I am the tough girl at school that nobody messes with, that no one wants to mess with. Smart choice for those kids, they probably know that I could put them in a hospital in point two seconds flat. My name is Riley Withers and I am a senior at Louthers high. I enjoy the school, I am dating the most popular boy in the entire school, everyday I get to hear the screams and murmurs of kids that I pick on that are all scared of me. So, I’d say that I have a pretty good life. I live with my dad and help him nearly everyday. He fixes cars for a living and he taught me a few things about it. I’m an only child and my mom died last year from a car accident, but other than that I love my life. I was walking through the halls at school dressed in my black leather jacket, black knee high boots, a pair of black shorts, and a dark grey shirt that is laced at the top in the front, my jet black hair down waving in the air as I walked, three rings on one hand and two on the other, a tattoo of a black cross on my wrist, a black choker around my neck, and a stud piercing in my nose, I have a triple piercing going up both of my ears. I turned a corner and bumped into someone making me almost go falling backwards, the person quickly grabbed my arm and pulled me up. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to bump into you.” a guy’s voice said. “Yeah, well let’s just not let it happen again. What’s your name?” I said as I brushed imaginary dust off of my jacket. “Josh, Josh Braunts.” I looked up to see a guy with black hair and blue eyes wearing a navy black shirt with jeans and some black sneakers. “If anything like this happens again, you’ll be on the list.” I walked past him purposely bumping his shoulder as I walked. I eyed him as I walked and he looked at me with total fear in his eyes.

I turned the corner and made my way to my locker. I opened it up and grabbed everything I needed, my phone, my earbuds, and I fixed my mascara in the little black mirror that was on the door of my locker. I closed it and jumped back a bit when I noticed that my boyfriend, Nick, was standing there smiling. “Hey, cutie.” he came closer and gave me a kiss on the cheek. “Don’t call me that, Nick. You know that I don’t like it so why do you keep doing it?” I leaned up against the lockers and smiled back. “Because it’s true. You know I love you right?” I nodded my head and he smiled before giving me a quick kiss. “Good, because I do.” “Yeah whatever, I have to get to class.” he turned to me confused. “What? You have never wanted to get to class before, What’s up?” I shrugged my shoulders and smiled. “So that I can cause total chaos and make Mrs. Lemmings mad. It’s funny seeing people like that, especially teachers.” I laughed and he nodded before I gave him a quick kiss on the cheek and walked off to class. I got in there and the teacher wasn’t there yet so I thought I’d set everything up how it was supposed to go. As the kids in the class began to pour in I was in the middle of setting the prank up. I closed the door a very little bit so that I could balance a bucket of water on the top. By the time that I was done I could hear Mrs. Lemming’s voice booming through the hall. “Class, I’m coming in and you better all be in your seats.” I turned towards all of them and whispered, “She’s gonna know it was me so don’t start pointing fingers or anything.”

I smiled and turned back around in my seat. Mrs. Lemmings walked into the room and the bucket fell pouring water all over her. Everyone laughed and she stood there in shock, she turned at me and pointed a finger at me. “You! Ugh, someone get me a towel NOW!” “There’s one in the closet waiting for you Mrs. Lemmings.” I sat back in my seat and waited for the show to begin. She turned to me stunned and then understood my little game a little bit more. “That’s okay I have one sitting on my desk for me, from lunch.” I shrugged my shoulders with a smile. She marched over to her desk and picked up the towel rubbing it all over her face and arms to dry herself off. Once she removed the towel her face and arms were all blue. “Now class, now that Riley is done with her prank let’s read the map.” She grabbed her pointer and pointed it up at the map. She noticed the blue on her arms and nearly fainted. She looked at both of her arms and ran to the mirror in the back of the classroom. She noticed the blue all over her face and screamed. “How does this come off? Riley you better tell me now or you can go right to the principal’s office and I’ll be sure that you are expelled.” “Fine, you have to air dry it with a fan. The coolness of the fan freezes it from spreading and you can eventually wash it off after five minutes.” She ran to the fan to cool it off, she quickly turned it on and feathers flew out of it spreading all over her face. “Oh did I mention that it is a secret combination that I made myself and it is extra sticky enough to hold up to practically any substance that comes in contact with it.” I smiled, she calmly turned towards me and walked to my seat. She lifted her arm pointing at the door. “Principal’s office, now young lady.”

I got up from my seat and smiled. “Gladly.” I walked past her eyeing her and I stopped just before I left the room. “Oh and by the way don’t open the closet.” I smiled. “Yeah right, you probably are just bluffing about it anyways.” she marched over to the closet and opened it up making mice scurry out of the closet I closed the door behind me and locked it from the outside with a key that I stole from her desk. I waved at them as they began screaming and pounding on the door begging to be released from the mice infested room. I walked to the office and sat in one of the seats like I owned it because like always I basically do own it. I waited for our principal to enter the room again. “Sit.” I did as he commanded but I threw my feet up on the desk and slouched back in the chair. “So what’s up, Gale?” I smiled as if nothing happened. “I just got done talking to Mrs. Lemming’s after she was finally done screaming and it appears that you pulled another one of your pranks.” I rolled my eyes at him, not giving a care in the world of what he had to say. “I know, I know, I know. I get it, you think I could have done much better and I know that I could have to. But it’s nothing for me to be in trouble for. Jeez, can’t anyone here ever take a joke? What do you teachers do around here for fun anyways, play checkers?” I laughed, he glared at me for answering in a sharp voice. “ONE MORE COMMENT FROM YOU AND I WILL HAVE YOUR FATHER HERE TO PICK YOU UP AND YOU WILL BE EXPELLED, IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?” I nodded my head still not caring. “Good.” he turned his back towards me and faced the wall of graduates that he has had here. “You used to be such a nice girl, what happened?” I rolled my eyes again and scoffed. “Things change, not everyone stays the same, not everyone is perfect, not even you, now are you?” he turned back at me before pointing out of his office. “Go, get out of here and back to class before you get expelled.” I gladly stood up from my seat and walked out making my way to my next class. I walked in late. “Hey, losers. Now that I’m here your prayers have been answered. Isn’t that right, Lauren?” I turned to our teacher not caring what she thought about me using the teacher's first names. “Take a seat, Ms. Withers.” I rolled my eyes with a smile. “Yeah yeah yeah, I know what to do.” I looked around the classroom and saw that the one new kid is in this class. I walked over to the seat next to him and made the other kid get up with three words. “My seat, now.” I smiled and she quickly shot up from her seat, grabbed her books and ran to the other side of the room to get a new seat. “Hey, new kid.” I whispered to him as I sat in the seat. “I would rather have you remember my name, instead of you calling me “new kid”. Why is everyone so scared of you?” “Because I am the bully, the no good piece of sh-.” “Okay I get it. But you don’t seem that scary to me.” he turned back to face the teacher and I turned to my desk staring at it. He is the first person to think that I am not scary, why didn’t he think I am scary? I guess I have to show him why people think that I am scary. So, basically, I have to teach him a lesson.

The rest of the class I was making smart-wit comments about practically everything and waiting for our teacher to say something about  it. Once class was over that Justin or Jake kid got out of his seat but I stopped him before he could try to walk away. “By the way, Jake, I don’t appreciate you saying that I am not scary.” “My name is Josh.” I shrugged my shoulders. “Close enough. But what’s the deal with you thinking that I am not scary?” he shrugged his shoulders back before answering. “I just don’t. Everyone has their own opinions about someone.” he smiled and walked past me leaving me standing there in complete shock. I smiled once he left the room and then I turned and walked out too.

I made my way to my locker to wait for Nick, that's where we usually met up to talk. I waited until I heard the first bell ringing but he never showed up. “His gym class must've been held back or something.” I shrugged my shoulders as I was talking to one of my friends Kacey at lunch. “Yeah maybe, but he's always met up with him in between classes unless I was in the office. Makes me wonder what really kept him from coming.” Kacey shrugged his shoulders too and looked at the lunch line. “You wanna ditch so we can go pick up a pizza or something?” “Sure, but I'm not eating any.” He rolled his eyes. “Are you still on your no meat, no grease, basically nothing good to eat diet?” “I have good food to eat, and it's not all no grease. I at least eat chips and, talks and stuff like that. But I at least exercise after that.” “Then why donut you eat pizza with me and exercise after that.” “I just don't feel like eating any, that's all.”

“Yeah whatever, let's go.” We both hopped up from our chairs and snuck our way to one of the janitor closets where there was a vent that lead out of the school as long as you took the right way out. I grabbed some of the tools and pried it open handing it to Kacey and climbing in the vent. He passed it to me and climbed up himself. We placed the vent back in place from the inside and made our way out of here. Once we got out and onto my motorcycle we went off towards pizza hut. We ate there, Kacey was practically stuffing his face with the pizza while I was sipping down a soda.

“Come on, you gotta eat something or you’ll be starving yourself for pretty much the whole day.” I was looking around the place when I noticed a girl in a seat laughing her butt off with a guy that looked remarkably like Nick. “Hold that thought.” I got up and walked over to where the two were sitting. “Nick?!” it was him and now he was looking at me wide-eyed, and his face was expressionless. His hand was on the table and the girl he was with was Kate Larson, the most “popular” girl in school. She stopped giggling but now she was staring at me with a smile on her face. She propped her head up on the table with her fist, with Nick’s hand on the table she placed her other hand on his and started running her hands along his arms. I sucked in a breath to keep me from yelling at her like crazy. She was intentionally making me mad, I felt like I was going to break her into two pieces but I suddenly relaxed. “So how long has this been going on? You know between the two of you.” I leaned up against their table. “Riley, nothing is going on here.” Nick pushed Kate’s hands off of him and he began to stand up. I put my hand on his chest and pushed him back down. “Nick, don’t even try to pull that on me. How long has this been going on?” Kacey made his way over and stood behind me, probably to hold me back thinking that I was going to murder Kate at any second now. “Oh it’s been going on since last year.” Kate answered with an evil grin. “Exactly how long?” “Eighteen months and three days.” she answered still smiling. “Oh really, Nick, what a coincidence. That is exactly when we started dating.” I leaned down to them and whispered. “I don’t like liars, or cheaters, or at least when it happens to me.” I took another drink of my soda before opening the cap up and dumping it over Nick’s head. Then I slowly reached for the ketchup bottle for their fries and squeezed the tube making it pour all over Kate. I grabbed one of their fries and rubbed it on Kate to get some of the ketchup, I took a bite of it and smiled. “A little too salty for my taste. Isn’t that right, Nick?” I dropped the fry on the middle of the table and walked away smiling leaving those two standing there in complete shock. I thought about it for a minute before I jumped over the counter and went into the back. I opened one of the boxes and grabbed a pizza, pepper, and ketchup and climbed back around the counter before making my way to where those two were still standing. I handed Kacey the pizza and nodded my head. He smashed the pizza onto Nick’s face covering him in sauce, cheese, and pepperoni. I then placed the pepper down on another table next to us and squeezed the tube of ketchup spelling f*ck boy onto Nick and then squirted some onto Kate spelling out dirty wh*re. I sprinkled the pepper onto Kate with a smile on my face. “There you go, since you LOVE glitter so much. I remembered that from last time I saw your locker.”

I tossed twenty dollars onto the counter where one of the waiters were. “For the ketchup and to pay for the mess.” I walked out of the building smiling with Kacey walking behind me. “Let’s head back to school. I have a feeling that those two won’t be coming back today.” I got on my motorcycle with Kacey close behind me and rode off to school. We climbed through the vent and made our way back into the closet that we left from. I left the vent wide open and let Kacey close it all on his own. I left the closet and made my way to my locker, once I had it open three guys that I recognized from the football team came up to me. “Nice way to treat Nick and Kate, don’t you think, Riley?” I nodded my head with a smile. “So, who got the video?” I said still ruffling through my locker looking for my lipstick. When I finally found it I turned towards my mirror and put it on. “Some kid, I think it was the new kid, Josh.” “How did he know about it, and how did he get the video.” “He didn’t like the school lunch so he decided to go get some pizza. A couple of the guys and I came along with him. When we entered Pizza Hut we saw what happened and he got it on video.” I smiled to myself as I turned back to my locker and tossed my lipstick tube into my black leather backpack. I then shut my locker and turned towards the three guys still standing there and smiled. “Good to know.” I pushed my way past them to get to my next class. Once I entered I sat down in the front row still smiling. I heard the door open and turned my head to see Josh walking in. “Hey… Jake?” he shook his head, I smiled and shrugged my shoulders with a sigh. “Still close enough. Thanks for getting that video by the way.” “So you know?” he smiled sitting in the seat next to me. I nodded my head. “I appreciate it, now everyone in the entire school knows what Nick and Kate truly are. It’s their fault, they made me do it. Or at least that’s how I would put it in my own point of view.” I smiled. Our teacher walked in the classroom and told us to open our geometry books up to page 658, and for once I did what I was told. She passed out a worksheet for each of us to do and told us to partner up. I raised my hand with a smile. “Yes, Riley.” “Are we allowed to work on this on our own?” I asked with my mechanical pencil in my hand. “Yes, if you choose. But you still have to do the work.” I nodded my head and began to work.

“Hey, Riley.” I turned my head to look at the seat next to me and noticed that Josh was the one whispering my name under his breath. “Yeah?” “Do you wanna be partners?” I smiled and nodded my head lightly. I got up from my seat and pushed it closer to Josh’s, we began to get right to work as soon as possible. We finished before anyone else in the class and the rest of the time we got time to talk to each other quietly. Honestly, it was actually pretty relaxing, not having to act tough around him and everything. I found out why he moved here, and apparently the reason he doesn’t find me scary is because at his many old schools he was much worse than me. At the last one he got expelled because of a prank that he pulled on the principal. He took apart the principal’s car and rearranged it in his office.

Josh’s POV

It was really nice talking to Riley, to be honest I think I may kind of like her. She’s probably the first girl that I’ve actually liked talking to at this school, all the others seem like huge sl*t’s. I haven’t really met anyone else besides some guys from the football team, Riley, Kacey, and their other friend Heaven. It’s kind of funny thinking about it, if Kacey wasn’t there to stop Riley from doing worse at Pizza Hut then who knows what would have stopped her. She isn’t all that tough once you get to talk to her a little bit more, she’s just- misunderstood, is all. “Hey I’ll see you tomorrow.” I was walking her outside after school to her motorcycle. She smiled and waved at me before hopping on her bike and riding off.
I began to walk home, it didn’t bother me at all. I didn’t live to far from the school anyways. But the entire walk home I couldn’t get her out of my head.

Kacey’s POV

After school was done I was walking to my motorcycle when I saw Josh walking Riley to her bike. I smiled and thought to myself ‘looks like she found a new friend good for her.’ On my way home I thought how funny the Pizza Hut fight went while I was blasting my music on my bike. I saw Heaven on my way I screamed Yo as I passed by Then I got home to find my puppy waiting for me.”He was a hound mix named, Timber. I took him outside to play in the backyard to play some tug of war which I always let go first because he bites his way up and slams his jaws on my hand.

Heaven’s POV

After I heard about the whole Pizza Hut incident I walked home, on my way I stopped at the park and saw Mason the school’s jock with some of his friends they were playing soccer. You see the thing is I have had a crush on him since 3rd grade he has never noticed me which is perfectly fine with me I like to admire him from a distance. I went over to the swings and sat down, I was replaying a stupid fantasy over and over in my head maybe one day Mason will sweep me off my feet. I was pulled out of my thoughts by someone’s presence next to me i turn to see Mason sitting down on the swing next to me I sucked in a breath why would the school’s jock be sitting next to ME? I looked at him dumbfounded I cleared my throat “ why are you here?” he looked at me and smiled showing off his perfect white teeth “ I just thought you needed company” I scoffed “ you thought wrong I can be alone” he smiled “ yeah right, So I saw you watching me play soccer” my face turned red “ I wasn’t watching you” he looked at me and smiled “ it's fine.” We sat there for awhile in a awkward silence “ I have to go” I stood up and before I left Mason grabbed my wrist “ can I atleast get your number” I smiled and exchanged numbers. On my way home I thought this boy is going to drive me crazy.
 

Riley’s POV

I made my way home and burst through the door yelling. “DAD, I’M HOME!” I smiled as I tossed my backpack onto the couch. “I’M IN THE KITCHEN!” I made my way to the kitchen to see my dad at the table reading a newspaper with a smile on his face. “Hey, dad. Whatcha reading in the paper today?” I smiled and opened up the fridge grabbing the carton of orange juice and taking it to the counter. “So how was your day, buddy?” I opened the fridge back up and put the carton back on the shelf before shutting it with a smile. “My day was good, what about yours? How was work? How was staying home and looking at black, white, and grey paper?” he looked at me with a smile plastered across his face. I giggled before taking a sip of my orange juice and walking over to him and placing a hand on his shoulder. “Love ya dad.” “Love ya too, pal.” He stood up and gave me a small kiss on the head. I gave him a hug and then ran upstairs to my room. I flopped onto my bed and pulled out my phone. As soon as I took a look at the screen I noticed that Josh texted me. “How did he even get my number?” I asked myself. I smiled to myself before looking at the text. I opened it up and found a picture of me when we were talking earlier. I was sitting at my desk laughing at something that Josh had said. I smiled back to the memory of talking to him.

I don't think I've ever talking to someone for that long for making either an inappropriate comment or insulting someone. I looked at my phone again once I heard a little bell of a noose from my phone. I noticed that Josh sent a winky face emoji. I giggled to myself lightly, and quickly stopped. I giggled? I've never giggled unless I was with Nick or with my friends. But I guess now I giggle around Josh too.

I’m still the tough chick at school, even if I giggle one time with someone else. I felt buzzing coming from my hand. I looked at my hand and it was shaking violently. I dropped my phone on my bed next to me and grabbed my shaky hand trying to control it. It wouldn’t stop so I got up and went to the upstairs bathroom, closing the door behind me I turned the sink to cold water and put my hand in it. I left it in the water for two minutes and when I pulled it out it had stopped shaking and I dried it off before going back to my room. I got undressed and got in the shower, I changed into black converse, shorts, and a white tank top. I tossed on my dad’s extra work shirt over it and left it unbuttoned before grabbing his matching hat and making my way downstairs.

“Dad, you still home?!” “Yeah in here.” I heard him call from the living room, I walked into the living room and saw him still reading the paper sitting on the couch. “Come on lazy daisy, we have to get to work.” he smiled and got up from the couch and set the paper down on the coffee table. We drove in my dad’s old pickup truck and went on our way to the car repair shop that my dad worked at. I liked coming with him all the time so that’s what I did whenever I wasn’t busy with other stuff. When we got there I hopped out and ran to one of the cars with a smile on my face. Everyone other guy that worked here with my dad knew me by now and they all smiled and treated me like I was one of them. I grabbed some tools and began to help one of the newer guys out with a car. Everyone else as they walked past me gave me a pat on the back and said things like “Hey pal, or Hey sport.” they treat me like I am one of them and I love it. I don’t have to hear them say things like “Hey princess” whenever they walk past me. The only reason they call me things like sport and pal is because before my mom died last year she came with me and my dad to work and heard what some of the guys called me then she made a speech to all of them that it seemed sexest to call me princess.

So now no one here ever forgot it, the new guys were warned from me. I told them about the entire speech that my mom made and they called me buddy, pal, or sport, or sometimes by my real name. For the rest of the time I was there I helped my dad and I got to work underneath a couple more cars. I helped under the hood a lot too, I loved working there so much.