But my victory is short lived—as soon as I look back at her, I slam right into my desk. My open bag goes flying to the floor, and I steady myself, narrowly avoiding tumbling over the desk.
The whole class is looking at me, some with stunned faces, and some trying not to laugh. I hear a gasp and suddenly some giggles. Soon most of the class is trying to hide their amusement or looking embarrassed for me.
I’m confused. What’s embarrassing about stumbling? I do it all the time. Mason’s quietly chuckling, and even Aiden’s usually stormy gray eyes are light with amusement.
Kaitlyn shouts, “God, Amelia, do you need any more tampons?”
Oh.
My open bag is sprawled out on the floor, and laying a few feet away from it, clear for everyone to see, is the open tampon box that puked out forty-nine tampons, scattered everywhere.
Totally the worst day ever.
Twenty-four hours later, my bad luck’s continuing. I’m late getting to school because of traffic and the majority of the parking spaces are all filled up.
“Yes! You’re all mine, baby,” I say to the open spot in a prime location right near the front door. But when I’m about to pull in, a blur of bright red speeds past me, cutting me off. Slamming the breaks, my seat belt locks, preventing my head from going through the windshield.
“What the actual hell?!”
A cherry-colored convertible Porsche just parked in my spot.
The owner gets out, and all my questions are answered. Kaitlyn throws her hair over her shoulder and wiggles her fingers at me in a taunting wave. Her malicious eyes shine with victory as she slams the driver’s-side door, struts up the stairs, and goes through the front doors.
Seriously? Is this her following through with her promise of tormenting me for not staying away from Aiden?
Please, bitch. You’re going to have to try harder than that.
Turns out, she did try harder than that; a little too hard if you ask me.
After having to park a good five-minute walk from the front door, I meet Charlotte at her locker and tell her what happened with Kaitlyn as we head over to my locker together.
Charlotte scoffs, “She loves that car. I swear, she treats it better than she treats people. Ever since her dad bought her that Porsche, she drives around like she owns this town.”
There’s a huge crowd of students in the hall where my locker is, all gawking at something.
“What’s going on?” Charlotte asks as we shove our way through the sea of students. She gasps. Tampons—taped by their strings—hang down, covering the front of my floor-to-ceiling locker. There are so many of them that the metal of my locker isn’t even visible. Some are still in the little plastic applicator, but the majority are bare, a lot are red with—
“Is that blood?” Charlotte breathes, looking a little sick.
“That’s disgusting. That better be paint,” I reply.
On the wall directly above my locker is a sign that reads: AMELIA COLLINS’S TAMPON DRIVE, with an arrow pointing down.
“Who would do—Kaitlyn?” Charlotte suspects.
“That’d be my first guess.”
As if just saying her name summons her, Kaitlyn appears from the crowd, the rest of her friends right behind her. People move back a little to give us some more room.
Kaitlyn gives me a triumphant smirk. “What do you think of our generosity, Amelia?”
I’m stunned. She didn’t even bother denying the fact that she orchestrated this whole thing. She just got here, so she must have gotten her friends to come early and do it. She’s proud of it. She wants everyone to know what she’s capable of, and publicly humiliating me is her proof.
“Your generosity?” I’m bewildered.
“After yesterday, we realized just how many tampons you need. So, being the kindhearted people we are, we decided to help you out.” She turns to the crowd of students and announces, “Students of King City High! Let’s show that there’s no limit to our generosity! If you have a tampon, step forward and contribute to our tampon drive for Amelia Collins. It doesn’t even need to be new!”
I might throw up. Before anyone can react, a loud, furious voice booms from the crowd, “If anyone even thinks about doing that, I’ll beat you so hard the doctor who delivered you will feel it!”
The startled crowd parts for the source of the voice, and Aiden steps toward me, looking ferocious. His deadly gray eyes meet my slightly traumatized hazel ones, and they seem to darken even more. Noah and Mason step from the crowd, both looking hostile as they scan the scene before them.
Aiden turns his murderous gaze to the crowd. “Get to class, now!”
Everyone scatters like someone detonated a bomb, and soon me, Aiden, Charlotte, Mason, Noah, and Kaitlyn and her friends are the only ones in the hall.
Kaitlyn pouts. “Aiden! Way to ruin the fun.”
“You have a problem, Kaitlyn.” Mason stands beside me and wraps an arm around my waist, hauling me close to show his support.
“I did warn you,” Kaitlyn asserts, looking at her nails like this is just any other day and she didn’t just humiliate me in front of the entire school. “I guess this warning extends to you now, too, Charlotte.”
Noah steps in front of Charlotte, as if he can protect her from Kaitlyn’s venomous gaze.
“I can’t believe you went to all this effort just to make a point,” I hiss.
“I take a stand for what I believe in. Plus, I promised I’d make your life a living hell, and I’m good at doing that. I never back down from my word.”
“Well, I’m even better at keeping mine.” Aiden steps in front of me and Mason, power and dominance radiating from him. “Go near Amelia or Charlotte again, and you’ll have me to deal with. And you definitely won’t enjoy that, I promise you.”
Something in Aiden’s threatening tone must register with Kaitlyn and her girls because their eyes widen. I guess his ruthless reputation filled in the unsaid threats, and Kaitlyn’s girls start leaving. Kaitlyn gives me one last hate-filled glare before turning with Makayla and heading out of sight.
Mason brings his hand to my cheek, turning me to look directly into his chocolate-brown eyes.
“Are you okay?” he asks softly, stroking my cheek with his thumb.
Out of the corner of my eye, Aiden gives us an unidentifiable look. He turns around and rips down the sign above my locker with ease.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Thanks.” I wiggle out of his intimate hold and turn to Charlotte. “I’m so sorry if I just dragged you into this.”
“I’m not scared of her,” she clarifies. “Plus, you didn’t even do anything. She’s just crazy.”
“Crazier than a PMSing girl with caffeine withdrawal who ran out of tampons and got locked out of her favorite coffee shop,” Noah says. We all glare at him. “What? Too soon for period jokes?”
I shake my head at him. “Why are you even here? Aren’t you supposed to be on bed rest for the week?”
“What? After you told me about what happened yesterday, there was no way I was missing out on all the fun!” he explains. “Best decision ever.”
During this exchange with Noah, Aiden walks to the nearest garbage bin, throws the now-ripped-up sign into it, and drags the bin to my locker.