Finding Hope in Texas Read Online Free PDF Page B

though you already knew how close we were?”
    “I didn’t know it was him,” I blurted out
defensively.
    “Bull! You are just some New York tramp who
thinks you can come down here and take any man she wants. That’s
what you think.” A few of the gaggle shook their head in agreement.
This was not a one-on-one situation and the crowd was only going to
make things worse. This was not going to be very easy if I couldn’t
separate her from the herd. “You think you are going to come show
us all up because we ain’t as good as you?”
    “No, I don’t think that. I just–“
    “You just need to go back where you came
from. We don’t need your kind around here.” She tossed her bouncing
blonde hair back over her shoulder and continued passed me, nudging
me as she did. I could feel the Irish in me begin to simmer.
    “It’s pretty sad you’re taking this out on me
when you don’t even trust him enough to talk to other girls,” I
said loudly enough so that I knew she would hear.
    The next five seconds flew by in a heartbeat
because before I knew it, she had spun me around and socked me
right in the eye. The floor was cold against my elbows as I found
myself wincing from the shock of taking my first punch. Even as
brother and sister, Tyler and I never punched each other. Yes, we
played around like we would, but nothing ever resulted in physical
violence. But down here, down here in Texas where the only justice
seemed to be street justice, I was practically flat on my back
awaiting the next attack against me, surrounded by the attacker’s
friends, with no teacher in sight.
    Jody stood over me like a predator would do
its prey, just waiting to see if I would even try to do anything.
But since I had never taken a punch, I had never thrown a punch
either. Fighting was something they did in movies for
entertainment. People usually didn’t go to school to see a
knock-down-drag-out, and if they did, well, that’s pretty sad.
    “Listen, you little hussy. We run this school
and everything that goes with it. And you, you are just crap that
we allow to stain our floors. You had better watch yourself around
here or there might be more accidents like the one that just
happened when you fell against your locker and got that black eye,
understand?”
    I didn’t, but I shook my head as if I did. My
Irish had failed me and every drop of weakness bubbled up to the
surface of my body. I was scared of this girl, the same girl that
put on such a good show in front of the counselor about how she was
a wonderful student that wanted to help everyone. Now, if anything
was crap that certainly was.
    “Good, now get outta here and keep your eyes
off our boyfriends, especially Brad!” She stood up from hovering
over me and turned away to leave before looking at me again. “Oh,
and enjoy your stay over there on the loser table.” She and
the gaggle entered the locker room, leaving me to pick myself off
the floor.
    Loser table . I had thought of it
myself earlier in the day and now we actually had the name loser
table .
    Mags was waiting in her Ford POS as I walked
from the gym. The cool breeze gingerly caressed my throbbing eye.
Being punched felt so much like a dream, like it really hadn’t
happened. But it did, and I was afraid that the redness was already
starting to show upon my white skin. When I entered the car, I
turned to make sure that I didn’t make face-to-face contact with my
aunt, but sat at an angle so that she could only see the left side
of my face. Taking a wisp of hair I flapped it over my eye for
further concealment. It was a very normal look for me, having a
little hair in my face, so Mags didn’t even think about me being
quiet. She was probably used to it now from having me around her
home. She did try at least to have a conversation though as I
entered.
    “So how was your day?” she asked while
pulling away from the curb and starting a twenty minute jolt back
to her rented box of a house.
    “Fine.”
    “And