DEAD INSIDE

(1)

"Your attention, please..." A robotic voice had the whole class jerk their heads up from the Science test we'd been working on for the last twenty minutes, which was stupid since all there was to look at was an old speaker the office sometimes used to address students. "All the girls interested in taking part in this year's Harvest are required to leave class right this minute. Your guides for tonight's festivities are expecting you at the usual meeting point within the next half hour. Don't be late or you'll be out of the fun..."

They made it sound like it was some field trip or something. Why try and fool the staff when you'd just hacked through the school system?!

I huffed.

Besides, I didn't see how parading and dancing semi-naked in front of a bunch of horny jerks could be seen as fun but hey, that was only my opinion and I wasn't one to judge other people's choices.

I sighed and went back to the paper in front of me.

Not surprisingly, however, several chairs around me made scraping sounds as their owners started packing their bags excitedly.

"Where do you think you're going?!" Mr. Killian exclaimed from the front of the class. "Sit down!" He shouted, looking both angry and stunned some of his students would just leave his class without so much as an excuse. "Felicity! Stacey! Marika!"

But his shouts were met with the loud noise the door made after one of the girls slammed it.

I heard some snickers and I gathered the middle-aged man was having trouble getting over what had just happened.

"Get back to work!" He snapped and the class grew quiet again.

As soon as the bell signaling the end of the week rang, I was out of my chair. I couldn't wait to get to practice. It had been a long and stressful week and I was looking forward to unleashing some of my pent-up energy on the field. We'd spent the last four weeks working on our cardio and tonicity and tonight we would finally get to touch balls.

I was on my way to hand my paper to Mr. Killian, when a manicured hand grabbed my wrist.

"I thought you'd have gone this year, Little Spy..." Leann Dietrich stood up and readjusted her skirt so it hardly covered the top of her thighs. Not bothered to have an audience, she then unbuttoned the top three buttons of her shirt and pressed her boobs together so her cleavage was on full display.

Mr. Killian walked to us so we gave him our papers.

"I have practice..." I replied with a bored voice. I'd learned a long time ago that arguing with our school's Queen Bee or her second in command never led anywhere.

She tutted, shaking her forefinger from right to left in front of my face and I let out a small chuckle when I saw the tiny white tiger heads decorating her four other fingernails. She'd added a little heart next to one of them and I couldn't help but roll my eyes at her dedication.

Our school's mascot was a white tiger and for years, a small group of male students composed of the fifteen or so most successful and arrogant athletes who liked to call themselves the White Tigers had been imposing their law at school.

Over the years, they'd tried to expand their authority over our small town but the Black Devils from our town rival school wouldn't have it so that there wasn't one week when the two didn't end up in a fight.

Of course, thanks to their rich daddies and their irreplaceable role within their respective teams, they almost always got away scot-free.

Almost... I thought bitterly.