Falling From Grace

Chapter 5 - A Tiny Bit Psycho

The ax came down with a sickening thud, inches from the booted foot next to her sneakered one.

"Yo, Coop, watch where you're swinging that thing."

Cooper chose to ignore Scott as he gave her a half-amused, half-annoyed look. They'd been assigned to chopping wood, and Cooper was showing off how useless her arms were. A part of her missed the muscles she used to have, but a part of her knew it would take a lot to get herself back to what she once was. And that part of her was the part that just didn't care.

"Cooper, are you going to stand there all day? I can't do this by myself."

Cooper raised her eyes to glare at Scott. "You could."

He shrugged. "Yeah, but you're the one with the ax, not me. Swing away...away from my foot."

If Cooper were as mentally unstable as her file would have her believe, she would have listened to the devil on her shoulder, and cut Scott's baby toe off right then. But, she wasn't that unstable, and her next swing split the wood into two very uneven halves. The devil on her shoulder flicked her earlobe, and Cooper sighed at an oppurtunity missed.

Maybe she was that unstable...

"You're sister's a psycho."

Lexis didn't look at Shelby as she answered. "You're not the first to think that."

Shelby shot Lexis a sideways look, interest barely masked in her features. The blonde was quiet for a few seconds, contemplating whether or not she wanted to ask. She knew from experience how screwed up the people who came to Horizon could be, she herself was a prime example...Did she really want to know what this new girl had done? "What do you mean?" She asked carefully, spraying water on the plate that Lexis handed her.

Lexis stopped scrubbing plates for a moment, and looked out the window over the sink, where she could see Cooper bring the ax down a third time, two halves of wood flying in opposite directions as a loud crack filled the air. Scott retrieved the wood while Cooper hefted the ax into the air, a slight wince coming to her face as she realized it's weight. Lexis sighed quietly, looking back down at the plates as she recalled how strong Cooper used to be. How strong they both used to be. Lexis had started lifting weights again a few months before coming to Horizon, and she'd tried to convince Cooper to start too. The satisfaction of working-out had been the only thing keeping Lexis from her father's liquor cabinet these last few months, and she'd wanted her sister to know what it was like to have control over just that little part of her life again. Cooper had refused, waved the suggestion away, a vacant look on her face. The recollation made Lexis' throat tighten, and her eyes darken.

Cooper was once -

"Lexis?"

Lexis startled, and looked at Shelby. What had she asked? "Hmm?"

"I asked what you meant, about Cooper being psycho?"

"Oh," Lexis mumbled, passing another plate to Shelby. "Well...I meant that..." Lexis sighed. "Look, you know as well as I do what it takes to get in here, and Coop...It's like Coop's life story was written straight from the check-list...She's angry, she's been hurt, she feels alienated....she's got one hell of a temper, she's just naturally fiery like that, and when you add it all together..." Lexis paused and clapped her hands together loudly. "BOOM. You get psycho."

Shelby glanced out the window in time to see Scott jump back, Cooper drop the ax, and the two storm off in their seperate directions, their task of chopping wood forgotten. "Has she ever done anything...I don't know, to...prove the alligations?"

Lexis hesitated before answering. She knew a lot of people like Shelby. The types of people who had it real bad, but didn't talk about it, and got their kicks out of exploring other people's issues, while at the same time realizing some people had it worse than they did. Lexis didn't want to be the reason Shelby felt better about herself, and she certainly didn't want this new girl, whom she didn't know very well, to know too much about Cooper. But...at the same time...if there was just one more person in the world who understood Cooper, that would make both of their lives just that much easier.

"Well...she's..." Lexis took a moment to form her sentence. "Coop got expelled last year."

Surprise flashed in Shelby's blue eyes, like she'd thought Cooper's anger was just a facade. "What'd she do?"

"She threatened the football captain with a baseball bat."

Shelby blinked at her. "Excuse me?"

Lexis nodded, to show that she'd heard right. "Cooper went after Nick Feilds with a baseball bat. It was right in the middle of second lunch too, she marched into the cafeteria with the bat in her hands, and would have taken his head off had Rob Peters not been there to stop her." Lexis wasn't sure what she thought of the tone of pride in her voice as she retold the story.

Shelby made a surprised noise. "They expelled her for threatening him?"

Lexis shrugged. "His father threatened the schoolboard that if she wasn't removed he'd stop the donations...Nick Feilds deserved it, though, he was a prick."

"What'd he do to Cooper?"

"To deserve a baseball bat to the head?"

"Yeah."

"He called her a whore."

Shelby rolled her eyes. "Wow, over-reaction...I'm glad I don't take a bat to someone everytime I'm called a whore."

Lexis couldn't control the anger boiling in her stomach at the blonde's misinformed words. "This is different."

"How?"

"You'll have to ask Coop that one, she'd take a bat to me if I told you."

Peter blinked in surprise as he watched Scott come tearing into his office, looking angry as a wet-hen. What had the boy so riled up? "Can I help you, Scott?"

The blonde boy threw himself into the chair across from Peter and took a few deep breaths. "You have to do something about Cooper."

Peter sat up straighter at the mention of his angry new student. What had she done now? And why was Scott so visibly peeved about it? "What'd she do?"

"She tried to cut my foot off! Why the hell is she chopping wood? She's crazy!"

A tiny part of Peter was amused at the thought of little Cooper trying to cut football player Scott's foot off with an ax. The girl didn't even look like she could lift an ax, let alone get enough leverage to chop someone's foot off. That was exactly why he'd assigned her to chopping wood, because he knew it would be hard for her, and he needed a way to get a reaction. Obviously, she'd given him one. "She tried to cut your foot off?"

"Yeah, twice. The first time I thought it was an accident, but the second time she definitely meant to."

"What makes you say that?"

Scott looked incredulous. "She smiled about it! The ax was an inch from my foot, and she smiled. Then she swung up like she was going to try again, and I told her to put the ax down."

"Then?"

"She dropped it on the ground and we went out seperate ways."

Peter scratched his lip to hide his smile. Scott's reaction was reasonable for someone who believed they'd almost lost a limb, but Peter wasn't thinking that Cooper had meant to do it at all. "I'll talk to her about it."

"That's it? You're just gonna talk to her? Why don't you give her more chores or something?"

Peter sat forward, and Scott looked angrier than ever at his amusement. "Scott, do you really think Cooper would cut off your foot? She's just a little girl."

"She may be tiny, but she's psycho."