AN: This chapter was hard for me to write. But I finally got it done! Enjoy :)
"Rainbow...Rainbow...Rainbow!" My eyes snap open after I feel someone rip my blanket off me, causing me to shiver at the sudden exposer to cooler air.
"C'mon, up and at em'!" Rew says before turning and walking out of the room, closing the door behind her.
I blink the sleep out of my eyes and sit up slowly, I'm not a morning person in the slightest, except if there's an event going on. I yawn and stretch before I swing my legs over the side of my bed and stand up.
As I walk out of my room, the smell of bacon, toast and eggs fill my nostrils. Mmm.
I walk into the kitchen, where everyone, except Straight A, is sitting at the table.
"Morning Hon." Pepper says as I sit down at the table also.
"Morning." I say, reaching over to get myself of piece of toast.
"How'd you sleep?"
I put peanut butter on my toast before I respond, "I slept okay...If only someone hadn't ripped my blanket off of me, I would've slept better." I look at Rew, who is trying not to laugh.
"Sorry, it's just that's the only way I can get you to wake up."
"That's a lie and you know it." I say after a swallow a bite of toast.
A little after the conversation I had with Rew, I have to shovel down my toast, bacon and orange juice (I don't like eggs) because Pepper begins her usual "Hurry or you'll be late."
I rush into my room to change into my clothes. I pull on a short white dress with a magenta, knitted sweater that's about the same length, I hold my sweater together with a black belt and slip on some black shoes with small heels.
I head into the bathroom to brush my teeth, and put my hair up into a bun, then I rush into the living room just as Straight A walks in through the front door.
"Hi Rainbow, are you ready to go?" she asks. Straight A and I walk to school together.
I sigh and grab my bag from one of the chairs, "As ready as I'll ever be."
She chuckles and heads back toward the door, I follow.
"We're leaving!" I call over my shoulder, but before Straight A and I could take another step, Pepper's voice comes from the kitchen, "Are you sure you want to walk by yourselves today? One of us can drive you-"
"Don't worry Pepper, Brea Chase is never out prowling this early." Straight A says with a small laugh.
"Well, alright girls, but be careful."
"We will, love you." I say, walking out the door.
"Bye Dears, love you too."
"I'll see you two later, love you." Tom calls. She goes to school also, but doesn't go early because she has her practices in the afternoon.
There are a few more "Love you too" and a single "Right back at ya."
I roll my eyes and close the door behind me, "Would it kill Rew to say, 'I love you' back every once and a while?" I ask Straight A as we walk off the porch.
Straight A chuckles, "Knowing her, I think it will."
We both laugh as we walk down the sidewalk.
"But, glory, I wish they would get off our backs sometimes, they know we can take care of ourselves if necessary." Straight A says after a minute.
I send her a look, "What did you expect? We're the gang's Pets, we're everyone's kid sisters…Blast it, I'm not just the Pet, I'm the Pet's Pet!" Straight A cracks up something awful at my last remark.
After a few minutes we reach the school, "See ya later Rainbow." Straight A says, walking through the main doors.
Straight A comes early for tutoring, not for herself, she helps tutor the other kids.
"Bye." I call, turning and walking toward the gym.
Along the way to the locker room, I pass by some of the basketball boys, I'm lost in thought, as usual, and I don't really see them until I bump into one of them.
"Oh glory! I'm so sorry"! I exclaim, looking up at the boy I bumped into.
"Don't worry, it's not a problem, don't sweat it." He smiles at me, I smile back and continue my way to the locker room.
After about thirty minutes of practice, the other girls and I rush back into the locker room to change back into our everyday clothes.
As I slip back into my dress and sweater, I hear a few of the girls talking, this is where most of the gossip takes place. We're usually in a rush to get to practice, but not so much getting to class.
I usually don't join in on the gossip, I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who actually wants to get to class on time.
*RRRIIIINNNNGG*
Speaking of which.
I quickly slip on my shoes and grab my bag before I rush out of the locker room.
After that my day goes on as usual. I went to art class, where I worked on a still life that I'm going to have to color spot soon. English, where I had to write an essay. Easy. Home economics, where we're sewing. Drama, today we just took notes about pantomimes. Lunch, where Tom, Straight A and I went into town to eat. History, where we took notes about WWI.
And now, on to Math, my least favorite subject.
As I walk into my math classroom, I begin to hear whispers. I blow it off, there are a lot of "gossipers" in this class.
I sit at my desk as the bell rings and our teacher passes out worksheets for us to work on. Lucky for me, this unit is pretty easy.
As I pull out my notes, I hear someone go, "Psst." my head snaps up, "Psst, Rainbow." I hear again. I look at the girl that's sitting next to me.
Peggy Jean, she's always up in someone's business. "What?" I ask, turning back to my paper, knowing that she's probably going to tell me some sort of gossip.
"Do you know that Chanel wants to fight you?"
My head snaps over so fast it kind of hurts, I resist screaming, but I do whisper scream "What?!"
She messes with her short ginger ponytails, "She says that you're going after her boyfriend and that she wants to fight you."
I look at her oddly, "Well I don't wanna fight her! Blast it I don't even know who her boyfriend is!"
Peggy just shrugs and goes back to her paper. I blink, then shrug, then go back to my own paper.
But after a few minutes, someone coughing in the hallway makes me look up from my work. My heart stops. It's Chanel. And she looks ticked off.
Her glare hardens and she gestures for me to come out into the hallway.
Does she want to fight me now?!
I try to gulp down a hard lump that's formed in the back of my throat and stand up. I might as well get it over with.
I go over to the teacher's desk, "Uh, Ms. Perry? May I go to the restroom?"
"Of course."
"Thank you." I say, walking out of the classroom.
As I walk into the hallway, I see Chanel, she glares at me and keeps gesturing me to follow her. I do so until we reach the main hallway.
"Chanel, what-" I start.
"Shut your trap!" She snaps.
Chanel Powers is in Brea Chase's gang. She's sixteen-years-old with dark tan skin, brown eyes that has a little too much eye make-up, long straight light brown hair, and thick purple lips with purple lipstick. (I think it's ridiculous, it's more ridiculous than Peach's bright pink lipstick she wears.)
Chanel may not be the leader of the group, but it's easy to say that she's the meanest.
I draw back as Chanel continues, "So, I heard you were putting the moves on my boyfriend." she snarls.
"Chanel!" I exclaim, "I didn't put the moves on your boyfriend! I don't even know who your boyfriend is!"
Chanel looks at me like I'm stupid, "Are you kidding me? He's on the basketball team, the handsome hunk!"
My eyes widen, the boy I bumped into this morning! "You've got this all wrong Chanel! I was going to Color Guard training and I bumped into him! That's all that happened!"
"That's not what he told me! He told me he thought you were cute!" She spits.
By this time I'm almost frustrated to tears, "I didn't tell him to think I was cute! I just-"
"I don't wanna hear it!" Chanel snarls, taking a step toward me, "Listen here you little skag. If I catch you anywhere near my boyfriend again, me and the girls will make last month look like nothing!"
I open my mouth only to have a sudden sharp pain shoot through my right cheek as Chanel slugs me before she turns and marches away.
I stand there for a few minutes, the lockers and entire hallway become blurry as tears well up in my eyes. But I blink them away, I'm not gonna start bawling in the middle of the hallway.
I wipe my eyes on the sleeve of my sweater before I make my way back to class.
When I'm back in class, I sit down and don't say a word and don't make eye contact with anyone. I let my hair down so that it hangs in front of my face like curtains, so that no one sees that I'm close to tears.
I take in a breath and let it out shakily. I'm definitely telling the girls about this.
As I continue to work on my worksheet, my mind wanders back to last month, when I was jumped by Brea Chase and her gang.
I was walking home from the drug store. I had been craving a candy bar, so I shot down to there to get one. It wasn't a long walk, so I went on my own.
As I walked down the sidewalk, I heard a car come up behind me, but I didn't think anything of it.
Until I heard it accelerate.
I whirled around and ran to the side as the red Stingray swerved over to the side, nearly hitting me! I glanced in the driver's seat as the Stingray sped away, and I saw a ticked off looking Brea Chase glaring at me through one of the side mirrors.
'Oh glory!' I thought, beginning to run down the road.
As I ran I had to skid to a halt as the Stingray suddenly came from the side, right in front of me! I muttered a curse and continued to run down the road.
As I ran, the Stingray suddenly sped around me and screeched to a halt right in front of me. I tried to run the opposite direction, but the girls in the car quickly cornered me, my back against a brick wall.
Chanel was one of them. The other three were Makenzie Lake, Lindsay Harbor, and Annette Gregorio.
Makenzie has blonde hair that she bleaches, cold, icy blue eyes and a rounded face with a lot of make-up. She's the gossiper and fashionista of the group. (And probably the one that spread the rumor about me bumping into Chanel's boyfriend.)
Lindsay Harbor is...not a pretty girl, I'm sorry. She has a round face with brown eyes and brown hair that she ties back into a ponytail with a scarf. She's also up in everyone's business and is mean to everyone.
The last and definitely the least is Annette Gregorio. She has pale skin, dark brown eyes and orange/brown hair that fall around her shoulders. She is...a skank. That's what she is. She goes out with all the guys she can get her hands onto, wears clothes that are way too revealing and wears way too much make-up.
I heard heels walking toward us, I looked over saw Brea Chase walking up to us. She looked at me for a second before she said, "Get 'er girls."
The next thing I knew I was forced against the brick wall; Lindsay and Makenzie holding my arms, Annette and Chanel holding my legs.
My breathing sped up and my eyes began to burn, I blinked quickly because I was not about to let Brea Chase see me cry.
She walked in front of me and glared, "So, a little bird told me that you were eying my man." She said, hate laced in every word.
"That's not what happened!" I exclaimed, "I was looking at the poster that was behind him!" I had made a poster for the drama club and I wanted to see how it looked.
"How stupid do you think I am?!" Brea almost screeched.
I bit my tongue so I didn't blurt out "You don't want me to answer that." I just glowered at her.
"What's the matter with you? Cat suddenly got your tongue?" I didn't like the wicked smile she gave me, "Well I know something that will get you talking. Ladies...Don't hold anything back."
And they didn't.
I was forced to the ground, my arms and legs were bombarded with blows from Makenzie, Chanel, Annette and Lindsay. While Brea began to slug me in the face. I had to curl into a ball, I couldn't fight back.
Tears began to stream down my face, then I went wild. I called for Rew, Tom, Pepper, anyone!
"Shut up!" Brea snapped, "Shut up you stupid sk-"
"GET AWAY FROM HER!"
There were several swears from Brea and her gang before the blows let up and I was left lying there on the concrete.
Then I heard about five pairs of feet running in my direction, I saw Rew, Tom, Peach, and Hermann's legs rush past me, and then Straight A appeared and knelt down by me.
"Are you okay Rainbow?" She asks.
I was too shaken to answer, so I sort of shook my head as I see the girls chase Brea and her gang back to their car. Throwing whatever they could get their hands on at them. They threw rocks, sticks, loose gravel from the road, Peach even threw a handful of sand at them.
As Brea and her gang drove off, swearing at Rew and the others, I heard another pair of feet rushing up to where Straight A and I were. "Girls, what's going o-...oh my!" I was suddenly in another pair of arms. Pepper's arms.
"Oh Honey, Honey what happened?" Pepper asked, pushing my hair behind my ear.
"I-I..." I couldn't say anymore, I broke right there, bawling into Pepper's chest as she brushed my hair with her fingers, "Shh, Honey, it's okay...You're gonna be okay, Shh."
After a minute or so I calmed down enough to look around at the other girls. Straight A was kneeling beside me, probably checking to see if my injuries were too bad.
Peach was bent over slightly, her hands on her knees, biting her bottom lip while her eyebrows were knitted together with concern, for once her eyes weren't lit up and dancing.
Tom and Hermann were looking between me and each other with looks of concern on their faces.
But the one that stuck with me the most was Rew. Her eyes were wide and she had a hand over her mouth, she looked as bad as I felt and was close to tears.
A little later after we got home, the girls helped me inside and tended to my wounds. My arms and legs were covered in bruises and scrapes, there was a shiner forming to the side of my right eye, and my nose and bottom lip were bleeding.
That night I had to sleep with Pepper, I felt so dumb and childish after, but at the time, I just wanted to be close to someone.
"Are you gonna be okay, Baby?" Pepper asked me as she put her arm around me.
I just blinked and started to nod off, "I hope so." I said.
*RRRIIIINNNNGG*
The bell snaps me out of my thoughts and I quickly put my pencil back in my bag and turn in my paper to the teacher.
I walk out of my math classroom and down the hall to my final class of the day, science class. When I walk in, there's a substitute sitting in the teacher's desk. Mr. Blank, I've had him before, he doesn't care what you do as long as you don't trash the classroom or start a rumble.
"Name?" He asks.
"Rainbow Swan." I say. When I was enrolled in school, I made Pepper put "Rainbow" instead of my real name.
He writes down my name as I head to my seat; in the very back, next to a window. I have to climb up onto the stool because it's high off the ground, for me anyway.
Seeing that our substitute doesn't care what we do, I pull out my sketchbook and my pencils. I flip to my latest drawing: One of those yellow and black striped butterflies landing on a lavender flower.
The bell rings as I work on adding details to the lavender, then I see someone sit next to me from the corner of my eye. "Hey Rainbow."
I'm too engrossed by my drawing to look up, "Hi Randy."
Randy and I have been friends since school started, even though he's a soc and I'm middle class/greaser. We don't really care, we like each other. As friends that is.
"How's things?" He asks.
"Meh..." I say with a slight shrug.
Randy suddenly moves some of my hair out of my face, "I thought I saw something." He's referring to the light red mark on my cheek from where Chanel slugged me, "Did you have a run in with Chanel?"
"You heard about that?" I ask, setting down my pencil and looking at him.
"Pretty sure the whole school knows about it, you know how fast Mackenzie can spread rumors."
I just shrug, "Yeah."
"So, are you going to Samantha Green's party this Friday?" Randy asks suddenly, changing the topic entirely.
Samantha Green is the party girl of the school, even more of a party girl than Hermann.
"I don't think so." I say, going back to my drawing.
"Aw come on Rainbow. Samantha throws the best parties...and I heard that Joey Don really wants you to go."
My head snaps up. Joey Don is the school's "Hunk" if you will, all the girls want him...And he wants me to go the party!
"Well, uh...I will think about it." I quickly regain myself, "But it'll probably be the same answer as before."
Randy sighs, rolls his eyes slightly and messes up my hair, "You're one of a kind Rainbow, I'll give ya that."
I just laugh.
Randy and I talk until the final bell rings. I stuff my things into my bag and walk out the door with Randy. Someone walks up to us.
"Hey Randy, are you read- Oh hey kid." My hair is ruffled once again.
"Hi Bob." I say, fixing my hair. Bob and I are friends also, Randy introduced me to him.
"What were you going to ask me?" Randy asks Bob.
"If you were ready to go? Me and the guys are waiting."
"Uh, yeah I'm ready, see ya later Rainbow."
"Bye Kiddo."
"Bye Randy, bye Bob." I say as they walk away.
After that I walk to the main entrance and walk outside. I sit on the steps leading up to the entrance, waiting for Tom and Straight A.
After a few minutes, Straight A walks up to me, "Hi Rainbow, how was your day?" She asks as I stand from my seat on the steps.
"It was...interesting. Tom training?" I ask, trying to change the subject.
"Yeah...And how was it interesting?"
I sigh and begin to make my way down the sidewalk, "I'll tell you when we get home."
AN: Randy and Bob belong to S.E Hinton. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. :D