Page 1 of Stripping the Sub
Prologue
14 years ago…
Eleanor hugged her herself as she got onto the noisy school bus, her head slightly tucked under, shoulders rounded. The bus ride home was always the worst part of her day this year. The ride to school wasn’t nearly as bad because she was at the first bus stop, which meant she had first choice of seats. Unfortunately, for the ride home, she was always one of the last people on the bus because her seventh period class was so far away from the front doors of her high school.
No one wanted to sit at the back of the bus with the three jerks: Kevin, Ryan, and Lawrence. They were all sophomores on the football team and thought they were too good to be riding the bus. When they weren’t tormenting their fellow passengers, they spent their time talking about what kind of cars they’d be driving next year and what position they’d have on the football team. All of them bragged to each other about how they’d be starting, even though starting positions usually went to seniors, not juniors. Reality didn’t seem to matter to them.
Her steps faltered a little bit as she saw a new head sitting back there, in the very last seat, which Ryan usually claimed. Well, not new exactly, just unusual.
Mike. His head was tipped back against the seat, his eyes closed, and he looked like he was asleep.
A senior, he rarely rode the bus, but it happened every so often. Unfortunately, it meant there was no buffer seat between the terrible trio and the rest of the bus. Everyone else’s gaze skittered away from hers as she walked down the aisle, her heart rising in her throat. She kept her eyes on the seat in front of Kevin, who always sat in front of Lawrence. With a choice of Kevin or Ryan, Kevin was definitely nicer. He was a little bit more of a follower, which meant he wouldn’t immediately feel the need to start anything with the person sitting in front of him just for kicks. And, hopefully, being across the aisle and one seat up from Ryan would be enough of a buffer.
Even though he’d never done anything to her, she really kind of hated Mike in that moment. Couldn’t he have sat in front of Ryan’s usual seat? Did he have to sit in the very back?
Taller than anyone else on the bus, Mike was had long, lean muscles. He didn’t play football like the other back-seat jerks; he was on the swim team when he wasn’t the lead in the school show. Ryan had tried to make fun of him for the theater thing once and only once. Mike had stared at him, brown eyes completely focused, strands of long, brown hair brushing against his high cheekbones, until Ryan had cringed and turned away.
It wasn’t like Mike was intimidating at first glance, but he was just so focused, so intense, and had the kind of self-confidence Ryan and the others only pretended to. Eleanor wished she could even pretend.
Sliding into her seat, Eleanor let out a quiet sigh of relief. Ryan had barely glanced at her, and Lawrence and Kevin had ignored her completely. She pulled out the book she was reading for English class -Ender’s Game- and went to her bookmark. Maybe she could just read the whole way home and they’d ignore her.
That hope lasted until about two minutes after the bus started moving when Ryan snatched the book out of her hands.
“Hey, bookworm, whatcha reading?” he asked, not bothering to even look at the title as he held the book away from her.
Eleanor half stood, one knee on the bus seat. “A book for class. Give it back, please.”
“Aw, she said please. That’s cute,” Ryan said, making a face at Kevin and Lawrence, who both laughed like the jerks they were. He tossed the book back to Lawrence, and Eleanor lurched forward trying to catch it, but didn’t even manage to graze it with her fingertips. “Oops, too slow, Sandler.”
She didn’t know why Ryan called her by her last name, but somehow it always felt like an insult or a way of making her less than she was, and she hated it.
“May I have my book back please, Lawrence?” she asked, trying to keep her tone even though she couldn’t stop the blush of anger rising in her cheeks. Getting mad just made them happy. Sometimes, if the person they were tormenting stayed calm, they’d get bored and leave their victim alone; so she always tried to stay calm, and most of the time it worked.
Unfortunately, it didn’t appear that today was her day.
Lawrence looked at Ryan for a cue of what to do, but Ryan was still looking at Eleanor.
“Hey, Sandler, you’re not bad for a freshman. How about you give me a kiss and we’ll give you your book back?”
Ice slid down Eleanor’s spine, spiking through her body and into her hands. Geezus… no.
It wasn’t that Ryan was bad looking. He wasn’t. None of the trio were. Blond haired, blue eyed, square jawed, and tall for his age; Ryan looked like he should be quarterback of the football team - and he might be in a couple years. Kevin was taller than him, with rich mocha skin, his curly hair shaved close to his head, and melting, chocolate brown eyes. The shortest of the three, Lawrence was also the most muscular; he had wavy black hair that was constantly falling in his hazel eyes and lashes which made every girl who met him sigh with envy. Put together, they were gorgeous. Unfortunately, their insides didn’t even come close to matching their outsides, and Eleanor had absolutely no intention of kissing Ryan.
“No,” she said in a low voice, keeping her gaze averted from all of them because if they saw how mad they were making her, they’d never stop. At least, she told herself it was just anger they’d see in her eyes. She glared at the textured green back of Kevin’s bus seat, halfway between looking at him and Lawrence. “Please just give it back.”
“What’s the matter, bookworm? Too good for me?” Ryan moved closer, crowding her, and Eleanor fought her instinct to move away, because she could only move in one direction - further into her seat.
The other teens on the bus were noisy, talking to each other, ignoring or unaware of the drama taking place in the back. The bus driver was either too far away to care or just didn’t care period. Everyone was used to the terrible trio harassing whoever was unlucky enough to sit closest to them. Everyone was used to the back of the bus being loud. If Ryan pushed her into the seat and made her kiss him - or worse - she didn’t know if any of them would help, even if she started screaming.
Maybe if she started screaming someone would intervene, but then what? The terrible trio all lived in her neighborhood. They knew where she lived. Even if Ryan got kicked off the bus, it wouldn’t make anything better. It would probably only make things worse, especially since then both Kevin and Lawrence would be pissed at her, and she would still have her last class in the farthest room from the bus pick-up.
All she wanted was her book back… but it wasn’t worth whatever Ryan was leading up to.
“Forget it, keep the book,” she said loudly, too loud in her attempt at sounding strong. She turned back towards the front, but Ryan grabbed her arm as she turned, setting her off balance. His fingers dug in, hurting her, and making her voice shrill with the fear she couldn’t hide. “Let me go!”
“Let her go.”
The deep, low tone was almost like a growl, and Eleanor whipped her head around to see Mike unfolding himself from the back seat, a pissed-off expression on his face. He grabbed the book Lawrence was still holding high in front of him. The bus lurched along the road, and Ryan’s grip released as he stumbled back into his seat.
