*IMPORTANT* Read the excerpt down below!!!
Chapter Twenty-Two Sparkles in the Eyes
It had been a few weeks since the road trip. Christmas had come and gone, and it was now January. I had managed to keep a low profile and convince Paul that I hadn't been talking to Kyan at all. Reece and Brynn were the happiest cutest couple you could imagine.
The school was hyped for the winter formal. A date hadn't been set, whispers hadn't even been heard if one was even planned, but they had one every year. So, it was to be expected. Paper snowflakes and blue ribbon lined the walls and ceilings of the school, preparing for the festivities of Christmas which had already passed, and of course the Formal.
It was already third period and I was heading to class, it was the only class where all six of us were together in the same class, for a whole hour. I took a seat and soon the whole group shuffled in through the door. There was a seat for each one of them around me, accept for one. A student with bleached-blonde hair sat at a desk near me. Jax loomed over him and with the thrust of his chin and a glare, the kid scrambled out of the seat.
"Good morning class. I have a special announcement and project for you today." Mrs. Sherman announced "for your project I want you all to plan and decorate the entire winter formal. And since I imagine most if not all of you will be attending this year, I want you to conduct some research in the field. Which means you all will be required to attend the Formal."
Mrs. Sherman taught sociology. The project was probably conducting interviews, gaining feedback, learning what kids wanted to experience at the dance, and how well we followed through. It sounded like the project was worth a lot of points. Which meant a decent boost in my grade. However, would that be enough to convince Paul to let me go?
The bell rang indicating the end of school, the halls were alive with the hustle and bustle of students crowding around each other trying to leave. I felt someone sling their arm around me.
"How are you gonna convince Paul to let you go to the Formal?"
I answered Kyan "he values my grades a lot, if he knows that its required and is worth a lot of points, I'm sure he'll let me go."
Kyan gave me a pointed look.
"Maybe." I mumbled.
"Well that dirt-bag better let you go. Because if he does, were gonna have a lot of fun."
The wind pressed against my face as we stepped outside. The air was fresh, just like the new year. I could smell the rain, that was brimming the clouds getting ready to pour over and flood the streets of our small town. We walked towards Kyan's car and he pulled the passenger door open for me.
"Why thank you, kind sir." I smiled at him.
He smirked back "Chivalry isn't dead yet."
Every day Kyan gives me a ride home from school, and stops about a block from my house and lets me get out so I can walk the rest of the way. It hides the fact that we're still friends and still talk to each other, from Paul. If Kyan arrives home ten minutes or so before I do, its unsuspecting.
So, as he usually did, Kyan dropped me off around the block and sped off in his usual fashion, leaving me alone as the rain started to drizzle. It wouldn't be long until the sun would set, hopefully I would make it home before then.
A couple weeks ago Kyan had bought me a cheap phone to replace the one Paul broke. I used it to take pictures of every bruise, cut, scrape or form of physical harm that Paul gave me, just as Kyan had told me to. I just hoped that it would work. He seemed to know what he was talking about, and I suppose the son of a cop would know a little bit about a lot.
I felt the pit of my stomach flip. The bruises on my body hadn't fully healed yet, I wondered if Paul would add more before they had the chance too. How mad could he be? If he learned it was a school project, he had to be okay with it. He had to be. My back pocket buzzed.
I pulled my phone out and checked it.
"Have you made it home yet?" -Kyan.
"Not yet."
"Text me when you do. I want to make sure you make it home safe." -Kyan.
I pulled the tab down on my phone screen, high-lighted the texts and deleted them. I always deleted texts from Kyan, just in case Paul found my phone, he couldn't accuse me of texting him. The less evidence against me the better.
I glanced up and realized I was only a few houses down from home. I continued my way up the grey sidewalk and walked up to my front porch. I paused at the door and pulled out my phone.
"I'm home."
I texted Kyan and put my phone away. My stomach tied into a knot as I pushed the front door open. "I'm home!" I called out as I closed the door behind me.
"You're just in time for dinner." I heard my mom call to me. I dropped my backpack off next to the door and followed the sound of pans clattering and the smell of Chicken Cacciatore.
My mom stood in front of the stove shaking the pan of food. Sweat beaded on her forehead and I could see the shadows under her eyes. The bruise on her cheekbone had started healing, just as most of my bruises had. She paused what she was doing to give me a hug and a kiss on the head, before I helped her bring the food to the table. We all sat around the table in silence as Paul started digging into the food. We all helped ourselves and began eating.
"What homework do you have?" Paul grumbled towards me as he shoved a fork full of chicken into his mouth before lifting his cold eyes to look at me.
"Um, I've got homework for Calculus, History and Chemistry." I responded in a quiet voice.
He didn't respond, only shoveled more food into his mouth. I bit my lip as I thought about having to ask him about the project for the Winter Formal. I swallowed what food was in my mouth and took a sip of water before I spoke.
"So," I cleared my throat "there's this project, its worth over a hundred points, and it would be a big step up in my grades..." I trailed off.
"What's the project?" Paul asked, his voice forewarning.
"Umm, my entire class and I are supposed to plan and decorate for the Winter Formal. And follow up with students on the job we did at the Formal by interviewing them. The project is mandatory. And for me to be able to do it, its required that I go to the Formal..."
Suddenly the entire table was silent, the only sound was the smacking of Paul chewing and the sound of his forking clanking against the table as he put it down. Brynn gave me this look, as if to warn me to stop talking. He looked at me as he swallowed and slowly wiped his mouth with his napkin.
"Yeah? And its mandatory?"
I nodded "I have the papers in my backpack. I can go get them"
He shook his head "No. Alright. You can go. But, you are not going with those friends of yours. You can take Brynn. But, if you do not receive 100% on the project, the consequences will be very severe." Paul warned me, and I nodded thanking him.
The rest of the meal was eaten in silence. I felt nervous but overcome with excitement. I knew that I had to work hard on the project, but I would be able to go to my very first dance because of it. Then it dawned on me. I would need a dress, a nice dress and some shoes. I would need to go shopping.
Brynn laughed hysterically as she held up this poufy pink dress to her body. I joined her as we put the dress back on a rack and continued searching. Paul had given us some money and gave us a budget to go with it, so we could go dress shopping. It was hard finding a nice formal dress that was within the budget he gave, but we were having fun.
Unfortunately, this was the fifth store we had hit, and we weren't having much luck. Jax, Reece and Tony came with us, Kyan said he had something to do. Reece pulled out a dress for Brynn to try on. It was a long slinky black dress, with lace and sequins.
I continued to search for myself going back over the same racks we had checked. I pulled out this one dress, that was a light sky blue almost periwinkle color. It had layers and layers of chiffon making it an elegant flowy ball gown, along with jeweled chiffon flowers cresting the corset and sleeves. It was gorgeous. I bit my lip as I glanced at the price tag.
"It's within my budget!" I rejoiced, the moment of joy lasted only a second until it was overcome by embarrassment as I realized I had shouted out loud. The entire store looked at me. Some people even started laughing aloud. I turned my head and looked down as I quickly walked back towards the others.
"I see you hit the jackpot." Jax smiles at me. He had a cool smile that helped me calm down. My cheeks were flushed but I smiled at him and nodded.
"Well try it on!" Tony pushed me into a changing room.
I had forgotten to check the size, but it fit perfectly. It was a little snug and I could feel my ribs tighten slightly, but I wasn't about to let this dress go. I walked out to show the other and I was greeted by a bunch of 'oohs' and 'ahhs'.
Both Brynn and I bought the dresses and went home stoked. We couldn't wait until the dance. Only a few days were left and all that had to be done was decorate for the formal.
The day after we bought the dresses we all had to stay after school to help decorate. We had strings of lights crisscrossing each other across the ceiling of the gymnasium. Snowflakes adorned the lights and hung high and low from the ceiling as well. There were artificial fur trees covered in fake snow lining the two longest walls, and fake snow and glitter covered the floor. For days we had been working on this giant icicle chandelier that would hang from the very center of the gym and act as our disco ball. There were cylinders and spears of light and dark blue along with white all hanging from the base of it. It had been made from a similar style as a parade float. Except it was Paper-Mache. Students stood around it painting it with glue and covering it in glitter, sparkles and sequins.
I was smiling a laughing at something Reece had said when I noticed Kyan staring at me. I wrinkled my nose and furrowed my eyebrows.
"What?" I asked.
"You have a sparkle in your eye." He said.
I looked at him for a minute and laughed lightly "I never pegged you as a cheesy romantic kind of guy." I smiled at him as a blinked. Suddenly a pain stabbed my eye and I blinked again which made it worse. I yelled out slightly and bent over as I put a hand over my eye.
Kyan started laughing hysterically "I'm not a cheesy romantic. I meant you actually have a sparkle in your eye." He was bent over holding his stomach.
"Okay, ha-ha. It's so funny. I'm only about to lose my eye here."
"Okay don't rub it! Don't rub it!" Kyan informed me as he held my head up "Stand still." He made a guttural noise in the back of his throat as he got ready to spit into my eye.
"No! No! Stop it!" I shouted as I pushed him away.
He only laughed harder "I wasn't actually going to do it!"
I stepped back away from him and the heel of my shoe caught underneath the toes of my other shoe and I tripped backwards falling onto my butt. I pouted as I sat on the floor.
Kyan finished laughing and knelt down beside me "Okay here, don't move. Open your eye." He said as he gingerly held my face. I reluctantly opened my eye and looked into his, which were burning like fire.
"Look to the left," I obeyed his order and he carefully touched my eye with his pinky finger and pulled back. I blinked and looked at his finger, and small silver sparkle sat at the tip. I then looked up at him to say thank you. He had a look on his face before he spoke.
"You still have a sparkle in your eye."
Hey guys! I just wanted to make a little announcement. After I complete this Book I'm going to start writing another really good one! And chances are if you like this one, you will like the other one as well. It's going to be called Her Former Bully. With that being said make sure, you don't just add this book to your reading list, you need to also follow me, otherwise you will not get notifications for when I post the next book.
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