// Author's Note:
WARNING! I just want to warn that this chapter may contain a bit of a touchy subject, which has to do with slitting your wrists. Some might think that this is a bit out of place in this fanfic, but like I said, I'd like to cover at least most of what really goes on in a high school. I would suggest reading this chapter anyway, for the sake of the foreshadowing and the introduction of some important characters, but I appologize for the way it has turned out. It's not taking a whole 360 degree switch to a drama/angst story, this is just something that had to be put in for the sake of the story that I'm trying to write. You have been given fair warning. If it's not to your taste, don't leave a nasty review. Some subjects are necessary when it comes to writing a story like this one.
End Author's Note //
Chapter 14: Of Boys and Blood
November rolled in serenely, robbing the trees of their colourful beauty. It began raining a lot more and sunshine was rare.
"Blahh. This rain is like, uber depresso." Sacchun moaned. She got out what she needed from her locker, then closed it. "Gym next.." she said to herself. She headed for the gymnasium, but was distracted on her way there. The hallways were deserted. Glancing up at the large clock on the left side of the hallway, she let out a yelp.
"I'm laaaaaate!" she exclaimed, without realising that she was probably disturbing classes. She dashed off down the hallway and the stairs at the end of it, only to arrive on another hallway which ended in another flight of stairs.
"Why must this school be so big?!" she said in a huff, still running. She ran to the end of the second hallway, and stopped suddenly. A figure walking accross the school grounds outside the window caught her attention. A girl with short black hair and all-black attire was strolling along the grounds, alone. It was Dia.
Huh? Sacchun thought to herself. But Dia should be in class now... in fact, she's in my gym class! Maybe I'm not the only one who's late...
Dia continued to walk, clutching something in her hand that Sacchun couldn't make out. She walked until she was out of sight, hidden behind another part of the school.
I wonder what she's up to... Sacchun thought. The weather was bad, the rain was fierce, and there were no classes outside. I know she smokes but... would she really go outside in this weather? Sacchun pondered. Lifting her gaze from the window, Sacchun let another yelp escape her.
"Noo! I'm even more late!" she yelled, dashing off to the gym.
---
"Settle down, boys." Mr. Bernard, also known as Zack, called out to the boy's gym class. He was an extremely buff man with a golden tan - one he had accquired by living most of his in a house by the beach of some town. He was tall and hard short brown hair that almost resembled a crew cut. The boys all sat on the floor, waiting for Zack to explain the day's activities. He held a volleyball under his arm, and clutched the attendance sheet clipped to a clipboard in his other hand.
"Since it's raining and the girls' gym teacher is sick, we're playing co-ed volleyball." Zack explained.
"Co-ed?" one of the boys asked, looking up. He had dark brown hair, almost black, that fell to his shoulders, a red bandana constantly around his forehead, tan skin, and a very handsome face.
"Yes, Dan. Co-ed." Zack repeated. "Meaning you will be playing with the girls' gym class."
Many of the boys in the group all looked around happily, snickered, or made snide remarks to the person sitting next to them. Dan gave his friend a high-five.
"Right on!" he said. He also had tan skin, though he had extremely short light brown hair covered almost completely by a purple bandana that covered his head. Dan and his friend Kai were the 'pretty boys' of the grade - almost every girl wanted to date them, and they wanted to date almost every girl. Some of the smarter girls stayed away from them, since they were not only major players, but were known to drink and gamble as well.
"Hey, that means we get to play volleyball with Sacchun!" Joe said happily, turning to Lloyd.
"Yep, looks like it." he said, getting up, as the rest of the class did. They began to walk to to the girls' gymnasium.
"Hehe... fun!" Joe said, walking with Lloyd. Kurt caught up with them.
"Our first co-ed gym class of the year..." Kurt said.
"This should be interesting. All the guys in our class are crazy competetive, and all the girls like to do are giggle at our shorts and gossip among their little friends." Lloyd said exasperatedly.
"Aw, be happy! Cute girls in gym attire, jumping around and running and stuff!" Joe said happily.
"They're deffinitely happy about it." Lloyd said, staring ahead at Dan and Kai and their own little posse of friends. Dan and Kai were laughing and discussing the girls in their grade. They entered the girls' gymnasium a moment later and they were, just as Lloyd said, giggling and muttering among themselves.
"Y'know, and here I was thinking we had left grade two a long time ago." Lloyd said, rolling his eyes.
"Girls will be girls." Kurt said, waving to Meg and Sacchun, who appeared out of breath.
"Hey guys!" Meg said, running over.
"Yay.. for.. Co-ed...!" Sacchun said between breaths.
"Gosh, what happened to you?" Lloyd asked, his eyebrows raised.
"She was late and dashed all the way to our gym class." Meg explained for her. Sacchun caught her breath and they rejoined the rest of the group. Zack did a small demonstration on how to properly hit a volleyball with Ray, and then they divided into teams of six. Just as they were dividing, however, the doors to the gym swung open and Dia walked in, looking cold, wet, and smelling of smoke and something else that they couldn't put their finger on. She was wearing a long black turtle neck, instead of regular gym attire.
"Now where have you been, lady?" Zack asked her gruffly. Nobody seemed to notice Dia's arrival, but Joe, Sacchun, Meg, Lloyd, and Kurt watched intently.
"Sorry." she said unconvincingly.
"You should be. Take a spot on the bench." he said, glaring at her. Dia looked as if she wanted to smack Zack's glare off his face, but she turned serenely and walked over to the bench and sat down.
"Where do you think she was?" Meg asked, turning back to her friends.
"I saw her outside on my way down." Sacchun told them.
Kurt looked sympathetically to Dia, who simply stared at the floor. I really wish I knew what was wrong with her. he thought. She was nasty, rude, and cold, but Kurt did not think she was a bad person deep down. Okay, really deep down. They were interrupted rather rudely as Dan walked up to Sacchun and Meg and put one hand around each of the girls.
"Hey ladies, wanna ditch these losers and join my team? 'Cause on my team, everyone scores." he said, with a wink. Sacchun looked mildly like she wanted to strangle him, and Meg just released herself from his arm's embrace.
"Sorry Dan, we have a team." she said, not at all sounding sorry.
"This bunch of losers?" Dan snorted.
"You're the loser, Dan! Why can't you be more... appealing?" Sacchun said, her eyebrows raised. "I mean, you have the looks, but such an ugly personality lies underneath that bronze skin."
"Trust me, baby, it's not what's under my skin that matters." he said, squeezing Sacchun closer.
"Sleazeball." Meg added. Dan chose to ignore her.
"Besides," Sacchun said, looking surprisingly amused. "Aren't you going out with Karen?"
"Let a player play the field!" Dan said, grinning.
"Oh, you'll be free to play the field now, Dan." said a voice behind him. Sacchun snickered as Dan released her and wheeled around to see Karen, tapping her foot and looking as fierce as a firecracker.
"Oh, Karen baby! Didn't notice you were there..." he said with a nervous chuckle.
"Really, let me make my presence more noticeable." she said, approaching him, fists clenched.
"Whoa whoa, no need to get violent hunny! Ask Sacchun, we were just talking about ... sports! Right?" Dan looked desperately at Sacchun.
"Yes, yes, let's go with that." Sacchun laughed, rolling her eyes. Karen dragged Dan away to deal with him herself, and the volleyball game started.
"Hey Joe, you're serving first!" called Lloyd. Joe took the ball from him and was about to serve it to the other team.
"...Despicable PIG!!" they heard Karen yell a moment later, and Dan came back with a swollen bottom lip and bleeding nose.
"Roughed you up good, huh?" Kai asked, shaking his head in regret.
"She'll get over it." Dan said, his voice sounding strained.
"Are you sure you'd even want to be with her if she's gonna treat you like that?" Kai said, sounding disgusted, as if it was all Karen's fault.
"Heh, it's just a minor inconvenience. I mean, you wouldn't believe how hot she can be when she's -- OOF!" Dan stopped, getting hid on the head with the volleyball.
"Sorry!" Joe called. Sacchun laughed. Dan tossed the ball back to Joe.
"Okay, serve." Kurt told his brother.
"One sec, one sec." Joe said, aiming the ball. He bumped it into the air and the game began. They were facing a pretty pathetic team, made up of Mary, Rick, Mia, Ann, and a younger-looking boy with a babyish face and golden locks named Carl.
"Aah!" He whimpered, as the ball sailed over the net to his side. He cowered as the ball fell to the ground, earning the other team a point.
"Whoohoo!" Sacchun cheered. Ann sighed impatiently, picked up the ball and tossed it back to our side. She was the only good player on the team.
"Honestly Carl, at least try and hit the ball." Ann said as she walked back to her position. "Serve 'em up!"
Joe bumped the ball over the net again, and Rick, who was cleaning his glasses, got hit in the head. Joe tried to suppress his laughter for the sake of the poor nerd. Ray, who was playing with his girlfriend Eve the next court over, laughed openly at Rick. Ray was known to be extremely competetive and extremely harsh when it came to sports, and liked to act even more macho when he was with his blonde bombshell of a girlfriend.
Meanwhile, Zack had gone over to speak with Dia. Joe was stalling with serving the ball, in hopes of overhearing their conversation and finding out why Dia was late, but the sound from the other teams drowned them out.
"Come on, Joe! Serve the damn ball!" Ann said, after Joe had dribbled the volleyball for a solid two minutes.
"Oh, right, sorry." He said, picking it up, then acting as if he was measuring the distance from his side of the court to the other. Ann groaned impatiently. No one on Joe's team complained. Kurt was straining his ears to find out why Dia had been late as well.
"...and without your uniform, no less..." they heard Zack telling her. With a quick glance in her direction, it was obvious that Dia was simply drinking in the words without a hint of reaction.
"Got it, young lady? Now go join their team for the last ten minutes of class." Zack pointed over to their team. Dia's eyes widened slightly, and she seemed to freeze, looking like an inanimate doll.
"Go on." Zack urged. She got up and walked slowly over to their team, taking up the empty position beside Kurt. She suppressed a cough.
"Hey Joe, why don't you give Dia a chance to serve?" Kurt asked, turning to Joe. Joe looked bewildered at first, but dropped the ball and moved up.
"No." Dia said simply.
"It's okay, Dia, I don't mind." Joe said, hoping he sounded at least somewhat kind.
"No." Dia said more aggressively.
"Hey, come on, what's holding up the game?" Ann called from her side.
"Nothing, nothing, Dia was about to serve." Meg said. Dia looked extremely uncomfourtable. She moved to Joe's position and picked up the ball, her sleeves covering her hands due to their length.
"It might help to roll back your sleeves." Sacchun offered, with the hint of a smile on her face.
"No. I'm fine." Dia hissed. Sacchun turned around immediately. They all watched as Dia raised the ball in one hand. She held her arm back and swung it forward to bump the ball over the net with her wrist.
The next thing that happened shocked everyone. Dia's sleeves rolled back as she bumped the ball, and the next thing they knew, a stream of blood was tailing the ball as it flew over the net. It hit the ground right near Mary's feet, and Mary shrieked.
"B...Blood!" she yelled, her terrified gaze turning to Dia. Almost everyone in the gymnasium turned stonily silent as heads turned to Dia.
"Well, who's this little dark princess...?" they heard Dan say from somewhere in the gym, but he was silenced with a 'Shh!' from Zack. Zack rushed over to Dia, who collapsed on the floor, tears streaming down her face. Her bloody wrists now fully exposed.
"Get Alex. Get a counselor. This girl needs help." Zack said gruffly to Ray. Ray rushed out of the gym, without letting a word escape his lips. Kurt stared wide-eyed at Dia, lying on the floor, sobbing.
"Shut up!" she yelled, as Zack tried to help her up. She smacked his hand away from her, leaving an imprint of blood on it. "I don't want your help! I don't need your help!" she cried, getting up and running from the gym. Many of the students were muttering and wondering what had happened.
"She dropped something." Sacchun said suddenly, looking at the ground. She, Zack, and Kurt all approached it in a small circle.
Dotted with drops of blood, lay a metal razor blade.