Chapter 38 Revenge Is Sweet
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We had to pass the ball to each other, run two laps, pass more balls, and run more laps.
But you see, that wasn't the problem.
My partner was Belinda, and when it was her turn to pass the ball to me, she made sure to aim for my face. Her throws weren't gentle, either.
When we had to do our laps, she upped her game and kept trying to trip me by sticking her foot out in front of me when the teacher wasn't looking.
I succeeded in dodging her attempts, but it only lasted that long.
By the third round of laps, she tripped me.
I did a face dive and skidded across the gym floor. She stopped midrun and fell into a fit of laughter. "What a spaz."
My face heated, and I pushed myself up onto my feet. I calmly wiped down my shirt and proceeded with my lap.
Of course, she tried again.
This time I sidestepped her and stuck out my arm, shoving her onto a pile of nets lying on the floor.
She flew backward, with her arms and legs flailing, she sunk into the cluster of nets. "She pushed me," she shouted. "Mrs. Ether, she pushed me!"
A deep feeling of satisfaction settled inside me as I pretended not to notice her dramatic protests, and resumed my run.
Mrs. Ethers, who stood by the gym entrance, turned to look at Belinda, snorted, and resumed to place balls into a basket.
When I did my second, Belinda got onto her feet, having difficulty untangling herself from the nets.
I had every intention to shove her in again when another girl neared and pushed her back in.
It was Ember. She fell into a fit of giggles as she passed me and winked. "I got your back."
I had to bite down a smile as Belinda screamed again.
***
The sun was vicious in the early afternoon cornflower-blue sky, without so much as a single cloud in sight.
The first thing I did when I got home from school was to dress into the shortest pair of shorts I owned and slipped on my favorite, loose-fitting plant-eating zombie shirt. I grabbed my Kindle, headed for the open space of our backyard, and settled onto a thick, grassy area beneath a massive scots pine tree.
I sighed with contentment as I stretched out my legs on top of the plush, cool grass, and switched on the screen of my Kindle.
A cluster of mushrooms blooming through the stretch of greenery drew my attention, and my mind wandered back toward my first school day. It wasn't as bad as I expected and even though shoving Belinda was out of character for me, it was the highlight of my day.
I was growing tired of getting threatened and pushed around for simply existing. If they couldn't offer me a valid reason for mistreating me, I was going to push back until they do.
Enough was enough.
Almost everyone had gone to insane lengths to convince me to leave, for whatever reason—or like Kayn was trying to convince me, that he was trying to protect me.
But from what?
I've believed people here didn't like me, but now I do not doubt in my mind that there had to be more to the story.
I had to find out what.
My mind switched to the tentacle man. I patted beside me for my cell and swiped on the screen.
I attempted to search for anything similar to what I saw the night I got attacked. The results spat out a list of squid-faced humanoids, which had no similarity to the octopus man I had encountered.
Searching for any suspicious attacks around Scotia was like opening a can of worms I wasn't ready for. There were so many results, tales, and stories that by the tenth web page, I closed up my internet browser and dumped my phone beside me.
Most of them consisted of outlandish rumors of fairies, merfolk, and the loch ness monster.
Mom would be so proud if she found me reading any of those articles.
I scoffed at myself. Either I was losing my mind, or there was something up with the people around here.
"Carly?" Ember's voice called up. "Are you okay?"
