Ok, so here's chapter five. Sorry about the wait, but I've had a huge Bible project for school to do, and on top of that, track and band, so I've been really busy.
So yeah, here it is. Hope you enjoy it!
:) -Giz
Chpt. 5: Kori the "Smooth Criminal"
"I don't have to be careful, I have a gun!" -Homer Simpson
It never would have happened if it weren't for Rob's Algebra 2 test. Seriously. If he hadn't put his huge notebook on the table, then the glass of Coke beside his huge plate of spaghetti would have never fallen over and spilled into Kori's lap. Kori would have never been forced to make a trip to the bathroom to get the worst of the stain out before it set in, and henceforth would have never found the wallet.
"I'm sorry," called Rob as Kori walked away, but she waved it off.
"It's alright," she said, turning to face him, and it really was alright. Her jeans (it was dress-down day again) were at least a year old, and had seen all sorts of stains in their lifetime as pants, from mustard to split pea soup.
The bathroom was empty, which is partially why Kori noticed the wallet so easily. It was perched on one of the sink's edges, in danger of falling into the ceramic basin. It was made of blue leather, and was fairly large for a wallet. When Kori picked it up, it seemed to weigh a ton.
What is in here?, she asked herself, opening the flap to see. There was a lunch pass with a picture of a skinny blonde. The name on it was Anna Kole. Also in the wallet was a photograph of a small boy in a pirate costume (He had Anna's hair, so he was most likely her brother), a picture of a dog, a handy horoscope card, and a garishly yellow card reminding Anna to come for a dentist appointment. In addition to this, there was a large amount of coins in one zipped pocket, and something bulky in the other. Kori investigated, and found an action figure of a caveman. One of its legs looked like it had hot-glued back on. In neat Sharpie, the word "Gnark" was written on the bottom of one of the feet. Kori was puzzled. She returned the figure to its place in the wallet and stuffed it in her pocket without thinking.
Returning to the lunchroom, Kori forgot about the wallet, as she was thrust into a developing plot involving Gar attempting to stuff grapefruit into his pants due to some dare initiated by Terra (He had managed to get four and counting into his pants. Vick and Terra were cheering him on, Rob was studying for Algebra and pretending not to notice, and Raven was looking embarrassed of her tablemates, like she might leap up at any moment and go join the jock table).
"I can't believe someone would do this to meeeeeeee!"
It was sixth period on Friday, and Anna Kole was inconsolable. She had been since lunch, and everyone in her presence was, while pretending to be sympathetic, secretly growing more and more sick of her constant tears and wailing. The cause?
"Whatever sicko stole that kid's wallet is gonna pay for this," said Gar, rolling over on the bandroom sofa. His eardrums were beginning to throb.
"Amen," mumbled Terra. She was seated on the floor, her hands clamped over her ears. Since it was dress-down day, she was dressed in some Hollister blue jeans and a pink polo shirt. The pants were too long, and the shirt was definitely not her color, and the whole outfit made her look horribly wannabee, but no one had the heart to tell her any of that.
Raven didn't look wannabee at all. She actually looked quite sexy in some jeans that were just the right length and a dark violet shirt with a V-neck that was just the right color and matched her eyes. She was lounging on the other of the sofas, coolly listening to her MP3 player (Blink 182 by the sound of it) and ignoring Anna.
"I'll kill that good for nothing wallet stealer," Fizzy Slanistraus was saying. Her face was fierce enough to make anybody believe that she'd keep her death-promise. Alongside being a total pervert, Fizzy was also said to keep several items of weaponry stored underneath her bed in the room she shared with Anna and Ahava (the black haired girl with the "Kiss me, I'm not Irish" shirt). It was also said that she's once made her pet turtle go insane by using Chinese Water Torture on him in her own backyard.
"What was in that wallet that you're so upset about, anyways?" Dash asked Fizzy. Anna was too busy looking red and puffy to answer, so Fizzy took the liberty to do this for her.
"Gnark," she answered. "Her toy caveman. She's had him forever, and always has him with her."
"I knew I should have put him in my pocket instead of my wallet!" said Anna through sobs. "But since his leg came off that one time he went through the washing machine, I'm always afraid I'll forget again to take him out of my pants and his head or something will come off this time! Then how would he breathe?"
Anna went back into a sobbing fit, and Dash, clearly freaked out by Anna's devotion to this caveman action figure, walked away.
"Looks like someone forgot to take her happy pill," he muttered to Fizzy as he passed.
It was already unfortunate that Kori had left Anna's wallet in her pocket to begin with, but what was even more unfortunate was that she took it out Friday night and left it on top of her bookbag and, not thinking, later put it into her bookbag, letting it settle just beneath her extra pack of notebook paper and a pack of ballpoint pens, and it was soon forgotten entirely.
However, most forgotten things are remembered again sooner or later, and Kori remembered the wallet again a week later, when her hand brushed up against it in third period study hall wile she was rummaging for her homework planner.
The blue leather looked unfamiliar to her, but when she glanced to the eighth grade half of class only to see Anna Kole scribbling something or another in some notebook, the whole wallet-on-sink thing came back to her.
Kori quickly formulated a plan to come up to Anna after class and casually say that she had found the wallet in one of the bathrooms that morning, and was now returning it. Her mind was in full swing, trying to think up a believable script, when Kori heard a shrill cry coming from Anna's direction.
"That's my wallet!" she shouted with incredible panache, and Kori saw her mistake: She should have put the wallet back in her bookbag before formulating her plan to return said wallet without suspicion.
Everyone turned to look at Kori, who was now staring, red-faced, at the wallet in her hand (Thankfully, Rob had gone to his locker, so he didn't see her sheer embarrassment).
"Anna, not so loud!" said Mrs. Garner in an overly loud voice. "Now what is it that you're screaming about?"
"She has my wallet!" Anna repeated, pointing at Kori. Every word felt like a bullet.
Mrs. Garner then motioned Kori and Anna out into the hallway, just as Kori suspected she would. The class burst into sheer hysteria the second the door closed. Kori was all too aware of Vick's confused stare as he paused his MP3 player to watch the three leave the room.
"Now explain to me how you came to acquire this young lady's wallet," said Mrs. Garner, after checking to make sure the wallet was really Anna's. Anna now held Gnark safely in her hand.
"I… found it, in a bathroom," Kori said. She swallowed hard, and her throat hurt a little. "A week ago." This wasn't sounding too good.
"So you kept it?" That was Anna, clearly shocked at this blatant act of delinquency.
"I meant to…" Kori trailed off at the sight of Mrs. Garner's unforgiving look.
This was how Kori ended up, against her will, in her way to the guidance counselor's office only moments later, a hall pass in hand. Her face was still red, matching her hair.
"Kori?" Kori froze at Rob's voice. He was at his locker, taking his time collecting the needed Government binder. "What're you doing?"
"N…Nothing," she said too fast. "Mrs. Garner sent me to the office for something, that's all." It hit her that her overly fast speech might prove to be suspicious to an extent.
"It's not nothing, Kor," said Rob. "Why are you blushing like crazy?' He took the hall pass from Kori's hand.
"Guidance counselor? What the heck did you do?" He was clearly appalled at the thought of his seemingly perfect girlfriend doing something worthy of the infamous guidance counselor.
"Iaccidentallystoleawallet," responded Kori, all as one word.
"Keep up the good work," said Rob with a smile as he headed back to class.
The guidance counselor's office smelled like chlorine, decided Kori as she stepped through the door approximately two minutes later after a ridiculously long trip to the water fountain. Her head was spinning as she entered the room. It was more of a classroom than an office. Seated at the desks in it were a handful of people Kori knew to be delinquents, most of which had black clothing, multiple piercings, or oddly colored hair, except for poor Ester Atkins, who was seated in the back, with her scant brown hair and Keds shoes.
It was funny to Kori that Raven fell under two of the three typical bad girl categories, but had never once entered this room. She broke the laws of stereotyping.
"Well, hello, Kori, dear," said the guidance counselor, Ms. Bell. Ms. Bell was a short, sort of round woman with brown curls and bland clothing. She talked really slow, and knew Kori for all of her academic achievements. Ms. Bell was also in charge of awards ceremonies, and had often handed Kori the said awards.
"Now, what are we in here for today, sweetie?" Ms. Bell didn't seem shocked by Kori's appearance in a discipline oriented atmosphere one bit, for some reason. Perhaps she had seen one too many good girls go bad and the thought of academic achievers committing crimes no longer bothered her.
"Accidental theft," Kori murmured, putting an emphasis on the word "accidental".
"How can you accidentally steal something?" asked a girl near the front of the classroom. She had ruby red hair, an eyebrow ring, and a black pinstriped tie instead of the usual blue one. Her valley-girl accent didn't match her attitude.
"Back to work, Dacia," said Ms. Bell, and Dacia obliged reluctantly.
"Here's your survey," the woman continued, and handed Kori a small packet. "Give it back to me when you finish, and you may return to class."
Kori took a seat next to Dacia and got to work. She picked a pen up off the floor, dusted it off on her shirt, and looked at the first question.
Have you ever committed any sort of crime before? the paper was asking her in 12 pt. Times New Roman font. No, Kori wrote in the space provided. The ink came out chunky and not smooth at all, so Kori had to press harder, and ended up causing a blob of ink to come out on the paper.
Have you ever thought about stealing something before? was the next question. Kori wrote another no in the blank.
Half an hour of no's later, Kori came to a question that read Have you ever done drugs or consumed alcohol before?. She remembered back in the summer before seventh grade, when Jessica had taken her to one of her parties, but that had only been one beer, and Kori had thrown up enough afterwards to know never to do in again. She lied and wrote another no.
Do you suffer from split personality disorder? No.
Do you hear voices in your head? No.
Do people say your friends have bad influences on you? No.
Do you follow organized religion? Yes.
Kori performed a mental joy dance as she finished the packet and got up to return it to Ms. Bell. Several people, she noticed, were asleep. and Dacia had pulled out her iPod, and was listening to Linkin Park, by the sound of it.
"Am I done?" Kori asked quietly. "Do I go back to class now?"
Ms. Bell nodded. "Just don't forget to some back tomorrow.'
"Tomorrow?" Kori swallowed.
"Yes, dear." Ms. Bell said this in a manner that suggested that Kori should have known this all along. "Theft is an action punishable by a week, no more or no less, of me." She smiled a smile of evil, and dismissed Kori to third period.
I hate that woman, Kori defiantly decided as she left through the door and entered the normal world yet again.
Lunch was strangely quiet that day. Terra was trying to finish a Biology worksheet before fifth period, and Gar was out talking to his Geometry teacher about some work he'd missed when he was out sick a couple of days before. Kori spent the biggest part of the time imagining herself with black hair and piercings, like her sister.
"So how was counseling?" asked Rob sometime while Kori was trying to decide whether she would rather have a tongue or nose piercing (She decided on tongue, since her nose was rather sensitive, and there was also the snot factor).
"Huh?" asked Kori, truly not knowing what her boyfriend was talking about.
"Counseling," he repeated. "How was it?"
"Fine," answered Kori. "I had to answer all of these pointless questions." She went on to describe the questionnaire in explicit detail, leaving out the part about the beer.
"You were in counseling?" Terra had looked up from her notebook at last (That intense concentration had to end sometime), and was now glaring at Kori with a wide-eyed look of interest. "For what?"
"She stole a wallet," answered Vick. Rob had told him the whole story, and both were clearly proud of their friend. Kori gave the boys both a death glare.
"Whose?" Raven, who had been paying an awful lot of attention to her salad, and was now looking up at her friends.
"Anna Kole's," muttered Kori, feeling the blush rush back into her cheeks. "It was a total accident, I swear-"
"It'd better have been an accident," said Terra, her eyes growing wide. "That poor girl's been wailing about it non-stop since it went missing last Friday. She won't talk about anything else, and she keeps breaking down and crying in band, hasn't she Rae?"
Raven seemed to have lost interest at this point, and didn't answer Terra's question. Instead, she went back to eating her salad.
Kori felt a sinking feeling in her stomach, and suddenly wasn't hungry anymore.
When Kori returned to counseling the next day, she found that she, Dacia, and Esther were the only students in the room. It smelled like chlorine again.
"Back, I see?" said Dacia. Esther didn't say anything.
"Where's Ms. Bell?" asked Kori, putting her stuff down next to Dacia.
"Not here," was the response. Dacia was wearing the same tie today, with several pins from obscure bands Kori only pretended she had ever heard of. Esther, on the other hand, had her uniform sleeves rolled down and her hair in thin braided pigtails. Around her neck was a pink heart necklace most likely from Aeropostale.
"Hi," she said in a small voice that reminded Kori of a cassette player when you press a lot of buttons at the same time (Kori's little brother had messed up most of Kori's favorite tapes by doing this, including her audio reading of The Boxcar Children that she often fell asleep to, literature nerd she was).
"Is your last name Anders?" Dacia asked Kori. Kori nodded. "You related to Jessica?" Another nod.
"Yeah, she used to be one of my friends a while back in middle school," continued Dacia. "We were the bad girls in our grade, until I caught her with my boyfriend in ninth grade. We haven't spoken since except to cuss each other out occasionally." Kori couldn't help but smile.
"I don't get along too well with her either," she said softly. "I'm pretty much on the same terms with her as you are."
"So you don't have to, like, share a bathroom, or any of that crap?" asked Dacia.
"Thank goodness, no," replied Kori. "We have a big house, so I hardly have to see her except at dinner."
The two spent about the next ten minutes just talking about Jessica, before they were interrupted by the opening of the door to the classroom, and in walked Vice Principle Mamfunk and, oddly enough, Jessica Anders. The Manfunk looked enraged, and Jessica looked bored.
"Where's Charlotte?" he asked, referring to Ms. Bell.
"Well, obviously not here," answered Dacia. "Do you see Charlotte?" she turned and asked Esther. The latter quickly shook her head. "I certainly don't see Charlotte. Sorry, sir. No Charlotte." Dacia looked pleased. The Manfunk looked furious. He shoved Jessica into the room before storming off, probably to find Charlotte. The door slammed shut loudly, making Kori jump.
"Hello, Jessica," said Dacia, narrowing her eyes. Jessica ignored her, though. Her gaze was directed a little to the right.
"Well, hello, little sister," she said, not bothering to hide the displeasure in her voice.. "What in the world are you doing in here?" She took a seat beside Esther, who shied away. Jessica smelled like cigarettes. It was obvious why she was in here.
"She stole a wallet," answered Dacia.
If Jessica was at all impressed by her little sister's crime (Rarely had she done something so interesting), she certainly didn't show it. She just massaged her shoulders and leaned back in the seat. Esther coughed a little and fingered her inhaler. She was looking a little nervous, obviously afraid of having an asthma attack with Jessica so close to her.
The rest of the class period passed in silence. Ms. Bell never showed up, so they all sat and stared at each other. Occasionally, Dacia would flick Jessica off, and Jessica would call Dacia something obscene in return, but other than that, silence. Once, Esther pulled out a tube of lip gloss, and Kori would now and then make a little noise crossing and uncrossing her legs. Dacia sneezed. Jessica tapped her heavily ringed fingers on the desk. Then, the bell rang.
"What's the distributive property, again?"
It was Tuesday, Kori's fourth day of counseling. Jessica had vanished, Dacia was "gone to her locker" (an excuse meaning anything from "doing drugs" to "beating up little kids" to who knows what else), and Kori was helping Esther with her Algebra I homework (Esther was behind a year in math and science for a freshman due to a problem with simple addition and subtraction).
Ester looked up at Kori with sad, green eyes, obviously nervous about asking Kori to reteach this simple process again, for the third or fourth time (They'd lost count).
It was about three minutes until the bell when Kori got a feeling. Something stirred in her brain, and made her jump a little.
"Ms. Bell, can I be excused?" Ms. Bell nodded, and Kori left, first patting Esther on the back encouragingly.
Kori had no idea where she was going. She felt vaguely like an idiot as she stood there in the hallway, feeling panicked and rushed. In a minute and a half, the bell would ring, and Kori would have to go back to Ms. Bell's room and get her stuff.
Her feet carried her to the front entrance of the building. They then carried her outside and in the direction of the dorms. Something was definitely wrong. The air didn't smell right.
People passing stared as Kori made her way quickly to the girls' dorms. One of the second floor windows was open. The air on this side of the campus smelled like smoke.
Kori nearly ran into the building and upstairs. She rounded the corner and took the stairs two at a time.
The door to room 201, her dorm room, was open, and smoke was barreling from inside it. Kori made her way into the space, coughing from the fumes, and spotted a small amount of flames coming off of the desk closest to her own bed.
Thinking quickly, Kori threw open the window over her bed. Smoke poured out of it. Avoiding the flame, the redhead leaned out of the window to breathe some fresh air. She was about to rush to the bathroom to get a damp towel to throw on the fire, when she spotted a black haired girl walking casually away from the building. Jessica.
Kori ran out of the building as quickly as she'd come in. More people stared now. With pleasure, Kori heard the fire alarm sound. She couldn't help but smile.
It only took a couple of seconds to catch up with Jessica. Time was moving too quickly for Kori to process what she was thinking or doing. Before she knew it, she was throwing herself at her sister. Weird, yes, but that was the only thing she could think to do.
A lighter fell from Jessica's hand, confirming Kori's thoughts.
"You set my room on fire!" Kori hissed, half as a question, though she already knew the answer.
"Cool prank, huh?" replied Jessica. She grabbed Kori's arm and twisted it until tears came into her sister's eyes. Then, she kicked Kori so hard in the shin that, for a second, Kori really thought her leg must be broken. Jessica's Doc Martens hurt. Why couldn't Jessica have been like Esther who wore Reeboks?
Kori's hand went, on instinct, to her leg. She breathed in hard through her nose and, for the first time, realized that Jessica was drunk. She sure smelled like it.
The Manfunk couldn't have shown up when Jessica was beating Kori to a pulp. No, he had to show up the second that Kori decided to fight back. She was in the process of punching Jessica in the face when he interrupted them.
"Anders, stop this instant," he shouted, gripping Kori's arm. Kori quickly withdrew as Jessica fingered her chin. Jessica proceeded to flick Kori off.
"Now what the heck is your problem?" The Manfunk narrowed his eyes.
"She set my room on fire!" cried Kori. She could feel her eyes filling up with tears. This wasn't going as planned.
"Yeah," said Jessica, looking disoriented. Kori made a pact never to get drunk as long as she lived, unless she had good reason.
It didn't take long for the story of Kori's brave and defiant act to get around the student population. People were talking about how she'd beat her drunken sister to a pulp and single-handedly put out the flame in her dorm room.
Well, close enough.
Unfortunately, Kori didn't get to enjoy this, since she was in the principle's office with her sister the whole time.
"Mrs. Anders," The Manfunk was saying into the telephone. "I'm here with your daughters. Jessica has performed an act punishable by expulsion, and I'm afraid I'll have to do so." He went on to explain Jessica's drunkenness, wile Kori sat nervous, and Jessica sat bored, flicking off anyone who looked at her.
"Your mother will be here in a few hours to collect you, Jessica," said The Manfunk. Jessica used a few choice words, and the assistant principle turned to the redheaded Anders sister.
"Kori," he said. "I know you had good intentions, but I'm afraid that skipping class and fighting on campus are going to land you in two more weeks of guidance counseling." Kori felt her heart fall at this news, but only a little. She would get another two weeks with Dacia and Esther, and her sister was going home for good. On top of this, she would be applauded for when she left the principle's office. Could it get better?
Maybe breaking out of a shell wasn't too hard, Kori decided as she left the office half an hour later. She glanced at the fire engine leaving the school and knew she would have some explaining to do to Raven and Terra.
Humming Breakaway under her breath and thinking about the bruise on her leg and dying her hair black to match it, Kori headed to lunch, feeling rather like an onion that had lost its troublesome top layer.
Ok, there it is. Hope you enjoyed it.
I'll be working on the next chapter ("When the Bee Stings") now for a while. I didn't really like this chapter, so I'll try ot make chapter six really good for ya'll's sake and mine. I'll attempt to get the next chapter out pretty soon, so keep on waiting.
-Giz