He spat his words out, the vehemence and disgust in them giving me whiplash. My mind started whirling, trying to process his words. Why did he hate me so much? What had I done to him to deserve his animosity?
“You will never replace her,” he replied, his voice icy. “So don't even try.”
It was something in his voice that made me look at him, and look at him hard. His eyes had a faraway look to them even as his voice tried to tear me apart like shards of glass. Is that what he thought we were doing? Trying to replace his mother? Before I could ask him, he left the room, slamming my bedroom door.
I squeezed my ice shut, counting down from ten, but the pain wouldn’t go away. My ankle hurt, but he had also left behind a mountain of hidden pain when he had uttered those words. I could see he was in agony, and his actions told me he was broken.
I sighed. I needed some ice, and possibly a doctor to take a look at me. But first, the near-impossible task of getting myself a new set of clothes with a twisted ankle. I looked dejectedly at my dead phone, and decided against calling out for my mom. Being alone in a new place sucked, big time.
Chapter 9
Ella
My skin burned as I trudged through the school slowly two days later, my left foot in a cast. The crutches were making my shoulders ache. The whispers and nasty looks that I was getting told me something wasn't right, but I wasn't sure what. “Am I missing something?” I asked Sarah as she slowly walked with me towards my next class.
“The way people are staring, it's as if they've never seen anyone injured before.” I admired her nonchalant attitude, her unwavering confidence. She reminded me of Melissa and at with that thought, my spirits sank, remembering she wasn't around. Melissa would know what to say to Cole. She wouldn't seesaw between sympathy and attraction. She would give back just as good as he had given me. Which reminded me - I hadn't told her about how badly the twins were treating me. I didn't like talking badly about people, especially when I didn't know their side of things. But then again, it wasn't talking badly when I was the victim of their cruel words and actions, was it?
“Hey, it’s the amateur!” a girl called out as she looked at me, and her friends laughed with her. I caught sight of Monica down the hall who looked at me up and down shook her head and turned the other way. It dawned on me then that Cole had meant it when he said he was going to get me kicked off the team.
I swallowed a sudden intense feeling of dejection and melancholy and kept my chin up. They couldn't possibly kick me off the team because of a twisted ankle, could they? But seeing how my new friends from practice yesterday cast me doleful, pitying looks without actually speaking to me or asking me how I was doing, I guess they could.
“Okay, I want to know why people are treating a twisted ankle like it's a crime,” I commented with frustration after being sneered at by a group of sophomores.
“Oh, crap. Look.” Sarah pointed as we arrived at my locker. There was a photo taped to the door. It was of me in my old cheerleading uniform wrapped around a dancing pole. Above it was a caption saying, “Meet our newest addition: an amateur pole dancer!” With the word amateur highlighted in colorful bold letters. The picture was clearly photoshopped.
"Hey babe, you can dance on my pole anytime."
With that, Sarah whipped around. “Get lost, Anderson!” She turned to look at me with disgust. “Who would do this to you?”
I didn't wonder for too long. “I think I know who,” I replied quietly. ”I'll fill you in later.” I didn't feel like getting into the whole deal with Cole right now.
“Well, we better get rid of this,” she said, ripping the photo off my locker door.
“Hey, Ella!” I turned to see Jules and Cameron walking towards me. Cameron looked at me in surprise. “What happened to your leg?” Jules nudged him, pointing to the photo in Sarah's hand. Of course she would have heard about it already.
“It's not true, Jules. The picture’s fake.” I felt pretty lame, having to explain this to my new friends. It just went to show that no one really knew me here. I decided I hated being the new girl. “I slipped and twisted my ankle at home.” They both looked at me in sympathy.
By the end of the day, my shoulders felt like they were going to fall off, my head was hurting and my ears were ringing from all the taunts. I had officially received notice from Monica - sent via two new cheerleaders who had made the team same time as me - to inform me that my position on the team was suspended "until further notice". Which I thought was pretty generous of her, giving me hope like that. Or maybe that was the point: to leave me hanging and hopeful.
I walked to the front of the school to wait for my mom. I had begged her to be the one to fetch me today, saying I was too embarrassed to depend on two guys I barely knew to bring me home. It wouldn't have worked if I hadn’t thrown in the fact that we hadn’t spent time together in a while. It was true because we both had been caught up with settling in, so I was as much to blame as her.
“Where do you want to go?” She asked brightly when I awkwardly maneuvered myself
