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Mom.”
    â€œI love you, sweet pea.”
    â€œLove you, too,” I replied with a pouty smile as she left my room. I couldn’t help but laugh. I was such a great actress. Trust, it was just a matter of time before everybody knew my name!

Chapter 6
    I t wasn’t easy being hated, but somebody had to be the object of jealousy. That was why I eased my sunglasses on my face, and strutted down the hall like I was Tyra Banks at a runway show. Someone had actually put a rat in my locker. A stinking, dirty, filthy rat! It was the most disgusting thing I’d ever seen. Luckily, I didn’t scream because I didn’t touch it. I opened my locker and the thing was just hanging there. The custodian said I was being dramatic because it was really just a small lab rat from one of the biology classes, but a rodent is a rodent. I made them fumigate my locker. Of course, nobody saw anything when I asked, but I knew who was behind it.
    I was just ready to get out of there because in addition to that rat foolishness, I was tired of dealing with the hate and nasty looks and I definitely wasn’t trying to get into it with Shay again.
    I walked over to my car and stopped in my tracks at the sight of my prized silver BMW 750 sitting on four flat tires.
    â€œOh my God! What happened to my car?” I screamed.
    A group of people were standing nearby, including Evian, Bali, Shay, and Sheridan. I spun toward them. “What happened to my car?” No one answered. “I know you did this,” I said, pointing at my former friends.
    â€œI don’t know what you’re talking about,” Evian said, trying to look innocent.
    Bali just smirked, and Sheridan and Shay just stood there grinning and looking stupid.
    â€œOne of you did this to my car,” I said, jabbing my finger in the direction of the tires. “My tires are jacked up!”
    Bali’s hand went to his chest. “Oh my goodness. I hadn’t even noticed.” He then turned to Evian. “Did you see who did this?”
    Evian shook her head as she shrugged innocently. “I sure didn’t.” She turned to Shay. “Did you?”
    â€œNope,” Shay replied, then blew a gigantic bubble with her gum.
    Cow.
    They all looked at Sheridan, like they were really waiting for an answer.
    â€œI didn’t see anything either,” Sheridan said with a tight smile. “But that’s so messed up that someone would do that.”
    â€œBecause you of all people don’t deserve anything like that,” Evian added.
    â€œIt sure is messed up,” Bali said, like he was really concerned. “And didn’t you just get a whole new set of tires?”
    I ignored him and turned to another one of my classmates, who was standing around gawking. “What about you? Did you see who did this?”
    He, too, just stared at me like he was stuck on stupid, while everyone around him started giggling.
    They made me so sick. “Did you see who did this?” I asked, turning to another one of my classmates who was standing nearby. He gave me a look like even if he had, he wasn’t saying a word.
    â€œWhatever,” I finally said when it was obvious they weren’t going to tell me anything. “Do you think this is gonna stop me?” I shouted to no one in particular. “All of you are just mad. Don’t think I’m not gonna find out who did this!”
    â€œGood luck with that,” Shay said, laughing.
    â€œI have a major meeting in,” I glanced at my watch, “an hour and your stupid, childish behavior is gonna make me late!”
    Shay shrugged. “Guess your little show is just gonna have to wait.”
    It was moments like this that I wished I had some male thug cousins or something because I would get one of them to straight jack Shay up.
    â€œWhatever. Screw all of you,” I said, pulling my phone out of my purse. I stopped ranting and faced my former crew. “Hate