Around this time, a plain girl with long dark hair and glasses named Sarah transferred to Amarillo High School. Her old school had been burned down in a lab accident and she had been forced to change schools because of it. Since it was already halfway through their senior year everyone already had their clicks and so Sarah was completely left out - friendless!
Because of her nerdy appearance she was also singled out for bullying. Her class had nominated her as ‘Class President’ but only because they didn’t want to do any of the hard work themselves! Sarah was used to bullying since it had also happened to her at her old school, and so it didn’t really bother her…
However, the kids at Amarillo High School had a tendency to get violent and take things too far.
One day, when the teacher had given Sarah a large stack of printouts to hand out to everyone, she was tripped up by one of her classmates on purpose! She fell flat on her face, scraped her knees and the printouts went flying out of her hands.
Everyone in the class began to laugh since the teacher had left the room for a moment and when Sarah tried to stand someone actually pushed her back down!
“Oh, what’s wrong? Why can’t you get up?” The boy who had pushed her mocked. “Are you really that clumsy, four-eyes?”
Sarah felt tears welling up in her eyes and knew she was being stupid. She should have been used to this by now…everyone in this school was so superficial and judged everyone by appearances. Everyone wore expensive designer clothes and had contact lenses. No one wore glasses anymore.
“Hey.” Came a voice and Sarah looked up to see a boy in her class standing in front of her, though he wasn’t talking to her. She had never noticed the boy before which surprised Sarah since now that she was looking at him…he was incredibly handsome. “What do you think you’re doing? Did you just push her?” Jake demanded.
Jake hated bullies.
A heavy silence descended upon the classroom.
“So what if I did? What’s it to you, freak?” Came the trembling voice of the boy who had shoved Sarah down with his foot.
“You shouldn’t bully people. It’s not nice.” Jake insisted and turned his attention to the girl with glasses at his feet.
“Baby, you are everything I never knew I always wanted.” Jake winked and smiled at Sarah before holding his hand out to her when she stayed stunned on the floor. “Hey, are you okay?”
Sarah blinked up at Jake and blushed. “Er, yea…” Sarah said as she took his hand and allowed Jake to help her up. Everyone in the class gasped at this unexpected turn of events.
No one had bothered to warn the new girl about Jake Lonestar…and they realized belatedly that this had been a mistake. The girl was most definitely doomed. But they decided that they didn’t really care since she wasn’t even their friend.
Jake then began to help Sarah gather the printouts. He handed Sarah the printouts - but that’s when he noticed the glares everyone was sending his way.
Jake frowned and turned to the boy who had pushed Sarah. “Hey, dude, I-” Jake started forward and the boy fell out of his chair.
“Stay away from me! You freak!” The boy cried. “Don’t hurt me! He’s going to hurt me! Help!”
Jake stopped in his tracks and everyone began to mutter about how Jake intended to harm the boy…how Jake would beat him up…just like he did the baseball club…how Jake would kill him…
All the whispers and mutterings and dark glares - it was too much for Jake to handle.
“Sorry.” He muttered to Sarah before he turned around and bolted for the door of the classroom. He ran out of the classroom, and down the hall and didn’t look back.
Sarah watched Jake Lonestar go curiously. Her classmates’ reactions to him had seemed weird…and Jake had helped her. She still needed to thank him. Darn. She mentally scolded herself.