Behind her, Josie thought she heard a girl hiss, “You guys, stop!” It sounded like Lana.
One of the other girls said, “No, no problem. Josie dropped something.”
He stared at her until she reached down and picked up the folded piece of loose-leaf paper. Squeezing it in her palm, she smiled stiffly at Mr. Rand.
“Ms. Matson,” he said. “Is that something I should be concerned about?”
The other students in her grade had been taunting her all day, but she would be damned if she ratted them out. Attention was what they wanted, her grandmother always said, so don’t dare give it to them. Besides, she’d look like a wuss and a tattle if she dimed them out. No one did that. Josie liked to handle things on her own. “No,” she told him as she tucked the paper into the back of her chemistry textbook.
He took a step toward her, his eyes lingering on her chest. Josie suddenly wished she hadn’t stripped down to her tank top. Before he could speak again, the bell rang. Bodies sprang from their seats and rushed toward the door. Ignoring the ongoing commentary behind her, Josie let herself get caught in the surge of students trying to get out of the door and into the hallway where it was only marginally cooler. The crowd carried her down the hall to her locker.
“Better start looking for a new prom date,” a voice said behind her back. Josie didn’t turn around. She focused on making her fingers open her locker.
Another voice answered the last, “Yeah right. Good luck with that. No one is gonna want to date that.”
Rage bubbled in her stomach as she flung open her locker door. It clanged against the locker beside it. Taking a deep breath, Josie started methodically switching out her textbooks, trying to keep her mind on which ones she would need to take home with her that night. Placing her chemistry book into the locker, her hand froze.
Don’t look at it, said a voice in her head. It’s all lies anyway. Rumors.
“None of it is true,” she muttered to herself. But it was the third time this year that this particular rumor had circulated through Denton East.
Her fingers extricated the square of paper. As she unfolded it, a hand-drawn heart came into view. Black ink. An arrow punched through it. Inside were the names Ray and Beverly. The page made a crinkling sound as she squeezed it in her hand. She slammed her locker closed, hoisted her bookbag onto her back and found the nearest trash can, happy that most of the students were gone for the day.
Bracing herself for the sweltering stairwell, Josie pushed through the door only to run directly into Beverly Urban.
“Watch it,” Beverly said, her voice high-pitched.
Josie felt a flutter in her chest. “You watch it,” she snapped back.
“Don’t tell me what to do, you loser,” Beverly responded.
Josie pushed past her, toward the steps. Over her shoulder she said, “Oh, I’m the loser? I’m not the one who has to make up rumors about other people’s boyfriends just so it looks like someone wants to be with me. Get your own damn boyfriend.”
Beverly let out a loud breath and then Josie felt something push hard against the bookbag on her back. The steps rushed at her. She threw her hands up, searching for something to grab onto, but it was too late. She toppled down the steps, only her packed bag slowing the fall, coming to rest face-down on the landing. Pushing herself to standing, she glared up the steps toward Beverly even as her mind did a mental inventory of her body. Her left knee hurt, and so did both her hands and wrists. Her right shoulder also felt funny. But she didn’t think anything was broken. Her hands searched her face and head but there was no blood. Above her, Beverly watched, chest heaving, a strange look on her face. Triumph? Pleasure?
“What is your problem?” Josie shouted. “You could have killed me!”
Beverly descended the stairs slowly, almost regally, like a queen looking down on a royal subject. When she reached the landing, she brushed against Josie and gave her a withering look. “Too bad I didn’t. Ray deserves better.”
Josie’s fist shot out, making contact with Beverly’s left eye socket. Beverly let out a shriek, hands flying to her face. That was going to leave a mark, Josie thought. Instantly, she regretted it. She was already in hot water with the principal and with her gram. “You need to learn to control these impulses,” they both said to her every time she was forced into a meeting with the two of them. The only thing that kept the principal from suspending her was Lisette’s constant reminders to him of the abuse Josie had suffered at her mother’s hands before Lisette took custody of her. Josie hated that Lisette had to bring that up all the time, but it did keep her in school. Besides, Josie didn’t normally have behavioral problems. The meetings were almost always as a result of altercations involving Beverly. Although before today, Beverly had never been so overtly violent toward Josie, and while Josie had wanted to on many occasions, she hadn’t ever punched Beverly before now.
Beverly’s hands came away from her face. To Josie’s shock, tears streamed down her cheeks. “How could you?” she gasped. “You—you hit me. You could have—I—”
The sentence was swallowed up by a sob. The reaction was so out of character for Beverly, Josie was rendered speechless. Beverly was the queen of taunts, known school-wide for her cruelty. She had never once cried, not in front of anyone. While she wept, Josie stared at her, dumbfounded. Pain from her fall down the steps began to course through various body parts. She was suddenly aware of the sweat pouring down her face.
The door at the top of the steps swung open, and Mr. Rand appeared above them. “You girls,” he said, shaking his head. “To the principal’s office. Now.”
An hour later, Josie sat on a bench outside the main office. Her clothes stuck to her, glued to her skin from hours of sweat. Her left knee throbbed. Inside, her grandmother was still trying to convince the principal not to suspend her.
“Jo, there you are.” Ray appeared before her. She smiled weakly.
He knelt in front of her and touched her face. “Don’t,” she said. “I’m so sweaty. I know I smell.”
He smiled. “The whole school smells. I heard what happened. Are you okay?”
Josie looked away from him. “You’re not worried whether or not your girlfriend is okay?”
“I just asked you if you were.”
She met his eyes, glaring. “You know what I mean. The whole school thinks you’re sleeping with Beverly behind my back. That you’re taking her to the prom. The first couple of times these rumors started, it was funny. But now I’m starting to wonder, Ray. You know that saying? Where there’s smoke, there’s fire?”
He rolled his eyes. Sitting beside her, he put an arm around her and pulled her close to him. The shirt of his baseball uniform was scratchy against her cheek. In spite of herself, she leaned into him, feeling a rush of relief.
“There’s no fire. You don’t believe those rumors, Jo. Tell me you don’t,” he said.
“I don’t know what to believe.”
Using a finger, he tipped her chin up toward his face. “Believe me,” he told her. “Believe us. I’ve never even had a conversation with Beverly Urban in my life. I don’t care about her. I don’t care about anyone but you. I love you, Jo. You know that.”