Chapter 2

I spend an hour looking through my boxes to try and find my green piggy bank. I come upon it and find that it's barely full. I wish my mother would've told me that she and my father would decide to send me off to my aunts so I could've saved up from my old job. Instead, the week before I left, I spent almost two hundred dollars on worthless items like party food and plastic bowls. I could've saved that until I managed to get a job here. I barely have fifty bucks to my name, and I already owe someone ten dollars. I sigh, take out a ten, and put it on my bedside table as I climb into bed.

I wake up the next morning with a jolt. My aunt pushes open my door and tosses a bag onto my bed. "Morning, sunshine!" she greets me in her slightly nasally voice.

I look at the bag, which landed on my legs, and groan. I sit up, open the sack, and allow my shoulders to slump. School uniforms. I guess my parents ordered these for me. Yesterday, I used one of Vivica's old ones from her freshman year. It was one of the few that wasn't hemmed and stitched so the skirt rose a few inches, and the shirt actually still had buttons.

After I shower and get ready, I meet my aunt and cousin downstairs. My aunt's making breakfast, which smells delicious. With half lidded eyes and damp hair, I sit down at the table. My cousin picks at a piece of toast, looking primped and preened. She has an annoyed look on her face, which appeared the moment I plopped down in the seat beside her.

"Why'd you need to know the address yesterday?" my aunt wonders when her eyes settle on me.

"I needed a ride home but I didn't know where I lived," I confess as I shove a piece of bacon into my mouth.

"You needed a ride?" my aunt repeats as she looks between the two of us at the table. Yawning and rubbing my eyes, I blink a few times before nodding.

"Why didn't Vivica give you a ride?" Aunt Genevieve questions more to her daughter than me.

"She had cheer-leading practice at a different school," I admit flatly, not bothering to hide my annoyance.

"We're going to talk later," my aunt glares at my cousin. "How'd you get home?"

"I got a ride from Maddox," I explain, getting cut off in the middle of my sentence by a yawn, which causes my eyes to close slightly. Speaking of Maddox, I pat my pocket to make sure I have the money for gas. Vivica's eyes widen as a look of anger overtakes her face. Why's she so angry? She's the one that left me stranded in the school parking lot without a ride.

"You're going to give her a ride to and from school from now on," my aunt demands with her hands on her hips.

I don't bother speaking. Instead, I just eat a forkful of eggs and remain silent. When Vivica announces that we're leaving, I grab a napkin and load it up with the rest of my bacon. I make a move to wash my dish but my aunt stops me and smiles, nodding towards the door. I force a smile back and grab my bag from the floor, shoveling bacon into my mouth as I go.

The car ride is tense and everything Vivica does seems angry. She punches the radio buttons until a song she approves of comes on; she brakes rather hard; she turns fiercely; and she doesn't warn me whenever she's taking a sharp turn. I'm guessing that's how she takes out her anger: by beating up the passenger.

After arriving at school, I make a beeline for the bathroom. As I'm walking towards the toilets., which I found yesterday after a ten minute search, I spot a familiar guy standing at a locker. He carelessly shoves books into his bag. I slowly approach him, unsure if it's a good time. "Maddox," I state as I dip my hand into my pocket.

He turns around with that natural sour look on his face- the narrowed eyes and the set frown. "What?" His pretty green eyes are conical and his lips are set in a line. I feel my face heat up when I realize that I was just staring into his eyes for a good minute.

"I-I have the money," I concur him as I hold out the cash.

"Is that bacon?" he asks with furrowed brows. His eyes are locked on the napkin in my other hand.

"Yeah, want some?" I offer as I hold it out as well.

He shakes his head and I shrug, retracting my bacon-filled hand. "And I don't want the money," he tells me bluntly as he slams his locker.

"But I searched through my boxes for an hour for this," I grumble unhappily. I know what you're thinking- take the money and walk away. If he doesn't want it, be grateful. You're ten dollars richer (or maybe just not ten dollars short). But I can't help but feel like I owe him. He gave me a ride home even though I couldn't even provide him with an address until forty five minutes into town exploring.

"That's not my problem," he informs me. Without a second glance at me, he walks away with his hands tucked in his pockets. I glare at his back, fold up the money, and shove it into the slits of his locker. I, Olivia Ortega, refuse to owe anyone anything. I walk towards the bathroom and enter, listening as the bell rings, signifying that the day has just begun.

+ + +

It takes me a minute to realize that I have five of eight classes with Maddox. And it wasn't until American Literature, which is directly after lunch, that he comes up to me and places the money on my desk angrily. I shove it back towards him, lifting it when he doesn't accept it. "Take it," I demand.

"No," he states as he stands on the other side of my table, refusing to take the money. I keep my hand extended towards him.

"Take it," I repeat as I examine his face; his defined jaw is clenched and his long eyelashes create shadows on his cheeks in the bright lighting of the classroom. The green of his eyes is flashing as he blinks impatiently, trying to shrug off my attempts to give him the money. His pale, pink lips are set in a line as he represses the urge to, most likely, swear at me and call me names. I push the money towards him again, cutting off his path to the back of the class.

"Maddox, have a seat," Mr. Harvey announces with a fleck of impatience in his tone. Maddox looks around and grits his teeth when he notices that the seat beside me is the only available chair. Everyone's eyes are on us as they wait to see what he'll do. He grumpily drops in the only open seat, giving me a glare when he realizes that this is the third time I've embarrassed him in a two day span. He shoves my hand away and I tuck the money into my pocket with a plan of slipping it into his bag once the bell rings.

Maddox ignores me the entire class period. Even when I attempted to ask him for help on a question, he disregards me. The teacher didn't explain it to me well enough and I didn't want to ask again, so I just shut up and pretended I knew what I was doing. In my old school, we didn't get this far into this lesson. In fact, we barely got into the lesson before this one. Was my old school behind or is this school ahead?

Maddox also ignores me when I ask him what time class ends. And I know he heard me. I mean, he made eye contact with me for a few seconds before he looked away. And the moment the bell rang, he jumped from his seat and dove out of the classroom, not bothering to retrieve the homework on the way out.

+ + +

In my Pre-Calculus class, which I have absolutely no friends in, I'm surprised when two girls take the seats beside me. I just assume that there's a shortage of seats until they introduce themselves to me. I recognize them; they'e two of the people who followed Maddox out of the cafeteria when I attacked him with my lunch.

"I'm Cassidy," the redhead introduces herself.  She has several piercings on her ears, a lip piercing, and an eyebrow piercing. I smile at her and nod, still confused as to why she's talking to me.

"I'm Winona," the dark skinned one greets me. She doesn't have any piercings but her makeup is dark and smokey, like something I've seen in a tutor. I smile at her as well, nodding my head again. "You must be Olivia."

My eyes flicker from Cassidy to Winona in slight confusion. "Uh, yeah, how'd you know?" I ask.

"Maddox," they reply in unison. "We're his friends."

"Oh," I mutter. "Well, yeah, I'm Olivia."

The girls start a conversation with me and I politely engage, though still confused as to why Maddox told them about me. I don't bother to ask.

+ + +

"You're going to homecoming with a boy?" my aunt gasps the second I enter the house with my bag over my shoulder.

I nod slowly. "Yeah, how'd you know?" I wonder as I slow to a stop in front of her.

"Viv was talking about it on the phone when she came in," my aunt smiles. "Do you have a dress?"

I shake my head. "No," I answer in short. I don't even have money for one, if we're being honest. I really didn't think this through.

"Well, homecoming's this Friday! We need to go get you a dress," my aunt explains happily.

"Now?" I mutter when I see her grabbing her car keys.

"Yeah, or they'll all be sold out, if they aren't already!" she smiles at me. I can tell how excited she is to finally have a teenage girl to spend time with.

"Let me just run upstairs and get my money," I conclude when I realize that I may not be able to pay Maddox back after all.

"No need, I'll pay for it," she concurs with a dismissive hand wave. 

I return the grin this time. "Thanks, Aunt Gen."

"No problem," she announces as she leads the way outside. I leave my bag on the living room floor as I shut the door behind us.

As we drive to the mall, I think about what Maddox said. Should I wear red? Or should I wear what I want to wear? After much contemplation, I decide that I'll wear what I want to wear, unless I find a cute, red dress. Then, I guess I'll buy that. Upon our arrival, I notice a few things. There are a lot of teenagers and a lot of stores. This mall's definitely larger than the one from my old town, almost twice the size.

"Let's look around," my aunt suggests  as she looks at the different stores. I follow behind her and peer around at the variety of shops that dot the aisle. "They have dresses." We cut across the large hall and enter the aforementioned store, where we're hit with a blast of heat. I immediately notice a red dress on a rack so I approach it and examine it.  "So you want a red dress?"

"What?" I wonder as I tear my eyes from the dress.

"Your eyes darted to that red dress faster than my eyes dart to purses," she comments with a small chuckle.

I look down, feeling slightly embarrassed. At least she doesn't know my reasoning for wanting red. "It's cute, don't you think?" I ask her as I wave the garment around.

"Yeah, do they have your size?" she wonders. I survey the rack more and frown, giving a slow shake of my head. "We'll keep looking, then."

There isn't much to look at in that store so we keep it moving. Two stores later, we finally find a dress that's cute and has my size. After purchasing it (I thanked my aunt repeatedly for doing so), we exit the store. "Do you have any shoes?" my aunt wonders as her eyes fall on yet another girly store.

I stare at the floor and shake my head again. "Nope."

"No problem, we'll get you some!" she insists with wild eyes. "Vivica hates going out with me. It's good to have someone around that I can shop with."

"Thanks, Aunt Gen," I say for what seems to be the fifth time today.

"Anytime," my aunt responds. "When was the last time you talked to your mom?"

"Not too long ago, three days I think," I estimate. To be honest, it wasn't much of a talk. She just called to make sure I knew the rules, which she shouted at me repeatedly on the way here.

'Don't do anything disrespectful. Follow all of your aunts' rules. If she has a curfew different than ours, follow it without complaint. Don't get into trouble with the police. No parties, at all. Don't hit Vivica. I mean it, Liv; don't hit her...' My mom's voice drones on in my head.

"She told you the rules again, right?" my aunt grins at me.

I chuckle and nod. "Yeah, she did," I admit.

"Don't worry about it. You're doing just fine here."

I give my aunt a half smile. Maybe this year won't be so bad. At least my aunt won't be.