The first thing I noticed about Jay, who was currently sitting next to me, were the obvious things: her flaming red freshly dyed hair, her alternative clothes, the fact that she was glaring at me, the fact she had no food and the huge bruise next to her left eye.
But there was more, something beneath the bleach skin and witty reply to Kevin's blunt: "what happened to your eye!?"

The bracelet, for example, the bracelet with the guitar-charm.
How could she possibly hate music, as she had made very clear, when it was so obvious she didn't? Not only was an electric indigo Ipod sticking out of her bag and was her left foot ticking to the beat of the back-ground music, She also had a simply melodic voice. Even though she wasn't using it right now. She just sat, seemingly obvious to everything around her.
Today, instead of the messy uniform and different coloured converse, she was wearing a dress-shirt and loose tie and the Horace Mantis skirt. Black and white boots underneath them.

"What are you looking at, pretty face?" The green-eyed object of my staring suddenly growled. Making me jump in surprise.
"Nothing." I answered quickly, earning myself multiple lifted eyebrows. "I mean, I…I mean… sorry."

Somehow, it was very hard to lie to her. Even Joe had that problem.

"He was probably just looking at your clothes and hair and bruise and… well, everything" My brother said smiling.

Jay eyed him with indifference and answered in a cold voice: "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Well." Joe began…

"Stop talking." I on beforehand warned him.

"You're kind of… different."

"Stop talking!"

"Not that you're ugly or something, you're pretty, but you know also..."

"Please, stop talking!"

"Kind of a freak, you know."

I sighed, leaving hitting Joe on the back of his head to Stella and watched Jay's face go blank.
"Well then." She said, staring at Joe, who oddly enough blushed underneath her stare. "If you dislike my appearance so much, I won't trouble you anymore, Mr. Superstar. It's not like you liked me anyway." She snorted. "It's not like I liked you, anyway."

With that. She rose, looked at me with a hateful expression and then walked away, vanishing into the crowd that separated for her, her anger raiding off her.

"Do you ever listen to me?" I asked my brother. Even though I wasn't sure if his remark had everything to do with her disappearing. She did not seem to like most people, not just us and from my impression, she didn't really want to like them either.

"Of course I do! I just…"

"You're such a douche bag, Joe…"

Then again, so was I, why did I care so much?

{After school}

"Hey, I'm sorry man!" Joe said, for the thousandth time since lunch, he had even whispered apologies through the history test.
"It's okay, for the thousandth time, Joe. She's hurt and she hates us. It's not like everyone has to like us."

Even though I wished.

"Can I make it up to you?" He asked, suddenly smiling.

"How?" I asked suspicious.

He just pointed to something behind me.
I turned around and indeed, there she was. Across the hallway, her head into her locker, witch was why I hadn't noticed her earlier.

'C'mon man! Here's your chance… then you can forgive me and help me with my math!" Joe smiled, closing my own locker for me.

"It's not my fault you suck at math."

"But you're in an advanced math class!"

I left him standing as I walked over to Jay, my strange fascination with her rising again. Her shirt, hugging her thin frame, had the sleeves rolled up and as I walked closer, I noticed the small light lines running over them here and there.

She winced, downright shied away from me, as I came closer and her face appeared, large eyes staring at me, slightly mocking as I leaned against the locker next to her, my hands in my pockets.
"Hey." I said as she slowly closed her locker. "I wanted to apologise for my brother."

"It's okay." She answered, this time without sarcasm. "I know how difficult brothers can be. You were just trying to be nice, I just generally don't like nice, you know. Not something you should apologise for. Just leave it, okay?"

"Well, I'm a nice guy; I don't just leave things like that." I said, reaching my hand out to make a reassuring movement, but once again she leaned away.

"Just leave me alone, I don't want your sympathy." She threw a few books into her locker and slammed it close. "I do not like you, not any of you goons. Go back to your happy world, where you belong and please, and god, leave me alone."

She turned around and walked away. Leaving me without a word to say. Witch did not happen very often, I can assure you.

So I did the only reasonable thing: follow her. Because something in me; instinct, alarm-bells, conscious? Told me something was going on with her.

It wasn't the most brilliant of my smart ideas, but this was needed, because the thin lines on her arms, were all pointing towards herself.
Witch meant she also made them herself…
A bruise like that did not come from running into something, unless you walked into a fist. Shying away like that wasn't natural, it was wrong.
So maybe I did have super-hero tendencies, because I wanted to help her, so badly it hurt.
Nick Lucas doesn't take a no for an answer.

I pushed my bag into Kevin's arms, ignoring his questions and started to run. I ran outside and tried to catch where she went, praying she didn't take the school-bus. I was very sure she didn't, though.

"The freak went that way." The snobbish voice of Leslie purred into my ear. "Kind of in a rush, I think she was crying…"

Jay, cry? Somehow I couldn't imagine her doing that, she was stronger then that.
"Thank you, Leslie." I told her.

"You're more then welcome, Nick." She purred again as I hurried towards the direction she had pointed and indeed, she hadn't been lying (like I thought) Because I saw Jay walking on the sidewalk, hands in her pockets, not even a jacket covering her, though she was shivering violently.

I continued following her, hiding behind corners and feeling like a stalker, eventually entering a neighbourhood I had never been to. The streets were dirty and deserted, the lonely figure of the girl I was following seeming utterly small.

Her shoulders got more tense with every step she took. My own muscles doing the same thing, my mind still in denial about what I expected.

She turned a corner and walked into a street named hollow's end.
It was old and had an almost ghetto-like atmosphere. Though it looked slightly more populated then the rest of the neighbourhood, mom certainly didn't want to find me here.

The few children that were playing in the street seemed used to Jay, one of the girls even shyly said 'hi' to her.

She smiled at the child, wow, she smiled. Her whole face seemed to light up, cracking the mask of uncaring and pain. She waved at the child, for once completely lost her defence as I only could watch in awe.

When she walked on, her shoulders tensed up again. I saw her take a breath as she walked up a stone path, towards one of the houses.

She entered, disappeared and the door closed with a loud slam.

I looked at my watch, altogether it was already almost six pm and it was starting to get dark. Mothers screamed for their kids to come in and looked at me suspiciously. Making me slightly uncomfortable.

Eventually, about 15 minutes and lots of anxiety from me later, the street was deserted and I slowly made my way towards the house at the end of the street, still having no idea why exactly I was doing this. I barely knew the girl and she had not particularly got herself a place in my heart. I slid down the wall and sat down against it.

Bad idea, Nick, bad idea! I chanted to myself. Go home, to your family, you know nothing about her. So she lives in a poor neighbourhood, she's rough; those things go together, nothing weird!

Still, I couldn't get myself to move, something stopping me. Keeping me here, listening as the darkness fell around me.

Go home, everybody's probably worried sick about you! I sighed. Go…

"Shut up, little slut!" A hoarse, sharp voice, dulled by the walls, but clearly hearable, shouted.
I pushed myself closer against the wall in fright, but quickly relaxed, listening to what was going on inside the house.

"Stay off of me!" An all too familiar voice yelled back and I faintly heard a slapping sound and then something colliding with a hard surface, followed by a cry of pain. "Please, not again!"

I winced and suddenly, the urge to run erupted from somewhere deep down, now that my suspicions had been confirmed.

I heard sobs and a few more sounds I couldn't place and then, ripping sounds, fabric ripping…
I lunged myself away from the house and ran, even though another part of me screamed for me to run in and help the poor girl. Somehow, I couldn't and just kept on running, away from what I'd just heard.

With tears in my heart, but listening to the rational part of me I ran, all the way back to school. There, I sunk down again, on the sidewalk.

Jay was being abused, as I suspected. Worse then I could've imagined, damaged, I now knew.

I stared at nothing in particular, trying not to think about what I'd just heard. And I didn't even have the slightest idea what had been happening, but I couldn't even convince myself of it being a coincidence because of the 'not again'.

I tried to block out the ripping sounds of cloth and the hard slaps.

I shuddered.

I looked up. Only to see the sky covered in clouds and realised I now understood. Why Jay was acting like she did. Why she couldn't love.
She did not know how to, because love hat failed her…

this story is killing me. Partly because of the 8 tests I have to learn for and partly because Jay, well, is a really hard character for me to write. The thing is that she is so vivid in my imagination that it's really difficult to get her written out. I can't just give her a personality, but I have to capture it in the few lines I have :(
I'm sorry for the delay and the shortness. I originally planned to make Nick's find out a little more dramatic, but then figured; drama sucks and made it this way… sue me

Just for the record, I own a pair of Mickey Mouse ears! I OWN Disney!

Also, I was wondering just how the 'do not walk on grass' sign got on the grass in the atrium? (Detention episode)
Love, silver