AUTHORS POV
Katherine's last words were said with more than a little bitterness and hurt, and she wasted no time in bolting out of the room without a backward glance not noticing or caring that she had left her backpack behind near her chair.She ignored the stares of the administrator and students as she made her way quickly out of the office area and into the halls. She ditched her first class to head for the library. She needed a little time to think and sort through her unusually high running emotions. She didn't question how she knew where the library was as it was directly concerning the situation she had just gotten herself out of.*****
Tyler King stared after that strange Katherine Scott girl, whose sudden outburst had both surprised and impressed him. It wasn't often that anyone, even him stood up to Giselle, let alone actually yelled at her.And yet it wasn't just that alone that had caught his eye.At first glance, the girKATHERINE'S POVI was still sitting in the library thinking about my life since I moved to this town. The nightmares with that pitiful, frightening man who was so familiar, the way my mother and father looked at me - almost as if they were afraid of me - how they treated me differently from my brother and my sister. It all seemed to add up to something going on. Maybe my parents were hiding something, maybe…No! I thought. It's my imagination, that's all. No dark shadows are lurking in corners for me, no boogeyman under my bed. There are no conspiracies, no secrets and lies, no hidden truth waiting to be revealed. The Scott's are my family and no amount of wishing things were different will change anything. I am nothing but 'plane Kathrine Scott' and I always will be.With that settled in my mind, I sunk lower in my seat, determined to flush out the rest of my feelings and understand them before I made one step towards a classroom door
AUTHOR's POVHe smiled when he saw her, one eyebrow lifting as he eyed her in his predatory way. He began walking towards her- though 'strutting' would be a more appropriate word for it. Every movement seemed more graceful than that of a Lion, more vain than that of a peacock."Hello," he said, leaning up against her table, drawing out the word.He seemed so sure of his charm, of his ability to make her weak in her knees. It sickened her to her very core."Can I help you with something?" Katherine asked, leaning back in her chair and staring at him and unblinkingly in the eye.The lack of a starry-eyed expression seemed to surprise him for a moment, though he soon recovered from it. He began to seem rather intrigued by her now.He lifted her backpack to her eye level as a symbol that he came all the way here, just to return her backpack and not for other motive, and she felt embarrassed that she had not noticed him carrying it before. S
Katherine grabbed her books and ran out of the algebra 2 classroom door, only barely waiting until the bell rang to make her escape. She couldn't take another minute of it. It was worse than it was at her other school. They hadn't been so hatefully cruel, so utterly malicious back in Chicago.Yes, they had teased her, but there was no real ill will with it. She hadn't ever thought she would miss that teasing, those words she had seen as so harsh then. But now she did. She would trade places with any one of the kids she went to school within Chicago and would be grateful for it.She headed for the bathroom, feeling sick. She pushed past some of the girls who had been cruel to her- Deirdre Kirkpatrick, Alyssa Addison and Christy MacDonald, she remembered briefly.She ignored their laughs at her agitated state, yanking
AUTHOR'S POVKatherine walked through the doors of the lunchroom, ignoring the strange looks the other students had been giving her, much as she had been doing all day. She wasn't even halfway through the day yet and she was already so tired, she was tired of her parents, of this town, this school and she was most specifically tired of Tyler staring holes through her, which he'd had done during every class they had together, which was all of them like he had been creepily stalking her or something. She just wanted to hit someone really hard, preferably in their face.Ever since she had been bullied in her first year of high school, she had gotten a bit of a violent streak. Nothing too bad. Just bad enough that when she got angry she had the urge to hit someone, hard in their head and sometimes she never held back and she actually hit someone but only those who
AUTHOR'S POV The sharp, ear-piercing noise of a chair being jerked out from under someone got the attention of everyone in the room including Katherine. Tyler looked at her strangely for a moment, but she was too enthralled in the situation unravelling before her eyes.Brock Johnson, the quarterback of the football team, was up to his old tricks again. If you asked Tyler, that boy needed a good lesson taught to him the hard way, but of course, Tyler couldn't care less. The boy now being tormented wasn't him or one of his own. Why should he care?Tyler watched Katherine's look of horror as Brock lifted the boy by the back of his neatly iron t-shirt to his feet and shoved him over to another guy in a football uniform. More of Brock's cronies snickered in the background as the boy begged and pleaded to be left alone, but the stronger boys ignored him and shoved him from one uniformed behemoth to another.Katherinelooked around the roo
AUTHOR'S POVAnticipation laced the room as Brock stared up at Katherine in shock, blood still streaming down his nose. The geek who had been the center of negative attention now stood forgotten next to the jocks that had tormented him only moments ago, all equal in their shock.Tyler stood a little way behind Katherine, keeping his distance like the coward he was, waiting to see what Brock would do in retaliation, but even Brock was surprised with Katherine’s strength.But it wasn't Brock who spoke first."That was a warning. The next time, I won't pull my punch. And I won't stop at one hit."Not waiting for a reply, Katherine turned on her heel and walked over to the geek.
Katherine took a deep breath and braced herself against whatever punishment was to come before turning the handle. The warmth of the office once again struck Katherine as out of place in a school like this one. Katherine saw Principal Kingsley sitting at her desk, the lovely woman's unnaturally crimson hair standing out vividly against the cream-colored walls.The older woman looked up, surprising her with a brilliant smile."Katherine! I thought you would never come. Please, do come in."Katherinetook a seat in it, all the while eyeing her principal curiously."Yeah, sorry about that. I was... delayed," Katherine said, thinking of her uncomfortable parting with Tyler.Principal Kingsley leaned on the desk, crossing her arms in a way that disturbingly reminded Katherine of Tyler, minus the arrogant smirk."So, Katherine, how has your first day been thus far?"Katherine raised her eyebrows in disbelief. This is why I was pulled from class and
AUTHOR'S POVThe walk home was taken with leisure and ease. No race to get back to get dinner ready and on the stove. No yelling parents to hurry home to - if you could call that place Kathy's home.Fortunately for Kathy, both her parents were at a business lunch/golf thing with the vice president of Mr. Scott's advertisement agency. They wouldn't be back until dinner time and Kathy would have the entire house all to herself until they got back. She could get loads of writing done with the five or six hours she had before her parents got back to the house. Kathy could have complete peace while cooking dinner, unlike she usually did when her parents Would shout from whatever room they were in that she was taking forever, along with multiple insults that would very likely shock having lunch with her charming parents that afternoon.Kathy was by no means the type for a Cinderella-complex-she hated self-pity - but sometimes Kathy had to hope that her beat