Warning: I Did This to Amuse Myself :)

So, Dear Reader, remember when I admitted that I was kind of a jerk and semi-sure that I might in fact be evil?

Well, here’s your proof 🙂

Below is an excerpt from The Promise: A NFH Novel, and one that I am playing with during my free time, because apparently I have no life. 

Enjoy…..

I will tell you that this part is a prologue, rest of the story takes place years later!!

Prologue

Bridgewater, MA

Twelve years ago…

“I really think that we should talk about this,” Kelsey said even as she had to berate herself for not putting the thirty-second head start they’d given her to good use and found a better hiding spot than the top of an old metal cabinet.

“There’s nothing to talk about!” Jamie, the normally sweet girl who always let Kelsey sit at her table, snapped a bit angrily as she jumped and made another mad grab for her, which only confirmed Kelsey’s suspicions that she was going to die this very day.

“Death by seniors,” she mumbled miserably with a pathetic sigh as she took in the large group shoving each other out of the way in an attempt to get their hands on her first. If they’d only worked together, she thought with another sigh even as she decided that it was probably for the best if she didn’t point that out.  

After calculating the odds of her surviving this encounter and deciding that they weren’t good, she decided to try reasoning with them with the hope that they could discuss this like rational human beings. “I understand that you’re upset and possibly disappointed by the way things turned out, but is violence really the answer?” she couldn’t help but ask.

“Yes!” came the resounding answer, making her shoulders sag with defeat, because she was really kind of hoping that they’d take into consideration the fact that she was only thirteen, small for her age, and really, really sorry that about this whole thing.

Granted, she hadn’t had a chance to apologize yet, but she would just as soon as they stopped trying to drag her away from the safety of the metal cabinet that kept making ominous sounds that were really starting to concern her. She should have kept running and tried to barricade herself in the closet, but at the time the cheerleaders had been closing in on her and she hadn’t been sure if she was going to make it to the closet in time. Thanks to her quick thinking she was now stuck on top of an old, somewhat rusty, metal cabinet with an angry mob of hormonal teenagers after her.

She really wished she could figure out how to keep her mouth shut sometimes, now being one of those times. It would definitely make her life easier, she thought as she was forced to flatten herself against the wall so that she could pull her foot away from the edge of the cabinet.

“Would it help if I said that I was sorry?” she asked with a hopeful expression only to groan when they yelled, “No!”

Hugging her backpack tightly against her chest, she nervously licked her lips as she glanced around the large classroom, looking for someone or something that could get her out of this. But, it appeared as though she was definitely on her own on this one.

What she wouldn’t give for a teacher to walk in right now…

Well, maybe not Mr. Laferreira since he was the reason that she was in this mess. He really shouldn’t have called on her, especially since he knew better than most teachers what her stubborn mouth was capable of, but for some reason he’d felt it was necessary to prove that she didn’t know when to quit. There had been seventeen other students in the room who were more than capable of answering his question, but had he asked any of them a question about Robert E. Lee’s role in the American Revolution?

No, because for some reason the deeply disturbed man enjoyed it when she pointed out when he was wrong, which unfortunately for the sake of their education, was often. She wasn’t sure what his degree was in, but it definitely wasn’t in American history. He was constantly getting dates mixed up, his facts wrong, and could never seem to answer any of their questions without having to refer to the large history book that he kept open and ready on his desk. So, when she’d politely pointed out that Robert E. Lee had been in the Civil War and that he might want to seriously consider other vocations it had somehow enraged him into assigning everyone a ten page paper due first thing Monday morning that had really been his fault for calling on her.

“I hate you!” one of the cheerleaders screamed, sobbing a bit at the end there.

“You ruined my life!” someone else added, but she really wasn’t sure who since they’d all decided to start screaming at her.

She should shut up and let them get it out their system with the hopes that it would be enough to get them to give up on their plan to shove her in a locker and seal it with cement, but once again, her mouth refused to stay shut.

“It’s only a dance,” she pointed out, reminding them that it wasn’t the end of the world, but that’s when she realized that she’d made another tactical error.

“It’s Homecoming!” someone yelled as though that meant something to her.

“I had to mow fifty lawns to pay for this thing!”

“It’s the biggest dance of the year!”

“I had to eat lettuce for a month to fit into my dress!” one of girls screamed hysterically as she gave up on trying to grab Kelsey and decided that it was time to shove the cabinet onto its side.

That was right around the time that Kelsey decided to abandon ship.

Taking a deep breath, she tightened her hold around her bag and jumped from the cabinet, managing to take everyone by surprise and-

Fall flat on her face with a pained groan.

It wasn’t the smartest thing that she’d ever done, but at least she was off the cabinet, she told herself as another pained groan escaped her. As she lay there, most likely dying from internal injuries, she couldn’t help but wonder if they would be willing to forget this whole thing now that her short, and somewhat depressing life had flashed before her eyes. When she felt a pair of strong hands wrap around her arms and drag her to her feet, she couldn’t help but regret her decision to turn down her grandmother’s generous offer to homeschool her so that she wouldn’t end up in a situation like this one.

And yes, having the rest of the school turn on her and demand her head on a platter had been something of a concern for her grandparents. If only she’d listened, she thought absently as she was carefully placed on her feet and found herself looking up at her brother’s disapproving face. She couldn’t help but notice that he really didn’t look all that pleased to see her.

That kind of hurt since she was very happy to see him.

“What did you do now?” Brian asked, as he shot the group itching to get their hands on her a look of warning, which was probably the only reason they weren’t dragging her off towards the lockers by now.

“Umm,” she mumbled, shooting a nervous glance around the room to find the rest of her third period American history class glaring at her, “I may have questioned Mr. Laferreira’s ability to teach high school history.”

He didn’t say anything, but then again, he didn’t have to since she was well aware that she’d messed this one up. When he shook his head with a sigh and grabbed her bag, she nearly wept with joy as he gestured for her to move her butt.

“Sorry,” she said, shooting the angry crowd that most likely wouldn’t be asking her to sign their yearbooks a nervous smile.

“She didn’t mean it,” Brian said, reciting the line that he’d been forced to use since she’d learned to talk and making her once again wonder why she couldn’t learn to keep her mouth shut.

“Let’s go,” Brian said, wrapping his large arm around her shoulders and dragged her out of the room before she could open her mouth and say something to make this worse.

Not that she was sure that was even humanly possible at this point.

“Kelsey,” he said, with a pained groan as he led her towards the cafeteria, “what did we talk about?”

“Many things,” she mumbled pathetically when she saw who was waiting for them in the hallway.

Reed Bradford, her brother’s best friend, the school’s bad boy, breaker of hearts, her neighbor and her self-appointed babysitter.

“You find her in time?” Reed asked, as he pushed away from the lockers and joined them, making her hate him even more than she already did.

It didn’t matter that he’d saved her from an angry crowd determined to get their revenge, she hated him, always had and always would.

“Yeah, thanks, man,” Brian said as Kelsey grumbled a “See you later,” and ducked out of his reach. She hurried towards the cafeteria before she had to listen to the jerk ranting about how she had no business being in high school.

As she was forced to duck into the janitor’s closet when the angry mob that wanted nothing more than to tear her apart stepped into the hallway, Kelsey decided then and there that she was going to do whatever it took to finish school early and when she did, she was going to leave this town and never come back.

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