3 Chapter Three

I ended up getting the car. I was fucking excited about it. I mean what girl wouldn't love a 1967 Impala? It was in decent shape too, so that made it all the better. It needed some love, like a good oil change, a thorough cleaning, and a wax. Someone had, thankfully, tinted the windows but left most everything else original. They hadn't taken out the old radio but had instead installed a new system under the dash so it didn't mess with the originality of the car so much, but it did make it so you could hook up your phone and listen to your own music. That made me happy and the window tint was nice, I prefer to be incognito whenever I could anyway, I mean it was so dark it was borderline illegal, so that worked for me. I had to go to the school the Friday before my first day, but I managed to talk my uncle into letting me handle it alone. He had already filled out everything he needed to, it was just to pick up my schedule. It gave me a chance to get a feel for the school itself, the people and what the next year was going to look like. I got dressed in a pair of black ripped skinny jeans and an old long-sleeved Tool shirt that had been cut to hang off the shoulder. I was comfortable and it made me look less, well, rich. I mean my net worth was pretty much triple that of my peers, but I didn't want to be judged by it. Thus, why I decided to go the public-school route rather than the private school route. I mean private school kids are all snobby bastards with little else to do but worry about how they are going to spend their money. I didn't want that life back, no fucking way. This was a chance to start over. This was a chance to be me and who I wanted to be. I wasn't that girl anymore.

I pulled my growly beauty into a visitor's parking space close to lunchtime that day and I peered around, seeing no one, I assumed it was between classes. I stepped out and made my way up to the building to find the office. It wasn't hard to find, thankfully, so I made my way in and looked directly at the Office Assistant. She looked something like a hippie, rocker love child.

"Hey there, what can I do for you?" she asked me.

"I am here to pick up my schedule for Monday. Lillian Winters." I tell her. I cringe a bit inwardly over my name, hoping like hell I was far enough away that it wouldn't instantly brand me.

"Oh, of course." She beamed brightly and picked up a file off the desk behind her before handing it to me. "Everything you need is in there. Schedule, Code of Conduct, a few more bits of paperwork for your parents. The usual stuff, your student guide should be here any moment to give you the grand tour, so Monday won't be so chaotic for you. If you want to have a seat there, you can scan over your stuff until she gets here. If you have any issues, just let us know, okay?" I give her a nod and sit down on one of the available chairs.

I look over my course list which is basically my old class list, only it seemed to be lacking in any AP classes, which I was fine with. If I decided to go to college, I could make up for their lacking. I had an easy 4.5 GPA at my old school, so anything they threw at me here would be easy.

The girl that walked in, well, let's just say I knew immediately that I was going to hate her. She was that girl. You know the one. The prissy blonde with a fake tan and about ten pounds of makeup caked on her face to hide some imagined flaw? Yeah, that girl. I knew the second she looked at me and took in my outfit that she wasn't impressed with me and when she looked at my scar on my face, she seemed disgusted by the fact that it was there. Like it was an insult to her. I know what I look like. I know that by societies standards, even with the scar, I am considered pretty. White blonde hair, grey-blue eyes, pale skin with freckles. Even after, when I got all the scars and trauma, I had no issue at all getting men. This girl immediately labeled me competition and beneath her all at the same time.

"Hey there." She said finally, her voice sugary sweet and practiced. "I'm Savannah Tyler. I'll be showing you around today."

I didn't bother to introduce myself or even speak to her. I just stood up and walked out of the door, waiting for her out in the hallway. It took her a moment, but she finally emerged with a huff of annoyance at me. I waited for her to start talking and she eventually did, walking me around the school. Chattering about this and that. She showed me where my classes were, where my locker was and told me about various bits of information she thought I needed to know. I think my silence unnerved her because she finally asked me about it.

"So, I mean are you like mute or something?"

"Nope," I told her, making her look at me for a moment and I just looked back with a slight raise of my eyebrow. She blinked at me a few times before she finally cleared her throat and kept walking. We were still in the hallway when the bell rang overhead, and students started to file out of their classrooms.

"That was the lunch bell. I guess I could finish off the tour by showing you to the cafeteria. I think that was the only place I haven't shown you." She rattled off. I noticed that she was somewhat of a bitch to her fellow students. Not that she did anything in front of me, but the looks she got clued me in. There weren't many of them who looked at her without a healthy amount of fear. Yep. I didn't care much for Savannah Tyler. I guess it's judgmental, but I didn't care.

I noticed that people looked at me too, curious looks about who the new girl was. I had no doubt that over the weekend there would be more than a few rumors about who I was. I was honestly surprised that Savannah Tyler hadn't bothered to ask me her fair share of personal questions.

"So, what's your story new girl?" Oh, there it is.

"Lilly," I said simply and she looked at me confused. "My name is Lilly." She seemed to be waiting for me to continue and I rolled my eyes. "My story? It really doesn't matter, does it? There will be a few dozen versions of it by Monday morning. I don't want to influence it yet. I am curious to see what my new peers come up with." I tell her with a shrug. I am genuinely curious what they will come up with. It should be interesting. I can tell from her expression that she is wary of me, unsure, but I think her desire for gossip being denied makes her disappointed.

"Rumors are what make or break your reputation here. I mean, if it were me, I would want to take charge of it before it spirals out of control." She comments and I smile, though I know it's a cold one when she flinches a little. I feel like a total bitch but damn that flinch makes me happy. The darker recesses of my soul get all warm and fuzzy.

"I'm not concerned," I tell her simply as we walk through to the cafeteria. It looks like your typical cafeteria, large open space filled with tables and chairs. It has three different buffet style lines filled with food. Kids are already at their tables and I look over them a bit, seeing my classmates. It has your typical clique grouping, cheerleaders and jocks, the band kids, a few goths and metalheads, the nerds. I mean its all so fucking cliché it makes the corner of my lip curl ever so slightly in disgust. Savannah is rattling off a few people of importance, but I am tuning her out, my gaze bored and unfocused. I look down at my phone and grimace. I have been at this school for an hour. I cut Savannah off mid-sentence.

"Thank you for your time Savannah Tyler," I tell her simply, turning around and walking out the door. Yeah, yeah, I know it's a bitch move, but it also sets the tone with her. I have no interest in knowing her, or even acknowledging her presence. I treated our interaction as if it were no more than a business transaction or sadly how my father would treat the staff at our house. Cold, detached. I do that very fucking well these days.

Making my way out of the building I find my car minorly surrounded by a pack of boys. It makes me smirk a bit and I sneak up to the outer rim of them to hear their conversation.

"Man, it's so fucking clean. I wonder what's under the hood."

"I want to know who drives it."

"Damn."

Okay, this pleases me. I love my car, and its pretty god damned pretty. It also sounds amazing, whoever had it before completely updated the engine, making it purr loudly and proudly.

"Excuse me, boys," I say behind them, making a couple of them jump and a few looks back at me. I just push my way through them and move to my car. Unlocking the door and opening it.

"Whoa, this is your car?" I hear and I look back over at the guy who asked.

"Yeah." I run a hand over the roof with affection "It's mine." I look over the group for a moment, checking out the man candy at the school and I'm not totally disappointed. The group is good looking but, honestly not one of them stand out too much more than the other. The biggest of them looks me over assessing me, and he seems to like what he sees.

"You party?" he asks me, and I grin. Checking him out right back. He's built like a truck, probably a football player. He's got dark brown hair, blue eyes, tan with a set of straight white teeth. Oh, yeah, he's a cutie.

"Sometimes," I tell him with a coy grin, and he returns it with a smirk. He steps closer and tilts his head a bit, then he digs out his phone and hands it to me.

"I'm having a party tonight, why don't you give me your info and I'll send you directions?" I grin wider, taking his phone and putting in my phone number before I hand it back to him.

"Why don't you do that. I'll be waiting." I let him see the heat in my gaze for a moment before I climb into my car and shut the door. The smile slips right off my face as soon as the tinted glass is between us. I do need to get laid and find some regular dick around here. Sex is one of the few things that makes me feel great anymore. Yeah, I know. I am pretty fucked up at this point. My coping skills are unhealthy. I will eventually need to deal with it all, but not now.

I am pretty sure the little crowd creams their pants when I turn the car over and I start to pull out of the space. Here's hoping that I get that invite, I could use the release.