It was 7:30 a.m when Jazmine put her things away in the coat closet. All during her walk to school that morning, she couldn't keep the three girls and Riley off her mind. What she had told him yesterday was true, she never made trouble, and had never been in trouble. It would be quite a shock to everybody when they learned that she had tussled with some of her classmates.
"Pisst, she's over there." Jazmine heard someone whisper. Oh God, so it begins—it was too damn early for this.
"Hiya Jazmine, how are you this morning?" Came the sarcastically false pleasantry of Jazmine's arch nemeses. Jazmine looked up to see none other than Rita Theronguard and her two cronies.
"Hello Rita." She replied simply.
"Humph, I see you couldn't manage to tame that orange beast on your head yet again this morning huh?"
Jazmine said nothing as she began to walk to her seat.
"You know you could just ask your mom to do your hair—oh wait…she's white so why would she know how to wrangle all those nappy kinks?" Rita jeered at Jazmine's turned back. "Ya know, you should just do your mom and yourself a favor and shave that knotted mess off. At least that way people can confuse you with a cancer patient and actually try to be nice to you. Lord knows you ware enough pink."
That made her heart hurt. Was no one hearing this evil heifer? It was one thing to tease about her hair, but those remarks were both cruel and racist. Jazmine remained quiet and continued to her desk, ashamed that she couldn't find it in herself to defend either her mother or herself, not to mention all of those sick people she managed to insult. What was more, why did Rita Theronguard have to sit directly behind her? There was almost no escape.
It was a few minutes before the start of class and most of the kids had found their chairs. Rita, who had sat just a moment ago, leaned in to whisper in Jazmine's ear.
"Your dad is supposed to be some big shot lawyer right? I hear from my boyfriend that he's just a cunt who lets himself get walked on in the court room."
Jazmine winced. She didn't even know what a cunt was, but she knew if Rita was using it to describe her father, it couldn't have been good. Again Jazmine was silent.
Just then the bell rang and Jazmine let out a sigh of relief. With class starting, at least she didn't have to hear anymore of Rita's torturous words. But then again, just because class started, didn't mean Rita couldn't still work her mischief. Before the teacher even finished writing the day's lesson on the board, Jazmine had negotiated three small paper balls that Rita had put down the back of her shirt. They were only fifteen minutes into class and Jazmine already wanted to burst into tears and race out of the room.
It was like this almost every day. Jazmine knew damn well that there were other kids around that saw and heard everything Rita did and said to her—but no one dared to say a word…not to perfect little miss Rita Theronguard. In the eyes of all the teachers of their grade, Rita Theronguard was an exemplary student and an infallible angel. With her alabaster skin, steel gray eyes, silver tongue and a head full of long, gently curling mahogany tresses, this chick was a force to be reckoned with. She had perfect grades, perfect looks, perfect hobbies, perfect friends, a perfect boyfriend and perfect parents. Ha! If they only knew!
Her parents were one of at least three sets that pretty much ran the PTA, so even if Rita slipped up a bit on the academic side, it would simply be overlooked and she would be allowed to keep her perfect scores. Because of the power her parents had, her ego was about as big as her so-called boyfriend—Butch Magnus Milosevic. That was the other thing. There had been other girls before that had been the target of Rita's contempt who tried to do something about it. All it took was one word from Rita and those girls weren't heard from again, which was something she had neglected to tell Riley about. If she faced off with Rita Theronguard, she faced off with her two attack bitches Julie and Samantha, and her boyfriend Butch. It was a nice thought to be able to fight Rita and win, but Butch would kill her. Jazmine made it up in her mind that she would go see Riley again after school for his 'training', but she also figured that she would tell him the truth about not going to fight Rita. That Butch was a bastard, and Jazmine had no intentions of being made to disappear. This wouldn't be forever--having to put up with Rita Theronguard and her bullshit. She'd much rather deal with that than have to fret over what her boyfriend Butch might do.
When lunch time came, Jazmine wasted no time collecting her school meal. Normally she would just bring her own lunch along with some additional money if she wanted to buy something from the a la carte line that the adults usually frequented. But today she had forgotten it in the kitchen—too caught up in her thoughts to think about it. Today's lunch wasn't so terrible she guessed—meatloaf and more green beans with mashed potatoes. Since students had their choice of milk, she opted for strawberry. Feeling relatively secure in her seat at the edge of the table, she prepared to eat.
To her left sat a boy, and to her front sat another girl. To her right was the aisle created by all of the tables. She separated a bit of meatloaf onto her fork and put it in her mouth. Not her mom's meatloaf sure, but it was bearable.
"Pardon me, but this seat's been taken."
Jazmine froze—fuck.
The boy to her left vacated the seat he was in without looking into the newcomers face. Jazmine's eyes were glued to her loaf. The girl who sat in front of her, along with the other boy that sat next to her also fled as the other two arrived.
Trapped.
Rita didn't even bother to sit all the way down in the seat, resolving only to put one knee in the chair as she occupied the space. Across the table, tall, lanky, platinum blonde headed Julie and skinny brunette Samantha sat down, horrible grins plastered on their smug faces.
"Jesus Jazmine—can't even one part of your stupid life not have pink in it?" Rita hissed as she regarded Jazmine's strawberry milk. In that instant, the Dubois girl immediately regretted her choice of beverage.
"Hmm, meatloaf; how quaint. But I guess little poodles like you love their dog food huh?"
Jazmine swallowed. Something bad was coming, she could feel it.
"Yeah Rita, I think Pinky here left her collar at home. Maybe she figured it chafed too much after her parents walked her this morning." Samantha said with a snicker. Julie grinned evilly at the remark.
"You know what?" Rita began. "I hear little lapdogs like Miss Dubois here like their food extra moist. Your loaf is looking a bit too dry honey, let me help."
By now Jazmine's hands had found her lap underneath the table—her hands balled into tight, nervous fists. She watched with only her eyes as Rita leaned across the table and grabbed her milk carton. Rita put it in front of her and proceeded to bend back the cardboard tabs to open the milk.
"…Plus your meal looks so colorless. Since I know how much you like pink…"
Jazmine only stared through the table as the stream of strawberry milk fell through the air and onto her barely touched meatloaf—the pink milk splattering onto the table and onto the front of Jazmine's blouse. Placing the now empty carton back on the tray, Rita glanced toward Julie for a moment. The girl smiled wickedly and gave a slight nod.
Reaching over the table with no level of modesty, Julie picked up the saturated strawberry flavored milk loaf and promptly smeared it into Jazmine's face—making sure to give it a bit of a twist for effect.
"Come on pup, eat up! Don't'cha like it?" The blonde taunted.
"Oh looky, the little naughty puppy made a great big mess…" Rita goaded. After that, the Witch Therongard reached into her black Tinker Bell embroidered purse and pulled out a wet nap. Tearing into the small package, she unfolded the moist towelette and laid it atop Jazmine's perfectly still head.
"Ok, girls, we're done here." She announced. Then together, the three walked off to some other part of the cafeteria.
And there Jazmine sat motionless; bits of meatloaf and milk still sliding down her face. After another second had passed, she gingerly reached up to pluck the towelette off of her head and wipe her face with it.
That was it; she had gone too damn far this time. Butch Magnus Milosevic or not, that bitch and her 'cunts' were going DOWN.
Riley had been waiting for Jazmine in the same spot they had been yesterday. When Jazmine arrived, Riley immediately noticed the fire burning in her light green eyes.
"Uh, is there sumthin' I should be knowin' about?" The boy inquired.
"Riley—she poured milk in my meatloaf and had that cunt attack bitch of hers smash it in my face."
Riley was struck speechless. Where the hell did little-goodie-two-shoes Jazmine Dubois learn language like that? What was more, where did all this controlled fierceness come from?
"She did what?" This was a real surprise for Riley. He knew that women could get pretty catty with each other—but why Jazmine? Though Jazmine was a complete naïve, he knew she didn't deserve that level of disrespect—not even from him.
"Oh see, it's on now." Riley seethed as he punched a fist into his hand. Jazmine was so upset by now that she was shaking—tears were spilling down the sides of her round face. These weren't the regular loud, obnoxious and overly dramatic whales that he was used to seeing from her—these were tears of hurt, anger, and bitterness. He knew those tears well. Riley let his face soften a bit.
"Don't worry Jazz, I got'yo back. I think I'm gunna show you a bit more than I was gunna cuz that bitch gotta really pay now. But listen, I cain't teach you nuthin' if you all mad an' shakin'. You gotta calm down some."
"RILEY, BUTCH IS HER BOYFRIEND!" Jazmine suddenly blurted as she burst into very real tears. 'Come again?' he thought to himself. Did he just hear her say Butch Magnus Milosevic was that bitch's boyfriend?
"I-I wasn't gunna fight h-her Riley--" She sobbed "B-but when she said I should shave my head and be like a cancer patient, I WANTED TO RIP HER EYES OUT!!" By now Jazmine was a hysterical mess. If she didn't quiet down soon, she'd draw attention.
"Hey, hey!" Riley tired to sooth as the girl continued to bawl. Feeling the pressure to act, he did the only thing he could think of at the moment, put his arms around her and pull her near. If nothing else, it would muffle her loud, angry sobs.
While Jazmine continued to cry out her misery, Riley couldn't help but feel uncomfortable--once again weepy females were not his forte. This was different though, something about it seemed personal now; not only because she was his neighbor and they hung out sometimes, but because her tormentor's 'boyfriend' was the one he had a vendetta against. Actually, this couldn't have worked out better. By Jazmine beating the fuck outta this Rita bitch, Butch Magnus would be almost an easy target for Riley. After coming to this conclusion, he pushed back on Jazmine's shoulders.
"Hey, you cut that shit out now. You g'wn make that bitch pay for whut she did ta'you ok? I'm'll make sure'uh it."
Jazmine looked up at Riley with watery eyes and nodded. Whatever it took, she'd do it. Anything to see that evil bitch and her friends hurt. Anything. Calming herself, she wiped away what tears were felt. She would be like a sponge and absorb everything Riley was telling her. Every bit of it was valuable information, regardless if she could master it or not.
"Ok Riley, show me what else is gunna work."
A/N: Ok yall, the next chapter is gunna be the jump off. Get ready!