The Renegades

Chapter 1

Wesley Parker's ex-girlfriend sits in her teeny tiny cheerleading uniform surrounded by other girls who only get their worth from their own teeny tiny cheerleading uniforms on a bench in front of Ruby High School, Home of the Renegades. There's no point in calling the school Ruby High School unless Home of the Renegades follows it. People only ever call it The School of The Renegades.

Wesley Parker's ex-girlfriend looks at Sabina Harper as she walks past the group of cheerleaders and laughs. Sabina used to be a cheerleader. She got tired of it and quit. She didn't like Wesley Parker's ex-girlfriend, even when they were supposedly friends because they were squadmates.

It still feels weird to Sabina to call Lilly Xavier Wesley Parker's ex-girlfriend. Not because they were together for a long time (it was only two months or so) but because she never saw Lilly as Wesley's girlfriend. Saying they were dating is even an overstatement. They were fucking. A lot. A lot a lot. Sabina knew Lilly and Wesley didn't even really ever like each other. They're just the cool kids in school. The cool kids always fuck each other. It's just a law of nature.

"Hey, Bean," Lilly coos, using the nickname everyone knows Sabina hates. She got tired of people calling her Sabrina so emphasized that her name is Sabina like Sa-bean-a. Bean stuck. Sa- and -a never did. "Cute outfit. I see you've been robbing graves instead of shopping again."

Her friends all laugh at her attempted joke. Lilly Xavier is not funny. She's not even very mean, although she tries to be. She sucks at being mean. She sucks at everything except looking pretty. And sucking dick (according to Wesley Parker, at least).

Sabina stops in front of the bench and just looks at the girls. They've been teasing her for her fashion sense since middle school when school uniforms no longer existed. Then they really started teasing her when she actually started dressing the way she actually wanted to dress starting in high school. She keeps expecting them to come up with some new material, but they're too dumb to do that.

"Cute face," Sabina replies. She takes the gum out of her mouth and sticks it to Lilly's forehead. She doesn't understand why Lilly didn't just knock her hand away or move. It's not like she stuck the gum at lightning speed. "Eh, it's still cute."

She didn't even try to be mean. She didn't care enough to try to be mean back to the girls who tried and failed at being mean to her. She'd be better at being mean than them, but she didn't see the use. Lilly was beautiful. She'd tell her she's beautiful after doing something dumb. Lilly would freak out like it's the end of the world. It's a cycle, a beautiful, beautiful cycle that Sabina has become used to and no longer lets cause her to cry herself to sleep at night and can't wait wait to get away from.

Sabina keeps walking. She can hear Lilly freaking out behind her and the cheerleaders telling Lilly that they'd get her back. They would get her back. They always do. They're only good at being mean in a group. Even then, it doesn't bother Sabina. She knows she's a freak. They tell her that every day. She accepts it. She calls herself it. She'd tattoo it on her forehead if that wouldn't hurt her job opportunities later on.

"You freak!" she hears Lilly screech. Predictable.

Landon Harper shakes his head from a bench a little ways away from the cheerleading bench. He doesn't understand his sister. They shared the womb at the same time, but he doesn't get her. He loves her with all his heart and hates seeing the way the town treats her, but he doesn't understand her. She does nothing to change it. She just lets it happen. If it were him, he'd put up a fight. He's never had to put up a fight or change or anything. He's a Renegade. He's what everyone else is supposed to be.

Sabina sits down on the bench next to Landon's girlfriend, Raechel Lee. She goes by Rae. Everyone thinks there's a typo on her birth certificate, but she knows her parents actually meant to misspell Rachel. They wanted it to be unique. She hates it. She hates them. She's pretty sure they did it to her because they've hated her since birth too.

"Gum on the face was the best you could think of?" Rae asks, rubbing a circle into the palm of Landon's hand with her thumb.

Sabina just shrugs. "I didn't think. I just did."

"I liked it," Rae says. "It got a funny reaction."

"It always does," Sabina says.

Wesley Parker sits on the other side of Landon, sunglasses on and looking like a mess. Typical for Wesley. He's always a mess. He leans his head back and groans a little bit.

"Are you drunk?" Landon asks. "You smell like a keg."

Wesley laughs. "It's seven a.m. on a Friday. I'm not drunk. I'm hungover."

"Is this because of Lilly?"

Wesley laughs even harder and groans again. "Fuck no. Fuck that crazy bitch."

"Coach is going to kill you."

Wesley shrugs. "I'll be sober by the time we see him. I'm fine. I'll just take a nap from first to third hour." He likes his third hour. He doesn't know why. Economics isn't exactly exciting.

"Drink a lot of water," Sabina says.

He takes off his sunglasses when he hears her voice. He looks over at her. She's in his third hour. She's good at economics. He's only passing because he's a Renegade and can't play if he's failing a class. "Hey, Bean."

"Hey, Wes," she says. 

Rae looks at Sabina and giggles so quietly that only Sabina can hear. The boys start talking about tonight's game and can't see that Sabina's blushing. He's the only person she likes calling her Bean. She swears she doesn't have a crush on him, but Rae wildly disagrees. There's no way in hell she likes her brother's mess of a best friend.

Wesley puts his glasses back on when he sees Marley Dickson emerge from the parking lot. That means her dad is only a few steps behind her. Her dad's his coach. He doesn't need Coach Dickson seeing his eyes right now. He doesn't need another one of those lectures about how much potential he has and how great he'd be if he took care of himself and how he could get a scholarship if he just cleaned up his act.

Coach Dickson walks past the bench shortly after his daughter does. Marley has already disappeared from sight. Everyone on the bench knows that she's in some secret crevice of the school making out with Hunter Vargas. Her dad doesn't know she's hooking up with his quarterback. Every student knows.

Coach Dickson stops a few steps past the bench and looks over his shoulder. "Parker, if you're going to get drunk on a school night, at least shower the next morning to try to hide it." He keeps walking.

Wesley just shrugs. "At least it wasn't a lecture."