Neon blue tempera paint does not come out of clothes at all. Luckily, it comes out of hair with some washing or I'd have gotten twenty-five to life for murder.
It wasn't the guy. Jeez, I didn't even know his name. But it wasn't him. It wasn't Lily, either, irritatingly enough. It was some brunette girl I didn't even know, that I'd never spoken to in my freaking life. She'd just waltzed on by me and then she'd dumped a can of paint on my head!
I would've punched her. Really, I had my fist clenched and everything, but that guy beat me to it.
"Julie," Lily's boyfriend growled, grabbing the girl's hand. "That wasn't very kind of you."
"She hit Lily."
"You're lucky I haven't hit you, yet," I snapped, rising to my feet, dripping paint like cyan blood. My hair was drenched, and a hush had fallen over the class. Even Ms. O'Brien was watching, lips pursed, brown eyes narrowed. I cocked my arm back, ready to slam my fist into her face. Now, usually I'm not a violent person. No, really. But she dumped paint on my head.
Let me repeat that.
Paint.
On my head.
So yeah, I was about to hit her.
"Allow me," the guy said.
I glanced at him, surprised. Odd. Usually, boys are like, "No, I can't hit girls. It's wrong." I hated it when guys said that. As if I couldn't punch their lights out or beat them over the head with a baseball bat or a crowbar or something. Still... why was Lily's boyfriend offering to beat up one of her groupies? I didn't trust it.
And why wasn't the teacher stepping in?
Lily, I saw, was staring at Ms. O'Brien, whose brown eyes were locked with hers. I could feel the tension rolling off of them both, but somehow, I knew that the blonde would win. She had some bizarre power here. I didn't understand it, but I'd figure it out.
"Thanks but no thanks. She's not worth it."
I felt Lily's eyes on me and turned to smirk at her. How do you smirk when you're covered in blue tempera? Just natural talent, I guess.
"See ya around, ice bitch," I hissed at the girl, and barked at her. She jumped. Jeez, was I that scary?
Of course I had to go home to get this freaking paint off. I wasn't going to wash this off in the school bathroom. There was just no way it would work. Five-foot-five me was too big to fit in one of those sinks. I needed to wash the blue out of my hair. Blue paint and red hair didn't mix well. No, you didn't get purple. And I was eighteen, so I could sign myself out and leave campus if I had a car.
I froze on the front steps.
Crap.
I didn't have a car.
"Need a ride?"
I whirled around, arm immediately cocking, and I almost swung before I realized that it was that guy - Lily's boyfriend. Great, was he going to hassle me? Was he the truancy police for Principal Showalter? So I hadn't signed myself out like I was supposed to. So what? My parents paid over ten thousand dollars to pop me into this school.
What a waste of money.
"What?"
"Do you need a ride?" He repeated as if I were dumb.
"No."
"Sure about that?"
"Yeah."
"Can you speak with words longer than one syllable?"
Against my will, I smiled and nodded, dropping my arm. I wasn't getting The Vibe off of him. You know The Vibe - that sense of malice and cruelty that you pick up from some people. If I hadn't been so distracted when I ran into Lily, I'd have felt it off her. But it wasn't on the boyfriend. Maybe he wasn't so bad. Maybe he was just stupid.
He was dating the blonde, after all.
"Sorry. New school."
"You always act like you're in a war zone when you hit a new school?" He asked.
"Yeah."
"Good," he replied, surprising me. "You'll fit right in. Lemme give you a ride."
Pursing my lips, I thought about it. Walk home in the sweltering heat with paint drying in my hair, or ride around in a car with a strange psychopathic boy I didn't know who was dating some girl who'd slapped me for no reason?
I snatched my can of Mace out of the depths of my backpack. Tossing it up and grabbing it out of the air, I nodded and smiled.
"Yeah, I'll take a ride."
He didn't even bat an eye at the Mace.
