The Learning Curve: Chapter 11

Forks High School

SLUT

I gaped at the word scrawled in Sharpie across my locker. Had I not just two days ago been accused of prudishness? Did anyone really believe I could have gone from virgin to shameless hussy in less than a week?

I felt a guilty flush steal across the back of my neck. I wasn't exactly pure anymore, was I? I had yet to do anything, but I had brazenly asked Edward Cullen to have sex with me one day after breaking up with my boyfriend.

Still, didn't the distinction of "slut" require slightly more in quantity?

"Jessica Stanley got caught doing it this morning before school. She's in the principal's office now," Alice told me. "Jasper saw the whole thing."

I turned away from the stomach-churning sight. "Alice, I know Jessica Stanley is a miserable, bitter hag, but is she right? Does what I'm doing make me a slut?"

Alice let out a huff. "Bella, what you do with your body is nobody's business but yours. If you're okay with what you're doing, that's all that matters."

I let Alice lead me toward our second class of the day, Trig. "I'm not sure if I should be okay with what I'm doing. You said yourself that it's crazy."

My best friend shrugged. "It is crazy, but you know, I'm starting to think this might be good for you. Otherwise you're going to let this thing with Mike give you a complex, and he's so not worth it."

"There has to be some happy medium between prude and slut," I complained.

"There is, and you're in it. I mean, think about it. Girls like Stanley have sex for all the wrong reasons. They want to seem experienced, or they think they can make a guy like them that way. You're doing this just for you, and that's...kind of awesome."

"Yeah...I guess it is."

We'd just reached our building when a sudden increase in the noise level caused us to turn around. It was hard to see around the clustered students, but eventually, we saw Coach Clapp escorting two students toward the main office. The one nearest to us could be no one other than Mike Newton, though he was hardly recognizable with a blackened eye and blood dripping from his nose.

The other was harder to see, but a glimpse of coppery hair told me everything.

A/N: I really think you're going to enjoy the next chapter, which will come in the morning. I'll post before I have to go to jury duty. Praying to all that's holy that I don't get selected.

Kitten update: still doing well. He's given me some messes to clean up, and he's a little piggy, but the other cats are adjusting now. The kitten, since some have asked, is a gray tiger-striped tabby. He's very pretty, and very like his namesake in some ways (and yes, I AM a huge tennis fan to the one that asked. ;-D).