Chapter 8:

Ugh. I really don't feel so well. Well, first of all, my back hurts. And then second, my neck hurts. And third, my mom didn't come home last night so I'm stuck here with my dad. (Sometimes my mom gets busy shifts—well, she's a doctor—so she has to stay at the hospital, and I get to stay home with my dad). Woohoo…

Anyway, my dad doesn't look at me. My cell died so I don't have any idea if Zack did anything.

I really hope he didn't. I have enough to worry about without everybody knowing that my dad hurts me at home, or being sent to a foster home. I really wouldn't want that, since Mom takes good care of me and everything.

Anyway, I'm eating this weird soggy cereal, and when my dad comes down the stairs, I grab all my stuff and run. The bus driver really won't care if I'm early or not.

xxx

Miss Evans finishes giving me this long talk outside about how I should be finishing my homework, but I really don't feel like complaining or trying to excuse myself. I tell her I waste time a lot, and I'll try to finish my three assignments by tomorrow.

Miss Evans looks sort of worried, because I don't make up one of my famous Tapeworm excuse stories.

Ugh, Science. I hate this class. It gives me all of the problems.

Anyway, I still have to do that long, stupid paper, so I get out my pencil and look at what I have so far.

This essay will discuss dissecting a sheep's eye. First you get a scalpel and make an incision at the

Incision WHERE? Oh God.

I fish this packet thing out of my backpack that has all the lovely parts of the eye written on it. Someone comes up behind me.

Guess who?

"What do you want Zack?" I say, sort of angrily.

"Tapeworm?" He sounds sort of sorry, but I really don't want his sympathy right now. "Tapeworm, I need to talk to you."

"Go dissect your eye, Zack," I say.

"Tapeworm!" he yelps, taking me in my chair and turning both of us (the chair and I) around to face him. I don't feel like seeing his ugly face.

"Are you ok?"

"Yeah," Zack's giving me pity and I don't want pity from him.

"Tapeworm, you need to tell somebody."

"No!" I practically scream. "I can't, ok? I can't! Why? Because he doesn't hurt me that bad and I really don't want to deal with it. I don't want to deal with it…" There's a lump in my throat and I'm afraid I'm going to cry.

That's the last thing I need Zack to see.

"Your dad beats you—that's not normal, Tapeworm. That's really not. I'll tell somebody."

"Shut up Zack. Don't tell anybody, or else I'll tell your mom that you're going to hurt Cody."

I turn away from him. I don't need this. I don't need to hear this anymore.

He tries to say something, but I just block him out. I don't need this.

xxx

It's after school and I'm really not interested in going home. I'll stay away for as long as possible.

I want to ask Cody so badly if I can just go home with him and not go home at all, but I really can't do that. So I'm just walking with him, trying not to get him to go home and stay with me. He has to stay late anyway, since Zack has basketball practice, so Mrs. Martin only wants to pick him up once—and she doesn't feel like paying the bus fee today.

We're just walking around and I really want to tell him that I heard Zack talking about hurting him, but I know Cody won't believe me, so I don't say anything at all. He'll just protect Zack and deny that that kid's really messed up, so yeah. He doesn't say anything about yesterday either, when Zack really hurt him, so I don't bring it up. I've cried enough these days without needing to watch Cody cry too. Watching Cody cry makes me sadder than when I cry myself.

We sit down on a couple of lunch benches, and look out at nowhere, I guess. Cody seems to be focusing on something, and I want to poke him and ask him what's so interesting about the soccer field, but I don't think I can ruin that moment. So, being the truly kind person that I am, I just sit and look at him.

It's perfectly quiet, and for once I feel completely peaceful.

Of course someone has to wreck it for us.

There's a sound from behind us, and as Cody and I turn around we see Zack, complete with a couple of guys from the basketball team, including Drew. And with them, they have a few buckets of paint.

Sorry it's a bit short, but I had to end it there. It's a weird cliffy. Oh, I think I'm leaving Currently Without a Name as the title. Review, please.