Chapter Six
A couple days passed by with nothing really happening between Paulina and Sam. They ignored each other's existence for the most part, except when they had to compliment each other every morning during Mr. Lancer's class. They managed to stop hurling insults at one another and really started to find things that they genuinely liked about the other, whether it sounded bitter or not.
It was now Wednesday, which meant that the character education club was meeting after school. At first, Sam would've groaned and found an excuse not to go, but truthfully, she liked going there now. It wasn't as boring as she thought it would be, but that was because the topics were things that she could relate to in a way.
She was now in gym class, and because Paulina eased up on torturing her, she was finally able to put her belongings back into her gym locker. Well, at least she thought she was, because after P.E. ended, her regular clothes weren't in there when she checked. She had a sneaking suspicion that Paulina was the culprit, but when she whirled around to go confront her, someone else was standing there.
"Looking for something, Manson?" One of Paulina's friends, a callous brunette named Tiffany, was standing behind her with her arms crossed. She spun around and caught the girl's eye, but once she saw Star, Paulina, and another girl standing a little behind her, her expression darkened.
"Where are my clothes, Tiffany?" She wasn't in the mood to deal with Tiffany, as she picked on her often in gym class. Paulina usually joined in with her, but for some reason, she was silent and only observing them this time. When Sam glanced at her, her eyes darted elsewhere, as though she wanted nothing to do with what was happening.
"Babygirl, when you can't find something, the most common thing to do is look for it." Star and the other girl snickered as Tiffany stepped to the side and jerked her head in the opposite direction. "In your case, I think the showers would be a really great place to check first."
Sam froze up for a second before her eyes drifted past Tiffany's shoulder and over towards the shower area. "You didn't." She brushed past the girls and rushed over to the showers, rounding the corner and scanning her eyes over the area. Sure enough, her clothes were soaking wet and scattered across the floor. "You have got to be kidding me."
"Nope, I'm not kidding." At the sound of Tiffany's voice, Sam pivoted around to face her. As soon as she did that, the one random girl in the group doused her with the water from her water bottle. She did nothing but stand there and take it, being much too stunned to properly react.
Tiffany, flashing her usual sadistic smirk, cocked her head to the side. "Paulina told us that you called her a bully. Name calling is also a part of bullying, so what does that make you? You're no better than us, and hopefully wearing wet clothes around school will humble you a bit. Right, Paulina?"
Her gaze shifted to Paulina for her reaction, but unfortunately, the Latina nervously chuckled and nodded her head. Sam didn't know why, but at that moment, she felt betrayed. Paulina definitely owed her no loyalty, but the fact that she thought they had somewhat of a mutual understanding prior to that made her blood boil.
After snatching up her soaked clothing from the floor of the shower area and squeezing it out, she swept out of the locker room like a ferocious hurricane. The bell rang a few seconds before she departed, so now she was rushing to the school's new laundromat room so that she could dry her clothes and get to lunch.
"Sam!" That was Danny's voice, no doubt being happy to see her. She stopped walking for a second and glanced over at him, and instantly, his cheerful expression melted and was replaced by concern. "Whoa, what happened?"
She was certain that her face was redder than a tomato, much to her chagrin, so she turned away from him and continued stalking down the hallway. He was relentless, however, and quickly trailed behind her. Unfortunately, Paulina had been jogging after her as well, desperately trying to catch up to her.
"Wait, wait." She pushed past Danny and caught onto Sam's wrist, which was enough to make her growl and yank her hand out of reach as she whipped around. Paulina moved her hand back to her side and sighed heavily. "Look, what happened back there was not my fault. I—"
Sam spread her fingers apart and stuck them right in Paulina's face. "I don't even want to hear it." She was certain that the amount of animosity and curtness in her voice was enough to make the girl's blood run cold, but she didn't care at that moment because she was livid. "I never directly called you a bully, but you know what? You are. You don't care about anyone's feelings but your own."
Paulina stepped up to her and jammed her forefinger right in her face. "You don't know me, okay? You don't know anything about me." Sam chuckled darkly upon hearing that and narrowed her eyes.
"I know that you're a vain, shallow, and mean-spirited person, especially to anyone you think is below your standards." She could feel moisture gathering in her eyes, but she absolutely refused to let a single tear slip out. With a quick glance over at Danny, she shook her head and took a step back from Paulina. "I may not know much about you, but I know that for sure."
And back down the hallway she marched, not daring to look behind her to see if either of them were following her. She blinked a few times to rid her eyes of the tears of anger that had welled up. She needed alone time, and being around Paulina right now wasn't going to help calm her down.
She swallowed the lump that swelled in her throat as she arrived to her destination. Luckily for her, the room was unoccupied, so she slipped inside and shut the door before locking it. She worked quickly, sticking her wet clothes in the dryer and tossing in a dryer sheet. She then adjusted the settings before starting up the machine.
She decided against drying her gym shirt because it was surprisingly not that wet compared to her hair. Using an elastic hair tie, she pulled her hair into a sloppy bun and wiped her damp hands on her gym shorts. She then lowered herself onto the floor and pressed her back against the wall before staring blankly at the dryer.
Several minutes later, Danny phased into the room with Tucker. Sam only knew that because she heard approaching footsteps, and there was no way anyone else could've gotten inside because she had the door locked. All was silent until both boys took a seat on either side of her and just stared at the dryer.
"You do know that Tuck and I weren't going to just leave you in here by yourself, right?" Danny asked. Sam raised an eyebrow and frowned at him.
"I was going to meet you guys in the cafeteria after I dried my clothes." She moved her hands into her lap and exhaled. "Figured I'd soak up some alone time. I needed to calm my nerves before I got into another fight."
Tucker pressed his lips together and blinked a few times. "Yeah, we overheard some people talking about what happened in the locker room. Man, some girls can be so evil sometimes."
Sam snorted. "You don't know the half of it."
"It's weird how Dash eased up on me and Paulina started going harder on you." Danny rose from his position on the floor and slowly started pacing back and forth. Sam's eyes followed his movement and Tucker whipped out his PDA. "You don't think she's jealous, do you?"
"Of me? I highly doubt that." She was fairly certain that Paulina wasn't jealous of her looks, her clothing, or anything pertaining to her appearance. She more than likely envied her relationship with Danny, but she wasn't about to tell him that, though any fool could see it. "She thinks I called her a bully yesterday during our character education session."
Tucker's brows curled together. "Isn't she one, though?"
"I don't know. I've never considered her one. I just thought she was shallow."
"You called her a bully today, though." Danny sucked in a heavy breath of air and stopped pacing. He then knelt down beside Sam and frowned at her. "I saw those tears in your eyes back there, Sam. It takes a lot to make you cry, and barely even then."
"Those were just tears of anger. I don't think you realize how badly I wanted to fight those girls back in the locker room." She knew better than to attack one girl because the others would just jump on her. The fact that she wanted to react a certain way but couldn't is what made her frustration build up and snap. "They soaked my clothes and threw water on me because Paulina told them I called her a bully."
"What is this, elementary school?" Danny muttered. "I'm glad you ended up not fighting. That would've ended badly for them."
Sam's lips parted and a chuckle slipped out. "Please. I can take down one of them, but definitely not all four of them. I bet their menstrual cycles are linked up, too."
Danny and Tucker exchanged a brief grimace before Tucker inquired, "Well, what are you going to do about Paulina?"
Sam scowled down at her now folded hands and lifted her shoulders before letting them wilt. "Nothing. I stay out of her way, but somehow, she still finds a way to communicate with me. I'm just glad tomorrow's the last day that we have to acknowledge each other because our week of compliments is up after Lancer's."
"You can't reason with a bully," Danny replied. "Unless you have superpowers, apparently. You know, courtesy of Dash."
Sam hummed softly and shook her head. "I don't think I actually want to label her as a bully. Bullies pick on people who they find weak and vulnerable. I've never shown her fear, but yet she keeps picking at me, so she's no bully. There's something deeper to her motives."
Tucker raised a brow. "And what do you suppose her motives are?"
"I don't know," she responded, "but I'm going to find out."