Lux Ruby Lawson was not having it. Not today, of all days.
But Simone Harding hadn’t gotten the message. She was trying Lux’s patience, the way she always did, and Lux didn’t know how much longer she could listen to Simone’s loud, whiny voice.
“She thinks she’s so cute,” Lux heard Simone say. “Just because she’s the new girl. Well, I’ve been at this school and on this team since we were freshmen. I’ve paid my dues. And I’m not going to let some nobody who came out of nowhere try to take this away from me.”
Simone was the speed jumper on their school’s double Dutch team—one of the most coveted positions. Lux had tried out for the team that day, along with about a dozen other girls, but she didn’t actually care what position she got. She just needed something that would keep her out of trouble. Something to do—besides cranking her music as loud as she could stand it. Or taking photos of random people on the street to keep from being so pissed off all the time. (Pissed had been her default setting ever since her dad left.)
And after the last . . . incident, her mom had warned her. If she messed up again, she’d have to go live with the dad who’d walked out on her. Lux couldn’t let that happen.
This was her final chance to make things right.
But Simone kept talking crap about her—she’d been tormenting Lux since Lux started at this school last semester. To make matters worse, Lux’s dad had called that morning. He told her she had a new baby sister, Lillia Rose—a sibling she hadn’t asked for and didn’t want. A daughter he’d chosen to stay with when it seemed so easy for him to leave her. Lillia felt like Lux’s replacement, no matter what anyone said.
And Simone still wouldn’t shut the hell up.
Lux turned to look at the girl she had hated almost instantly.
Simone was tall, thin, and brown-skinned, with waist-length braid extensions, and Lux had been wanting to yank the fake hair from her scalp for months. On Lux’s very first day, Simone had tried her—walking up to her in the hall and making fun of the shirt she had on. Lux resisted the urge to grab her then. She couldn’t start a fight on her first day. For most of the fall, Lux kept to herself and kept her distance, but now that winter had arrived, her patience was wearing thin.
Though Lux had moved away from Simone and her friends in the gym so she wouldn’t hear whatever they were saying about her now, soon the coach called them all together again.
“Okay,” the coach started. “I’d like to see Aisha, Penelope, Tamika, and Lux back here for practice tomorrow. Thanks to everyone else for coming out.”
Simone glared. But Lux grinned. She couldn’t help it if she was good—better than Simone, even—and the coach saw her potential.
But back in the locker room, things went wrong . . . fast.
Simone stepped right into Lux’s face the second the coach left. “You think you’re such hot shit, don’t you?”
Lux stayed calm at first. She shook her head and turned away from Simone, even as Simone’s friends egged her on. Everyone knew that Lux had transferred here because she’d gotten kicked out of her last school for fighting, and she’d heard that Simone and her friends were dying to see if she could live up to her reputation.
Lux wouldn’t give them what they wanted. She opened her locker like Simone wasn’t even there. But then her phone chimed, and she saw another picture of Lillia. The newborn had the same rich dark skin as Lux, the same thick black hair. She looked soft and new and not yet ruined. And just as Lux hit the power button on her phone, Simone grabbed her wrist and spun Lux around to face her again. Lux’s phone hit the floor and the screen cracked.
“I’m talking to you,” Simone snapped.
And that was all Lux could take.