“What a slut!” another girl yelled. “Tim has a girlfriend! Who does that?”
I choked back sobs as I reached my door, and pushed it open. Thank God it wasn’t locked.
Monroe was still sleeping.
I didn’t know if I wanted to wake her. I didn’t know if I wanted to tell her. I paced the room five times before finally making the decision.
“Monroe.” I sobbed. “Please wake up! Please!”
She jolted awake and then cursed. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Oh you know, getting my brains screwed by the quarterback of the football team.” I didn’t even try to hold the tears in as I collapsed on her bed and told her the whole story or at least what I remember of it.
“Are you sure?” she asked when I was finished.
“What do you mean?”
“Are you sure you didn’t just drink too much and leave with Tim?”
“Yes!” I shouted. “Why don’t you believe me? Why doesn’t anyone believe me!”
“Whoa, calm down.” Monroe stood and yawned. “I’ll talk to Nixon, he’ll fix it.”
“He won’t.” Dread filled my stomach until I thought I was going to puke. “He told me he was done protecting me.”
“Come again?”
“We kind of made a wager…”
Monroe threw something against the wall. “Why the hell would you make a deal with the devil?”
“He provoked me!” I yelled.
“Wow…” Monroe paced in front of me. “Well, at least you don’t have to face any of them during lunch time that would be… catastrophic.”
Crap. Crap. Crap. “I kind of lost my access card.”
Monroe slumped to the floor. “Girl, I hate to be the one to say this, but you are totally and completely screwed.”
I nodded. I knew it was true. And I hated that I had to face all those people today.
“How do I eat?”
“I’ll think of something, okay?” She bit her lip. “It’s just the only one who has passes is Nixon. I’ll bring it up to Tex and see what he says.”
Great. Who the hell gave him the keys to the world?
“Look, just get ready for school, and we’ll sort it out this afternoon, okay?” Monroe threw me a granola bar and started getting dressed. I could do this. I could face a whole bunch of my peers. What could they do? Stab me?
Chapter Nine
It was official. I hated college. It was bad enough walking into the classroom to everyone snickering in my direction. I slumped as low in my seat as I could without falling off my chair and flashing everyone my underwear, solidifying my reputation as a hussy.
Nixon walked in. For the first time in two days I wanted him to pay attention to me. I wanted him to walk over to my desk and say our wager was stupid. I wanted that damn access card. In fact, I would kill for the one elevator ride a week, and I’d only been in school for five minutes.
“Today we’re going to work in teams.” He began handing out sheets of paper. “I know many of you are familiar with Settlers of Catan. It’s a board game where you are in charge of your own country and you sell and trade with other countries. It’s more complicated than that, but today I want you to form your own countries. Each of you has something someone else needs, whether it be oil, wheat, or even land. You will barter with team members in order to build your own country. Come up with a flag and a team motto. You have the rest of the class period.”
Sounded easy enough. He handed me the paper. I noticed there weren’t any names assigned on it.
“I raised my hand.”
“Yes, Farm Girl?”
Rolling my eyes I asked as nicely as possible, “Aren’t the teams assigned?”
People snickered as if I had just asked the dumbest question in the world.
Nixon didn’t snicker, nor did he smile. “Nope, you work with groups. So pick a group and work with them.”
“Any group?”
“Any group,” he snapped.
Okay, I grabbed my sheet of paper and approached the three people to my right. “Hey, can I work with—”
“—We don’t work with whores.” The blonde girl flipped her hair and then gave me the bird. Lovely.
I walked toward the back of the classroom where the guy who was drinking during class sat with his group. “Do you guys possibly have room for one more?”
The guy opened his flask taking a big swig and then wiped his mouth with his jacket. “Yeah, we’re totally into threesomes, aren’t we?” He looked at the other girl in his group and high-fived her.
Tears threatened again.
I hated this school.
I hated stupid Phoenix and Nixon and Chase and everyone!
With a steadying breath I marched to the front of the room and politely waited for Nixon to notice me. He was reading some crazy long book in a different language. Boring.
“What can I do for you, Trace?” His eyes didn’t leave the book.
“The groups won’t take me.”
“Then I guess you fail.”
I gasped. “It’s not my fault...”
“Ah, there’s the excuse I was looking for.” This time his eyes met mine. “This is the real world, Trace. You can’t just tattle on the mean kids in class. Nobody wants you to be in their group? Be in the group anyways. Make them notice you, make them pay attention. Now, run along.”