Go Ahead And Hurt Me
My aunt had been right about my repuatation not being that good after getting a detention on my first day. People thought of me as some girl that could kill without any remorse. I even had a few people ask me if I'd ever been to jail. Most of the rumors were unbelievable bullshit. The few that didn't buy into the hype about me were pretty nice. I kept my grades high and didn't bother with people. Since it's just high school, who cares afterwards?
"Camilla Edwards to the office, Camilla Edwards to the office, please." The PA system echoed throughout the halls between fourth and fifth period. I hadn't done anything, but that didn't stop the whispers. I strolled to the principal's office. She smiled up at me when I walked in and motioned for me to have a seat. I sat down uneasily. Why was I in there? I racked my brain for something I might have done.
"Your not in trouble." The principal assured me. I relaxed a little.
"Not to be rude or anything, but why am I here then?" I asked her.
"I've noticed that your not really into any group or anything, and both the basketball and gardening club could use your help." She started. I blinked.
"You want me to join a club." I stated. A club? That required doing things with other people. Not my cup of tea.
"Most students are in clubs, and joining a club may keep you out of trouble." She advised the sugar in her voice melting a little.
"But I haven't gotten into any trouble lately." I protested. She sighed.
"You have no choice. Gardening Club or Basketball Club?" She asked me. I rolled my eyes. I didn't want to garden, and I knew nothing of basketball. Well, here was my chance to learn.
"Basketball Club then." I told her. She nodded with a small smile.
"Thank you. They meet today in the gymnasium after school." The principal turned to her computor. "You can go now." I stood. I had totally caved in to her. What the hell? Whatever. I didn't have anything but homework to do after school anyway. I left the office and went to my fifth period class, biology. The class jeered a little when I came into the classroom late with my office pass. I went and sat in my seat and listened to the teacher drone on about mitosis.
"Pssst. What'd you get in trouble for?" A nosy girl in front of me asked. I looked up at her. Her nose matched how nosy she was.
"I'll tell you what I will get in trouble for, punching you in your gigantic nose. Turn around and mind your damn business." I growled at her. She frowned and turned back around. A few people had heard and were whispering again.
I didn't bother going to lunch, since I had lost my appetite after watching the process of osmosis in biology. I went the student council room, since I had no idea where the gymnasium was, Nathaniel would probably help me find it. I went in, to only find the room empty. For some reason, I figured he practically lived in the student council room. I left the room, maybe it was a good thing I didn't find him in there. I hadn't been that nice to him anyway. Iris was at her locker so I went to ask her. She smiled a little when she saw me.
"Hey there. How are you?" She asked me, all friendly.
"Pretty good, you?" I said trying to be friendly too.
"I'm fine. Are you looking for Nathaniel?" Iris asked as she took out a textbook from her locker.
"Not really, I'm looking for the gymnasuim." I told her. She laughed.
"You won't find him there. Why do you have to find the gymnasium? I thought you don't have gym."
"I don't, the principal asked me to join a club to 'keep me out of trouble' so I chose to basketball club."
"Bummer, you haven't even been in trouble lately."
"That's what I told her. But, whatever."
"The gymnasuim's on the left of the courtyard. I hope that helps."
"Thanks." I told her as I followed her direction to the gymnasuim where a group of people were. They all seemed to be in deep conversation about some basketball game that had been on TV the night before. Shit, I'm in unknown territory here.
After the meeting, which I was horrible clueles in, I went home. I needed to hear something other than talk about basketball. On my walk home, I put in my headphones and blasted my favorite band, Falling In Reverse, all the way home.
"Did you get a detention again?" Aunt Danni asked me when I came into the kitchen. I shook my head and took out my headphones.
"The principal made me join a club. That's why I stayed after school." I told her. Aunt Dannie was making some sort of soup. "What's that?"
"Broccoli soup. Do you mind toasting some of the bread behind you?" She asked me as she stirred the yellow-with-green-flecked soup. I put a few slices of the bread into the toaster and walked into my room. I put my bookbag on the floor and came back into the kitchen. We had dinner together, which oddly, seemed to be becoming a regular routine for us. After dinner, I did my homework and took a shower. I emerged from the shower and said goodnight to my aunt and went into my room. I hadn't bothered talking to either of my parents, not that I missed them, but I couldn't help but wonder if they even missed me at all. They probaby didn't. Maybe that was my problem. I wanted them to care, and would do anything to make them do just that. I felt a michevious grin on my face as I drifted into dreamland.
To me school is just school. Grades don't matter and neither do the people there. I didn't fail any classes, or get into trouble at school. But that didn't stop me from getting into other kinds of trouble. I had heard the talk of a place called De Circ. From what I had gathered about this place, it wasn't a place for the innocent. One late night, after I had went to bed, I opened my window and crawled out the window. I padded lightly along the roof and slid down the ladder I had tactfully set up earlier to the dewy grass. Once on the ground, I went to my bike, that I had also set up on the side of the house, so I could bike instead of walk to De Circ. I rode along the dark city streets to the other side of town. I locked up my boke the bike rack in the front. The place's name was in bright blue letters; De Circ. I went inside, there were beefy looking guys and the air reeked of pot. There was a pool table in the back and drunk people arguing in the corner. I relaxed and went to the counter. There was a lady behind the counter, her name-tag read Doll Face.
"What can I get you, Hon?" Doll Face asked me. Her face was heavily made up making her young face look like a messy painted canvas.
"Just a water." I sat on one of the red, ripped up barstools. Doll Face poured a water in a glass for me and handed it to me. "Thanks." I took a sip of it. Tap water.
"Your not eighteen. You know this place if for adults only." Doll Face wasn't scolding me, just informing me. I nodded.
"I just moved here. I had no idea." I told her. I really didn't know it was an adult place. I had thought of it as a place that preppy skanks stayed away from.
"It's cool this time. Unless you come with an adult next time, stay away. Pretty, young girls like you shouldn't be here in the first place." Doll Face refilled a man sitting a few stools down from me's mug with what I assumed was beer. "This place can get pretty violent."
"I'll take your word for it." I told her as I took another sip of my water. She lifted her sleeved and showed me a scar running from her elbow to the back of her hand. I set my glass down.
"I got this during a bar fight here a few months ago. And you still think I'm joking? People and booze don't make a pretty couple, Hon."
"Well, is there a safer place than this one I should visit?" I askd her. She shrugged. I tapped my fingers on the side of my glass.
"If your looking for a place with drugs and alcohol, no. But if you want a place your ma wouldn't want you at, there's Hypnotic Tendicies, the dance club near the Dollor Store." Doll Face's eyes widened as a loud crack sounded behind me. I turned around to see that a man had thrown a chair at another man.
"Son of a bitch, don't you talk 'bout my mom!" The man who'd thrown the chair screamed at the other man.
"I can't help it if she's a loose woman!" The other man yelled back, his voice slurring slightly. Another chair was thrown. I could feel someone pulleing me from my chair as a pocketknife was thrown at the wall above my head. The room started to fill with the sounds of cursing, furniture being broken and glasses shattering. Doll Face had dragged me to a back room.
"Stay back here. Don't make a sound. I'm calling the cops, if they find you here, you'll go to jail, Hon. Got me." Doll Face whispered hurridly to me. She closed the door before I could tell her I understood. This wasn't a situation I had ever been in. The sounds outside reminded me of how bad my parent's arguments would get. Aside from the slurring in the men and women's voices, it sounded just like them. A hand was on my shoulder, breaking my thoughts.
"Camilla?" A voice asked from behind me. I turned to see Castiel. He had a name-tag on and his facial expression looked shocked a little.
"Castiel? What are you doing here?" I whispered to him. He raised an eyebrow and smirked.
"I work here." He gestured to his clothes, it was a uniform with the words De Circ on them. "And you talk regularly, until you hear cops. They're yelling way too loudly for us to be heard."
"Oh." I didn't want to say anything weird, considering the back room wasn't all that big, and was mostly full of cleaning supplies. "Why are you back here?"
"Someone had thrown up and I was getting stuff to clean it up." Castiel told me. "Enought about me. What are you doing here?"
"I wanted to go out." I said simply. He scoffed.
"To one of the most dangerous places in Sweet Amoris? That doesn't sound very smart." He teased. I smirked.
"I never said I made wise decisions."
"Neither did I. In fact, coming here might've been the stupidest idea ever. Considering you could very possibly go to jail for underage drinking."
"All I had was water. I don't even have ID on me so I wouldn't even try that."
"Even worse. The police would accuse you of drinking anyway. Why else would a teenage girl come to a place like this other than to drink? And not having ID would make it even more plausible."
"I came here, because my aunt's been breathing down my neck about getting in trouble at school, I wanted to hang loose, okay?"
"You should try the dance club, Hypnotic Tendencies, then."
"I don't like to dance."
"Suit yourself." Outside the door we could hear sirens and police coming into the place, shouting. Glass stopped shattering and no more furniture was broken. I stayed silent, less than two feet away from Castiel. When the cops left, Doll Face opened the back room door.
"Hey, sorry about you haveing to see that, Hon." Doll Face said to me sadly. She looked to Castiel. "Castiel, you were in here too? Damn, I'm really sorry, Hon."
"Dolly, I didn't do anything bad to her." He told her. She raised an eyebrow. "Promise." He smirked. Doll Face let us out of the back room and into the now empty bar.
"You should get out of here, Hon. The cops'll probably be back later." Doll Face started sweeping up some broken glass.
"I'll make sure she gets home okay." Castiel told Doll Face. She waved him off. She picked up a wooden chair leg.
"I'm counting it as your break, you'd better be back in twenty." Doll Face told him before we walked outside.
"You don't have to walk with me home. I live on the other side of town." I told him as I tried to unchain my bike.
"Nonsense. I'll drive you home. It's too late for a girl to be riding around this part of town alone." He sauntered over to an old black truck. He unlocked the doors and picked up my bike and set it down gently in the bed. I reluctantly got in the truck and waited for him to start the truck. "You live on the other side of town, huh?" He started the truck and backed out into the empty street. I nodded.
"Your not gonna stalk me or anything are you?" I teased him. He smirked.
"Not unless you give me a reason to." He teased back. I directed him to where I stayed at but made him stop down the street. "Here?"
"Um, I live at that house." I pointed to my house a few feet away. "But my aunt has no idea I was out and I'd like to keep it that way."
"Ah, I see. Your a bad girl, Camilla." He tsked. "I'll get your bike out of the bed." We both got out of the truck. He lifted my bike out of the bed and rolled it over to me. I turned to go home.
"Thank you." I told him over my shoulder. He smirked and nodded.
"No problem. See you at school." He got back in his truck and didn't drive away till I had disappeard into my backyard.
It was a really terrible idea to have went out the night before. Even though I didn't drink, or do anything terribly stuid, I was up until eleven o'clock, making sure everything was like it should be. By the time I had forced myself out of bed, I only had a few minutes to get ready and be out the door. My aunt didn't even ask if I'd woken up late. I hurried to school and got there just as the late bell rang. I went to my locker to get my supplies for class. Shit, now I'd have another detention. I sulked into class. As usual, people whispered and made faces. I accepted my detention slip gracefully from the teacher and went to my seat. Iris gave me a small grin across the room and mouthed 'It's all good, you can borrow my notes if you want.' I nodded to her. I couldn't help but wonder why she was always so nice to me. After class, Iris kept her promise and let me have her notes to copy.
"Thanks." I yawned a little. She raised an eyebrow.
"You look really tired, I thought your aunt made you go to bed early." Iris noted. I faintly remember complaining to her about how much on my case my aunt was. I nodded.
"She does. Doesn't mean I actually go to bed though." I told her. Iris shook her head slowly.
"I don't understand you, Camilla. She cares. Just let her care." Iris picked up her bag from the floor and slung it on her shoulder. "I'll see you around." She turned and left down the hallway and into the massive crowd accumulating for lunch. I sighed and went on my way to the library. I saw Ken coming my way. He appeared to be crying.
"CAMILLA!" Ken wailed. It was too late for me to run, so I stayed right where I was. "These girls, they, they pushed me and took my money!"
"And you let them?" I asked him. He nodded sadly. "Where and who are they?" He pointed to the same three girls from my first day. I narrowed my eyes. I couldn't stand Ken either, but stealing from him wouldn't help anything. I stormed over to the three girls. I already had a detention, I really had nothing to lose.
"Oh, hey, Camilla. Get in trouble lately?" The blond sneered. I smirked.
"Who the fuck do you think you are?" I snarled at her. She giggled.
"Why, I'm Amber, that's Charlotte and that's Li. Questions?" Amber asked with a fake sweet voice. I shook my head.
"I understand that. Now apologize to Ken." I demanded. "Now." The three laughed their heads off. "I'm not asking." They laughed even harder. I grabbed Li's lipstick compact and threw it to the floor. They stopped laughing.
"Hey!" Li whined. "You're buying me a new compact!"
"I don't think so. Now aplogize." I repeated. They were silent. I shoved Li into a locker and pinned her arms behind her back "Say your fuckin' sorry, bitch!" Li yelled in pain. A crowd had already accumulated. Ken was nearby, his cheeks a dark pink. Li glared at him.
"I'm sorry." Li growled, no sincirity in her voice. I shoved her harder.
"Like you mean it." I said as she winced in pain.
"I'm sorry, Ken." Li said, her eyes brimming with tears. Charolotte and Amber didn't even defend their friend, they merely just stood by and watched.
"Give him back his money." I demanded. Charolotte pulled out ten dollors from her purse and handed Ken the money. "Is that all of it?" Ken nodded.
"Thank you." Ken told me and rushed off down the hall. I released Li and glared at the three girls in front of me.
"I'd advise you leave him alone. You hear me?" I shoved Amber out of my way as I made my way through the crowd and to the office. Before I even walked through her door, I was being called to the office. I walked inside. Disappointment on her face. I slumped into the chair.
"Miss Camilla Edwards, I thought we weren't going to have to meet on these terms again." The prinicpal said to me. I shrugged.
"Did you hear exactly what happened? Or is this just about my tardy?" I asked her. I wanted to know all what she knew.
"Both. Miss Edwards, would you mind telling me why you keep harrassing Amber, Charlotte and Li?"
"I don't harrass them without a valid reason."
"And what was the reason this time?"
"They were bullying Ken. So I gave them a taste of their own medicine."
"I see a detention isn't going to teach you your lesson."
"I don't regret anything and I'd do it all over again if given the chance."
"You leave me no choice but to call your aunt here for a conference."
"Do what you gotta do. But I'll tell her the same thing I told you." I stood and left the office without another word. Dammit, when my reputation could possibly be reversed, stuff like this happened. Why couldn't trouble just leave me alone?