Chapter 4

Halfdemongirl: okay... yea well... here's how it goes... Slade picked a random girl off the street and well... it wound up to be Rachel... I'll get to her family problem in this story for those who are very confused with her mother's behavior... and Rachel's just learning to open up... so give me a break! I'm trying to write this from a guys point of view! If you haven't noticed! Hey Aimless, could I borrow a pry bar?

Aimless Shadow: uh... sure..hands HDG the pry bar but I don't know what you're going to do with it... it's not going to help you write your story...

HDG: who said anything about writing stories! I'm going to go knock some sense into that hyped up, pea size brain of Shade Spitfire... hides pry bar OH Spitfire! What did you say I couldn't hear you!

Aimless Shadow: Take my advice Spitfire... Run!

HDG: Time to give the lil monkey his shots! takes out 3 foot long needle yea doctor time! Everyone runs away quickly What? What did I do?

Some time in Feb School cafeteria

Everyone was in the Cafeteria by now. The room was packed! Different smells of food were in the air, chattering from different tables could be heard, and no teachers were walking around to keep an eye on everyone. Richard and his friends were at the end of a row of tables but in the middle. Like 12 tables on one and 10 on the other. So at the end of the 12 row and in the middle of the 10.

"Can you believe what happened?" Gar asked. He took a mouth full of tofu and bread.

"Shut the heck up, Gar!" Victor whispered harshly. He grabbed the brat and covered the child's mouth with his hand to hush him up. 2 teen girls walked by looking at them weird, they shrugged. The trio smiled, once the girls passed they sighed.

"Do you want the whole school to know?" Richard warned. Threatening glares were thrown between the two.

"But why did she do it? I mean bring to consider that she is one of us heros." Kori whispered, softly so just they could hear.

"I don't know but still it's a good chance to find out-" Richard was interrupted by the whole cafeteria laughing. The three turned their attention to the center of the chaos, while Gar used his hands and feet to try and free himself from the mechanical arm, death grip of his friend.

"Come on... Fight us!" the group of boys again. Richard couldn't see a thing. He got up and pushed past people blocking the view of the scene.

"Come on Jason! Give it back!" a familiar voice called. It seemed to be frustrated over something.

"Not again." Richard sighed. He shook his head as he got to the front and stopped. The boys were tossing something back and forth, between them. Keeping it out of the girl's reach. Richard looked up. "Oh no." It was Rachel. Richard had to hurry and get there before they did something to her.

The boys tossed it a couple of times be fore Jason held it high above his head and teased the shorter girl. Rachel jumped and jumped to try and gain back her item she was being baited with.

"Come on jump for it, jump for it!" Jason encouraged, once Rachel jumped a few more times. Jason knock her down on the floor. She was tired now. She couldn't get up, she could only sit up and watch as they made fun of her. Jason lowered his hand with the book and opened up to the first page. "Let's see here, what do we have?" Rachel's eyes were starting to water. She looked down at the tile floor she sat on. "To a wonderful and awesome friend, Love Richard." Jason read. "Aw! Does wittle Rae-Rae have a wittle boy fwiend?" Jason teased in baby language. He kept reading. The boys and girls around them laughed.

"Why do you care?" Rachel spat. Jason read on.

"As dark as darkness may seem, there is still always light. And with you by my side there will always be, forever more, light. What a sap." Jason said as he closed the book and threw it down on the ground, in a pile of junk. "That's where it should be, with the rest of the garbage."

"Gasp" Rachel gasped in horror as her precious book fell into the gunk. She crawled over to her book and picked it up.

"Rae." Richard finally made it, too late. He ran up to her and knelt down by her. She was crying, she clutched the book tighter to her chest. Richard put a hand on her shoulder, she jumped and looked at who it was. Rachel's face was covered by most of her hair, which wasn't in a pony tail, her dark gray, woven sweatshirt was wrinkled and dirty, the book she clung to was, some how, familiar, her pants were the same as her shirt, in mess wise, but they were blue jeans.

"Richard." Rachel sobbed.

"Sh. There, there. Everything's going to be alright." Richard soothed her as he gently hugged her. "It's okay." Rachel's sobbed rocked her body severely.

School hours are over

Rachel had a black coat on that went to the middle of her thigh, black gloves that had the finger tips cut off and a dull grey scarf. She carried her backpack upon her back as she walked away from the school. A car came by, unnoticed, until the driver and passengers started throwing snowballs at her.

"Ha ha!" Jason laughed as they bombarded her with snow balls. Rachel crossed her arms and hugged herself as the snow balls hit. One hit her in the face, that one made her fall over, the others didn't matter. She sat there shivering on the ground and begged, in her mind, for them to stop. Soon they did and they moved on.

Another motorist was approaching, Rachel got up and brushed herself off. She brushed the snow from her long hair. The motorist stopped and looked threw his helmet at her. He had a red helmet and bike, he wore a black leather jacket and gloves.

"Hop on, Rae." the person said. Rachel started to walk away. The boy flipped up his visor. "Rachel!" Richard called.

She heard him, "Yes?" Rachel asked politely. She stopped and turned her head. "Oh! It's you." she said with a smile. The boy made his motorcycle go a few meters before stopping.

"Hey... you okay?" he asked.

"Yea." Rachel sighed. She looked down at her shoes and kicked some snow.

"Listen, I saw what they did to you... I want to help you, Rae." Richard pleaded.

"There's nothing you can do to change who they are." Rachel doubtfully stated. She started to walk away.

"Rae, Rachel!" Richard called after her. The girl stopped in her tracks. "I just want to make your life better." Rachel turned around to face the motorist. "But, if you don't want the help, just remember I'm always here for ya." Richard put down his visor and revved his engine. "I guess I'll be seeing ya." Richard was about to ride off.

"Wait!" Rachel shouted, shyly. She walked briskly back to her friend.

"Hmm?" Richard looked at his friend in confusion.

"I would like it if you..." Rachel's words could not be understood that easily, she was drown out by mumbling.

"What?" Richard asked as he sat up straight on his motorcycle.

"Could you give me a ride home?" she mumbled, loud enough so he could hear it. At that moment a snow ball came flying and hit Rachel in the side of the face. She just flinched.

"Squealer!" The teen who threw it shouted and ran in the opposite direction. Rachel just let the snow slide off her face.

"Hey." Richard comforted her, as he reached his gloved hand up and brushed the remaining snow off of her pale face. "Hop on." Richard invited her. Rachel was soon on the back of the motorcycle, clinging on to the motorist in front of her. "Hold on. It gets windy back there." He warned. Rachel nodded and clung tighter. Richard revved his engine, then they were off!

Rachel's house

"Mom!" Rachel called as she walked in the door. "I'm home!" Richard followed Rachel in to the small house. "Mom?" Rachel kept walking in to the house. Richard looked to his right. A note was posted on the wall.

"Rae!" he called. Rachel had set her backpack down and took off her scarf, gloves and coat. She quickly walked back to the entrance and grabbed the note.

"Okay." she quickly skimmed the paper. Rachel walked into the kitchen and placed the note on the fridge door. "Ya hungry?" she asked as she opened the cooler door. A breeze of cool air rushed into the room, not like it was noticeable.

"An apple will do." Richard replied. Rachel grabbed two apples and tossed one to Richard who walked into the room and sat down at the table. It was 10 minutes, the 2 teens were half way into their apples.

"So..." Rachel dragged. "What's your family like?" Rachel picked a fuzz off her sweatshirt.

"Well, uh..." Richard thought. "I am... actually... adopted." he managed to get out.

"Oh. I'm sorry." Rachel apologized.

"Don't worry." Richard sighed. "Well, one question though... What's with your mom?" He tried to make the question sound, not so harsh.

Rachel paused for a couple minutes before she looked down at the table and started to speak, "Well, it's hard to explain." Richard leaned forward, to hear her better. "You see, why I have trouble with the boys at school is because... is because..." she trailed off.

"Is because... What?" Richard asked.

"Is because... of my... my..." this was very hard for Rachel to say. The phone rang. Rachel got up and ran to go get it. Richard was left in the room for a few minutes, he soon got up and walked into the hallway, to find Rachel. He followed her voice to the upstairs hallway outside her room. Rachel had just hung up.

"Is everything alright?" Richard asked, Rachel sighed.

"My mother's working late again."Rachel said in disappointment. "Would you mind if you stayed here with me until my mother came home?"Rachel was fiddling with the end of her sleeve.

"Of course."Richard stated. Rachel walked into her room and sat down on her bed. Richard followed, and shut the door.

"Okay, you promise not to tell any one this." Rachel warned.

"I promise." Richard reassured, he put a hand on her shoulder.

"Okay, why I have a problem with men is... is because... because of my father." Rachel mumbled. Richard was shocked. "There have been rumors that are going around that say that... he raped me and my mother."

"Well," Richard was getting over the shock. "Is that true?"

"Is what true?" Rachel said doubtfully.

"The rumors." Richard said.

"Well, it depends on how you look at it." she said, she lowered her head in shame.

"What? What do you mean?" Richard started to get frantic.

"No! I didn't mean like that!" Rachel shot, "I'm still a virgin." Richard was relieved. His face had signs of tension, sweating. "Don't worry about that. He didn't take that away from me." Rachel wrapped her arms around Richard's neck, loosely. "He was about to, then he raped my mother right in front of me." Rachel's eyes started tearing.

"Shh." Richard soothed her, he rubbed her back as her sobs rocked her body. "It's okay, he's not going to hurt you any more."

"Thank you." Rachel whispered. Rachel backed off. "Why we moved here is because we have to escape my father's grasp." Rachel wiped a tear away from her eye. "We're so poor, because we have been in the hospital so much. We don't have that much money." Rachel got up and went over to her dresser and pulled open the drawer, she pulled out a couple pieces of paper. "We have lived every where." Rachel walked back over to Richard and handed him the papers. They said different counties, states and countries. "Thankfully we've been here for the longest with out having him finding us."

"How are you able to live here?" Richard questioned as he set down the papers and looked around the room, she was right, there wasn't much there. Just a dresser and an old desk, no tech in the room, a small one person bed, and a small closet.

"My mother and I work for the lady who owns the houses. So when I leave early I have to work and she pays us for our time." Rachel stated as she sat down next to Richard and leaned her head on his left shoulder. "She has agreed to keep me going threw high school, if we keep working for her." Richard put a comforting hand on Rachel's head. "She gives us this house so we can stay near her, and don't have to go far." Rachel moved in closer so she could wrap her arms around Richard's waist, loosely.

"Well, remember if your having a problem... I'm always here for you, Rae." Richard sighed. Richard kissed the top of Rachel's head, he then set his head a top of hers, and put his free arm around her waist.

Rachel started to giggle.

"What?" Richard took his head off her's and looked down at her.

Rachel managed to get out, "I don't think my mother would like it if she came home and found her daughter cuddling with her best friend." Rachel looked up at Richard. "She'll be getting bad ideas."

"Well, then I guess I should start to leave." Richard said after a couple minutes of giggling. Richard got up and started to walk towards the door, he was then stopped by Rachel. She pulled his arm to stop him.

"If your going to leave like that, that isn't a very good friend." Richard heard Rachel state. Richard turned and kissed Rachel on the forehead then turned ack to the door.

"See ya." Richard sighed when he opened the door.

Rachel responded the same way, "Good bye." Richard left Rachel, just for that day.