Girls Never Go Out of Style - A Kaylor Fanfic

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Karlie fought the urge to turn back again as she walked to class. She could feel the goofy grin spread across her face and bit her lower lip to get it in check.

Taylor Swift. The new girl's name swirled through Karlie's mind. Taylor Swift. It was a perfect name. It was a white glove of a name: ladylike, perfect, and pure, and it fit the new girl perfectly.

Karlie swung through the door of Mr. Kimball's homeroom right after the last bell rang. The thin, balding man looked up from calling roll and locked onto Karlie with a look of disdain.

"Karlie Kloss. Late already?"

"Well, I'd hate not to live up to expectations." If he thought that his sarcasm was going to have any effect on her, he'd have to think again.

Mr. Kimball looked like he was laboring to devise a smart comeback, but he only sighed in that long-suffering way of adults, gestured at an empty desk, and said, "Have a seat, Karlie."

Karlie kept her pace leisurely and her posture relaxed as she walked to the empty desk. It was near the back of the classroom, so she had to pass by rows of more respectable students to get there. She knew some of them had their eyes trained on her in less than friendly ways, but she ignored their glances.

No sooner had she plopped down into the empty desk than she heard the whisper. "Dyke," whispered hard and sharp. Karlie knew the voice without turning around. Charles Preston, the golden boy on the football team. Star player. More like star idiot, Karlie thought.

She turned her head slowly to look over her shoulder. She wanted Charles to know that he put no demands on her, that she was in no rush to respond to him.

"Really, Charles? So original."

Mr. Kimball looked up. "Karlie," he reprimanded.

Karlie returned her attention to the front of the room, but Charles wasn't finished.

"Your dick grow in yet, Karlie?" he hissed.

She ignored him. She knew that he was just trying to make her angry, to incite her into losing her temper. If there was anything Charles and his friends liked better than picking on Karlie, it was when they managed to get her in trouble for it.

"When are you going to do all of us normal people a favor and just drop out?"

Karlie let out a quiet chuckle. "Fat fucking chance, Charles."

"Mr. Kimball!" Charles interrupted, raising his hand.

Of course, Mr. Kimball responded with concern. "Yes, Charles? Is there a problem?"

"Karlie won't stop bothering me, sir. And she's using foul language."

The class erupted in titters of laughter. Karlie's face flushed hot and she sputtered with anger as she turned to Charles, his face the very image of the stoic victim.

"Karlie. Office."

"But Mr. Kimball-"

"Office, Karlie. Now."

Karlie stalked out of the classroom. She didn't turn back. She knew what she would see if she did: Charles sitting in the scarred desk like a throne, victorious.

Asshole!

Instead of retracing her earlier steps back to the front of the building and the principal's office, Karlie walked in the opposite direction, toward the exit on the back hallway. She pushed through the metal doors, which opened out onto a covered walkway leading to the small building where students took agriculture and shop classes. She skirted behind the building and took a seat against the wall.

Karlie came here a lot, when the other students' taunting and her teachers' unwillingness to stop it weighed too heavily on her. The ag building was built on a hill, so when Karlie sat there she could see a partial view of the town, particularly the main road leading out of it.

They'll see, she thought. In June I'm going to drive down that road. And I'm never coming back.

Karlie rummaged in her pocket and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. She lit one and smoked it slowly, letting the smoke fill her lungs in the hopes that it would calm her thoughts.

She had been so happy this morning, when she had walked into the office and seen Taylor sitting there. Taylor Swift, with her perfect name, her perfect skirt. Perfect everything, Karlie guessed. Perfect life. How dumb was she to be sitting here, thinking about a girl she had just met, a girl who couldn't possibly be interested in her.

But still... For a minute there, standing in the hallway, Karlie had thought that Taylor might have been flirting with her. The shyness had faded from her big blue eyes just enough for Karlie to glimpse playfulness there.

She hoped she would get to see more of that playfulness on Saturday.