Chapter 2

Finally, my three weeks of punishment are over. With the sun shinning through my window the light pink walls of my room are illuminated; the color was my mother's failed attempt at trying to raise me as a girly girl; the color of the walls along with the pile of dolls and stuffed animals in the corner of my room and the row of dresses hiding far back in my closet have failed in their mission; I wish she would let me paint the walls blue or something, I hate pink. Unfortunately with the sun up it also means its time for me to get ready for school. With the shower out of the way and my favorite pair of jeans and t-shirt I'm almost ready to head downstairs. Apart from some eyeliner and eye shadow I really don't wear much make up which saves me plenty of time in the morning. That just leaves brushing my hair; now that my morning routine is finished I can go downstairs and eat.

"Mornin' Lil' Rose. I see you've completed your prison sentence without incident." Jeff, my godfather, is my dad's oldest friend; he's an alliance vet and was in the military for twenty years before retiring. He always has some sort of comment and an easy smile. He is taller than my father, almost six feet, has red hair and green eyes, a broad face and, being ex-military, is very well built.

"Totally, and I didn't even need to make a shiv!" Jeff has always loved my sense of humor, almost as much as he loves throwing my sarcasm right back in my face; he is also usually the first one to find out about my fights. While my parents are concerned he seems determined to make me a better fighter, must be the Alliance part of him kicking in; to that end he sneaks in small hand to hand lessons behind my parent's back. "Sadly I didn't have anyone around to make my prison bit-".

"Eveline Rose Shepard! You finish that word and you will be spending another week grounded!" My mother's sternness is somewhat drowned out by Jeff's uncontrollable laughter; but I silence myself nonetheless. Mom places a plate with scrambled eggs, toast and home fries in front of me for breakfast and gives me a kiss on the forehead.

"My word girl, your father's mouth and your mother's looks; you are a contradiction wrapped in a paradox". It seems it's hard for him to get out a sentence in-between laughs, he is right however; while I grow to look more and more like mom I act more and more like dad.

"Don't forget about my extensive knowledge of dentistry, with just two hits I can completely rearrange that smile! I think next fight I'll try for just one hit, it's important to set worthy goals you know". Seeing my mother's face Jeff is trying very hard to hold in his laugh and it's turning him a wonderful color of red.

"Excuse me miss, next fight?" There's that stern tone again, she knows I'm kidding but she hates when I joke about my fights; she also feels that Jeff encourages me.

"Um, I mean no, fighting is bad and no one should do it". I shoot Jeff a sly smirk and wink, which gets him chuckling again. Of course my mother is neither amused nor convinced.

"Mmhmm, somehow I suspect that sentiment is not entirely sincere young lady". With that she sat down across from me with her own plate. I know I should be more worried about myself and take a little more care not to start fights with boys twice my size but when they start slinging insults at my family I can't help it, it's like a different part of me turns on, one I have a hard time controlling.

"So what brings you here so early Jeff?" I'm not used to seeing my godfather at the house so early; before Jeff had any time to respond my mother chimed in.

"Your father is driving him to the construction site this morning as Jeff's truck is in the shop, so I invited him over for breakfast; you can help yourself Jeff, the food is on the counter". Jeff now works in the same construction company as my dad; in the past few years there has been a lot of new colonists coming into Mindoir thus the construction business is currently booming. Mom works on a small plot of farmland near the house; she brings the stuff she grows to the market some of it ends up in our dinner as well. "Eveline finish up and head to school I don't want you to be late. Now if you'll excuse me I need to go see why your father is still asleep. Oh and sweetheart, promise me no fights today?"

"Fine mom I promise I won't start any fights". I want her to at least not have to worry all day what I'm going to do; plus I think I can handle non violence for one more day.

"See ya later Lil' Rose". He loves that nickname; I don't think I've ever heard him use my first name. With my breakfast finished its past time I head to school.

"Bye mom I'll see you later tonight". After school I plan on spending some time at the cliffs; it's been three weeks and I miss that place.

"Ok sweetheart, have a good day and remember no fight's you promised". With that I head out the door and start the fifteen minute walk to school.

It's only half an hour into first period and I'm already about to fall asleep; I get by in school but I'm not the best student. I have a bad habit of falling asleep in class and procrastinating on my work; nonetheless I do decent enough to avoid any problems academically even though my teachers seem to go insane trying to motivate me. I need to go for a walk; this math class is driving me insane. "Mrs. Walker may I use the bathroom?"

"Is my class boring you again Ms. Shepard? You know I should say no on the account of your frequent naps in this class". She's not wrong, this being my first class I usually end up sleeping through it. "Fine, but be back before the end of the period". Reluctantly she releases me from the boredom.

Out in the hallway I feel myself breathe a sigh of relief; the monotony of that class was going to drive me insane. Gym is the only class that holds my attention; I love being active and Mr. Parker is always finding new ways to keep me on my toes in whatever sport or activity we are doing, and I love pushing my own boundaries. For now I simply roam the halls for a few minutes; it's a fairly small school, two floors and all in all about four hundred students. The walls are a white tiled monstrosity makes me feel like I'm walking through a bathroom half the time. What few lockers there are all black, though the paint is peeling on many of them. "Don't you have math right now Shepard?"

"Yup, and I've gotten a very restful sleep so far, just wanted to stretch my legs". I flash John a smirk; he's one of only two people that I actually consider a friend; everyone else in this school is either talking about me behind my back, or too stupid to realize insulting me to my face is a bad idea. John is big, a football player for the school, he's five foot four, just an inch taller than me; he does however, have a good 50 pounds on me. His hair is black like mine but obviously much shorter, and he has deep blue eyes almost purple, an angular face and average sized nose.

"Heh, haven't you had a few notes sent home because of that?" He's right my teachers are not overly fond of my sleeping habits, especially when they involve their classes.

"Yeah, well I'm pretty sure my parents are more concerned with me assaulting kids at school to worry about me slacking in class". Even though the joke gets John laughing it's not entirely untrue, my parents have been so concerned about my violent behavior that they seem to have forgotten about my academic issues.

"Speaking of which I hear Kevin is looking for you; I'd watch my back if I were you". Same rumor I've been hearing for two weeks, if he has the balls to get in my face I'll mop the floor with him again.

"Well I better get back to nap time ". With a wave I head back to class and serve the rest of my time in utter boredom. It's the same story with my other classes, my one reprieve is lunch; thankfully I have the same lunch period as John and Wes. As I head back to class I can't help but notice Kevin down the hall; the way he's staring me down is unnerving. Shaking off the uneasy feeling I head back to class.

It's finally lunch and the cafeteria is full as usual; there are several round tables all of them an off white with blue plastic seats. The cafeteria itself is a big circle with one side made up of numerous windows that look out into the town. I heat up last nights leftovers in the schools microwave and sit down at one of the smaller round tables with John and Wes. "What are you up to after school?" Wes is the only other kid in school I'm friends with; he's smaller than me and John, maybe five feet and one hundred pounds. He has hair like my father's, dirty blond and hazel eyes. Both John and Wes seem to not want to bother with the varying forms of bullshit popularity contests that plague this place; I suppose that's why I like them.

"I'm gonna spend some time at the cliffs, it's been three weeks I need some peace or I'm going to explode". Glancing around the cafeteria I see there's a couple girls gathered around one of he smaller tables, the popular girls, and another girl sitting at the table doing her best to ignore them; great now the entire cafeteria is going to watch as these bitches try and torture this girl. There's the typical pointing and laughing, name calling, and then the family insults begin. I hadn't even realized I stood up.

"Leave it alone Shepard, you don't need another three weeks for breaking Kathy's nose, as fun as it would be to see". I can't even hear John as I stroll over to the poor girls table. I can feel the rage almost like a lump in the back of my throat; I have to control myself. I can hear this morning's conversation echoing in my head, I can't get physical today.

"Don't you morons have anything better to do, like spending some quality time bent over a toilet? You should hop to it I think you've gained some weight". She's way too easy to anger; I swear women and their obsession with their weight. The girl at the table gives me a thankful smile.

"Why don't you go attack a few more students, your parents sure did a great job raising you, psycho". No you won't get a rise out of me, I won't give you the satisfaction of breaking that pretty face of yours; my knuckles make very audible crack as I clench my hand into a fist and give Kathy a seething scowl. She pretends not to be afraid of me, "What? You gonna hit me? Good maybe you'll be expelled this time". The act isn't fooling me, especially after she falls over her own feet as I walk over to the girl at the table.

"Come on let's go, you don't want to be near these whores, I need a shower just looking at them". With a gentle tug she gets up and walks with me over to John and Wes and sits at one of the empty seats. She's pretty, long straight brown hair down to her waist, a soft slender face with that typical button nose, similar to my height and weight, her eyes were a bright green almost glowing. After taking a seat next to her John is the one to break the silence.

"That could've gone very badly Shep, you know you're on thin ice after what you did to Kevin". John is usually the one reining me in at school though he isn't always able to get through to me.

"Yeah I know; but I wasn't actually going to hit her, besides you can't tell me watching her bust her ass trying to avoid me wasn't hilarious". That got a laugh out of John, but it's true I need to be careful about confrontations in school.

"Well, everything went fine, and it seems we have a new member of our little group". Wes smiled at the new addition to the table, she seems quiet.

"Thank you, I can usually ignore them but lately it seems it's never ending; my name is Katherine by the way but everyone just calls me Kat". Nice name, I'm glad she found the nerve to speak up, I flash her a warm smile.

"Don't worry about it, I'm sure they will just stick to the constant yammering behind our backs for now; at least we will be left alone". That got a smile out of her; I never understood the kids at this school. What does torturing other kids do for anyone?

"Yeah, well who cares what they talk about; hey maybe between the four of them that half a brain they have could come up with a decent insult". We all laugh at Wes' comment, the group of four that make up the popular girls aren't known for their intelligence.

"It certainly didn't take long for her to fall over herself". Kat says while flashing a smile at me.

"Heh, yeah she likes to act all tough but I know all too well that she's scared of me, hey why don't you stop by the cliffs after school I think you'd like it there. John you know the way, my last period ends early". We spend the rest of lunch getting to know our new friend, she lives pretty close to me with her mom, they moved to Mindoir a year ago after her father past away, which explains why I haven't really noticed her until now.

"Well, it seems it's time to go back to class, it was nice meeting you guys and thanks again Eve, I'll see you later". Nice girl, I'm glad I was able to help. Hopefully the rest of the day goes by fast, the rest of my classes are bound to be boring.

With my last class over I can finally head to the cliffs, I'm looking forward to just relaxing and not having to worry about anything. As I walk out of school Kevin is standing in the parking lot with some friends; damn it please don't start anything I'm not up for a fight today, I walk past him hoping he doesn't notice me. The walk to the cliffs is enjoyable; even though the path takes me through part of the woods it's a much less dense area so it never really bothered me. I find my thoughts drifting back to my new friend, it's curious, she's not usually the type I'd be friends with, very shy and way more girly than me; she seems to spend much more time on make up and stuff like that, she also likes dresses, pink and all that other stuff, my mom would love her. The noise I hear behind me snaps me out of my thoughts, "Hello? Is anyone there?" It must have been my imagination. My thoughts wander to the conversation mom had with me before I was grounded; am I really in danger of getting that hurt? I mean it's only a fist fight and I'm faster than most think I am. On the other hand I'm finding my anger harder to control of late, if I don't be careful that anger could cost me a lot in a fight if I get careless. After walking a bit further I hear another noise, whipping around to look and still there's nothing, "Ok seriously, who the hell is out there?" I know I heard something, after scanning the area for a few minutes with nothing to be seen I go back to walking. After another few minutes I hear the voice behind me.

"I am going to make you pay for what you did to me". With that Kevin shoved me to the ground. I toss him an annoyed smirk, looks like I have to put him in his place again.

"It seems you finally found the stones to face me huh?" My smile vanished with all my courage the moment he pulled out the knife. Suddenly I was frozen with fear; how far was he going to take this? Did he really want to hurt me that bad? So many fearful questions racing through my mind; chief among them being, is he going to try and kill me? The charge came out of nowhere and even though every fiber of me screamed to move and run I was frozen. The flash of the blade coming down at me snapped me out of it and I managed to move but the knife cut into my shoulder, instinct and adrenaline taking over I turned and ran. I started down the path to the main road all the while hearing him screaming at me, "You can't run from me bitch!" I cut through the forest keeping the path in sight so as not to get lost. Dodging in and out from behind trees to try and lose him; I can still hear him cursing at me, swearing he'll catch up to me, I see rocks go flying past my head as his voice seems to be getting louder. This is bad if I don't find a way out of this he'll catch up to me; suddenly I heard a snap and a crash followed by Kevin's cursing; turning to look I can see he fell hard over a large fallen branch and he's hurt. This is my chance, breaking out into a full sprint I ran until I couldn't hear him any longer. Afraid to look and see if Kevin has followed I push myself further finding the path again. It wasn't long before my arm began feeling stiff and heavy, the warm wet feeling terrifies me and then the throbbing started, it was subtle at first but soon my whole body felt each throb. I can't bring myself to look down at my shoulder so I push myself to run further, about a mile away from the main road my legs gave out and I collapsed to my hands and knees as three figures came running.

"Shep, what..." I could tell the wound was bad by the look of horror painted across John and Wes' face. My entire body throbbing I reluctantly took a look over to my left shoulder; all that could be heard were my scared hyper-ventilated gasps. There was a deep gash running down my shoulder and it was covered in blood; I can't breathe and I feel tears behind my eyes. That was when Kat kneeled down next to me, I felt her press her sweatshirt against my shoulder, all that escaped my lips was a partial whimper and cry of pain as I buried my head in her shoulder. The pain was too much and with my whole body throbbing and shaking the last thing I heard before everything seemed to fade was Kat's voice.

"It's ok Eve, well get you help".