- 6.
It turned out the cops found a switchblade in
one of the girls‘ pockets. Another girl confessed
that they were ordered to rough me up.
The situation changed fast.
The girl claimed the knife wasn’t hers, that she’d never seen it before. But she couldn’t
explain why it was in her jacket.
Last time, the bullying was a daily thing. But I didn’t expect Harlow and Jake to get impatient
so soon.
Same shitty tactics, same nasty behavior. The only difference was that this time, the victim fought back.
The girl was innocent. I slipped the knife into her pocket during the fight.
I also ripped off her hair on purpose. I wanted
to make a con
<
to make a scene.
A lecture and a few days of counseling wouldn’t
do shit. I needed to expose what was going on.
The high school girls hadn’t seen anything like
- it. The cops broke them down fast. They spilled
everything, including how Jake paid them to
mess with me.
My parents were stunned. They thought I was the problem. Turns out their precious son was the real screw–up.
Harlow shook her head. “No way. Jake is so sweet. He wouldn’t do this. You must be mistaken.”
I gave her a suspicious look. “He wouldn’t? Then it was you?”
She jumped, trying not to shake. “Don’t be
ridiculous. I would never do that.”
<
She was scared. She was just the adopted
daughter. She didn’t have the same freedom
Jake had.
She snarled at me. “You must have paid those
girls to lie! You put them up to this!”
“Yeah! That’s it!”
“Me? Pay them to slam my head against the wall? Pay them to rip off their own hair?”
“Harlow, that’s absurd.”
I pulled out my empty pockets. “I have nothing.
I borrowed money from a classmate for lunch.
“I’d rather buy a decent meal than live like you two, who get thousands of dollars of allowance every month.”
My parents remembered they hadn’t given me a
dimo cinco arriund
L
dime since I arrived.
They thought I didn’t need the money since I
lived at home.
Charles looked embarrassed. “Olivia, I forgot.
I’ll set up a card. Don’t be mad. I’ll make it up
to you.”
I shrugged, looking at Jake and Harlow.
If he wanted to cover for his fake sister, I wasn’t going to stop him.
I turned to my dad. “You told the police you
wouldn’t interfere. I hope you meant it. Don’t disappoint me.”
