Chapter Nine:

Gold On Everything

Jazmin and Strika sat together on the bus on their way to school. Strika had been exhausted, dozing off on the ride there, while Jazmin was nervously texting Talon, inquiring if he'd been okay. Talon replied that he was fine and she would be seeing him in class today, albeit late. He declined to tell her about any more events dealing with Sandy and him ending up in the Pokemon Center and the charges that were soon to be dropped. When they reached Los Lados High, Jazmin shook Strika awake and they both got off the bus, separating when they got on campus. She went through the usual routine of going through the metal detector and putting her bag through the x-ray, then made her way to her locker. She took out her textbook and sighed, glancing in the mirror attached to her locker door.

She decided to wear gym short-shorts and sneakers with a matching tank top. Instead of her two signature braids, she let her hair loose, resembling Lakeda even more. She saw Portia hanging with Zanny, giggling as he gave her pills and a kiss on her forehead. He headed out, cutting first period to chill with Big Smoke. Portia pocketed the pills and walked over to Jazmin. She wore sky blue mini pencil skirt, flats and a cute dark blue camisole top with her hair tucked cutely behind her ears.

"First period gon' be some shit," Jazmin muttered, putting some chap stick on her lip, "You goin?"

"Yea," Portia said, taking her math textbook out her locker, "Ion want anyone thinking some suss shit, feel me?"

Jazmin nodded, "Yeah...so, uh, you and Zanny…y'all really a thing?"

"Yea," Portia said, giggling, "He's so fly."

Jazmin gave her a dry look and shook her head, walking with her to class as the bell rung. When she walked in, she sat in the back as usual. The other students began coming in, taking their seats, chatting and mumbling as they did. Jazmin flipped through her math textbook, realizing she didn't bother with the homework. It didn't matter at this point and Portia simply sat comfortably in her seat, filing her white tipped nails. Talon didn't come in yet, but she didn't bother him by texting him too much.

At the sound of the late bell, Mr. Roak walked in, with his folders and suitcase. Upon seeing him, Jazmin's throat became tight and dry. She glanced over at Portia who looked unnerved, but she remained still. She started doodling to calm down—a panic attack at this point in time would be imprudent. She drew little hearts and stars in the margins of her notebook, watching Mr. Roak write equations on the blackboard. He seemed…so inoffensive, mild…trustworthy, albeit tired of the shenanigans of students. Don't look back, Jazmin reminded herself, don't look back. She heard two students who sat two rows down whispering about Mr. Ace being arrested, a suspect in Keisha's death. There would be a sub for P.E today because of it.

"…I heard he's being held at L.L's Correctional Facility…"

Jazmin's ears twitched as she picked up that tidbit of information. She texted Portia what she heard. Portia looked at her phone, glancing at Jazmin. Jazmin mouthed "after school," at her and she nodded, wordlessly. Mr. Roak finished writing equations, pointing to the board.

"Anyone want to solve for X?" He asked, "Anyone? Or y'all just going to continue being lazy asses as usual."

Nobody raised their hand and he sucked his teeth, calling on a random student to solve the equation. He got up and began struggling with the math problem immediately, but managed to solve for X. When he finished, he sat back down, letting out a low phew. Mr. Roak continued teaching about doing graphs and solving for unknown variables, but Jazmin was lost in her thoughts, along with half the class. Not soon enough, the bell rung—a slow forty-five minutes, but it was typical of first period class. As everyone got up, packing up their notebooks and folders, Mr. Roak set the chalk on his desk and sat on his chair.

"Jazmin, I need to talk to you after class," he said, ignoring the other students as they left his classroom. Jazmin felt her heart sink into her stomach as she exchanged nervous looks with Portia. The Vaporeon scurried out the classroom, following her peers out into the hallway. Jazmin could feel herself immediately breaking out in a sweat. She slung her backpack around her shoulder and walked stiff-legged over to Mr. Roak's desk. When she did, he got up, walking to the door, shutting it and locking it, pulling the blinds over the door's transom. He walked calmly back to his desk, sitting back in his chair. Jazmin stood there, unsure what to do, but she remained, her ears drooping in fear. Mr. Roak pointed to a seat by the window and instructed her to move it towards his desk. She did and then he gestured for her to take a seat. She listened, plopping down in her chair. Mr. Roak put his phone on silent, placing it face down on the desk. His dark eyes were intense, piercing—something she'd never seen from him. Jazmin felt her heart pound against her chest, like a bird fluttering in a change, yearning for release.

"Jazmin Jolt," he said, opening up her file, and looking through it, "Freshman, 14, no record…yet, and well, a decent B minus student."

"Y-yeah, that's me," she said, twiddling her fingers, "Is there something wrong, Mr. Roak?"

He stared at her from behind his square rimmed glasses. He took them off and set them on the desk.

"You broke into my house," he said, closing the file, "You and your fucking friend, Portia Pour. Y'all realize that's a felony, right? And if I decided to call the goddamn feds… you and your friend would be in juvie for the remainder of your high school career."

"I—I…." Jazmin felt her throat dry up, "H-how but—"

"I ain't stupid Ms. Jolt," he continued, "I smelled you. You have a distinct scent. All mons have a distinct scent. You shorted out my camera and my lock and you left your little yellow hairs all over the place. I know it's you. So don't play stupid with me."

Jazmin stared at him.

"Why'd you break in?" He inquired, already knowing the answer, "And who was the third person with you?"

"T-there was no third p-person," Jazmin lied.

"Stop fucking with me," he snapped, growing quickly aggravated, "Who's the third motherfucker?"

Jazmin didn't answer. She pursed her lips and stared at him. Mr. Roak sighed, clenching his fists.

"You took shit from me—a flash drive," he said, not bothering to mention the photos. If Azuru did tear them up, then there would be no point in giving away such information.

"I-Ion have it," Jazmin said.

Mr. Roak glared at her. With that, she felt like she couldn't move. Her heart was starting to skip beats the longer he stared at her.

"Ion have it," she said again, blurting it out, "Ion have it."

"Does Portia have it?"

"No!" Jazmin swore.

Mr. Roak sat back down, growling—a low rumble coming from his chest. As Jazmin sat with Mr. Roak, Zanny was making his way to the third floor, chewing on tobacco as he did, playing with a cigarillo. He twiddled with the flash drive between his fingers, walking into the school library—something he never did his entire time of attending Los Lados High. He walked over to a freshman sitting around a computer. He grabbed the freshman and pushed him out the way, hissing at him so he would fuck off. The poor freshman ran off, terrified of Zanny's wrath, leaving him be. He sat around the computer, looking at the flash drive.

It was silver with a green light embedded in its center. When he stuck it in the USB port of the computer, he waited for a moment. The light blinked green and an "ACCEPT/DENY" prompt appeared on the computer. Zanny smacked his lips and clicked "ACCEPT." With that, the flash drive's files were opened on the screen display, organized in alphabetical order. He scrolled through them. Most of them looked like boring shit: this year's taxes, lesson plans, budget plans, analytic charts, but he stopped when something caught his eye. It was a folder that read "IMPORTS." He cocked his head to the side and clicked on it. When he did, he was re-directed to another screen that had a .zip file. He then clicked on the .zip file and it spilled out its contents on the screen. Zanny scrolled through them, his eyes darting left and right. They were names of what he assumed were women. He raised a single eyebrow in marked bewilderment. He clicked on one of the names: Helen Persia. There a small picture of a woman showed up—a black and white photo of a girl that couldn't be older than seventeen. She was of Persian-descent, her catlike ears poking through her wild mane of pale blonde hair. She was partially nude in most of these photos. He exited out quickly, clicking another name he saw that was familiar: Tessa Tres, Arty's friend, one of the more popular girls in school. There were photos of her with businessmen. She looked drugged out or drunk out of her mind in them. Zanny snapped photos with his smartphone and then clicked out, going for another name.

There he saw Keisha.

He clicked on her name and saw there were no images of her, but simply a word: "Sandy," and a number code that read: 9267. Zanny was confused. He knew Sandy—he was a dropout of Los Lados who sold for X-Large. Helen Persia was the one he only vaguely knew. She was nineteen now and a streetwalker for X-Large, nothing and nobody special. He clicked out of the screen, pulling out the flash drive as he did. He group texted Portia and Jazmin the photos he took with the caption: "These hoes r actual hoes."

Jazmin's phone buzzed and Mr. Roak snatched it before she could look at it. He saw the name: "Zanny." He opened the text and saw the contents of his flash drive on her screen. He knew Zanny—the failing burnout drug dealing student of Zangoose descent. He permanently deleted the text and the images.

"He has my flash drive," he said to Jazmin. She stared at him without saying a word as he held her phone. With that, she made a sudden motion to grab her smartphone and raced towards the door but she noticed that it disappeared. She panicked, skidding to a halt. Mr. Roak walked over to Jazmin. She realized he made it vanish with his ability to cast illusions. The door was still there, she just couldn't see it. Mr. Roak seemed to phase through the wall and with that, the door was suddenly back—and he was gone. Jazmin opened the door and saw that the hallway was still crowded with students. He changed! She panicked. He could be anyone. She began jogging through the hallway, pushing students out the way, looking for any clue that could betray his illusion. When she couldn't find him, she ran to the school library, where Zanny would have to be to be able to see the contents of the flash drive. He was just leaving when she reached there, deleting the information off his phone as he did.

"Yo—I just saw you, weren't you leaving?" He asked, confused. Jazmin felt her heart skip a beat, not having time to explain she ran off again, this time at full speed. Zanny smirked and tossed the smartphone out the window, walking over to the adjacent boy's room, where another Zanny was unconscious in the stall. He took the flash drive out of his pocket and walked out.

Jazmin found Portia in second period class, which she was late for. She didn't bother with attendance, but simply bolted in. Talon had gotten in for second period. Ms. Mega, the teacher for second period made a loud AHEM. She was of a Yanmega-lineage. She was short and very slim, with a full head of stark white hair, medium toned brown skin and compound red eyes.

"I'm sorry I'm late," Jazmin said, going to the back of the class, sitting down, her face shiny with sweat.

"Damn the fuck happened?" Portia asked, whispering.

"D-did you get a text from Zanny?" Jazmin asked frantically. Portia checked, confused.

"I mean, I did, yea, but the text is blank."

Jazmin slumped down in her chair, not listening to anything Ms. Mega had to say. She whispered back to Portia and Talon.

"Mr. Roak knows we know and that nigga ain't playin, bruh."

"Fuck you mean he ain't playing?" Talon whispered.

"Exactly what I mean," Jazmin continued, "He move damn near as fast as me and that nigga—he makes illusions, he ain't playin. Bruh…"

"We in over our fuckin' heads," Portia admitted.

"I didn't get the chance to see what was on the fuckin' flash drive," Jazmin said, speaking softly as Ms. Mega started to lecture.

"Whatever it is I bet you it's some wild shit."

"We can't stay," Jazmin said.

"Huh?"

"Huh—Honda? Bruh, you heard what I said," Jazmin barked, "We ain't stayin' here."

"The fuck you mean we ain't stayin here?" Talon snapped, "We can't just dip out in the middle of class."

"Yea we can," Jazmin said, grabbing her backpack, raising her hand, waving it frantically. Ms. Mega sighed, folding her arms.

"Yes…Ms. Jolt?"

Jazmin stood up, "Can I use the bathroom?"

"Ye—"

She didn't wait and dashed out the classroom. She began to speed down the hallways, heading down the stairs and making a sharp hairpin turn, heading out the front doors of the school, not caring that security saw her basically cutting class. As she did that, she waited at the side entrance, texting Talon and Portia. Portia responded instantly.

Portia: I can't cut.

Jaz: U not safe! Get tf up outta there

Portia was still in class and she sighed, raising her hand. Ms. Mega gave her a tired, sardonic look.

"What? You have to use the bathroom too?"

Portia nodded, her cheeks turning red as the other students were looking at her, whispering and mumbling to themselves. Ms. Mega shook her head.

"Wait til Jazmin returns—then you can use it—"

Talon got up and took his backpack, not caring what anyone else was thinking or saying. Ms. Mega looked irritated.

"Will you sit down! What the hell is gotten into y'all lil' motherfuckers!"

Talon looked over his shoulder at Ms. Mega, with the students whispering and "oohing," at his blatant defiance. Portia stared at Talon, who gave her a reassuring wink. He darted over to the window, throwing it open and leapt out, eliciting gasps and screams from his classmates. Everyone scrambled to the window to see what had happened, including Ms. Mega. Talon was flying away, cutting class as blatantly as he could. When everyone was watching Talon soar off into the sky, Portia snuck out, grabbing her purse and began jogging down the hallway. She reached the staircase, and hurried down it as fast as she could despite the fact she was pretty slow runner. She reached the first floor and made a b-line for the door, running past an unenergetic security staff and out the double doors of Los Lados High. She leapt down the entrance's stairs and met up with Jazmin who was at the side exit, waiting for her. She hugged Jazmin tightly, feeling tears well up as she did. Jazmin took her hand, clasping it tightly.

"Ready?" She asked.

Portia nodded, "Ready."

Jazmin raced off with her, speeding down the block and into the streets at her top speed, leaving nothing but a trail of dust and a blurring of afterimages behind her. Portia held her breath as she was pulled along, holding on tightly to Jazmin as she ran. The world around her became an incredible blur of colors and lights as they were far away from the school.

Goddamn!

Jazmin did a sharp turn and slowed down for a brief second before regaining momentum, skirting underneath the train tracks that crisscrossed over 10th Ave.

Meanwhile, Ms. Mega put an F for attendance for Talon, Portia and Jazmin, sighing, shaking her head.

"Dumb motherfuckin' kids, got me workin' overtime in this bitch," she muttered, as the class was being rowdy and laughing at what had happened.

Charlie Ace had been sitting in his cell for at least two days, lying in an uncomfortable cot, looking at a ceiling that was covered in hardened gum and graffiti. His hearing was in a few weeks and his lawyer was uncertain how to get him out of this debacle. Charlie Ace was a gym teacher in Los Lados High. He was of a tawny complexion, a head full of curly tomato red hair and matching ruby colored eyes. He was tall, handsome and made of lean muscle from head to toe. He was of the Cinderace linage, sporting their huge rabbit ears and matching cottontail. He was sharing the cell with a woman today, who had been chewing gum for an hour. She had straight eggshell colored hair with chocolate brown roots, a suntanned complexion and dark fuchsia eyes. She was lean and lanky, average height and had cute, puffy cheeks. She boasted the large downward ears of a Lopunny and its tail. She looked unhappy, her mascara and eyeliner running down her face, leaking frightful streaks of black. He swallowed hard, trying to make conversation.

"Uhhh… hi."

The woman looked at him and continued chewing her gum, not bothering to answer.

"So…nice…afternoon we're having…yeah?"

She smacked her lips and chewed her gum, still not acknowledging him.

"So…what you in here for?"

"Fightin," she answered curtly.

"Hmm…" Charlie nodded, "Yeah…that'll do it."

"Yeeeep," the woman said, popping in another gum in her mouth, chewing away.

"Yeah…well I don't belong here. I got arrested under false pretenses you see and I'm waiting for my hearing but damn they're talking forever—"

"Ayo, my nigga, no offense, but nobody cares my guy," the woman said, "Like, ion care, that nigga over there sleepin on the ground don't care, ain't nobody care. Where in the fuck do you see a nigga in here who cares?"

Charlie was taken a back and he sighed, fiddling with his thumbs, "Yeah…uh…sorry…I'm just…frustrated."

"It be like that sometimes bro-bro," she said, smacking her lips as she chewed.

"Not really—I got fucking framed for murder, like what the fuck."

The woman quirked an eyebrow, "Yo soft lookin ass got framed for what now? Sheeeeit nigga I didn't know Cinderaces rolled like that."

"Well…I didn't know Lopunnies got locked up for fighting."

She shrugged, "It what it be, fam."

Charlie sighed, scratching behind his ear nervously. He wanted to pace, but he wasn't sure if that would help.

"I'm Charlie," he said, trying to be friendly.

"I ain't ask yo name nigga," she said sharply, giving him a stank look, "The fuck you think dis is, ? Nigga sit yo ass down ain't nobody talkin to yo gym teacher lookin' ass."

"I am a gym teacher…do I really look that obvious?"

"It ain't that you look like on its that you be smellin' like one nigga, you ain't ever heard of some fuckin frebreeze, gott-damn, bruh."

"I got arrested in the middle of my P.E class, and I haven't had access to a shower since I've been in here."

"That sound like a 'you' problem."

"You don't smell like roses either…"

She shrugged, "Yeah I know I smell straight gas and liquor my nigga, I was caught fightin' for the eight-hundreth time, wha'eva, I'll just do another fuckin month or two in fuckin' prison and get the fuck back out there, ion care."

"…How old are you, anyways?"

"The fuck you wanna know my age, nigga? Nigga you look thirty, back the fuck up."

Charlie chuckled nervously, "I'm twenty-six…and I don't…wanna know your age for anything like that, I'm just curious."

She sighed, shaking her head, "I'm twenty-one."

"Well…damn," he said, "So…how'd you get caught fighting?"

She shrugged, picking at her cuticles, "Cuz bitches wanna test me and I gotta put 'em in they fuckin place. I serve straight lefts and rights like I work at Denny's, nigga, ion play them fuckin' games, bruh. Y'all wanna step to me, you gonna leave on yo back."

"O-oh okay," Charlie muttered, his ears drooping, "So…what's your name then?"

"Fuck you wanna know my name fo—"

"I'm being polite," he said, "That's all."

She stared at him, sniffed and sighed, "Lemmy."

"Lemmy, wow, nice name," Charlie said, trying to be cordial, "Isn't that a boy's name tho?"

"No nigga it ain't a boy's name, you just a closed minded bitch."

"Alright, alright…it's not a boy's name…Arceus…damn," he shook his head, trying to keep himself calm. He laid back on his cot, sighing, simply listening to Lemmy chew her gum over and over. I didn't do anything, he reminded himself. Someone framed me. I didn't do anything.

"Ay," Lemmy said, turning to him, "If you actually get sent to prison, they gon rip yo ass a new one my nigga."

Charlie's pupils shrunk as he heard that, feeling his heart skip a beat. But before he could answer, the warden came to their cell.

"Yo… Charlie Ace," he said, "You got visitors. Let's go."

Charlie got up and the man opened the cell for him. This was just holding, until more details could be ironed out, a court date could be established and charges could be properly filed. But from the ways things was looking, it looked like his hearing would be against his favor and he would find himself detained once more. He walked down the facility that was crawling with cops and other unruly criminals that they were trying to subdue. He eventually was escorted to the visiting area by the front desk, surprised at who was sitting there: three of his students, Jazmin, Portia and Talon. He sat down across from them, his ears erect and his eyes wide.

"Yo! Mr. Ace," Talon said.

Charlie took a deep, shuddering breath and forced a smile, "Hey."