Page 26 of Echoes of Us

“You know you didn’t deserve that, right? If anyone gives you shit again, let me know and I will handle it. Especially if it’s Briggs,” she replies flatly, pats my arm and turns to leave.

Ms. Thatcher’s class is a really peaceful ending to the day. She doesn’t push me about the Beethoven concert or really even talk to me. She plays various Beethoven pieces and makes notes on difficulty level versus age group on her whiteboard. There are a few times when I have to stop myself from pointing out that she isn’t giving some age groups enough of a challenge. There are pieces I was playing at a young age she is giving to middle schoolers. I keep my mouth shut because I don’t want to give her the satisfaction of knowing I am paying attention to anything but my book. The bell rings and she waves me off before continuing to play Beethoven’s ‘5th Symphony’.

I arrive at my locker but hesitate to open it in case something like yesterday is about to occur. I look around and no one is watching me or paying attention. I slowly opened it. Nothing happens and I sigh with relief. As I finish exchanging my books, I go to close my locker but see my AP calc book still inside. Rolling my eyes, I grab the book and shove it into my backpack. I close the locker and jump. Two girls from AP Latin are standing there, smiling wide.

“Can I help you?” I ask hesitantly looking between them.

Giggling, the short brunette says, “We wanted to ask you a question to clear the rumors going around.” She looks at the tall red head.

“Yeah. We heard two different versions of your story. Are you living with the Briggs family because your parents are in jail OR are you living with them because you were a lost cause, so they dumped you into the foster system?” the redhead pries.

I turn to walk away.

“Don’t walk away from us trailer trash,” one of them barks from behind me. I continue walking away. Suddenly, I am shoved hard from behind, and I go flying forward. I try to stop the fall with my hands but hit my knees hard against the floor. I quickly turn onto my side and look up at them. “Yeah it has to be jail. I can tell you came from shitty parents,” the brunette affirms.

The redhead steps over me and leans down close. “If she even has two. Don’t they normally only have one?”

“Back the hell up, Marie!” Behind them I see Grace running down the hall, covered in grass stains and drenched in sweat.

“Stay out of it, Grace. What does she matter to you anyway?” the redhead snaps.

“Are you such a coward that you shove someone as they walk away? And you, Kasey. Isn’t your brother in rehab for shooting up every drug he can get his hands on? Who the hell are you to say anything to Teagan about family?” The brunette’s cheeks turn a deep crimson. “I don’t know what standards Briggs holds her team to, but if you were on the soccer team this would be your last day. Leave Teagan alone or I will make sure you have the most miserable school year of your lives,” she snaps viscously.

Grace turns to me and extends her hand. I get to my feet and the first eyes I meet are Emmaline’s. She breaks our eye contact to look between Grace and the two girls. When she looks back at me, she is once again void of all emotion. This time, I can’t hold back the tears that begin to fall.

“Thanks, Grace,” I quickly mutter before walking away as quickly as possible.

As I rush past Emmaline, her hand reaches out to grab my arm. I shove her hand away and begin to run toward the exit. Students roar with laughter. I hear Grace furiously commanding everyone to shut up and Emmaline calling my name.

Once I exit the school, I take a deep breath and begin walking to the car to wait for Emmaline. I am not strong enough to endure much more of this humiliation, even with Grace on my side. Emmaline didn’t so much as blink when she saw what happened. She waited until I was running away to do anything at all. She probably wanted to make sure I was still riding home with her. We can’t have mommy and daddy getting mad at her again. Hell, maybe she put them up to it. Grace mentioned they were on Emmaline’s team and, at this point, I wouldn’t put it past her.

I really must be worthless to her.

Chapter 30

Emmaline

I have no idea what Kasey and Marie said to Teagan, but it must have been awful. After the prank yesterday, she didn’t cry. Today, she ran passed me with tears running down her face. When I saw Marie shove her, I was about to go over and help. As their team captain, my players know not to participate in physical altercations. That is grounds for removal from the team.

Before I could even move, Grace ran past me and shoved me out of the way. That alone was enough to cause me to stand there like an idiot watching the rest unfold. Why would Grace even do that? She has made it clear her friendship with Teagan is just to get under my skin.

“Did you enjoy the show, Briggs?” Grace snaps as she stops in front of me.

“I tried to stop her from running away. You beat me over to Marie and Kasey…I would have done something,” I retort.

“Right, because you’ve been so great to her so far. I know I can be a bitch, but you are really taking our competition to a whole new level. You win, Briggs. The title is yours,” Grace replies.

Shaking my head, I grab my backpack and follow after Teagan. I see Mills on the way out and yell, “Grab EJ! Bring him to my car!”

I find Teagan at the car with her arms folded and head down staring at her phone. I don’t know what to say when I approach, so I just unlock the car. As we both enter the car, she pulls a black hoodie out of her backpack. She pulls the hood over her head and leans against the window. I sigh. “Teagan I was…”

“Don’t,.” she whispers and adjusts her body to face further away from me.

We sit in silence until the back door opens and EJ gets in.

“Hey, Teagan!” he exclaims and pats her shoulder. He looks at me and narrows his eyes. “Hi, Em.” I see he is still mad at me for yesterday.

“Hi, EJ,” she replies flatly and sniffs.

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