“Hmm?” She took out the headphones she was wearing. “What’d you say?” I repeated my question. Sarah sat next to me in Biology, so if anyone were to see anything, it would be her. “No, I went to the washroom, remember? Thank god my period’s slowed down today.” She peered at me. “Why are you asking?”
“Oh, just thinking about something. It’s okay.” I squinted my eyes to look around the parking lot. My mom’s station wagon sat parked near the gym, and I turned to bid Sarah goodbye. “Alright. My mom’s here. See you tomorrow.”
Chapter 14
Ella
“So old-fashioned.”
My head turned to find a blonde I didn’t know – a sophomore, maybe? – look at me slyly as she covered her mouth and whispered loudly to her friend, who giggled as she looked at my outfit. I had thrown on a white cable knit sweater over my school shirt because the weather had become too chilly. “She looks like someone’s grandma!”
“Excuse me?”
The girls skittered away when I looked at them both in the eye. Seriously, what was wrong with people nowadays? Didn’t they have better things to do?
But as I navigated across school that day, it was evident to me that something was wrong. Other than being called grandma several times, I was also labeled “whiny” and an “attention seeker”, and the most original one: “a seventies cow”. If I wasn’t as thick-skinned as I was, I would’ve fallen apart by lunch. Instead, I was left to wonder what had happened to make people – mostly girls – vicious today compared to yesterday.
I got my answer at lunch. Whilst searching for Sarah in the cafeteria, I found myself the center of attention of a group of cheerleaders, with Monica sitting in the center, as if presiding over them.
“Ella!” One of them called, waving me over to their table. I smiled hesitantly, seeing how their eager faces didn’t appear to be the same as the unsmiling ones that greeted me yesterday. Nonetheless, I strode over to them, tray in hand. I was looking forward to enjoying the extra cheesy vegetable lasagna, and the tub of vanilla yogurt to wash it down after.
“So.” They glanced at each other. “How’s living with Cole and Hans? You getting used to being the butt of their practical jokes?”
I stared at them, unsure of how to respond. Did they know how badly Cole had been treating me initially?
“Oh, come on,” Monica butted in. “Surely you figured out that it was Hans who wrote you that note?” Her nose wrinkled. “As if we would allow you back on the team after seeing that picture of you pole dancing. So distasteful. Hank’s been eyeing you for some time and Hans thought it would be funny to let him think he could have you for that short while.”
Have me? Sometime during her speech, my vision had started to dim. It took me a while to claw my way through the incessant buzzing in my ears, and only then did I recognize that I had tears in my eyes. Hans wrote that note? He thought being attacked by Hank would be funny?
“Are you gonna cry? God, this is so lame. The bathroom’s that way. Don’t think that just because your hussy of a mom is marrying their dad – and that’s a matter of if, not when – that they’re gonna leave you alone. They’re not going to just welcome you with open arms, you know.” Monica looked down to examine her painted nails, appearing bored with me already.
I couldn’t stop the shaking. My eyes landed on the jocks’ table – but I wish they hadn’t. One twin was looking at me, a wide, vicious smile gracing his full lips, and he raised his hand in a mock salute. Hans just saluted me. The mocking action made my eyes water, and I fought to keep the tears at bay, unwilling to give them the joy of seeing me cry. The other twin had his lips set in a grim line, jaw clenched, eyes as full of hatred as on that first day we had met, when I had devoured his food. It was then that my faith in humanity began to break, a fissure that began to bleed downwards so that I no longer believed in the power of being good and kind. God, I was so stupid. So naïve. People weren’t going to be nice to you just because you were nice to them. You couldn’t thank someone who hated you and expect them to do a one-eighty.
“Go away, you parasite. Go dig your claws into someone else’s family.” Monica looked down her nose at me, prodding my shaking chest with her index finger. I watched as she sauntered over to Cole, who slung his arm around her shoulders before parting his lips for her eager kiss.
***
Cole
I glanced around the room. My bed with its black Egyptian cotton sheets, walls lined with posters of various football legends, a shelf showcasing my numerous trophies in various sports. What I didn’t have were photos. That was my father’s area. He was the only one who insisted on remembering the past, who was able to see our young, happy faces without any apparent regret, who kept trying to merge the past with the future. As if it were even possible. It wasn’t as if we could erase what had happened merely because new chapters of his life were starting. He had stopped his correspondence with Mom ever since that he met that bitch. I knew, because I had asked Mom. She hadn’t shown me how hurt she was, but I knew. She may have been the one to walk out on us, but she was more invested in us from afar than Dad was, and he was living under the same roof. She was the only one who still mentioned Nathan. The last time Dad
