Chapter Four



"Kristin, where were you?" Peter demanded, hugging her. She winced but he didn't notice. "Walking around the campus...I couldn't sleep." She lied, not meeting his eyes.

***Peter's POV***

Why wasn't she meeting my eyes? It was just like when she first came. "Hey, why aren't you looking up?" I asked and softly took her chin and moved it to where I could see her face. She had a red blotch on the side of her face. "What happened?" I asked. "I hit it. When I was running. I slipped and fell onto the bench." Kristin said, looking down when she started to talk. "What were you doing here?" She demanded. "Shelby came and got me, saying you had left about 30 minutes ago and she couldn't find you and was worried so I told her to go to bed and I'd look around. I didn't see you." I said. "Maybe you didn't look everywhere." She growled. I sighed. "Whatever, Kristin. It's late, go to bed. You've got school tomorrow." I said and she walked inside and I saw she about slammed the door. "Don't you dare." I demanded. She rolled her eyes and closed the door so slowly it seemed about 5 minutes.

***No one's point of view-the next morning***

Kristin was walking to the classroom with Scott and the rest of the group, minus Steven. He had ran ahead, still mad at Scott and Auggie for "challenging" him on his knowledge of his sister. Ever since early December Peter and Sophie had started to let Kristin take all of the classes except math with the other kids. She had been given a test and had actually scored college level on all but math and history. History was on 9th grade level. Math was on 7th. "That's not bad, is it?" Kristin had asked. "No...it means you're right where you are suppose to be. So you'll have to come out whenever they're doing their math period and come to my office." Peter had explained.

When they got there Steven was sitting in the very back. "Whoa...what's munchkin doing in here?" He demanded. "Munchkin is probably smarter than you are," Scott retorted. Steven started to stand up. "Oh yeah?" He challenged just as Peter stepped in. "Uh, not today guys. Scott, don't start anything, Steven, don't start anything and stop calling your sister a munchkin." Peter said and sighed. He felt like he had just broken up the BRady Bunch or something. "I'm not his sister." Kristin grumbled. Peter pretneded he didn't hear that. "Kristin, me and Soph are going into town, so here are some review sheets you can do, okay?" He said and handed her a few worksheets with pre-algebra stuf like integers and absolute value on it. He noticed what she was wearing. An extremely baggy shirt that could've belonged to Scott if she hadn't worn it when she first came, to cover her bruises and so they wouldn't cling to her back is what she told Peter. After all her welts and bruises had gone away she had never worn that shirt again.

"Thanks." SHe muttered and went to her seat. Auggie sat by her. "Hey does your brother hate you or something?" He whispered to her. "Why?" She asked, drawing a picture on a piece of notebook paper. "Becuase he always talks trash about you. And now he's glaring at you." She looked back and quickly turned around, frightened by the stare Steven was giving her. "W-w- w--we just d-d-on't get along." She lied.

Auggie shrugged and went to his usual seat next to Jules. Kristin looked to her left and saw Scott telling Shelby something, and every once in a while Shelby would look over to her, look back at SCott and nod. Finally, Scott came over to her. "Mind if I sit here?" He asked. She shrugged.

First was reading. They were reading out loud from a book called "That Was Then...This Is Now" by S.E. Hinton. When the teacher-(a/n: I don't know their teachers name was so I'm gonna make one up, kk???)Mr. Thomas-called on Kristin she was still drawing. "Kristin???" He called again. Kristin still didn't answer. Scott nudged her. "What?" SHe whispered. "Mr. Thomas has called you 2 times to read. We're on page 45 fourth paragraph." Scott whispered. "Thanks." She muttered.

She looked up as she began to read. SHe read the rest of the page and half of the next. "Thank you, KRistin. SO glad you could join us." He said sarcastically. "Oh...anytime!" She said, rolling her eyes. "Watch it, Ms. Scarbrow." He warned.

"Her name ain't Scarbrow. It's Maddox." A voice said from the back. "Excuse me?" THe teacher demanded. "You heard me." He said boldly. "Kristin Nicole Maddox. That's her name and ain't no body gonna change it." Steven continued. "Listen, Mr. Maddox, I don't know what this is all about, but if you don't stop I'll have to refer you to Peter or Sophie when they get back." Steven rolled his eyes. "Oh goody, can I?" He said sarcastically but shut up.

Kristin looked back at him and Steven checked to see if the teacher was watching and flipped her off.