The sound a fist makes when it’s hitting a nose is horrible.

It sounds like . . . a wet kind of crunch.

It reminded Lux of the sound her mouth made as she bit into one of her favorite snacks, Cool Ranch Doritos.

But in that moment, as Lux’s closed fist slammed into Simone’s nose, Lux could only think about shutting Simone up.

Simone’s body smacked the floor with more force than Lux’s phone had. And before Lux knew it, she’d climbed on top of her and began pounding her fists into the other girl’s face and chest and stomach.

“Holy—!” someone shouted.

Simone reached for Lux’s thick twists, grabbed a few of them, and pulled, yanking Lux’s head painfully forward. Lux thought, Oh no this girl didn’t. A second later she thought, I should have done that first. But she wasn’t worried. Like jumping double Dutch, fighting was something Lux did well.

“Oh my God!” someone else said. Girls from every part of the locker room had shoved into the aisle where Lux and Simone were rolling around on the floor.

Lux grabbed Simone’s hair right back, ignoring the sting of her own screaming scalp. She punched Simone again, so hard her knuckles cracked.

“Jesus!” said another voice. Then, “Luxy, no!”

That voice Lux recognized. It belonged to Danika, the only girl who had been kind to her when she came to this school at the start of fall semester. The two grew closer after Lux had protected Danika from a group of bullies back in November—Lux told the girls who were tormenting Danika that if they kept it up, they’d have to deal with her. And when Danika found Lux crying in the bathroom right after she’d found out her dad’s new wife was pregnant, she’d stayed with her and handed her fistfuls of crumpled toilet tissue until she’d calmed down.

But none of that mattered now.

Lux looked up at Danika, intent on telling her not to worry about coming to her rescue, but in that one distracted second, Simone shoved Lux so hard, she fell backward. Her head hit the row of lockers behind them.

That’s when Lux noticed the phones. Almost every girl in the locker room had been taking photos of her, videos of them. And Lux knew that they would be shared again and again for hundreds of other eyes to see. Normally, Lux loved cameras—they were one of her most favorite things. But she hated everything about this. Simone scrambled up and away from her.

“You’re a psychopath!” Simone shouted. Her nose wouldn’t stop bleeding. Droplets of blood were falling onto her shirt. One of Simone’s friends grabbed her arm to hold her back.

“She’s not worth it, S,” the friend said, then she hissed in Lux’s direction, “This isn’t over.” Lux felt pretty sure this girl, Bree, only made empty threats—Lux had seen her acting like Simone’s bodyguard more than once. But the look in Bree’s eyes still gave Lux goose bumps. She could imagine Simone, Bree, and the rest of them cornering her. But Lux knew they didn’t have the nerve to do anything else now, not with so many people watching.

The coach ran in, but by then everything had ended. Bree was still holding Simone back, and Lux still sat on the concrete floor, but they were both refusing to speak.

“Luxy,” Danika said again, softly, from somewhere behind her. Lux felt Danika touch her shoulder, but she pushed her sort-of friend’s hand away.

“Just leave me alone,” Lux said to her. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a friendship that felt anywhere close to real.

“Get changed and get to class,” Coach said to all the other girls. And this is how Lux knew Danika didn’t really care: She seemed to hesitate for a second, but she left with everyone else.

Lux picked up her ruined phone and saw that her nail polish was chipped, too. She glared at Simone and smoothed down her hair.

“You two,” Coach continued, pointing to Lux and Simone, “come with me.”