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Unedited as per usual.
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Monday morning I got out of the car with a frown on my face. Summer was standing near the front doors with a bunch of people around her. I slowly make my way towards the doors with a sinking feeling in my stomach.
Sophie and Sebastian stand next to me, oblivious to my hesitance.
"What's with the crowd?" Tessa walks over to us with a curious expression on her face.
"Who knows," Sebastian shrugs, holding his backpack on his shoulder, and starts walking toward the crowd.
I look around, seeing if I can see any of the girls in the parking lot but I come up empty. I look forward as I hear a few people in the growing crowd laugh loudly. As I get closer to the front of the crowd, Summer's face becomes clearer and she's wearing a smirk while holding up a piece of paper in front of everyone.
"I mean, I don't understand why she didn't just pick up her phone and call someone to come help, she didn't need to run around practically naked," she remarks curiously and the crowd laughs again.
No. My face falls and the knot in my stomach tightens in fear.
Summer picks up her head and notices me on the sidelines, "Charlotte! There you are, we were wondering when you were going to get here, we've been here for fifteen minutes already," she smiles evilly, gesturing me to come closer to her. I notice Michelle and Penelope are amongst the group closest to her. Bitches.
No, no, no, NO.
Everyone turns around and a few people laugh, others just lean in to whisper to their friends and I even see a flash go off from a camera.
Sebastian stiffens beside me, moving to stand a little bit in front of me, trying to block people's view of me. Sophie grabs my hand and squeezes twice, letting me know she's there. Tessa just stands quietly behind me.
I raise my head and I shuffle forward, finally getting a good look at the piece of paper in her hand that she is showing everyone. It's the picture of me in a towel in the school hallways from last year when Summer had stolen my clothes from my locker after gym class which proceeded me to run around the school looking for help.
"Now, I know we all saw this picture getting circulated last year but now we can finally put a name to the body!" Summer grins to the crowd.
I keep a stony expression on my face, not wanting to show everyone the humiliation running through me.
"Charlotte Hayes, everyone!" She points me out and the boys in the crowd let out a bunch of wolf whistles and I cringe slightly, breathing deeply, closing my eyes for a second.
"At least she looks better than you," I hear the snarky comment from someone in the crowd and Olivia steps forward with a scowl on her face. She walks over to Summer and stands directly in front of her.
"Hello Olivia, what, Charlotte needs her bodyguard to fight her battles for her?" she asks with an innocent expression on her face. The crowd stays silent watching everything unfold.
"Listen here, Winter," Olivia calls her, resorting to her old nickname people used to call her to piss her off, "Charlotte can fight her own battles but when you mess with my best friend it turns into a tag team match, so square up, bitch."
Summer grits her teeth at the nickname but brushes it off easily, faking a smile, "Well, I'm not really in the mood for any of this right now, just wanted to show the student body who the girl was that ran around the school naked," she grins.
"That's because you stole my clothes," I argue back, walking towards her, stepping next to Olivia. My siblings follow and stand behind me.
"There's your voice! You don't have any proof of that," Summer rolls her eyes.
"Joanna saw you in the locker room with a bunch of clothes in your hand," I tell her with a deadpan expression. "Are you really this obsessed with him?"
Her eyes widen slightly at the fact that I know exactly why she is doing this.
The bell cuts off anyone else's replies and half the crowd immediately disperses, not wanting to get detention for being late to class.
I turn back towards Summer and see that she's already gone, causing me to let out a frustrated groan. Coward.
"I can't stand her! I can't believe she did that!" I look at Olivia and turn to my siblings who still haven't gone to class yet.
"I just want to wring her scrawny little neck," Olivia growls doing the motions with her hands.
"Why didn't you tell us that that was you in the picture?" Sophie asks confused.
"Why would I? The whole school saw that picture, sure I wasn't full-on naked but it was embarrassing all the same," I shrug dejected.
"So, what are we doing to the bitch?" We all whip our heads towards Tessa, who's standing there with her arms crossed over her chest.
"We're going to class, you should do the same," I tell her, grabbing her arms, giving them a little shake.
She nods her head and turns around heading in the direction of the freshman entrance; the rest of us head into the school ignoring the stares from the last-minute stragglers. I walk into the school with my head held high despite the whispers and giggles coming from the immature students around me. The picture is posted all over the hallway or lying on the floor; I see a few freshmen standing in a group staring at the picture. Olivia stomps up to them and rips the picture out of their hands, making one of them squeal like a girl. A tear slowly slides down my face but I quickly brush it away as if it was just a stray eyelash.
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"Miss Charlotte Hayes, report to the principal's office. Miss Charlotte Hayes, to the principal's office, immediately." The secretary's voice is heard over the intercom during the second period. The teacher nods her head in my direction and I gather all my things, packing them into my bag, ignoring the 'Oh's' coming from the class. I walk down the hall, my fingers are trembling, not knowing what is going to happen next.
"Take a seat Charlotte," Miss Hutchins, the secretary, tells me with a sympathetic smile on her face as I walk into the front office. I sign my name on the roster and take a seat on the hard-plastic chairs.
I feel exhausted; for the last two hours of school, I've had to deal with more than enough guys propositioning me to run around the school with them in only towels. Idiots. And I haven't seen Nathan or any of his friends yet, so I don't know if he even knows what Summer did to me. How can he not? Everyone is talking about it, even the principal knows now, so he had to of heard something. It's not like it will be a surprise to him, I had already told him about that picture when we first started dating, after the twins' birthday party, just so he could understand why I don't like Summer.
"Mr. Johnston will see you now, Charlotte," Miss Hutchins snaps me out of my daze and I grab my bag off the floor and wander into the principal's office.
"Miss Hayes, please have a seat," Mr. Johnston gestures to the plush chairs in front of his desk. I nod my head lightly and sit down; I can already see the picture on his desk, peeking out from a folder with my name on it. "I believe you know why you are here?" he asks, moving the picture slightly out of the folder and putting it in front of me.
"Yes, sir," I answer with a huff, sitting back in the seat, and crossing my arms.
"Care to explain? I understand that this picture circulated at my school last year and this year it has made a comeback but now we know the individual in the picture this time," he links his fingers together and rests his hands on his desk.
"Someone stole my clothes out of my locker last year after gym class and I walked through the athletics department looking for help," I explain with a straight face.
"And where was your cellphone? You couldn't have called anyone for help?" he raises an eyebrow.
"My phone was in my backpack in my regular locker, down the hallway."
"And nobody was around to offer you any assistance?"
"If someone was around I wouldn't have walked around the school in a towel," I answer sarcastically.
"Attitude Miss Hayes," he snaps at me, "Now, I am going to discuss your punishment with you."
"Punishment? I didn't take that photo! I am the victim. You should be looking for Summer Price, she's the one that shared the damn picture with the whole school!" I cry out in disbelief, pushing myself off my chair slightly.
"Sit. Down, Miss Hayes," he demands making me shrink back into my seat. "I have already spoken to Miss Price and she informed me of the situation at hand. Now, I have already called your mother and informed her of said situation and she told me that she would see you at home. You will be suspended for two days-."
"Two days?" I shout at him, leaning forward. "This wasn't my fault!"
"Don't make me make it four days Miss Hayes, because I will," he threatens and I glare at him in response. "Public indecency is a punishable offense in this school Miss Hayes and you will do best to remember that. Miss Price said that you would blame it on her but I have witnesses confirming that she was trying to take down the posters and was telling students to stop bringing it up, for your sake," he eyes me over his stupid glass as if I should be thanking the bitch. "You may go," he gestures to the door, turning back to my folder, and writing something down.
This is fucking ridiculous. I stand up and walk out the door, slamming it behind me without a care in the world. Miss Hutchins looks up at me startled, but I ignore her and walk out of the office into the crowded hallway of students rushing to their next class.
The girls, Sophie, Sebastian, Nathan, and Carter are standing across the hallway in front of the office. Olivia runs up to me, pushing people out of the way, and grabs my shoulders tightly, "What happened?"
"Suspended for two days," I tell her angrily.
"What? But you didn't do anything wrong," Quinn walks up to me, a look of disbelief on her face. Courtney crosses her arms in front of her, glaring at everything.
"Two days because of something Summer did? That principal is on crack," Carter mutters walking over to our huddle.
"He called mom," I tell Sebastian and Sophie and their eyes widen.
"I'll go tell that idiot what happened," Sebastian decides, moving to walk into the office but Olivia holds him back.
"Babe, that's not going to help Char right now," she rubs his back, moving him to stand back with us.
I look over at Nathan who has been quiet this whole time and notice a look of pain on his face, "I'm sorry she did that."
"It's whatever, I can't hold grudges, it was bound to come out eventually," I shrug and he comes up to me and hugs me tightly.
"I never thought she would stoop so low just to get attention," he replies distracted.
"To get your attention," Courtney voices the obvious, blaming Nathan for my suspension.
"Hey, don't come at my boy, he didn't know Summer was crazy," Carter defends Nathan, squaring off with Courtney.
"But we all know what Summer has done to Charlotte, so surely, he should have realized that she was going to retaliate," Courtney steps up to Carter, not backing down. We all look at each other silently, Nathan looks at me like he wants to break them up and I just shake my head telling him to leave it.
"Well if you knew what she was going to do, then you should have realized it too," he counters.
"They've been friends since they were little. His friend, his responsibility," she snaps back.
"Fuck you," he tells her since he doesn't have another comeback.
"You already did," Courtney smirks.
"What?" Nathan and I ask at the same time staring at our friends.
"No fucking way," Olivia laughs, leaning against Sebastian who is having trouble holding back his laugh.
"And on that note I should get to class," Sophie shakes her head, waving goodbye and telling me she would see me at the house later.
"I'll talk to Summer, okay?" Nathan rubs my waist comfortingly.
"Okay, but don't make a huge deal about it." He nods his head, leaning down to give me a quick kiss, and tells me he will call to check on me later before grabbing Carter's sleeve, dragging him down the hallway. Once he's around the corner I look back at the others.
"Not make a big deal? Char, she just got you suspended-," I cut Olivia off mid-sentence.
"Get your grandmother the Doritos," I tell her and start walking down the hallway, out to my car.
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Drama!
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Have a great weekend everyone!
Sammipott xx