First Chances (11 page)

Feeling overwhelmed, I swallowed down the lump that had formed in my throat, once again grateful for the friends that I had. Maybe that was what really mattered in the end—being around people who truly cared, not chasing after impossible dreams.

Chapter Seventeen

Hadie

Whispering.

Staring.

Hushed laughter.

All this followed me as I walked down the hallway to my locker.

Even though I knew I shouldn’t care, it was hard to ignore the way everyone was staring at me. Especially when I didn’t know what the heck everyone was staring at me for. It was startlingly similar to the time Bennett had cheated on me, and for some reason I had become targeted by the “popular” group.

That was when Lincoln had stepped in and defended me, and that’s when my feelings for him had started to grow.

But what exactly had happened this time for everyone to be paying attention to me like this? Whether I was ready or not, my answer came very quickly in the form of Askance “Kance” Logan, the school’s resident mean girl.

“Morning, Hadie,” she said, her voice syrupy sweet as she stopped short of me with her two minions standing on either side of her.

There was no denying the girl was gorgeous. Long, dark curls framed her angelic looking face. She had incredibly striking icy blue eyes which grew even colder when she had honed in on her victim—in this case, me.

She flaunted her slim, tone body in her tiny cheerleader’s outfit, and there was definitely a reason why she was considered one of the prettiest girls in senior year. The others were probably Ashton Summers, and Estella, who didn’t understand how beautiful she actually was.

Despite Kance’s angelic appearance, she was Satan incarnate. Seriously. She was one of those girls who took pride in putting others down and didn’t give a damn who she hurt. Aside from her hatefulness, that was probably one of Kance’s worst qualities—her indifference.

Not wanting to acknowledge her with a response, I met her with a steady gaze instead. She was not going to intimidate me.

Kance narrowed her chilly eyes at me, her face taking on a cruel appearance. “Well, isn’t that just rude? I was only trying to make conversation.”

Her minions glared at me from beside her. One of them was a girl called Julia; the other was Mariah’s cousin—and our ex-best friend—Lana.

I was trying my hardest to ignore all of them, but it was hard when your ex-BFF was staring you right in the face. I had to shove my feelings aside. I couldn’t be the pushover I’d been before.

Pushing my shoulders back, I stared her down. “What do you want, Kance?”

She smirked at me, tapping a perfectly manicured finger against her cheek. “Oh, nothing.” Her tone was light as she grinned at Julia and Lana. “I just wanted to make sure you enjoyed yourself last night.”

A weird feeling wormed its way into the pit of my stomach. Even though I had no idea what she was talking about, I knew it had to be something that was enough to catch her interest.

“Get to the point,” I shot back, folding my arms across my chest.

“Well, I just thought you were such a nice girl. Whoever thought you’d move on so quickly after dear Lincoln’s death?” She leaned in closer as though she intended to whisper something to me, but instead her voice rose. “And with someone from the
Madden gang
of all things. God knows what you do with him. You’re such a bad girl, Hadie.”

She gave me a sly smile as her words sank in. My body immediately flushed hot and cold as though a fever was taking over me. My bravado began to slip. Whenever Lincoln’s name came up, I couldn’t keep it together; I came undone.

I was well aware there was a crowd gathering around us, and it only made the heat flaming through my body grow. There were too many curious, judgmental eyes on me. There were people laughing; others were saying things I didn’t want to hear.

Slut.

Whore.

How could she?

Despite trying to stay strong, I could feel angry tears prick my eyes. I was angry that someone like Kance Logan actually lived and breathed in this world when Lincoln—someone with an incredible soul—hadn’t had the chance to live the long life he deserved.

Kance took a step back, turning around to address the people around her as though she was center stage at a show. “I mean, poor Lincoln only died, what, a week ago and she’s already screwing someone else. It’s so disrespectful to his memo-”

My veins were liquid anger; I reached out and grabbed a handful of her curls and yanked her backwards so hard that she stumbled into me.

“Let go of me, you psycho!” she shrieked, trying to pull herself free from my grasp.

I was in the process of trying to figure out how to sock her in the face with maximum damage, when a pair of hands pulled me back with urgency.

“Hadie, it’s okay, let her go.” Ashton’s voice was in my ear, gentle and soothing.

In one fluid moment, she stepped in between Kance and me, pushing me into someone else’s arms. I glanced up, startled by the firm chest that my head was nestled against; it was Eddie. He gave me a tight smile and pulled me beside him, his arm never leaving my waist.

As unfamiliar as his hold was, in a strange way it felt familiar, as though his arm was exactly where it belonged. I couldn’t quite place the feeling, and I didn’t really want to analyze it—I just wanted to relish his touch.

My eyes found Estella and Mariah pushing their way through the crowd towards me. They both flashed me looks of questions, but there was too much going on to explain to them what had taken place moments earlier.

“Well, look who it is,” Kance said with a sneer. “Ashton Summers, Queen of the Freaks. What’s it like being an irrelevant nobody dating a loser?”

“Better than being a leg-opening skank,” Ashton said, without missing a beat.

Julia and Lana both let out well-timed gasps, although I saw Lana trying very hard to hide a smile. I’d known Lana since we were kids; she may be a desperate social-climber, but she wasn’t naïve about the kind of person Kance was—easy.

“You better watch that mouth.” Kance narrowed her eyes at her former best friend. “I have many ways of ruining your already pathetic life.”

Ashton feigned a yawn. “Really? What are you going to do? Point your fake, plastic boobs at me?”

The people standing around us let out simultaneous “oohs”, and Eddie snorted from beside me. I closed my eyes, savoring the way my body felt against his. There was something nice about being this close to him; something that made me wish that he was always by my side.

“My boobs are not fake!” Kance cried, giving Ashton a look that could kill. Her face was slowly turning red, while Ashton was the picture of calm and collected.

Queen Kance clearly wanted everyone to think her perfect body was natural, instead of admitting to having some enhancements done.

“Oh, maybe it’s just your personality then,” Ashton simpered as though she was speaking to a child.

I had to hand it to Ashton; she never lost her cool when it came to confronting Kance. This wasn’t the first time they’d had a showdown in front of the entire school. Something similar had happened a few months ago when Lincoln had still been alive. Except that confrontation had involved a lot more drama and backstabbing.

As I looked between Queen Titans, it was clear I didn’t have Ashton’s attitude or Kance’s confidence, and I was quickly realizing that it wasn’t something you gained simply by dyeing your hair purple or hanging out with a Madden boy.

Deep down, I was the same awkward, uncomfortable Hadie I had always been.

Deep down, I was still
me
.

“You little bitch,” Kance snarled, taking a deliberate step towards Ashton with clenched fists.

“What in the world is going on here?” A voice called over the voice of the students, and Ms. Wallowski broke through the thick circle that had formed around us.

Of all the teachers to break up this fight, Ms. Wallowski wasn’t my first choice. She wasn’t even my tenth choice. Don’t get me wrong, she wasn’t a terrible teacher; she was actually a pretty good at teaching dance, but that was the problem—she was a dance teacher. I had never taken dance in my life; Kance had taken dance since she’d first strutted into this school. This situation was not going to go in my favor.

Kance stepped back and shot Ms. Wallowski a look of complete innocence as she fluttered her long lashes—which were probably about as fake as her boobs. “Oh, it’s horrible, Ms. Wallowski!” she cried, her tone overly dramatic. “Hadie Swinton assaulted me.”

‘Assault’ was a pretty severe term considering I hadn’t even managed to pull out a single curl from her pristine hair. Whatever hair spray the girl was using was a great investment.

“Hadie!” Ms. Wallowski said sharply, turning to me. “Is this true?”

“No, it’s not,” I insisted, reluctantly stepping out of Eddie’s strong arms. “I didn’t manage to get that far.”

“She’s lying! My friends saw exactly what happened.” Lana and Julia nodded at the same time, like well-trained pets. “My parents will sue the school for negligence!”

Kance’s parents were famous—or infamous—in our small town for owning a couture shoe boutique, and suing everyone. Seriously. They thought that just because they had money, they could do whatever they wanted if they didn’t get their way.

Ms. Wallowski’s neck turned red. “Now, dear, there is no need for that. Let’s go to the principal’s office and you can tell him everything that happened. How does that sound?”

“Fine,” Kance said in a haughty tone. “But if she isn’t suspended, my parents will have something to say about it.”

Suspension? If I was suspended now, it would ruin every chance I ever had of getting into college. Assault was a serious accusation, and no college would want someone like me in it.

“Oh, please.” Ashton snorted. “Hadie barely touched you. She’s not going to get a suspension.”

Ms. Wallowski turned at the sound of Ashton’s voice. “Ashton? What part do you play in all this?” She looked at Kance for an answer. “Did she do something to you too, Kance?”

There was silence as Kance glared at Ashton for a few moments. Finally, she let out an irritated sigh. “Nothing, unless you count her offensively ugly last season shoes.”

Ms. Wallowski pointedly ignored Kance’s rude comment, turning to me instead. “Hadie, I hope you understand the seriousness of what you’ve done.”

“I didn’t do anything!” I argued.

“Come now, both of you,” she said, completely ignoring what I’d said. “I’m taking you to see the principal.”

And with that, my fate was sealed. Once again, Kance’s lies had been treated as the truth. Just because I wasn’t a kiss-ass cheerleader like her, who used her parents as a weapon, I was immediately at fault.

I managed to catch Estella’s frantic eyes as I followed after Ms. Wallowski, who was trotting away at a fast face. Giving Estella a tight smile, I continued after the ignorant teacher, wondering what I was in store for.

When it came to Kance Logan, the outcome was never a good one.

Chapter Eighteen

Eddie

My first instinct was to knock the smug smile off of Kance’s face for everything she had put Hadie through.

Obviously, I quickly let that thought pass.

My second instinct was to protect Hadie somehow. She’d already gotten into trouble with my uncle a few months ago, and I knew this time she would be suspended if Kance implicated her. It would definitely ruin her chances of getting into the college she wanted to go to, and that was the last thing Hadie needed.

She didn’t need something else to go wrong in her life.

I watched as Hadie and Kance followed Ms. Wallowski down the hall as everyone stared after them, talking in excited voices. Hadie Swinton had quickly become the most interesting girl in boring, old Statlen, especially since she’d basically been an introverted bookworm at the start of the year. When drama involved Hadie, everyone grew curious. Throw a Madden gang member into the mix and she was basically a celebrity.

My eyes fell on Kance’s two friends who were still standing around, speaking to each other with bowed heads. I easily recognized the redhead as Mariah’s cousin, but it was the other girl who had my attention. She had long, dark hair and looked unsettlingly familiar—it was the girl Riley had pointed out last night at the bar.

Now it all made sense. This was how Kance had known about Hadie being with Three last night. Her spy had told her all about it.

“She’s going to get into so much trouble,” Estella was saying from somewhere behind me, her tone high and panicky. “Her parents are already mad at her about the smoking and drinking.”

“And the purple hair,” Mariah added.

Ashton turned around, her face slowly returning to its normal shade of color. She was a fighter, especially when it came to anything related to Kance, and I could tell she was still seething mad.

“Kance knows how to bring out the best in everyone,” she said with no humor in her voice.

Ashton had plenty of firsthand experience from her backstabbing best friend. I knew she was in a better place now, but there would always be a part of her that would never forget what Kance had done to her.

“Should we tell the principal that Kance provoked her?” Estella asked, chewing on her bottom lip uncertainly.

“I’ll handle it,” I said with a resigned sigh.

Mariah squinted at me like I was batshit crazy. “Eddie, no offense, but seriously how are you gonna handle something like this?”

“Yeah, Eddie, I’m not sure how you could solve this,” Estella said in her kind way. “This is beyond you; it’s beyond all of us.”

“Just have some faith in him,” Ashton immediately said, jumping to my defense. It was funny how the girl who only months ago had disliked the kind of person I was, was the girl taking my side now.

I shot her a grateful smile, before giving Mariah and Estella a reassuring nod. “I don’t know if it’ll do any good, but I sure as hell am gonna try.”

With that, I turned away and pushed through the crowd of people that were still standing around and staring at us now. I wasn’t sure what the hell they were waiting for; they were probably hoping for some more shit to go down. Ashton was known to stir up trouble and not give a damn about it.

A part of me felt like I was partially to blame for this situation. I’d seen that stupid girl at the bar last night and I hadn’t paid more attention to who she was. Maybe if I’d alerted Hadie to the fact that one of Kance’s copycats was hanging around, she would’ve been better prepared to face the unwelcome attention in school today.

As I headed down the hallway with my head bowed, I made a decision to do something about it. I couldn’t let anything happen to Hadie. I had a promise to uphold to Lincoln. I would not give up on her. Not now. Not ever.

When I walked into the small office building, I immediately caught sight of Hadie and Kance sitting on opposite ends of the room. Kance was studying her bright red nails as though they were the most fascinating thing in the world. Hadie had been staring down at the floor, but glanced up at the sound of the door opening. She shot me a look of confusion which I ignored.

Linda, the office assistant, looked up from her desk, and her face broke into a grin when she saw it was me. “Eddie, my dear! How are you? You never visit anymore.”

“Hi, Linda,” I said, returning the smile. “Sorry, I’ll try and get into some more trouble.”

“You’re too much!” She started laughing and swatted the air in front of her as though I was hilariously ridiculous. “So what can I do for you, Eddie dear?”

“I was just wondering if I could talk to my friend for a second. I know she’s waiting to see my uncle, but I was hoping I could ask her something real quick.” I gave her my best grin for extra effect.

“Hmmm.” She frowned, her brow creasing at the same time. “Sure, I don’t see why not.”

“Thanks, Linda. Tell Mark I say hi.” Mark was her son who had been in the year above us. He and I had been in a school play together last year, working on sound and lighting.

“Of course, dear,” she said brightly. “Be quick. Your uncle will be out shortly.”

I barely glanced at Hadie as I walked in the opposite direction towards Kance. Her eyes grew wide as I approached her, and she sat up straighter. I knew she’d been listening in our conversation and hadn’t realized that she was the one I wanted to talk to.

I took the seat right beside her, making sure not to look Hadie’s way. Instead, I leaned back in my chair and surveyed Kance who raised her brows at me expectantly.

“Hello,
friend
,” I said, my tone casual. I didn’t want to raise any suspicion around Linda, because what I was about to do was completely out of character for me.

“What do
you
want?” she asked with narrowed eyes.

I stretched out my arm so it rested along the top of my chair and settled on hers. “I have no doubt you’re about to walk into the principal’s office and ruin Hadie’s life. Right?” I gave her a slow smile. “I mean, that was your intention, wasn’t it? To provoke her so she’d put her hands on you?”

Kance seemed completely uninterested in what I was saying. “Why are you sitting here breathing the same air as me and wasting my time?”

“I’ll take that as a yes.” I continued, “What if I told you that I have a proposition for you that will change your mind?”

She burst out into a fake laugh which made me dislike her even more. This girl was the epitome of unattractive; she had the most ugly personality I’d ever come across. “Now why would I do that when I have Hadie exactly where I want her? She deserves it for being a snotty, little bitch. I don’t know what Bennett and Lincoln ever saw in her.”

Now it made sense why she was doing this. She was simply jealous because Hadie had dated guys like Bennett and Lincoln. She was willing to ruin Hadie’s college application over boys. What a turd.

“I’ll tell you why,” I said, keeping my voice low. “Last spring, I stayed back late a lot after school. See, I was helping out with the school’s production of
The Lion King
, doing sound and lighting, and helping out with props.”

Kance huffed, sticking out her bright pink lips in a pouty way. “Is there are a point to this pointless story?”

I continued as though I hadn’t heard her. “I happen to remember that day really well because my friend and I had spent two hours designing Styrofoam rocks for the lion pride land. Anyway, as we were leaving we caught sight of a couple making out in a black SUV that was parked around the corner from the school.”

I noticed Kance stiffen, and the bitchy look on her face dissolved into fear. She knew exactly where I was going with this.

“We didn’t think anything of it at first until my friend recognized the SUV as Coach West’s.” I gave her a conspiratorial smile. “Now who do you think the student with him in the back seat of his SUV was?”

Kance’s nostrils flared as she glared at me. “You have no proof of anything.” I knew she was only saying that to see if I did have proof.

“You’re right,” I said, leaning away from her. “I don’t have proof.”

A satisfied smirk curved on her lips. “That’s what I thought. And if someone was stupid enough to report something like that without any proof, no one would believe them.”

“Wait a sec,” I said, holding up a hand. “I said
I
didn’t have proof. My friend on the other hand, well, let’s just say he recorded a video, which I’m sure he’d be more than happy to show his mother. She’s sitting right over there, you know?” I nodded over at Linda’s direction.

Kance’s face turned so quickly from pink to red to purple that I almost missed the transition. “You can’t hurt me. It’ll get him into trouble. I’m the victim.”

“Oh, yeah?” I raised a brow at her. “And what about that reputation of yours that you care so much about?”

She fell silent, and I could see her shrewd mind weighing up her options. Finally, she shot me a look of pure contempt. “What do you want?”

“I want you to tell the principal that nothing happened and that it wasn’t Hadie’s fault.”

“And that’s all you want? You won’t try and use this against me again?” She eyes me in disbelief as though everyone had a hidden agenda like she did.

“I won’t,” I said with a shake of my head.

“Really? All that just for her?” She shot Hadie a dark look. “What is it about that girl?”

I followed her gaze to where Hadie sat watching us with intrigue. “You’ll never understand.”

With that, I stood up and walked out of the office without even looking Hadie’s way.