Chapter 4: Starting to earn her trust

…and that's what happened." Devon said, as he finished explaining to Rita, who looked like she was about to go on a rampage throughout the school.

"I see." Rita said, through gritted teeth as she took everything in. Then she took in a few calming breaths and began her explanation.

"First Devon, thank you very much for helping Carrie. She's really had it really rough for quite a long while now, even before high school began. I think it's a great thing that you helped her when she needed it the most." Rita said, praising Kevin for his efforts.

"Thanks very much, but can you tell me more please?" Devon asked, and so Rita explained to him how Carrie was bullied by nearly every student in school for no reason at all, particularly since she started high school. She said Carrie was one of the sweetest girls she knew and would never hurt anyone. Her grades were very good, possibly even better than most other students in the school, but she excelled in math and English, despite being bullied by the English teacher: Mr. Ullmann, something Devon had witnessed first-hand that day.

However, from what she could see from the time that she'd been teaching in Ewen High, Carrie's main bullies were a clique of popular girls known in Ewen High as "The Mortimer Snerds" led by Chris Hargensen, a spoilt-rotten rich girl and Ewen High's notorious Queen Bee, who seemed to have made it her own personal mission to torment Carrie, and other outcast and misfit students like her, in school. Devon always hated the schoolgirls who were the high school Queen Bees, as they always seemed to bully outcast students and do things for their own personal gain.

Chris's father: John Hargensen, was a well-known lawyer within the town of Chamberlain. He was a man who had considerable influence in his job, and Rita had no doubts that Chris used that information as an excuse to feel untouchable by anyone else, as well as to bully and torment others in school whenever she felt like it, whether it was Carrie White or any other misfit. Rita spoke of one particular incident that had happened a little over two years before; Chris had been bullying another girl with a cleft lip and somehow had managed to slip a firecracker into one of her shoes and nearly blew two of her toes off in the process, which resulted in Chris getting a week's suspension.

Devon's jaw dropped in horror when he heard that and shuddered right down to his very core at the thought of what had happened to the poor girl. However, Rita reassured him that the girl in question survived just fine; the firecracker used had been a very small one and her toes didn't sustain as much damage as originally thought, though she did have her foot wrapped up in bandages for quite a while.

She also mentioned that Chris had been given at least a dozen suspensions, for various reasons such as bullying, as well as 74 detentions within the last four years, most of which she'd definitely skipped, between 50 and 55 altogether, including her most recent one for an incident which had happened within the ladies changing room on Friday morning the previous week. Devon was astonished and let out a long low whistle after hearing that info.

"You know back home in Australia, any troublemaker who gets detention or suspended as often as that would probably more than likely be kicked out of school well before their record got anywhere near that high a figure." Devon said, truly astonished, a girl like Chris Hargensen would still be attending Ewen High School with a questionable record like that.

Continuing with her explanation of things, Rita told Jack how the other girls The Mortimer Snerds called in the "Ultras", including Sue Snell, Heather Shyres, Tina Blake, Jessica Upshaw, Rachel Spies, Donna Kellogg, Anissa Chen, the Watson twins, Nicki & Lizzy and the Thibodeau twins, Donna & Mary Lila Grace and the others were all just as spoilt as Chris and how many of them also tormented Carrie and other outcasts in the school whenever they had the chance. She also had the feeling they had a level of influence over other students in the school, causing them to bully Carrie as well due to peer pressure.

Devon was appalled to hear all of this and couldn't help feeling sorry for Carrie when Rita described how hard things were for her in school on a day-to-day basis.

When Devon asked why the school hadn't done anything to deal with the bullying, either by the "Ultras" or by anyone else in the school, Rita explained that while there had been goodness knows how many complaints made about the matter, there wasn't much hard evidence to back it up.

She had her suspicions that either the parents of the girls involved with the bullying had some sort of influence over the school board or that Chris's father was sweeping everything under the rug so as to not give Ewen High a bad name, and she strongly suspected the latter was the case. She said there wasn't much that she herself could do about it as she'd only started teaching at the school the previous September, and though she tried her best to help bring Carrie out from her shell, she felt she hadn't fully succeeded yet.

"I see; thanks for telling me all this." Devon said, as he rubbed his chin and thought hard for a long moment before clicking his fingers as he came to a decision.

"Starting from tomorrow morning, I'll do everything I can in my power to be sure that Carrie's no longer alone. I'll be her friend, her confidence, in fact whatever it takes so she feels there's someone who's there for her. I'll be with her no matter what, and I'll deal with anyone who tries to bully her. That's a promise!" Devon said, with grim determination. Rita was a bit surprised to hear Devon speak in such a way, but then she gave a small smile and nodded.

"Thanks, Devon; I'll do everything that I can to help Carrie too. The more people who can give Carrie the help she needs, the better it'll be I think." Rita said, as Devon nodded in grim agreement. With that done and agreed to, Devon and Rita climbed into her car, and they left the school. Devon was determined to do everything he could to help the girl he'd met earlier that day.

(Later, at Devon's apartment)

After he got back to his apartment, Devon changed into more comfortable attire and got started on his homework straight away and had it all finished after about fifty minutes. Then he set up his laptop and got to work on researching info about Carrie. What he found, or rather didn't find, surprised him; she had no on-line accounts on any social media platforms at all. However, by looking at the social media accounts of other people who lived in Chamberlain, Devon was able to find quite a bit of info about Carrie's mother: Margaret White.

According to all of them, Margaret White was a strong religious obsessed fanatic who always seemed to dress in black witch-like clothes and who always seemed to claim that everything, even down to the smallest of things, was a sin and that people would burn in hell for the simplest of things. She would even quote lines from the Bible incorrectly, or even sometimes twist religious sayings and make up her own ridiculous religious quotes, to make it seem as though she was following the Bible's words.

However, Devon could tell from meeting Carrie earlier on that day that she was nothing like her mother and he was happy for that. Yet at the same time, deep down in the pit of his stomach he had a very uneasy feeling that there was much more to Carrie's relationship with her mother than met the eye. He also felt that Margaret was amongst those people in the world who sometimes just took religious fanaticism way too far.

Then Devon searched for information on the bullies known in Ewen High as the "Ultras", and here he had a lot more luck. Their social media accounts were standard, as it would be for most other people with online accounts; selfies of themselves and with friends, short videos, statuses about their relationships and so on. But strangely, and to Devon's slight surprise, the accounts of both Sue Snell and Heather Shyres hadn't been undated in some time; what he found wasn't particularly interesting. In fact, there were no mean or questionable comments about anyone, either students or teachers, on their accounts at all.

However, Chris Hargensen's accounts were what Devon was really interested in looking at, and here he struck a gold mine; from looking over those social media accounts, he could see Chris had been Carrie's main bully since they first started in middle school, and Chris seemed to enjoy harassing and bullying Carrie so much that she often posted comments, photos and videos about it on her social media accounts. Then Devon found one comment from Chris on her Facebook account posted a little earlier that day saying she'd been suspended from school for a week for an incident that happened the previous Friday, and she claimed strongly that she hadn't done anything wrong to begin with.

"Now that's a complete and total load of utter bullshit if ever I heard any." Devon thought to himself, while he rolled his eyes. It was clear to him that Chris Hargensen was the type of sadistic, cruel school bully who would never take ANY responsibility for her actions at all and would never see any wrong in anything she did to anyone else, even if it got near to the point of seriously hurting another person. She was the sort of person Devon needed to stay at least two steps ahead of all the time if he was to win against her.

Doing a little more digging into Chris's accounts, he suddenly found a link to a YouTube video and saw Carrie's name in the link. Curious, and now more than a little anxious, and with that familiar feeling of butterflies churning in the stomach starting to develop, Devon clicked on the link.

"Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up! Plug it up!"

When the video started playing, Devon stared in mute horror for a minute or so as he watched Carrie, wrapped up only in a towel which was just barely covering her, struggling on the floor of the school's female changing room shower stalls and pleading for help thinking that she was bleeding to death - especially considering that there was some blood on the wet floor of the shower stall as well as some on the towel, when she was in fact just having her very first period. But the other girls in the changing room, who were behind the camera and thus couldn't be seen, all just chanted mockingly at her, and threw tampons and sanitary napkins at her all the while until the video suddenly ended as the image turned away from Carrie in a blur.

Devon sat in complete and utter shock at what he'd just seen; he was utterly appalled how people could just do something like that to someone who needed help and all they got was to be bullied in return in such a heinous manner. He stood up and walked around for a few moments to calm down, but he couldn't help feeling a great deal of rage towards the bullies and a great deal of sympathy for Carrie.

"Those stupid fucking bitches! What the fuck is wrong with them?! Why do they even do it in the first place?! To bully someone who's never done anything to them! And in such a disgraceful, cowardly manner like that!" Devon thought to himself, trying to let the rage out after what he'd seen.

After a few minutes, he went back to work; after making a copy of the video, he set about gathering up more evidence of the Ultras bullying, which was basically anything and everything that he could find out about them. The intention: to use everything he gathered as blackmail against the Ultras whenever the chance arrived.

(A little later)

By past half five, with plenty of evidence gathered on most of the Ultras and with it all securely stored away on his laptop, iPad and smartphone, as well as having answered and responded to any emails that he received from home, Devon closed his laptop and set about getting dinner ready. Tonight, he was having a ribeye steak with rich creamy mashed potatoes, peppercorn sauce, and asparagus; with everything ready to go, he set about getting dinner ready.

A little over an hour later, dinner was ready at last, and Devon set himself up on the L-shaped corner sofa within the living area as with the previous night with everything set up on the coffee table in front of him, including a can of 7Up, perfectly chilled in the freezer. Opening his laptop, Devon put on The Wooden Horse, a World War II movie about a story of three Sydney Prisoners of War escaping from a P.O.W. camp in Germany made in 1950 and settled down to watch the movie and tuck into his dinner. As he ate, he couldn't take his mind of the immediate future and of Carrie in particular. Remembering very clearly everything that Rita had told him, he was determined to do what he could to help Carrie and to protect her from the Ultras, as well as from Chris Hargensen in particular, whatever, and no matter, it took and at any cost.

A little while later, having finished his dinner, Devon put the dishes into the dishwasher and turned it on, before putting the condiments away. Then he put the kettle on and set about getting tea ready. Once the kettle was boiled, he made himself a cup of tea and took out some of the cookies he bought the day before out. Microwaving four of the cookies so as to make them nice and soft, he sat down on the couch and carried on watching the rest of the movie while he sipped the tea and enjoyed the cookies.

(10:15pm, the White residence)

Carrie lay on top of her bed, deep in thought. She hadn't gone to sleep yet and her mind was firmly on the new boy in the school from earlier on; he never did make fun of her that day and he'd even helped her after the jocks tripped her up in the corridor. Even when the other students started their whispers in the cafeteria at breakfast, he didn't leave the table, and he even called her "Pretty", much to her own surprise. The incident in the corridors with the jocks was on her mind when he stood up to them in defense of her and managed to get them sent to the principal's office for what they did, before he went and helped her stand up afterwards. It was quite an unexpected thing that had happened; when she woke that morning, she never thought anything like that would happen, that someone would stand up for her.

She was in such deep thought of what had happened earlier on in the day, particularly at the thought of Kevin's hand being firmly but gently grasped within hers, that she didn't notice the books starting to rise up from the old wooden floor without anything lifting them up.

When she suddenly saw one of her books pass over her face without warning, Carrie gave a startled gasp and sat up. At once, the books that had been floating in the air around her suddenly fell to the ground with loud thumps, which got the attention of her mother, Margaret White, who was busy downstairs in the kitchen washing dishes. Reaching to her left, she grabbed a butcher knife and quietly made her way upstairs to her daughter's room to see what was going on.

Carrie paused and then she heard the creaks of her mother's footsteps as she came slowly up the stairs, so she quickly laid back down on her bed, switched the bedside light off and then closed her eyes, pretending to be asleep. A few seconds later, the door opened a little with a low creak and Margaret White stuck her head in. Scanning the darkened room for a few moments to see what was going on, she couldn't see anything that appeared to be any way out of the ordinary, apart from Carrie seemingly asleep on her bed. After a few moments of looking round, Margaret slowly closed the door and went back downstairs.

After waiting a few seconds to be sure that her mother was gone, Carrie sat back up and turned the bedside light back on and stared at one of the books on her ground, wondering whether she had imagined the books floating or not. Deciding to try something and wondering if it would work, Carrie took in a deep breath and then held out her left hand and concentrated hard on one of the books. Nothing happened at first, but then the book wiggled and started to rise off the floor and towards the ceiling.

Carrie was a bit shocked and disbelieving at first by this strange and unexpected phenomenon she was accomplishing, but then a smile slowly crossed her face.

"Oh, my goodness…I can move things with my mind!" Carrie thought excitedly, as she carefully made a few more of her books slowly float around the room. After gently lowering the books together in one corner, where she was able to stack them neatly, she decided to do some research about her special gift at school the following day. After turning off the light, she relaxed and fell asleep, while dreaming about a certain boy with an Sydney accent.

(Next morning, Tuesday, May 5th, 2020)

Rita and Devon arrived at Ewen High and, after Rita saying she would see him in gym class after lunch, they parted ways at her car and Devon made his way into the school on his way to his first classes. As he made his way to class, he spotted a familiar head of red orange hair not too far away. But before he could get anywhere near her, the bell rang signaling the start of the first classes. Sighing heavily, Devon decided he would see her at lunch time.

(Lunch time)

After Devon's first classes, maths, geography and English had finished, it was lunchtime, and he went downstairs to the cafeteria and lined up in the queue. Collecting his lunch, a good-sized bowl of hot leek and potato soup and a fresh bread roll, which was still warm from the oven, he made his way over to the back of the cafeteria and found Carrie sitting all alone at her usual table, with some books sitting on the table beside her.

"Hey Carrie…" Devon said, as he approached the table, briefly startling Carrie who was reading one of the books.

"Oh Devon, y-you came. I thought you wouldn't as no one ever wants to sit with me." Carrie said with a small smile, as Devon sat down opposite her.

"Hey, I told you I'd be here. You did say it was all right yesterday, remember?" Devon said with a smile as Carrie felt her cheeks redden a little.

"You know if people don't want to sit with you, then there's something wrong with them. I think you make great company." Devon said, as he started on his soup.

"Really?" Carrie asked.

"Yes, I think so; and I don't care what everyone else thinks of what my choices are." Devon said, while looking into Carrie's eyes. "After yesterday, I spoke to Ms. Desjardin and asked her about you." Devon said, as Carrie's eyes widened a little.

"And what did you ask her about?" Carrie asked, in a soft voice.

"Well, I wanted to know why people here treated you so badly and…she told me how you were bullied by a lot of people here in school for quite a long time and no one here did anything to stop it. After hearing that, and she mentioned you had no friends despite being one of the sweetest girls she'd ever met, I made her a promise; that I'd be your friend and do everything I could to be sure there'd be someone there for you when you need them most and so you'd never be alone again." Devon said, as Carrie stared at him for a few moments.

"So, would you like for us to be friends, Devon?" Carrie asked, as Devon smiled gently at her.

"Of course; if…you'd like to, Carrie." Devon said. Carrie thought for a moment; this boy who she met only yesterday wanted to be her friend and he promised to be by her side and do what he could to make sure she wasn't alone anymore. She was a little unsure about that, but then she remembered the feeling of her hand in Devon's hand, and the thought of finally having a friend was just too good to decline. So, she faced Devon and swallowed hard, summoned up all the courage she could.

"Yes Devon, you can be my friend. I'd…I'd like that." Carrie said. Devon smiled a broad smile.

"Thanks Carrie; how about we both celebrate our friendship with a walk around town after school, as I'm still unfamiliar with this part of Chamberlain. What do you think?" Devon suggested.

"You mean like…just a date?" Carrie asked, getting a little bit embarrassed at the thought about the two of them spending time together. Devon noticed how nervous she was getting and decided to reassure her.

"Yes of course…we could go by ourselves, but you're anyway uncomfortable with it, I could always ask Ms. Desjardin to accompany us if it would make you feel any better. I'd never force you to do anything you were uncomfortable with." Devon said, in a reassuring way.

Carrie thought about this for a minute before she made her decision. It was an easy answer, as her mother was going to be working late again today, so it was a perfect chance to get to know her new friend a little more and try to be a normal person, like everyone else in school.

"That sounds like a nice idea to me. I'd really like that." Carrie said.

"Great! So shall we meet up at the main entrance after school ends today?" Devon asked. Carrie agreed and the two continued with their lunch and chatting. Soon, the bell rang, signaling the start of class and, with that, Carrie and Devon gathered their things and prepared to head to their next classes of the day.

As they were getting up to leave, Devon briefly noticed the title of one of the books Carrie had with her; he didn't see the full title, but one word on the front cover caught his attention: TELEKINESIS.

Devon raised an eyebrow; he was a little curious to see a book on a subject like that and wondered why Carrie would be interested in something like that, but he decided not to push that issue for now. Leaving the cafeteria, he headed off to his next class, which was two periods of gym class with Ms Desjardin. Considering that it was a nice May day out with bright sunshine and clear blue skies, he felt it was very likely that gym class would be held outside.

(Gym class, outside)

And he was right; now wearing crisp white trainers, black shorts and a bright orange t-shirt that showed off his strong and well-toned arms, much to the pleasure of all the female students present in the group, Devon stood on the sports field with the others in the class and listened to Rita as she explained to them all the different exercises they were going to be doing today. All the other students in the class were wearing, near enough, the same color shorts and t-shirts with different variations in the colors and make of the trainers they had on. A few of the others were even wearing baseball caps as well so as to shield their eyes from the sun.

After starting with the warmup exercises, which included doing star jumps, running on the spot and stretching out their arms and legs, which lasted for about 10 minutes, Rita told them all to find a partner with which to pair up. Looking round, Devon noticed a familiar face.

"Hey Freddy, wanna pair up?" Devon asked, as he saw the boy who'd given him directions the previous day. Freddy was a little surprised the new boy remembered him and wanted to pair up with him for gym class.

"Are you sure? There's probably better people in class to choose from than me." Freddy said.

"It's all right boy-o, I'd rather pick someone who helped me when I needed it…" Devon said "…and besides…I don't like the way most of the girls are looking at me." he whispered, as Freddy took a quick glance over to some of the girls standing close by; they were all eyeing Devon and his strong muscular arms as if he were the holy grail and they were the treasure hunters.

"Okay, I'll be your shield today; but you know, I'm sure that most guys like you would kill to have so many girls interested in you." Freddy said, with a chuckle as Devon also laughed briefly.

"Well, I'm not like most guys. One girl's enough for me, but a lot of them at once…hmm, no thanks." Devon said.

Once all the students in the group were paired up, including three girls who paired up together due to the numbers of students in the group not being perfectly even, they set about their exercises, which included two laps of the running track, followed by suicide runs, push ups, sit ups, plank and running on the spot as well as a few other strength building exercises. All the other students in the class knew Rita had a rather worrying habit of treating gym class a little bit like military-style boot camp at times, and today was one of those odd occasions where she did just that. She seemed to really like getting them working hard and to burn more calories.

They were all relieved to have a much-needed water break for a short while midway through the class, and they sat off to the side of the sports field and enjoyed bottles of cold water from two coolers filled with crushed ice. But the break ended far too quickly for their liking; no sooner had they finished their water, they were all back on their feet again and following Rita's instructions for their exercise for the next half of class.

By the time they neared the end of gym class, about an hour and a quarter after it began, everyone was covered in sweat, clearly visible on their t-shirts, and their muscles were sore; the exercise had taken its toll, not to mention the fact that it was a warm perfect spring day. Freddy, in particular, was covered in sweat and struggling a little at the end, but Devon was able to stay going at the end and, despite the fact he was sweating quite a bit too, wasn't even out of breath. Freddy and most of the others who were slowing down or struggling to keep up with Rita's exercise instructions were watching in utter amazement as Kevin kept on going while they tried to keep up.

"Dude…how are…you able…to keep going?" A completely drained Freddy asked, in between taking breaths, as Devon finally finished.

"Oh, I'm used to doing exercise. I've done quite a lot of exercising over the years back home…that's why I've been able to keep on going with something where almost everyone else would tend to struggle a bit." Devon said, as they all stood up.

"Dude…you're either hardcore or insane." Freddy chuckled.

"To be honest, I'm not sure which." Devon said, as he and Freddy laughed briefly before quietening down as Ms. Desjardin approached them, while she briefly spoke to everyone in class one by one about how they did during the lesson. Then she stepped in front of Devon.

"Well done, Devon; you did very well in each exercise today; keep it up." Rita said.

"Thank you, miss." Devon said, as he took in another deep breath before wiping his sweaty forehead. Rita then moved in front of Freddy.

"Freddy, you also did very well today too, but there's plenty of room for improvement." Rita said.

"Yes, ma'am." Freddy said, giving a few nods as he wiped down his sweaty forehead and taking in a few deep breaths.

After speaking with the last student in the line, Rita then took a few steps back, checked her watch and turned back to the class. "Okay everyone, that's all for today; class dismissed!" Rita said, giving a short blow on her whistle.

As everyone turned and made their way back to the locker rooms and showers, Devon stayed behind for a short while to speak to Rita.

"Excuse me, Ms. Desjardin?" Devon asked.

"Yes, Devon, is something wrong?" Rita asked, with a smile.

"No miss, you see, during lunch, I was able to get Carrie to accept me as a friend and to celebrate, I asked her if she could show me around town as I'm unfamiliar with this part of Chamberlain. I even said I'd ask you to accompany us if it made her feel more comfortable, but she said it was fine for us two to go together. We'll be meeting in front of the school when classes finish up. I was wondering if you'll pick us up when we're done. I'm not planning to go for long; just an hour to an hour and a half at most." Devon said. Rita didn't hesitate for a second with her answer.

"Of course, I'll pick you up. I think it's a great thing you're doing for Carrie; she's been alone for so long, doing something like this may help her out of her shell. And here's my card with my number on it. As soon as you're finished, just give me a call and I'll be there." Rita said, reaching into her pocket and handed Devon a small white card with her number on it.

"Thanks very much." Devon said, as he took it. Then Rita ruffled Devon's hair, exactly like an older brother would to his younger brother.

"Just one thing though; don't do anything crazy or anything that might make Carrie feel in any way uncomfortable, because if you do, I'll make you regret it. And then I'll call your mother." Rita said, in a fake threatening way, as Devon nodded.

"Okay; I'll be the perfect gentleman, but just please my parents out of this please. If they knew what I was doing…I'd never hear the end of it. And my three sisters, if they found out about it…they'd never let me live it down." Devon said, with a heavy sigh.

"All right lover boy, best go get yourself showered and changed. After all, you wouldn't want to go on your "date" smelling like a gym changing room, would you?" Rita teased. And sighing to himself, Devon gave her a nod before he turned round and went back to the school changing rooms to shower.

(After school; 3:00pm)

With school over for another day and having sorted out everything he needed at his locker, Devon, showered and smelling much better now, stood outside the front of the school while he waited for Carrie so they could go for their stroll around this part of Chamberlain. Devon was feeling a little nervous, as this was the first time he would be alone with a girl for an extended period of time and deep inside he hoped that nothing would go wrong.

Then he saw Carrie walk up to him from the main entrance among some of the other students, and he noticed that she looked as nervous as he did.

"Hey, Carrie; are...are you ready?" Devon said, as she approached.

"Yeah, I am. Shall w-we go?" she said, stuttering a little, which Devon thought was cute.

"Okay Carrie, you're the tour guide today and I'll follow you round, so…it's all yours, ma'am." Devon said, while extending his arm out and smiling. Carrie couldn't help but smile at that and she tried to suppress a giggle, but was unsuccessful as she laughed loudly. As she calmed down from laughing, she and Devon departed from in front of the school and walked together, side by side, into Chamberlain. Kevin really liked Carrie's laugh and decided to try and make her laugh again if he could, as he liked it.

(25 minutes later)

Carrie and Devon, after walking round Chamberlain's streets, arrived at one of the local coffee shops that Carrie liked to go to whenever she had a chance she could get away from her mother. While they'd been walking round Chamberlain, Carrie had shown Devon some of the places in town she knew, including some restaurants, the different shops and the church she sometimes went to as well as anything else that caught their attention.

As they walked along, they made light conversation about their personal lives, but both were very careful not to ask anything that might be intrusive; Devon learned that one of Carrie's favorite things to do was reading books (like him) and she also really liked poetry, and had her hopes of writing a book one day. She also likes sewing as well, and sometimes made her own clothes and had hopes she might turn that into a career. She was an only child - something Devon occasionally wished that he was - and lived with her mother along Carlin Street but didn't go into any detail on this, or her father, something Kevin noticed but he decided not to press the issue.

In return, Carrie learned that Devon also had an interest in reading (he mentioned he'd quite a lot of books at home), and also had an interest in baking (something he admitted he acquired from his mother), photography, building plastic model kits (of which he admitted he'd built many), first person shooter games (such as the Batman: Arkham and Call of Duty series games), had a love of war movies, Titanic movies as well as the Batman movies and the classic 1993 TV series Power Rangers.

He said he lived in Sydney, the Republic of New South Wales's capital city, with his parents and three younger sisters, who were sisters, and he mentioned they'd celebrated their 15th birthday the previous Friday with a big celebration where quite a few people attended, mostly from the secondary school he and his sisters went to. He also mentioned his sisters, who were in their second year at secondary school, could be a bit of a problem at times, particularly by the way they pushed his buttons. He told her his father worked for a management position of an Irish pharmaceutical company, and his mother ran a very successful bakery business with 20 shops spread throughout the island of Ireland and another two scheduled to open later in the year.

Soon, with their stomachs rumbling, they arrived at Carrie's favorite coffee shop, The Cup A' Joe, which was quite near to Ewen High, and bought a slice of chocolate cake each and two sodas. Sitting down beside each other at a table for two by the window where they could look out onto the street.

"So, are you okay? I can be a little bit of a dull person at times so I hope that I'm not boring you." Devon said.

"No, you're actually quite a great person to be around. I really enjoyed walking and speaking with you this afternoon. No one's ever done that with me before, or talked with me for as long as you have…so I'm very grateful to you for doing that." Carrie said, smiling a little as she blushed slightly.

Devon smiled, pleased to know that he'd made her a little happier. But then his face turned serious; he had to tell her something he hoped would make her trust him.

"Carrie…there's another reason why I wanted to spend some time with you today." Devon said, as her heart rate increased, wondering what it could be. "I know you've trouble trusting people from your past experience, and I feel you probably don't trust me even now. But I want you to know that you can ask me any question you want, and I swear I'll be honest with you. If you were to give me your trust, I'll never betray you; just ask me anything and I'll be truthful with you." Devon said, as he gently placed his hand upon Carrie's, causing to heart rate to rise a little.

"Are you just pretending to be my friend so you can trick me later?" Carrie asked.

"No, I would never do something like that. It's just when I saw you sitting alone at your table yesterday morning, it reminded me of when I was younger. I was like you at one point in my life. I never spoke unless I was spoken to first and I was shy at times too…and once I was afraid to stand up for myself…but when I was twelve years old, an incident happened where I ended up standing up for myself, beating back the bully with his tail between his legs and becoming the confident person I am now." Devon said.

"What happened?" Carrie asked, as her eyes opened wide and she leaned forward in anticipation of the story.

"Well...I was walking home from school…it was a Thursday afternoon, and I was just heading on home minding my own business, when one of the bullies from school, a boy named Logan, who'd been a real pain, not just to me but everyone else in school...including some of the teachers I might add...came upon me in the street and demanded that I give him my lunch money the following day. I refused; I wouldn't give my lunch money to anyone… especially to someone like him." Devon paused for a moment to take a drink of soda before he spoke again.

"Not only that, I'd had quite a rough day at school that particular day…and when I say rough, I mean REALLY rough...as did quite a few of my friends that day. So naturally, I was very cross and irritable from that day's events…and the very last thing that I needed at that point was bullshit from someone as irritating as him. He reached up and tried to punch me, but I just managed to duck before he hit me. I then grabbed his arm and twisted it round…he cried out in pain and, seizing the chance, I quickly pushed him down to the ground with all the might I could muster and placed my left foot onto his chest quite hard, forcing the breath out of him." Devon said, as Carrie's jaw dropped open in awe.

"What happened then?" Carrie asked, eager to hear what had taken place.

"Well, I told him…quite bluntly I might add…that if he ever tried to take my lunch money, or anything else from me again, he'd be sorry. And…just to PRESS the point into him…I increased the pressure on his chest with my foot while I snarled at him. I must've scared him good, as he quickly got up and ran off. I don't think he ever expected me to fight back the way I did. And since then, I never had any more trouble from him." Devon said.

Carrie looked at Devon, her mouth slightly agape and eyes still wide open.

"How…how did it feel after that?" Carrie asked, in awe of how this Sydney boy with her had stood up for himself.

"It…felt good, I'll be honest. After I sent him scampering off with his tail between his legs, I felt a laugh come on and I did laugh for a while. I then felt this feeling which I'd never felt before…I can't explain it, but right then, things turned round for me. I was much more confident about speaking out when I wanted to and I'd no fear of standing up to a bully at all whenever it became necessary. And many times, I did send a few of them scampering off with their tails between their legs too, either standing up for myself or, in a few cases, for others who were being bullied too." Devon said, as he smiled, fondly remembering those moments when he stood up to bullies.

Carrie was very impressed by Devon's story and was intrigued by how he overcame his difficulties and emerged as a much stronger, more confident person.

"Can anyone overcome their fears or obstacles like you did and emerge a better person than before?" Carrie asked.

"Of course, anyone can, Carrie…even you can." Devon said with a reassuring smile. Carrie slowly felt confidence build up in her; Devon's words gave her the assurance she needed.

"And will you always be my friend…no matter what?" Carrie asked.

"I always will…always." Devon said, gently placing his hand on Carrie's to reassure her.

"Thanks…thanks a lot, Devon." Carrie said, as she smiled.

"No problem, Carrie." Devon said, and they went about enjoying their food.

However, what neither of them knew at that moment was that just across the street from the coffee shop, hiding just behind a thick-trunked chestnut tree on the other side of the old iron rail fence that separated the street from one of the parks in town, a girl with brunette hair, and very lightly tanned skin, was watching both of them very closely.

Her eyes were filled with anger and hate when she focused them on the familiar shape of Carrie, but then they turned to curiosity when they focused on the unfamiliar boy who was sitting with her at the table. She watched them for a few more minutes, keeping out of sight all the while, as they ate and chatted with each other, and she scowled quietly when she saw Carrie smile.

"I need to ask Tina who that guy is, and what he's doing eating with Creepy Carrie." She thought to herself. After another two minutes of watching the two eat and socialize together while she kept out of sight, she smirked evilly to herself.

"Enjoy your food with your "boyfriend" Creepy Carrie; it may just be your last." She said quietly to herself before she slunk off, evil thoughts and ideas flowing through her twisted demented head.

To Be Continued…