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Chapter 7

        The next day at school was definitely an unpleasant experience. Though now calmed, I still felt intense feelings of dislike towards Tanner’s gang, even more than I had before. It was certainly not a regular day.

The first uncommon thing I noticed was that my friends began to treat me like a china doll. They thought that if they said the wrong thing or mentioned the wrong name, I would shatter. I tried to act indifferent, but I still felt the humiliation and sadness from the day before. It was more anger now than sadness. I regarded the loss of Oliver’s false friendship as a good thing, I was no longer being lied to or laughed at. 

Another extremely unusual part of my Monday was that Carter and Nath, whose lockers were next to mine, were completely silent as they gathered their books. There wasn’t even a whispered sarcastic comment, but I preferred it that way. I assumed that they had been in on the joke as well, being told all about the conversations that Oliver and I had had. 

The rest of my day went on as it did every Monday. I sat in my first two classes, took notes and listened to my teachers while secretly checking my Facebook feed under my desk. When my second class was over, I joined my friends for lunch in the cafeteria. 

As we sat to eat, I noticed how quiet the girls were. My usually-chatty friends were speaking little, but I did see them each glance at me every so often. I knew that they were just being careful, they didn’t know what had really happened between Oliver and I, only that I had been hurt. 

‘Did you guys see the new Downton Abbey episode last night? I always feel bad for Daisy, she always puts herself down for not being really educated,” I said, trying to begin a conversation. My strategy slowly worked, and soon, all five of us were debating on which character was the best. It was just like how we had been before; Vicky and I loved Maggie Smith’s character of the Dowager Countess, Zana thought Lady Mary was glamorous, Cass liked Lady Edith for her strength, and Adelaide liked Anna. 

Our lively chat continued on, but came to a quick end when Cass suddenly stopped talking. Vicky, who was seated next

to her, followed where her eyes were looking and also stopped her part of the conversation. Addie, Zana and I slowly turned our heads to where our friends were staring. 

I had barely looked around when Vicky grabbed my arm from across the table. 

‘Lizzie! Let’s go to our lockers early, I need to make sure I have my biology textbook today,’ she said too loudly and too quickly. 

‘Ow, Vick, that hurt,’ I said, wrenching my arm out of her grasp. ‘What’s the matter with you?’ I asked, turning around again to what my friends had seen.

I regretted it immediately and understood why Vicky had grabbed me. Tanner, Carter, Zeke and Nath had entered the cafeteria and were now seated at the table behind ours. Very much against my will and much to my annoyance, I immediately searched for Oliver’s face, only to see that he was not there. For some reason, this concerned me. I did not want to feel any sort of emotion towards him, I wanted him to be insignificant to me, but obviously that wasn’t happening. 

Zeke must have seen us staring at them, because he nudged Nath and nodded in our direction. Nath followed his look and his face fell slightly. I found this odd, I thought they would laugh at the success of their joke, but they almost looked guilty.