Beauty and the Beat

Beauty and the Beat (15)

“Are you happy to be on our way back home?” Freya asked me, turning around in her bus seat so she would now be looking at me. “I wouldn’t blame you if you are.”

“Well,” I sighed, crossing my legs. “I’m kind of happy that I get to go back to a town where I know I won’t be hunted down by weirdos.”

Bennett stretched out in seat next to me. “Well, you still have to deal with Maxxon, and he’s a weirdo.”

The aforementioned boy, who was sitting next to Freya in front of us, raised his hand and flipped our best friend off, not even raising his head or looking back at us to do so.

“Aw, come on, Maxxon. Don’t be like that,” Bennett frowned, feigning hurt feelings as he placed his hand over his heart. “You’re breaking my heart!”

The other boy now looked at us over the back of his seat. “I think the weirdo she has to deal with is Mr. Deveraux,” he grumbled now, his eyes narrowed at me.

I was giving him a look that told him I was not in the mood for any of this right then. “Actually, you’re both weirdos. And I have to deal with both of you. So I lose whether I’m here or there.”

Maxxon rolled his eyes at me before turning back around and facing forward in his seat. Freya stayed practically dangling over the back until the bus driver finally told her to turn around.

“I still think it’s cool that Mr. Deveraux saved you,” Freya informed me now. She wasn’t looking back at me any longer, but instead practically talking through her seat instead. “He was like a knight in shining armor!”

I made a face. “Not really.”

“Yes really!” she insisted.

“Can we stop talking about how awesome Mr. Deveraux supposedly is?” Maxxon now snapped, not looking back at us either. “I’m tired of hearing all the girls gush about how amazing he is when he’s just an egotistical jerk who needs to keep his nose out of other people’s business.”

“Someone’s jealous,” Bennett sang, but only quiet enough so I would be able to hear. I rolled my eyes at him.

After we were dropped off at school, I got into my car that I had left in the parking lot three days before and I was on my way home. I was really glad that I would be able to sleep in my own bed again.

After catching nearly every red light, it took me nearly twenty minutes to get home, even though it normally took five. Now, I was in even more of a bad mood.

The first thing I saw when I opened my front door was a suitcase. Then, after looking around, I saw another one. They belonged to my parents, I knew.

“Um…” was all I could say as my parents made their way down the stairs.

“Sadie!” my mother smiled, immediately coming up to me and giving me a hug. “I’m glad your back!”

I had only been gone for three days, yet it felt like months. What the heck was going on? Were they going on a vacation or something?

“Uh, what’s going on?” I asked them once my mother pulled away from me. “Are you guys going somewhere?”

“Well, not just your father and me.” My mother smiled nervously, and I didn’t feel so great about this. “You and Riley are also going to be out of the house for a little while.”

I blinked at her. “Why?”

“We have termites,” my father informed me as he walked by me and out the door with one of the suitcases. “They’re going to be fumigating.”