“Whatisallowed? Am I allowed to breathe?”
Ms. Pruitt returns, holding another black and green backpack. “I’ve included a new laptop for Braden. I understand the other one was misplaced?”
“Yes, but if we find it, I’ll be sure to bring it back.” Maria takes the backpack from her.
“As for you,” Ms. Pruitt says to me. “I’ll need you to complete a form for your computer. You’ll need to agree to the terms before you use it.”
“Let me guess. I have to give you my soul in exchange for the computer?” I say with a smile.
She purses her lips and squints her eyes at me. “I don’t appreciate your humor, and neither will your instructors. I advise you to consider your thoughts before putting them out there.”
“We’ll work on that,” Maria says, yanking me into her side. “Rumor just needs time to adjust.”
Ms. Pruitt disappears into the back room again.
“Would you stop it?” Maria whispers. “You’re going to get us both in trouble.”
“For what? Saying what I think? Sorry, but I’m not censoring my words to please Ms. Stick-Up-Her-Ass.”
Maria shakes her head and lets me go. She gets out her phone. “I need to check that Shayla picked up the dry cleaning. I’m going outside to call her. I’ll be right back.”
While she’s gone, I roam around the bookstore, looking at all the Twisted Pine merchandise. There’s a whole section up front with shirts, ties, and sweaters with the school logo. Do people really buy this stuff? It’s not part of the uniform. These are things people would actually wear out in public.
“Excuse me,” a girl says, going around me to a stack of Twisted Pine sweaters. I instantly recognize the tiny blonde with the big boobs and beautiful face.
“Hey.” I smile at her. “Twice in one day.”
“What?” she says, looking at me like she’s never seen me before.
“We met this morning. At Jackson’s house?”
She pauses. “Braden’s cousin.”
“Yeah. Unfortunately. Anyway, are you picking up your books?”
“My father did. I’m just picking up a few things.” She searches through the sweaters, checking the sizes.
“Is that for you?” I ask.
“My other one got ruined. I need a new one.” She holds up the extra small.
“You might want to go up a size,” I say, knowing her boobs won’t fit in the extra small. It’s really tiny.
“It’ll fit,” she says, going past me to the polo shirts.
“You must really be into your school,” I say, watching her shuffle through the rack for her size.
She doesn’t hear me, or pretends she doesn’t, so she doesn’t have to talk to me. Is she mad at me for being at Jackson’s house? Or is she just not very friendly?
Ms. Pruitt appears again, holding another backpack along with a large black shopping bag with the school logo.
“Kristen,” Ms. Pruitt says with a huge smile I didn’t think was possible from her. “I didn’t know you were coming by today.”
Kristen smiles back, but it’s the fake kind you give adults when trying to hide whatever you don’t want them to find out. I know, because I always used that smile with teachers when I was late to class after sneaking out to see Axl. I’d come up with some lame excuse for being late, which the teacher only accepted because of the fake sweet smile that went with it.
“My father said you got a new shipment in,” Kristen says. “I wanted to make sure I got my size.”
“I could’ve set it aside for you,” Ms. Pruitt says, looking at Kristen like she’s the most wonderful girl in the world. It’s all an act. I know I just met her, but I can tell Kristen has a bad girl side to her, just like I do. I don’t know what she’s done, but she’s definitely not an angel.
