Wingless {Clifford A.U}

Chapter Nine

The next morning, Astrid sat in Luke's car with her head against the window as he drove to the high school. She didn't get much sleep the night before, mainly just tossing and turning, replaying hers and Michael's conversation in her head. She surprised herself last night, she had never opened up about that to anyone, not even Luke, but it felt nice to finally talk about it with someone. They pulled up in the school parking lot and she threw her bag over her shoulder and got out of the car.

"I'll see you later Luke." She said shutting the car door.

"I'm picking you up from Lauren's right?" he asked before she walked off and she turned around.

"Yeah, that's the plan." She said and he nodded.

"Okay, don't leave until I come to pick you up." He said and she rolled her eyes but smiled.

"I won't, promise." She said before walking away from the car. She walked up the sidewalk and up to the door but stopped and looked at Michael who stopped beside her and sighed. "Welcome back to hell." She muttered and walked through the glass doors.

Students crowded the hallway standing at their lockers and she pushed through them until she reached her locker. "I hate all of these people." She said with a sigh and got out her text books for first period even though class didn't start for another ten minutes.

"Yeah I know the feeling. Couldn't stand most of these people when I went here, still can't." Michael said.

"I hate them. They're so judgmental and rude and pervs and I hate them all. They think I'm a freak." She said with annoyance laced through her tone.

"I don't see why they think that. You're not a freak." He said and she shrugged.

"I'm different from the rest of them. I don't like partying and going out or sleeping around with everyone else, I don't like their type of music I don't dress like them, I don't act like them. I'm just different so that makes me a freak, but I'd rather be different and called a freak than just like everyone else-a copy-and be fake." She said and he nodded in agreement.

"That's true." He said and she slammed her locker shut.

"I hate this place." She muttered as she started walking to first period, she always liked being early to class so she could avoid confrontation with some of the other students. Unfortunately for her, she didn't make it fast enough.

Every school has their group of mean girls, and this particular group enjoys singling Astrid out of everyone. In this school, athletics is everything. If you weren't an athlete you were a nobody. On top of the 'popular' group are the track girls, Diana, Melanie, Briana, and their leader Katherine. These four girls are the fakest, and meanest of them all, and it seems as if they're all out to get Astrid.

The girls stopped her in her tracks and she internally groaned, but said nothing to them. She tried to push past them but they blocked her path. "Where are you going loser?" Diana asked sarcastically and the other girls laughed. Astrid looked down at her shoes.

"Oh look Diana, you hurt its feelings." Briana said. Astrid clenched her fists at her side, biting the inside of her cheek until she could taste blood to avoid saying anything she might regret.

"What is she going to do about it? She's weak." Katherine said looking her up and down with a disapproving look.

Michael put his hand on Astrid's shoulder. "Just walk the other way, now. They're not worth your time." he said and she turned around to walk away, but one of the girls grabbed her hair, stopping her.

"I don't think so, we're not done with you yet." Melanie said. Katherine knocked the books out of Astrid's hand and shoved her into a locker.

"Pathetic. You walk around her thinking 'oh poor me, I'm so sad because mummy abandoned me oh pay attention to me' you little attention whore." Katherine spat.

"What do you want from me?" Astrid said, speaking for the first time. "Why don't you just leave me alone? I didn't do anything to deserve this." she said. Katherine laughed.

"You don't belong here with everyone else. No one wants a pathetic little girl moping around the hallway mumbling to herself like some crazy person. Freaks don't belong." she said. Astrid felt slightly hurt for being called a pathetic little girl, but she realized long ago that she didn't belong, but she was more angry than hurt. For years these girls had made her life hell, and they still continued to. She had enough for one morning, and she just pushed past them with more force and ran off to her first period class. She could still hear them calling out their taunting insults and she tried to tune them out and went inside her classroom and took a seat in the back.

"And that, is exactly why I hate high school." she said sitting down.

"I know that feeling, trust me, the same thing happened when I was in school." he said.

"Really? But you're so nice I don't understand why someone would treat you like that. " she said and he shrugged.

"I was a lot like you. Didn't dress the same as everyone else, I wasn't a jock, I listened to different music, though everyone it seemed like knew that I was depressed, they mocked me for it, called me a freak, emo, pathetic, but you can't let it get to you and don't let them push you around." he said and she sighed.

"Oh, well, I don't know how to not keep them from pushing me around. Today isn't even one of the worst days, some days they're awful, they'll corner me after school and gang up on me on days Luke isn't there. They're awful to me, and what's worse is they're not wrong. I can't do anything about it. I know that just as much as them." she said.

"I feel bad, I can't do anything to stop that. If I could I would make sure that they never did the things they do to you, sadly I can't.' he said and she shrugged.

"Don't worry about it, it's the thought that counts. They shouldn't matter to me anyway. They're not even the worst of the people I hate." she said.

"And who's the worst?" he asked as the bell rang. This class both Juniors and Seniors and took, and Astrid groaned out loud when one certain Senior walked in the classroom with his friends, his obnoxious laughter irritating her.

"Him." she said pointing to the boy who she couldn't stand. Michael's eyes widened and he went still when he turned around to look where she was pointing.

"Ashton."

A/N: so...I'm pretty sure this sucked. I knew where I was going with it, but I had some problems putting it into words and then when I finally figured it out my damn wifi stopped working so I had to wait and then I forgot. Well I hope this doesn't suck as much as I think it does but please do my a favor and vote or comment? It would mean the world to me. Also thanks so much for over 200 reads, that's the most I've ever gotten on a story I've written besides the quote book so yeah thanks. I love you guys so much.

-Xx E.J