I stand my ground. Even though I'm shitting myself on the inside.
"Did you just say something?" Leather Leader asks.
"I- Uh, yes. Yes, I did," I answer.
Jessy tugs at my sweater, silently pleading me to stop. The rest of Leather Boys all seem to raise their eyebrows. Even some of the Coat Boys are surprised.
Leather Leader's sneer turns into a cruel smirk and he starts checking me out. "If you plan on opening your mouth again, I can find suitable ways to shut you up," he says.
My throat tightens at that.
"Go threaten one of your whores, Bowmen," Coat Leader growls.
"You're the one with the whores, Rhodes. And since when do you care about who I threaten?"
"Since Golden Girl over here is too pretty for a bastard like you."
Leather Leader and Coat Leader get into an intense argument that unsurprisingly drift back to territories. Their goons are also intensely into the argument and thus I grab my chance. I turn to Jessy and she looks like she's on the verge of fainting, so I do what all girls do among large guys, I simply crawl my way out of there.
Jessy follows me when I tug at her, and only when we make our way across the hallway and round the corner, do I allow myself a breath of relief.
"Who are those guys?" I demand when I'm certain Leather and Coat boys aren't following us.
"WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!"
"I was thinking that I don't want to be late for class and that I don't have time for guys with huge egos," I explain.
"They're not just any guys, Amber," Jessy says, "They're the guys. West and East gang. They've been rivals since the dawn of time!"
"Gangs? Well, sorry for disturbing the poor little lost boys and their toddler fit," I laugh. It's so ridiculous. Gangs? Gangs aren't hot boys having an ego brawl. Right?
"Oh my God, Amber. This isn't childsplay. These guys kill people!"
That gets my attention.
"If it really was that bad, then they would've been in jail by now, or worse, expelled!" I point out and chuckle at my own nerd joke. Not that I'm a nerd, of course.
"Not if you're either bribing or threatening half of the town. Tygerwell is not the town it seems to be," Jessy says.
Maybe talking back was a bad choice after all...
Jessy is practically buzzing with nerves when she says: "That guy you talked back to, the one with the leather jacket and black hair, he's the leader of the West gang. And he doesn't have a good side. He just has the 'I'll kill you if you talk back' side. Something I'm assuming you're on right now!
"And Owen, the hot rich looking guy that Blake was arguing with? He's the leader of the East-side gang. Literally a sex god, but high school girls seem to be below him. And just because he can kiss a girl, doesn't mean he won't kill one either. They're both dangerous, Amber!"
My mind is spinning with all the information I have to process.
Gangs? Killing? Dangerous? This is nothing like my average high school with my average friends and a bit above average life. This is... as stupid as it is to admit, exciting.
"Oh no... Amber, you have that look," Jessy says.
"What look?"
"The 'oh, what a nice game' kind of look!"
I send her a grin, "I don't know what you're talking about," I say.
"You've got to be kidding me!"
Jessy and I quickly make our way to our register class - which fortunately is the same class. When we have our seats and our fat, sweaty teacher is satisfied with our excuses, we turn to each other again.
"Is there anything else I need to know about these gangs?" I ask my cousin.
Jessy bites her lip before saying: "Well, in crime there's only four kinds of good business. Drugs, prostitutes, loaning and guns. Theft and all that comes in between."
"What's that supposed to say?" I ask.
"The West handle drugs and the East handle girls. It's big money, Amber. They aren't messing around..." Jessy explains in panic.
I don't bother asking about who handles the loans and who handles the guns.
"How is it that you know so much about the gang life?" I ask. I suddenly notice that we should maybe talk softer, so I lower my voice and lean in to listen.
"It's mostly just gossip, but... Okay, I might have dated one of Blake's guys in my rebellious phase," she admits.
I almost laugh out loud. Jessy, dating a gang member! I heave in air. I can totally see that while she was in her rebellious phase. She was all about high heels and tight clothes.
"That," I say,"is amazing. I wish I could've seen more of rebellious Jessy," I chuckle.
"It's not a joke, Amber! I almost got killed during a gang shooting! The next day we broke up," Jessy scowls.
I go a little cold at that.
Gang shooting...
Melissa and Robert Marigold were found dead in their homes. Melissa having two gunshot wounds and Robert with eight. It is believed that it was a robbery that went wrong. Their daughter was found hiding under their bed.
"Amber?"
"Huh?"
"You did it again..." she whispers.
Before I can say sorry or do anything really, the bell rings and I'm off to my very first class of Tygerwell High.
Gangs, drugs, guns and prostitutes. My parents wouldn't want me to get more involved than one accidental back-chat. The robbers that killed my parents could after all have been in a gang or something...
I'm so deep in thought about how to avoid the whole gang thing, that I don't notice the brick wall I walk into. Or more precisely, the guy.
The impact sends me falling backwards, but then the guy grabs my waist before I know what's happening and has me trapped in a tight hold.
"Careful where you walk," he says.
I look up and of course it's just my luck to have Coat Leader, aka Owen Rhodes holding me.
"Why don't you careful where you walk!" I shoot back and then realize my sentence structure is all wrong, so I say: "I- I mean, why don't you be careful where you walk... Why don't- You should be careful!"
I'm such a mess right now.
Owen lets out a breathy chuckle and I damn the gods for giving him a perfectly minty breath.
"You have quite the little mouth on you, Goldy," he says with a smirk that would send any normal girl melting.
"And you, have quite the ego on you," I fire back.
I'm getting angrier. The more I think about it, the more it could've been a gang that killed my parents.
"Girls either run from me or try to kiss me, what the hell are you, Goldy?" he laughs.
"Firstly, I'm a basic human being. Secondly, my name's not Goldy," I point out.
"Then what is your name?" he whispers and leans in even more. A lock of his copper brown hair falls out of place and is practically tickling my nose.
Would I be in even deeper shit if I sneeze on the gang leader?
The little amount of space between us suddenly feels even less and his protective hold turns into a possessive kind of one.
One of his goons, a brunet guy with a scowl, comes up and says to Owen: "We have business in Park street".
I take it as my chance to escape. "Excuse me, but I have to go," I say and because this guy is way taller than me, I only have to duck and shoot for my next class to be out of his clutches.
Before Owen even knows what has just happened, I'm gone and in my English class.
I've always loved English and based on the longing gazes of the girls in the class, they love it as well.
The teacher, who I assume by his name plate is Mr Wessils, sends me a pointed look when I enter the class a bit late. But then his pointed look turns into something I can't exactly recognize.
There's a few awkward seconds where Mr Wessils solidly stares at me, not an admiring kind of stare, but rather something more. He fortunately returns to his senses.
"Well, you must be Miss Marigold?" Mr Wessils says\asks.
"Yup, sorry that I'm late, Sir. I couldn't find my way," I lie because how do you explain Owen Rhodes?
"Very well, Miss Marigold, please take a seat here at the front of the class," he says and sends another girl to the back.
I take my seat and some of the girls here are actually glaring at me. Wow, if looks could kill.
But then I figure it out. Mr Wessils is as you'd put it: hot. He's the kind of guy that could've been a model, but decided he'd spend his life teaching. He has wavy, almost curly hazel hair and a dimple in the corner of his mouth whenever he even slightly smiles.
"So, as I was saying, we're going to be discussing The Great Gatsby for this semester," Mr Wessils continues. "Any of you care to tell me what The Great Gatsby is about?" he asks.
Nearly every girl shoots up her hand, but I can already tell they're going to be wrong. It's not the dyed hair or acrylic nails that tells me that. One does not read with hair and nails. It's the fact that they're all staring at where Mr Wessils' abs ought to be. A glazed look cover their eyes.
Mr Wessils seems to be well aware of the girl's lack of reading skills and obsession with his abs, so instead, he turns to me. "Miss Marigold, you look like someone who can give me an inkling of an answer," he says through a dazzling smile.
Half the girls basically faint.
"Well, " I start, "The Great Gatsby is about the complicated love between a man and a woman, more specifically Gatsby and Daisy. The main theme of the novel, however, is at a much larger and less romantic scope.
"One of those themes is the hollowness of the upper class. In The Great Gatsby, the sociology of wealth is explored. More specifically, how the newly minted millionaires differ from and relate to the old aristocracy of the country's richest families. In the novel, West Egg represents the newly rich, while East Egg, represent the old aristocracy," I explain.
I only know this because we discussed The Great Gatsby in my previous school. All heads turn to me and I wish the earth can just swallow me whole because I'm such a bookworm right now. Hashtag fighting the dumb blonde cliche, I want to tell them.
Mr Wessils is honestly impressed and is about to congratulate me or something, but the door suddenly swings open and in comes bad news.
Leather Leader, aka Blake Bowmen.
I expect Mr Wessils to scold Blake or at least to tell him to be early next time, but instead Mr Wessils goes very quiet and very still. The whole class does. Everyone is either looking down or shutting their eyes, so to see me openly staring must be quite a surprise.
Instead of shooting me or glaring at me, Blake conjures his cruel grin. He swaggers over to me and the girl that sits next to me, quickly dives for another seat as Blake goes ahead and sits next to me.
"That," I say, "can't possibly abide to any of the school rules."
The whole class seems to hold their breath.
"Darling, I don't abide to any rules," Blake replies.
"My name is not Darling," I growl.
I've had quite enough of these two guys and their little names for me.
"Then what is your name, Darling?"
"I think I'd like to go on with the class, thank you," I say.
Mr Wessils does nothing except stare. Maybe even glare...
"I think you and I need to go for a drive," Blake says through a smirk that says he knows what he's doing. He has me cornered.
"Uhm, let me think about that. I'll let you know after I'm dead," I reply.
"It wasn't a choice, Darling," he says and grabs my arm.
"What the-"
Blake basically drags me out of class and I send a pleading look to Mr Wessils, "You can't let him do this!" I protest, but Mr Wessils only lowers his gaze and I helplessly get dragged out of class.
What the hell is going on?! How can they let this happen!? This isn't legal!
When Blake has me out of the class, he spins me around and has me pinned against a locker. "I told you I can find other ways to shut you up," he purrs.
Something tells me I'm in more trouble than I'd like to admit.
Hey,
It's the cabbage queen, bitchassss!
Let me know what you think about the story so far. And don't forget to vote, comment and read the next chapter!
~ Holly Shmit