Here's the next part! Enjoy! :D
He watched her struggle that day, everyone did. But no one bothered stopping it. No one cared for the new girl at school, she was dead to all of them. The only two people who might've bothered helping, Alexia and Zane, were either not around her or in to much turmoil. So she dealt with it on her own. She kept her head lowered most of the last hour, tears on the edge of her eyes so that they could easily fall if the need arise. And of course it did. She cried at least ten times in a mere hour, a new record Duncan thought. So many people went back to her just to whisper in her ear or to scream it loud so everyone would hear and laugh along with them. It was amazing how fast news spread around school. It was like a virus, accidentally make one slip up and it was eating at you and your computer with no mercy. This was exactly how it had played out for poor Courtney. She made the little mistake of agreeing to go to the fair with Zane and it led her here. She hadn't known it was coming, she didn't ask for it, but it happened. Such was the way of life. You just had to deal with the hand life randomly handed to you. And so far it was really sucking for the broken girl.
Duncan, on the other hand, was on top of the world. If someone wasn't talking to her they were definitely talking to him. They wanted to know how he managed to get the guts up to sabotage a girl like her and more importantly why. Why did he want to ruin her life? The first few times the answer was easy, a simple truth that slid off his tongue like turpentine. He told them all the same thing, 'She was a nuisance. I didn't want her to think she was better then me or that she could get away with stealing my perfect life.' Most just laughed at his reply and went on their way while a few frowned at him, not quite believing this story he told. She was new, so how was she that much of a threat? And what exactly did she try to take? She was innocent enough. They'd seen her walk by them in the hall and give them a faint smile, but she never was rude like the vast majority of the schools inhabitants. And she was certainly better then Duncan. They figured he was just being a bully and asserting his power. It was much more believable then what he was offering. So with a shake of their heads they'd leave him to be, to do as he wished with whoever he pleased as long as that person wasn't them.
As the bell rang she didn't move. She stayed there until well after the buses and everyone had cleared out of school. She needed a place to cry in peace and she knew her home was not good enough. That place might as well have been hell on Earth at the moment with all the yelling and bitching that went on. So she remained in her seat, lights shut off, crying, until she picked her head up long enough to see the sun was setting in the sky. She swallowed hard and slammed her head back against the wall. She was just realizing how stupid it was of her to hang out her all day to feel better about herself. Now, instead of facing a small magnitude of her mother's wrath she would now be forced to endure it at full capacity.
She laughed bitterly at the situation, slowly picking her tired body up and sluggishly heading for the sure to be locked door. She reached zombie like for the knob, turning it just as slowly. She was mildly surprised to find that it wasn't locked. These teachers…she swore they must have jumped off the stupid train or something. She would make a better teacher then a third of these idiots. As she continued to bash the fools to make herself feel better she meandered down the deserted halls of her school, focusing on the tiled floor to further distract herself from her emotional turmoil. There were at least a hundred tiny specks in the square of a single tile. Whether those specks were dirt or the way they were made was beyond her. And honestly she really didn't give a damn. Although she certainly believed it to be the former. Slobs.
Walking out of the dark school the light from the sun nearly blinded her. She held up a hand to her eyes to shield them from the sudden brightness. As she did so she didn't stop walking. Unlike most people she didn't let the shift change how she was going. She had a goal and, her being her, she had to complete it according to her standards. These standards being to beat the quickly setting sun in getting home. The first sign of darkness or a star would mean she lost…failed. This too was something to be tortured over. At least if she won this game of hers she would have something to relish in for a time before her reality sunk back in on her. That would take a matter of moments. It would take until she walked over the threshold of the Manning's. No…until she saw the fire in her mother's eyes and the sadness in her father's heart.
It took her at least an hour to get home, only a glimmer of the sun was left. But she still did it. She managed to beat the odds and earn herself a constellation prize of the sorts. A very weak, unenthusiastic prize to say the least, but a prize for her broken heart none the less. She even found the tiniest of smiles creeping onto her stained face as she stood on her lawn, the luscious green grass tickling her legs. But it was, as she'd predicted earlier, a short lived thing. Looking into the living room window even from this distance made it plain to her that her mother was already stared on berating her father. The shadowy figure was throwing their arms into the arm and pointing vigorously at the other as she no doubt screamed. Anger and her mother were like those lock sick couples you saw at school everyday. You rarely ever saw one without the other. Courtney sighed sadly. Did she really want to go in there? Really? Was it worth it? Maybe she could go stay at a hotel like dad did. It would certainly save her from further heartache. But…no…she knew it was foolhardy. Her mother would worry ten times more and be ten times angrier by morning. And it wasn't like she had the money or energy to avoid her forever.
Courtney closed her eyes tightly then as she took those first few steps toward the door, not fearing falling since she already knew where any potential trip-ups were. They were right where they'd been in her old yard. She reached for the knob to their bright white door, her hand clutching tightly onto it before her eyes shot open wide. Shiver flew down her spine and she shuddered. She yanked her hand back from the knob, eyeing it uneasily. She was sure it was nothing more then a spark jumping from it to her, yet she was petrified. As bad as things were going for her she figured this was nature's way of telling her that this was the wrong move. If she opened that door and went in the house she wouldn't sorely regret it.
Still after a minute or two of struggle between right and wrong in this position she went against her better judgment and slowly pushed the door open to reveal a lovely sight that made her cringe.
Her mother had one of her potted plants in her hand, ready to chuck it in a moment's notice. "First you bail on our dinner! Now you're trying to get away from dinner too!" the blonde woman seethed with anger, eyes narrowed into thin slits. "Why don't you want to be here! Don't you love me!" she looked as if she might cry, but Courtney knew better at this point. She was only trying to work him over and get him to drop everything to do something with her. Probably stupid skating or another date.
Courtney's eyes darted to her cowering father, his hands raised in defense, face full of real sadness and betrayal. He quite literally feared for his life. Although to Courtney there wasn't much to lose. She didn't understand how on earth he thought dealing with this shit day in and day out was worth it. It was such s pathetic existence. Only someone who hated themselves could allow this to go on like he did!
"H-Honey…" he stuttered, not letting his arms down in case things turned for the worst. "Now-Now…be reasonable." his breathing was heavy and he was having trouble holding down his grief over his wife's demeanor. "I have to go. I have to." he said with a faint nod, not sure if being to firm about his stand would earn him brownie points or get them thrown at his head like the many things scattered about the floor.
"Shut up!" she snarled, pitching the pot with all her strength at his head.
His eyes grew wider still at her sudden move, him being quick enough to duck down before it reached him so it instead smashed into the wall. The cheap glass shattered on contact, making a ringing noise that lingered in the air long after. "B-Baby." he whined softly, trying his best to tread lightly on what even God would think was thin ice. "Don't you like what you have?" he tried to reason, motioning around them. "Like...t-the tv, the car, those pearls around your neck…" he froze, seeing the glint in her eyes that she always held when there was no return.
"No!" she bellowed, eyes searching frantically to find something else to throw at him. "I don't want this junk!" she yanked the necklace from her neck, throwing it down on the ground and smashed it senselessly with her foot. "I want you! I want to be able to have you to myself Goddamn it!" she stamped her foot opposite the necklace.
He shook his head. "I-I'm sorry." he slowly raised back into a standing position instead of ducking down like the coward he without a doubt was. "I'd love to be here. You know that. It's just…there are some things more important." he sighed sadly, not realizing what an awful word choice he made.
Courtney did a face palm. "Dear Lord dad…" she whispered to herself, not doing anything to stop this. She never did. She learned right off to leave the shit to those directly involved i.e. mom and dad. If she didn't her mother would end up turning her blind fury upon her and smack her or make her cry. It wasn't abuse exactly, more so her mother's way of taking and maintaining the control she desperately needed to feel like she was important. She had issues when others took that control from her. Courtney guessed this was what really caused all these fights. Her defect. Whenever her father did something she hadn't planned on she felt like he was trying to be in control. Courtney shook her head slowly. If only her mother had a brain. Then she'd see dad wanted nothing more then to support her as well as keep her happy. Being in command was the last thing on his to-do list.
Courtney's mom's eye twitched slightly. "What?" she hissed. "More important…then me?" she clenched her fists tight, digging her nails into her own skin. She laughed bitterly. "So…you're cheating on me then. Aren't you!" she barked, teeth grit and eyes ablaze.
Her father took in a sharp breath, heart being clenched by an unimaginably painful death grip. "No!" he said louder then he'd said anything thus far. "Never!" he was so close to tears.
"Liar!" she spat, going for the remote of the tv sitting on the coffee table between them. "You're cheating on me!"
Despite it all Courtney stood at the door as still as stone with her face set in a mode that revealed none of her emotions. Her eyes were hard, mouth a flat line to form a mask to hid her mixed emotions of fury and hurt. She was pissed at her mother and almost everyone else she knew including herself and hurt over her father's weak mind as well as her own. Still no matter how angry her mother was making her she couldn't let herself get dragged into this mess. She'd have to pick sides and, since it would more then likely be her dad, her mother would surely delve deeper into her fit of rage. No. She couldn't let herself do anything…not even move.
"Meredith!" he groaned. "Don't do this. I could never cheat on you." he promised, inching closer to her every word he spoke.
She jumped back up, remote in her now shaking hand above her head. "Get away from me!" she screamed, her shrill cry echoing.
The echo sent a chill up both father and daughter's back, their hard standing on end. The only difference being that Courtney remained unmoving, her father on the other hand jumped a mile backwards. "Come on. Can't we just talk about this." a pause. "Here." he held his hand out. "We can go in the kitchen and just…talk."
Her mother glared over at him, sneering at his feeble offer. Sure she wanted to be able to eat dinner with him in peace, that's what started this, but there was more to it. She wanted to be able to do anything with him, not just this. She couldn't live knowing at any moment he could be pulled away from her by a call from his dreaded work. In the end her fear was to much for her. Being guaranteed a meal wasn't enough control for her to agree to it. So instead, she ended it. "Eat yourself!" she pitched the remote through the air, narrowly missing his head. "I don't want to be apart of your lies!" she stamped her foot again, turning about to head up the stairs, when she saw her.
Her mother hadn't seen her all the while, but it was obvious she had been there listening to every awful word. She could see the fear and heartbreak hiding in the depths of her daughter's eyes. And it wasn't just that. Courtney's whole face was one big train wreck of poorly hidden emotions. Her mother cringed then, seeing herself in this poor confused little girl. At one point she had been the one staring blankly on, trying her hardest to both understand it all and pretend it didn't affect her. Only, much like her mother had done, she now found herself indifferent to her daughter. No matter how much she identified with her she didn't now how to handle it. So instead of being a good mother as she once swore she'd be she decided to send an icy glare at Courtney, snarl forming on her lips, as she spit out insults. "So! Finally decided to show up did you?"
Courtney didn't answer. She only lifted her gaze to met her mother's fiery eyes, a small frown showing.
"What the hell do you think you were doing! Were you trying to make me and your father worry half to death!" she thrust her hand to her own chest to indicate herself while pointing with her other toward her dad. "Well it worked!" she screeched. "Look what you've done now!"
Courtney slowly shifted her gaze back to her father as her mother surely wanted her to. He was now sitting on the coffee with his head buried in his hands, body shaking slightly as he silently cried. Courtney's face fell then. She couldn't pretend that seeing her father in shambles didn't hurt. Maybe if it was her mom it would be different, but…it wasn't. Yet she remained silent all the same as she returned her eyes to her mother.
Her mother smirked darkly with a hint of sadness at the corners of her lips and the far reaches of her hazel eyes. "Your father's upset because of what I said and I only said it because of you." she growled through clenched teeth. "It's. All. Your. Fault." each word was its own sentence in this case, every one of them aimed for Courtney's heart.
Courtney cowered ever so slightly, wanting to but completely unable to cry.
"If not for you he would never cry." she kept at it, pausing briefly to contemplate her next action.
Courtney scowled up at her then, seeing a glint in her eyes that only meant one thing. She figured she might as well go down with some resistance no matter how feeble.
Courtney's mom narrowed her eyes further, glowering down at her daughter before she lashed out, slapping her clear across the face. "Don't ever do this again!" she ordered, getting that feel of control she needed so badly back.
Courtney barely wanted to say anything to her at this point. What was there to be said? She fought with dad. Yeah. She shouldn't have. Uh-huh. None of this was her own fault, but her mother's. Everyone knew it. So why should Courtney open her big fat mouth and have to get hit again? She shouldn't. So she didn't.
Her mother was satisfied by this and with a final snort tuned away from her daughter and strode up the stairs to her bedroom. She would sleep there alone tonight.
Her father slowly stood up once he was sure his wife would not see or hear. He sighed lightly, moving over toward Courtney. "She…didn't mean it." the same excuse as always.
Courtney sluggishly brought her hand to touch the red handprint her mother had marked her with. It stung slightly upon contact, making her cringe unnoticeably.
Her father sighed once more. "She loves you." he murmured, shaking his head all the while, unintentionally contradicting his words. "She loves us both." he said another time as if saying it enough would somehow make it sound more real then it felt.
Courtney peered up at her father, miserable for so many reasons that she wished she could spill to him. Only she refused. She didn't want to put him through any more undue heartache. He had enough already. So very much…
Her father forced a halfassed smile to try and appear alright. "G'night…" he mumbled, turning back to the couch and settling down on it to think.
Courtney eventually made her way up to her room, but she didn't move for a time. She was so over her head with this so called life. She wished more then anything that she could rewind the hands of time back to when everything was so much simpler. No fights, no betrayal, no jackasses, no shit. If only. And this was her one and only thought as she cried herself to sleep that night, hoping to die.
She tentatively entered the building of doom and despair the day after her world came crashing down on her. The only good thing she could say was that it was Friday. Other then that her day was as good as ruined the moment she entered the place. And she couldn't have been more right. Only a few steps toward her class and already there were catcalls.
First it was a boy in a group of football players. He whistled at her, "Hey cutie! Can I have some of that?" his friends cackled along with him, not caring how bad they hurt her in the process.
Courtney lowered her head so it would be harder for people to recognize her, a dark blush creeping up onto her cheeks. She was so embarrassed. She wanted to imagine that all the things being said were not. It turned out not to be such a great plan.
One boy walking in the opposite direction of her squeezed her butt as he went by, smirking with ferocity as he licked his lips and wiggled his brows suggestively.
She would have slapped his right across his smug face if not for what happened last night. The instant the thought of the action flickered in her distraught mind she froze, tightly clenched fists losing the hate that made them stay in a ball. She refused to be her mother. It was worse then being publicly humiliated could ever be. At least this way she was able to say she was still a good person. It's all she wanted after all.
Duncan was leaning up against a locker outside of their Spanish class, wearing his usual getup of skull shirt and verging on green pants, his arms folded across his chest, and eyes open just enough to watch as the worker ants, as he called them, scurried about before him. And he was thoroughly bored with it all. So far nothing out of the ordinary had occurred. No one had tripped, dropped their things, got into a fight, or went out of alignment in the least. He sighed bitterly, blowing at his forehead as something began to tickle it. Life could not get any more unenjoyable. He was right too. In fact, things got much better soon after. He perked as he heard collective laughter coming from not to far away. His eyes grew a mite bit wider as his eyes landed on the person responsible for the shift in monotony
"Hey girly." a boy called after her, laughing even before he could say all he wanted. "Am I on your list?" he teased cruelly. "Just one kiss then?" he cried, walking after her with a smug smirk on his face.
Courtney whined lightly, tears welling her eyes for the millionth time. She needed to get to class, that was all. She didn't believe that the way they talked to her would change then, but she did think that in there they could not touch her. She was so tired of being poked and prodded by every boy that came her way. At least twenty had done so already. She couldn't imagine how many more would do the same before this awful day ended.
Duncan frowned lightly at the scene. Why did he have a tiny feeling in the pit of his stomach while watching this? He didn't care about this girl, he didn't care that this boy was going after like a starving dog lusts after blood, he didn't care period. Yet…the feeling wouldn't die. It was small, sure, but it didn't change the fact that it was annoying as hell. It reminded him of the way hunger starts, first a nudge but soon to grow into a gnawing ache. Only it wasn't the same. He knew how to fix the hunger, but he didn't even know what exactly this was.
The boy had her pinned to a locker now, purring inches from her face. He was drunk though, if that can really be used as an excuse. So he wasn't really thinking clearly, otherwise he would have noticed that Courtney was inches from nailing him in the balls.
Duncan, however, fully saw her hate beneath her mask of self loathing and sadness. He grinned despite himself, deeming this as what would get him through the day. He would certainly be laughing about it later with some of his not so tight friends since he knew Zane was still stuck in his bitterness and he was head over heels for the girl. Courtney was it? It was a feisty sounding name. To bad she wasn't half as feisty as she'd been when he first met her. Duncan snickered as Zane's face flashed before his eyes. Zane would be killing him for watching this and doing nothing to help. But she didn't need the help. He could tell.
Courtney was shaking from disgust and fear. "L-Leave me alone." she stuttered, foot craned back at the best angle she could get it to be in her current situation.
"Nah." he slurred.
Courtney kicked him then, sighing sadly as she did so. There was no sick satisfaction from hurting him as there'd been when she'd done the same to Duncan weeks before. In fact, it hurt her greatly. Not because of the reasons normal people would feel like dirt, but, once more, because of her mother. Her aggressive nature stemmed from her, it always had. She never hated it, she loved it actually, until the fights started. She tried her best from then on to have a reign on it all. Still she did not simply stand there and wait for him to get back up, she swiftly steeped over his sunken figure, glancing uneasily back before burying her head in her hands and walking into Spanish class.
Duncan's grin slipped from his face as he saw her catch her throat and the once not so noticeable tears start to trickle down her perfect stained face. She looked so sad and tortured. Could something little like her reputation really mean so much to her? If so, why? Duncan was known and respected for his bad reputation, so it was hard for him to comprehend. He rubbed the back of his head, looking away from her only to check the time. A minute till. He knew he had to go now.
Courtney took her new seat, as it was in all her classes, the back seat. She wanted to be far out of eyesight and preferably invisible. Oh how she wished to have super powers as she buried her head in her arms on her desk.
Duncan entered the room a second before the bell rang. Usually he wasn't the last person, but he had been distracted by Courtney. So he was mildly perturbed to find his seat was taken by some guy with his girlfriend next to him. Duncan rolled his eyes, catching the icy glare of the guy after. He glared right back for as long as he had to until the punk turned his attention back on his girl and started flirting endlessly with her. It made Duncan want to hurl. Sure he loved a good girl now and then, but to be so public about it was just…ew. Duncan shook his head in disbelief to match his new expression which included him sticking his tongue out slightly with an attempted eyes rolled in back of head look. After making sure the guy had at least glimpsed this he smirked and went all the way to the back, the only place left, two seats away from Courtney.
Courtney heard the sound of a chair being pulled out and she pressed her face further into her arms as if this would ensure she was left to herself.
Duncan found himself frowning for whatever reason he could not yet explain as he looked at Courtney's shaking body and listened to her soft sobs. She appeared so fragile as she was. Duncan was sure all anyone had to do was tap her and she would instantly shatter into a million pieces like glass thrown into the wall. He had never had to be so close to his unfortunate victims before or they would soon switch classes to make it so. So he wasn't used to seeing the effects of his actions. Sure he knew they cried, tried to get their boyfriend to beat him up, lost hope, and so on, he just didn't have to face these effects as he was now. Seeing a person cry actually made him cringe a smidgen. He didn't understand why…
Courtney soon realized that the person next to her either was not a guy or was deaf, so she snuck a peek at them. She was mortified to see it was Duncan, the root of all this anguish. Well…not all of it was his fault. He just managed to make it ten times worse was all. So she didn't speak to him or look again through the class. She knew doing either would led her further down in this hole that had been dug for her. Not that any of this prevented the hushed shouts she continued to get through the period. In a way, she almost believed it was making it worse. Every time she shuddered at their words she was sure they were getting a bigger kick out of it then they would if she had been facing them.
Just as Courtney shuddered from their words each and every time Duncan found himself doing the same, only to a smaller degree and for the opposite reason. He even kept track of his strange feeling. 8:25: He was slightly peeved at the words being spewed, but he was still able to get a little kick out of it. 8:35: He no longer found it funny. He half wished they'd give it a rest, but he didn't say anything. He wasn't stupid. He started this, so there was no way he could end it. 8:45: He was extremely annoyed at this point. It wasn't that he didn't want her to be hurt, more so that it was the others voices were distracting him from what was going on with the teacher. He actually did want to learn something. 8:55: He was sick and tired of it. He had to grit his teeth to kept himself from snapping at every last one of them. What was wrong with him? 9:00: Strange as it sounded he found himself actually hating it because of Courtney now. She looked so sad as she lifted her tear stained face up to look at the clock and the face of the guy turned around mocking her. 9:08: This was the when he finally realized what was going on. That little feeling within him had grown over the span of the hour to the point it was unbearable. And he figured out what the feeling was. It was guilt.
A minute till. Courtney groaned as she knew she would once more have to venture through the halls of the school through all those boys. Still, she preferred to have this done and over with as soon as possible so she stood up, clutching her books close, before sliding past Duncan and starting toward the door.
Unfortunately one boy had not gotten his fill it seemed and he was quick to block her way. "Hey baby." he purred, smirking deviously at the scared girl. "Where ya goin'?"
Courtney didn't respond, letting her gaze fall to the floor. She didn't want to hurt someone again.
Duncan glowered over at the pair. It was that boy who had taken his seat. He didn't like him to begin with, so now this only served as an extra push in that direction. He even found himself raising to a standing position, but he held back on doing more.
The boy proceeded to, unlike most, beat her down with harsh words. The initial flirting was now nonexistent. All the boy wanted to do was torture her by putting her down endlessly.
Courtney started to back up until she was flat against the wall, breathing more irregular then usual and tears more prominent.
"Stop crying!" he barked, taking a firm grip on her wrists.
Duncan was taken aback by his aggressive nature, eyes widening as the boy strengthened his already tight grip on her wrists. He looked like he was really hurting her to by the strained expression Courtney put off, eyes shut tight and teeth grit. It was this in itself that pushed Duncan to do more then stand idly by. He wasn't the nicest guy himself, he openly admitted it, but one thing he never did was hurt a girl for his own pleasure. He was taught better then this. So watching like this made his blood literally boil and made him have an extreme desire to beat the boy senseless. His eyes narrowed in thin slits, frown deepening into a dark snarl, and hands curled into tight balls. He was even shaking with fury. "Hands off!" Duncan screamed loud enough for all to have heard. And many people jumped at his voice, turning their heads. But it didn't stop him. He punched the guy clear across the face, the shock getting him to let go of Courtney and stumble back a bit.
The boy rubbed his head as his world spun some, but that was about all he had the chance to do before Duncan was on him again.
Duncan went at him, gripping him by the collar of his plain black shirt and lifted him up off the ground inches from his own face. He was even close enough to feel Duncan's breath on his skin. "Don't you dare touch her! She's MINE! Nobody screws with her in any way at all, but me!" he shook the boy violently. "Got it?" he snarled, eyes full of fire. "So don't even think about getting within a foot of her or I'll do worse then this!"
Courtney looked on with wide eyes, tears clouding her emerald eyes. She was petrified beyond belief. Her heart pounded in her chest as she drew her elbows inward and brought her clenched hands up in front of her mouth instinctively. When in danger move as little as possible and draw into yourself. That was the golden rule.
The boy was at a loss for words, turquoise eyes wide and mouth agape ever so slightly. He had known Duncan for as long as he could remember, yet he'd never seen him act out in the favor of one of his victim's. He let things play out as they were meant to. So…what the hell was wrong with him? Why was he about ready to bite his head off? Was it really because he touched her? The boy nodded then, swallowing hard. He just wanted to get out of this with nothing more then a single bruise.
"Good." Duncan snorted with disgust, dropping him back to the ground. "Well?" he spat. "Get!"
The boy scurried off, the bell being his signal. He didn't want to risk hanging around this lunatic any more. God knows what he'd do next.
A lot of the people remained, staring, even after the bell rang. None believed the scene that had just played before their eyes. Duncan didn't let the unwanted attention bother him though. He wiped his hands together in accomplishment, sending an icy glare at the whole lot of them to silently say 'Fuck off.'
Out of all of them though Courtney was easily the most shocked and confused. She didn't see what Duncan had to gain from stopping the boy from hurting her. Maybe if he wasn't such an ass she would have thought he was just doing what any other human being would do, but that wasn't the case. So then…why? Perhaps he had morals that prevented him from watching physical pain be placed on a person. Maybe? She mentally shook her head. No. It had to be something more. Could it be he was honestly…helping? Protecting her just because he could?
Duncan looked blankly over at Courtney as she remained stiff against the wall. She was obviously stunned. She hadn't moved a muscle through all this. Whether her shock came from his own aggressive actions toward the boy or the boy himself he wasn't really sure. But he was pretty sure which was the safest bet. She was petrified of his anger and shocked that it was used in protecting her. Honestly he didn't know why he was set off to such a degree, the physical abuse wasn't so bad. It was something about her. Something that made him want to protect her from everyone else despite how much he detested her and wished to hurt her himself. What was it? He half smiled at her as he thought it all through his head, finding it odd that he half meant it before he turned away and headed into the flooded halls.
Watching him go Courtney couldn't help but be in awe. He was so powerful. He dominated over all else in this kingdom called school. With a single act he easily influenced all else. She only hoped that this act would work in her favor unlike most. She prayed even that when she walked out into the hall all that others would do was stare. No words…no hurt…no pain. She wished.
This chapter is my favorite so far. I think it's cute how Duncan hates her, but still won't let anyone else mess with her. :3 He's so odd. lol XD Please review! :)