Infinite (Strange and Beautiful, Book 1) by Brittney Musick Page A

that.” Then her smile fell
and she sighed heavily. “Apparently, after Parker answered the question
correctly, the teacher told Mark that it wouldn’t hurt him to take a few
pointers from Parker.”
    “So
that’s what set him off on Parker?” Tegan asked.
    Tierney
nodded. “Mark crashed this party he’d overheard Parker talking to friends
about. He showed up completely wasted and started hassling Parker. He was
shoving him around and calling him names. A few of the other people at the
party tried to get Mark to lay off, but it wasn’t much use. The guy is huge, ya
know? So he’s shoving Parker around, and finally Parker shoves back. This
completely pisses Mark off, and he pushes Parker so hard he practically flies
across the room. And he landed on a glass table that shattered from the impact.
He cut his arms and back, and he was bleeding really badly. They had to call an
ambulance and the police, but Mark was long gone by then.”
    “Was
Parker okay?” I felt stricken. Even though the other stuff wasn’t nice, it
hadn’t seemed particularly dangerous. This, though, had ended in physical
injury.
    “He
lost a lot of blood and was in the hospital for a while, but he’s okay now,”
Tierney replied.
    “What
happened with Mark?” Tegan asked.
    “Nothing.”
    “ Nothing? ”
Tegan and I exclaimed in disbelief.
    “The
police went and talked to him, but Parker begged his parents not to press
charges,” Tierney replied. “He knew he’d be dead if he did.”
    That
was some very unsettling news. It just didn’t make sense to me that he was able
to get away with all of these things. I got that he was clearly intimidating,
but someone had to be able to put a stop to his bullying, right?
    At
least that was what I thought until the day I had my first encounter with Mark
Moses.
    We’d
just finished a test in Spanish that I had spent hours studying for with Tegan
the night before. We were on our way to the cafeteria, and I was feeling pretty
good. I thought I’d done pretty well on the test, and it was also a Friday,
which was never a bad thing.
    On
the way out the door that morning, I grabbed the first book I spotted. I hadn’t
made any visits to the library since school started. I knew I was in dire need
of a visit to the library soon. I was sure Rose, the head librarian, was
wondering what happened to me. I usually visited the library every other week
to find new reading material. I was sure Rose would have plenty of
recommendations she’d sat aside for me.
    That
morning I didn’t have time to be choosy about my books because Skylar had
threatened to leave me if I didn’t hurry. It wasn’t until I got in the car that
I realized I was holding my copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the
Phoenix by J.K. Rowling. To someone else this might have been a horrible
thing since I’d just read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and
reading Order of the Phoenix would require reading the series in
reverse, but I wasn’t too upset. At least I could say I knew Harry Potter backward and forward.
    After
I had finished my Spanish test, I pulled out my book and started rereading it.
Sometimes when I was alone, I liked to read the books aloud in a British accent
that I was certain was horrible. Sometimes, even when I wasn’t reading, I’d
talk to myself in the British accent for fun. I got to say things like “bloody
hell,” “blimey,” “wicked,” and “knickers.” Luke usually got called a “git” or
“prat” a few times a week. This typically occurred after he’d used all of the
hot water. Sometimes I wished that I really had an accent. Everything sounded
so much cooler and distinguished with one.
    I
was well into chapter two of the book when the bell rang to signal the end of
class. There were still a few people huddled over his or her tests. Probably
double checking all of their answers, which I never did because I just knew I’d
end up second-guessing myself and mess everything up.
    As
Tegan and I