"Slut-shaming." Lyla groaned as she rinsed her face over the sink. "I can't even. Why do girls do that to each other?"
Darcy shrugged. "I don't make the rules."
Lyla fumed. "Girls are sluts but guys are studs. And that's fair how?"
Darcy nodded in agreement. "When Jenna caught Cameron hooking up with two other girls last year she freaked. But for Cameron, everybody thought he was the most awesome guy ever."
Text tones from Lyla's phone interrupted the conversation. Dozens of texts popped up, one after the next.
"You should probably shut off your phone," Darcy suggested. "Don't feed the trolls."
She took a quick glance and immediately regretted it.
A SKANKY SLUT WALKED INTO STARBUCKS AND THE BARISTA SAID, "HI, LYLA."
She turned off her phone. The familiar pain and overwhelming anxiety nearly crippled her.
She recalled the bullying that she had suffered last spring at the hands of Breanna Muncie. It had taken months to put those awful experiences in her rearview mirror and emotionally, she would never get over it.
And now it had happened again but this time from a much more powerful circle of haters. Unlike Breanna Muncie, who was the run-of-the-mill, average troll, these were girls who had stature in the school's social hierarchy and they had every intention of crushing Lyla like a defenseless little cockroach lying on its back on its brittle shell, waving its weak legs in surrender.
"Are you going to the office?" Darcy prodded.
She shook her head "no."
"What the fudge is wrong with you?! That was a straight-up assault."
Lyla looked at the floor.
"Well, sorry if you're gonna get an attitude, but this really pisses me off!" Darcy was off like a shot toward the office.
When Lyla entered her American History class and made her way to her seat, the teacher, Ms. Okumura, a small woman with thick black bangs, averted her eyes. Obviously, she'd been told about the attack and had neither the skills nor the inclination to address it. There weren't a substantial number of haters in the room but during the class, Lyla attracted angry looks and a few rude hand gestures.
Ms. Okumura sent Alison, one of Carissa's cheerleader squad, down the rows of students, passing out cupcakes topped with green icing.
"Today's date is April second," Ms. Okumura said. "What happened on this date in 1792? Anyone?"
She glanced over the class. No hands went up.
"Congress established the first U.S. Mint in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. So, I thought you might enjoy a mint cupcake." She smiled, hoping her cupcakes would redirect the students' focus from Lyla.
The students responded with giggles and some golf-claps.
Alison placed a cupcake on the desk of the student seated in front of Lyla.
"One mint cupcake for you," she grinned.
She set a cupcake on Lyla's desk. Before she could accept it, Alison swatted it onto the floor.
"Whoops," she sneered and continued to the next desk.