One whole hour of math at 8 o'clock in the morning was not something Toni enjoyed. She would argue that the human brain was not intended to crunch numbers at the this time of the morning had her teacher not been so damn excited about the lesson. He must have been the only person on earth that enjoyed algebra at the ass crack of dawn.
Had this lesson been at any other time of the day she might have been able to pay attention. She liked math actually. And she was good at it. At school in general really. Of course, only her teachers and friends knew that. Most people assumed that she slacked off a lot. That was probably due to the number of days that she is absent due to her home situation, the ill-advised decisions she made, and the amount of fights she got into. In short, she had a reputation that didn't imply high levels of intelligence.
That was all fine by Toni, she didn't really need another reason for people to piss her off and being universally labelled as a teachers pet would almost certainly lead to some bloodied knuckles.
The abrasive ring of the bell was a borderline heavenly sound when it finally sounded, indicating the end of class. The sound following it, however, was decidedly the opposite.
There was actually not a soul of earth that elicited as much annoyance in Toni as Shelby Goodkind.
Whenever Shelby did the morning announcements they were riddled with metaphors from the bible and inspirational quotes from whatever self-help book the girl was obviously reading at the time. Today was no exception.
"Remember, happiness can not come from the world around you; it has to come from within!" Her thick Texan accent gleefully declared through the speakers. Toni stood with her bag, glanced over at Martha and rolled her eyes once she met her gaze. Martha cracked a smile but continued to listen to the tail end of Shelby's cringeworthy self love tangent.
Toni couldn't afford to be late to another class so she waved goodbye to Martha and made her way to her next class. Until lunch Toni didn't have any classes with friends other than some of the girls from basketball. This at least allowed her to pay attention and get some work done.
Her classes went without a hitch until science class just before lunch. She climbed onto the stool next to a girl she had never seen before. She knew immediately that science was going to simultaneously be amazing and awful for the next month or so. It was going to be good because the new girl was extremely beautiful but sitting on the high stools with no back support made her wheeze in pain as she was hunched over her bruises. She tried to straighten up which was worse so she slunk back down again.
The girl sitting beside her noticed her obvious discomfort. "Hey are you alright?"
Toni tried to wipe any evidence of pain from her face and forced a smile. "Training killed me yesterday," She gave a small laugh.
"Training? Let me guess..." the girl paused to think. "Swimming?"
"Basketball actually. I'm out of shape though from-"
"Ms Shalifoe! Would you please stop disrupting the class. Am I going have to move you to a different table?" Toni was interrupted by the science teacher who stopped scribbling on the blackboard to reprimand her.
"No sir, I'm sorry." He grunted at her response and turned around to continue writing his notes.
"I'm Regan," The girl beside me whispered.
"Toni," she replied, waving her hand awkwardly.
"Enough!" A voice boomed through the room and everyone fell silent, even the scratch of pens stopped. Toni cringed, please don't send me home, she thought. "Everyone stand up, from now on you will have allocated seating."
The class groaned but Toni didn't dare do anything that would rile him up further. The teacher started listing off pairings and their tables. Toni zoned out waiting for her name.
"Shalifoe with Goodkind. At the middle left table."
"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Toni mumbled, shooting a longing look at Regan who smiled sadly before moving to her new table.
Well there goes the good aspect of this class, she thought woefully. Now she was stuck sitting on the painful stools and was desk partners with a girl who was about as exciting as a root canal.
She dropped her bag on the floor next to her new desk and climbed back up on the stool, gritting her teeth though the pain. Shelby was talking before she was fully seated. "Are you okay?" The question coming from the perky blonde had a completely different effect on Toni compared to Regan. Her blood boiled at the whole injustice of her day and this was really the final nail in the coffin. Of every single person in this class it had to be the girl she loathed that she would have to spend the most time with. She truly was a scapegoat to the universe.
"Shut up and leave me alone," she sneered, dropping her head onto her folded arms. Out of the corner of her eye she saw the other girl flinch slightly. Not another word was spoken between them for the rest of the hour.
By the time science class ended and lunch rolled around Toni had worked herself into a foul mood. She hated when her attention was drawn to how unfair the world really was. Her mood brightened slightly when she saw all of her friends sitting at their lunch table. It was a miracle that they all managed to get the same lunch break this year.
She sat down in her spot next to Martha and Dot. There were 6 of them; 7 if you counted Nora's sister, Rachel, who sometimes joined them. They all had very different personalities but somehow they were all just a perfect match. Nora was a bit of a book worm and not always socially adept, similar to Leah in a way. Fatin was confident in everything she did and had a very carefree attitude. Dot had the most similar personality to Toni, only slightly more laid back. Martha obviously was Toni's best friend and had been ever since she and her family found her at 7 years old, curled up on her own porch step after accidentally giving herself food poisoning. Her biological mom had been gone for weeks chasing a high leaving a young Toni to fend for herself with whatever food was left in the fridge. That was when she entered the system.
"Hey guys," She said with a smile as she sat down and started fishing through her bag for some change.
"Dot, tell Toni about Andrew," Nora said, taking a bite from her sandwich.
"Which Andrew?" Toni muttered, concentrating on the contents of her bag. If she didn't find any money she would have to just call time of death on this day.
"The one dating Shelby," Dot replied.
Toni looked up from what she was doing. "Are you kidding, I don't care about fucking Shelby." She was still riled up from her ruined science lesson.
The group fell silent except for Fatin who whistled, "Who pissed in her cereal today?"
"That would only work if I had eaten," She snapped back and softened her tone realising who she was talking to, "I'm sorry, I'm just hungry. What happened with Andrew?"
Dot continue the story hesitantly, "Well I caught him making out with one of the other girls from Shelby's Christian Students Society."
"Oh damn." Toni raised her eyebrows. "Drama in the Jesus club."
The group laughed, obviously glad that Toni had taken the aggression down a notch. "Why didn't you eat this morning?" Leah asked.
Before Toni could answer, Martha piped up, "She overslept after studying at Dot's."
Fatin wiggled her eyebrows, "Ohh, Dot wear you out huh?"
Toni rolled her eyes; she was not about to humour that theory.
"Also did you bring her coat back?"
She closed her eyes in annoyance of Martha's question. Sometimes Toni wished she would forget some of things she told her but Martha just retains everything she says. She as a much better friend than Toni deserved considering most of the things that she told her were lies.
Toni shot Dot a desperate look which she hoped the other girl would be able to decipher. "Shit, yeah I forgot to bring it." Dot then looked at her with a concerned expression. "Sorry Toni, I'll get it to you tomorrow."
Toni sighed in relief, Dot had covered her. Although now she would have to come up with a lie to tell Dot. What a mess.
"Don't worry about it," She said just as her fingers touched a pile of coins buried deep at the bottom of her bag. "Yes!" She did a little fist pump and held one of the coins above her head like a trophy.
After eating the small amount of lunch her dollar fifty could buy Toni decided it was probably a good idea to see what damage Carol had caused this morning. "I've got to go to the bathroom quickly. I'll catch up with you all at the end of school?"
Everyone confirmed that they would be in their usual spot in the car park after school so Toni dumped her lunch tray and made her way the the restrooms, tapping a beat out of the lockers as she walked.
The stall lock clicked loudly as she locked herself into one of the cubicles. There was no one in the bathrooms anyway but she didn't want to risk someone coming in and seeing the state of her body, however bad it was. She took a deep breath and lifted her hoodie up to expose her abdomen. She looked down and caught a flash of dark blue before a sharp knock of her cubicle door startled her, causing her to look up.
"Hello?" She breathed out, her heart racing from being caught off guard.
"It's Dot. Can I come in?"
"What? No, I'm peeing."
"I can see our feet, unless you've had a secret sex change you are definitely not peeing."
Dot had her there. Why didn't cubicle doors just go all the way to the floor? Toni never understood why it was so important that their feet were exposed while they peed. Did that extra foot of plastic really cost that much?
She opened the door to Dot.
"Okay, so I know you're lying about something you don't want Martha to know," Dot started, "Is it something you can tell me? Something I can help you with? I would never tell anyone anything you don't want me to."
The sentiment was nice but Toni was starting to feel a little cagey; she pushed past Dot out of the stall and started washing her hands. "No honestly, I thought I had left my coat at yours."
"I'm not an idiot. If you don't want to tell me anything just say and I'll help you cover with the girls but don't just lie to my face." Toni could tell that Dot was a bit fed up with her at this point.
She looked at Dot through the mirror, just past her own tired reflection. She wanted to snap at her but something in Dot's expression stopped her. She had always kept any secrets Toni had told her. She also had significant medical knowledge. A tear slipped from her eye which she hastily wiped away before whispering, "Things with Carol are not great."
Dot walked forward and placed both hands on Toni's upper arms, "In what way?"
Toni turned around, "I haven't looked properly myself it just happened this morning. You have to promise not to tell anyone."
Dot detected the seriousness in Toni's tone. "I won't." Toni kept staring at her expectantly until Dot continued, "I promise."
Grabbing the bottom of her hoodie again she exposed her injuries to Dot and to herself in the mirror.
"Fuck, Toni," She heard Dot mutter faintly. It really did not look good. Her whole stomach was blue and red in places. The bruises crawled up her right rib cage. Her left looked okay which makes sense because that was the side she was lying on. She tried to reach for the back of her hoodie to see if any damage had been done to her back but she couldn't twist her body to look.
Dot noticed her struggling and reached behind her to expose her back. Toni couldn't see very much in the mirror.
"There are a few bruises," Dot said breathlessly, "But not many."
Dot's cold fingers poked at a particularly tender bruise on Toni's midriff causing her to suck in a gasp. "Why haven't you got yourself kicked out of this home yet?" She asked.
"Because my next stop is a group home miles away from here. What happens if it's even worse than Carol's; I'll have nothing, no one." She caught Dot's eye and said, as convincingly as she could, "It's only two years, I can survive two years."
Before Dot could reply, the bathroom door flew open.