The Bad Boy with a Heart of Gold

✖ Chapter 30 ✖

"Wow, that's insane," Lina whispered. "I never would've thought Lexie had this kind of psycho in her."

Courtney huffed. "I knew it. Brains, beauty and a good heart? No one has all three."

That one amused me. Yes, Lexie was a good student. For years she'd appeared to be the perfect package.

"You have all three, you know," Lina said, exchanging a smile with me.

Our friend snapped her fingers. "See, that's where you're wrong. The only reason I haven't flunked my math classes these past four years is because of you both."

I nodded sagely. "True. Plus you also have a bit of a temper. I guess you're not perfect after all."

"Pot calling the kettle black?" she said, smirking at me. I returned the gesture.

"The point is," Lina said, picking back up on the conversation thread. "Lexie's liked by the teachers as much as you are," she said this looking at me.

From under my breath I said, "Way less."

"I mean, if we went to them with the tale it'd just become a she said vs. she said situation," Lina finished.

"Justice has to be done at our level," Courtney said. She leaned back and let her eyes drift up to the ceiling and only came back closer when she had this gem of an idea, "What if we prank her?"

I easily slammed it down. "I'm not risking my academic status."

"What if we come up with crazy rumors about her?" my blonde friend continued.

"Um, hello, Lexie won the Homecoming crown and is poised to get the Prom Queen title," Lina said. "The people adore her."

"Yeah, no one would believe that she stalks the resident bad boy," I said.

"What if we just get her dethroned?" Courtney said. She shrugged as we looked at her. "I mean, if that happens then people might start believing rumors about her."

"How do you propose we do that?" Lina said with the same skepticism I was feeling.

Courtney lifted her palms up. "I don't have all the answers."

I groaned. "And I don't have time for a big operation like that. I'm a busy girl."

"With what?" By the way a grin was taking over her face, I should have figured that whatever Courtney was going to say next would be something I didn't like. "Tutoring your boyfriend in schoolwork and getting tutored back in professional tonsil hockey?"

It wasn't like the rest of the class was exactly quiet, but we did catch a few eyes when I smacked her hard and she started complaining about the pain. We just huddled closer.

"Stop, he's not my boyfriend." At their looks I steered the topic back to where the focus was. "I don't want to spend time on Lexie, I just want her to stop."

"Then," Courtney drifted the word off for a bit. "Why don't we just ask her to stop?"

We spent a good ten minutes trying to come up with reasons why that wouldn't work, or with alternative plans that had a better success rate. In the end, all we could really do was tell Lexie we were not going to play her game and then just... really not play it. If this had happened two months ago, I would have set out to defend my reputation with whatever it took. Even if it required me to lower myself to her level of subterfuge and warfare.

Now, weeks had already gone by of people saying all sorts of insane things about Sawyer and me, and I had survived. My friends still had my back. The teachers still treated me the same, even if they might've heard something. The sun was still shining and food still tasted the same. High school was going to be done and over with in less than six months, and I'd be off to greater and more important things at Rollins College.