DIFFERENT (Different Series Book 1) by Erin J. Cross

likes you. Leo doesn’t want you, not when he can have Megan. You’re just a loser who can’t hold down a family.’
                  I know that I should have ignored her and kept on walking, but she’d made me so angry, and when I spun around and saw the smirk on her face, I found myself looking straight at her. I caused her to lose her balance and tumble backwards, and as she lay on the ground looking confused, I found myself grinning back at her.
                  Rose tried to help Veronica up, but she shunned her and got up herself, her jeans now covered in mud.
                  ‘You’re a freak, Celeste,’ she spat out.
                  ‘Says the girl who just fell on her ass and who’s now covered in mud,’ I said back, knowing that I needed to leave the park before I did anything else, but at the same time I was driven on by adrenaline.
                  She charged at me like a bull would someone wearing red, and she managed to catch me off guard as she knocked me to the ground. Her friends cheered her on as she tried to pin my arms down. I had a flashback to the look on Brandon’s face as he grabbed onto my arms and I felt myself start to panic.
                  ‘Help me,’ Veronica shouted to her friends, and suddenly I had more hands grabbing out at me.
                  I tried to shove them off, but I was overpowered just by Veronica, let alone the other four of them. I closed my eyes and tried to calm myself down. I didn’t know what to do next: should I just let them hurt me, or should I stop them?
                  ‘Look at me,’ Veronica said, as she leaned over me and grabbed my jaw. ‘I told you to look at me!’ With her other hand she yanked hard at my hair.
                  I knew the dangers of opening my eyes, but she wouldn’t stop yanking at my hair. I couldn’t just lay here and take it, not anymore. I opened my eyes, I saw the smug look on Veronica’s face, and I focused hard on her.
                  ‘Get off her,’ I heard someone shout.
                  ‘Or what?’ one of the others said.
                  ‘Just get out of here before I call the cops.’
                  ‘Come on Ver, let’s get outta here,’ Rose said, as she pulled at her arm, eventually managing to get her off me.
                  ‘This isn’t over, Celeste,’ Veronica said, as she pointed at me. ‘It’s just the start.’
                  ‘Are you okay?’ The person who’d saved me pulled me up. It was then that I realised that it was Finn.
                  ‘Thanks,’ I muttered out to him.
                  ‘No problem.’
                  ‘I thought you had to be somewhere.’
                  ‘You’re more important.’
                  ‘Do I look like I feel?’ I touched my cheek and then looked at my fingers, which were now speckled with blood.
                  ‘Pretty much, but it’s okay. You still look pretty.’
                  I blushed as I tried to hide my smile. My whole body ached, and I wasn’t looking forward to walking back to the Prestons and then having to explain to them why I looked a state.
                  ‘Come on, let’s get out of here.’ He gestured for me to get up, but I remanded where I was.
                  ‘I can’t go back there, not looking like this.’ I felt tears form in my eyes, and I sniffed. I really didn’t want to cry in front Finn, but this day had just been too much for me. If he hadn’t shown up when he had, then who knows what I would have done.
                  ‘It’s okay.’ He wrapped his arm around me, and I buried my face in his black zip-up top. ‘Things will be okay, Celeste, but right now you need to go