Chapter 9: Forgiveness and Stuff
School started on Monday with a dark cloud around Jake and Trixie.
"What's going on between those two?" Leah asked Spud.
"They had an argument about Rose." Spud answered. "Trixie doesn't trust her that much, and Jake got all defensive."
"Wow."
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Trixie walked slowly to Jake's locker. She wanted to trust Rose, and apologizing to Jake would be the first step.
Trixie took a deep breath when she saw Jake. "Jake? Listen, I'm sorry. I've been doing some thinking, and…I want to trust Rose. I really do."
"Glad you finally gave in." Said Jake. "Took you long enough."
"I know."
"Apology accepted." They hugged.
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Leah was at her locker. She closed it and looked over at Ben. A girl was with him. She was giggling. Leah took a few tentative steps towards Ben, when the two kissed. Leah stopped dead in her tracks. Ben looked over his shoulder at Leah, who looked hurt and angry. Leah stormed off. Ben went after her.
"Wait, Leah!" Ben caught up with Leah. "It's not what it looked like!"
"Yeah?" Leah said in a voice barely above a whisper. "I saw you. You seemed to enjoy it."
"I was being polite!"
The bell rang. Leah sighed and walked off.
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Ben and Leah bumped into each other at lunch. Leah went to an empty table and sat down. Confused; Rose, Cat, and Trixie joined her.
"Yo, Lee," Trixie started to say. "what's up with you and Ben?"
Leah sighed unhappily. "I saw him kissing another girl."
"Are you sure it wasn't an accident?" Rose asked her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
"He seemed to enjoy it."
"Wow."
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"Dude, what happened exactly?" Jake asked Ben.
"This girl walked up to me." Ben responded. "Leah saw her kiss me, and accused me of cheating."
"Harsh." Spud said.
"Did you explain everything to Leah?" Kel wondered.
"I haven't had time to."
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"You know what?" Leah was saying to her friends. "I'm not…I'm just going to go to my locker." She got up and left the cafeteria.
Brad was waiting for Leah when she got to her locker. Leah sighed angrily.
"No, Brad!" Leah said before he said anything.
"See, that's the thing." Brad said. "Nobody says 'no' to the Bradster!"
"Well, then I guess I'm nobody!"
Brad roughly grabbed both arms and slammed Leah hard against her locker.
"Ow! Hey!" Leah kicked Brad and stepped on his foot, hard.
"Ah! Crazy bitch!" Brad bit Leah's nose and pushed her to the ground. Before Leah could scream, Brad kneeled on top of her and kissed her hard. Ben saw this and tackled Brad off of Leah. Leah gasped for breath, and sat up.
"Ben…"
Ben was busy punching Brad. "Never. Ever! Touch. Leah. Again!"
Brad pushed Ben away from him. "You got a lot of nerve standing up to the Bradster!"
At that moment, Sun Park, the Home Ec teacher walked towards them.
"Is everything…all right?" Sun asked.
"No." Leah said. "Brad attacked me and pushed me to the ground. If Ben hadn't intervened, he would've raped me."
Sun looked at all three of them, shocked and angry. "You three- principal's office. Now! March!"
The four of them were silent as they headed to the office.
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