Hey, Red.

Rory stood in front of her vanity staring down at her lit up phone. Her father had just sent her another text message; most likely asking if everything was going alright. Out of all her sisters she was the only one who would keep in touch with him. Gwen used too, until one night when their mother came home drunk and with one of her new boyfriends flipped on her when she realized that Gwen was on the phone with her ex-husband.

Rory sighed as she repressed the memory of that night. It wasn’t something that she was overly fond of remembering. It had happened over a year ago, a couple weeks before Christmas break. Before her youngest sister started to act out and before Gwen turned her anger to everyone else besides Jezbelle.

Picking up her phone, Rory pushed a few buttons and pressed the green button. Sending a text to her father that she knew he would be ecstatic to hear. He would be happy but her younger sisters would be pissed. It was only a few weeks until spring break started, and what she wanted more than anything else was to go home and stay in her childhood house. She started college the next year, and having her father there to help her fill out applications would be an amazing help since all her mother cared about was money.

The phone buzzed and lit up once again, signaling that her father had indeed taken the time to reply. Flipping open the phone a smile lightened up her face. Everything was all set, now all she had to do was make sure everything went according to plan, and that Gwen didn’t get into any more trouble. She really should have knocked on wood.

*~*

The next day at school Neji waited for the arrival of the three sisters.

Originally he had planned to just go and pick up Jez, hopefully catching a glimpse of her older sister that had oh so lovingly bruised his face. He felt rage pool into his chest. The moment that her fist connected with his face, he instantly wanted to shove her into a wall and show her why people didn’t mess with him. His face darkened as he remembered her mom sauntering into the house right at the moment he was going to exact his revenge. He had two choices at that moment, and to his and his brothers amazement Neji chose the one that he rarely ever chose. To play the nice card. Instead of going ahead and punching the red head he decided it would be better to schmooze his way into her mother’s good graces, in the end he would be making her life hell. For some reason he knew just hitting the girl wouldn’t solve his problem, she was thick headed. She was a spit-fire, but that wouldn’t be the first time he had tamed a girl like that.

Grinning to himself as he watched their car swerve into the parking lot, he strolled toward it. Signaling to his brother that he was about to go face to face with the red head that he had labeled his new enemy. Brody jogged over to his brother and followed his gaze to the red car that the girls were now climbing out of. Elbowing his older brother Brody smirked as he watched the red head walk towards them paying them no attention.

*~*

Gwen was tired; she couldn’t sleep worth shit the night before. After punching the royal douche that was named Neji, just listening to her mother flirt with her classmate had sent her rage from simmering to boiling within moments. She couldn’t handle it whenever he mother came home. She especially couldn’t handle it whenever she got to witness her mother try to lure guys into her bedroom. And she knew from the moment that her mother got a good look at Neji’s gorgeous face that he was her next victim. It was no mystery where Jezbelle got her whorish ways.

The moment she had woken up that morning she had immediately been assaulted by high pitched screams. She knew from the moment she flipped open her phone and looked at the ungodly bright time that it was her sisters who were screaming. Her mother, must have left in the middle of the night, otherwise the pressure in the house would had been almost unbearable.

Not bothering with her fighting siblings that she had left back at the car, Gwen kept walking toward the main entrance. So engrossed replying to the texts that her new friend had sent her the night before. She had went to bed early, after her sister left the room and she realized that she still had gobs of delicious food at the foot of her bed. It was the third night that she had spent in the new house, and she already started to miss how things used to be. It seemed that every time they moved the houses that her mother picked out just kept getting more and more ran down. Almost as if she didn’t care where she let her daughters lived. The house before had a terrible infestation of roaches, which didn’t get fixed until Gwen’s older sister decided to take things into her own hands call their father. Causing a massive fight and a call to a lawyer, she was sure that her father was going to take them away from their mother for good that time. After that their mother had tried to stay home more, but the more she stayed home the more that sketchy people came by the house to speak with her. Some even staying over, somehow the girls convinced her that it was okay for her to go out again.

Without looking up Gwen’s shoulder slammed into another, mumbling an apology she kept walking. She didn’t get far before someone grabbed her shoulder and yanked her backward, causing her to lose her balance and fall to the ground.

Gwen’s eyes snapped open the moment she hit the ground watching as people walked toward her and the person that had just touched her. Her eyes narrowed as she rolled over and pushed herself off from the semi muddy ground. Looking down she bit her lip, her new clothes were ruined. Her eyes darkened, and she could feel the ever familiar anger rise up through her body. Her fingers twitched as she clenched them into a fist. Darting her eyes from face to face, she surveyed their faces. Most of the people she didn’t know, but she narrowed her eyes when she caught the gaze of Neji and his brother. Both boys grinning like mad men. Turning her attention to the person in front of her, she was met with another cocky gaze. She could hear her sisters yelling; calling her name. But she tuned them out as she eyed the girl in front of her up and down.

“Like what you see?” The girl laughed as she slowly did a 360. “I didn’t know you were a lez too.”

Inhaling deeply, Gwen counted down from ten.

I am not going to hit her. I am not going to hit her. I am not going to hit her.

Looking past the dark haired girl in front of her, she could see her taller older sister. Her mouth had already formed an ‘O’ as she listened to another student about what had just happened. Her younger sister had probably already swayed over to her new boyfriend so that she could flirt and somehow convince him to leave her older sister alone.

She was wasting her time.

Ignoring her older sisters warning glare, Gwen looked at the girl once again. She had recognized her as one of the girls that Colby had thrown his arm around.

“I’m sorry; I’m not fond of plastic.” Gwen said smiling. “If I were a carpet muncher, I would definitely make sure the other girl had perkier tits and didn’t stuff.”

Gasps were heard from the crowd that had gathered around them. The girl in front of her mouth dropped from the insult. And Gwen couldn’t help but feel a smidge of victory when she stole a look at Neji’s and his brother faces. Their grins had faded into thin lines; the younger had more of a scowl than the elder though.

“Now if you will excuse me.” Gwen said, smiling sweetly.

Turning her back on the girl that she had just insulted she strode toward the glass doors. Her older sister following close behind, breathing in a sigh of relief. Thanking god that her younger sister didn’t break the cheerleader’s nose or worse.

*~*

Gwen’s classes went by in a haze; she had barely bothered with paying attention to anything that the teachers had tried to say. She had been too engrossed with the next thing that her new enemy would attempt. The entire day she had dodged traps, and put up with other students shoving her into the school lockers. By the time her last class of the day Gym rolled around, she was entirely fed up. She had held off beating the living daylights out of person after person.

Clenching her teeth she walked into the gym hallway and took a left towards the girl’s locker rooms. Clutching her book bag to her chest she was a bit late to class considering she had slipped by the home economics room so she could swipe some dye. She was going to get her sweet revenge against the little bastard that had turned everyone against her. Stopping in mid stride, she let a smirk play on her lips. Turning on her heel she walked in the opposite direction toward the men’s locker rooms. Throughout the day she had grilled her new friend about Neji’s and Brody’s classes. She knew that Neji had the same gym period. Only that he was up at the track running instead of in the gym where the girls mostly did their exercise.

Creeping down the boy’s hallway she peered through the double doors that led to the spacious gymnasium. The lights were turned down and she could see that the teacher was showing a dvd, the music that was playing told her that the girls were doing a zumba fitness routine. The one thing that always kept all the girls completely entranced. Picking up her pace, she opened the doors to the boys locker room and walked toward the back of the room where she had bribed one of the more nerdy guys in her class to hang her red sweater up in the locker that was to the left of her sworn enemies.

Smiling to herself, she opened Neji’s locker and rummaged through his things. Discarding his body spray and towels she mentally gave herself a high five when she found what she was looking for. Pulling out the dye from her book bag, she opened his shampoo and body wash and poured the heavy duty dye in it. Once he was done showering he would look like a lobster, with his hair to match. Finishing as quickly as she could, she packed all his things back into his locker and rushed out of the room.