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"Wow"

"Sorry to have to tell you, but that’s what friends are for"

"Yeah Friends Thanks for letting me know" I looked at my T-shirt, purchased from a thrift store in Albuquerque, and felt as if I’d been punched in the stoer’s social class had an opposite, I would be it

Yet a little part ofpart of s liked hih I had been warned, er said hi totrack, I couldn’t stop grinning The few times alked the saers with hthe hours until prolish, I noticed the fe the new girl for the first ti tofilled the classroom Danni, who sat directly behind me, was in full hysterics

I turned around to see what everyone was laughing at, and they laughed harder The girls did anyway The guys were studying the walls or ceiling

Class passed nor to holdThe Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a novel about a woman who had to wear a red A on her dress so that everyone knew she’d had sex out of wedlock It was one of my least favorite books and, to make e to letThe rest of the class seemed just as bored, antsy for class to end Yet when the dis, no one made the usual mad dash for the lunchroom They all stared at me

My palms beca I got when I knew the girls atrinned from ear to ear Did Ollie tell her about hter I reached betweento find a paper with Kick hed harder I clenched hter followed me down the hall Every person I passed exploded with it when they looked at me They pointed at my back and whispered, told other people to look, and they laughed, too

Panic clawed at irls’ bathroom It felt afor air

When I looked in theIt was just plain old red-facedback I don’t knohat I had expected--a clown nose, maybe? Footsteps echoed in the empty stalls and Yana walked into the bathroom

Her eyes met mine, and then wandered down ed

"You riding the crimson wave?" she asked delicately

I didn’t knohat she h your pants," she croaked, as if the words hurt her throat

I turned around and looked at my butt in the mirror Crimson sht ht, blood-red nail polish

My hands balled into fists and ray-tiled bathroo of red As I ran from the bathroom to the crowded lunchroom, I told myself what I was about to do orth the consequences I would face

Danni atching for er was there, too, talking to Danni and s My heart sank He was in on it I didn’t knoho to hit first--hier saw rabbed ?" he asked, trying to uncurl lared at hito hurtto hurt you"

"Good" I yanked , laughing as I approached When she opened her , I shovedher backward off the table She lay frozen on the gri up at ain, she scrauys I pushed and shoved therabbed the back of Danni’s shirt as she tried to run away

She whirled around to face ht--just sort of huggedit i her in the ribs and pulling her cropped brown hair She tried to kick ht, you don’t feel little things like that

When she was suddenly yanked away, I swung hard and fast and my fist clipped her just below the eye Arer and kneas the one restrainingthe crap out of Danni Williaainst his iron embrace, but couldn’t break free

Then I saw Danni wrapped in a backward hug by the school nurse Danni wasn’t struggling to get free, liketo put Ms Opp in front of her Danni was terrified Of me I froze

All the steaer I had becoirls that used to corner me and beat o of you, do you proainst my ear

I nodded because I knew if I tried to talk I’d probably start to cry His arms fell frooing on?" The gathered students asped when he saw Danni Her chin was streaked with blood frolasses-framed eyes turned to me "Did you do that to her?"

I nodded, still unable to speak Bridger’s hand found the sered there I closed irls" I squared er Dr S Danni and me out of the cafeteria "We don’t need your assistance, Mr O’Connell," he said when Bridger tried to follow

Slowly, like the onset of a really bad headache, my bruises and scrapes became painfully obvious My shins hurt, ht hand was burning I looked down and saw blood on my knuckles--my blood Danni’s tooth had split my knuckle and beneath the skin I could see pale bone I pressed the knuckle against my jeans