Zugzwang

Chapter 1

Deciding to be nice wasn't my best decision. If I had known what it would get me into, I would've never made that decision. I made decisions that I regret, and I took them as learning experiences. Those decisions will be the death of me.

Prologue 

         First day back at school from Winter break. I walked towards my locker, flipping my long and blonde hair, wearing a nice low cut shirt and supper skinny jeans. I looked over at what used to be an empty locker beside me. I scanned him up and down as he fussed with his books. He looked up at me with no interest at all. That's when I knew I was going to have him.

        "Anna!" Noelle yelled from down the hallway, snapping me out of my thoughts. "Are you going to the back to school party?" Noelle pranced over to me, " I heard Matt was going so I know I must go and I cannot show up there alone."

        I smiled at Noelle's eagerness to see Matt for the first time since break. She's had a liking for him for a few months but they've only been friends because Matt doesn't exactly do long term relationships. 

        "Of course I'll go! When and where?" I gathered my books and we walked off to our first class together, Noelle telling me the details of the party. Personally, hopping from the one relationship to the other was my specialty. Not many people seemed to mind and I didn't either. 

        Walking into first period language, Noelle and I sat in the back of the class so we could talk about her vacation to Italy over break. Five minutes into class, someone came into the classroom. I was too into my conversation with Noelle to notice who he was. The teacher didn't seem to care so I continued. To the other side of me, I heard a book drop. My automatic reaction was to pick it up so I did. When I looked over to hand the person their book, I saw it was the new kid. 

        I smiled and looked at him. "Hey newbie. I'm Anna." I handed him the book and held out my hand.

        "Nick Ryder." He smiled back shyly. His brown hair swooped over his forehead and eyes. It was difficult to see his eye colour with the angle of lighting but that didn't matter too much. I won't deny it, he was hot. I turned around and went back to Noelle- she hadn't stopped talking.

        Before lunch, I rushed to my locker to see Nick in hopes of inviting him to my lunch table so he wan't all alone. I leaned against my locker and waited while scrolling through Instagram on my phone. Everything around me turned dark and I looked up from my phone to see Chirs looking down at me. 

        Chris  is one of the football players and we dated a couple of times but never did anything too serious. He's always flipping his long blonde hair and smiles innocently at girls to make them fall to their knees. Literally. He knows no boundaries and is a frequent party goer. Some say he's the male version of me, although, I don't do any sports.

        "Hey baby girl." He said and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

        "Fuck off, Chris." I said, shoving Chris away but he grabbed my wrist and pushed my back against the lockers. I winced as my back went straight into the lock, causing a pain down my spine.

        Chris whispered into my ear, "Baby girl don't get all mad at me because you're on your period."

        "Listen man, leave her alone." I heard a voice come from the right of me. I looked over to see Nick try to get in the way. I gave him the look to run away but he didn't break eye contact with Chris. 

        "And who the fuck are you?" Chris said angrily, letting go of me and got in Nick's face.

        I tried to interrupt, "Chris leave him-"

        "Leave this to the men." Chris said, pushing me out of the way. 

        A large crowd of people shoved me out of the way to see what was happening. Noelle ran up to me and grabbed my hands, "Oh my god! What's going on?" she yelled. I tried to explain it to her but she was too filled with adrenaline to listen to me.

        Once the crowd dispersed, I ran to Nick as quickly as I could and helped him stand up. His nose was bleeding and he tried to tell me that he was fine but I wouldn't listen. In order to avoid going to the nurse, who would just give him an ice pack and band aid, Noelle and I helped him into the cafeteria. We took him to an empty table and cleaned up the blood. I couldn't help but feel actual pity for this kid. But I guess anyone that got the crap beat out of them by Chris should get pitied.

 

(A/N: Don't give up reading here! The first few chapters are just to introduce (some) important characters. The action is soon to come!)