Page 46 of Surge

She was strong and she slammed me against the section of wall between the stalls. "We aren't done."

I suppressed the urge to scream for help or fight back. I didn't need to make this worse on myself. "What else?"

"We have papers due in two weeks. You'll write them for us." Of course that was what Melissa wanted. She had to take summer school every year.

I couldn't do that. "We'll get caught." I flinched as Melissa grabbed shoulders and spun me around so my face was against the wall.

I attempted to free myself, but her nailed thumb pressed against the base of my skull. "How hard do you think I have to press to cause damage?" The other girls laughed.

"Let me go."

"Stay away from them." Melissa shoved me and my chin hit the wall, my teeth piercing my lip. "Ta-ta for now."

They were gone before I could even turn around. I spit the blood coming from my lip into the sink and held a paper towel to the split skin.

The bell rang and I groaned. In all my years, I had never gotten a tardy. The goody-two-shoes in me wanted to cry, but the new side of me was pissed and wanted blood.

An eye for an eye.

I walked out of the bathroom and almost ran into Officer Thomas. "You're late."

No shit, Sherlock."Four girls jumped me in the bathroom." I moved the paper towel away from my lip and pointed. "What are you going to do about it?"

He had already started walking away and stopped, turning back to me with a scowl. "I don't like your attitude."

I don't like your face. "My apologies. I thought your job was to serve and protect."

"Get to class." He turned and walked off.

How much were the Tritons paying him to ignore me? Instead of heading to class, which I was late to already, I went straight to the office.

"Excuse me. Is Mrs. Miller in?"

The secretary looked up from her computer and her eyes widened. I knew my hair was half falling out of the ponytail and there were a few drops of blood on my shirt.

"Don't you mean Mrs. Angela, the nurse? Mrs. Miller took a leave of absence. We aren't sure when she'll return."

My stomach dropped. "What do you mean she took a leave of absence? I just saw her on Friday!" My voice cracked. "She didn't say anything about leaving and said I could come to her anytime."

"Sometimes life happens. Let's get you into the nurse's office."

I was freaking out. Instead of listening to her or asking to see the principal, I walked to English on a mission. Maybe if other people saw what they had done to me, they would be on my side.

I threw the bloody paper towel in a garbage can and pulled open the door to English with a flourish. Every single head turned my direction.

Mrs. Williams stood from her desk. "Riley, what the hell happened?"

I ignored her question and the fact that I looked bad enough to cause her to have a slip of the tongue. I marched right toward Blake, who stood.

He opened his mouth to say something and I smacked him across the face. His face turned with the slap and gasps spread across the room. Blake's eyes flared and his jaw clenched as he turned his face back to look me in the eye.

"Keep your pussies of the week away from me." I turned and left the room.

* * *

I thoughtmy breaking point would be a little further down the line, but apparently not. I hid out in the bathroom, worrying about whether I was going to be suspended. Yet another thing that hadn't even been in the realm of possibility a week ago.

The bell rang, signaling the end of first period. I had cleaned myself up and besides the slight swell on my bottom lip and the fury in my eyes, I looked like myself again and not a deranged lunatic.

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