“How many of them were actual pregnancies?” Ms. T asked softly.
A good majority of the students remained up there while I stood alone, arms crossed, chewing on my bottom lip.
“Emery, in this game, everyone has to participate. It’s not fair if you just stand there, while we’re all being honest and sharing our past,” Ms. Tibble said suddenly, calling me out in front of everyone.
My head shot up, and I saw about 20 pairs of eyes looking at me.
My cheeks grew hot, but more out of anger than from embarrassment.
Why does she assume everyone is having sex?
“Who said I wasn’t being honest?” I returned quietly, and my cheeks enhanced a shade as I heard a few people start whispering.
“Are you saying… Oh my…” Ms. Tibble began, unsure of herself and the awkward question she was trying to form.
“I’m saying it’s none of your business,” I muttered, and looked back down at my converse.
Mondays are definitely not my day…
***
The stares I’d been getting in the hallways and in class had increased dramatically by lunchtime. I thought this whole ‘new girl’ treatment had blown over…
Apparently not.
I grabbed a small bag of barbeque chips and a bottle of water and then took a seat beside Lily. I wouldn’t say we were friends, exactly, but she was the only person I liked so far, and I seemed to be the only person she talked to, as well.
I popped my bag and grabbed a chip while she munched on an apple. We sat there in comfortable silence for a bit.
“Did I miss something?” I wondered out loud.
“Hmm?” Lily mumbled, keeping her mouth closed as she chewed the last of her apple.
“Those Barbies over there seem to have a problem with me,” I muttered, nodding in their direction.
Lily looked over, catching them glaring at me as they waited in line.
“Actually, everyone has a problem with me today, it seems. Is there something on my face or..?” I asked curiously.
“No, there isn’t anything on your face...” Lily replied, a bit hesitant.
“Then what is it?” I whined, resting my chin on my palm as I placed my elbow on the table.
“Well…” Lily started, but stopped herself.
I arched my eyebrow and lifted my head up.
“Lily…” I said, giving her a look that said ‘please just tell me’.
“They know about health class, my best guess,” she said, looking back at her plate of food.
“…Health? Today?” I asked.
What was so epic about health today?
She nodded, wincing. “News spreads at the speed of light at this school.”
“I’m lost,” I shrugged, laughing sheepishly and taking another bite of a chip.
The Barbies walk past our table again and I hear one of them whisper, “She eats chips, too. What a loser.”
Lily leaned over the table and murmured, “They all think you’re a virgin.”
“But… I am.”
Her jaw dropped and she stared at me, wide-eyed.
“Really?” she managed.
I nodded, feeling my cheeks flush.
Oh, God. That’s why everyone has been staring me down?
“It’s nothing to be embarrassed about Em…” she said quietly after a while.
“Well they all seem to have a different opinion,” I crush up my half-eaten bag of chips and downed my water.
***
I sat on the counter, legs crossed, singing the lyrics to ‘Untouched’ by The Veronicas while Nina had a word or two with Fox regarding his no-show on Friday.
This made me smile.
However, as soon as Nina pulled the door open and Fox stepped out, my smile faded.
“Emery. Off the counter,” Nina said sternly, and I hopped off before she had the chance to finish that short sentence.
“Em, you and Fox will be doing inventory today. Stock the storage, since… Carlos is …out,” she informed me awkwardly.
“What about the classes?” I asked, hoping I could get out of being in the little room with Fox.
“I’ll teach them.”
I’d never seen her this stressed before.
I resisted the urge to run out and beg the Daycare center to give me a few extra days of work, but I couldn’t just abandon Nina with the wild animal. Plus, I couldn’t let Fox run me out of my own haven.
I trudged into the storage room, and my felt my hands get clammy as he followed me in and closed the door.
“So, that was a nice song you were singing,” he smirked.
“Yeah?” I asked, picking up a blow up doll and shoving it at him.
His smirk remained as he stared at it.
“I wonder what this is for,” he laughed. The perve. “You can relate to it, right?” he asked innocently.
“Excuse me?” I asked dropping a box of baby dolls and glaring at him.
“I meant the song. Untouched.” He grinned now.
I blushed deep crimson, and bent over to pick up the box of plastic babies.
“You’re really a virgin,” he asked, but it sounded more like a statement as he stepped closer to me.
“And you’re really here on DUI charges,” I countered, thrusting an extremely heavy box at him. He barely winced, even though I knew I got him right in the gut.
“Feisty,” he commented, flipping a wisp of pale blonde hair out of his eye.
I shook my head.
What torture!
“You still gotta tutor me, Ms. Price,” he states, grabbing a box from my hands before I had the chance to heave it at him.
He’s not as dumb as he looks…
“Well, how do you think you did on the test?” I muttered, passing him a mat.
“I failed,” he put it simply. He folded the mat and threw it up over our heads to the top of the metal shelf. I ducked, covering my head. But it stayed put up there.
I glared at him, and he shrugged.
“You had my list for a whole day, and I’m guessing you didn’t even give it a once-over,” I judged, passing him another mat.
He folded it over and threw it up again; I still ducked, just in case it slid back down. It didn’t.
He laughed. “Nope.”
“It’s not funny.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said, putting on a very convincing serious face, “You better work some magic, because my dad came home, and he isn’t happy.”
“You act like that’s my fault,” I snapped, tossing him the last mat. It was a pathetic move, because he didn’t catch it. We both ended up bending down to pick it up.
“Smooth move,” he muttered, folding the mat, “He’s the reason why I wasn’t here on Friday. He got back from a business trip down in Brazil, and he was super pissed after my stepmom told him about my DUI.”
“Stepmom?” I asked, letting the question slip before I could think twice.
“Yeah, my mom divorced him when I was like seven. Anyway, I really need to get good marks this year… on just about every subject, but mainly creative writing. Sawyer’s harsh, and you can’t just copy someone else’s work for that class. She’ll notice,” he sighed.
I smirked. “I don’t think I have to inform you that copying anyone’s work is wrong. As soon as we finish organizing all this stuff, we’ll work on the vocabulary.”
I picked up another mat.
“Ok.” He grunted, heaving the mat up with the others.
Just as I turned to pass him a fourth mat, I heard material sliding and looked up just as two of the mats fell on top of us. They hit a few of the objects on the shelves on opposite sides of each other in the small room, causing them to fall, as well.
“You dumbass,” I growled, shoving the mats off of me and standing up. I rubbed my bruising arm, and glared at him menacingly.
He ran a hand through his hair and shook his head a little.
“No need to curse, Em,” he smirked, picking up the mats an
d sliding them under the shelves.
“You didn’t think of that in the first place?”
“Don’t pin this on me, you’re the one with the brains here,” he huffed, picking up a few baby dolls and dropping them in the box.
He’s using a compliment to make me feel guilty now?
I found a few dolls in the far corner and went over to pick them up. I felt his eyes on my butt as I did so, and self-consciously turned to the side so he has less of a view.
“Aww,” he whined.
I threw a baby doll at him, but to my dismay he ducked, letting it hit the wall.
“Hey!” he called, “Easy there, Em. Babies need to be handled with care.”
“Are you speaking from experience?” I asked, raising an eyebrow as I threw another baby into the box.
He glared at me, and this time I got to laugh.
“You’re just jealous I have experience.”
“Is that what they call it now?” I muttered, picking up the box and trying to place it up and over my head at the top of the shelf.
He came over, standing directly behind me as he helped me push the box over the top.
Awkward…
I shoved him backwards with my back and headed for the door.
“Don’t get any ideas, Fox,” I warned him, my hands clammy on the knob as I tried to turn it.
He walked over to me. “You’re the one rubbing up against me,” he justified, holding his hands up.
Evidently, he enjoyed playing the blame game.
“You’re so full of it.” I smirk, opening the door, “Let’s just study so I can go home.”
My stomach growled and I realized I’d barely eaten anything that day.
Chapter 6
The next day at school, news about my V card had spread like wildfire; alerting everyone within the school vicinity. If anyone had - by some miracle - missed the gossip, they were informed by the end of lunch.
It bothered me.
And who wouldn’t it bother? The fact that the entire student body knew about your virginity and how you still had it... Having them stare you down because you’re supposedly a prude and you’re inexperienced… It sucked.
And there was nothing I could do. That’s what bothered me the most.
All I wanted was to go to school, get good grades, get into an Ivy League college, make lots of money, have a family, and live happily ever after. The American Dream. But I never expected to become this… infamous because I’d decided to get good grades rather than get guys in my bed.
Somehow, with the help of my trusty companion Lily, I made it through the day.
***
“Ok, you know most of the words,” I sighed, placing the flashcards down on the counter and pulling out my Calculus book, “Let’s move on before we both fall asleep. You have Mr. Sutter?” I asked him.
Fox nodded, grinning.
“What?” I asked, running a hand through my hair.
He shook his head, “We are in the same class for math.”
“Nuh-uh,” I argued out of habit, giving him a weird look.
Maybe we were…
“Yup. We are. Where’ve you been?”
Staying up all night dreading school.
I shrugged and rubbed my eyes, starting on the assignment.
“Do you need help with the homework then?” I asked, squinting at all the little numbers.
“Nope. I’m good in Calculus.” He hopped off the counter.
Really?
“Oh,” I state, trying to ignore my noisy, empty stomach.
Lily and I had decided to skip lunch, seeing as I didn’t want to eat in front of a nosey, rude audience.
“You hungry?” Fox asked, staring at me, “’Cause I am.”
Before I had the chance to lie, he grabbed my hand and pulled me toward the kitchen.
I needed to work on my homework, and take advantage of the free time. Carlos had somehow disappeared, and Nina was as stressed as ever. She was making Fox and I cover for Carlos, while she taught the CPR and babysitting courses.
“Fox, Nina will flip if we aren’t behind the counter. She’ll make us clean the already spotless storage room again!” I told him, trying to stay quiet.
“Don’t worry, she’s in her office,” he said calmly, opening the fridge and scanning the contents.
“Yeah, but she can easily come out of there. What if the phone rings or something?” I asked in a nervous tone.
“You seriously need to chill, Em.” He moved onto the cabinets nonchalantly.
I took a deep breath.
“Find anything good?” I asked, suddenly very, very hungry.
“Noodles,” he replied, pulling out two Styrofoam cups of microwavable noodles.
“Is it edible?” I asked, scrunching my nose.
“Let’s find out,” he stated, placing the cups of noodles on the counter.
I watched, fascinated, as he filled the kettle with tap water and placed it on the stove.
He caught me staring and smirked.
Within minutes, he was pouring the boiling water into our cups of noodles, and mixing the soup with plastic spoons.
“Actually, can I have a fork?” I asked, turning to walk back to the lobby.
He gave me a strange look, but brought me my soup with a fork. It was easier to grab the noodles that way, otherwise they’d slip off the spoon and the soup would plop everywhere.
“Aww, Fox made me dinner,” I cooed, “Mmm, artificially-flavored noodles. My favorite.”
“Hey! I tried,” he said in his defense before adding in a cocky tone, “How many of your boyfriends have ever cooked you such a fine dinner?”
I patted the noodles with my fork, “Um… none.”
Not the truth, not a lie.
“You are something else, Em. Don’t go all the way home with your boyfriends, they don’t cook for you. What exactly do you guys do then? Play scrabble?” he smirked.
“Well, guys in the seventh grade don’t exactly have sex with their girlfriends,” I replied, scooping a forkful of noodles into my mouth.
“Are you saying the last boyfriend you had was in seventh grade?” he asked, struggling with his soup.
White is for Virgins Page 5
