Jay walks back into his and Carlos' dorm shortly after midnight, and is surprised when Carlos is wide awake, sitting on his bed and reading a book.
"Your back late." Carlos says. His expression is relaxed and his tone is calm making, Jay sure that he isn't mad, simply curious.
"Whatever." He pauses for a moment looking at Carlos before sitting on his bed and asking, "Why does she trust you?"
"She trusts me?" Huh. I had no idea.
"Don't play dumb. She has made it obvious she trusts you. I wanna know why."
"Maybe it's cause she knows I owe her?."
"Why would you owe her?" Jay begins to frown hearing that his best friend feels indebted to someone.
"It's a long story." Carlos takes a deep breath and silently prays that Jay will just drop it.
"We've got time." Jays tone leaves no room for arguing.
"Okay," He pauses for a moment before continuing, "The story starts the day mom scared off Beelzebub. I ran after him and ended up a bit lost in the woods."
"Okay this part you have told me so far."
"Well I ended up near Gaston's cabin… He let his rottweiler loose on me and Beelzebub. It tore Bee to ribbons then decided I was next. I ran as fast as I could and I would have gotten away if I hadn't tripped. The instant it caught up to me it started tearing into my leg. I was terrified. This beast was ready to rip me to shreds."
"How are you still standing here?" Shock and horror paints Jay's expression.
"Gale showed up. I had shut my eyes while I was being mauled so I didn't see what she did, but I heard this loud cracking sound and the monster's jaws were pulled off my leg. I was still too scared to open my eyes so I was utterly shocked when out of nowhere there was a burning sensation where the dog bit me. I opened my eyes to see Gale was pouring vodka on my wound. When I asked her about it, she told me she was using it to disinfect the wound. Then she offered to let me drink some saying that it didn't taste very good but it would have helped take the pain away. I told her I didn't want any so she shrugged, took a swig and started sewing and bandaging my leg. It took a little time but when she was done I asked the big question. 'Where is Beelzebub?' She told me what happened and she helped me bury him near town. Once she was done she helped me get to the edge of town and told me not to tell anyone that she helped me."
"Why wouldn't she want you to tell anyone?" If she told us earlier we would have never been enemies.
"She didn't give me a straight answer on that. I think it has something to do with her father though."
"Gaston keeps out doing himself."
"What do you mean?"
"It's quite the story. It started when I was looking for her…"
~three days later just after class~
Jay and Carlos were walking to go meet up with the girls in their dorm when they hear a small commotion. With a quick nod between each other they go to see what was happening. They peer down a nearby hallway to see Gale talking to Chad. From their distance the boys can tell that her body is tense and ready for a fight to break out at any point.
"Okay princey boy I'm only gonna say this once so you better listen up. You are worth less than the dirt on the bottom of my shoes. Now as for Evie she doesn't need some pathetic skirt-chaser trying to rule over her. You can't have both Evie and the pastel tart." Gale states coldly, "I don't want to see you anywhere near her from now on."
"Why do you even care about the nerd? I thought you were some sort of big bad lone wolf. Guess I was wrong and you're just another bitch that wants to fit in." Jay and Carlos look at each other upon hearing this.
"That's so cute. You think I care? About her? About anyone? You really don't get it do you? This isn't about her. It's not even about the misogynistic way you treat women. I don't care about any of that. What I DO care about however is the fact that you think that you can mess with a villain kid and get away with it. I care because if you think you can get away with it others will follow. I don't want to have to go back to the isle because a bunch of preppy pansy boys think they can best me." I did grow up with them even if we aren't friends. They would do this for me too. Right?... No… They wouldn't waste their time like that.
"Whatever. Why would I listen to you? You're not that strong. I could take you." Jay covers his hand to muffle his snickering as Gale lets out a laugh dripping with malice. She then cocks her head with a smirk dancing across her lips before speaking.
"Oh you weren't joking? Oh well. Did you know when I was ten I wrestled a full grown brown bear? It thought it could win just like you do. I will never forget the feeling of its neck snapping. I miss that feeling." Gales tone sends shivers down the boy's spines, and they look at each other for a moment a little afraid.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Chad says, trying to hide the tremble in his voice as he turns and quickly walks away. Jay and Carlos start to approach Gale but stop when they hear her muttering to herself.
"Shut up." She grabs her head and collapses to her knees. Carlos goes to get the others while Jay walks over to her. He crouches by her side putting a hand on her shoulder taking notice of how her body tenses at the contact.
"Are you okay?"
"I'm…" Her body is wracked with coughs before she continues. "I'm fine. How long were you there? What all did you hear?" The less he heard the better. I can't afford to make friends. Not after last time. I can't let that happen to anyone else ever again.
"I heard everything. I didn't know you cared about our ragtag little group." He smiles at her. Maybe she doesn't have to be an enemy.
"Obviously you need to get your hearing checked. I made it clear I don't care." She makes her tone as colder than ice hoping it will hide the fear she is feeling. Why are you doing this? You're putting yourself in danger.
"Look no one from the isle can get you here. You don't need to keep your guard up all the time." There's more to you than I knew. You aren't as bad as I thought.
"It never ends well for me when I let my guard down." This comment causes both of them to go silent for a while. In that time they stood up and began walking toward the dorms.
"I've been wanting to ask this for days now… Did your dad hurt you?" Gale stops mid step, looking at him with fear dancing in her eyes.
"What are you.." She pauses hearing the fear in her voice and forces the emotion down before continuing, "What are you talking about? Why would he do that? Villains care about their kids too."
"We both know that's only partly true. You didn't answer the question." She sounds scared. Is she okay?
"Why are you asking? Why do you care?"
"I saw the bruises." Her fear turns to anger in that moment, rage burning in her eyes. He tries to dodge her but he's too slow to avoid being shoved into the wall. She boxes him in her right fist poised to attack.
"What the hell? When?" How?
"The night before we came here."
"Who did you tell?" No one can know. No one is ever supposed to know. Mal, Evie and Carlos arrive at the end of the hall.
"Carlos and the girls." Her fist collides with the wall next to his head.
"You fucking snake." She turns away and storms off. When she's gone the group rushes to Jay.
"What happened? Are you okay?" Carlos asks, noticing the fist sized dent in the wall. Is that blood? Did she hurt herself when she punched the wall? Why did she punch the wall?
"I'm fine. I pissed her off a bit." He moves away from the wall as he speaks eyes widening a little at the state of the wall. She is crazy strong.
"A bit?" Mal says incredulously.
"Okay maybe a lot. What can I say? It's my charm." Jay grins cockily.
"What did you do?" Evie asks.
"Well, ya see I wanted to ask her something and she didn't really like the question."
"Another understatement. You're on a roll." Jay chuckles at Mal's comment.
"I should go talk to her." Jay says after a moment.
"You want to try talking to her after she just tried to pummel you?" Evie looks at him like he is crazy as she asks the question.
"If she wanted to deck me she would have just done it."
"He has a point." Carlos comments.
"Why are you so intent on this?" Mal asks suspiciously.
"I think I'm making progress. This mission will be easier if we all can trust each other right?"
"Fair. Before you go, you should know that we have a plan to get the wand." Mal says waving him off.
"How?"
"With a love potion." Mal says with a grin.
Gale sits in the weights room trying desperately to regain control of her emotions as tears flow freely from her eyes. No one was supposed to know. No one was ever supposed to know. He's gonna find out. He always does.
"You're absolutely pathetic. You should focus on the wand, not pointless emotions."
"I don't want to deal with you right now. If you would kindly shut up that would be wonderful."
"You have no power over me. Soon I will have enough power to get free and rule the world."
"Hey… I didn't mean to upset you." Jay's voice is soft as he walks over to the bench she is sitting on and sits beside her.
"I'm fine." She wipes her face trying to make it look like she hadn't been crying.
"You don't have to lie to me." He puts his hand on her shoulder in an attempt to be comforting. They stay like that for a while, both of them appreciating the contact.
"I can't." Her voice is barely a whisper.
"You can't what?" He turns slightly to look at her.
"I can't let people in. The burdens I bear are mine alone. I'm grateful you have been helping me with reading but that's the only help I can accept." If I get used to this father will find out. I don't want to pass this up but I know I can't have it.
"You can trust me. I won't tell anyone. I'm here if you need help."
"Why? Why do you want to help me? I antagonized you for years. You're supposed to hate me." Why don't you?
"I hated the person you pretend to be. I'm starting to see that the real you is much more complicated."
"It's better if you just hate me."
"Why?"
"Father always says that friends are a sign of weakness. I'm not allowed to be weak. So if you hate me then it will be easier to remain detached."
"Do you hate us?"
"What kind of question is that?"
"The kind you're supposed to answer."
" No." Gale says after a moment of hesitation, "You guys are kinda the closest thing to friends I can get away with."
"What do you mean?"
"I was never really allowed to leave the house so usually I would leave the house to go spar you then I would head back home so I didn't get caught. You guys were the only ones who tolerated me."
"Maybe you remember it differently but we weren't all that pleasant to you."
"Pestering you was better than bringing fists to a knife fight."
"Someone pulled a knife on you?" Why is the thought of her getting hurt making me so mad? She's tough. She can take anything someone throws at her.
"It's fine. I got out of most of those scraps okay."
"Only most?"
"Being stabbed isn't as bad as you would think. Just make sure not to pull the knife out too soon and you should be okay. Either way, that's why I mostly sparred with you."
"Why do you call it sparring, not fighting?"
"I wasn't ever particularly trying to win. I just wanted human interaction in a way my dad wouldn't be livid about. Sparring is exercise that looks violent."
"No way. You were pulling your punches this whole time?" I thought I was able to take hits really well too. Damn.
"I didn't actually want to hurt you. So I decided to go a little harder on you each time until it seemed like it was too much. I tried to do the same thing with Paul buuut the guys around here are as tough as soggy bread."
"He was really that big of a wimp about it?"
"Ya I barely punched him hard enough for a fly to feel it and he dropped like a sack of potatoes and started crying like a baby."
"That's just sad." Jay said with a chuckle and Gale smiled at the sound. Has she ever smiled before?
"Thanks."
"For?"
"This. You didn't have to come talk to me. You don't have to care. I don't deserve it but I am grateful."