Chapter 3

After breakfast, Raven was escorted to a small office and given a sheet of paper with room numbers on it.  According to this, it was her new class schedule.   She could feel the tightness in her chest as her uncertainty overwhelmed her.  What if they didn't like her.  What if there were more "Angeliques" around here?  Entering her first class, Raven breathed a sigh of relief as Jax waved like a maniac at her.  She must be the same age as me mused Raven.  She took a seat next to Jax as the tension drifted away. 

"So, what was that all about in the lunch room this morning?" Prodded Jax "I mean, you looked like you had just seen a ghost or something..."

Raven thought...how do I explain to my new found friend about seeing that boy's eyes in my dreams without coming across like a complete flake?  Raven thought it was best not to mention her dreams at this point, and decided to use some lame excuse instead.

" He just reminded me of someone from home.  Just surprised me is all" explained Raven. 

"Oh." Said Jax with just a hint of disappointment.  "Well, in case you want or needed to know, his name is Nikolas, he's 14 and he's gorrrrrgeous, but you already knew that" she giggled.  "He's nice, helps the little kids a lot.  But be careful, even though he's a year younger, Angelique has her sights set on him"

Raven internally groaned.  Not that she was interested in him per se, but it drastically cut down on any ideas she had of getting to know him.  A portly man entered the room, putting a pause on her current thoughts. 

"Settle down everyone.  Take your books out and turn to chapter 3".   Raven looked around, not quite sure what to do.  A shadow cast across her desk and she looked up into kind brown eyes.

" Raven is it?". Raven shook her head yes.  "I'm Mr. Thomas, welcome to my class" he said with a warm smile.  "Miss Jax, if you would take Raven here to the cupboard and give her, her books it would be much appreciated"

Jax smiled and grabbed her hand, dragging her to the large closet in the back of the room.  Handing her copies of books covering English, math, history, and science plus a thick notebook filled with paper and a package of pencils.  Raven sank back into her desk and sized up her score.  She felt kind of good.  This was the first bit of normalcy she felt since......the thought trailed off.  She still couldn't think about Grams without tears.  But even in her old life, she loved school.  She didn't have a lot of friends at home...not a one actually.  She wasn't exactly "in fashion" according to her classmates, and the reason was simply because Grams couldn't afford it.  There wasn't a lot of girls there that could appreciate her ability to pick out a rockin' outfit at the second hand store.  That's where school came in handy.   She loved learning and listening, imagining herself back in history with the fancy gowns, or living on a prairie making her own candles and soaps.  No need for a lot of back biting friends when you have a great imagination she always told herself.  Stealing a glance at Jax,  Raven knew she had just been fooling herself all this time.  She truly did want a friend, and was so glad one had finally came into her life.  As Mr. Thomas began the history lesson, Raven dove head first into the pages.  Even if she had a new friend, the knowledge was still a welcoming distraction for everything else.

The rest of the morning and afternoon went fairly smooth.  She had a total of three teachers.  Mr. Thomas  was of course her history teacher,  Mrs. Wallace  was math and science, and finally Miss Vargo her English teacher.  English was the only class she had to take a test in, and Miss Vargo had said it was to make sure she was in the proper class or something.  Raven hoped she would stay in her current class.  As it were, Jax was currently in all her classes and she couldn't be more happier about it

Before English they had lunch in the same silent cafeteria as they did breakfast.  Raven tried to be nonchalant about looking for the blue eyed boy but she's never really been ninja like.  She surprised herself when the feeling of disappointment snuck into her head when she realized he wasn't there.  Why should she care if he was there or not?  Raven became a little irritated with herself.  Interested in a boy...let alone a boy that Angelique liked, complete madness.  Nothing like begging for trouble. 

After their last class the girls were escorted back to their rooms to find smocks laying across their beds. 

"Chore time?" Whispered Raven.

With a theatrical roll of her eyes, Jax shook her head up and down.  Rows of buckets filled with soapy water and brushes lined the hall.  A list tacked on the door gave instructions on who cleaned what.  Raven and Jax searched for their names together.

"Well that's some rottin' luck" groaned Jax.

"What is?" Asked a very curious Raven

"You have to clean the second floor bathroom" explained Jax, continuing "it's the little kids bathroom, so it's always stinky, sticky and gross.  But that's not even the worst part.  Some of the teenagers, namely Devilique and her crew like to hang out in there sometimes.  Ms. Teeny hates little kids so they really don't have to worry about her inspecting the place.  Whatever happens just keep your head down and keep scrubbing. Second floor bathroom is down the stairs, turn left and then last door on your left." Raven grabbed her bucket and brush and began her descent to the second floor hoping and praying Angel.....correction, Devilique and her friends were nowhere to be found. 

Raven walked slowly, careful not to spill the sloshing water.  She passed rows of closed doors with what she assumed were small children behind them.  A sadness clouded over her, thinking of all these children with no parents, or even a Grams to love them.  She wondered if they had ever known one day of happiness in their young lives.  As she passed a half open door, she paused hearing a soft voice reading what sounded like a children's book.  Curiosity getting the better of her, Raven peered in the  opening only to find Nikolas surrounded by a dozen or so five and six year olds.  She had been right, he was reading a book to them and considering how enthralled they all looked, he was reading it quite well.

Raven stood there mesmerized by the soft voice and simple story.  It took her back to the days of when Grams used to read to her, and how much she loved and missed it.  Even though she had been able to read at a young age, Raven still had taken great pleasure in snuggling with Grams in her big chair, listening to her voice rise and fall with description of the story.  The memories wrapped around her like a warm blanket on a cold winters night.  But as with every happy feeling or thought at Blackwood Orphanage, it was fleeting.  Raven's warm blanket of memories was ripped away with the sound of clicking shoes coming from behind.  Grabbing her bucket once more, Raven walked in earnest away from the noisy shoes.  Luckily she wasn't far from the last door on the left.  Raven slipped inside, shutting the door quietly, hoping she hadn't been seen.

Raven dropped her bucket splashing a little water and gave out a long, loud sigh. Jax had been right, this is one stinky, sticky mess.  She groaned inwardly realizing she had no gloves to scrub the grossness.  "Just typical" she thought.  Raven walked to the far corner and began scrubbing.  She tried making a game of it but it really wasn't working.  Yep, still totally gross.  Raven was making pretty good progress, getting about half the  bathroom done when the noisy shoes returned.  First the squeak of the door, then trampling shoes, followed by conversation.

"What do you mean you saw her staring at him?"

Raven knew that voice immediately.  She remembered what Jax had said and lowered her head even further and continued to scrub.

"Yep, saw her staring, or more so moooooning over him like this" said an unfamiliar voice.

A third voice chimed in laughing "as if, what is she...like 10?  Please girl, why are you trippin' ?!?"

The second voice agreed "ya, that's true, she's got nothing on you.  You're the bomb girl...you know it".

Raven heard Angelique laugh, but it sounded more menacing than it did genuine.  She was really trying not to dip into their conversation but her curiosity always won out.  She knew she needed to move over to clean a different spot since she had been scrubbing the same one since they walked in but she was frozen in place with fear and fascination.  Secretly she had always wanted to be a part of a group.  Gossiping, putting on makeup, doing each others nails...it all seemed so glamorous to Raven.  Even if they didn't know she was there, she could still sort of pretend she was part of it.  Deep in thought Raven hadn't realized their conversation stopped until her dirty water was splashing everywhere as a red heel kicked her bucket.

" Speak of the devil...hello worm"

Raven made the unfortunate mistake of looking up into the face of pure evil.  It still baffled her how such a face of an angel could be so nasty and mean.  Trying to return to her scrubbing, she felt a hot shooting pain through her skull as Angelique began dragging her by her hair. 

"Lookie what I found ladies" Angelique cackled while pulling Raven to the center of the bathroom.

The other two girls burst into a fit of giggles as Angelique circled her like a shark.  Raven sat silent taking in the trio.  Angelique's henchmen stood staring at her with arms crossed.  The girl on the right was a bit on the chubby side.  She had short, dark curly hair that framed a broad looking face.  She had a beauty mark right above her puffy lips, but Raven didn't know if it was real or makeup.  The other girl was the complete opposite.  She was tall and thin, so thin in fact if she turned sideways, she would probably disappear.  Brown mousy hair hung unevenly around her shoulders and a pair of protruding teeth stuck out behind her thin lips.  Angelique came back into view and Raven noticed her outfit.  She had the same uniform as everyone else, only she was wearing it much differently.  Her skirt was a lot shorter than it had been, it looked like the waistband had been folded over a few times to create a mini skirt.  Her blue blouse was buttoned only a few times and then tied in a knot at the bust line.  Her blazer was left open and the sleeves rolled up to her elbows.  The ensemble was completed by the tacky red high heels that were so kindly used to kick over her bucket.  Raven wasn't impressed.  Maybe it was because she knew she couldn't pull off that look in a million years....but even if she could pull it off, she wouldn't.  No Thank you.

Angelique stood by her toadies and crossed her arms like the other two.  If not for the knot in her stomach and her aching skull, Raven might find the warped Cinderella and her two ugly step sisters standing before her amusing. 

"So worm...I hear you were enjoying story time today...."

Raven didn't know what to say or do so she just stayed silent, staring at the floor.

"No?  Well....if you weren't enjoying story time, then that means you were enjoying staring at my boyfriend!!" shrieked Angelique.

Raven could feel her face burn with a deep blush.  How could she possibly explain that it wasn't like that.  That she had only been thinking about her Grams and that she didn't know him, nor did she want to!  Raven knew there was no reasoning with the she devil.  There was a look of crazy in her eyes that no person in their right mind would dare challenge. 

"What to do, what to do...." Angelique mumbled as she tapped a painted hot pink finger on her chin.  "Got it!"

The malicious excitement was so thick in the room, you could cut it with a knife.  The ugly paired giggled with gleeful anticipation of the torture their ring leader had dreamed up for Raven.  Whispering to her two cohorts, loud laughter erupted from the three of them.  Angelique sashayed by Raven into the bathroom stall, and the tinkling sound gave no mistake what she was doing in there.  After Angelique was finished, the tall skinny girl rushed by Raven, giggling nervously, entered the same stall that Angelique had used and as before used the bathroom.  As the short chubby girl sauntered past with a slow lazy smile,  Raven's heart began to pound.  No, they wouldn't.  They couldn't be that evil! 

"Grab her!!" Someone shouted.

Raven could feel claws grasping her arms, legs and hair and began dragging her to the used stall. 

"Little worm, you look all hot and bothered...I think you could use some cooling off" the three of them again erupted in laughter.   Raven did the only thing she could do.  She began to scream for all she was worth.  Her scream must have surprised them because their grip relaxed a bit which gave Raven just enough room to start kicking.  If she was going down, then she would go down fighting.  Raven felt her foot connect with something soft and heard an "oooopf" she guessed she had kicked the fat one in the belly.  Still screaming and scrambling Raven broke free and began crawling towards the door.  Feeling a hand slap over her mouth, Raven bit down and felt a salty liquid on her lips and a scream in her ear.  A dull thud to the side of her head made everything in her world shake.  She could feel the hands on her again but she was too stunned to think or fight.  Yanking her back to the urine filled toilet, Raven had accepted her fate.  She just couldn't fight anymore, when suddenly a voice made the wheels of malevolence come to a screeching halt.

"Angelique?"

Angelique's head snapped up and all four of them stared at the blue-eyed boy. 

"Sweety!" Oozed Angelique.  The way she could shift gears was absolutely incredible to Raven. 

"What's going on?"

"Ohhh you know, just having some fun with the newbie" Angelique slithered around Nikolas like a snake, laying her head on his shoulder smiling sweetly at him.

"C'mon, picking on little kids is beneath you.  I need help passing out the juice and cookies to the little ones.  Come give me a hand"

Angelique looked back at Raven and then at Nikolas.  Raven could tell she was torn at what to do.  Nikolas gently stroked her face with the back of his hand and smiled.

"Please?"

Angelique melted.  Raven thought she was going to puke, and not from the concussion she probably had.

"Let's go help Nikky girls" grabbing on to his arm.  Raven felt a wave of relief wash over her.

"We'll talk later" Angelique said pointedly to Raven, then flipped her hair and strolled out with the boy and her two groupies.

Raven stood on shaky legs and began making her way back to her room.  Slow at first then when she realized they were not going to fail her, she began to run.  Taking the stairs two at a time Raven could not get there fast enough.  Throwing open the door Raven collided with the happy aqua eyes.  Raven couldn't hold it in anymore, she burst into tears and collapsed in Jax' arms.  Jax held her for a bit, completely bewildered.  Eventually they made their way to Jax' bed and sat down.  Raven told her the whole horrible story and watched as a cloud of anger passed over the happy eyes.

"I'm so sorry Raven.  We're going to have to buddy up from now on when we clean.  They can't do that to the two of us!".  Raven shook her head and gave Jax a hug.  She was so grateful for her, she wasn't sure she would ever be able to show her how much.  Hearing the dinner bells chime, the two girls got in line for the cafeteria. 

" Is there a Raven Rose in this line?" shouted the line monitor.  

Now what.

Raven stepped out of line and raised her hand.

"Right then, you won't be going us for dinner.  Your chores were not completed"

Jax gave her an apologetic look.  Raven smiled and shook her head making her way back to her lumpy matress.  Once the door shut,  Raven laid on her bed, letting the stress from the day release again through her tears.  By the time she was done, she wasn't sure if she had been crying about Angelique or what Nikolas had said.  "Picking on a little kid....". 

How dare he.

©jaholland 2015