"This is going to be soooo embarrassing!" Riley said. "I don't want to go in there!"
Riley sat in the front seat of C.A.R. alongside K and in front of Todd outside the school. "Dear, they won't notice! I promise you're making a big deal out of such a little thing," K said. "Right Todd?" K looked back to Todd, who had the grey hood of his hoody pulled down over his head and his gaze down. "Hmmph," He grunted in response. K rolled her eyes. "Teenagers" She thought to herself. "Look dear, it's just a cold sore! Nothing more than a blemish! You'll be fine." Riley shook her head wildly. "No it won't! I'll be the laughing stock of the school, and of course Sierra will have more than a snide remark about it, and…" She was cut short by K, who simply said "C.A.R., ejector seat."
Riley went flying and landed with a thud in the grass on her rear. K looked back at Todd. "So what's your choice, dear?" Todd grabbed his back pack and jumped out of the car, still keeping his hoody on and his gaze down. "Smart boy. Now I'll see you two later. Remember Riley, no one will notice, so don't worry!" And with that, K and C.A.R were gone, leaving nothing but burning rubber marks on the road.
"How can she say that no will notice! Is she crazy, is she…" She, again, was cut off, this time by Todd, who had his hand outstretched to help her up. "Thanks" She sighed, and grabbed on. Once standing, Todd headed for the door without her. Typical Todd, She thought to herself, leaving me behind rudely." She found, however, that instead of her presumption, Todd had only gone ahead to hold the door open for her. "Todd being polite? Wasn't expecting that."
She grabbed her things from the ground and hurried for the door, trying not to keep Todd waiting. Once inside, she saw all the bustling kids in the hall and her embarrassment came stomping back. "Ooooh, I change my mind! I'm going to ditch today, see ya!" As she was halfway out the door, Todd grabbed her by the wrist. When she turned back, and gestured for her to come back inside. She did reluctantly, and sighed. "Ok… but can you let go?" She looked down where he was holding her left wrist and, almost as reluctantly as she had come in, Todd let go. With a sigh of fear, Riley walked down the hall, followed by Todd. She noticed the gradual glances toward her, but there certainly wasn't they giant mob of mocking she had expected to surround her. "Not yet, at least…" She thought.
She headed to her locker, and Todd still trailed right behind. She turned back to him and said " Don't you want to go talk to Jacobo?" She asked. Todd simply shrugged in response, but stayed in the same spot. "Ok…" Said Riley somewhat suspicious of her normally troublemaking brother. She turned forward and started again toward her locker, Todd still trailing.
A few moments later, the first bell rang, and Riley shut her locker and headed to her first period. Todd was still following, but she decided not to say anything about it, and just let him. When she reached her classroom, she wondered if he was going to follow her into the room, but when she looked back, he was gone. Something's up with him…" She thought to herself. She almost got lost in thought about it, until Sierra walked through the door, and she realized that she had completely forgotten about the cold sore on her lip that she would surely make fun of her for.
Throughout the day, when she wasn't in perpetual fear, she noticed Todd was always there. He was there after every class, at lunch, almost always silently by her side. Already it was sixth period and Todd had yet to say one word. "This is so not normal…" She whispered to herself as she walked down the hall. Finally, after debating it in her mind for a few moments, she stopped and looked at Todd. "Why are you following me around today?" She asked. Todd shrugged again as if it was his only response. "No, Todd, say something. I don't want a shrug; I want an actual spoken reason why you're my new shadow." She stated firmly.
Todd bit his lower lip for a moment. Finally he started to speak. "Look, I…" He was cut short by an arm grabbing his shoulder and throwing him backwards. In Todd's spot now was an incredibly large boy, looming over like a monster: Donny Rottweiler. " Hey daring," He boomed down at Riley. "Nice lip accessory." At this point everyone in the hall had huddled around the three, and was laughing at Riley. "Guess we know how you got it… from you being a slut!" He yelled. The word slut seemed to ring out in the room, until Riley realized it wasn't an echo, but instead a chant from the kids surrounding them. They were laughing and pointing and chanting the word loudly. She couldn't take it, she had to get out of there. Wiping the tears and mascara away, she pushed through the crowd and ran into the girls restroom.
Donny was still standing there laughing with the crowd, and as he started to walk away, he was tackled to the ground. Flipping around to see who hit him, all he saw was a bombardment of Todd's fists come raining down. Todd pounded away at the bully's face, enraged that he talked that way about his sister. He continued to hammer away at the bully, hitting with full force every time. Donny tried to stop Todd so he could fight back, but Todd wouldn't let up. Between fists, Todd shouted at the bully. "Don't…You…Ever…Talk…About…My…Sister!"
By the time someone had pried Todd off of Donny, his fists were covered in blood and so was Donny's face. "I'll kill you!" Todd shouted at the now whimpering Donny. "Excuse me young man?" Said the person holding Todd. Angrily Todd looked up to find Principal Cutler holding him back. Todd's expression changed from anger a mix between fear and shock. "Let's go, Mr. Daring," Cutler said. "To my office now!" Cutler let go of Todd and pointed in the direction of his office, and Todd reluctantly started in that direction, leaving behind the bloody mess of a bully and his crying sister in the bathroom. "Riley…"