She haden't seen them since 0700 hours the previous day. The last thing they'd said to her was 'Till next time Skippy!' which knowing them probably had some hidden meaning she'd have to dechiper but now was not the time as her maths teacher 'Miss Hicks' had just asked her a question. She chastized herself for not paying attention.
"Uh...twelve?"
"Wrong Miss Savannah. If you expect to stay in this class I'd pay attention. You new girl..."
She fought back the urge to correct the teacher and say 'it's Skipper' as that had back fired before.
"Yes Miss. Owens two hundred and twelve point six." The teacher threw a raised eyebrow glance at Skipper.
"You can call me Ray." The class chuckled. They knew what was coming. Skipper had forced the teacher to demonstrate it many times.
" Miss. Owens. We do not use names besides the one's we were given here. Name calling is never accepted in my classroom and the next time you try to break that rule you will be met with diciplinary action. Am I understood?"
Skipper scoffed and rolled her eye's she'd heard that so many times she'd been able to recite it with the teacher.
"Anything you'd like to share with us Miss Savannah?" She stood over her and raised a brow.
Skipper thought for a moment. She was sarcastic at times, but only when she felt it fit the situation. Authority was to be respected unless abused. She felt sarcastic words bubling in her brain, when her gut didn't protest she'd use them. Like now. "Actually yes. On what grounds do you have the right to stop the use of simple, harmless nicknames? It's a right. First amenment. Freedom of speech." She stood from her chair and crossed her arms. She was as tall as Miss Hicks and was the tinyest bit thicker. It was overall intimidating.
Miss Hicks held her ground. She was a skinny old lady but she had additude. You had to to teach in a New York public school."On what grounds do you have the right to question me? To question my authority?" They weren't really questions and Skipper knew it.
"On what grounds do you have the abuse that already miniscule authority?" She smirked.
"Miniscule! I'll have you know I oversee six classes with almost thirty students in each! I don't have time to sqander on unessisary things like nicknames!"
The rest of the class sat back. Some even put their books away. They knew that when Skipper went head to head Miss Hicks practiclly gave an involuntary free day. Skipper was no class clown but she had them all laughing.
After class Skipper had lunch. She decided to skip it to find Melony and Jenna. She knew how to find them. And Melony never let them stray far from the school. Despite her rough extierior Melony was always puting others first. It was automatic for her. Like breathing or sleeping it came naturally. Melony was mid height and athletic. She had chin lenghth brown hair and green eyes. She typically wore a green shirt, black straight leg jeans, and black high tops. Jenna was a more relaxed person and her look reflected it. She had teased red shoulder length hair and hazel eyes. Wore varied shades of pink and mostly lighter colors with jeans and sneakers. Jenna was the most feminine of the three and when the weather would permit she'd wear tanktops and skirts and often near nothing when she went to the beach. Skipper tended to stick to darker colors. Black, black, and more black with black combat boots. None of them wore make-up though Jenna had the most experience with it.
In the dark side ally Skipper saw two figures. Quickly recagnizing them as the Chinstrap brothers. Two boys infamous for geting girls in trouble. She ducked behind a trash can and listened. She heard her name. She listened harder honeing in on their words.
"And her friend Melony. I think she convinced Skipper to switch schools with her." That was Michael the 'slightly' older of the two. You could only tell if you were behind him and saw the scar under his ear.
"Yeah what's up with that? Think Skipper would switch back with her out of the way? She'd get to be company comader again and probably still be the vollyball captain." That was Evan. If you didn't have a chance to get behind them, you could probably tell them apart by saying Skipper's name. Evan would be the one who lit up and Michael the one who rolled their eyes.
"You could get that mousey Jenna girl too. Then you'd be the only one competeing for Skippers attention."
"Ooh man think of it! Savannah Victoria Chinstrap!"
Skipper shuddered. She didn't want to 'think of it'. As bad as Michael was Evan still had him beat when it came to being creepy. Every time he talked to her she wanted to run away. Since the double date and week of tormenting that followed she'd avoided him. She told herself she wasen't afraid of him but the feeling inher gut and the chills that ran down her spine told her otherwise. Michael and Evan started walking towards her. On the inside of her head she paniced. Should she scurry away and hope they didn't see her or scrunch down and hope they didn't see her?