Chapter 2 Rayna

"what's that pathetic orphan doing here?" I heard someone sneer.

"Ewww, what is she wearing?"

"They shouldn't keep on letting her in here."

"Can't she make an effort to wash her uniform?"

"Wash? Ugh, she needs to throw those rags away and buy new ones. She looks like something they dug up from the trash. Yuck."

Keeping my head down, I ignored all their snide words as I walked past the rows of desks and settled in my lone desk at the very back of the class.

" You're late!" Mr. Ivory barked at me, "If this continues to repeat itself, you'll have to face detention."

My heart began to pound in my chest. Detention was the worst thing they could do to me because the one time I hadn't come home on time, my mother had locked me in my room with no food or water for three days.

"I'm sorry, sir. It won't happen again."

"I've heard that before," he rolled his eyes and turned back to the board, "Now, on the topic of differentiation_"

I tried my best to listen but not only was I very familiar with the terms because I had done this class before, but my stomach was growling with hunger and it kept me distracted.

"Hey, creep," someone whispered. I turned to see a golden haired girl smirking at me, "Did you crawl out of the dumpster this morning?"

I shot her an unamused look. I had heard different variations of that insult all my life and I had grown a thick hide to it.

None of the kids at school understood me. None of them had bothered to get close enough to know why I showed up in dirty and tattered uniforms. I didn't owe any of them an explanation either.

They could go to hell.

"Did your lady's maid not advice you to not pair pink with lemon? You look like a fruit basket," I sassed back.

"Ignore her Maggie," the girl on her other side glared at me, "She wouldn't know fashion if it hit her in the face."

I raised an eyebrow at her, "Then I guess we have a lot in common."

" You bitch! " Maggie hissed.

"Is there a problem?" Mr. Ivory's cold voice cut in and the three of us jerked our heads up to the front of the class, "Do I need to excuse you girls so you can carry on with your conversation?"

Maggie immediately poked her bottom lip out in a pout, "Mr. Ivory, Ryler called me bitch."

First off, my name was Rayna not Ryler, second, she was the one who called me a bitch.

"I've had enough of your attitude, miss Giancarlo," the teacher snapped, "Get out of my class, you're now on detention."

I immediately leaped to my feet, hands curled into fists at my sides, "That's not true! She's lying. I didn't call her a bitch."

"I heard it," the brown haired boy in front of me said, "She said a bunch of other really mean things too while Mags was just trying to mind her business."

I opened my mouth to refute the accusation, but the older man held up his hand, his expression forbidding.

"Not another word from you young lady, unless I'll serve you with a suspension."

I sucked in a breath, and then turned to glare at the blonde jerk before grabbing my ratty school bag and marching out of the class. As I made to step past someone's desk, she put out her leg.

I was moving too fast to be able to halt and I ended up tripping and falling to the ground.

With a scream, I banged my head against the leg of someone's desk and the contents of my bag came spilling.

Someone tittered.

"Serves her right," a girl's voice whispered.

"That's where she belongs, at our feet."

"I hope this will teach her to stay where she belongs, in the gutters with the rest of her kind."

Tears filled my eyes and I climbed to my knees and began to frantically gather my books into my bag, only to discover that the fall had caused the remaining hand of my bag to break.

My lower lip trembled in dismay as I hugged the backpack to my chest and fled the class.

Just as I reached the door, Mr. ivory's voice stopped me, "Giancarlo, wait."

I turned slowly, heart soaring with the thought that he had decided to let me stay in class, but unfortunately, that wasn't what happened.

As if my humiliation wasn't enough, he bent and picked something from the floor before approaching me and tossing it at me.

With mountain horror, I realized it was the spare underwear I had tossed into my bag earlier today.

I jumped up and snatched it from the air but in the process my bag slipped from my hand.

"Oh my freaking God, is that her underwear. Can she be anymore disgusting?" Someone hissed.

"I have to speak to my father about getting that gutter rat expelled, I can't continue to share oxygen with her."

I heard someone giggle, "You mean you can even breath when she's close? You must be so lucky then. Her stench literally chokes me. I've wasted three cans of febreeze and all to no avail."

I wanted to snap at them that they didn't know what they were talking about, but I knew it was of no use. I would only get myself into more trouble by trying to protest now.

"One more thing," Mr. Ivory said sternly, "You're going to have to bring your parents to the school tomorrow."

"Haven't you heard, she's an orphan," Maggie piped up, causing the class to burst into laughter.

"You have to come with your guardians tomorrow or you won't be let into any of the classes," he continued, ignoring the laughter, "something has to be done about your lack of punctuality and your bad appearance."

I pressed my mouth into a thin line and nodded.

"Now get out, you're disrupting my class."

I raced out of the classroom and down the school halls, my heart feeling heavy in my chest.

My name is Rayna Giancarlo and I'm the ridiculed student.

But not for much longer.