Nope, I do not own W.I.T.C.H.
Irma's POV
At school on Wednesday things went pretty normally. As soon as we sat down at lunch, we were supposed to be discussing plans for the barbecue on Saturday, but Hay Lin wanted to show us the drawings of her dress modifications. There was no denying that her dress would be absolutely glamorous and beautiful. She planned on adding red lace insets to the skirt and bodies making it a true Hay Lin original.
"Wow, Hay Lin you're going to be so beautiful, it's going to blow Eric's mind!" I told her.
"Speaking of," Will asked gently, "what happened the other day?"
Hearing Will's question, the guys who had been talking about basketball, became quiet and looked our way. Hay Lin looked at Eric and bit her lip, but said nothing.
"Oh, no you don't. No secrets and no easy outs for you, not after I had all my secrets spilled," demanded Cornelia.
"I'm with Corny on that one, especially since everyone seems to freely talk about my life," I chimed in.
"Um well," Hay Lin stammered.
"I'll tell them Hay," Eric said. "My mom heard about all the drama with Irma and Caleb at her book club with Cornelia's mom. Cornelia's mom really ragged on you guys bad, calling Irma a slut and whore and when my mom found out that Hay Lin was Irma's best friend she freaked out. She figured birds of a feather flocked together and told me I couldn't date Hay Lin anymore, she...umm, didn't want me to be 'ruined' like Caleb had been."
"Cool," Caleb joked, "you ruined me. Thanks babe."
"Hey!, not funny," I said as I punched Caleb's shoulder, "I am so not a slut and Hay Lin even less so!"
"Leave it to my mom," Cornelia sighed, "sorry about that guys."
Taranee looked at Nigel and asked, "Does your mom think I'm a slut too?"
"Nah, Cornelia's mom called her too, but she knows you're too much of a good girl to act like your friends. She even told Cornelia's mom that you'd be a good influence on Irma."
I put my head on the table and groaned, "I can't believe this!! How am I the bad guy all of a sudden?" I lifted my head and looked at Caleb, "And nobody says a bad thing about you at all."
"Yeah, it's not fair, but I'm a guy, people sort of expect me to date around." Caleb tried to explain.
"Buster, you are not helping yourself, you know...but do you really want to piss off your fiance?"
"Whoa! Fiance? Dude, what did I miss?," Nigel asked in shock. Looking around it was easy to see he was the only person present that didn't know about that piece of information.
"Um...so you didn't know about that, huh?," I asked.
"You've got to be kidding, you can't be engaged! We're not even out of high school yet...Oh crap! You knocked Irma up didn't you?!," Nigel sputtered.
Caleb started, "No it's not like that..."
But Hay Lin eager to help, chimed in, "No, it's not, Irma's not pregnant...at least we don't think so, she hasn't been tested yet."
See, there she goes again with the happy oneness, secrets are hard for her to keep.
Seven pairs of eyes focused on Hay Lin, everyone except Taranee and Nigel and said in unison, "Hay Lin!!"
"Okay, here we go again with that 'Irma's life is public domain' again. I'm going to the restroom," I could feel my face heating up and my head was starting to pound behind my eyes. As the other girls started to get up I said, "Alone." I needed to get away where my life wasn't center stage.
Life was so much simpler in bed, we should have stayed there.
Caleb's POV
"Man, I tried to ignore the rumors..." Nigel said, finally locking his gaze on Taranee, "and you didn't tell me."
"Well..." Taranee squeaked.
I think Nigel was headed for a meltdown and he was going to take Irma with him. She had been very uncomfortable, her face had turned deep red before she left. I really couldn't blame her, knowing about our recent trip to to the doctor.
"Enough!" I pretty much yelled. Everyone looked at me sort of shocked, but they shut up.
"Hay Lin that was so not cool! But all of you need to just stop talking about us like we're not here, stop using our relationship details as subject matter. You keep talking about our personal life like its something to be broadcast on the news, well it's not, it's PERSONAL, that means what goes on between the two of us is not something you run and tell your boyfriends! I said eying each of the guardians in turn.
"You guys are almost as bad as the school gossips, spreading rumors about us. We already get accusing looks from everyone else, we don't need our friends adding to it."
"Ease up, Caleb, we know its weird for you guys, but its weird for us too." said Will, "None of us has any idea how to hand-"
"You know, I agree with Caleb," Cornelia interrupted. "I've been on both sides of the situation, and even if we don't know how to handle it, we know it hurts to hear our personal lives being dissected by everyone around us. I think we all need to just stop talking about them, they're not zoo animals and there are other things in life to focus on."
I looked at Cornelia, the former queen of Me-Me-Me Land, in shock. She'd really matured in the short week since we broke up.
Nigel re-joined the conversation at that point, "That's easier said than done, what Caleb and Irma do affects us – they can screw up and I'll lose my girlfriend too just by association.
"Dude, man up. My relationship with Irma has nothing to do with you and Taranee. You are in control of your relationship, based on your decisions and actions – don't dump on me if you don't stand up for your girl."
"Gee Taranee," said Cornelia, "aren't you the person that gave me the kick in the butt on Saturday? I think my heads in a really good place now, better than its been in months and I have you to thank for that. You're strong and you know your own mind, you bring that to your relationship with Nigel, same for Will and Hay Lin."
"Wow, Cornelia that's really deep," said Hay Lin.
Just then Peter brought his tray over and sat down beside Cornelia and greeted everyone with, "Hey! What's up?"
If only he knew...that is he will know after Saturday's barbecue.
The others greeted Peter and the conversation turned to the dance and tasks for the barbecue. I looked around and realized that Irma was still gone. She must be really upset to, I thought so I decided to go look for her, maybe she wanted company.
Irma's POV
The walk to the restroom was short but just what I needed to get a breather, I was starting to feel like a lab specimen. I washed my face and counted to ten, then headed out back to the cafeteria, not really wanting to be back in the spot light.
As I walked around the corner, I ran smack dead into a chest speeding around the corner.
"Ouch!" I yelped, holding my head, "Sorry about that, I should have been paying better attention."
Martin looked at me, first with a look of shock then his face morphed into a mask of anger. "You," he all but growled.
It was the first time I'd ever heard Martin sound scary. But I quickly told myself, its just Martin, there's absolutely nothing scary about him. "Oh hey, Martin – sorry about that," I told him trying to make my voice sound as normal as possible, searching for a sense of normalcy with him.
I barely saw him move and never expected it when his left arm swung out and crashed into the side of my face. Upon impact my eyes shut with pain, the strike adding to the pain already present in my head. Before I could gather myself I felt his fingers in my hair pulling me backwards. I was off balance stumbling backwards, dragged by Martins grasp on my hair. I desperately tried to free my hair and right myself, but the swirling visions before my eyes and the pain made sure I could do little to resist. Around the pain, I begged, "Hey stop, you're hurting me."
But Martin didn't stop. Blurred visions of lockers slide past me until, I heard a door and the room was suddenly less bright, then I heard the door swoosh again and I knew we were in a stairwell. Martin had remained quiet the whole time, he was still pulling my hair as he dragged me behind the stairs and pressing me to the wall.
Leaning against the wall gave me a chance to clear my vision and mind. "Let me go! Martin, what's wrong with you?" I asked trying to push him away.
"Shut up!," Martin said, emphasizing his words by lifting and hitting my head against the wall.
My head was filled with new pain and I saw stars, I couldn't form sensible words. A weak whimper escaped me and I felt my body start sliding down the wall as the strength left my legs. As the pain speared through my head, my eyes closed of their own volition, to escape the brightness of the exploding stars.
"Look at me!" Martin yelled, and I tried to pry my eyes open.
"Why are you doing this? Let me go..." I said, hating the weakness and fear in my voice I could not hide.
"I just wanted to talk to you away from him, I know I can make you see that you love me." Martin purred having switched moods like turning on a lamp. Then he added, "It's not too late, Irma – I still love you...I'll forgive you...we can start over..." his words gave way to fumbled kisses placed wetly on any part of my face that was available.
"No!," I turned trying to get out of his reach, moving my hands to push him away.
Grabbed my wrists and held me in place for his slobbering kisses, continuing his attempt to 'seduce' me. "Bumble lips, you just have to try...I know you love me, just try..."
Squirming and dodging Martin was not easy, for a small wiry guy, he was pretty strong. Having his hands on me, being so close to Martin was making me nauseous, he smelled like peanut butter and eggs.
I tried to reason with him, "Martin, please let me go. I'm sorry but I don't love you, I love Caleb. Please let me go."
"Lies! Did that cad tell you that I wouldn't want you after he stole your virtue? I don't care, I still love you. I'll show you how much."
Martin let go of my wrists and began unbuckling his pants. Even with blurred vision and a monster headache, I knew I was in serious trouble. I definitely did not want him to show me his feelings (or any other part of him that's normally clothed). I quickly used both hands to push him back and scrabbled in the opposite direction.
"Aggh!," Martin cried from behind me then I felt his hands grab my waist and he pushed me to the ground with the weight of his body. "Stop fighting me! I'm trying to save you...trying to love you."
"Get off me! Help! Help!" I screamed as Martin covered my mouth with his own, while his hands freely groped my trapped breasts and yanked at my jeans.
With everything to lose and freedom to gain, I allowed him to deepen the kiss and as his bottom lip brushed mine, I bit down with all my strength and held, feeling the skin open under my assault and blood begin to flow over me and into my mouth – but I held on.
Now it was Martin's turn to scream, and scream he did, just like the little girly-boy I'd always known him to be. He stopped trying to get inside my clothes and started trying to push away and separate himself from me. But I knew if I released him too soon he'd still be able to fight. When he tried to shift his body, I saw my opportunity and released his lip and as he raised up I brought my knee up into his groin with all my strength. That yell echoed throughout the stairwell and all the way to the cafeteria, I was sure.
Caleb's POV
I waited outside the restroom and asked someone to go in and check on Irma. She wasn't there. I went to her locker, but didn't find her there either. As I turned to head back to the cafeteria, I heard a scream. Without thinking I started running towards the noise, as I got closer, I could pick out sounds of a struggle coming from the stairwell.
Running into the secluded area, I found Irma, fighting with all she had to get away from Martin. Martin sat straddling her, his pants unfastened and unzipped, his face bleeding and his eyes full of madness. Irma, also covered in blood, was scratching and hitting at any body parts she could reach, Martin was trying to capture her wrist with each swipe. "Get off me! You creepy little snot!" Irma yelled.
Instinct kicked in and I attacked Martin, pulling him off my woman. The doors burst open with teachers and curious students streaming in, in time to watch me pin Martin to the floor with my knee in his back.
I looked back to see a very bruised and bloody Irma scoot slowly backwards until she could use the wall to sit up. I could see her shaking as she drew her knees up, wrapped her arms around them and lowered her head and start to cry.
"What in the name of all that's holy is going on in here?!" Demanded Coach Collins making his way to the front of the crowd, taking in the scene, looking from me and Martin to Irma's huddled form.
"He was attacking her..." the words tumbled out, "I heard a scream and came in to find him trying to...," I couldn't continue, I looked back to Irma. She needed me.
I looked back to Coach Collins, who just nodded as I released Martin, then I crawled over to Irma, and pulled her into my arms. Behind us, I heard Martin wail as the Coach pulled him up roughly by his shirt collar. One look at Martin's open pants and bloody face and hands told the entire story.
"Tubs, you are in a lot of trouble. Brown, get her to the nurse's office," Collins ordered, taking control of the situation. Then in the direction of the onlookers he growled, "Everyone else clear out!"
At his words people began to flow away from the stairwell and Irma and I were alone. We sat in silence for a few minutes, as her shaking slowly stopped and I felt she was ready to be moved.
"Babe, we need to get you to the nurse, you're bleeding."
"It's not my blood, it's Martin's," Irma replied weakly.
I couldn't help but smile, my little spitfire managed to hold her own. "Hmmm, let's get you to the nurses office and you can tell me what happened."
I stood up and helped Irma to her feet, but she didn't make three feet before her legs crumbled beneath her, her face filled with pain. "Ow, my head," she said as she gently touched the back of her head, pulling her fingers away stained with blood.
"Whoa, that is your blood, you need to get to the nurse now," I said as scooped her into my arms. When Irma looked up at me, for the first time I noticed something was really wrong, it was like she wasn't really seeing me, unable to focus. A concussion, I thought breaking into a run, heading for the nurse's office.
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