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High School Dropouts

Elle sat in Spanish, staring at the clock S

he swore the classroorees

With three minutes until lunch, she reallythe entire break had she gotten this sick feeling No matter how many times the sensation took over her body, she could never beco

Elle hated school No, Elle despised school with all her being The one reason she was surviving Legacy Prep High was because of her only friend in the world, Chloe Masters

Chloe needed her Yes, Elle was bullied, but Chloe, now she was tortured Elle would do anything to keep her safe She deserved a protector, especially after what had happened

All the o to her high school tuition Otherwise, she would get kicked out, and that would mean no protection for Chloe Elle luckily had a scholarship to pay rades, but she had to pay the rest by working at the diner alht

Two ht when you stared at a clock, it was supposed to o slower

Elle was dreading lunch The students hadn’t been able to pick on her and Chloe since the last day before break, which ression on them God help them

With one minute until lunch, Elle turned her head to see Chloe since the clock was no longer serving her any purpose Her heart broke a little Chloe’s head was, of course, hung down, and she ringing her hands in her lap That was her thing whenever she was nervous

She pictured her sweet face under her sheet of hair, marred by the deep slashes on her features One stretched from two inches above her eyebron to the hollow in her cheek; the other slash was one inch above and below her lips Both were on the right side of her face

Elle shivered at the s and then jurabbed her satchel and stood

You can do this However, the sick feeling was because she really didn’t believe she could

She went to the door and felt Chloe at her back This here you could always find Chloe, right behind Elle, for the last three-and-a-half-years Slowly, Chloe had started inching over every day until she walked just one step directly behind Elle They had quickly learned that walking side by side et

She stepped over the line into the hall and headed toward the cafeteria, walking a slow pace She had a system down for the usual hall breaks; you wanted to take the shortest route to the next class unless there was a huge crowd A huge crowd meant the ones who picked on them like Cassandra, the school’s queen bee She had learned to never linger because they were always better off in a classroo hall breaks, waiting for their next class Lastly, don’t look anyone in the eyes Although, Elle never kept her head down to the floor; that was a bad idea, plus she was never that type of person anyways

This was the only tih The cafeteria awaited with far greater dangers for her and Chloe

Elle reached the lunchroom and looked at her options Here there were two lines Line one was different each day, whether it was pizza, turkey, or meatloaf; it hatever had been decided for theof each er and fries every day However, Elle and Chloe didn’t have two options; they had one—whichever line had the less scary people in it It also ot stuck in the line that didn’t taste the best

Elle walked toward the back of the shortest line, all of the other students having thought the other option was better Elle looked over to it, co to the same conclusion

Far better, she thought

Elle sao figures cut farther up in the line She and Chloe didn’t h It was better not to draw attention

“You didn’t call or text me one time over break Didn’t you miss me?” Cassandra wrapped her arms around Nero’s neck

Nero grabbed her waist “Sorry, babe I’ve been busy”

Nero Caruso He was the definition of tall, dark, and handsome He was more muscular than almost all of the other seniors but still slender Cut is how Elle described that body-type She could tell he had trie because he’d always had it longer and slicked back for as long as she could remember Now that it was much shorter, his hair had movement She liked it better this way “Does that ht?” Elle could see Cassandra’s breasts rise higher

In the next instant, Nero caught Elle staring He held her gaze with his green eyes and then leaned down to whisper so in Cassandra’s ear

“Get a room!” someone yelled in the line