Bad Girls Like Good Boys

I

I pulled myself out of my bed and opened my wardrobe. Black clothes draped over hangers and black boots stood on the shelves.

I picked out a t-shirt, jeans, a leather jacket and my ankle boots. I turned to the mirror and tied my brown hair up and wrapped a black bandana like a headband with the knot at the top of my head to the right.

I walked down to see my brother and legal guardian sitting at the table eating toast.

"Are you working today?" I asked.

"Yeah. We're going from here, as in Florida not Miami, to Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana then back. Should take about three weeks." Joey said. He worked as a railway technician so he worked around the area for days on end.

"Okay."

"You'll be okay without me, right?"

"Yeah, I can take care of myself."

"You're only fifteen."

"Whatever."

I grabbed my bag and walked out the front door. I sat on the brick fencing surrounding my front yard and waited for my best friend to come pick me up on his motorbike.

For years he was my only friend. No one accepted me. All the girls were either too preppy or scared of me and the boys usually ignored me, all of them except Carlos Long.

Carlos arrived after a couple minutes and I sat behind him on his bike holding on to his waist. After half an hour of Carlos weaving through hoards of traffic we arrived at our school.

I hopped of the bike, pulled off Carlos' helmet and straightened out my outfit. Carlos turned to me and smiled.

"You re-pierced your lip." I exclaimed.

"Yeah, got it done yesterday."

"I bet your mom loves it." As I spoke I turned to walk towards the entrance.

"Yeah she told me that God wont want an angel with holes in his face."

"What? You, an angel?"

"Apparently."

I walked to my locker and pulled out my Algebra book and stuffed my bag in.

"Why do you even come to school? We could drop out and move into The Minx Headquarters."

"The Minx is just a gang, not a job."

"A gang who's leader can afford hundreds of gang members to sit around drinking and smoking. Plus you really shouldn't diss a group that you have such high status in. I mean seriously, you're the first girl to be in the Minx, not to mention the youngest second-in-command and only girl in the council."

"You make it sound like I'm the president."

"You're way more badass than the president. Way too badass for class."

"Oh well I'm sorry that me having ambitions of finishing school is affecting you so much but I wont change my plans."

"Damn, maybe next time I'll throw in some fake tears."

"Yeah that was it." As we were talking we were walking towards our class room. We always skipped homeroom. I walked in to find a boy in my seat in the back of the room.

As I looked up to my seat, the other people in the room looked up to it too. I cocked my head to side and waited for someone to tell this boy to move or for him to see me and move.

I walked up and stood beside my desk. The boy looked up and I took in his features. Blond hair, green eyes, thick rimmed glasses and freckles splattering his nose and cheeks.

His features didn't make sense together but looked oddly natural. He looked up at me and smiled.

"Can I help you?" He was new, didn't know me.

"Yeah, you can get out of my seat."

"I got here first."

"Since you're obviously new, I was actually here first."

A boy turned around from in front of my table and said to the new boy, "You really don't want to be starting anything with her. Get up."

The boy rolled his eyes and got up, grabbing his books and walking to the other side of the room. I took back my seat and Carlos sat beside me.

"You look like an assassin, why would he stand his ground instead of running away?"

"I don't know." I leaned closer towards Carlos. "Do you think he's a Knight?"

"Ugh, he's stupid enough to be. And why did they name it that?"

"After James Knight."

"Ew."

After the teacher walked in, everyone stopped talking and did the work. That is, everyone except Carlos, he sat with his feet up picking dirt from under his nails.

By lunch time, Carlos' nails were clean and I was exhausted. Six weeks is not enough time away from school.

"Do you think he could be a new gang member, in The Minx?"

"No, I'd know about it."

I watched as the boy walked over to us from a small group of boys that obviously had only been kissed by their mothers.

He walked up and sat down across from me, his hand out.

"Hi, I'm August."

"What makes you think you can talk to me?"

"Well, I asked my friends and none of them know your name. They said that no one has ever asked because they're scared of you. I thought there was no other way to figure out your name besides to ask you."

"You don't know who your talking to." Carlos said in his low voice.

"Obviously I don't, she hasn't told me her name yet. If she had I wouldn't be here right now."

Carlos growled at his remark but I laughed. Carlos then proceeded to widen his eyes twice their size and stare at me.

"My name's Eleanor."

"Are you going to shake my hand or..."

"No. Right now you need to get up, like I just murdered your mother or something, like I've hurt you. Other wise Carlos is gonna have to punch you. Now."

He did as I asked and walked away, but not before turning around and winking at me.

"Why did you laugh?"


"It was funny."

"As funny as getting shot in the head for talking to a Knight."

"All Knights have a ring, like our bandana, he wasn't wearing one."