Chapter 2
(NOTE: The scene in the Psychology class actually happened, along with some of the conversations. I did not make it up so don't think I'm some kind of sick freak!)
"Happy hump day!" Caroline said jumping on Jess' back.
"Thanks, now get off!" Jess shrugged the slight girl off.
"How is my chica?" Caroline chirped. She always managed to sound just like a bird.
"Good! Davey came over last night…" Jess grinned.
"Oh la la…get some tutoring done?!" Caroline laughed as Jess turned crimson.
"Some…" she giggled.
"You 2 are sooo cute!" The two girls joined their group in their usual hanging place-the hallway-before school. They took their seat next to Ashley and Jessica (AKA. Ace) who were laughing hysterically about something.
"Hey girls!" Ashley hiccuped out. Ace tried saying something but she was laughing so hard that it just came out as a burst of giggles.
"What's so funny?" Jess asked.
"You had to be here!" Ace and Ashley fell into another round of laughter before settling down a bit.
"Rachel!" The group shouted as she walked up.
Rachel took a bow. "Yes the wonderful and amazing Rachel has arrived. You may all kiss my feet now." She took her seat next to Su, across from Sheila and Dan. "The Caribbean was great. It was soooo warm." She said wickedly to Ashley and Ace who had stayed home all vacation.
"Ah shut up. I heard it rained." Ace smiled back.
"Yea, it did. But I heard it SNOWED here." Rachel stuck out her tongue and through her gum wrapper at Dan and Sheila who were getting alittle too "friendly". "There are children in the premises!" she said covering her eyes. "It hurts! Mommy it hurts!"
"I wonder why there couldn't have been a hurricane so you would have been stuck there." Sheila smiled sweetly throwing the gum wrapper back at Rachel.
"You wish honey, but I am here to make your life a living hell." Rachel smiled back launching a full out gum wrapper war that had everyone involved.
"Whoa kids! We're in school not the playground." Mr. Frizzomatic said walking between us. As soon as his head of hair entered the classroom the war continued.
The bell then rang and they were forced to abandon their sport.
"Come on Ash," Caroline said grabbing her arm and dragging her up, "we're off to battle the evil photography gods!"
"Bye guys! Have fun!" everyone exchanged goodbyes and headed down different stairwells.
* * * *
Submerged in developing chemicals, Caroline, Ashley and Megan sat talking in the darkroom.
"Have you noticed lately that no one is getting along anymore?" Megan said flipping her picture over.
"Yea. Nina's writing a column in the paper about it."
"Good for her." Megan said snottily. Her and Nina had not gotten along since the 8th grade field trip to Washington DC. Megan still held a grudge about what happened, but Nina had gotten over it.
"Oohh Megan, I sense hostility." Caroline said shooting her a glance.
"I'm not being hostile. Did you read Nina's LAST article? It was based on me and I know it!"
"Meg you think EVERYONE'S against you. She didn't write that about you, I know that for a fact." Ashley said grabbing her pictures as she left the room, mumbling something about hating chemicals.
"What's Ashley's problem?" Megan said as soon as the door closed.
"Nothing. What's yours?" Caroline shot back, following Ashley out of the darkroom. Caroline could only stand Megan for short amounts of time. This was not one of those times.
Megan just sighed. She couldn't wait to get to college so she could meet all new friends. She was sick of these.
* * * *
Liz, Rachel, Jess and Ashley sat in their usual corner in their psychology class, giggling away at something or other.
Ashley sighed. "He is SO hot."
Liz just laughed. "You're so cute Ash, why don't you ask him to prom?"
"Ohhh" Rachel groaned. "Did you HAVE to mention prom?" Her head hit the desk with a loud thud.
"I think she's dead now." Ashley said poking Rachel. "And NO I'm NOT asking him!" Secretly she knew she would but she liked to put up a show about how she WASN'T going to!
Him turned out to be the boy sitting across the room. The boy with blond hair that was out of control, named Bryan. He was the "sarcastic son of a beeeyatch" as Rachel and Ashley most often called him. But weren't they all?
The lesson that day was to write on a piece of paper what you would do if you had the chance to and not get caught or identified with it. After much thinking they turned in their responses. As the teacher read them aloud, he came across the rob the bank a few times, have sex a couple times and right toward the end, he hesitated. Then proceeded to read off one that read:
'I would murder, kidnap, and rape in no particular order, every girl under 19.'
The room went dead silent and everyone started edging away from each other.
"Who wrote that?" Jess said after a few moments.
"Can't tell." The teacher said, for not even him knew.
"You have to tell us!" Liz said. "I want to know who it is so I can stay 200 feet away from this kid." The other kids, boys and girls included, nodded their agreement.
"That's just sick and scary. What a psycho." Ashley whispered to Rachel.
Bryan automatically held up his hands. "I didn't do it! Mine was the line people up and run down the row smacking them! I SWEAR!" He was always the one getting blamed for this, but they all knew he wouldn't say something that stupid.
"It could be a girl." Jenny said from across the room.
"A girl would rape another girl?" Bryan asked. The room was quiet for alittle longer before the teacher continued to read them off.
The psychotic message through stayed on everyone's mind as they continued through the day.
* * * *
The Next Day…
7th period lunch was known for its opinionated people. Ashley was sitting next to Gabe, Nina and Liz. The others included Su, Jess, Ace, Rachel, Dan, Sheila and Chelsea. The mysterious rape note was still a hot topic and they were still discussing it at great length.
"Ok, Morgan said it wasn't his-his was short." Jess threw in.
"Morgan would be the only one to even THINK of that!" Liz said popping her gum bubble.
"That's not true. He is a sicko but he swears he didn't write it. But there isn't anyone else who I can think of that would do it." Jess said.
Nina laughed, getting some queer looks. "You guys sound like the FBI! But ummm…it was probably just meant to be a funny joke."
"It wasn't funny though." Ashley added in. "The room went DEAD silent. And we're NEVER quiet."
"Yea I mean that scared us." Rachel added.
"Couldn't a girl have written it?" Ace asked, twirling her hair around her finger.
"Could've been. But I doubt it." Liz said.
"But really-what girl would say she would rape other girls? Guys would say that." Dan added.
"But most of us aren't that stupid." Gabe said fiddling with his bottle cap.
"But this was anonymous, you could get away with it." Ashley said.
"Well that's just sick." Gabe muttered.
"Oh, I'm surprised Gabe. You would find that sort of thing sick? I thought you would find it amusing." Liz spat out, still bitter about whatever happened during or after Spring break.
"Jesus Christ Liz. Shut up!" Gabe shouted getting defensive.
"Liz that was harsh. Just let it go already, whatever it is." Ashley snapped.
Liz threw her hair over her shoulder. "Fine. I'll just go! No one seems to fucking care anymore." She got up and left, leaving everyone alittle confused.
"Do you think we should go after her?" Jess asked.
"N-"
"Shut up Gabe." Ashley glared at him. "No, let her get it out of her system."
The others agreed and went back to talking, while Gabe just sat and sulked.
* * * *
Chelsea never felt as if she belonged in the group. Most of her friends were juniors and her best friend was Tasha who wasn't really part of this group either. She had been so nice when Chelsea had first moved here. So was everyone else for that matter. Jess, Liz, Ashley (even though they really didn't get along), Ace, Rachel, Blake and many others. They were so nice but they were too overwhelming. They always had something to say, while Chelsea did not. And once Tasha broke ties with them, they lost contact with Chelsea too.
As she watched Ashley, Gabe and Liz go through another spat, (seems those 3 always do nowadays) she wondered what it would be like to be a big part in the group like Ashley or Liz was. To be liked by everyone. And she wished they would be nicer to Gabe. Chelsea had this thing for him that only Tasha knew about. But Chelsea knew that she would never be a big part of any group here, they were all too much of a soap opera for her.
Which was so true.