she's mine.

2

I went the rest of the morning receiving obnoxious stares and whispers as i moved from class to class. I caught only a few of them, "did you hear about Eli and the new girl?" and "I heard she's from New York, so obviously she's ballsy". There was even an, "I heard she's dumber than a box of rocks, and hasn't figured out not to mess with the Jones's yet".

So apparently nobody could figure out if I was brave or just stupid, and Elias has a reputation of not being someone you want to mess with. I heard more about my own encounter with Elias- who seemed to go by Eli to everyone here besides Jake- than I did about the actual fight.

The dumb comments were beginning to irritate me. I preferred the ballsy ones, but I wasn't about to comment on any of them.

"You had one job- lay low," I told myself. "And what do I do? I make myself the biggest talk of the school the first day i'm here."

I went through each class listening to lessons which were almost all on things I had already learned, thank goodness. My mom had tried to make sure every time we moved we were enrolled in schools with the most prestigious curriculum. I knew she was disappointed and hurt when my brother, Jon, had graduated last year and didn't use his education. She, of course, would never showed it to him. She knew he was doing what he had to for the family, but she had always hoped we could get out of the lifestyle we had been dragged into.

I was in fourth period now, ignoring the lesson on Shakespeare, that I had gone through last year. I was instead staring out the window at my new view of red mountains an dessert. Our teacher, an older man more relaxed than most, let the class have the rest of the period to 'work on our assignment'. Immediately, all the students began to mingle and chat.

I saw a pair of cute black combat boots come up before the chair next to me was pulled out. I didn't look up; whoever it was must be wanting to borrow the chair. Plus, I was tired of everyone by now- tired of the rumors, tired of the small town talk, and tired of the fearful stares not willing to actually confront me. I didn't have the effort to fake a smile. I must be hangry, I thought.

"Hey," it was a girl, and she didn't sound afraid. Now that did make me look up. She had long jet back hair, deep green eyes that were outlined in black liner, and she wore a black tank top and black jeans. Her olive skin was golden as she stood in the light from the window. She was pretty under the, "don't mess with me or i'll punch you in the face," look. The black combat boots were the cherry on top.

"Hello?" I looked at her in the eyes to make sure she knew I wasn't intimidated.

"You're the new girl," she said.

"And the sky is blue," I acknowledged. "Is that all? Are we finished pointing out the obvious?"

To my surprise the girl didn't bite back. I actually caught a glimpse of a slight tug at her mouth as she forced away a smile. She looked almost impressed. "So the rumors are true. You aren't just a pretty face."

I rolled my eyes. I couldn't tell if she really thought this was a compliment. Give her a break Raina, by the looks of it, she's not very social. Maybe she doesn't know what a compliment is.

I opened my mouth to explain to her how to talk to other humans, when she sat in the chair she pulled out and began talking. "So I hear you almost got punched in the face by Jake." It wasn't a question, but I nodded to confirm. "Lucky you, making it out before he landed one," she sounded like she meant it. "He hits pretty hard, and he's a little harder to calm down than most," she said softly. I couldn't tell if she knew from personal experience or from watching him.