Val’s P.O.V

I turned the corner, disappearing around the corner towards the lockers. Here, the backtalk took a more insidious form. The silence in their little bubble was louder than an insult. We were in a computer lab, a combined class across my grade. And so we had no options but to join the class. Even Brielle’s intentions to see Xavier were ruined. We just settled in for the teacher to start teaching.

The girls who had sat around us were students who’d taken the course with us for ...