Chapter Eight:

There was an array of gasps when the class gathered in the doorway and got a good look at the maimed religion teacher.

"No!" Miss Sewell cried. "It can't be! She was one of the Chosen Ones!" She was too busy sobbing openly over the dead teacher's body to notice her student's expressions – terrified but joyful. There was, after all, not one student in the school who was a fan of Sister Pleasant.

Awkwardly, I took hold of Miss Sewell's arm, steadying her.

"I should have known something was wrong when I didn't see her with the others outside!" Miss Sewell cried, clutching at the cross around her neck.

"It's okay," I said, almost sickening myself. A convincing act of compassion and sympathy was a painful one for me to play. "Let's go and tell Miss Raposa what happened."

I had to lift the overweight woman to her feet by myself – which was even more painful than playing 'sympathetic', me being just a short 90 lb girl. But I suffered through the ordeal. I was to be rewarded in the end.

"Emma...care to join us?"

She got the idea. Previously she had seemed mildly confused, like she thought my actions toward Miss Sewell had been sincere.

We, followed by Johnny, took the teacher out into the hallway – but did not take her to where we said we would. Instead of taking her to the assistant principal, Miss Raposa, we led her to the nearest bathroom.

"Girls, what are you doing?" she inquired, confused. "This isn't the way."

"So what?" I snapped. "No one cares that Sister Pleasant is dead."

Miss Sewell continued to weep, clutching at her cross. Emma grabbed it from her hands.

"Stop playing with the stick, Miss! It won't do you any good!"

"How dare you call it a stick!" Miss Sewell said between sobs. "This is a totem of the Lord! Someone you obviously have no faith in! I pity you children."

I rolled my eyes. "I pity you, because you're going to be mighty disappointed. Wait...no, no, I don't pity you. This is what you get for being an old, closed-minded Catholic bitch."

"I won't get angry with you!" Miss Sewell cried, still sobbing heavily. "I will pray for your souls!" She bent down and held one arm high over her head. "Ooh, Lord Jesus...bring salvation to these two sinners...lead them down the path of Christianity to salvation and peace!"

Enraged, I took the cross from Emma and broke it in my hands, making tiny bits of splintered wood rain all over the teacher.

"You just don't give a shit about offending others, do you! I don't fucking believe in Jesus! Get it through your head!"

"I hate the way you're always trying to convert me," Emma said, her face stone cold. "What's so wrong with just leaving others be? How can you think your people are so great, anyway? Are you forgetting how many people you slaughtered because of their beliefs?"

Miss Sewell sniffed. "I was only trying to help."

And then something snapped inside of me. Something big. "Trying to help...that's all you can fucking say!" I held up one half of the broken cross, a fire burning in my eyes. "Fine, then. Go and see your god for yourself! I hope you're hideously disappointed!"

I thrust half of the broken cross through her back. Emma took the other half and pushed it in from the front.

Immediately I backed away from the pool of blood that was forming on the floor.

"Don't touch it, her blood was probably contaminated with shit."

Emma complied and very cheerily walked over to where Johnny was standing in the hallway.

"So, were you watching? What didja think?"

He almost smiled, and then lost it. "I'd rather not say I was impressed."

Emma shrugged and skipped off back to the classroom. I followed behind her, red and short-of-breath from my anger. It felt good to be able to do all that. Very good. But when this was over Miss Sewell would be just fine, like the others. This was no permanent solution. Fun, yes, but it didn't get rid of the problem. What was the real reason for all this?

I feared I would never know.

But I figured I could wait.

Back in the classroom, no one was the wiser. It was accepted that Miss Sewell as in the office, seeking guidance from Miss Raposa.

We waited quietly for the last period of the day to start, "we" being Emma, Johnny, and myself. The rest of the room was obnoxiously loud, as usual.

When Miss Jones entered the classroom, it immediately quieted. I looked over at where Sabrina sat twiddling her thumbs innocently as if she were a model student.

Miss Jones took her place at the front of the room. She, unlike every other teacher I had, was not old, wrinkly, or grouchy. In fact, she was quite beautiful. Also, unlike the other teachers, she knew how to connect with her students.

"Alright, girls," she said, pacing back and forth, "I find it really pointless to give you work when we only have a fifteen minute class. But since our wonderful faculty has to keep school running, I have to give you something to do." She rolled her eyes. "So, I guess I'll give you a printout to read. So while I go out for a second and get this copied, I expect you all to be quiet."

As soon as she left, the room exploded again. People moved to sit on each other's desks and chatted loudly.

I ran a hand down my face and sat back in my chair, annoyed. "Is it really so hard to keep your flapping lips closed for TWO FUCKING MINUTES!"

A few of the girls in a corner turned to glare at me, and the talking rose to an even higher level. Miss Jones was none too happy when she came back to the room.

"It's really sad and pathetic that you're not mature enough to stay quiet for just a few seconds." She shook her head. "Just know I'm disappointed in you, okay?"

I smiled brightly as many people in the room turned red. Sabrina turned to me with a quite nasty look on her face.

"You're such a fucking good girl," she sneered. "You and your stupid cartoons...I mean, Jesus Christ!" She leapt to her feet in the heat of the moment. "You like fucking cartoons! And you think you're more mature than me? You make me feel like a babysitter!"

Miss Jones approached Sabrina, enraged. "You are not going to speak to someone like that in my classroom!"

I rose and held out a hand. "No, Miss Jones. Let me do this. Please." Gracefully, she stepped aside, letting me fight my own battle.

"Without Bridget and Kathy, you'd be the 'Queen' now, you know," I said darkly.

Sabrina smiled, smug. "Yes, I know."

"I suppose that makes you feel special."

"Of course it does! Being better than everyone else...it's what I've been striving for."

Years were close to forming in my eyes. "Enjoy it while you can...you don't deserve the oxygen I breathe."

Next thing, she was dead. She hadn't even seen it coming.

The room went silent. Emma stood up and clapped.

"Wooo, yeah!"

I looked up at Miss Jones, knowing what was coming. I braced myself for the scream.

Instead, she shrugged. "Well...she had it coming."

Emma cracked up laughing, and Johnny smiled. The rest of the class, however, did not seem to agree. They screamed as loud as they could. I had never heard anything like it before.

The bell rang as the screams got louder in a hideous crescendo. I grabbed Emma's hand and rushed for the door as a stampede of classmates chased after me.

"Now might be a good time to GET OUT OF HERE!" Emma called out to Johnny.

"We can't leave until you're finished!" He ran beside us, following our lead outside. "When everyone is gone, you will just...go back! But you're not done yet!"

"How the hell are we supposed to finish if we're run out by an angry mob of bitches!"

"That's the problem, Emma! You can't!"

"FUCK!" I declared, pulling Emma outside of the building. "Shit! There's actually a bus here! Come on, let's go!"

The three of us raced to the bus, jumping onto it just in time, before our class could see us. As more and more people boarded the bus, I became increasingly confident that we would make it back to Johnny's house alive.

Then, when I looked out the window, I saw someone conversing outside with Miss Raposa. She was pointing to our bus.

Shit.

"Dammit, bus..." I pleased silently. "Go...go!"

But Miss Raposa came onto the bus, a fire burning in her eyes. Emma and I leaned down in our seats, trying to keep out of sight. Johnny did the same.

"Girls, you know who you are, and I know you're here!" She stood tall in the aisle, looking into the seats. "You should know I've called the police! You're not getting away this time!"

"Emma!" I whispered frantically, grabbing onto the front of her shirt. "They're gonna get us and we're gonna go to jail! We're gonna be stuck here!"

A look came over her face, like she had just experienced a revelation.

"Oh...my god. No. No we're not."

"What...?"

"Sam...it's her!" She jumped up from the seat, in plain view of Miss Raposa. "It's her we need to get!" She giggled. "How stupid were we? Running from the one person left!"

My heart leapt. She was right! Miss Raposa, and it was all over.

All over.

I felt a pang of sadness as I looked over at Johnny. This was where it ended, where it all ended. After this...I would probably never see him again. But I knew what had to be done.

Miss Raposa noticed Emma and started toward us. Emma drew out her sword in a flash, and swung. She swung it as hard as she could. And if Miss Raposa was beheaded or impaled, I would never know. Because Miss Raposa disappeared. Everyone around us disappeared, followed by everything. And son, only Emma, Johnny, and me were left standing in a pit of blackness. He looked down at us, his arms crossed behind his back.

And then he smiled.

"I really don't want to say that was fun, but..."

"Thanks, Nny," I said.

"Yeah!" Emma chimed in. "Thanks for the...one-time experience!" She dramatically threw out her arms and hugged Johnny around the middle. He looked extremely uncomfortable, but did not brush her off. When she let him go, I went in myself, albeit only for a second. I let go, and went back to join Emma.

"Thank you," we said together.

And then it was over. Miss Raposa's dead body was long gone, Johnny was gone. It was over.

I held my hands out in front of me and saw real flesh. I looked over at Emma, who stared back in wonder.

She shook her head, confused. "Samantha...I think I just had the weirdest dream."

"No, Emma...look."

We weren't wearing out uniforms anymore. Instead, we were wearing the clothes we had been wearing in the 'dream'. What's mores, we still wore the shirts that Johnny had given us.

"Emma..." I said, "I think we should get out of here.

Our clothing wasn't exactly appropriate at the moment. Emma nodded, agreeing, and we started to stand up, ready to hightail it out. We were stopped by a voice that made us flinch. Emma and I turned around, wincing. Sure enough, a nun stood in front of us, her arms crossed.

"Ladies...what are those you're wearing?"

"Clothes," Emma said.

"I don't appreciate your cheek!" The nun brushed off her skirts, looking flustered. "Tell me your names. Your parents will be notified of what you've been wearing around here."

"Fuck you," Emma growled.

"Juvenile Hall!" the nun hissed. "That's where you'll be going!"

She shook her head and stomped back off to the bulding. Emma and I did not follow.

Curiously, I reached behind my jacket and felt the handle of my sword. I grinned.

Revenge was sweet.