The Richardson List

“Hey, hey, you, you, I don’t like your girlfriend,” Carter hummed quietly to herself as she moseyed down to her locker. The song was old but extremely catchy and from the moment she heard it blaring from the television speakers she wasn’t able to rid herself of the intoxicating melody. Still, her mood was drastically low and no matter how much she hummed to herself nothing could change that.

That morning she was forced to haul her body to school quite reluctantly since her mother refused to call in sick for her again. No matter how much whining she had mustered up, her mom would not change her mind, to Carter’s dismay. And Carter found herself dragging her body down the street towards the bus stop, accessorizing with a deep frown and a lacklustre attitude.

The bus ride to school quickly passed with the help of her iPod that she had named Charlie some time ago. It had been “misplaced” for a couple months, but the day before she really began searching for it. Usually Carter would busy herself with other things or she would leave to a friend’s house, but she finally found the time to search it. It was under her mattress the entire time, Audrey would’ve laughed.

She sighed as she remembered that she couldn’t tell her.

Math was extremely uncomfortable, more so than anything she had experienced in her entire life. Skye was oddly absent, whether he deliberately skipped or not she was unsure of, and Carter was left to endure the harsh death glares cast her way every few moments with no moral support from anyone else. The murderous glares were enough to keep her tense in her seat for the entire period, fearing that if she stared directly into the blonde’s intense blue eyes she may suddenly be crushed by an invisible force.

She was sure that Audrey was imagining that anyways. Thankfully however, she wasn’t anywhere close to being Matilda.

Carter collected all her courage and preserved through the class. Instead, she concentrated intently on her math work and kept herself distracted. Still, every so often she would innocently let her eyes wander only to connect with Audrey’s.

Then she would instantly tighten her grip on her pencil and avert her gaze quickly, attempting to calm her chaotic thoughts. If there wasn’t supervision around she doubted she’d still be surviving. The Patricia incident, with flying textbooks and many punches came through her mind and she shuddered.

Carter was really, really weak if she was being honest, and knew she definitely couldn’t hold herself in a fight.

Once the bell rang, signalling the ending of class, Carter threw her book into her backpack haphazardly and bolted out of the class in record speed, careful not to bump into anyone. Once she had successfully escaped the room she slowed her pace but still kept her movements swift, her eyes darting in every direction in case Audrey somehow appeared with a knife in hand.

When she reached her second period class she was able to relax and regroup. This class she was sat right in the middle, beside a boy who rarely said a word. She had grown used to this and didn’t even attempt to pull the conversation from his lips, instead doodling aimlessly in her notes. It was as she was finishing up her artistic drawing of an elephant with a top hat did she let her mind wander to a few seats beside her.

There sat a boy and a girl, from her memory she picked out the names Scarlett and Jack. She’d never talked to them before, conversation with them was extremely pointless since they seemed to be living in their own little world. From as long as Carter could remember they had been glued by the hip, and they would immediately exclude any other human being if they attempted to befriend them. The pair weren’t romantically involved however, no matter how many people thought so, and claimed to be happily live in the friend zone.

This time though, Scarlett was gazing over at the boy with disbelief, a mix of gloom and angry in her eyes, her lips parted slightly.

“Really?” she asked him, wearing a face as if her beloved grandmother had just passed.

Jack didn’t seem to have a plausible reply to this and merely averted his gaze, which was drowning in guilt. Carter discreetly eyed the two, they seemed to be too into their world to even notice.

A moment of silence passed between them as she awaited some sort of answer, breathing in deeply when he remained hushed.

“Nothing? Wow, you can’t even admit to it?” Her eyes flashed with resentment as she spat out the words, eyeing him as if he was approximating to the scum on her shoes. “I get it, really.”

This seemed to spark something inside for he was able to stutter a few words. “Scar, please, just let me explain.”

“It’s not like that?” she supplied for him, a dry laugh escaping from her throat. “I’m sure.”

“Please, Scar-” he began again, the amount of shame in his voice causing it to crack slightly.

“Scarlett,” she corrected him quickly, venom in her voice.

He sighed, swallowing.

“Scarlett,” he tried once more. “You’ve got to understand. It’s really not like that, we only kissed. I don’t even like her that much,” he confessed and Carter restrained herself from scoffing. It seems it wasn’t only her that was royally screwing up.

Scarlett paused for a moment, processing this over for a moment. Carter waited patiently for her response along with Jack who appeared to be as anxious as ever. All he received though was a long, drawn-out sigh on Scarlett’s part.

“I get it.” All the anger that her voice had possessed seemed to have vanished and was replaced with the same grief that had been swimming in her steel grey eyes before. “It’s not a surprise anyways. I mean, look at her. She’s an eight point nine, and me? I’m just a seven point eight.”

Jack didn’t seem to agree with this statement as he opened his mouth to retort but was interrupted by a raise of her hand, her face passive.

“Don’t,” she repeated, her voice also cracking slightly. Tears were collecting in her eyes.

This caused Jack to fall silent as he placed his elbows on his desk, his palms spread against the nape of his neck. He obeyed her and not a word passed his lips for the rest of the entire class.

Second period though was much too short, and before she knew it the bell rang once again. The mere though of lunch sent shivers crawling up her spine and she truly wished that she could simply skip school again. Running was what some would render as cowardly, but she admitted that she was exactly this. Always she had been spineless and weak, but she didn’t have the nerve or motivation to change this.

The one time that she had ever retaliated was when she yelled at Audrey, and even then afterwards she could feel her hands shaking and her knees threatening to buckle. Once the adrenaline had vanished she was left only a weak shell, it was pathetic really.

Thankfully when she arrived at her locker, Tiffany’s familiar figure was leaning against the pale blue metal and Carter felt this was the one streak of sunshine on her life at the moment. Carter lifted her hand and waved in greeting but this went unnoticed by the brunette.

Tiffany appeared to be lost in her thoughts, a slight frown across her face that was barely noticeable. She didn’t seem to be staring at anything in particular and instead was gazing down onto the dirty tiled floor underneath her, filthy from the many shoes trampling over it.

“Tiffany,” she called out, capturing the girl’s attention.

The brunette smiled in return, picking herself up and waving back. “Carter! Hey!”

“Hey Tiffany, um, can you get a lunch table, I’ve got to throw out that sandwich from a week ago.” Carter laughed as she opened up her locker, grabbing the old sandwich that she had forgotten about and had finally remembered to throw out.

Tiffany nodded before vanishing from Carter’s sight.

Carter searched for a trashcan, making sure not to rush, her eyes scanning her surroundings. There had to be one somewhere, the exact place that was no where to be found. At this she sighed and turned the corner of the building in hopes that one lay somewhere there.

As she gazed around she felt herself freeze in shock, blinking repeatedly as if the next time her eyes opened they would instantaneously vanish. However, her mind wasn’t deceiving her and the pair remained, entangled.

“Skye?” she managed to choke out, disbelief thick in her voice, feeling her stomach knot itself and churn, her breath suddenly gone.

At the sound of his name he slowly pulled his lips away from the girl’s, blearily inspecting his surroundings before stopping on Carter. Instantly his eyes shot wide as he pushed the girl’s figure farther away from him as if could still save himself from the intensely awkward tension to follow.

“Hey Carter.” He grinned sheepishly at her, rubbing the back of his neck with guilt. “What’s up? What are you doing here?” he asked casually, directed his gaze to the concrete.

“What am I doing here?” she echoed, the same hurt that she had previously seen in Scarlett’s eyes mimicked in her own. “I could ask you the same thing.”

Her voice was calm as she placed her hand against the brick wall beside her in an attempt to steady herself. Carter’s entire body felt weak as she found her breathing becoming slightly laboured.

More entirely, it wasn’t because she had caught Skye cheating on her somewhat. They never had established a relationship, so she mostly called it stupidity on her part. The person he was cheating on her with though, well, that caused her to grow faint.

“Lily?” she called out, clearly communicating the shock dwelling in her body.

The girl revealed herself as she turned, exposing the familiar feature’s of Lily, aquamarine eyes and golden blonde hair. Panic flashed in her eyes as she realized it was Carter who had found the two.

“Carter?” she said, her eyes shifting uncomfortably around along with the alarm sinking in them.

“You’re cheating on Cole with… Skye?”

No response came from this and the air around them was deathly still until it was intruded by Skye’s voice.

“Eh, Carter, so, I’m sorry,” he apologized, the same guilty grin plastered across his face.

Carter’s gaze landed on the boy and she raised an eyebrow. “You don’t have to say sorry, we weren’t dating or anything.” Her voice was barely audible as she spoke out loud, her accusing gaze once again falling on Lily. “Unlike Lily and Cole.”

“Don’t tell Cole,” Lily pleaded with dread, swallowing audibly.

Carter mustered up all the courage that she had and scoffed, ignoring her uneven breathing. “And what makes you think I won’t?”

Lily paused at Carter’s acidic words before taking a few steps closer, a hint of fright still in her eyes but a triumphant grin was placed on her lips. “And what are you going to do Carter?” she asked with a sweet tone to her voice.

“Tell Cole?” Carter guessed haphazardly, eyeing the blonde suspiciously. It was obvious that this girl had something up her sleeve.

“And who’s he going to believe, you, the girl he doesn’t even talk to anymore who’s pathetically crushing on him, or his trusted girlfriend who he’s in love with?” she countered, a victorious presence surrounding her.

Carter faltered slightly, pondering on how she could reply. Her façade easily broke and she remained silent, trying to concentrate on breathing.

“Exactly, so this is our little secret.” Lily brought a finger up to her lips before strolling off quickly, leaving Carter alone with Skye.

They were both at a loss for words as Carter eyed him, waiting for his next move.

“So, yeah, I’ll be off. Sorry again. What can you do, right? I just got a little bored.”

With that he left, leaving Carter to finally collapse and lean against the sturdy wall.

She brought her legs up to her chest and resting her chin against her knees, feeling the familiar tears prick at her eyes. Her mind twirled with confusion and her chest heaved as she gulped down the air as if it would clear her mind, but it didn’t, and she only found herself getting in a worse and worse position with every moment that passed.

What was she going to do?