I don't get it... How can I be nauseous from sleep deprivation, barely able to see, and downright tired, but no matter how hard I try, I can't fall asleep? Ugh. I normally like the long commune to school. I'm pretty sure you've already guessed that today was the exception. Congrats, you're a genius. Woo-freaking-hoo.
"Grace, come on, you've got to tell me what's up with you! You've been fucking silent since you got off the bus yesterday. Yesterday, Grace! Did someone die or something? It had to be something pretty damn serious, since nothing I've done in fourteen fucking years has shut you up" I groaned and tugged the hood of my jacket over my eyes, clicking the living daylights out of the window-button-thing in an attempt to get myself fresh air -or as fresh air as you can get on the back roads of the suburbs. Its better than the chemical air fresheners my brother has hung in this car. All fresh linen, thankfully, since the one time he tried using one of the tropical fruity ones, and I'd actually thrown up on the side of the high way... I have to say, I felt a lot better than I do now...
"I'm asleep" I gave him my best fuck-off voice, but I knew he'd ignore it. Sawyer has a knack for being so very fucking irritating.
"And I'm the family's lesbian bitch" my older brother snorted.
"There is an irritating new student. I am not looking forward to being anywhere near her today, tomorrow, or any other god damn day. Now shut up, fuck off, and let me sleep" his laugh was even more annoying when I was tired and irate.
"Finally! Welcome to the world, kid, you gots the girl problems" he chuckled evilly. "Seriously though, Grace, whats up with you?" I growled but reluctantly started to talk.
"I try being friendly, she tells me to fuck off, she says she wants to know why I'm pissed at her and after telling her she shouldn't tell people to fuck off so bluntly when they clearly tried to be friendly with you, and she tells me I am 'merly a thing that exists in the world with her' and she wants a neutrality, and she does not like me, and she does not want to be my friend" I felt a familiar garboil mixed with blunt frustration -which, by the way, isn't implicitly sexual, though I'm not entirely excluding that possibility from the list of things that are wrong today.
"You put it that way... Damn, little sis. She sounds like a bitch. You got her name?"
"Hazel" I grumbled brusquely.
"That limits it down to our step cousin twice removed, Evan's girlfriend's sister, or the four year old who lives next door to us. Anything else?" Sawyer rolled his eyes with sarcasm.
"Evan has a girlfriend?" I faked an interest in a desperate attempt to avert Sawyer's attention. He had a weakness for gossip on his boys. "I thought he hasn't got a number since the whole pink dress thing with Marley"
"He hasn't" Sawyer was already laughing his lungs out his throat. I couldn't help but snort with amusement at the memory of Sawyer's senior buddy in a hot pink dress, and whatever Marley had glued onto him to make him look as embarrassingly stereotypical feminine as she could.
"He should have known better than to accept Marley's dare" I shrugged, restraining my smile, though the instinct was so severe I couldn't help one side of my mouth curling involuntarily.
"Ain't that the truth" he pretended to wipe away a tear. "But seriously, I've heard that story before. Tell me more 'bout this new chick"
"I'm fourteen. Now please leave me alone" I tried -and failed- to imitate her voice, my impression of her faint accent was a complete disaster. I couldn't quite get her voice. It was hard, direct, cold and brutal. But the lucidity and melody of it was not lost on me. I don't even know where it's from; it sounds... Unlike any accent I know, and far better, too.
"Does she actually have an irritating accent, or did you just screw it up?" He snickered.
"She has an accent. And I screwed it up" I resumed my doom n'gloom persona in preparation for another day of Hazel.
"Hot?"
"No she's an unhygienic plastic with too much lipstick!; Yes you idiot, she's hot" I snapped. Add stupid questions to things that irritate me today.
"Hello, details! I need something to tell the boys about today, Eric's bitching is getting a little old"
"Then tell them there is a new robot at Banner High and the robotics club has started using nude models and anatomy in their stuff" I hate that word. Stuff. But I'm in a bad mood so whatever.
"You're hilarious. Whats her cup size?" I rolled my eyes at Sawyer. You get used to his brunt
"I was looking at her face, idiot"
"Very hot" he smirked, stepping on the brakes as we turned into the school's parking lot.
"You're insufferable" I got out before he'd come to a complete halt. Trying to escape him, I started walking faster when I heard him lock the car and run towards me.
"Ey! Wait up, bitch!" He caught up and took my shoulders with one arm draped over them. "Tell me all about her. I want to know who to tell the boys not to hit on"
"Don't tell them anything. If they all ask her out she'll get sick of this school and leave me alone" I sighed, pinching the bridge of my nose and closing my eyes with the beginnings of a headache in my skull.
"Is she five-nine, black hair, and staring at me?" my eyes flew open in panic, and sure enough, the devil herself was standing there with her blue eyes boring directly into mine, in all her stone-cold beauty. Ugh. Why?!
"Grace" she started when we were in earshot she sounded irritated again.
"You were staring at me. Not the other way around" I snapped, in no mood to put up with her shit this morning.
"You're going to be my guide for the rest of the week. This was not my decision, nor my preference, however I must abide. I have been told to attend your classes and inform you that I will be leaving an hour prior to release"
"Are you gay?" Oh my god, Sawyer just shut your mouth.
Hazel's sapphire glare turned onto my stupid brother. She didn't answer his question, and looked knives into him as she scrutinized the older man.
"Do you have any relations that are not an embarrassment to be in the vicinity of?" She shook her head distastefully. "I will be in your homeroom in five minutes. Don't make me wait" with that she tuned on her heel and walked away, gaining a few more looks from various men, a glare from others, a glare from some woman, and from other women came looks that let you know they were interested. I just closed my eyes, fists clenched, and tried to silence the damn jealousy in my stomach. I hate this. Stupid feelings are being stupid. She breaks me, and she doesn't care, she knows it, but she continues to beat me. But worst of all, I hate myself for hating her.
Fuck her.
. . .
"Hazel" I stepped into the art room that was my homeroom. Well, we called it 'advisory' but its like homeroom. Hazel didn't even bother to acknowledge my presence before she started nagging me. I'd spent an extra five minutes at my locker with Sawyer listening to his rambling, and gotten here five minutes later than Hazel wanted, but fifteen minutes early to the advisory meeting.
"I told you before, I am not your enemy. Stop avoiding me. I like our position no more than you do, but you are behaving l-"
"Like a kid. I know that. And I don't care. Don't you get it? I have my reasons to be the way I am and you do not have permission to tell me who to be" I dropped my backpack and sat at a seat where I wouldn't have to look her in the eye, an didn't have to sit close to her.
"I am not telling you who to be. I am telling you that you irritate me as you are and I have no respect for your behaviors" she, of course, moved to sit next to me. I still refused to look at her, so she sighed and added insult to more insults "this is the exact kind of irritating behavior I despise"
"Shut up" I whipped my head around to face her with complete utter rage blazing through my blood, the kind of rage you get from being emotionally assaulted by someone as think and ignorant as this woman. "Just shut the fuck up"
Hazel opened her mouth a little, her look of momentary surprise -subtle as it was- faded into a scowl when her lips sealed themselves again.
"Grace! Sawyer told me you needed help with your-oh, Hazel..." Marley shouts through the hallways, an old-ish song playing loudly from her phone to ruin and intensity the moment. Grenade. I looked towards the door as she entered, and she stopped playing it as soon as she saw Hazel.
Marley's face changed in an instant. She radiated a fury that filled the air and choked me as she stepped closer and closer, glare set on Hazel.
"Listen, bitch, I don't want you anywhere near my friend. You may think whatever the fuck you're doing is fine, but I am not going to sit and let you screw with people I care about. Grace is not your toy, and you had better not act like she is something you can just go and screw around with"
"Excuse me?" Hazel narrowed her eyes at my friend. I wanted to tell both of them to stop, but I was afraid of both of them in this state. "You have no right to talk to me like that" she stated calmly, even though she sounded like she wanted to murder Marley on the spot.
"No right?" Marley snorted with bitter amusement. "I have all the right!"
"Stop it!" I shouted, the anger they were both installing in me was too much and I exploded. "Stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it, stop it!"
"I am done" Hazel hissed, stood up, and started to walk away. I opened my mouth, about to tell Marley to drop it, but she'd already lunged at Hazel. The second her hand made contact with Hazel's shoulder the black-haired stone had her pressed into the wall, holding one of Marley's arms out behind them, and the other was bent behind her back.
"What the fuck!" Marley struggled, but with a scream of pain when she did, she stopped and surrendered to Hazel's will.
"Never touch me. Am I completely clear on that?" I stood up, gaining a lethal look from her deadly beautiful eyes. "Shut up, Grace" she snarled at me. The look in her eyes showed she truly did not care how much it hurt me. She wasn't even angry. She was just just... Murderous. It made me want to cry. She wasn't allowed to do that. Why did she want to do that? What did I do? "What is wrong with you two? With you, Grace, I thought you had some hope of seeing how idiotic you are and I had thought you'd see you need to change" she shook her head and dropped Marley. She actually dropped her. She left her on the floor and spoke over her shoulder as she deserted us.
"My mistake"