Confronted by the soccer captain

"Newton!"

I jumped and dropped my bag in surprise, and my books spilled out, along with the picture. Dropping to my knees, I desperately scrambled to pick them up and hide the picture before anyone saw.

"Why weren't you at practice yesterday?" Nadia, the brunette captain of my soccer team, was looming over me with her hands on her hips.

"Sorry, Nadia - I wasn't feeling well, I had to go home early," I spluttered nervously. At nearly 6 foot tall, Nadia would've scared the living daylights out of me even if I hadn't been kneeling down.

"And the text that you totally remembered to send?" she asked pointedly.

"Uh ... Yeah, sorry, I forgot."

"Miss the next session without telling me and you're benched. Capeesh?"

I nodded, putting the last spilled book back in my bag. "Sorry."

Nadia walked off, and I got to my feet. Going back to my locker, I heard one of the boys walking past whisper to his friend, "She looks real hot on her knees." His friend stifled a laugh, and I felt heat rise to my cheeks.

"How about you fuck off?" I yelled after him, and he shot a look over his shoulder that was somewhere between scared and amused, and he started walking away slightly faster. Everyone else in the corridor was looking at me. Avoiding eye contact with anyone, I quickly slammed my locker shut and walked off in the opposite direction.

*

Thankfully, the rest of the morning was devoid of such incidents, and I made it to lunch without my temper flaring up again. Spying Jasmine, I started to make my way towards her until I saw Chrissie sitting next to her. I hesitated. From the looks of it, they hadn't seen me yet. I looked around for somewhere else to sit; there was an empty space over by the bins, or ... my heart sank. Liam was sitting with Ryan and a couple other of his friends towards the back of the canteen.