FicWad

Roxanna. My name suited me. It sounded just as bad as I was. I’d done it all. Drugs, alcohol, sex, you name it. The Girls’ Rehabilitation Center in my old town had known me like a best friend. It was an awe that a school actually took me in. My permanent record wasn’t exactly that of an honor student. But Belleville High was special...very special. It hadn’t thrown me out, even after two years of my misbehaving. On the contrary, the worst I’d done in Jersey was beat up a few wimps. I guess that didn’t do much damage.

“Roxanna, you’ll be working with Gerard. Gerard! Put that comic book down! Lola you and...” Mister Buttcheese continued calling out partners for his latest idea of ‘fun’. Making a newspaper. I couldn’t hold back the excitement. Seriously, I was enthralled.

I looked around the room for the Gerard kid. Who the hell was he anyway? I had never even heard of him in these past couple of years. How unusual, I’d either beaten up or dated every single boy in this high-school. Or so I thought. As my eyes scanned the room, they finally fell on a black-haired boy with his nose in a graphic novel. There was nothing particularly special about him, at least not from what I could see of his face. He scored big getting partnered with me. All the guys in the school would kill if they could work with me on anything, even a project from Buttcheese.

I dragged my stool over to where the boy was sitting, in the corner of the room. I sat opposing his side of the table and cleared my throat. He did not stir from his comic book. I faked a cough, unsuccessfully trying to get his attention. Now I was pissed off. I hated to be ignored.

“Dude!” I slammed my fist down on the table.

I felt the whole History class’s eyes rest on me. Buttcheese drawled on after a two-second pause. Gerard’s book dropped at last.

“What?” he asked rudely.

Our eyes locked in furious battle. Had it not been for the bell, signaling the next period, he would have blinked and surrendered to my blue eyes. There was always tomorrow.