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Chapter Twenty Eight

During the next few weeks, life seemed to calm down. I started school and continued to work afternoons at the smoothie shop. As a result of the whole 'Mason' incident, dad pushed back driver's ed yet again. I think he was almost happy that he had a reason to postpone the inevitable.

Of course the way things were going, I was going to be forty before I got my license.

But even though I was itching to get behind the wheel, the one good thing that came out of the whole incident was that I was able to talk to Mason.

Of course, the whole 'talking with Mason' thing wasn't without limitations, especially when you lived in a house with six other people. If mom or dad weren't just 'casually' strolling by, Joe was making armpit noises or the twins were pretending they were lions or cavemen and using my room as their playground.

Needless to say, there wasn't a lot of romantic hopes and dreams being plotted out.

As for school, well, I could have so totally lived without it. Even Joe was better at getting up and ready than I was.

"Shel, wake up. You're going to miss the bus."

Ugh, the bus. It was like a germ infected cage filled with football players and cretins.

I just wanted to sleep.

"Shelster c'mon, get up."

I didn't know why people couldn't leave me alone.

"Does my sock smell?"

I jumped at the touch of cotton on my face. Joe hovered above me grinning. The sock was practically black.

"GET OUT!"

He laughed.

"I GOT HER UP!" he announced.

I swung back the covers and stood up. Brothers were pure evil. I vaguely remember carrying Joe around everywhere when I was little. Some days I wished I could still pick him up. Then I could put him somewhere and throw away the key.

I glanced at the clock. I really was late. I took a quick shower, yanked my hair into a ponytail, got dressed, and headed downstairs.

Ally was licking the icing off of her toaster strudel by the time I got into the kitchen. Dad handed me a plate on my way to the table.

"You have two minutes. Scarf it fast."

I sat down and took a huge bite like I normally did. I chewed voraciously and swallowed it down with some juice. I opened my mouth to take another bite, but the first didn't seem to want to go all the way down and--

"BUS!"

"I WANNA GO ON THE BUS!" Brayden and Tristan shouted.

"You two can't go on the bus," mom explained.

My bus always arrived twenty minutes before Ally and Joe's did. They loved to torture the high schoolers.

I grabbed my bag and waved.

"Do you work today?" mom called out.

"Nope!"

"Okay, see you this afternoon! Have a good day!"

I headed out the door and down the steps. One would have thought that a private school like the one dad sent me to would have had some type of fancy stretch limo service for all of us high schoolers. Instead we had a maroon bus with white scrollwork.

I didn't care what they said about all this 'academy' talk, no matter how they sliced it we were just a plain old high school.

The bus doors whooshed open and I climbed aboard. The strudel was still floating halfway between my throat and stomach.

I made my way to the back and sat down in an empty seat. The guy in front of me whirled around.

"Hey Shel-fish."

I tried to ignore him. For the past two years I had been called Shel-fish by Frank McDonald every morning. I got out my sketchbook and pencil.

"Whatcha drawing?"

Every morning he asked and every morning I ignored him. I was working on a really cool portrait of Mason sitting on the fence around the horse arena. I figured I could finish the shading between the bus and my first two classes.

"Aren't you ever going to talk to me?"

I rolled my charcoal pencil in my hands. I didn't want to shade too much and--

The book flew out of my hands. I looked up. Frank grinned and stared at the page. He laughed and nudged his buddy.

"Look, she must be designing covers for those trashy girly books," he said loudly. A couple other kids turned around. Frank held up my half-finished drawing.

"Let's see what else we have here..."

I stood up. "GIVE IT BACK!"

He just snickered and kept it out of my reach. He was a lot taller than I was.

Damn basketball players.

I had a couple tastefully done body shots in there. My stomach clenched.

"Here girls, what do you think of this?"

It was the picture I had sketched of Mason by the lake. I felt my face flame red. A couple of the girls giggled.

"No wonder Shel-fish doesn't talk to me. She's got herself a cowboy boyfriend!"

"GIVE IT BACK!"

He turned to me and snickered.

"And what are you going to do if I don't?"

The bus was swaying but I managed to scramble up on my seat. I reached out for the book but he held it back.

My morning was not going great. I couldn't digest the strudel and my sketches were being mocked and...

The bus lurched again and I grabbed onto the rail above my head for support.

But it was one lurch too many.

Frank ended up wearing my partially digested strudel. But even through my mortification, I grabbed my sketchbook and stashed it into my bag. The whole bus filled with screams (mostly from the girls) and Frank looked like he wanted to pass out.

So much for that whole 'tough' basketball player thing. I sank down weakly in my seat and prayed to die.

School sucked.

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"Why didn't you tell me you weren't feeling well?"

Mom and I were walking back towards the car. I had gone from the bus to the nurse and now I was headed home.

"I was feeling fine, but this guy stole something from me and I stood up on the bench to get it back and I got motion sickness."

Mom sighed. "Shel, what am I going to do with you?"

I slid into the car, pressed my head against the soft leather seat, and closed my eyes.

I was glad that I was going home. I knew that I wouldn't hear the end of this at school for a long time.

"Mom, are public schools as catty as private schools?" I asked. Mom snorted.

"Cattier."

I sighed.

It looked like I was going to go back to eating my lunch in the girl's bathroom again.

Joy.