Apparently, Slone had decided that I was worthy or something, because he was doing a whole lot more talking now than he had at all yesterday.
Graham got up and gathered his trash. “What class do you have next?”
“English,” I groaned.
All of the guys at the table started to snicker.
“What?” I asked curiously.
Titus stood, too, gesturing for me to follow him.
“I have the same class next,” he said. “I’ll go with you.”
I tossed all of my uneaten food into the trash, knowing that I was going to regret not eating later during practice. But I couldn’t stomach it.
Vance sure had a way of making my ulcers act up.
“What’s so funny about this class?” I asked.
“You’ll see,” he said.
I did see the moment we walked into my English Lit class.
If I’d thought the teacher from yesterday looked like a stripper, I had no fuckin’ clue.
My English teacher was by far more suited for the trade.
“Is she wearing leather pants?” I asked, taking the seat farthest away from the front of the room.
Vance walked in moments later, trying to talk to Perry who wasn’t giving him the time of day.
My gut clenched at the sight.
My hand fisted under my desk, and it took everything I had not to get up and knock some sense into him right then and there.
Perry looked back at me, but I studiously ignored her, keeping my eyes firmly faced frontward.
“She sure the fuck is,” Abbott murmured. “And she wears them great, doesn’t she?”
Vance, having lost interest in Perry since she wasn’t talking to him, looked to the front of the room and froze.
I watched as his eyes cased the woman’s shapely body, assuming that this was what he wanted, and not some high school girl.
I almost wished that would be the case.
But the teacher didn’t look like a perv, so I doubted Vance would get anywhere with her, either.
“Class, this is English Literature,” the teacher said once the bell rang. “For the next couple weeks, we’re going to be getting to know each other. For now, I’ll let you choose your assigned seating, but once I get inside y’all’s heads, I’ll be rearranging you to how I think you should be seated. Based on where I think you’ll learn best.”
Was this teacher an English teacher or a psychologist?
I wasn’t sure that I wanted to know, to be honest.
Keeping my eyes downcast and my gaze off of Perry, I listened to the teacher explain how the next six months would go, ending with, “Now, I want everyone to tell me about yourselves.”
I inwardly groaned.
Luckily, before that could happen, the teacher’s phone rang.
And just like that, she answered it and forgot everyone else in the classroom with her.
I looked over at Abbott. “Did she seriously answer that?”
Abbott grinned. “I’ve heard that she’s a badass. Doesn’t give a fuck. Plus, she’s also the principal’s sister, so there’s not much shit she can’t get away with.”
I grunted, understanding instantly that he was right.
Something like a teacher answering her phone in class would’ve gotten back to our principal at my old school in a heartbeat.
The bell rang, and once again, Vance turned his attention to Perry.
This time, I couldn’t quite stop my reaction.
Luckily, that reaction happened after Vance left the room with a sneer in my direction.
Gritting my teeth, I walked up behind Perry and said a few words that were sure to piss her the hell off.
For some reason, she didn’t seem like the type to like a guy telling her what to do.
“Stay away from Vance,” I ordered.
Her eyes narrowed. “You can’t tell me…”
I moved until I had her pinned to the teacher’s desk. “Trust me. Stay away from him.”
Her eyes studied mine, and I knew what she saw.
Anger and pain. Determination and grit.
I wasn’t budging on this.
If she wouldn’t stay away from him, things were bound to get ugly.
“Tell me why,” she ordered. “He doesn’t seem that bad.”
I laughed humorlessly.
“Vance was the reason that I moved from my old high school,” I told her.
With the limited information I’d told her last night about him, she already halfway knew based solely on my attitude with him that he wasn’t any good.
“Okay,” she said. “I wasn’t going to get friendly with him anyway. I’m not… that’s just not me.”
I felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.
“Good.”
With that, I walked out the door, leaving her staring at me in confusion.Chapter 7
Maybe Lit.
-T-shirt
Perry
Volleyball practice was fun. The coach was away, so the assistant coach put us onto two teams, and we spent the entire hour and a half scrimmaging each other.
Since today was a volleyball practice day, and not a cross-country day, I didn’t have to rush over to the track after I was done.
But I found myself going anyway, determined to get some bleachers and a run in despite being told that we had the day off.