Chapter 44 | Trent is a bastard bitch

Isabella:

The Lakeside Lions bask in victory Friday morning as they stroll through the halls, revelling in success and taking in all the congratulatory cheers being thrown their way.

Aidan, leading the team, through the halls, salutes Grace, Mia and I as he stalks past causing Grace to turn an un-natural shade of pink.

"Oh God," Grace breaths, fanning herself and leaning against the lockers. The way she's reacting you would think Aidan was an A-list celebrity and not her boyfriend of nearly two months and the boy we had grown up since we were toddlers.

"I knew they were going to win," Mia says, her voice husky and barely above a whisper. From all the screaming yesterday it's no surprise her voice has completely vanished.

Yesterday's game had been tense, the McKenneck Meercats and our team had been tied for majority of the game until the very last quarter where Timmy had managed to score a field goal, which allowed our team to pass the Meercats by just 3 points. The crowds had erupted into a fit of cheers and defeaning screams, food and banners had been thrown into the air as the speakers announced our win of the championships and now, the day after, the entire school was celebrating in victory.

The student body were all collectively wearing the team colours as the Lions wore their uniforms and Timmy walked around with a little plastic crown balancing on his brown curls.

"This team is the best they've had in 3 years," Mia basically mouths at this point and I nod in agreement, my eyes trained on the rest of the team as they stalk past us, my gaze lingering slightly on Lucas who is smiling so hard his dimples are almost two deep holes in the sides of his cheeks.

The last five days with him had been...odd to say the least. He had been over at my house nearly everyday after training, eating dinner with my family and playing with Sofia. Although it bugged me slightly, my mom and abuela had no objections, if fact, they were the ones continually encouraging Lucas to come over as often as he could. I had a strong feeling my grandmother had told my mom that Lucas and I were dating or something along those lines because after any interaction I had with the boy, her eyes would be twinkling and her mouth would be curled into a sly grin. I needed to have a word with her when I had the chance.

My need to jump his bones was slowly dying down...I guess. I had started my period yesterday which placed the last five days and my raging hormones into perspective. I was always horny near the time of my period and this conclusion allowed me to relax more when around Lucas which was a good thing, I hated constantly being on edge around the guy, it made me be rude and just frankly do weird fucking things.

Yesterday night after the game, Lucas had for once gone home and today the team and Coach would be going out for a celebratory meal which meant I would have a little peace and quiet in the evening finally.

"A huge congratulations to our very own Lakeside Lions on winning the championship!"

The booming voice of the announcement breaks me out of my stance and I join the rest of the student body in screaming congratulations to the team.

Mia, Grace and I continue standing outside our lockers and talking for a while until the second bell goes signalling that it's time to head to home room.

The hallway filled to the brim with people, seemingly more packed than usual, is a huge struggle to pass through and I latch into Mia and Grace for dear life as Grace pummels her way through the crowd, trying to get Mia and I safely to our forms.

I've broken into a sweat by the time we reach my class. My teacher is stood by the door and she smiles at me in greeting as I try and catch my breath.

Mia and Grace stand to the side, beside the door leading into Grace's form room. Mia bends down, placing her bag floor and she digs inside, supposedly looking for something to give to Grace.

"Isabella, you have a meeting with the careers/college advisor during form and first period," Mrs Abbott tells me, pulling out a blue slip of paper from the pocket of her dress which gives me permission to be out of class.

I nod my head, taking the paper from her. "Okay, thank you."

"Do you know where the room is?" Grace asks, looking over her shoulder at me. "Do you want us to show you the way?"

I shake my head. "No it's alright, I've walked past it before, I think I'll be able to get there on my own."

"It's down the hall and to the left," Mrs Abbott chides and I thank her, swinging the strap of my backpack over my shoulder.

"We can drop you off if you want," Mia offers causing me to make a dismissive gesture with my hand.

"It's okay," I tell them. "Now you two better go or you'll be late to home room."

I bid goodbye both them and begin to walk in the opposite direction in search of my Mrs Hooper - the school career advisor's office.

After walking for quite some time and turning down various lefts down the hall, I still can't find her office and after 10 minuets of strolling the halls, I realise that I am very much lost.

God dammit, almost 5 months at this school and I'm still getting lost?

The halls are deserted now and I look down at the blue paper in hopes that it will magically transform into a map, but much to my displeasure - it does not.

Letting out a groan of frustration, I run my hands through my hair as I turn a corner in the hallway that I'm pretty sure I've passed about 6 times already.

However, I bump into somebody as I do so and I stumble back in shock.

"Mfgh."

"Fuck."

Whoever this person is, has the chest equivalent to a brick wall. I rub my head where I had bumped into them and watch as blood trickles to the ground.

I let out a gasp. That can't be from my head can it?

Bringing my hand back to my forehead, my gaze then falls onto a busted knuckle that is clenched to the side of the persons body and then to their white shirt that is splattered red and I grimace. just as they mutter out a series of expletives under their breath.

"Move," the person spits out, their voice laced with venom and I narrow my eyes at their rude tone and snap my head up.

To my surprise, I see that the angry, bloody person is Lucas. Oh wow. His jaw is clenched and his adam's apple is bobbing up and down aggressively.

I take a step back at his livid tone and his gaze finally meets mine. Once realisation floods his features, his face significantly softens. "Oh shit Bella, sorry I didn't realise it was you."

I ignore his apology. "What happened?" I ask, my eyebrows furrowed in both curiosity and concern.

"Trent happened," he scoffs, walking past me and not expanding on his reply.

Filled with curiosity, I spin around and run after him, still clutching onto my blue paper.

"What do Trent do?"

He ignores me and after walking for quite some while in silence, he halts outside the nurses office and takes a seat on the chair that's outside, stretching his long legs out in front of him.

"Trent? Again?" I repeat, trying to pry more answers out of him as he runs his non bloody hand down his face frustratedly.

He then lets out an exasperated sigh. "The boys and I went to the canteen before homeroom and Trent and his group of dickheads were there too and I could just hear Trent go on and on and on about how good of a lay Ivy was, describing her like she was some trophy, to piss me off of course, and then Ivy and Luna walked in afterwards and the boys started to jeer at her  and I got angry and told him to stop because I could tell it was making them uncomfortable but obviously that prick didn't listen and he kept tryna egg me on and then I lost it and punched him square in the face."

"Oh...wow." My eyes widen, just processing what he had just said.

My gaze falls on his busted lip, the nasty gash on his cheek and his bruised up fist and gasp. "Shit, your face looks broken."

He merely glances at his fist as if just realising that it's very bruised and blood is oozing out of it and shrugs.

"You should've seen Trent, he's gonna need at least 3 nose jobs after what I did to his face," Lucas retorts nonchalantly.

"Aren't you gonna get in trouble?" I ask, still in shock and kind of....turned on?

Wow.

I really have issues.

"I mean don't get you get excluded for this type of thing?"

He shrugs and makes a dismissive gesture with his good hand. "You get a warning after your first fight but seeing as it's not my first I'm probably gonna get like a weeks suspension but it's fine, the school typically doesn't follow through with suspensions for minor fights and they'll be more lenient on me because we just won the championship."

"Damn, how many fights have you been in?"

Lucas pauses for a second, pondering. "Only four," he finally replies after a beat.

"Four?!"

"Yeah," he states slowly. "Now that I think about it they were all over Ivy." He shakes his head. "Too many guys try to get into her pants and then if they do, like fucking Trent, act like they've won a prize."

"Oh."

"Yeah," he continues. "I mean she's incredibly pretty but why do these fucking guys don't understand that she's not some object and is with me. I-"

He stops for a beat and sighs. " I mean was with me." He swallows. "I didn't actually think she'd give in to those guys though, especially not Trent."

I smile sympathetically and take a seat beside him. "I'm sorry Luke."

"Whatever," he clears his throat, his solemn expression wilting back to his slightly pissed one. "I don't need her."

I nod. "That's right."

He glances my way and gives me a small smile, an emotion I can't read flashing through his eyes. "Yep."

"Okay well-"

"Ah Mr Miller," the nurse exclaims coming out of her office, cutting me off as I was about to speak. It's a different nurse from when I was in here a couple of weeks ago, this one looks kinder. "Why am I not surprised to see you?"

Lucas merely chuckles in reply. "Hey nurse Pat, good to see you too."

The nurse rolls her eyes but a small smile plays on her lips. Her grin however drops the moment her gaze lands on me. "Miss what are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be in class?" She frowns as Lucas gets up from his seat.

"Um I got lost," I reply quietly, lifting up my blue slip. "I'm tryna find the careers office."

"It's down the hall and to your left," The nurse retorts, pointing a manicured finger down the hallway. "Now hurry along dear, you'll have plenty of time to talk to your boyfriend later."

I burn crimson. "Er he's not my boyfriend."

She doesn't even glance from over her glasses and continues to scribble down something on her notepad.

"Okay Lucas, you head inside and you dear," she turns to face me after a beat, giving me a kind smile. "Hop along while I fix up your boyfriend." She begins to usher Lucas into her office who looks over his shoulder just before the door closes.

"I'll see you around then baby," he winks and my eyes widen. Ew...is that butterflies?

I spin around on my heel as the door closes, shaking my head and once again venture down the hallway in search of the office. This time however, I do find it and knock on the door before I enter.

"Come in," a female voice calls out and I walk into the office as Mrs Hooper stops typing something on her computer and looks up to smile at me. "Hiya sweetie, why don't you take a seat."

The meeting lasts all the way until the end of period one. We had discussed where I want to go for college and what degree I want to do and so on and also if I have a desired career path to go down.

For colleges, I said I was applying to some local in the state and a couple outside but my dream school was Washington university. As for a degree, I was stuck between choosing History and English Lit and as for career paths...I had absolutely zero clue.

The meeting is quite insightful and Mrs Hooper provides me with various websites and booklets to help with my decision.

I thank her before leaving the office. Checking the time on my phone, I see that there is only 10 minutes left until break so I decide to head into the bathroom and just kill time there instead of going back to Maths.

As the door swings open, the first thing I see is a head full of strawberry blonde hair and the person it belongs to sniffling, tears streaming down her face.

Ivy's head snaps up the moment the door shuts with a clang and seeing my face only causes more tears to well up in her eyes.

"Great, just great," she sniffles with a shake of her head, leaning her head against the wall and slowly sliding onto the grimy floor.

"Er...are you okay?" I ask her, not know what to do exactly in a situation like this.

"No."

"Oh-"

"Isabella what did I do?" She wails, crying harder and I freeze. "Lucas was the best thing that ever happened to me and I ruined everything! Now Trent won't fucking shut up and his friends make remarks about it every fucking time they're around me. I don't know what Trent told them but now they're all trying to get into my pants and think I'm easy and keep touching me and make me uncomfortable and I don't know what to fucking do and then Lucas heard them today and he got into a big fight with them and I felt so bad because it was all my fault and now he might get in trouble and it's all because of me but I think he scared Trents friends so maybe they'll back off now but I just feel so guilty! I hurt him really badly too, I didn't mean to...I-I just didn't know how to react in that situation and how I felt at the time-" she stops and glances up at me, emotion flickering in her eyes. "And I reacted stupidly and now I'm praying the price. Maybe I deserve to be harassed." Her breathing hitches and she sniffles loudly, burying her head into her hands.

"Hey, hey, no you don't, don't say that," I tell her firmly before heading into one of the toilet stalls and grabbing a wad of toilet paper.

After Ivy dries her eyes and blows her nose and calm down a bit, I continue speaking. "I'll admit what you did was horrible but you don't deserve to be made uncomfortable by those guys, you don't deserve to be fucking harassed by them!"

She swallows and bites her trembling lip.

"They touch you?" I add, more gentler this time.

She nods her head solemnly. "They smack or grab my ass sometimes when I walk past and they even do it Luna and that makes me feel even worse because she deserves none of that."

"Ivy, you've got to tell someone, they can't get away with that! That is fucking sexual harassment."

"I was going to," she replies. "But I...just didn't know when." She shakes her head slowly. "Would they even believe me?"

My gazes softens. "You've got to try at least." I gaze down at the tiled floor of the bathroom, pausing for a second. "You know what," I tell her after a beat before outstretching my hand. "Let's go now, I'll come with you."

Ivy stares at my hand, her perfectly manicured eyebrows drawing together in confusion. "What?"

"Let's go to the office together."

"Why?" She says warily, staring up at me like I've grown three heads. "Why are you being nice to me?" She stops to analyse my face, probably checking to see if I have some ulterior motive. "I've only ever been a bitch to you."

With a sigh, I reach down and grab her hand, hauling her up from the floor. "Yeah, you have, but girls gotta have each other's backs in situations like these...now let's go."

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AUTHORS NOTE:

Ahh thank you so much for 40k reads, i'm literally dead in my grave right now, i love you all so much, mwah x