Chapter 4:

Starting to earn her trust.

"…and that's what happened." Jack said, as he finished explaining to Rita, who looked like she was about to go on a rampage through the school.

"I see." she said, through gritted teeth as she took everything in. Then she took a few calming breaths and began her explanation.

"First Jack, thank you for helping Carrie. She's really had it rough for a while now, even before high school began. I think it's a great thing that you helped her when she needed it the most." Rita said, praising Jack for his efforts.

"Thanks, can you tell me more please?" asked Jack, and Rita explained to him how Carrie was bullied by nearly every student in school for no reason at all, particularly since she started high school. She said Carrie was one of the sweetest girls she knew and would never hurt anyone. Her grades were every good, possibly better than most other students in the school, but she excelled in maths and English, despite being bullied by Mr Ullmann, something Jack had witnessed first-hand that day.

However, from what she could see, Carrie's main bullies were a clique of popular girls known in Ewen High as "The Ultras" led by Chris Hargensen, a spoilt-rotten rich girl and Ewen High's Queen Bee, who seemed to have made it her own personal mission to torment Carrie, and other outcasts like her, in school. Jack always hated school girls who were the high school Queen Bees, as they always seemed to bully outcast students and do things for their own personal gain.

Chris's father was a well-known lawyer in Chamberlain who had considerable influence in his job, and Rita had no doubts that Chris used that as an excuse to feel untouchable by anyone as well as bully and torment others in school, whether it was Carrie White or anyone else. Rita spoke of one incident that happened a little over two years before; Chris had been bullying a girl with a cleft lip and slipped a firecracker into one of her shoes and nearly blew two of her toes off, which resulted in Chris getting a week's suspension.

Jack's jaw dropped in horror when he heard that and shuddered at the thought of what had happened to the poor girl. However, Rita reassured him the girl in question survived just fine; the firecracker used had been very small and her toes didn't sustain too much damage, though she had her foot in bandages for a while.

She also mentioned that Chris had been given at least a dozen suspensions, for various reasons, and 73 detentions in the last four years, most of which she'd skipped, including her most recent one for an incident which happened in the ladies changing room on Friday the previous week. Jack was amazed and let out a low whistle after hearing that info.

"You know back home in Ireland, any troublemaker who gets detention or suspended often would more than likely be kicked out of school well before their record got anywhere near that high a figure." Jack said, truly astonished a girl like Chris Hargensen would still be in Ewen High School with a questionable record like that.

Continuing with her explanation of things, Rita told Jack how the other "Ultras", including Sue Snell, Heather Shyres, Tina Blake, Jessica Upshaw, Rachel Spies, Donna Kellogg, the Watson twins, Nicki and Lizzy and the Thibodeau twins, Donna and Mary Lila Grace were all just as spoilt as Chris and how many of them also tormented Carrie and other outcasts in the school whenever they had the chance. She also had the feeling they had a level of influence over other students in the school, causing them to bully Carrie as well due to peer pressure.

Jack was appalled to hear this, and couldn't help feeling sorry for Carrie when Rita described how hard things were for her in school on a day-to-day basis.

When Jack asked why the school hadn't done anything to deal with the bullying, either by the "Ultras" or anyone else, Rita explained that while there had been goodness knows how many complaints made about the matter, there wasn't much hard evidence to back it up.

She had her suspicions that either the girl's parents had some sort of influence over the school board or Chris's father was sweeping everything under the rug, and she strongly suspected the latter. She said there wasn't much she herself could do as she'd only starting teaching at the school the previous September and though she tried to help bring Carrie out of her shell, she felt she hadn't fully succeeded yet.

"I see; thanks for telling me all this." Jack said, as he rubbed his chin for a moment before clicking his fingers as he come to a decision.

"Starting from tomorrow, I'll do everything in my power to be sure that Carrie's no longer alone. I'll be her friend, her confident, in fact whatever it takes so she feels there's someone who's there for her. I'll be with her no matter what, and I'll deal with anyone who tries to bully her. That's a promise!" he said, with grim determination. Rita was a bit surprised to hear Jack speak in such a way, but then she gave a small smile and nodded.

"Thanks, Jack; I'll do everything I can to help too. The more people who can help Carrie, the better I think." Rita said, as Jack nodded in grim agreement. With that done, Jack and Rita climbed into her car and they left the school. Jack was determined to do everything he could to help the girl he'd met earlier that day.

(Later, at Jack's apartment)

After he got back to his apartment, Jack changed into more comfortable attire and got started on his homework and had it finished after about fifty minutes. Then he set up his laptop and got to work on researching info about Carrie. What he found, or rather didn't find, surprised him; she had no on-line accounts on any social media platforms at all. However, by looking at the social media accounts of other people who lived in Chamberlain, Jack was able to find quite a bit of info about Carrie's mother, Margaret White.

According to them, Margaret White was a strong religious obsessed fanatic who always claimed that everything, even the smallest of things, was a sin and people would burn in hell for the simplest of things. She would even quote lines form the Bible incorrectly to make it seem like she was following the Bible's words.

However, Jack could tell from meeting Carrie earlier that day that she was nothing like her mother and he was happy for that. Yet at the same time, deep down he had an uneasy feeling there was much more to Carrie's relationship with her mother than met the eye.

Then Jack searched for information on the bullies known as the "Ultras", and here he had a lot more luck. Their social media accounts were standard, as it would be for most other people with online accounts; selfies of themselves and with friends, short videos, their relationships and so on. But, to Jack's surprise, the accounts of Sue Snell and Heather Shyres hadn't been undated in some time; what he found wasn't particularly interesting. In fact, there were no mean or questionable comments about anyone on their accounts at all.

However, Chris Hargensen's accounts were what Jack was really interested in looking at; from looking over those accounts, he could see Chris had been Carrie's main bully since middle school and seemed to enjoy harassing her so much, she often posted comments about it. Then Jack found one comment from Chris on her Facebook account posted earlier that day saying she'd been suspended from school for a week for an incident that happened the previous Friday, and she claimed strongly that she hadn't done anything wrong.

"Complete and total load of bullshit if ever I heard any." Jack thought to himself. It was clear to him that Chris Hargensen was the type of sadistic, cruel bully who would never take responsibility for her actions at all and never see any wrong in anything she did, even if it got to the point of seriously hurting another person. She was the sort of person Jack needed to stay at least two steps ahead of all the time if he was to win against her.

Doing a little more digging, he found a link to a YouTube video and saw Carrie's name in the link. Curious and more than a little anxious, and with that familiar feeling of butterflies churning in the stomach starting to develop, Jack clicked on the link.

"Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up!"

When the video started playing, Jack stared in mute horror as he watched Carrie, wrapped only in a towel which was barely covering her, on the floor of the school's female changing room pleading for help thinking she was bleeding to death when she was having her period, as the other girls chanted at her and threw tampons and sanitary napkins at her until the video suddenly ended.

Jack sat in complete and utter shock; he was utterly appalled how people could just do something like that to someone who needed help and all they got was to be bullied in return. He stood up and walked around for a few moments to calm down, but he couldn't help feeling a great deal of rage towards the bullies and sympathy for Carrie.

"Those stupid fucking bitches! What the feck is wrong with them?! Why do they even do it in the first place?! To bully someone who's never done anything to them!" he muttered, trying to let the rage out.

After a few minutes, he went back to work; after making a copy of the video, he set about gathering up more evidence of the Ultras bullying, basically anything and everything he could find about them. The intention: to use it as blackmail against the Ultras whenever the chance arrived.

(A little later)

By half five, with plenty of evidence gathered on most of the Ultras and it all securely stored away, on his laptop, iPad and iPhone, as well as having answered and responded to emails from home, Jack closed his laptop and set about getting dinner ready. Tonight, he was having a ribeye steak with rich creamy mashed potatoes, peppercorn sauce, and asparagus; with everything ready to go, he set about getting dinner ready.

A little over an hour later, dinner was ready at last and Jack set himself up in front of the TV as with the previous night with everything set up in front of him, including a can of 7Up, perfectly chilled in the freezer. Opening his laptop, Jack put on a movie, The Wooden Horse from 1950, and settled down to watch the movie and tuck into his dinner. As he ate, he couldn't take his mind of the immediate future and of Carrie in particular. Remembering very clearly what Rita had told him, he was determined to do what he could to help Carrie and to protect her from the Ultras, as well as Chris Hargensen, whatever, and no matter, it took.

A little while later, having finished his dinner, Jack put the dishes into the dishwasher and turned it on, before putting the condiments away. Then he put the kettle on and set about getting tea ready. Once the kettle was boiled, he made himself a cup of tea and took the cookies he bought the day before out. Microwaving four of the cookies so as to make them nice and soft, he sat down on the couch and carried on watching the movie while he sipped the tea and enjoyed the cookies.

(11:15pm, the White residence)

Carrie lay on her bed, deep in thought. She hadn't gone to sleep yet and her mind was on the new boy in the school; he never made fun of her that day and he'd helped her after the jocks tripped her up in the corridor. Even when the other students started their whispers in the cafeteria at breakfast, he didn't leave the table, and he even called her "Pretty", much to her own surprise. The incident in the corridors with the jocks was on her mind when he stood up to them in defence of her and managed to get them sent to the principal's office, before he went and helped her stand up afterwards. It was quite an unexpected thing that happened; when she woke that morning, she never thought anything like that would happen, that someone would stand up for her.

She was in such deep thought, particularly of Jack's hand in hers, that she didn't notice the books starting to rise up from the old wooden floor without anything lifting them up.

When she suddenly saw one of her books pass over her face without warning, Carrie gave a startled gasp and sat up. At once, the books that had been floating suddenly fell to the ground with loud thumps, which got the attention of her mother, Margaret White, who was downstairs in the kitchen washing dishes. Reaching to her left, she grabbed a butcher knife and quietly made her way upstairs to her daughter's room.

Carrie heard the creaks of her mother's footsteps as she came up the stairs, so she quickly laid back down on her bad and closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep. A few seconds later, the door opened and Margaret White stuck her head in. Scanning the room to see what was going on, she couldn't see anything that appeared to be out of the ordinary apart from Carrie seemingly asleep on her bed. After a few moments, Margaret slowly closed the door and went back downstairs.

After waiting a few seconds to be sure her mother was gone, Carrie turned the bedside light back on and stared at one of the books on her ground, wondering whether she had imagined the books floating or not. Decided to try something and wondering if it would work, Carrie held out her left hand and concentrated hard on one of the books. Nothing happened at first, but then the book wiggled and started to rise off the floor and towards the ceiling.

Carried was a bit shocked and disbelieving at first by this strange and unexpected event, but then a smile slowly crossed her face.

"Oh, my goodness…I can move things with my mind!" she thought excitedly, as she carefully made more of her books slowly float around the room. After gently lowering the books together in one corner, she decided to do some research about her special gift at school the following day. After turning off the light, she relaxed and fell asleep, while dreaming about a certain boy with an Irish accent.

(Next day, April 5th 2017)

Rita and Jack arrived at Ewen High and, after Rita saying she would see him in gym class after lunch, they parted ways at her car and Jack made his way into the school on his way to his first classes. As he made his way to class, he spotted a familiar head of strawberry blonde hair. But before he could get near her, the bell rang signalling the start of the first classes. Sighing heavily, Jack decided he would see her at lunch time.

(Lunch time)

After Jack's first classes, maths and two periods of geography, had finished, it was lunch time and he went to the cafeteria. Collecting his lunch, a bowl of leek and potato soup and a fresh bread roll, he made his way to the back of the cafeteria and found Carrie sitting at her usual table, with some books sitting on the table beside her.

"Hey Carrie…" he said, as he approached the table, briefly startling Carrie who was reading one of the books.

"Oh Jack, y-you came. I thought you wouldn't as no one ever wants to sit with me." Carrie said with a small smile, as Jack sat down opposite her.

"Hey, I told you I'd be here. You did say it was all right yesterday, remember?" Jack said with a smile as Carrie felt her cheeks redden a little.

"You know if people don't want to sit with you, then there's something wrong with them. I think you make great company." Jack said, as he started on his soup.

"Really?" Carrie asked.

"Yes, I think so; and I don't care what everyone else thinks of what my choices are." Jack said, while looking into Carrie's eyes. "After yesterday, I spoke to Ms Desjardin and asked her about you." Jack said, as Carrie's eyes widened.

"What did you ask her about?" she asked, in a soft voice.

"Well, I wanted to know why people here you treated so badly and…she told me how you were bullied by a lot of people here for quite a long time and no one here did anything to stop it. After hearing that, and she mentioned you had no friends despite being one of the sweetest girls she'd ever met, I made her a promise; that I'd be your friend and do everything I could to be sure there'd be someone there for you when you need them most and so you'd never be alone again." Jack said, as Carrie stared at him for a few moments.

"So, would you like us to be friends, Jack?" Carrie asked, as Jack smiled gently at her.

"Of course; if…you'd like to, Carrie." Jack said. Carrie thought for a moment; this boy she met only yesterday wanted to be her friend and promised to be by her side and make sure she wasn't alone anymore. So, she faced Jack and swallowing hard, summoned up all the courage she could.

"Yes Jack, you can be my friend. I'd…I'd like that." she said. Jack smiled a broad smile.

"Thanks Carrie; how about we both celebrate our friendship with a walk around town after school, as I'm still unfamiliar with this part of Chamberlain. What do you think?" Jack suggested.

"You mean like…just a date?" Carrie asked, getting a little bit embarrassed about the two of them spending time together. Jack noticed how nervous she was getting and decided to reassure her.

"Yes of course…we could go by ourselves, but you're anyway uncomfortable with it, I could always ask Ms Desjardin to accompany us if it would make you feel any better. I'd never force you to do anything you were uncomfortable with." Jack said, in a reassuring way.

Carrie thought about this for a minute before she made her decision. It was an easy answer, as her mother was going to be working late again today, so it was a perfect chance to know her new friend a little more and try be a normal person.

"That sounds like a nice idea to me. I'd really like that." Carrie said.

"Great! Shall we meet up in at the main entrance after school?" said Jack. Carrie agreed and the two continued with their lunch and chatting. Soon, the bell rang, signalling the start of class and, with that, Carrie and Jack gathered their things and prepared to head to their next classes.

As they were getting up, Jack briefly noticed the title of one of the books Carrie had with her; he didn't see the full title, but one word caught his attention: TELEKINESIS.

Jack raised an eyebrow; he was a little curious to see a book like that and wondered why Carrie would be interested in something like that but decided not to push the issue for now and headed to his next class, which was two periods of gym class with Ms Desjardin. Considering that it was a nice April day out with bright sunshine and clear blue skies, he felt it was very likely gym class would be held outside.

(Gym class, outside)

And he was right; now wearing crisp white trainers, black shorts and a bright orange t-shirt that showed off his strong and well-toned arms, much to the pleasure of all the female students present, Jack stood on the sports field with the others in the class and listen to Rita as she explained to them the exercises they were going to be doing.

After starting with the warm up exercises, which included star jumps, running on the spot and stretching, which lasted for about 10 minutes, Rita told them all to find a partner with which to pair up. Looking round, Jack noticed a familiar face.

"Hey Freddy, wanna pair up?" he asked, as he saw the boy who'd given him directions the previous day. Freddy Holt was a little surprised the new boy remembered him and wanted to pair up with him for gym class.

"Are you sure? There's probably better people in class to choose than me." Freddy said.

"It's all right boy-o, I'd rather pick someone who helped me when I needed it…" he said "…and besides…I don't like the way most of the girls are looking at me." he whispered.

Freddy glanced over to some of the girls; they were eyeing Jack and his strong muscular arms as if he were the holy grail and they were the treasure hunters.

"Okay, I'll be your shield today; but you know, I'm sure that most guys like you would kill to have so many girls interested in you." he said, with a chuckle as Jack also laughed briefly.

"Well, I'm ain't like most guys. One girl's enough for me, but a lot of 'em at once…hmm, no thanks." Jack said.

Once all the students present were paired up, including three girls who paired up due to the group's numbers not being perfectly even, they set about their exercises, which included two laps of the running track, followed by suicide runs, push ups, sit ups, plank and running on the spot as well as a few other strength building exercises. All the other students in the class knew Rita had a habit of treating gym class a little bit like boot camp at times, and this was one of those odd occasions where she did just that.

They were all relieved to have a much-needed water break for a short while midway through the class, and they sat off to the side of the sports field and enjoyed bottles of cold water from two coolers filled with crushed ice. But the break ended far too quickly for their liking; no sooner had they finished their water, they were back on their feet again and following Rita's instructions for their exercise for the next half of class.

By the time they neared the end of gym class, an hour after it began, everyone was covered in sweat and their muscles were sore; the exercise had taken its toll, not to mention the fact that it was a warm perfect spring day. Freddy, in particular, was covered in sweat and struggling a little at the end, but Jack was able to stay going at the end and, despite the fact he was sweating quite a bit too, wasn't even out of breath. Freddy and most of the others who were slowing down or struggling to keep up with Rita's exercise instructions were watching on in utter amazement as Jack kept on going.

"Dude…how are…you able…to keep going?" a completely drained Freddy asked, in between taking breaths, as Jack finally finished.

"Oh, I'm used to doing exercise. I've done quite a bit of it over the years…that's why I've been able to keep on going with something where almost everyone else would tend to struggle a bit." Jack said, as they all stood up.

"Dude…you're either hardcore or insane." Freddy chuckled.

"To be honest, I'm not sure which." Jack said, as he and Freddy laughed briefly before quietening down as Ms Desjardin approached, while speaking to everyone in class one by one about how they did during the lesson.

"Well done, Jack; you did very well in each exercise; keep it up."

"Thank you, miss." Jack said, as he took another deep breath. Rita moved in front of Freddy.

"Freddy, you did very well today too, but there's plenty of room for improvement."

"Yes, ma'am." Freddy said, giving a few nods as he wiped down his sweaty forehead and taking in a few deep breaths.

Rita then took a few steps, checked her watch and turned back to the class. "Okay everyone, that's all for today; class dismissed!" Rita said, giving a short blow on her whistle.

As everyone turned and made their way back to the locker rooms and showers, Jack stayed behind for a short while to speak to Rita.

"Excuse me, Ms Desjardin?"

"Yes, Jack, is something wrong?" she asked, with a smile.

"No miss, you see during lunch, I was able to get Carrie to accept me as a friend and to celebrate, I asked her if she could show me around town as I'm unfamiliar with this part of Chamberlain. I even said I'd ask you to accompany us if it made her feel more comfortable, but she said it was fine for us two to go together. We'll be meeting in front of the school when classes finish up. I was wondering if you'll pick us up when we're done. I'm not planning to go for long; just an hour to an hour and a half at most." Jack said. Rita didn't hesitate for a second with her answer.

"Of course, I'll pick you up. I think it's a great thing you're doing for Carrie; she's been alone for so long, doing something like this may help her out of her shell. And here's my card with my number on it. As soon as you're finished, just give me a call and I'll be there." Rita said, reaching into her pocket and handed Jack a small white card with her number on it.

"Thanks very much." Jack said, as he took it. Then Rita ruffled Jack's hair, exactly like an older sister would to her younger brother.

"Just one thing though; don't do anything crazy or anything that might make Carrie anyway uncomfortable, because if you do, I'll make you regret it. And then I'll call your mother." Rita said, in a fake threatening way, as Jack nodded.

"Okay; I'll be the perfect gentleman, but just please my parents out of this please. If they knew what I was doing…I'd never hear the end of it. And my three sisters, if they found out…they'd never let me live it down." Jack said, with a heavy sigh.

"All right lover boy, best go get showered and changed. After all, you wouldn't want to go on your "date" smelling like a gym changing room, would you?" Rita teased. And sighing to himself, Jack gave her a nod before he turned round and went back to the school changing rooms to shower.

(After school; 3:00pm)

With school over for another day, Jack, showered and smelling much better, stood outside the front of the school while he waited for Carrie so they could go for their stroll around this part of Chamberlain. Jack was feeling a little nervous, as this was the first time he would be with a girl for an extended period of time and deep inside he hoped nothing would go wrong.

Then he saw Carrie walk up to him from the main entrance among some of the other students, and he noticed she looked as nervous as he did.

"Hey, Carrie; are you ready?" he said, as she approached.

"Yeah, I am. Shall w-we go?" she said, stuttering a little, which Jack thought was cute.

"Okay Carrie, you're the tour guide today and I'll follow you round, so…it's all yours, ma'am." Jack said, while extending his arm out and smiling. Carrie couldn't help but smile at that and she tried to suppress a giggle, but was unsuccessful as she laughed loudly. As she calmed down from laughing, she and Jack departed from in front of the school and walked together, side by side, into Chamberlain. Jack really liked Carrie's laugh and decided to try and make her laugh again if he could, as he liked it.

(25 minutes later)

Carrie and Jack, after walking round Chamberlain's streets, arrived at one of the local coffee shops, that Carrie liked to go to whenever she could get away from her mother. While they'd been walking round Chamberlain, Carrie had shown Jack some of the places in town she knew, including restaurants, the different shops and the church she sometimes went to as well as anything else that caught their attention.

As they walked along, they made light conversation about their personal lives, but both were careful not to ask anything that might be intrusive; Jack learned that one of Carrie's favourite things to do was reading books (like him) and she also really liked poetry, and had her hopes of writing a book one day. She also like sewing as well, and sometimes made her own clothes and had hopes she might turn that into a career. She was an only child and lived with her mother on Carlin Street but didn't go into any detail on this, or her father, something Jack noticed but he decided not to press the issue.

In return Carrie learned that Jack also had an interest in reading (he mentioned he'd quite a lot of books at home), and also had an interest in baking (something he admitted he acquired from his mother), photography, building plastic model kits (of which he admitted he'd built many), first person shooter games (like the Medal of Honor and Call of Duty games), had a love of war movies, Titanic movies as well as the James Bond movies and the 1965 TV series Thunderbirds.

He said he lived in Dublin, the Republic of Ireland's capital city, with his parents and three younger sisters, who were triplets, and he mentioned they'd celebrated their fifteenth birthday the previous Friday with a big celebration where quite a few people attended, mostly from the secondary school he and his sisters went to. He also mentioned his sisters, who were in their second year at secondary school, could be a bit of a problem at times, particularly by the way they pushed his buttons. He told her his father worked for an Irish pharmaceutical company, and his mother ran a very successful bakery business with 20 shops spread throughout the island of Ireland and another two scheduled to open later in the year.

Soon, with their stomachs rumbling, they arrived at Carrie's favourite coffee shop, The Cup A' Joe, and bought a slice of chocolate cake each and two sodas. Sitting down beside each other at a table by the window where they could look out onto the street.

"So, are you okay? I can be a bit dull at times so I hope I'm not boring you." Jack said.

"No, you're actually quite a great person to be around. I really enjoyed walking and speaking with you this afternoon. No one's ever done that with me before, or talked with me for as long as you have…so I'm very grateful." Carrie said, smiling a little as she blushed slightly.

Jack smiled, pleased to know he'd made her a little happier. But then his face turned serious; he had to tell her something he hoped would make her trust him

"Carrie…there's another reason why I wanted to spend some time with you today." he said, as her heartrate increased, wondering what it could be. "I know you've trouble trusting people from your past experience, and I feel you probably don't trust me even now. But I want you to know that you can ask me any question you want, and I swear I'll be honest with you. If you were to give me your trust, I'll never betray you; just ask me anything and I'll be truthful with you." Jack said, as he gently placed his hand upon Carrie's, causing to heartrate to rise a little.

"Are you just pretending to be my friend so you can trick me later?" Carrie asked.

"No, I would never do something like that. It's just when I saw you sitting alone at your table yesterday, it reminded me of when I was younger. I was like you at one point in my life. I never spoke unless I was spoken to and I was shy at times too…and once I was afraid to stand up for myself…but when I was twelve, an incident happened where I ended up standing up for myself, beating back the bully with his tail between his legs and becoming the confident person I am now."

"What happened?" Carrie asked, as her eyes opened wide and she leaned forward in anticipation of the story.

"I was walking home from school…it was a Thursday afternoon, and I was just heading home minding my own business when one of the bullies from school, a boy named Arron, who'd been a real pain, not just to me but everyone else in school, came upon me demanding I give him my lunch money the following day. I refused; I wouldn't give my lunch money to anyone… especially to someone like him." Jack paused for a moment to take a drink of soda before he spoke again.

"Not only that, I'd had quite a rough day at school that particular day…and when I say rough, I mean REALLY rough. So naturally, I was very cross and irritable from that day…and the last thing I needed was bullshit from him. He reached up and tried to punch me, but I just managed to duck before he hit me. I then grabbed his arm and twisted it round…he cried out in pain and, seizing the chance, I quickly pushed him down to the ground with all the might I could muster and placed my left foot onto his chest quite hard, forcing the breath out of him." Jack said, as Carrie's jaw dropped open in awe.

"What happened then?" she asked, eager to hear what had taken place.

"Well, I told him…quite bluntly I might add…that if he ever tried to take my lunch money, or anything else from me again, he'd be sorry. And…just to press the point…I increased the pressure on his chest with my foot while I snarled at him. I must've scared him good, as he quickly got up and ran off. I don't think he expected me to fight back the way I did. And since then, I never had any more trouble from him." Jack said.

Carrie looked at Jack, her mouth slightly agape and eyes still wide open.

"How…how did it feel after that?" she asked, in awe of how this Irish boy with her had stood up for himself.

"It…felt good, I'll be honest. After I sent him scampering off with his tail between his legs, I felt a laugh come on and I did laugh for a while. I then felt this feeling which I'd never felt before…I can't explain it, but right then, things turned round for me. I was much more confident about speaking out when I wanted to and I'd no fear of standing up to a bully at all whenever it became necessary. And many times, I did send a few of them scampering off with their tails between their legs too, either standing up for myself or, in a few cases, for others who were being bullied too." Jack said, as he smiled, fondly remembering those moments when he stood up to bullies.

Carrie was very impressed by Jack's story and was intrigued by how he overcame his difficulties and emerged as a much stronger, more confident person.

"Can anyone overcome their fears or obstacles like you did and emerge a better person than before?" Carried asked.

"Of course, anyone can, Carrie…even you can." Jack said with a reassuring smile. Carrie slowly felt confidence build up in her; Jack's words gave her the assurance she needed.

"And will you always be my friend…no matter what?" she asked.

"I always will…always." Jack said, gently placing his hand on Carrie's to reassure her.

"Thanks…thanks a lot, Jack." Carrie said, as she smiled.

"No problem, Carrie." Jack said, and they went about enjoying their food.

However, what neither of them knew was that just across the street from the coffee shop, hiding just behind a chestnut tree on the other side of the old iron rail fence that separated the street from one of the parks in town, a girl with brunette hair, and very lightly tanned skin, was watching them very closely.

Her eyes were filled with anger and hate when she focused them on the familiar shape of Carrie, but then they turned to curiosity when they focused on the unfamiliar boy sitting with her at the table. She watched them for a few more minutes as they ate and chatted with each other, and she scowled quietly when she saw Carrie smile.

"I need to ask Tina who that guy is, and what he's doing eating with Creepy Carrie." she thought to herself. After another two minutes of watching the two eat and socialise together while she kept out of sight, she smirked evilly to herself.

"Enjoy your food with your "boyfriend" Creepy Carrie; it may just be your last." she said quietly to herself before she slunk off, evil thoughts and ideas flowing through her twisted demented head.