The next day was hell. Apparently, someone had heard what Sarah had told me and it was all over the school by the time I walked in. People gave me weird looks and made jokes. At first I had no idea what was going on until Lindsey walked up to me after my first class. "It's all over the school about how Sarah feels about you," she told me.
"What?" I nearly shouted.
"Yea, everyone's talking about it and everything. I saw Sarah this morning, but I haven't seen her since."
I sighed. "Hopefully this will all just blow over by next week," I replied.
"Yea," agreed Lindsey and she walked into her class.
The rest of the day no one said a word to me. I felt like I was some mutant or something. Even the teachers tried to avoid me. As the bell rang and school let out, someone bumped into me and said, "Watch where you're going, freak."
At that moment I lost it. I was tired of being treated like I was nobody because of what Sarah had said. There was no reason for anyone to treat me so differently. I was still me and I always would be, that would never change. Without thinking, I punched the girl across the face. "Who you callin a freak? Just because I'm different doesn't give you the right to fucking treat me like dirt! I'm tired of this. If everyone hates me so much then why do you all keep staring at me?" I shouted.
The girl just stood there and looked at me. Apparently she had never been spoken to like this before. Everyone else had stopped and was looking at me. I turned and walked down the hall, everyone moving so I could get through. Outside, Lindsey stood waiting for me. We walked home without speaking. When we reached our houses, we didn't even say good-bye, just walked our separate ways. As I opened the door, I saw Mom peek out from around the corner. Her smile faded and was replaced by worry. "What's wrong, honey?" she asked.
"Everything," I replied and walked up the stairs to my room.
I threw my stuff down on the floor and flopped down on my bed. Reaching over, I turned on my stereo and turned up the music, drowning out everything else. After about three songs, I reached over and turned it back down. Sitting up, I looked out the window over at Lindsey's room. Her curtains were shut but I could see movement inside. Hearing my phone ringing, I picked it up and looked at it. It was Sarah. "Hello?" I answered.
"Oh my god, Casey, I don't know what to do," sobbed Sarah on the other end.
"What happened?" I asked worriedly.
"Today at school everyone kept calling me a freak and telling me that they hated me. They were throwing stuff at me and everything. I was assigned a partner for history class and they told the teacher they weren't working with a freak like me, and the teacher said she understood, she wouldn't want to either. I feel like the world hates me."
"Listen, just lay down and take a nap. Afterwards, if you still feel the same, call me and I'll come over or something. Ok?"
"Ok. Thanks," said Sarah.
"No problem," I replied and hung up the phone.
I looked out the window over at Lindsey's again. There was no more movement that I could see, so I figured she had went downstairs or something. After a while, I stood up and walked downstairs and out the door. Mom didn't ask me where I was going or anything. That's one of the reason's we got along so well. She didn't pressure me to tell her anything. She knew that I'd tell her when I was ready. As I walked down the street I saw a red Viper with white racing stripes turn the corner and frowned. It pulled over beside me and in the driver's seat sat Daniel. "Hey, I've been hearing some things about you lately," he said.
"Really?" I asked, slightly annoyed.
"Yea. Marcus told me he saw you and Sarah talking in front of her house yesterday, Then, next thing he knew, you two started making out and went inside. So, are you and her together or something?" he asked.
Anger flared up in me even more. "No, we're not together. We're just friends. And you better tell Marcus to stop telling lies about people before he gets hurt," I replied, trying my best to keep from shouting.
Without waiting for him to answer, I started walking again. When I reached Sarah's, I saw her sitting on the porch swing. "Hey," I called.
She looked up and smiled. As I sat down beside her, I could see she had just stopped crying a little bit ago. "Hey," she said, trying to sound like nothing was wrong.
"Listen, I have a feeling that by tomorrow, all this will be over."
She looked at me curiously, then grinned. "I take it you found out who started this whole thing?"
I nodded and leaned back, looking out across the yard. After a couple minutes of silence, my phone rang. Pulling it out of my pocket, I saw it was Courtney calling. "Hello?" I answered.
"Hey, Casey, I was just wondering if you wanted to come to a party with me tonight? You can bring some friends along if you want."
I glanced over at Sarah. "Sure. Where is it and what time?" I asked.
"It's over at Aaron's house and it's at nine," she replied.
Aaron was one of Jason's best friends. They had known each other ever since Aaron moved here, about six years ago. Because of that, I knew him pretty well myself. He was also one of the few people that hadn't said anything bad about me and Sarah. "Ok, we'll be there. Cya."
"Cya."
I closed my phone and looked over at Sarah. After telling her about the party, we decided I would try and stay the night at her house tonight, along with Lindsey, if she wanted to. Normally, there wouldn't be a party on a Tuesday night, but we were out of school until next weekend. I had never figure out why we had a break at this time of year, but I didn't argue. I called Lindsey and she said she'd love to come. Sarah and I said good-bye and I headed back home to change and get ready for the party.
