Love, Hate and the Line

Chapter 12

Recap:

"Yeah, I'll be fine. Good luck with your.. thing."

His lips twitched for a second, his face sporting an amused look.

As I turned around and walked away, I wondered why he had gone towards the auditorium.

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It seemed like the ladder at the end of the stage was - literally - going to be the last bump of the day. The rest of it was going to go smoothly. I was looking forward to the First Aid class I had taken up two months ago. I'd graduated from the first and second level a year ago and today would be my last class before I would take my final advanced exam next week.

Grabbing my coat and scarf, I made my way to the bus stop after leaving the imposing building of Serenity Lake Academy. I scanned the large poster on the stop, which was supposed to tell me how late the bus was coming.

I sighed when I realised that my bus had left two minutes ago and that I'd have to wait 28 minutes for the next one. That's 1680 seconds. 46 and two thirds percent of an hour. 1.....9 percent of a day. What can I say? I love math.

I spend the next four minutes calculating exactly how long I would have to sit here on the ground in the rain. The bus stop consisted of a small board only which was supposed to tell me when which bus was coming. Sadly, there was nothing to protect me against the rain. You'd think that the fancy part of town could at least afford a slightly fancier bus stop. They probably didn't need one though, with their fancy cars and drivers and all. I was probably this bus stop's sole user. Stupid rich people.

I continued to judge 90% of Serenity Falls' inhabitans for no good reason while I enviously looked at the fancy town cars passing me by. I perked up when one of them pulled up besides me. Please please let this be some random non-existent guardian angel of mine? Preferably a car owner.

Sadly, there were no wings, floppy hats or magic wands. Instead, my eyes met those of Antonia Walter, the girl who had conveniently declared herself my personal tormenter on my first day. Literally. With a microphone and all, during lunch break at the ostentatious 'lunch restaurant' in our school (because a cafeteria is just só proletarian). Chick's got some serious attention issues.

The sound of her heels making an annoying clicky-clacky sound combined with her sickenly sweet perfume invaded my senses. Pretty sure she's not here to offer me a ride.

Her ice-cold eyes glared at mine while the corners of her mouth turned up in a vicious smile. Seriously, who claims that brown eyes are warm should look at her. "If it isn't our national charity case, Anna Samuels," she started, overly pronunciating the last 's' like a snake. How much would I give to strangle her with one. Poor boa would instantly die of the poisonous fumes coming off all the make up on het face, though.

"I see daddy still hasn't made enough money to buy you a car. Who does he work for, again? Oh wait, don't tell me, I know: the Walter's, doesn't he? We just so happen to be the most powerful and richest family in town, so you think working for me would've upped his wage a bit, but what are you gonna do, huh? Guess you're going to have to keep working in the country club. Hope you like scrubbing toilets, a scholarship doesn't provide for a living, does it? Let me know when you'll be working there, I might just pay you a visit!"

I endured her speech even though I was fuming inside, especially at the mention of my dad. Remembering that the safety of my scholarship was on the line, I balled my fists and kept my mouth shut. I knew that she wanted me to snap so that she could have even more weight with the principal trying to kick me out.

Unconciously, Ben's words entered my mind. Don't let people treat you like that. You're not a pushover.

I straightened up, no longer looking at my feet. "First of all, my dad works for your parents, not you. Secondly, you're no longer the richest nor most powerful family in town because the Ashfords just moved back and their funds make yours seem like milk money. Lastly, it's working at, not in. Hope you like being the exact opposite of the intelligent species known to us as homo sapiens for the rest of your lives, money doesn't provide for a brain now does it?"

She looked as if her eyes were going to pop out of her head as she closed the distance between us like a predator with a prey. Honestly, with her tall statue compared to my 5"2 one, she looked utterly intimidating.

"Well, what do we have here, so the nerd does have a tongue.."

She continued trying to provoke me as her hands with the longest and sharpest nails I'd ever seen moved up to my cheek. Holy cow. Chick's scary. "Do you not have the urge to, I don't know, lash out?"

Of course, if the principal got shown the full footage of her car camera, it would be clear that I was the victim here. Nevertheless, it was rather obvious that she'd have it edited in a way that portrayed me as the perpetrator and the tape would be at the principal's desk with speed faster than that of light. Well, not literally of course. Unless the guys at CERN in Swiss figure out how to.

"Don't touch me," I hissed.

Her lips formed a cruel smile and before I could move away, her nails bored into my cheek and scratched all the way down to my jaw. Her nails being so deep, my cheek bled furiously while I gasped in shock and tried to push her away. "What the ...?!! Seriously, are you a freaking sociopath or something? Get away from me!"

As she laughed maniacally [A/N: did I spell this right?] the car door opened to reveal Chad Lowy, who just happened to be Antonia's on-and-off boyfriend as well as a huge ass.

Thing was, Chad actually scared me. Aside from the cliché slushie-drenching and locking me inside a bathroom stall, he'd hit me quite a few times and even once thrown Antonia's boiling hot tea at me.

He walked up to us and moved to stand next to Antonia, his hand directly going for her butt. Well, it's not like anyone hasn't touched that so what's new.

"Look who we have there, is it you Annie? Remember our last meet?" You mean the one where you gave me my black eye? Yep, in detail.

I shuddered as he moved even closer towards me, his hand lifting up my skirt and slapping my butt. "Please, just.. don't.." I stuttered, disgusted at him touching me. I gasped when he punched me in the stomach. "I thought we agreed that you don't speak?" Antonia said sweetly as she used her wide open hand to hit me in the face.

By now, they'd pushed me into an alley close to the bus stop. How cliché.

Chad delivered another punch to my stomach and I fell down, gasping for air. I'd read once that it was against human nature to hit someone who was already down. Nevertheless, Chad hit me yet again on my face. Who was I kidding. The people standing in front of me weren't remotely human.

"Please," I exclaimed, "tell me what you want me to do and I'll do it."

They looked at each other triumphantly. "Now we're talking. We want you to make three tests in one for our finals and then let each of us hand in one."

I looked up in shock. I'd written papers, have them copy my tests in surprise tests and completed all of their assignments, but this was the first time they wanted me to commit fraud in tests as big as finals. "Wait, what? That's a federal offense, it's illegal!"

I cried out in pain as Chad used his legs to repeatedly kick me in the stomach. I tried protecting my head but I removed my arms to clutch my stomach when it was bleeding profusely. He took the opportunity to kick me one last time in the head and blinded by the seering pain, everything became black.

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A/N

Guys I'm sad because this chapter was a lot longer but then I decided to cut it in two so I cut the last part to put it in the next one but then I accidentally copied something else so I lost it 😥😥

This seriously sucks. Ugh.

Anyway, I'll try to rewrite the next chapter, including the Ben and Owen awesomeness as soon as possible.

Love,

M