Lincoln would have never been caught dead in dirty footwear.
“I watered that stick last night. Only because I don’t kick a man when he’s down, and that sad excuse for a plant is so down.” I ball up a piece of notebook paper, double-check to make sure Lovett’s back is turned, and anchor it on the pad of my thumb, then let my index finger trigger it right over some pouty girl’s head.
Doyle catches it neatly without taking his eyes off my face. “It’s gonna grow. It’s gonna get so big, you’ll be able to climb up in the branches. Maybe kiss. You know, like the song.” The tips of his ears burn red, and I realize he’s flirting. With me. And I’m game to flirt right back.
One half of the Day-Glo spray-tan twins huffs loudly. I notice her sending Doyle extra eyelash bats across the desks, which he doesn’t pay a single second’s attention to. It’s always sweet when karma pops up out of nowhere and slams a dumb ass upside the head.
“Like Doyle and Nes sitting in a tree?” I laugh, then shake my head. “Uh-uh. Trust me, that version of the song does not exist. And here I thought you were a gentleman.”
“I was raised with manners.” His steady words scratch in my ears. “But I was also born with eyes.”
“Smooth.” I pull the word long so he won’t hear my voice hitch around it. “Anyway, I don’t plan on being around long enough for that sad little almost tree to hold up a hummingbird’s nest, let alone two teenagers. I’m on a countdown to get out of here.”
“Good riddance,” Queen Bee Mean Girl mumbles.
I whip around. “Hello? Passive-aggressive?” She looks up at me with furiously shocked eyes. “Before you mutter anything else under your breath, let me introduce myself. I’m Agnes. Oh, but you know that because you made fun of my name before you even met me. The thing is, I prefer my fights in the open. So if you have something to say, don’t mutter under your breath. It just irritates me and makes you look scared.” The indignation on her face causes a pulse of happiness to ripple through me. “Do you have a name?”
I hear Alonzo snicker. “Hoo, burn. That had to sting.”
“Ansley Strickland,” she says through gritted teeth. “My daddy always says Yanks like to talk a big game. Don’t think you intimidate me. You think you’re hot shit, Agnes, but my family owns half this county. You better back on up, bitch.”
“Ignore her, Agnes. Ansley thinks she owns this school.” Alonzo rolls his eyes so hard, all I can see is the bright, ghostly whites.
“Of course you think she’s funny, Lonzo. Just because someone runs their mouth don’t mean they’re tough.” She grabs the end of her ponytail and twists the shiny blond hair around her finger like a tourniquet.
“Look, maybe you two got off on the wrong foot.” Khabria sounds like she should be narrating a meditation tape. “Agnes is new here. The Rose Court is supposed to be about welcoming people to Ebenezer.”
Maybe it was all getting off on the wrong feet, and not the fact that Ansley is a heinous excuse for a human being.
“I don’t have a clue what the Rose Princess is supposed to do, Khabria, but the Rose Queen upholds the traditions of this school.” She flicks her now-curled ponytail back over her shoulder, and I watch Khabria’s eyes go wild like her pupils are the swirling centers of twin hurricanes.
Nope. Definitely Ansley being heinous after all.
“You ain’t the winner of that crown yet, Ansley,” Doyle drawls. “You keep acting like you’re too good for us peasants, you might have a Marie Antoinette moment on your hands.”
“What are you even going on about, Doyle?” Ansley snaps. “You know, you’re only embarrassing yourself showing off like that. You’re the one acting like he’s too good for the rest of us, goin’ on about Marie Whoever like anyone even knows what you’re even tryin’ to say.”
“Ah, hell no,” Alonzo hoots. “Jest c’mon and admit you’re the only one who doesn’t know what happened to Marie Antoinette, Ansley. Admit it. Everyone knows you failed European history so bad, even your daddy couldn’t help you outta that mess.”
“Shut up, Alonzo,” she hisses, but her blush is pretty convincing evidence that Alonzo’s dropped the guillotine right on the neck.
“How does a guy who doesn’t know where Brooklyn is know all these details about European history?” Khabria crosses her arms and shakes her head.
“Well, if some queen gets her head cut off by a bunch of pissed-off poor folk in Brooklyn, I guess I’ll take notes,” Lonzo shoots back.
“Really? That’s what you think about me, Doyle?” Ansley’s face has deepened from pink to maroon. “I know you’re pissed about what happened between us, but you really think I deserve to have my head chopped off?”
“I meant it as a metaphor.” Doyle leans forward and lowers his voice. “And I’m not pissed about...that anymore.”
But Ansley is twisted in her seat, shredding her notebook paper into confetti. “So now you talk in metaphors? I remember the days when you just said what you meant. Funny you think I’m the one acting like e’rybody else is beneath me.”
Before the stew of crazy comments can go any further, the late bell buzzes and we all swing around to face forward. Ma’am Lovett seems to sense something more than idle before-the-bell chatter was brewing, but she only gives us her no-nonsense face, and we respond to that look like a class of guava-bearing angels and stay on our best behavior. By the time the bell rings, my hand is cramped from all my Hemingway notes, and my brain feels buzzy.
As I rise from my desk, Doyle ambles over, wedges a hip close to mine, and leads me out the door. Up close, the way he smells makes me feel, I think, the way guavas make Ma’am Lovett feel. I bend my head so that my nose is close to his shoulder, and his scent is warm and rich, like hay in the sun, but with something crisp on the edge. I’d have guessed aftershave, but a blond prickle of five o’clock shadow covers his jaw.
“You’re new here, so you couldn’t know, butcha prolly don’t want to mess with Ansley,” Doyle says as we walk. He has one arm circled around my waist, held a few inches back. If either one of us moved closer, his hand would close over my hip and he’d lock me tight to his side.
But he doesn’t, and I sure as hell won’t.
“Thank you very, very much, but I think I’m well equipped to handle my own nemesis.” I level him with a hard look and dare him to challenge my badassery. He cannot seriously think Ansley could take me in any form of a fair fight. She doesn’t even know the basics of the French Revolution.
“She can be real spiteful is all. And she was—” He interrupts himself and rubs his hand over the back of his neck. “The thing is—”
When he doesn’t finish his thought, I sigh and angle through the crowds, almost losing him over and over. He closes one hand around my elbow before I can go into my next class. I lean against the cinder block wall and roll my eyes when he pulls close. “Listen, I appreciate the concern and all, but I have no interest in listening to some big speech about Ansley or her little idiot friend—”
“Braelynn.”
“Okay. Ansley and Braelynn don’t intimidate me. I seriously don’t care who anyone’s daddy is or how much pull anyone thinks they have. Honestly, I think it’s pathetic.” I tug my arm out of his grasp.
“I know you don’t. And I admire that about you. But Ansley really does have major pull ’round here, and if she has you in her sights—”
“Agnes?” Mr. Webster sticks his head into the hall.
“Yes?”
“Sir.” Doyle whispers it as a soft reminder for me.