Chapter Four:
But that wasn't something I had time to dwell on.
"Oh my god...is she like, dead?"
"I don't think so..."
The chaos as my classmates tried to figure out how to handle the situation WAS quite amusing. In the end they decided to leave her there on the floor. With that cleared up, many of the students left their desks to huddle together in their own little cliques.
"Look," Emma said, tapping me on the shoulder. I followed her gaze. "There's Bridget."
It was hard not to notice her. She sat atop the desk; her posse sitting around her, giggling and sneering...at Johnny.
"He's so like, weird looking," Bridget said nastily. "I mean, where does he like, shop? Hasn't he ever heard of COOL shops like Abercrombie and Fitch, or Delia's? Like, anyone who DOESN'T shop there is like, definitely uncool because I like, say so." She glared at her posse. "You like, DO agree with me, don't you? Because if you don't I like, won't invite you to my party this weekend."
The girls answered her by nodding - a clan of brainless, nodding zombies.
Emma grinned. "I say we go mess with her head a little."
I agreed eagerly. I motioned to Johnny and the three of us began to walk towards her and her group of giggling vermin. I noticed one of them sneer at Johnny as we got closer - Kathy. She was like Bridget's main crony. But they were all the same.
"Why do you hate this girl above all others?" Johnny inquired, curious.
"She's a bitch, a backstabber, fits the stereotype of a prep, and she just plain sucks," Emma said simply.
"Plus," I said, "she was talking about YOU, Nny."
Johnny's expression darkened. "She was talking about me?" he said furiously. "What was she saying?"
"Oh, just that you're LIKE, so uncool because you LIKE, don't LIKE, shop at all the same stores she does, which are LIKE, cool because she LIKE, says so."
Johnny glared at her with an expression of pure hatred that only he could make. "Okay, she's dead," he declared.
We straightened, ready to face our long-time enemy. She rolled her eyes exaggeratively.
"Is there something you WANT?" she said, trying to sound bored.
"Of course," I said sarcastically, rolling my eyes. "I want YOU, what did you THINK? I mean, you're just so sexy..."
Bridget narrowed her eyes. Not many people dared to speak to her like that. By now, the rest of her group knew that we meant business. A few of them even laughed. Bridget turned to them, snarling. "Shut the fuck up!" she warned, and turned back to face Emma, Johnny, and me.
"So what's your DEAL?"
"We're going to kill you," Emma blurted out. I jabbed her sharply in the ribs. Bridget just arched her eyebrow.
"You're what?"
I sighed. "Well, since Emma ruined the surprise, I might as well tell you that she's telling the truth. You're finally going to get what you've been asking for all this time."
Before we could take action, the bell rang. Students nervously rose from their seats, gathered up their books, and filed out the door. Emma and I sighed.
"Saved by the bell," she muttered. She turned to Bridget, who now wore a shocked expression on her face. "Just wait until after lunch." She smirked.
Bridget's lackeys had long before whizzed out of the room like they were on fire. She was alone now. It was an amazing sight to see - she was never without her friends. It was like she couldn't function without them constantly near her.
Alone, she rose from her seat and walked out the door, not sure if she should believe us or not.
"Oh well." I sighed. "We'll get her later. But anyway...next we have Spanish. THAT gives us good opportunity."
"Yeah, Miss Luna," Emma said, rolling her eyes. "That BITCH."
"All right then, let's get going," Johnny said, pushing us over to ther door.
Emma and I nodded, though a bit nervously, and walked with Johnny over to the Spanish room in the other building. Since it was a bit cold out, we decided to take the tunnel. It wasn't too crowded, as most people had already gone through.
We went through a long, suspended hallway surrounded by glass, and then started to descend numerous staircases.
"What's this?" Johnny said, pointing to a door. Emma made a face.
"That's the NUN'S convent," I said. "That's where all the grouchy, wrinkly, old people go pray to god every second of their fucking life because they're incapable of solving their own problems."
"...Uh huh."
By now we had amost reached the kindergarten hallway. I despised those children and the way they always STARED at you when you walked by. Didn't they know staring was rude? The children made so much noise...yet the teachers yelled at US if we spoke while going through the hallway.
While I was lost in my bitter thoughts, Emma, who had been talking to Johnny and not looking where she was going, tripped over a child and fell flat on her face. The young girl, standing straight up and unharmed, began to wail.
"That hurt! THAT HURT!" she bawled, her voice ringing out through the corridors. "OOOWW! TEACHER!"
A disgruntled-looking middle-aged woman hobbled out of one of the classrooms. She looked from the child to Emma, who still lay on the ground.
"What's the matter with you?" the teacher snapped. "Get up off the ground! How COULD you harm a small child like this? Have you no HEART?" She took a small pad out of her pocket. "This is NOT how we bring up young women in this school. This calls for a detention."
"But I didn't do anything," Emma moaned, struggling to her feet. "I was just going to class."
The woman paid no attention to Emma, and began to fill out the slip of paper.
"Put the paper down."
Johnny to the rescue, yet again. The woman, who had been too wrapped up in her assumptions about Emma, hadn't even noticed he was there. Indeed, it came as quite a shock to see a blade suddenly pressed against her neck.
She dropped the detention slip to the ground obediently. Johnny calmly returned his sword to the inside of his jacket, retrieved the piece of paper from the round, and tore it in half before throwing it into the trash.
"Now I want you to go back into that room and close the door. Do NOT come out for a full ten minutes. Then, I want you to forget any of this happened. Do you understand?"
The teacher slowly backed into the classroom her eyes unblinking, and closed the door. When the coast seemed clear, Johnny let his guard down and turned back to Emma and me. Emma had the little girl held tightly by the wrist, so she couldn't break away. She opened her mouth wide, drew in a deep breath, and - Johnny silenced her scream before it even began.
Emma quickly dropped the girl's hand and stared at her, lifeless on the floor, her eyes still wide in terror.
"Okay...that's disgusting," she muttered.
"Johnny," I said, "why does this come so easily to you?"
"I'm honestly not sure I know." He shrugged. "I've been doing it for a while. I don't really know any other way. I suppose you get used to it."
"You know," I said, lowering my head slightly, "I always looked at those people...the people who made a living out of hurting and using others...and wished I could do something about it."
Our eyes met, his half-closed. Emma's foot tapped rhythmically on the floor.
"Um...it's time for class, you know. Can we go now?"
"Good idea," Johnny said, and started up the stairs.
"Keep going until you get to the top floor!" I called out.
"Got it," he said, not turning back.
Emma sighed, and started up the stairs herself.
"Emmer," I said, calling her by her nickname, "something wrong?"
She sighed again, put her hands against the railing, and turned to me.
"Okay, Samantha, here's what I say." She said this sternly. "We came here to get rid of some really fucking annoying people, not so you could hang out with Johnny. That's just a really big plus, because, well...he's really hot, and we all know it. My point is, we're not going to be here for very long. There's no guarantee that after we go back home, we can get back HERE. If you get too used to Johnny being here, what's going to happen when reality comes back, and he's just a drawing on paper again?"
I nodded in understanding. She made a lot of sense, as she usually did in her moments of seriousness.
I smiled. "Hey Emma, what about you and Eric?"
Emma waved a hand, resuming her usual attitude. "Oh, I don't think I like him anymore. I just remembered that sometime in the future, he's going to get bitten by a vampire and turn into an ugly walrus-thing."
"Emma...that already happened, and his sister cured him."
"Shut up...I just don't like him much anymore. He's cute, but he's really dumb."
"Emma...guess what?"
Emma leaned away from me suspiciously. "...What?"
"I FEED!"
"Oh my god..."
We ran up the rest of the stairs giggling. Johnny was waiting for us at the top, and Emma and I walked in front, leading him down the hallway to the Spanish classroom.
"She doesn't look so terrible," Johnny said, looking Miss Luna over. Then his gaze hardened. "Of course, looks can be deceiving."
Emma and I entered the room, and went to our desks - mine right next to the door, Emma's a few seats away. Johnny did not follow. I looked at him expectantly.
"I'm leaving this one to you," he said. I shouldn't have expected him to stay with us so faithfully. Not only did we have to do this ourselves, the hard truth was - Johnny didn't want us here. At least, the part that was still inside him didn't want us here. The pieces of himself he had donated to a plastic burger boy - maybe.
Miss Luna glared at us as we took our seats. "You two...you DO know you're late? Why don't we make this a lunchtime retention?"
"What?" Emma shrieked, appalled. "You didn't even let us EXPLAIN. It wasn't our fault we were late! Some kid in kindergarten got us in trouble, pretending I pushed her!"
"I'm sure," Miss Luna said, skeptically. She glanced at Johnny in the doorway. "Now would you mind explaining who this man is?"
"Oh, this is our bodyguard," I replied. "He was assigned to us by the government."
"Are you at least prepared for class?"
"Uhh...no, I guess not..."
"We live with our bodyguard now," Emma said wittily. "All our stuff was confiscated as soon as he was assigned to us." She nodded. "It's probably all burned by now!"
"There is NO excuse for not being prepared for class."
That voice could make my heart stop; make my blood run cold and hot at the same time. It was my OLD Spanish teacher from a few years before, whom I hated even more than Miss Luna. Her name was Miss Valencia. And it wasn't just me that despised her - everyone did. Even the people that didn't have her as a teacher hated her, what with the way she was always lurking in the hallways, ready to pounce on any unsuspecting student who had talked too loudly, or walked too fast.
Miss Valencia joined Miss Luna at the teacher's desk. "Will the two of you come up here?" She narrowed her eyes. "And your...BODYGUARD, too."
Johnny reluctantly abandoned his position against the wall, not really having a choice. Emma and I rose from our seats, confident.
"Everyone else, you can have a few minutes to study for the test today."
We approached the the two teachers, nnot knowing what the hell this TEST she mentioned was.
"You," Miss Luna said to Johnny. "You claim to be appointed to these two girls by the government. Do you have any official ID? Or any proof at all?"
Johnny looked from side to side, and pulled the left flap of his jacket open, revealing the gleaming sword. The blood of the little girl still clung to it, and ran down the blade in tiny rivulets.
"Now," Johnny said threateningly, "any more questions?"
The teachers shook their heads simultaneously, absolutely terrified.
"Good," he said. "And if you're quite SATISFIED, I'm going to step out of the room and clean off my...huh, well, you know." His mood seemed to have brightened from the looks of terror on the teachers' faces - for just about the first time since I had seen him here, he was smiling cheerily.
He turned to Emma and me, and knelt down near us. "By the time I get back, I expect those two bitches dead. I estimate you have...five minutes, more or less. Most likely less."
As soon as he left the room, the teachers, no longer feeling threatened, resumed their assertive attitudes.
"Return to your seats," Miss Luna said, clearing her throat. "You are both excused from any missing homework assignments."
Emma shook her head. "No, sorry, NO. That's not going to be enough this time. You see, we're sick of the way you teachers constantly look for ways to bring us down."
"Personally," I added, "I'm sick of your constant assumptions, and the way you never seem to trust us." I gripped the handle of my sword. "Everything has to be up to YOUR standards, no matter how hard we try. You punish our MISTAKES, like when we forget our books at home. Nothing can be done about a MISTAKE. It was not meant to be done, therefore it should not be punishable! We can't be PERFECT!"
"And then there's the way you never seem to listen to our excuses or explanations. I'm sure if you LISTENED once in a while, you'd save some of us a LOT of misery."
Emma reached into her own jacket and I whispered to her, "You get Miss Luna, I'll get Miss Valencia."
"N-no, wait," Miss Valencia stammered as Emma and I drew out our swords. "We can change, really! We're sorry for how we made you feel...but this can help us IMPROVE our teaching skills!"
I felt victorious at the fact that we had been able to draw the most used and most pathetic plea from her.
"That's what they all say."
It happened easier this time. I didn't care where I hit, as long as she ended up dead. I closed my eyes and swung - felt my sword hit something heavy. I heard a choking sound, a crash, and a scream from Miss Luna.
"Didn't like the looks of that, did you?" Emma said, sneering. "At least you don't have to live with the memory." She thrust the knife just above Miss Luna's waist. Miss Luna fell forward and her head hit the desk, a trickle of blood running down from her mouth.
We felt a sick kind of satisfaction with our work.
"...Assassins!"
Johnny had returned, and was taking precautions to make sure Emma and I could not be blamed for the crime.
"They've escaped," he said bitterly, so everyone could hear him. He was quite convincing. The class stared at him with wide eyes, transfixed.
"I can't believe I let them get away! Look what they've done to your teachers!"
We hid our knives just in time. There was a collection of gasps and shrieks - but once again, we were safe. No one suspected us of the horrible crime we had committed.