Chapter 1

"Cassandra Jones! Look what you did to your classmate!"

"Are you out of your mind? If you've got problems, go get help. Stop taking it out on people at this school!"

The vice principal, John Brown, was practically spitting in my face. I stood there with my hand pressed against my bleeding forehead.

I wasn't doing great, honestly.

My school jacket was torn to shreds. My back was covered in bruises. And the gash on my forehead, the one a rusty steel pipe had put there, was still seeping blood.

Still, I didn't say a word in my defense. I just stood straight and kept my mouth shut.

Because thirty minutes ago, Wendy Smith, the most popular girl in school, had cornered my best friend Samantha Lane in a bathroom stall with three of her followers. They'd torn at Samantha's clothes and pulled out their phones to take pictures.

I'd heard Samantha's desperate crying and kicked the door open.

To buy her time to escape, I'd held all three of them off alone, fighting them with chairs while they came at me with everything they had. I broke one of Wendy's followers' noses. In return, I took a steel pipe straight to the head.

Samantha had always been timid. I didn't want to drag her into it and ruin the good-girl reputation she'd worked so hard to keep. So when the vice principal demanded answers, I said nothing.

John lost his patience fast. He slammed the disciplinary form down on the desk in front of me.

"One week suspension, and a written statement of no less than ten pages on your behavior. Your guardian needs to be in this office by eight tomorrow morning, or we're moving straight to expulsion."

I limped out of the office, my whole body aching.

The hallway was empty. Outside, rain had started to fall.

I wanted to find Samantha. I wanted to tell her it was okay, that I'd handled everything and she didn't need to worry.

I checked every senior classroom. I even checked the bleachers out by the track. She was nowhere.

Then I made my way to the bike shed behind the school.

Through the gray curtain of rain, I found her.

Samantha was standing under a delicate lace umbrella, tilting it almost entirely over another girl to keep her dry. Samantha's own shoulder was soaked through, and she didn't seem to notice or care.

She was wearing a smile I'd never seen on her before. Soft and eager, almost desperate to please.

The girl she was sheltering under that umbrella was Wendy, the same girl who'd been hurting her just thirty minutes ago.

"Cassandra is insane. She scared the hell out of me. How does a school like this even let someone like her in?"

Wendy was wiping her fingers with a designer wipe, her face twisted in disgust. Samantha stood beside her, carefully cradling Wendy's brand-new bag with both hands, holding it away from the rain like it was made of glass.

I was about to step out and ask Samantha if she'd been threatened.

Then her voice cut through the rain and reached me clearly, every word landing like a punch.

"Don't be mad at her, Wendy. Cassandra's always been like this, all brute force and no brain. Honestly, I've been done with her for a long time. She's been glued to my side forever, acting like my bodyguard, scaring off anyone who got close to me. If it weren't for her, I would've been part of your group ages ago.

"I know you were just messing around with me today. She's the one who blew it up and started hitting people. It's disgusting."

The blood from my forehead dripped into a puddle at my feet, bleeding red into the water.

I stepped out from behind the concrete pillar, unable to help myself. I stared at the girl I'd spent two years protecting with everything I had.

"What did you just say?" My voice came out rough and shaking.

Samantha flinched. For just a second, guilt flickered across her face. Then she took a large step back, like I was something contagious she didn't want near her.

"You heard me, Cassandra. So I'll stop pretending. Please don't follow me around anymore. I don't want to be your friend. Someone like Wendy, with her background and her world, that's the kind of person I want in my life.

"Look at yourself. You've got nothing, and you solve everything with your fists. You're not even someone I want to be seen with. Honestly? Being your friend has always been embarrassing."

I stood there frozen after she finished.

Her words hit slow and deep, like something blunt pressing into a wound over and over.

I couldn't make sense of it. How could someone change this completely, this fast, into someone I didn't recognize at all?

Maybe she'd never been real with me from the start.

Wendy took one look at me and smiled, clearly thrilled.

"Aw, how sad. Dumped by your only friend. Haha!"

"Wendy, let's go. It's going to pour soon." Samantha tucked herself close to Wendy without sparing me another glance, and the two of them walked away.

That's when I finally spoke.

"Samantha. Don't come crying to me later."