October 12th 1996
Lenny Cook was defined as a basket case when she moved to Washington. She was a terrifying teenager with a frightening past. She wasn't social, and had extreme anger issues which clashed with her neutral ways.
She managed to catch my interest the moment she transferred. She had walked down the hallway, with a swagger that made others avoid her path. She constantly wore dark sunglasses that covered her soulless looking eyes, making her equally frightening with or without them. She had a rough and ragged voice that sounded coarse and constantly angry. And she gave off a power that screamed dominance it was suppressive to be in her presence, even when we became friends.
She reminded me of my mother, strong, independent, and frightening. That may have been what drew me towards her, that feeling of familiarity. She had the personality of the men in the club, bloodthirsty, and loyal, which made her fit in well.
Where she received those traits I still don't know.
The first time we had interacted had been an accident. But it was the kind of accident that was meant to happen; Lenny was meant to be involved with the club. It's terrible for me to say that knowing what the possibilities were, but I felt like she belonged there with us, we understood her odd ways.
October 1st
Lenny Cook and her high school counselor sat in awkward silence staring at one another. Mr. Lenard watched her with wary eyes while she watched him with covered black eyes that made him feel extremely awkward and cause him to shift in his seat.
Jonathan Lenard had worked at the Tacoma School district for fourteen years, and he had never met a student capable of frightening, or making him as uncomfortable as Lenny Cook did. Her lack of actions causing his heighten nerves worried him the most. She sat silently, with dark sunglasses on in his counseling room staring at him unmoving, leaving his previous question to hang in the air.
He doubted she would ever answer, now thinking back he was prying more than was necessary, and she probably did not take too kindly to prying adults. He did not need to know the actions leading up to her abrupt transfer in the second quarter. He sighed heavily and broke the eye contact, and instead stared down at his oak desk, averting her piercing gaze.
Making little to no sound she stood, swung her beaten backpack over her shoulder and left without a dismissal. Jonathan did not question her actions. He was not willing to see the ending result of trying to impose regulations on her; she did not seem like the type that took well to rules. He instead stared down at the media folder containing comments, and facts about the interesting young woman from a few seconds ago, none of which explained her odd behavior.
Lenny Cook stalked down the empty hallways of her high school, the meeting was called slightly before school ended, and by now all students had vacated the premises. Knowing she was now late for work Lenny began grounding her teeth.
Digging her black nails into the palm of her hand as she clenched her fist, she slammed the double glass front doors open before stalking down the stairs to the student parking lot.
Lenny glanced up to surprisingly see a few girls still hanging down near the parking lots edge. Making it to the bottom of the stairs, Lenny turned to head towards the main street when she heard their voices grow higher. Lenny turned slightly to see the girls arguing, she attempted to ignore the commotion, but being only three feet from the girls started to agitate her. Their high pitched voices stirred an emotion inside her that craved to hit something, and Lenny loved taking that feeling out on preppy bitches. Biting the inside of her lip she continued moving, until she heard a yelp.
Lenny stopped abruptly and turned slightly to see one girl on the floor clutching her face. As much as Lenny wanted to continue moving and get to work the temptation began to grow, and her hands began to twitch. The girl on the floor began to sob silently, and Lenny felt an odd pull towards her. Glancing at the three girls who remained standing she noticed a victorious look on their faces. A sickening smirk replaced Lenny's neutral face and she dropped her backpack in the nearby grass and advanced on the smiling girls.
In a few seconds, Lenny's knuckles came into contact with the leader girl's face. She dropped to the floor clutching her face at the surprised impact. Lenny shoved her elbow into another girl and watched happily as the last backed away. An overwhelming feeling filled her as she moved forward towards the last girl. She stood taller than Lenny with dyed black hair and a pointed nose, she squeaked as Lenny stalked towards her and a laugh escaped as she punched the last one in the nose, a crack could be heard and Lenny's smirk stretched. Waving her right hand around to take away the numbness Lenny turned to see the girl hurt by the others stand. She looked at Lenny with large grey eyes that made her freeze. It was the deer-caught-in-headlights look. And Lenny sighed heavily at her. Moving around the crying girls on the floor she headed to her backpack in the grass and continued on her way to Toni's Auto Parts store.
:::
Tacoma Washington was a large city, but it was compacted enough for Lenny to maneuver it easily. Toni's Auto Parts was a decently sized shop located half a mile from the high school; it slightly reminded Lenny of a Harley Davidson store because of the rows of bikes that sat parked in front of the counter, and the neon green shirts the employees had to wear. Toni's supported about ten other shops in the area, by selling parts to not just motorcycles but also cars, boats, and big rigs.
Toni enjoyed putting Lenny with the counter girls at the front of the store, to overwatch scheduling, part orders, and selling of the merchandise, even though Lenny preferred to be in the back either stalking the shelves or working as a substitute mechanic. But counter girls were made to look friendly and bring in clientele, especially of the male population, which made a problem for Toni. Lenny was not friendly, she was not good at associating with the clients, but she was good at diagnostics and parts, which forced Toni to make Lenny an assistant manager, giving the option to head to the back if she was not needed by the counter girls.
Courtney was a new counter girl that Toni defiantly hired for her brains rather than the double D's she squeezed into a small shirt. She was the newest nuisance Lenny imagined killing on a daily basis. Courtney was a platinum blond, who had two pounds of makeup on, and less clothing than Lenny thought was possible.
Lenny ran a hand through her curly black hair as she stared at the computer once more. The numbers were completely off, and half of the words typed in had to be cryptic. Lenny stood shakily, her nails curling into her palm and a twitch in her lip as she stared at the back of Courtney's head.
It was too easy to imagine Lenny coming up behind her and slamming her face into the keyboard, Lenny was positive it would make more sensible words then the Cunt did otherwise. Breathing heavily Lenny slouched back down and stared at the new customers that walked through the door. Clad in leather vests, Lenny had a feeling they were the customers that Toni warned her about. The Sons of Anarchy, apparently it was some big biker gang located in Tacoma causing Lenny to hold in a scoff.
The men who walked through the door where barely considered intimidating, and not to Lenny's standards. The first one, Lenny presumed to be the leader, had long brown hair and a beard. Lenny doubted he was elected leader by his killing status, he seemed too friendly. The second one seemed slightly older, with messy hair and a mustache, by the looks of him Lenny would expect him to be a rat, he had that look about him. The third was the only one Lenny would actually consider intimidating, he seemed extremely young to be with the other men, but he was in a black t-shirt and the same cut. His head was shaved, colorful tattoos covered parts of his arms and up his head. An angry look was set into place that made him look confrontational. Lenny slightly enjoyed the view.
"You want a what?" Courtney's high pitch voice announced, breaking Lenny out of her thoughts and causing her to roll her eyes and growl under her breath as the blonde attempted a conversation that didn't include a dick in her mouth, it seemed painful for her.
"We need a few new tool sets," The leader answered slowly. He leant against the tall counter and looked down at the blond, the beginning of annoyance clear in his voice. Courtney sat frozen behind her computer staring at it, a dazed look on her face. Lenny growled loudly and stood up hastily. Lenny moved from her back desk to the front counter, grabbing the pen out of her low rider jeans as she stood near the counter.
"Do you have a specific set in mind?" Lenny rasped out, the men looked over to her slightly surprised and moved down the counter more to stand near her.
"Nah just needs the norm," the front man answered, his eyebrows raised almost daring to see if Lenny knew what he meant.
"How many pieces?" Lenny questioned, lifting her sunglasses to sit on her head. Her near black eyes pierced the men in front of her, her eyes just barely dancing over the leaders companions. Their vests doing nothing to intimidate her.
The man turned to the other men he brought, the youngest staying silent and stared at Lenny she guessed because of Toni's crop top he demanded the counter girls wear. The leader finished his short conversation and shrugged, Lenny looked back at him waiting.
"What kind you got?" He questioned, Lenny sighed before crossing her arms.
"We have anything ranging from 10-540, what do you need it for?" Lenny questioned, as she crossed her arms.
"About three of our sets are getting' old."
"I'd go with the 309 set, comes with ratcheting wrenches, sockets, hex keys, extensions, tons of shit, plus it has metric and standard for ya." Lenny seemed bored as she stared at the men, they didn't seem to be bothered by her angry looks nor her harsh responses.
"Yeah sure that sounds good,"
Lenny leaned over to the computer near her and typed rapidly, before starting backup at the men.
"It's on sale right now, at $195.99," Lenny announced staring back up at the bikers. The leader was leaning on the edge near her and nodded. From this distance she could clearly read the president patch, but she moved her gaze back to the screen.
"Three sets please and put it on our tab," The leader replied with a white smile and a glint in his eye. Lenny looked up with an eyebrow raised, she thought quickly over the situation, these men frightened Toni, Lenny could sense they were amused and Lenny had a feeling they weren't intending to pay for anything.
Lenny typed into the computer, a stoic look on her face. She stood up to her full height which was 5'2" but gave an intimidating smirk at the men.
"Sorry boys, we don't take tabs anymore." Lenny knew she was playing with fire, but the adrenaline that coursed through her made her excited, she was not going to deal with Toni's bipolar ways if these men cheated them about of six-hundred dollars, so she was covering her bases, and she would handle anything that came from this.
The leader moved back towards the counter an expression that didn't give what he was thinking away, Lenny understood why he was the president. He raised his eyebrows at Lenny and she just returned a smirk.
"You'll have to put 25% down now, and give monthly payments until the tools are payed off. If not any contract held between the Sons of Anarchy, and Toni's will end and tools are capable of being repossessed."Lenny gave a sickly smirk towards the men, her black eyes begging for confrontation.
:::
In the next week, life began to fall into routine for Lenny. Daily Lenny would waltz into first period late, sunglasses set into place and she would shuffle to the back of the room and fall asleep on her desk, Mrs. Watson refusing to mention anything. Throughout the day Lenny would receive notices from her counselor Mr. Lenard, which Lenny would crumple up and throw away in front of the office attendants.
The girl who got hit the week before made it a hobby to follow Lenny between classes and to her smoke break at lunch. Lenny didn't ask nor confront her, she didn't care, and it wasn't like the girl was bothering her.
The girl sported a large cut near her eye, it was covered with butterfly stitches and the girl attempted to cover it with her brown side bangs. She was extremely thin, and not filled out. She had a babyish face, and Lenny determined she was probably a sophomore. All day the girl would stay near Lenny, it seemed to be comforting factor for her.
By the end of the week the girl had not tried talking to her, she seemed content on staying a distance away. But the constant following was beginning to annoy Lenny, she hated the feeling of being watched, and the girl did a really bad job at hiding it.
Mondays were never a good day for Lenny, and her newest 'friend' was already pushing her buttons. Lenny couldn't contain the growls that admitted under her breath, or the slight lip twitch she got as her anger rose. By lunch Lenny was digging her short nails into the palm of her hand as the chick leant against a tree twenty feet away staring blatantly at a smoking Lenny.
The only peace and quiet she received with this girl was when the tardy bell rang. The chick would begrudgingly leave to class, probably some goody-two-shoes while Lenny finished another smoke only to go to the same English class the stalker-girl was in.
Lenny soon passed out on the lone table she held in the back of the room, as the old teacher droned on about Romeo and Juliet, an unrealistic romantic story that could never mirror an actual relationship.
The short Mexican woman was woken up by someone rubbing her shoulder, she was silently thankful of someone waking her at that moment since her dream was a continuous nuisance. But it wasn't right.
Lenny rolled her head to the side and stared through her black frames that luckily stayed on as she dozed, surprisingly she-stalker was standing at her high rise table, staring at her with those large doe eyes she remembered the previous week.
"So…" She began, her voice small, squeaking slightly, "we had to pair up, for a project."
Lenny rolled her head up, a grimace showing on her lips. She stretched but kept her glasses level with the girl, purposely letting her know she was staring. She-stalker squirmed under her gaze.
Lenny scrunched back down in her seat and leaned her curly head against her hand.
"So, I'm Carrie " The girl announced slightly loudly. Other people turned to look at the odd pair at the back of the room.
So, She-stalker had a name, Carrie, it was preppy, but it fit her. Lenny straightened up and grabbed the papers off of her desk, she ran her dark eyes ranked over the papers greedily, Carrie watched with wide eyes, causing Lenny to sigh loudly before flicking her menacing eyes back up to the girl.
"That's gettin' old." It was the first time, Carrie had heard her voice. It was dark, and raspy, it reminded her of the crows back at the shop who've smoked all their lives.
"What?" Carrie asked, an innocent twang to her voice.
Lenny growled audibly, a few boys positioned near their table turned and glanced worriedly at the two girls.
Carrie, gave a few minutes of silence as she tried to watch Lenny read the two page assignment as she bowed her head. She was hoping she was being stealthy, but from the growingly annoyed look Lenny was shooting at her, she was being unsuccessful.
"Wanna tag team the projects, or what-"
"I was thinking you could come over to my house, and we could work on it. I mean-"
"Fine" Lenny growled out before lowering her head once again to the table.
Carrie seemed to accept that answer, she sat silently and dutifully near Lenny. Lenny rolled her head once more to stare at the girl. Something wasn't right, it was odd she would just accept what was happening. Lenny shrugged it off as a type of debt and tried sleeping a bit more.
