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At dinner that night, I helped Anne set the table like I usually did and then sat down, waiting for Karlee, Aiden, my dad and Anne to join me. When they did, Aiden was already stuffing his face with his food.

“You’re a pig,” Karlee said, shaking her head and cutting her chicken into tiny little pieces.

“I’m a boy. What do you expect?” Aiden snapped, continuing to eat. My dad smiled and cleared his throat, bringing his chair in closer to the table and cracking his knuckles.

“So, Christabelle, who is this Nathaniel character? Is he someone that I should be worried about?” he asked me, picking up his knife and fork and glancing up at me through his eyelashes. I stopped with my fork halfway to my mouth. Then I put it back on my plate shifted in my seat.

“What?” I asked, playing dumb. My dad raised his eyebrows at me, knowing I was lying. Another one of the things I hated about him being a cop was that he could always tell the difference between the truth, a lie, and just some dumb excuse. I sighed. “How’d you find out?”

“Oh, I told him,” Aiden said, lifting a hand and chewing whatever was in his mouth. My jaw dropped and I whacked him on the arm.

“Why would you do that?!” I exclaimed. My dad cleared his throat again and furrowed his brows in confusion.

“Did you not want me to know that there was a boy in your life?” he asked me.

“He’s not really in my life, dad. I met him on the internet,” I replied. Everyone went silent, except for Aiden because he was eating but the only reason we could hear him was because no one else was making any noise.

“I thought you said that website was stupid,” Karlee said, assuming that I met Nathaniel over Virtual Fairytale, which was true but I hated when she just guessed without actually checking first.

“Big picture, Karlee,” Aiden mumbled, closing his eyes and shaking his head. My dad narrowed his eyes at me and crossed his arms over the table.

“Christabelle, how many times have I told you before that speaking to strangers over the internet isn’t safe?” he asked me.

“Sixteen times, ever since I turned that number,” I replied, leaning back on my chair. “Just think of it as once for every year I’ve been alive.”

My dad frowned, unimpressed by my attitude. “Don’t use that tone with me, young lady. I’m only trying to protect you, and I just want you to be happy, but in a safe manner.”

“Dad, you’ve driven away every guy I’ve ever liked,” I pointed out. “How am I supposed to be happy if you threaten any boy who takes an interest in me with their life?”

“I haven’t done that,” he argued. Anne laughed.

“Oh, yes you have,” she objected, nodding. “Christabelle has a point there.”

“Thank you.”

“No I haven’t,” my dad repeated. “It was just that Billy Dreskin that really got me worried.”

“Billy Dreskin was my boyfriend,” Karlee said, frowning. Then her eyes widened. “Is that why he never talked to me after he left our house that one time last year?!”

My dad cleared his throat for the third time tonight, but this time he seemed a little bit nervous, since all of the girls at the table were ganging up on him.

“That’s not the point, honey,” he said, turning his attention back to me. “Christabelle, really, I haven’t tried to push any boys away from you.”

“Really?” I asked, raising my eyebrows at him and crossing my arms over my chest. “Then why is it that in grade eight, Damien Parkinson signed my yearbook with ‘sorry it didn’t work out, your dad scares me’? And in grade nine when Michael Patterson came over to study for English exams with me, he couldn’t even look at me in the halls the next afternoon and fears me to this very day? You know you glared the hell out of him in the grocery store and that’s why he ran away,” I said. “Don’t deny it.” My dad frowned.

“Language,” he said. I scoffed.

“’Hell’ isn’t even a bad word!” I exclaimed.

“It is in this house,” he said, shaking his head.

“Oh, well then I guess I’m going to hell for telling you that when it comes to boys, you’re the most unsupportive parent in the history of ever,” I said.

“I kind of agree with her on this one,” Aiden said, pointing his thumb to me. “Damien and Michael aren’t the only guys that you’ve made sure to keep away from her. When I had Alex, John and Derek over for Christmas holidays last year, you glared at them every time they stepped into a five foot radius of her. I’m pretty sure you shoved Derek against the wall and made sure he didn’t have condoms in his pockets just because he asked Christabelle if she was busy during the March Break and if she maybe wanted to get together some time.”

Karlee burst out laughing. “Oh, wow. I’m so glad I’m not you.”

I glared at her. “Wait until you turn fifteen and then you will be me, only four years younger,” I said. She stopped laughing automatically and cleared her throat.

“You’re on your own, dad,” she said, picking up her plate and her empty glass. She walked over to the sink and began washing them off, making sure not to make eye contact with me or my dad.

“Dad, do you even remember Shane?” I asked him, leaning forward and crossing my arms on the table. He thought for a moment and then nodded.

“Oh, yes. Cheryl and Dale’s boy, right? He’s a nice guy. I approve of him,” he said, nodding.

“Dad, I haven’t hung out with him for four years, and you always thought he and I would go upstairs and make out in my bedroom. You made us leave the door opened every time we hung out and you put a microphone in my room. And a video camera!” I exclaimed, shaking my head.

“I was only being safe. I wanted to make sure you weren’t up to anything you shouldn’t have been up to.”

“I was eleven years old!” I hollered. “How much of a slut did you think I was?”

“Christabelle—”

“No, forget it. I’ve lost my appetite,” I said, standing up and walking out of the kitchen, up the stairs and into my bedroom.

How the hell was I ever supposed to have a Happily Ever After like my mom wanted me to have with an over-protective cop as a father, who pretty much stalked my every move and made sure that I never ever had boys in my life?

I might as well have just turned into a lesbian when I was eleven.

My dad probably would have preferred that.



The moment I stepped into second period the next day, I felt ill and a little bit woozy as well. It was almost like my legs completely gave out because of the smoke from the first period chemistry class that was here before us, and the fact that it was beginning to smell like pigs intestines.

“Are you okay?” Nick asked me as I sat down next to him, slammed my head down on my desk and whimpered. I looked over at him for a moment.

“Can you ever picture yourself being with a guy?” I asked him.

“What? No!” he exclaimed, going wide eyed. “Why would you even ask that?!”

“Because I thought it was just me that couldn’t picture myself being with someone of the same gender,” I mumbled. Nick raised his eyebrows at me.

“I’m not sure I want to know where this is going,” he said hesitantly.

I shook my head. “It’s really not that bad. My dad’s just irritating me,” I murmured.

“How come?”

“Well you know how when you were younger and you used to tell your mom about a girl you liked and she’d go all ‘Oooooh! My baby has his first crush! That is so cute!’?” I asked him. He nodded. “Well . . . my dad is the exact opposite of that.”

Nick smirked. “What, he wants to kill them or something?”

“Probably but I think he’d like it better it if I killed them,” I said. “He’d think he taught me some kind of lesson or whatever.” Nick laughed.

“All dads are like that,” he said, shrugging. “That’s normal.”

“Really? So it’s normal for a dad to do a full body search whenever a boy enters his house with an interest in taking his daughter out or spending the day with her, even if it’s just in the living room? It’s normal for him to get the whole surveillance unit on his daughter’s bedroom just to make sure she’s not up to no good?” I asked him, raising my eyebrows at him. “That’s a normal dad to you?”

Nick shifted in his seat uncomfortably. “Okay, I see your point. No dad should be that obsessed with not letting his little girl grow up,” he replied. “But what does all that have to do with you picturing yourself with a girl?”

“I just kind of figured that he’d prefer it if I wasn’t interested in boys,” I responded.

“Well that’s ridiculous. Usually, any guy can imagine any girl he knows being with another girl because apparently, it’s extremely hot to them but frankly, it’s impossible for me to picture you with anyone of the same gender.”

I smiled and sat up a little bit straighter. “Really?”

Nick nodded.

“Well then who do you even picture me being with?” I asked him. Maybe this would give me a little bit more confidence because ever since my conversation with my dad last night, I was feeling pretty down in the dumps.

Nick’s eye focus moved to my left where the door was and I looked over at it, seeing Blade step into the room. I turned back to Nick with wide eyes.

“Really?” I asked him. “You see me with Blade?”

“I know it’s hard for you to believe a guy with his reputation can be a nice guy but he is,” he said.

“Oh, no. I wasn’t questioning that. I was questioning why you thought he and I went well together.”

“Hey Chris,” Blade said, shutting me up automatically because I really didn’t want to hear Nick’s reasons on why he thought I would go good with Blade right in front of Blade himself.

“Hey,” I said, turning myself around in my chair and smiling at him.

“Hey Nick,” Blade said, sending him a smile and getting a head nod in return. “So Chris, did you see Shane this morning?”

I shook my head. “No, why?” I asked him.

“He’s got a big bruise on his right cheek from where you slapped him,” he replied, smirking in amusement and sitting down next to me. My jaw dropped.

“Are you serious?” I asked him. He nodded and began to laugh.

“Everyone’s asking him what happened. A few people thought he fell down the stairs and someone actually made up a story that he ran right into a brick wall but he told the truth. He got bitch-slapped in drama class,” he explained. I covered my mouth with my hands.

“Oh God, I feel awful now,” I said, closing my eyes. Despite how I felt like the biggest bitch in the history of the world for slapping Shane, it made me laugh that he felt no shame in his bruise.

“No need to be. Shane loved it,” Blade said, laughing. “Apparently getting slapped makes girls that much more attractive to him.”

I laughed. “I can totally imagine him saying that.”

“He even asked another girl to slap him just so he could have that same adrenaline rush all over again,” he said, smirking.

I shook my head and smiled. Then Mrs. Adams came into the room and we all quieted down. I glanced back at David, whose eyes were wide because he suddenly remembered that today; we were going to be tearing into an innocent—albeit dead—pig.

“All right, everyone. Get into groups of four at the most, then pick a station at the side of the room, get your gloves and wait for further instructions,” she ordered, and everyone slowly began to split off.

I glanced at Nick. “Want to be in my group?” I asked him. He shrugged.

“Sure, why not?” he said, pushing himself out of his chair, grabbing his pencil and heading to the front of the room to get some gloves.

“Do you mind if I join you guys?” Blade asked. I shook my head.

“No, of course not,” I said. Suddenly, David staggered toward me and nearly toppled over if it wasn’t for Blade and I getting a firm hold of his arms.

“Christabelle, I’m going to need you to help me out here or I’m going to throw up again,” he moaned. I nodded.

“Okay,” I said, leading him over to one of the stations on the side. It was almost like he was drunk because his voice was a lot deeper than usual and he could hardly stand on his own two feet.

“Christabelle?” Blade asked, furrowing his brows. “I thought your name wasn’t short for anything.”

I froze with my back to him and my eyes wide. I hadn’t realized until just now that David had in fact blurted out Christabelle instead of Chris. But how did he know it in the first place? I hadn’t told him either.

“I lied,” I said simply, shrugging it off as if it were nothing. Blade’s expression was unreadable right now but I didn’t dwell on figuring out what it meant for too long so I just sat down and took the gloves that Nick handed to me, slipping them on. I glanced at Mrs. Adams who suddenly appeared at the end of our table and placed a tray with a dead pig on it.

My eyes went wide just from the sight of it. God, this was one of the most disgusting things in the history of ever. I looked over at David, who was leaning against me for some sort of mental and physical support but when he started mumbling about being sick or having a headache, he fell backwards off his stool and landed on the ground, blacking out.
Nick chuckled and shook his head while people crowded around David, trying to wake him up.

“Dumbass.”