Standing Against the Wind by Traci L. Jones

Author:Traci L. Jones
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780374371746
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

9

AFTER A BAD NIGHT’S SLEEP, Patrice rose, very reluctantly, for school. Without thinking, she dressed in her baggiest jeans and her oldest sweatshirt. She absent-mindedly pulled her hair back into a messy ponytail, and made absolutely sure that she wasn’t alone when she went down the fifteen flights of stairs.

Blessedly, she made it all the way to school without an incident. She had walked so slowly that she had only enough time to shove her stuff into her locker and run to class.

She managed to get through the first half of the school day without seeing or hearing about Eddie or Rasheed. At lunch, however, Raven sat down beside Patrice, shoving aside the textbook she had been reading. “Hey, girl, what up?”

“Hello, Raven.”

“Girl, I haven’t told you how good your hair looked yesterday.”

“Thanks, Raven.”

“So why you got it back in that funky ponytail today?” Raven asked, eyeing the messy ponytail critically.

Patrice shrugged.

“So you and Monty still going strong, eh?”

Patrice looked at her. She was getting fed up. Sick of the unwanted attention, she figured the best she could do was to ignore Raven’s prying questions. Patrice reached for her books and shrugged.

That didn’t deter Raven one bit. “Of course, Eddie and Rasheed are telling people that you were trying to talk to them, too. Shoot, if I had Monty, I would be satisfied. I mean, he is too fine for words. But I guess you think you all that, huh?” Raven’s voice had turned from sickeningly friendly to snide and nasty.

Patrice’s face felt hot and her heart started beating fast. She glared at Raven and said through clenched teeth, “Raven, if you must know my business, Eddie and Rasheed are jackasses, and I wouldn’t be caught dead with either one of them. As for Monty, we are friends. I don’t care what you hear or from who. We are friends. Which, by the way, is more than I can say for you and me. See ya, Raven.”

Patrice slammed her book closed, gathered her things, and stormed out of the lunchroom, pleased, despite her anger, by the stunned look on Raven’s face.

She headed to the computer room and quietly knocked on the door. Luckily, only the teacher was in the room and she let Patrice reprint her essays.

The rest of the school day people left her alone, much to her delight, and at the end of it she found Monty standing by her locker.

“I thought you’d want some company going home,” he said.

Patrice smiled for the first time all day. She had been dreading the walk home and the possibility of running into Eddie and Rasheed in front of the building or, even worse, in the stairwell. Yet mixed with her relief was a touch of suspicion. How much of what Eddie and Rasheed had said about Monty was true? Could she trust Monty? Weren’t Eddie and Rasheed better friends of his than she was? Monty did have a reputation when it came to girls—how much of that was true?

Thinking that she’d rather be safe than sorry, Patrice made a mental note not to become too close to Monty.

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