The New Guy

Chapter 4

Rosalia POV

Oh no. No no no no no no NO!

What are they doing here? They can't be here, they can't! No.

Standing not ten yards away from me are the most vicious of my tormentors. Alexis Hall, co-captain of the wrestling and football teams, Stephanie Martinez, been to juvie three times, and Dana Vanderwood, kicked out of reform school in her old town. The toughest girls in school, probably in town.

They'll give pretty much anyone a hard time, but there are some kids the flat-out bully. Loners, unpopular kids, like me. However, I'm sort of a special case.

Years back, before my life became the god-awful mess it is now, they decided one day that it would begin to ruin some kid's lives. Guess who was their first target.

This was at the time right after my parent's divorced. My mom had just begun drinking. She had started her decline into becoming the monster she is today. It had really effected me, and I started drifting away from my friends.

One day at lunch, I felt like being by myself- something that had began to occur more and more frequently- so I went outside to eat alone. Big mistake. The pair- this was before Dana transferred- were outside smoking. Not many kids are outside, so there were no witnesses when they waltzed over. At first they faked politeness, but I wasn't in the mood for small talk. They found my silence insolent, and proceeded to beat the crap out me. When they finished, they threatened me if I told anyone, it would be worse the next day (little did I know it would be worse anyway). So I remained silent. When they retreated back inside the school, I decided to skip the rest if the day, and, without a word to anyone, I ran home crying- only to be faced with the wrath of my mother. She was ballistic I had skipped school. Without even listening to my reasoning, she punished me. That night I was never called down to dinner. For the rest of the month she dropped me off and picked me up from school. Until she either forgot or got bored.

Returning to the present, I was scared shitless. Not the it was uncommon for either party to ditch school; it was just that we had never ditch in the same place before. This pond was my one and only safe place (aside from my writing, but that's a metaphorical safe place- this one is physical). They cannot ruin this for me.

Luckily, it appeared that they hadn't seen me yet, so I might have a chance. Cautiously, I inched away from the tree, keeping my eyes trained in then the whole time. The trio had their backs to me. If I wasn't such a pessimist, I might have let myself believe I had a chance. But I know better.

"Hey!" So close.

"It's the Mexican bitch." But not close enough.

"Hey, she's tryna get away! After her!". the three of then dashed after me. I had about three seconds to make a plan. If I ran, I knew they would catch me quickly, and the beating would be worse for not cooperating. So I figured the most logical thing to do was freeze where I was and brace myself.

"Well, well, well. Look who's skipping school," Stephanie sneered.

"Little Miss Goody-two-shoes," Alexis spat on the ground, narrowly missing me. I was hardly a goody-two-shoes, but not was not the time to correct them.

"Aw look't 'er! She's alrea'y all best up!" whined Dana.

Alexis spat again, this time hitting me. I flinched, but was otherwise too afraid to move and wipe it away. "Yet lucky we like our meat fresh, punk."

"What, we're not even gonna pound 'er a little?" complained Stephanie. The Terrible Three glanced at each other silently for what felt like a century. Finally, they seemed to come to a unanimous decision. One that I did not like whatsoever.