Song of the chapter - Sign of the Times by Harry Styles

Tuesday rolled around sooner than I would have liked. Tuesday meant school. Tuesday meant the start of a new semester. But what it didn't mean was a change in my norm. That norm would be locker problems, disdainful glances from classmates with emotional issues, occasional heartbreak caused by ignorant crushes, and Seth. Seth was the biggest problem on my long list of issues to deal with each day.

Or so I thought.

By the time I made it to my infamous locker, I quickly realized that Seth was just a side show in the circus that happened to be my life. Seriously, when had my life gotten so dramatic? Never would I have thought I would miss the days of anonymity. But there I was, faced with yet another dramatic turn of events.

Dylan, AKA Mr. Sally, was once again parked in front of my locker. But this time he had company. Namely, the ex-Mrs. Sally.

You would have thought I would catch them in the middle of a heated exchange based on the fact that he dumped her for Cailie the cheerleader and then the whole "Mallory likes Dylan" rumor created by Seth. His finest hour, I might add.

So yeah, you would have thought those two would be going at it.

Well, they were, but not with their words. More like their tongues.

That's right, Mia and Dylan were in a heated exchange, of the make-out variety. And for some horrific twist of fate, my freaking locker was their venue of choice.

What. The. Hell.

Then, from some place buried deep down inside that I had no idea even existed, I snapped.

"Are you kidding me! Get the fudge away from my locker!" Only I didn't say fudge, however it did contain an f-u.

Dylan pulled his mouth away from Mia, who by the way gave me the dirtiest look humanly possible, and laughed.

"Whoa! Sally, what's crawled up your-"

"Don't you even think about finishing that sentence, Dylan! Are you hearing impaired? Get.away.from.my.locker!" This guy was a bigger douche than Seth. And that was really saying something.

"Calm down, crazy. We're moving" Dylan said with his hands up in surrender. Who did he think he was, calling me crazy! I knew I had snapped but I was starting to feel a whole new level of snap coming on.

"Oh, looks like you didn't get what you wanted, does it Sally?" It was Mia's turn to add her two cents. This girl was trouble, but she had no idea what she had just unleashed in me. "He's mine and that's how it's staying, like it or not." she added with her signature smirk.

"Listen, you two brain dead idiots, I don't like Dylan, have never liked him, and never will. I can't stand either of you with your attitudes and intimidation. People like you will never get a clue. You think the world revolves around you and your petty lives. Well, I have news for you. This is it, the best your life will get. You may be a big deal here in high school but once you set foot into the real world, you'll find out that your meager lives are pretty meaningless. So congrats on winning in high school, because the rest of your life is downhill from here."

Whoops.

I think I might have gone too far with that little rant. But can you blame me? It had been weeks of tension and eggshells in my life. These two were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. In fairness to me, it was MY locker and I honestly have no idea what type of magnetism continued to draw them to it.

After I had shut my mouth, cutting off any other retort I may conjure up, Mia gave me a look that, had it contained physical properties, would have ended my meager existence right then and there. Dylan just appeared shocked, like he had no idea what brought on my display of venom.

"Well, sweetie, it's always interesting to hear the ramblings of the unimportant. Continue thinking like that, see where it gets you in life. I guarantee you that I'll be someone you will live to regret spewing your nastiness to." As Mia ended her rebuttal, she stepped a bit closer to me, looking down at me. She had three inch heels on so, yeah. She intimidated.

I just stared her down, not showing my true feelings. Freaking out is what I was actually doing. What the heck had I just done? Nothing good, that's for sure.

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, the bell rang. There was absolutely no way I was going to make it to Spanish on time. Señora Gomez was going to send me to opportunity, I just knew it. Quiet, responsible Mallory was about to have her first taste of consequences. And it wasn't even my fault. Well, it was a little, after my outburst that is.

I retreated from my now tainted locker ( I seriously needed to stay away from that thing) and bolted as fast as I could to Spanish. As I rounded the corner of the building and made it to the door of my classroom, a proctor called to me.

"Young lady!"

Crap. Not what I needed, a tardy slip from a proctor would make me even later than I already was. And this was the teacher that would take the tardy slip seriously.

I turned around, ready to accept my fate, and saw that he held a paper out towards me.

"I think you dropped this."

Oh, thank God! Finally something was going right! I wasn't being given a tardy slip, but a paper that had fallen in my rush to class.

"Thank you" I managed as I grabbed the paper with one hand and the door handle with the other. Now to try to avoid Señora Gomez's wrath for being late...

She was in the middle of a sentence when I stepped inside, but she paused and looked right at me. Her left eyebrow raised as she gave me a very pointed look, one that told me to take my seat immediately.

As I sat down, Señora took a deep intake of breath and continued her lecture on the subjunctive tense. It seemed to me that I had actually gotten away with being late. I couldn't believe my luck! Twice in the span of two minutes was unheard of in my world. The proctor and Señora must have known that I was a good student and wouldn't willingly break the rules.

Taking my own calming breath, I settled into my seat and began to take notes on whatever it was Señora was discussing. As I leaned over to my backpack to grab an eraser, I noticed Gina slumped in her seat.

She did not look good. She hadn't looked good for a while, at least a couple of weeks. Her pale skin seemed more ghost-like. I found myself worrying about her health. Was something wrong? Like really wrong? I couldn't help myself, and leaned closer to her.

"Are you okay?" I whispered.

Gina just glared at me, but the usual fire behind her eyes was gone. There was absolutely something wrong. I didn't know if it was emotional or physical, but my semi-intact mail reading skills told me there was a problem, and it was big.

"Let me know if you need anything" I whispered again. I knew she wouldn't care, but something in me had to say it. She needed someone and I knew it. What kind of person would I be to not offer.

But of course Gina just rolled her eyes and looked away.

"Mallory, silencio Por favor." Señora Gomez was the one glaring at me now.

Sheesh, I kept stepping in it, didn't I. Whatever.

"Lo siento, Señora"

There went my two minutes of luck, already used up.

Turns out I was more right than I knew. As I got to my third period class, which had dropped out of second place and landed closer to last place for the best part of my day after the recent Luke/Lillian revelations and the new status of the Tyler situation, I heard my name on the loudspeaker system.

"Mallory Bennings, please report to Opportunity."

Geez! Couldn't a girl catch a break! I thought it was all good, but it looked like I had a tardy consequence after all.

I begrudgingly walked the opposite direction of my class, heading to Opportunity. This sucked. I had never in my life been sent to any type of discipline. And now the entire school had heard my name called. I knew that Seth would use that against me later. It would probably mess up Operation TDS as well. Great.

I got to the class designated as "legal ditching" by half of the student body and entered with more nervousness than I knew a person could have. What would happen behind that door? I was more nervous about the other students I would find there than the lecture I might get from the counselor.

I walked in and saw two guys, obviously "lifers" in the Opportunity class, and the counselor. All were seated at their respective desks.

"Ahh, Miss Bennings. Come up here, please" The counselor waved me over.

"Yes, sir" Hey, I was nothing if not respectful to adults.

"Miss Bennings, an incident has been brought to my attention that has me quite concerned." he leans back in his chair and crosses his arms over his chest.

"Oh?" I'm not sure what he is talking about. Gina? Me talking in class? Me being late? I figured I'd let him just tell me rather than play twenty questions.

"Yes, Mia Anderson came to me in tears after being told her life was meaningless." He paused for dramatic effect. Was he kidding?

My mouth was open but I had no words.

"We take these offenses very seriously. With the climate of cyber-bullying and teen suicides these days, we have to investigate every complaint before they get out of hand."

I couldn't believe this! She had used the oldest trick in the book, crocodile tears. That girl could care less about what I had said. She put just the right spin on it to get me in trouble. Well, I knew right away that I had gone too far in my little speech. I shouldn't have been surprised.

"So, do you have anything to say for yourself?" Mr. Jeffries asked.

"Um, well, Mia and Dylan have been hanging out in front of my locker and kind of bothering me when I just needed to get my notes..." Oh, that sounded so lame. How could I put it so that it made me sound less awful?

"That hardly sounds offensive, Miss Bennings." The disapproval in his voice was strong.

"Well, it was worse than just that. They kept accusing me of having a crush on Dylan and Mia threatened me if I got near him. But they keep coming to my locker!" I didn't think I was making much progress with him.

"Do you have a crush on him?"

"No!" I said a little too loudly.

"In any event, you are to spend the rest of third period here, completing an essay on the dangers of bullying peers. When you finish, you are free to go. And I hope to never see you here again, is that clear?"

"Yes, sir" so much for politeness. It certainly wasn't helping me out of this situation.

Great.

I had no choice other than to write it out. So that's what I did. Luckily for me I had enough experience lately with Mia and Seth to use as writing material and finished the essay just as the bell for fourth period rang.

By lunch time I was a wreck. The course of the mornings events had caught up to me and I felt like a basket case. I got to our lunch spot last, arriving just in time to catch some of the day's gossip.

"Did anyone catch a glimpse of him?" Robin asked.

"Who?" I interjected, to no response.

"I didn't but I heard he is hot." Stacey put in.

"Who?" I said a little louder.

"Well, he's a senior so of course none of you saw him. I have him in second period and he is pretty cute." Christy offered.

"WHO?!?" I shouted. "Hello!"

"The new kid. He just started today and he's supposed to be a big deal." Judy finally replied to my inquiry.

"Oh." I hadn't heard anything about a new kid, but I had been pretty wrapped up in my own drama. Speaking of which...

"Well, you won't believe what happened to me today." I started.

"Oh, right, Mallory! I heard you get called to Opportunity! What happened?" Robin gave me her full attention.

Actually all of them were now glued to my every word as I retold my horror story. Starting with Dylan and Mia's terrorizing PDA and ending with my essay, they hung onto each sordid detail. Wide eyes and gasps told me that it was as horrific as I thought it was. Yay me.

Looked like I was winning at life.

"Wow, Mal, I can't believe Mia. She must really have it out for you! What are you gonna do?" Stacy asked.

"You mean other than freak out? Oh nothing I guess. What else can I do?"

"All I know is, you are coming to my house after school today. You shouldn't get within ten feet of Seth today, until your parents get home at least." Robin stated, clearly not giving me an opportunity to refuse.

I was actually okay with that. The truth was, ever since meeting TJ and realizing that he was the embodiment of my fantasy life, I hadn't found refuge in my Tyler time. Quite the opposite, now my walks home alone had become almost torture. I had started thinking about the reality of the situation rather than my own made up story line.

"Yeah, okay. It's probably a good idea. Seth would probably lock me out and move our hidden house key anyway."

My parents didn't want us carrying a house key around that we could lose so they kept one in a flower pot for us to let ourselves in with. Actually, it was pretty stupid of them because Seth had told half of his friends where it was so, yeah. That break in was coming down the pike any day.

The rest of the day dragged a bit. I was so anxious to get out of there that the minutes seemed to slow down. By the end of my last class. I was literally shaking with stress. The anxiety of the past few weeks had caught up to me.

The thing was, my life had been pretty predictable up until then. Boring, yes, but I never experienced the level of uncertainty about each day as I had been since my war with Seth, Dylan's locker obsession and of course TJ. I didn't know how to handle the curves in the road I was running into.

As I walked with Robin through the parking lot and out of the school grounds, yet another curve came my way. When we walked past the field Robin made an innocent remark, and my world started spinning.

"Hey, looks like the soccer team has a new player."

Following her gaze, I looked over to the field and gasped, causing Robin to give me a huge smirk.

The new kid, the big deal, the hot senior, was practicing with the team, and it was TJ.

"Looks like you are seeing him sooner than you thought." Robin mused.

Now what?

^^^^^

Well, I finished it early so I thought, why make them wait?

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