Chapter 4- Bonnibel

It was the day after Valentine's Day, and to my joy, it was a Friday. I groggily looked up at the clock. It was 5 A.M. I stretched and waddled to the shower and turned the shower on. I let the warm water beat on my body. I let my mind wander, and as usual, my mind wandered to Marce. I could feel my face turn red just thinking about her. I thought about what had happened yesterday. I had kissed her on the cheek. "Does that mean I'm a lesbian?" I thought. If my parents knew I was a lesbian, (even though I am not sure myself) they would flip. They would pull me out of Ooo high so fast and send me to a private school, where they would beat the "disease" out of me. I shuddered at the thought.

You would think parents would be more supportive. I puffed out air, frustrated. In the end, it didn't really matter, right? My parents didn't have to know, right? I could keep it all a secret, right? No. I knew I couldn't keep it a secret. I cared for the strange girl. I had just begun to realize this, only about after the 15th time we hung out together.

A nervous pit formed in my stomach. What if Marce didn't care about me like that? Was she just my friend? Or was she more? I groaned in frustration. Maybe I should man up and ask her. I laughed at myself. When have I ever been brave enough to speak up? That's right. Never. I sighed and stepped out of the shower. I dried myself off, and blew my hair dry.

My pink hair was down to my back, I had just recently cut it. I had bangs when I was a kid, but now, my bangs were almost as long as my hair. I always straightened my slightly layered hair. I always wore bubblegum scented body spray. I stared at my colorful hazel eyes, they twinkled in the light. I had a tiny bit of freckles sprinkled across my face, but I always tried to cover it up with makeup.

I compared myself to Marceline. She was literally the opposite of me. I loved school, she hated it. Science was my life, and music was hers. She was the lead singer, I was the smarty. I bit my lip, and continued thinking about her as I straightened my hair.

Even though we were different, it was easy to talk to her. We never argued, which was surprising. She seemed to argue with everyone else around her, and I was a big arguer. Amazingly, Marceline had introduced me to a whole bunch of people. I especially enjoyed the company of Finn, Jake, Flara, and Raina. Marci's band freaks were a bit too much for me to handle, but I liked them too. My phone buzzed.

"Morning girl"

I smiled at the text "Hi"

"You ready for school?"

"Yeah!"

"Wanna know what my favorite part of the day is?" She asked

"What?"

"Spending time with you"

I blushed "My favorite part of the day is gym, where I can get to see you show off :D"

"You think I show off? LOL"

"You most certainly do…"

"I know you like it! :3"

"Whatever Marceline"

"Haha k well c you at school!"

"Bye! :)"

I turned my phone off, smiling. Of course Marceline cared about me. Maybe she was just as shy as I am.

I took the bus to school. I was listening to some techno as my surroundings flew past me. I stared out the window. Finally at school, I got off, and eagerly looked for Marce. I immediately spotted her and I waved. She waved back and walked towards me. Her hair was in a ponytail, and her bangs almost covered her gorgeous crimson eyes. She flashed her canines at me, and I smiled back at her.

"Hey girl" She said.

"Hi, did you finish your math homework?" I asked

She scratched the back of her head, "Almost all of it"

I scowled slightly "You should have finished it! Or asked me for help!"

She shrugged off my comment "Whatever I did 10 of the 15 problems"

The bell rang and she went off. She was wearing skinny jeans and my gaze accidently lowered to her butt. That's when LSP and Raina came up to me.

"Girl, what the LUMP are you staring at?" LSP grumbled.

I stared blankly at LSP "What?"

"You were staring at somebody's butt…" LSP eyed me.

"Nope. Let's get to class" I said hurriedly.

Raina nodded and we walked along to class. Class dragged on and I waited impatiently for it to be over. English was torture to me. All the extra rules and exceptions made my head want to explode. Science, science was easy. When I went off to college, I wanted to be a Biochemical engineer. Marce wanted to be a musician. I knew she could pull it off; she was the most talented person I knew. "The most beautiful person I knew too…" I thought, and blushed.

LSP turned to me.

"What are you blushing about?" she whispered loudly.

"Nothing!" I shot back.

The lecture about diagramming sentences dragged on. Mr. Bunser finally stopped the lecture 10 minutes before class ended.

"You may have the rest of the period to yourselves" Mr. Bunser said in his weird congested voice.

"Okay Bubblegum I know you're hiding something" LSP said, flipping her purple hair.

"I. Am. Not. Hiding. Anything." I articulated.

"We'll find out, one way, or another." LSP smirked.

Raina nodded in silent agreement.

I rolled my eyes. The bell rang and I got up and went out the door as fast as I could. I stopped at my locker and opened it. When I looked up, Marce was there, her half smile plastered on her face. She looked at me up and down once and opened her mouth to speak.

"Hey there" She said with a wink.

"Hey Marce"

"Are you ready for social studies?" She asked.

"Almost"

Marce leaned closer to me.

"Can I haz a hug?" She asked with a smirk.

I wrapped my arms around her shoulders in response. She broke the embrace, smiled at me, and hugged me again. This time, instead of wrapping my arms around my shoulders, she wrapped her arms around my waist and pulled me closer.

"I have stuff to tell you today after school if you are staying" She mumbled into my shoulder.

"Yeah, I'll stay"

"Okay good"

"Do you have a minute? I need to ask you something"

"I have forever" She said tilting her head in curiosity.

"LSP keeps bugging me about who I like. What should I do?" I asked

"Well, who do you like?" Her eyes grew very, very serious.

"I'll tell you after school" I said, beginning to walk to social studies, and Marce trailing behind.

"Okay" she said with a knowing glint in her eye.

Social studies was fun because I could stare at Marce the whole entire period. She sat in front so she couldn't see that I was staring at her. I hated social studies too. The past was the past. Marce loved social studies. She seemed to be obsessed with the past, and she was determined to never let it repeat itself. Her sea of black hair was in a ponytail today, although it was still teased.

We were talking about the Holocaust, World War II, and Anne Frank.

"Name one original fact about Anne Frank" Mrs. Trunks said in her sweet voice.

Marci's hand shot up.

"Yes Mrs. Abadeer?"

"Anne Frank is actually considered to be a bisexual" Marce said.

Several people in the room gasped.

"Seriously?" I asked.

Mrs. Trunks nodded "If you read the diary, there is an entry about her and her thoughts of the woman body"

I sat there stunned. "Woah…"

Marce seemed pleased with herself. She impressed the whole entire class. After class was over Marce rushed off, and I just went to my locker. The day dragged on until it was lunch time. I glanced over at Marceline; she was sitting by her band friends. I twisted my face, thinking. Should I sit by her? Or should I sit by Flara, Raina, LSP, Finn and Jake? I bit my lip.

I grabbed my food and sat by Finn and Jake, but in a spot where I could watch and look at Marce. I kept glancing up at her, and every so often she'd be looking at me too. She winked at me and I immediately looked down at my food and continued eating.

After lunch, it was gym. Thankfully, I didn't have it with LSP and Raina. I walked into the locker room and took off my shirt. A pair of arms went around my waist and I whipped around. It was Marce.

"Marce you scared the hell out of me!" I squeaked.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't stop myself" She said with her head tilt and smirk.

I shook my head and took off my skinny jeans and put on my gym clothes. Marce ripped off her shirt and black skinny jeans and her stomach was almost completely healed. All you could see was red marks, and as an ordinary person, you couldn't tell she was a cutter. She looked at me.

"I love Schwabl so much" She said as she put on her shirt, covering up her four-pack.

"I'm glad you do. I knew you needed something to distract you from…things" I replied.

"Well, it sure did the trick" She said, with a genuine grin.

We walked out of the locker room together. We stood in the gym, waiting for instructions. A substitute walked into the gym, much to our surprise.

"Instead of your physical tests, today we will just play dodge ball. On Monday you will have your physical tests, because I am not authorized to record them. By the way, my name is Mrs. Queen. Let's sort you out into teams" She practically screeched at the end.

"What is her problem?" Marce asked, leaning into me.

"No clue. Perhaps an anger problem or a simple vocal cord disorder"

"Dude she's totally creeping on PG" Marce whispered

I stared at Mrs. Queen "You're right" I whispered back.

When Mrs. Queen got to us, much to my dismay, she placed Marceline on the opposite team as I. I knew how competitive Marce got when it came to dodge ball, and a pit formed in my stomach. I eyed Marceline warily. When Mrs. Queen blew the whistle, Marceline did a screamo battle cry, and she ran for the middle to grab balls. Naturally, I hung out towards the back. No way was I going to get killed by Marceline. I watched as jocks got hit in the balls by Marceline, and she was laughing the whole entire time. I ball sailed past me, it wasn't thrown by Marce. I jumped up and caught it, causing the other person to be out.

I twisted my face and took aim at Marceline. I threw the ball. Marceline dropped to the ground, dodging the ball. She puffed the bangs out of her eyes and got up, grabbing a ball. She threw it at one of my teammates, hitting them squarely in the chest, forcing them on the ground.

"She has near superhuman strength…"I thought, picking up a ball. I threw it at Marci's teammate and she threw another ball at my teammate, my last teammate. It was just me and her. She stared at me and picked up a ball. She threw it up in the air, it was catchable. She did it on purpose. Refusing the offer of victory, I let the ball drop onto the ground. She stood there stunned, confused. Taking my chance, I picked up a ball and threw it at her. She smiled and caught it.

"Good game Bonni" She grinned.

I nodded, out of breath. She picked me up and carried me to the locker room.

"I can walk on my own!" I said indignantly.

"Yeah, but it is way more fun to carry you" She said laughing.

I scowled, but I couldn't even get mad at Marce. I hopped out of her arms and went in the showers. I quickly scrubbed the sweat off of me and ran out of the shower, and put my clothes on. Marce always took her time and she came out in her bra and underwear.

She flexed her arms in the mirror, and flexed her abs too. She traced her hand over her small scars. I walked over to her and wrapped my arms around her waist.

"I can't wait till school is over, I have a lot to tell you" she said, breaking the embrace.

"I think I have something to tell you too" I whispered as the bell rang.

We both hurried on to our class. 7th period was a blur. Suddenly, school was over and I went to my locker and put my homework into my backpack. Marceline was with her band friends, and they were heading into the auditorium. There was a bench outside of the auditorium, I sat down there and began doing little homework I had, seeing how I did most of mine in class. After about 30 minutes, I finished and I fell asleep.

I woke up to movement at my side. I my vision was blurry and I could make out Guy sitting down next to me, staring at me, with a perverted smile on his face. I shot up, and that's when Marce appeared. A deep anger flashed in Marceline's eyes.

"Guy. You have a girlfriend. Stop messing with Bubblegum" She hissed.

Guy shrugged "Whatever." He walked off.

Marceline sat down next to me.

"Thanks for dragging him off me" I whispered.

She moved closer to me "No problem"

"So, it's after school…" I trailed off.

"Yes. Indeed it is." She said, her voice cracking. "You ready for a long story?" she asked.

I nodded my head "Yes Marceline"

Marceline took a deep breath "Let me start from the very beginning. When I was 8, my mother passed away. She and I were very close." Marceline paused, taking a shaky breath, and continued. "My dad and I…have never been close. When I was 10 I was practically living alone, at his house. I spent a lot of time on my own, and in the city. For my 10th birthday, my dad got me my only true present he ever gave me; my axe bass. I would go play and sing on corners. People would pay me, and it was really the only way to cope with the loss of my mom…"

I stared at her "Go on" I whispered.

Marceline bit her lip "Well two years later, a gang had moved into town. They are called the Gunter. They are the only well dressed gang out there, and they always wore tuxedos. A little girl with her axe bass all along made me easy…prey. One terrible night, when I was walking through a park, on my way home, they surrounded me. I was so scared. They began to beat me…and…" Marceline bit her lip, trying to stop the tears from pouring out.

"They…beat... me…there was five of them. They all took turns...beating me...I passed out. When I woke up my pants were ripped to shreds….my underwear was gone...and I laid there beaten and broken for hours. I was too hurt to move, and I ached everywhere. I wanted to die right then and there…" Marceline was crying now.

I wrapped my arms around her shoulders.

"I'm not done…My dad; he didn't even care that happened to me. He just bought me another house and put me in it. I was 13, and I was a mess. I never went to school, all I ever did was lay around. I was too scared to sleep, the nightmares where as bad as the beating. I was tortured night and day, by my own mind. I needed an escape. That's when I discovered cutting. After I started cutting, everything started to seem more bearable. I started going to school again, and that's when I met Ash. I was 13 when I met him, and we started dating when we were 15." She took a breath, tears still flowing down her eyes.

I was starting to cry, the tears steadily pouring day my face. "M-Marci…" She cut me off before I could continue.

"Ash was my everything, and he introduced me to the band. Everything was going smoothly and we dated for 2 years. During those 2 years, Ash gathered information about me. Like my credit card number and stuff. I never realized how much of an asshole he was until he started bullying Finn. I didn't know how bad it was, until I saw Ash beating on Finn. I screamed at Ash to stop. Ash wouldn't, and I took a stand against him. After 5 years of self defense class, and weight training, I knew how to take care of myself. I sent Ash to the hospital…And after he got out… he sold one of my most precious items. Hambo was my old stuffed toy; it was everything to me during the hard years. He sold it, and took a ton of my money, and left."

A scowl formed on my face.

"Ash was the lead singer of the band, and I took over the band. A year after this happens, I met you. And here we are." She finished.

A sob escaped her mouth and she leaned against me, burying her face into my shoulder.

I hugged her, and her sobs subsided too hiccups, and her hiccups to nothing. I broke the embrace and put my hands on her shoulders.

"The hardest battles are given to the strongest soldiers" I told her.

Her eyes light up slightly. "You think…I'm strong?"

I nodded "If you weren't, you would probably be dead"

"Probably…" She trailed off.

"So nobody else knows what happened besides your dad?" I asked.

"Ash knows, and now, you know too." She whispered.

I hugged her again "I won't tell anybody"

"Thank you Bonni…" She murmured. We embrace in silence for nearly an hour until Marce broke it.

" So, you told me you liked somebody" She straightened her back.

"Who do you think I like?" I asked.

"Finn." She said bluntly.

I paused. "No. I don't like Finn. Finn likes Flara."

"Okay, it's obvious you won't tell me. So I'll tell you who I like." She said in a hurry, standing up. I stood up too.

"Who?" I asked, my hands shaking.

"I'll give you a hint." She smiled shyly.

She grabbed my shoulders and kissed me gently on the mouth. A moan escaped my mouth, she continued to kiss me and I kissed her back, she wrapped her arms around my waist. I broke the kiss and looked up at her.

"I-I…feel the same way." I said, out of breath.

She puffed a sigh of relief. "I've liked you for a long time. Well, kind of since the day I met you."

I smiled "That's so sweet"

"Like you" she said, leaning in and she kissed me again.

She broke the kiss this time, and her face grew serious. "Bonnibel, will you go out with me?" She whispered.

"Yes" I answered, and kissed her.

I thought of my parents, but I pushed them out of my mind. I was happy. That was all that mattered.