As I stepped up to the table, Tanner smiled at me, his big teeth whiter than I thought they should be.

“Excuse me.” Sarah leaned forward, her fingers spread out displaying a pale pink mani that matched her lip gloss and shirt. “I don’t think you’re invited to be near this table. And, um, maybe in whatever fucked-up place you came from being rude is okay, but it’s not here.”

Tanner grinned up at me.

“So maybe you can dyke off.” Sarah smiled acid.

Gilly covered her mouth with her hand, her eyes wide.

They were all eating pizza, big droopy cafeteria slices with brick-like red pepperonis, all laid out on paper plates on beat-up cafeteria trays on the table. It was the special of the day, which I didn’t get because it didn’t smell like pizza and that’s a major component of food for me.

“Here for some lunch meat, new girl?” The boy I was pretty sure was John Maxwell sneered, dropping his hands under the table.

“Nah, New Girl’s here ’cause I got a message for her mom.” Tanner leaned back, pulling his foot up on the bench.

“I don’t take messages for my mother,” I said, trying to keep my heart from jumping out of my chest. “I’m here to tell you not to use the word dyke. It’s not yours. It’s m ine.”

I turned and started walking away.

“HEY!” Tanner called after me. “Hey, I’m not finished! DYKE! You gotta give your ma a message? OKAY?”

I could hear Sarah laughing.

I was three feet away when Tanner added, “Tell your SLUT of a mother to go back to California so we can get a real vice principal who knows what he’s doing.”

I spun around.

“What did you say?”

You talk about my mom. . .

“I said your mom’s a SLUT.” Tanner grinned. His teeth were as big as boats. “You wanna know how I know that?”

I didn’t let him answer. In a blur of pure rage, I charged at him like a freight train.

Suddenly my body wasn’t a body. It was a volcano, connected to the darkest, fiercest, hottest matter on the face of the earth.

Tanner’s pretty lucky I only hit him with a piece of pizza.

I had other options.

FIVE

Okay, so it’s probably worth taking a moment to say that my life is not all rainbows and glitter. How could it be? A person can’t live on glitter alone. Not that anyone’s ever put in the effort and tried.