“Da-kota?” she says, breaking up my name like it’s the only time she’s ever dared say it, and she has to force her tongue to make the sounds. Funny how Blue’s Clues rolls off her tongue so easily though.
With a grin, I move back to them, standing next to Stone. I may not like Stone all that much, but he’s making my fantasies of pulling all these assholes down a couple of notches come to life.
“Looking good, Dakota,” Todd says, giving me a wink.
I stare down at my clothes. They’re just normal. A pair of jean shorts with a red top. My hair is down, too, lying in controlled waves over my shoulders. Having conditioner for my hair has been a lifesaver. I no longer look like I stuck my finger in a socket before coming to school.
Stone walks toward Todd, leaning over his desk. “Say that to her again, and you’ll be walking funny for a week.”
“What the fuck is this?” Meghan hisses, like the whole world has gone topsy turvy. Honestly, it seems like it has.
Todd glares at Stone but doesn’t say anything. Stone though, hovers over Meghan’s desk until she starts squirming in her chair. At first, I think she’s going to tough it out. Pretend like it doesn’t bother her that all eyes are on her. I know that feeling. The flushed face. The beating heart. The fact that you know people are looking at you right now and not in a good way.
Finally, she gives in. “I like it better in the back anyway. Have fun smelling Mr. Burns’ coffee breath, bitch,” she says as she gets up.
“Now that wasn’t very nice,” Stone says. “I can’t believe you would spread the rumor that Mr. Burns only has one testicle, Meghan.”
At that moment, Mr. Burns strides in, coffee in hand. His gaze darts to Meghan. “I’ll be seeing you after class, Miss Tanner. We can talk about appropriate topics of conversation at Saint Clary’s.”
She sits with a huff, and I turn back to the two desks. Todd’s eyes gleam at me, and he looks all too comfortable with the prospect of sitting behind me in class. Instead, Stone takes that seat, nodding toward the seat I wanted the first day.
Well, look at that. I take a seat. It looks like Stone Jacobs is good for something.
24
It turns out the letter I was handed is blank. Stone ends up taking it, and I let him. He has way more resources than I do on what to do with those types of things, so he can have at it.
On the way to Leedsville, the guys tell stories about Meghan and her friends. I can’t help but smile. She’s so fucking confused. She doesn’t even know what to do with herself. The fact that the new, hot guys are hanging around me is throwing her off bigtime. She’s so off her game that she even conceded to every attack they threw at her today.
I don’t know if the guys got together to talk about it ahead of time, but with every class, they made her move her seat for me. By the end of the day, other people were laughing at her, and I’m sure there was more than one person in the room who was thinking the same thing as me: Payback, bitch. Ahh, it feels so good.
I watch the scenery whiz by as Stone brings the Audi up to speed on the highway. For a moment, I glimpse the small knoll I’ve been known to watch the highway from. I know, I know. It doesn’t sound like a fun pastime, but it always was for me. I would make up stories for the different cars going by. I would follow their car for as far as the eye could see, telling myself that that car was on their way to the Grand Canyon. Or to California. Or to Vegas. It was a once-in-a-lifetime trip that the whole family decided to take because their father was diagnosed with cancer, and this trip was his last wish.
Yes, I can be kind of morbid. And weird.
Every car had a different story, and that’s what fascinated me so much. Each of us have a different story to tell. One we’ll pass on to our loved ones. We’re all different, and that’s what I always wanted to get through the heads of the small-minded people who live here. My family hunts for treasure. So what? There are plenty of shows out there right now where people are doing the same thing. One of them was even about the gold hidden in the Superstition Mountains, but the Jacobs got that shit shut down really quick.
It was fine by us, we didn’t like it either. That was one of the only times my father was happy that the Jacobs had that kind of pull, so they could demand it.
And now, here I am, heading up to Leedsville with three guys. Ever since we passed the Leaving Clary sign, my heart’s been in my throat.
I’ve never left Clary before. Only just outside the small town to go to the mountains. Clary and the Superstitions are my home. I’ve made up a thousand different stories about going different places, but they were never true. My father didn’t like to go out, but even when he did, I wasn’t allowed to go with him.
My heart beats rapidly. I rub my palms down my shorts, and my foot starts tapping the floor of the car. Excitement and nerves burn through me like I’m made of the driest brush.
Wyatt is in the backseat with me. He does a double-take just as he finishes talking about how he made Meghan’s whole table move in the lunchroom, even though we decided not to sit there anyway. We headed outside to sit by ourselves so we could talk about what supplies we were going to buy in Leedsville. The prospect of
