"Dude, is it true?!" Some random sophomore guy and his clique interrupted a conversation I was having with Marley during lunch.
"Yes. I am dating someone. Get over it, boys" Marley did another signature hair flip and leaned back on her couch.
"Never thought I'd see the day" at that Marley feigned an insulted look at the guy's good-humored teasing. "But Grace, are you actually dating the hot transfer?!"
"Uh... What?" I exchanged a look with Marley.
"The hot girl that hates everything" well that clarified everything.
"No! No, we're not dating! She hates me!"
"She hates everyone" my brunette pet cut in.
"I hate her!" I exclaimed.
"Figures. You can't trust gossip from Kelse" he sighed "you should probably shut her up. Half the school is going to be swarming you about dating her. The other half is swarming her"
"Crap..." I groaned. "I told her we're not dating"
"So did you two kiss or is that another one of Kelsey's fantasies?" The guy renewed his attention.
"Dude, really?" Marley snorted "it's not your business"
"I'm just curious" he put his hands up in surrender.
"Nothing happened. Kelse probably saw us arguing in the art wing" I pretended not to really care, but inside I was freaking out. Hazel would kill me if she found out that there is a rumor going around about us kissing, god knows how screwed I'll be for a rumor of us dating!
"Figures" he rolled his eyes.
"Grace" we were interrupted by the devil herself. And she sounded like she was going to be a very large pain today. And I still have time before my first block.
"I am not getting in the middle of this" the dude grabbed his stuff and ran for the figurative hills. Lucky idiot, I would give anything to just be able to run away from this problem. Just one. One major problem that I would love to be without.
"I told you to prevent rumors" she glared at me and ignored Marley entirely.
"And I told you to go away. Yet here you are. Isn't there some helpless old person you can go harass instead?"
"If the rumor spreads, Riley will have to step in" she chose to disregard my input. "And I will not tolerate having to be babysat due to your inability to silence these rumors" her sapphire blue glare set itself on me. Amusing, almost, how it burns.
"Stop telling me how to live my life" I rolled my eyes.
"No. You stepped into my world, you deal with the consequences. Just behave and do as I've said" she tried to walk away but I yanked her back by her wrist.
"Excuse me?! I never signed up for this! I never signed up for you! You brought me into this mess, you, Hazel, are going to start acting like you give a shit or I'm done playing your stupid games!" I tried to keep my voice low so the nearby prying ears wouldn't have more fuel to the myth.
"I don't play games. I do what I have to do. You should to. I don't care if you're done. You have no way to escape from the important responsibilities, and no important responsibilities you can escape from"
"I can escape you" I growled "I don't have to do what you tell me to. You have no power over me or my life"
"But I do. You and I both know that I have all the advantages I need to influence you. I have information. I have your attention. And I have the order to be responsible for you. You can't go"
"Grace..." Marley put her hand on my shoulder to stop another retort from escaping me.
"Thanks... Let's go..." I got my bag and left with Marley. Unfortunately, Hazel still had other ideas. She pulled on my wrist, her touch sending unwanted sparks and chills through my body.
"I'm done, Hazel" I glared back at her. She had no expression, but her eyes were dead set on me, watching with unsettling focus. "Let go, Hazel" I tried to steal my wrist back, only to tighten her grip. "What?" I sighed boredly.
Nothing.
Her silence persisted.
"I have class to get to, let go or come with me and keep your mouth shut" I rolled my eyes. Hazel finally reacted, her eyes glancing toward her hold on my wrist, then back up to me.
"You can't escape" she stated monotonously before dropping my wrist -which was now retaining the impression of her vise; thanks a lot, Hazel- and refocused herself on getting a black notebook out of her bag.
"You good?" Marley nudged my shoulder gently once we were out of earshot, plus another few yards to make sure Hazel's superhuman hearing couldn't pry.
"Yeah. Thanks" I smiled at her.
"So what was up with that? I know you two are like polar opposites, but you normally take a lot more to get you that pissed. If you didn't notice, you were practically screaming at her by the time I got in the way" she held a slight curiosity in her stare, but the majority of her expression was that of concern.
"I'm just fed up with her. She is so unpredictable and bipolar it's just... One second we could be trying to kill each other, the next she'll be kissing me for no fucking reason!" I groaned quietly. Hey, it's because I don't want people thinking we're dating, it's got nothing to do with Hazel's 'orders'.
"Mar, what are you doing?" I was suddenly stopped by Marley's arms wrapping around my neck.
"You need a hug" she demanded. "Hug me" I chuckled but did what she asked. "Good Grace. Wait... That's funny"
"Marley, you're such a kid. You've realized that too many times to count" I let her go when our hug had gone out of 'friendly hug' time. Not that it's weird for me, but the stupid spectators would love it if the two big non-heteros got together and cheated on Marley's new girlfriend and my theoretical girlfriend. Ugh. People have got to get their own damn lives!
"Okay. Who died. You two are hugging again" Cael and Robyn walked up to us.
"This can't be good" Robyn mused. "Would it have anything to do with a particular black haired girl growling to herself in our corner?"
"She gave me a flipping heart attack" Cael added.
"Girl fight" Marley answered shortly.
"God, should I call an ambulance?" Robyn laughed.
"Not quite yet" I sighed. "But one of us is gonna need one in the close future. There is only so much Hazel I can tolerate without killing someone"
"Devil says there is only so much Grace I can tolerate without throwing a tantrum" Marley cackled. "Alright, babe, we have a class to crash. Let's'a get going"
...
"Grace!" I rolled my eyes and kept working on my trig homework. I had been ignoring a certain thirteen year old for the last two days and Hazel was having none of it.
"Grace Daniels, listen to me!" She protested angrily. I refrained from laughing at her indigence. "Oh my god... Megan is driving you to the N.S. tonight" she spat out.
I scribbled down my response on some scrap paper, balled it up, and tossed it at her. She had to pull it out of her hair, and open it before she got my response.
"You can't not go. The rumors got out of hand and now you have to own up to the repercussions" she snarled.
I wrote down another 'I'm not going' and delivered it similarly, still not looking up at her.
"Ugh. You're impossible! Look at me!" I held up an index card I'd created when I decided to ignore her.
'No' and then I flipped it to show her the back, where 'I don't care' was written. I then resumed my homework.
Hazel finally lashed out and took both of my wrists in one hand, holding them above my head. With the other hand she grabbed my jaw and forced me to look up. I continued staring right through her.
She growled loudly, to which I pried her hand off mine and tore her off my neck. And then resumed working.
"For fuck's sake the answer is forty-three-point-six-five-nine! Now listen to me!" I went on calculating despite her. "Why the fuck are you calculating inverse sine with adjacent over hypotenuse! It's opposite over hypotenuse! Cosine is adjacent over hypotenuse!" She snapped. Great, now I couldn't fix that error while she's here. "And that angle is not marked right! Use Law of Sines!" I had to resist the strong urge to strangle her. We hadn't done Law of Sines yet, so the triangle had to be freaking right so we could calculate the missing values!
I showed her the 'I don't care' card again.
"Oh my god..." she growled "would you just listen for one minute?!" I put away my finished trig homework and started on the final draft of my Romeo and Juliet essay. Hazel groaned.
"At least do your science homework!" She tried to take my papers but I pressed my hand onto them and kept them still. "Ugh!" Hazel's thirteen year old was showing through. I kind of liked it.
"Why would you ever need this?! It's useless!" She rambled.
I pulled out another index card and wrote another line. 'Go away, Hazel'. She growled again.
"Megan will pick you up after school. Be there" she hissed before finally leaving me alone.
**I don't really like this chapter... Hopefully the next one will be more interesting.