, he remembered all of the talking people said when he moved to Folks with his family. He was suspecting that no one even talked to her, let alone knew why she moved so late in the year. His suspicions were confirmed when his niece Renesmee sat down at the lunch table with her mutt of a boyfriend.

“Can you believe of the stuff their saying about Hadley? It’s like their asking to get punched in the face,” Jacob said the minute he sat down. Everyone looked over at him, confusion written on all of their faces.

 “You talked to her?” Emmet asked. Jacob nodded his head.

“Yeah, me and Nessie talked to her this morning before first period. Her name’s Hadley Rivers. She was really nice and didn’t smell of any drugs.”

Hadley Rivers, Emmett ran the name in his head over again. The name suited her, he thought. It was edgy, just like her looks He scanned the lunch room and found her sitting alone a few tables down. She was absorbed in her drawing pad, music blasting from her headphones. He found that she looked at peace, like nothing bothered her, like everything everyone said just washed away from her mind. He watched as her face made tiny little expressions with every line that she drew and found it attractive.

His eyes roamed the lunch room again, trying not to look too interested in Hadley. From across the lunch room he saw some guys at what was known as the ‘Jock Table’. There he saw Jared and Travis, the two boys that Hadley was rumored to have slept with. Emmett felt himself grow slightly angry, but not really understanding where the feeling was coming from. He didn’t know the girl and as far as he was concerned she could have slept with both of them.

  “Hey look over there Jared, looks like we have a wall flower,” Emmett heard Travis say. He saw Jared look at Hadley’s table and smirk. The arrogant teen popped his collar and headed towards her. Hadley was oblivious to what was coming towards her, too absorbed in her own little world to take notice. Jared stopped at her table and waited for her to look his way. He slammed his hands on the table when he realized that she wasn’t giving him the attention that he wanted. Hadley popped one ear bud out and glared at him.

“What?” She said aggravated. At this point everyone at Emmett’s table was paying attention to the interaction. Emmett didn’t blame them, he was also interested in knowing what was going to happen. Jared smirked and gestured to his table.

“We were wondering if you’d like to join us.” Hadley glanced at the table and then went back to her drawing.

“Not really.” She plugged the headphone back in and went back to what she was doing. Emmett couldn’t see Jared’s face, but he could tell that Jared wasn’t happy with the answer since his body become rigid. He banged his hands on the table again, this time catching the attention of everyone in the room.

 “What the hell is your problem? I said no, so get lost,” Hadley almost yelled at him. She glared up at him, a pissed off look crossing her face.

 “You’re new here so I’ll let you in on a little secret. If you’re invited to sit at my table then you better take the invitation because it might not come again.” He must of thought that that answer was enough because Emmett could see his body relax again.

“Oh yeah, well I’ll let you in on a little secret. I don’t care if you invite me over for tea with the Queen of England, no means no. Oh and if you rock my table one more time I will personally invite you to a bed in the emergency room. Now scoot.” A round of ‘oooo’s” swept the lunch room as everyone waited to see what Jared would say next. Emmet had to hand it Hadley, she had spunk and he found himself admiring her for it.