Chapter 25

Rebecca went to school the next day ready to see Elite. Her mother had dropped her and the boys off at the high school and they walked in.

"Bet you can't wait to see what's-his-face." Adan said.

"Lay off." Rebecca snapped.

"Now, now. No need to get all defensive on me. You've been different lately, Rebecca."

"How?" Rebecca asked as they walked to homeroom, which was the only time they sat in the same classroom together.

"You don't do anything with us anymore. You don't hang out with us in homeroom anymore. And me and Adan know about you skipping art a couple of weeks ago. It's not like you to skip class, Rebecca." Micheal said as they sat, looking concerned.

"How did you find out?" Rebecca asked, surprised.

"Everyone knows, Rebecca. People saw you and Elite go into the old gym. Don't get embrassed when I ask this, but what were you two doing?" Adan asked.

"Oh. We talked the whole hour. They never disconnected the bell system in there so we knew when the hour ended. Don't worry, nothing went on."

"But something had to have happened." Micheal said.

"He kissed me, but that was it. I promise."

"He what?" Adan asked, an angry look crossing his face. Rebecca had never seen her so protective of her.

"Don't worry, it was just a kiss. Adan."

"And it wasn't forced?"

"No."

"If I find out you're lying and he did force a kiss on you..."

"What are you smiling about? Do you want Adan to kill him?" Micheal asked.

"It's not that. It's just i've never seen either of you so protective of me." Adan's face relaxed into a smile.

"Just cause we don't act it doesn't mean that we don't care, Rebecca. I have to be protective over you and Micheal. I'm the oldest, remember?"

"Hey! Only by a couple of minutes!" Rebecca said with a smile. Just then the bell rang. They picked up their bags and headed for the door.

"Hey, guys, since we're in the same hall this hour, why don't you walk with me?" Rebecca asked.

"Sure. Doesn't Elite walk with you since you have all your classes together?" Micheal asked.

"I haven't seen him yet. He's not at my locker." Rebecca said, nodding toward her locker. They reached the locker and she opened it. In it sat a piece of folded paper. Rebecca picked it up and stuck it in her pocket.

"Is it from Elite?" Adan asked.

"Don't know. I'm not going to read it now, though. I'm not going to be late for class."

"But you'll skip art class?" Micheal teased.

"Hey, that was only once." Rebecca protested, smiling. She grabbed her Government book and shut her locker. She started on down the hall, one brother on each side of her. They reached her classroom first.

"Now, Rebecca, don't skip class." Adan said in a mock warning. He and Micheal laughed while Rebecca blushed a deep scarlet.

"See ya later!" The boys called as Rebecca walked into the classroom. As she walked in, everyone looked up at her. She suddenly felt as if the air had been sucked out of the room. She walked across the room and to her seat, feeling as if the students were still staring at her. She opened her book and tried to go over the section for the day, but all she could see were the eyes of her classmates.

The bell rang and the teacher walked in. When Rebecca looked up, she realized it was a sub. He was tall with brown hair. He walked over to the desk and set down the book he was carrying. He walked around the desk and picked up a dry erase marker to write on the board with. As he wrote, he talked.

"My name is Mr. Sanioga and I will be your teacher for today. Since I was left no instructions, you will have a free day. I will not tolerate you being loud. I will give you two warnings. If you do not settle down and I must warn you a third time, then I will assign you homework. This will be noted to your regular techaer, who you will turn the assignment in to.

"I trust you understand these rules and I expect you to follow them. You may move around and talk amongst yourselves or you may choose to use this time as a studyhall." Mr. Sanioga said as he sat and opened his book and began to read. Rebecca looked back down at her book, but she couldn't stay focused.

Suddenly, she felt surrounded and she looked up. All around her stood the girls in the class. The boys had grouped in the back right corner of the room. There were only five girls in the class, including herself, so there was one girl in front of her, one behind her, one to her left, and one to her right.

The girl in front of her was the most popular in their graduating class. Rebecca tried to put on a brave face and said in a much more confident voice than she felt,

"What do you want, Rachel?"

"Is that really the way to greet a classmate? Didn't your mother teach you to be polite?" This made Rose mad. She clinched her teeth and said,

"Don't you dare say another thing about my mother. If you would have had her in elementart school, you would at least know the meaning of the word."

"Say that again and we'll beat the meaning into you." Ashley, Rachel's right-hand girl, said. Rebecca brought her large blue eyes, now darkened with a steely gaze, to the girl on her right and said,

"Promise?"

"Back to why we're even thinking about talking to a piece of trash like you. Jacob doesn't deserve you. He can do much better. He should be with someone like me. How many times have you had to sleep with him to get him to even talk to you?" Rachel said with a laugh, the other three girls laughing with her.

"None. I don't resort to being a slut like you to get people to talk to me." Rebecca said with a face straight enough to make a professional poker player tremble. That cut the girls' laughter short.

"What did you just say?" Ashley said.

"You heard me." Rebecca said, still looking into Rachel's shocked face. "What's wrong, Rachel? Does the truth leave a bitter taste in your mouth?"

"You bi-"

"You better be watching your language, Nichole. You don't want to ruin your miss goody-goody reputation." Rebecca said to the girl behind her, her gaze still on Rachel.

"How could you say something like that? That was completely rude and uncalled for." Sara, who sat on her left, said.

"What? And what Rachel said wasn't rude?" Rebecca said, turning to Sara. At that second Rebecca heard one of the boys say,

"Look out, Rebecca!" Rebecca turned in time to recieve a punch straight in the nose from Ashley. Rebecca felt the blood start to flow from her nose. Apparently Ashley had expected her to grab her nose and start crying or something, because she looked surprised when Rebecca set firey eyes on her.

Rebecca stood, still looking at Ashley. Rebecca took a step toward Ashley, who had stood and taken a step back, causing her to trip over the chair. She had once been sitting in. Rebecca looked down at Ashley, who's eyes were as big as dinner plates. She reached down and grabbed Ashley by the shirt, easily lifting her off the ground, considering she and the boys took the weekends to train.

"HEY!" Rebecca snapped back to reality to see she was holding Ashley up by her shirt. Rebecca let Ashley go, who fell to the floor in a heap, crying. Rebecca looked around and realized where she was. She bowled Rachel over, who had apparently stood sometime while this was going on, and ran out of the room. As the door shut behind her, she heard,

"Hey! Get back here!" Rebecca walked toward the office and the secretary came out and said,

"Rebecca, are you ok? Hey! You can't leave! Come back!" That was the last thing she heard as she walked out the front door.