I didn't expect what would happen once my father was out of sight.
"Miss Lane is waiting for you in HOMEroom, Miss Morgendorffer. Do not dissapoint her," he informed me.
"What?" I was put off guard by his statement. "But I thought..."
He put a hand on my shoulder. "Despite what you may think of my colleagues and I, we're not all bumbling MORONS, Daria. A lot of us have SEEN the effect you have on Miss Lane - her GRADES have improved for the first time in YEARS, and she no longer LOOKS like she wants to open her WRISTS again."
I frowned. "What about Ms. Li?"
He grinned. "You let ME worry about that. Now go."
I nodded gratefully and walked to homeroom as fast as I dared. I stopped in the doorway and saw Jane sitting there, despair in her countenance, until she noticed me and lit up like the Las Vegas Strip. We bridged the gap between each other and embraced.
"Feisty!"
"Shut up, Upchuck," we said simultaneously.
XXXX
After that first class, we made our way to our lockers (Jane's first) to trade out books for English. Upon approaching my locker, we noticed somebody (nobody I recognized, at any rate) leaning against my locker. I didn't notice Jane had stopped walking by my side. "Excuse me," I said, hoping he would take the hint and move.
The man turned towards me, and I noticed his nose looked like it had been broken one too many times. "You're kidding, right?" he scoffed. "You think I'm going to talk to you?"
I opened my mouth to give him a verbal lashing, but then he looked past me...at Jane.
"Is that...could that be little Janey Lane?" he asked, surprised. He brushed past me, and I noticed that Jane was standing stock-still, staring straight ahead. "It is! How the hell are you, Jane? How's your brother?" Jane was unresponsive. "I haven't seen the two of you in a long time...going on four years, actually." He smirked, and caressed her cheek. "You still have a damn cute mouth, Jane, you know that? Tell you what..." He fished a napkin out of his pocket and jotted down his number. "Have Trent call me up later, and we'll work something out. I got enough money...maybe we can spend the whole weekend together." He leered at her, then glanced at me. "Maybe bring your uggo friend too, in case you still wear out too easy." He chuckled to himself. "In the meantime, Janey, I'm going to go check out my new goal post, and read my plaque." He patted her on the ass as he left.
Jane hadn't changed expression, or even moved once, during the encounter with the man who had to be Tommy Sherman. After he left, though, she began trembling, and tears streamed down her face.
"Come on, Jane. Let's go spend the rest of the day on the roof, and then we'll go hop a train -"
That's when we heard the strangled yell. "The goal post fell! Tommy Sherman's dead!"
"What?" Jane asked aloud, disbelieving. She made her way to the football field, and I followed right behind her.
The sight of Tommy Sherman's body was gruesome. The fallen goal post had apparently struck the top of his skull with enough force to crack it open like an egg, and the contents (more than I would have given him credit for) spilled out like yolk. Other students flocked to see what had happened; some cried, some looked like they were going to vomit, some went ahead and vomited. (Kevin was one of the latter group).
Jane chose none of the above. She took several halting steps towards the body, and stopped right at his head. "Do I still have a cute mouth?" she asked him. Then she began viciously stomping his face - the crunch of bone and cartilege breaking was gruesome, and Jane's blows were also tearing through skin. "DO I STILL HAVE A CUTE FUCKING MOUTH, YOU FUCKING BASTARD?" She moved down the body and delivered several blows to his crotch. I'm sure the shock of the pain would have killed him, had he still been alive.
Finally, she ceased her attacks. I put my arms around her, and she began crying and laughing all at once. The other students looked on in horror at what Jane had done.
I took one last look at Sherman's body, and spat upon it.
We were back in the school for three whole minutes before Ms. Li's furious voice rang out on the PA. "LANE AND MORGENDORFFER TO MY OFFICE NOW!"
XXXX
Ms. Li managed to scream at us for a good five minutes. After that, she ran out of steam, and poured herself a glass of water. While she drank, my father arrived. "What happened?" he asked.
"Your daughter -" She pointed at me, and I noticed her voice was hoarse from the yelling. "- helped Miss Lane defile the body of one of this school's greatest alumnis moments after his death. This was AFTER you instructed us to keep them separate, I add."
"What's their punishment?" he asked. Always to the point.
"Miss Morgendorffer will be suspended for the remainder of the school year. Miss Lane is expelled, and her brother can make arrangements to enroll her somewhere else. You can bet that Sherman's family will be pressing charges, and the school will fully back them up."
Jake nodded. "Come on, Daria," he gestured. I followed, not really having a choice.
The drive home was silent, as I expected. I didn't expect the detour to the burger place. After ordering at the drive-through, he handed me one of the bags, parked, and pulled one of the burgers out of his bags.
"Daria, I...overreacted yesterday. Badly."
I nodded.
"I'm going to trust you now, Daria, but if I find you've lied to me, I'll never be able to trust you again. Do you understand?"
I nodded again. My mouth had gone dry.
"Tell me about this Tommy Sherman, and why I shouldn't trust Trent."
I told him.
The food in my lap had grown cold by the time I finished. Dad had wrapped his hands around the steering wheel, his knuckles pure white from gripping it so hard.
"So, you know Trent has been abusing his sister. You suspect the abuse is sexual. You strongly suspect he's been..." He swallowed. "...pimping her out - to Tommy Sherman for sure, and possibly to others."
I heard his breathing speed up, and the steering wheel began to creak. "And he touched you."
"Yeah."
"I'm going to fucking kill him."
I put my hand on his arm. "Dad...don't. I don't want you to go to prison over this."
"God DAMN IT, DARIA! What the HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?" He punctuated every other word by striking the steering wheel with his balled-up fist. "You said that Jane won't rat her brother out, and the bastard's good enough to fool all the important people - he fooled ME, for Christ's sake!"
I didn't know what to tell him. It was a problem I had been working over in my mind for the several months I'd known Jane, and a solution still hadn't occured to me. And now time was very short - if Jane was shunted off to another school, I might never be able to find her, especially if Trent decided to just pull up roots and leave the city.
"I...I'll think of something," I told him. We hugged (as well as we could in the cramped quarters of the front seat of his car) and we drove home.
That night, as I was drifting off to sleep, I was jerked awake by an idea. If Jane wouldn't testify...
I quickly got dressed and ventured out toward the Lane home.
XXXX
Several hours later, I staggered into the ER of Cedars of Lawndale. I staggered up to the attending nurse. "I've been raped."
A police officer took my statement. I was going over to my friend Jane's house. Just outside it, I was assaulted, and...
A nurse came in afterward. She instructed me to undress, taking my torn jacket and shirt and skirt (my wrecked underwear being in the jacket's pockets). Once I had done so, she ran a rape kit on me, collecting a DNA sample and taking photographs of my injuries. She flushed my wounds around my vagina and anus, and also tended to the various cuts and scrapes on my arms and legs, and the cigarette burns around my breasts. I was given a dose of the 'morning after' pill, as well as a sedative, and put into a hospital bed to rest.
My father came in three hours later - eyes red, face puffy, and tears still streaming down his cheeks. "Oh Daria -" was all he managed to say before he crushed me to him in a fierce hug.
Less than 24 hours later, I was released from the hospital, along with a prescription to keep taking the morning after pill for a week. Dad kept pressing me for details, dying for me to give him the word to eviscerate Trent, but I only told him exactly what I told the cops - no more, no less.
Two days after I was released from the hospital, the police requested I go to their station, as there were important developments in the case.
The DNA they had collected from me belonged to a known sex offender who had seveeral convictions already on his record. They assured me he would not be eligible for parole until my grandchildred had died of old age.
I thanked them, and when I got home I locked myself in the bathroom and sobbed angrily. I had dug the used condom from the Lane trash can and mauled myself horribly for nothing.