Chapter Three: Ebony and Ivory Schoolgirls

I was frozen solid: still, utterly still… unable to move, unable to do more than slowly move my eyes. I shifted my slow-motion gaze from nothing, to nothing, to nothing more. I was buried in cotton, cloud, whiteness all around me. It didn't touch me. Nothing touched me. I was floating in a void empty of everything, completely naked and exposed as my long silver hair billowed around my bare shoulders. I felt like a butterfly caught in a spiderweb.

Then, with a flash of light, Amelia was standing in front of me... and I was able to move.

My memories and the pain of my past abruptly vanished, although I never noticed when the sensations simply disappeared.

"Emily, come on! Let's go to the park and show everyone how awesome twins can be!" Amy laughed, pulling on my skinny arm; the two of us were playing outside of our new apartment building since everything around us was so safe and beautiful. It was a warm summer day... breezy and perfect. "Pleeease? I want people to know we're twins!"

"We can't go by ourselves, Amy!" I firmly retorted, folding my arms and staring at my brown-haired twin with my lower lip poking out. Amelia fell to the ground and laughed at the face I was making, which made my heart flutter and feel warm for the first time in years. However, when I suddenly wondered why it felt so cold in the first place, Amy opened her eyes again and froze like a statue: her pretty face turned white. "What's with the creepy face? Is there a bug or something on me? What are you looking at?"

"Emily, behind you... there's... there's a man with a..." Amy whispered, lifting a trembling finger and pointed over my shoulder; the sound of a gun going off made me twitch, and my eyes widened in horror when my sister suddenly had a wet hole in her chest. My twin looked down at herself with a jolt and touched the hole... but then she looked right up at me and smiled, honey brown eyes losing their sparkle."Look at me, Emmy... I'm dead! See? I'm dead... dead... It's your fault... because of you... Dead..."

"No..." I whimpered, stepping away from my sister and tripping over the swirling darkness as the memories came back. "No... I'm sorry! It's not my fault!"

"Everything's your fault," Amelia laughed, staring down at me with a face that began to wither and rot off. "You killed me... you killed me and Elijah..."

"No!" I wailed, shaking my head with a terrified expression. "I didn't mean to! I-I'm sorry!"

"You even made me kill Daddy," Amy continued, laughing as her eyes rolled back and wrinkled up in a rotting manner. "I killed Daddy because he was trying to kill you."

"No... stop! It's not true," I sobbed, covering my face with both hands as the ice froze my insides with an electric jolt. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to! I didn't mean any of it!"

Unfortunately, all of those events... were the truth: I could see it in my mind.

Elijah... the sidewalk with the colorful shops; the adults who would stop and ask how we were doing, what our drunken father was up to. Amy had been skipping on my left, and Elijah had been walking on my right... he had been so pretty. Handsome face, tan skin, big blue eyes… platinum blonde hair that had just the right wave... a dimple in his left cheek and a little dent in his chin. He was a funny guy and was always joking around, but he was smart: he did well on his tests without even needing to study because he'd already known the answers. Growing up, I had developed the biggest crush on him: it was so large that even my father had started catching onto it, calling him my boyfriend just to see me blush and squeal in embarrassment. We had all been walking home together... every now and then, his hand bumped mine: he had been that close.

When I'd stopped walking to take a peek into a shop window, he had picked a little pink flower and held it up for me to take.

"I think you're cute, Emily," he'd whispered, smiling as a little pink flush covered his face. "I... I like you a lot, and you have... the most beautiful eyes and hair I ever saw."

And I tripped.

It had shocked me so much to hear him say it that I tripped.

He wasn't supposed to think I was cute... he was supposed to think I was cool or something.

I wasn't cute, or even relatively pretty since all albinos are ugly... Daddy had always told me as much, had always said I was ugly.

But the moment those words left his mouth, my feet stumbled and I'd fallen: I'd felt Amy touch my arm, and Elijah's hand on my shoulder.

I felt the jerk that went through his entire body. I felt the blood spraying over my side. My hair My face. My arm. My hand.

The hand that his had been bumping against.

Then his body had tilted past me, and when I turned, he was lying on his stomach with his arms resting limply at his sides. Elijah was lying there on the ground with half his face ripped out of his skull... with blood from his head pooling around his torso, blood that was spilling from a huge hole in the side of his temple. At first, I hadn't understood the red that had flown everywhere… nor had I registered the gang attack that had erupted across the street in the park. Because when it hit me, that Elijah was lying on the ground... dead... an unbearable pressure ripped through my stomach and rendered me unable to think, to scream, to breathe... unable to do anything.

My eyes had widened and my mouth had opened, but not a single sound left my lips as I crawled over to him and frantically pawed at his shirt.

I was doing it again...

Elijah was in front of me... I pulled the boy onto my lap and desperately shook his shoulders, tiny hands grasping at his clothes.

No... this event had already happened... it wasn't right...

"Poor little girl," Amy sighed, waltzing out of the darkness with the hole in her chest. "You've killed everyone you've ever loved."

"Elijah, wake up!" I shrieked, eyes round as my stomach clenched; he couldn't be dead, he couldn't... even in a nightmare, this was too cruel. "Wake up! Wake up, wake up, wake up! Please, Elijah, wake up! You can't die! You can't die, Elijah! Wake up! Wake up, please! It's not real! It's a dream! You have to wake up!"

I froze and felt hope flooding through me when he twitched: the sidewalk went black and I couldn't feel Amy's fingers on my arm anymore... there was only me and Elijah. Half of his smile was gone and blood was pooling on my skirt... but then, he twitched again and his face turned, but that half smile frowned: he looked at his hands like he was surprised to see the blood there. Then his mouth fell open and he groaned, sounding as though it was nothing worse than failing a math test.

"Your fault," he rasped, tilting his head and looking at me with dead blue eyes. "Your fault."

"What?! N-no," I croaked, shaking my head and crawling backwards in horror. "No… Elijah... no... I didn't mean to! I swear!"

"Your fault... your fault… your fault… you took it away from me, Emily… you took it away… your fault…" the blonde boy repeated, slowly crawling to his feet and looking at me with a smile. Shaking my head and clutching my hair, I drew back from him with horrified amethyst eyes: it wasn't true… I hadn't meant to get him killed. I tried to crawl to my feet and managed to stumble upright lonh enough to run away, but I could still hear it all around me. "Your fault… your fault… I'm dead… your fault… dead..."

Without warning, I suddenly tripped again… over something that was actually there this time, not my own feet. Crying out in pain as I skinned my knees, I crawled around in that inky blackness: I didn't want to hear how it was my fault that Amy and Elijah were dead, but the moment I curled into a ball and clamped my hands over my ears, their chanting stopped… completely. Trembling, I slowly uncurled and hesitantly sat up before looking around: there was no one there.

Just darkness… nothingness.

The darkness that had always been there.

"Yo, Emily," a feminine voice laughed. "Are we going to be your fault, too?"

I couldn't see who had asked it, but the sound of her voice made my heart freeze. I instantly whirled around and froze, hands flying to my mouth as my young body suddenly flashed into that of a teenage girl. It wasn't Elijah or Amy who had stepped out of the darkness. It wasn't blonde hair and sapphire blue eyes or brown hair and honey eyes: it was a crowd of people with features of every variety. All of those eyes stared at her... and among them were Johnny, Julius, and Aisha.

Johnny lifted his large hands, smiled at her with his glasses glinting, face still blissfully whole.

"J-Johnny?" I whimpered, staring at him with enormous eyes; then my eyes flicked to Aisha... and all of the other people I'd recently met. "No..."

"Are you going to kill us, too, Snowflake?" Johnny asked, blue eyes twinkling behind his shades. "We're your friends... we're all you have. Will we be your fault, too?"

"No. No. No. No," I chanted, shaking my head with terror in my eyes. "NEVER!"

There was suddenly a multitude of sickening noises: Aisha let out a shriek only a split second before her head flew off... Julius glared at her only a split second before a hole exploded out of his forehead, sending him flying into the darkness... then, a deafening gunshot crack sent Johnny falling to his knees, large hands coming to his chest and coming back bloody: he was still smiling at her with that same twinkling grin when she shrieked and rushed over to him, holding his body in her arms and clinging to him.

"You lied, Snowflake," he told her, deep voice cold. "You said you weren't going to kill me. It's your fault."

"No!" I wailed, clasping his shoulders with shaking fingers and trying to make him stay awake. "Please! Don't die! Nobody else die!"

His hand, warm and slick with his own blood, came up and wrapped around my throat... tightened until I choked.

"Your fault… your fault… your fault…"

Then he went limp: his body was still there, sprawled over my lap.

Beside me lay the bodies of Amelia, Elijah, Julius, Aisha, and several other people I didn't even recognize. Amelia was lying on her stomach with a hole in her back, staring off at nothing with blood dripping from her lips and tears streaming from her deadened eyes. Elijah was lying on his side with half of his face missing and pieces of his head all over the ground. Julius was staring sightlessly at the sky with his head tilted up at an awkward angle and blood streaming across his nose from the hole in his skull. Aisha was lying in two pieces... her head somewhere in the darkness, and her body curled into a ball.

Johnny's eyes were staring out at nothing... and he had holes in his back.

"Your fault..." a group of voices whispered.

"EEEEEEEYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" I screeched, eyes flying open wide. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

The scream tore out of my throat so violently that I jackknifed straight up in my bed and let it out until I had no more air. To muffle myself before I could let out another one, I bit down on the loose skin around my wrist and shook violently: this painful method had generally worked in the past to keep me from screaming my head off whenever the nightmares got bad, but this one had been so much worse, so far beyond just 'bad' that I still squealed and cried past the grip on my arm. Whimpering, I curled into a ball and tightened in on myself, closing my eyes as tight as I could even as I bit my arm and cried.

My breath escaped in quiet sobs, even as I fought it back.

When I remembered where I was, however, everything inside my body froze: my skin went icy cold and my stomach dropped through the floor. My belly twisted roughly and I jerkily scrambled out of bed before stumbling to the bathroom. My legs gave out twice on the way and I hit the floor still trying to move, still trying to stumble and crawl into the bathroom. I didn't make it to the toilet, but thankfully I managed to grab the trashcan so I didn't make a mess of the floor.

It hurt. It burned. And I couldn't stop until I felt like I'd been scraped raw.

When I was finally empty and exhausted, I let go of the trashcan and collapsed on the floor, shivering violently but completely unable to curl up due to my exhaustion: I was sprawled out on my side with my silver locks plastered to my cheeks. When I finally managed to sit up, I looked at the bite mark on her wrist before straightening up with disbelieving eyebrows. I blinked in surprise when I saw how much blood was welling around each indent.

"I'm bleeding," I mechanically droned, slowly crawling to my feet and sticking my hand under the faucet before turning it on.

The water was cool, but warming quickly: I went through my things under the sink and pulled out some rubbing alcohol and a huge Band-Aid. I then dumped the rubbing alcohol over the bite – I'd never bitten through skin before, no matter how bad the nightmare was – and only hissed at the pain. I practically slapped the Band-Aid over it... however, when everything was back under the sink where it belonged, I left the bathroom and sat down on my bed. Feeling frightened and jumpy after my nightmare, I rubbed my arm and winced when I realized how much it hurt to touch it.

My throat tightened as the ice around my heart clenched when I thought back to the dream, squeezing all warmth out of me: that had been more than just a simple nightmare... those had been dark reminders of everything that had happened to me in the past. I slowly turned and looked at my clock: five-thirty in the morning. I rubbed my eyes in dismay when I realized that, within an hour or less, it would be time for me to go to school again: regardless of what I was going to be doing with the Saints, I wanted to keep my grades up there since I was currently at the top of my class. I never did anything but read or study in school, and since socializing with my classmates was strictly out of the question, I had gotten the best average in the entire school and set several academic records.

After a moment of thought, I got up and decided to take a shower before making myself some breakfast.

After all, I'd pretty much just thrown up everything in my stomach, so I'd need some sort of energy to stay awake.

Once I was clean and had donned my school uniform, I grabbed an apron off of the rack in the kitchen and tied it around my front; then I went to the closet and pulled the stool out before carrying it over to the cabinets and standing on it. Even though I was fourteen-years-old, I hadn't grown very much over the last five years: I was a mere total of four feet and seven inches tall, which I've stated once before. Amelia, on the other hand, had been an enviable five feet and three inches.

She'd purposely called me things like 'Shorty' and 'Squirt' to make fun of me.

With deft movements, I pulled down a pot and some noodles before taking the butter out of the fridge, along with a few fresh vegetables, the salt container, and six herbal ingredients that would make the food delicious. After filling the pot with water and setting it on the stove, I waited for it to boil before I deftly began to make myself some breakfast. Since I really didn't care what I was eating—food was food, after all—making meals like this was common for me in the mornings.

After about ten minutes of cooking, I added the rest of the ingredients and stirred them; then I admired my work.

Wow, it looks delicious, I murmured silently, getting down a plate and looking around for a fork; however, as I was doing so, I spotted Mrs. Maybelle watching me from the front entrance with a small smile on her face... and she was my cranky landlord. I immediately stopped walking around and stared at her in surprise: as far as I was aware, the money I'd earned from my part-time job had paid off my rent for this month, so there was no reason for her to be visiting me.

"What are you doing up this early?" the old woman sighed, walking forward and leaning against the kitchen counter. "It's not even light out."

"I have school in an hour," I whispered softly, averting my eyes and looking at the ground as I spoke. "So, when I woke up, I figured it'd be smart to stay up."

"Well, is there room for two?" the woman asked, cocking an amused eyebrow. "I'd like to try some of your food, if that's okay."

"Of course," I murmured, nodding the affirmative; regardless of the image I put out, everyone in my apartment complex had known me since I was a little girl due to the fact that my twin and I had come to live with Mrs. Maybelle in the beginning. After nearly five years, she let us move into an individual complex since the crime activity was skyrocketing after the arrival of the new gangs: she'd claimed that she was afraid something would happen to us if we didn't become independent early on, so she'd told us to find a way to pay her for living like an adult. Still... she was the only other person besides the late Mrs. McCarthy who had felt like a parent to Amelia and myself, so I gently stepped on the stool and got another plate down. "Help yourself... I made enough to have seconds, if you'd like."

"Well, if you insist," the old woman giggled, flapping a wrinkled hand; when there were two plates full of food and the two of us were sitting at the table, I watched the woman eat with speculative eyes. Mrs. Maybelle cocked her head before twirling the noodles around her fork and popping them into her mouth; her grey eyes widened only a second later and she chewed slowly. "Wow... this is a killer concoction, Emily."

"Really?!" I hesitantly asked, taking a bite of the food and blinking in amazement: the woman was right. The food was simple, but absolutely delicious because of the veggies and herbs I'd added to it. "Wow... I was expecting it to be mediocre, not a masterpiece."

"You could give cooking lessons with food this good," Old Lady Maybelle sighed once her plate was clean; the woman let out a yawn and put her dish in the sink. "I hope you have a good day at school... I've been worried about you ever since poor Amelia's passing. Bah, such a terrible event... goodnight, honey."

I gave a little wave and watched as my landlady left the room; then, when the door was shut, I walked over to the kitchen counter and picked up the only picture of my sister that I had: the two of us were standing together with our arms wrapped around each other and grinning at the camera. We were looking out of the picture though we were looking into now was full of some sort of unseen opportunity... back then, my eyes had looked so different than the way they do now.

They had looked so warm... and whenever Amelia had held my hand, I had felt warm, too.

It hadn't always been that way, though... in fact, until my sister and I were seven years old, Amelia had listened to our parents and had practically ignored me. That had all changed one afternoon when I had been playing on the park swings by myself: I had been wearing a checkered dress and a pair of dusty black shoes, since our parents always bought my clothes from a thrift store. Then, out of the blue, Amelia had walked up to me and tapped me from behind.

"Hey, Emmy, let's play together!" Amelia had exclaimed; I had looked at her over my shoulder from the swing set before turning back around.

"No," I'd murmured, staring at the ground with angry violet eyes. "You go play with Mommy and Daddy. I don't want to play with you."

"But I want to play with you, Emmy," Amy had laughed, moving forward and staring down at me with an eager smile. "Please?"

"Go away!" I'd finally shrieked, getting off the swing and pushing her down; my twin sister's big brown eyes had widened and she looked more than startled when I started crying and simultaneously glared down at her in anger. "I hate you the most, Amy! You have everything! You have Mommy and Daddy and Grandma! You have everything I don't! You steal everything, Amy, so go away and leave me alone forever!"

"I-I steal everything?" the little girl had stammered, looking stunned.

"Yes! You steal everything!" I'd wailed back, sinking down to my knees and burying my face in my tiny little hands. "You stole all the yummy candy, all the ice cream, all the cake, all the new toys, all the pretty clothes, and all the happy birthdays! You stole shopping with Mommy, golfing with Daddy, baking cookies with grandma, and saying goodbye to grandpa at his funeral! You steal everything, and I... I never get to have anything!"

When I finally trailed off and broke down into tears, I was startled when my sister crawled over and pulled her into a hug; I felt her shaking and heard her crying, but I didn't know why she was acting that way when she'd had everything I'd always wanted.

"I'm sorry..." Amy hiccuped, letting out a sob and clutching the back of my dress with tight fists. "I'm sorry..."

"Amy?" I'd whimpered, anger fading into guilt when she burst into tears.

"I'm sorry for stealing everything!" my twin sister had wailed, crying against my shoulder when I burst into tears as well. Ever since that moment, Amelia had given me half of everything she received, and if she couldn't split it somehow then she wouldn't accept whatever it was. Each day after that meltdown was spent with her giving me half of everything she had, and because of that I had actually come to love my twin sister more than anyone else because of her kindness.

She was the only one who'd cared about me from the very beginning.

I slowly closed my eyes and put the picture of us face-down on the counter before I started gathering my school stuff. I was working very hard at three different jobs to support my tuition fees, which was also why I'd signed up for Martial Arts classes: I'd needed them to make sure I had no problems with the less dangerous scum living in the city I had grown up in. Once I'd packed my school bag, I grabbed the handle and held it in front of me before quietly heading downstairs.

I heard the Anderson couple screaming at each other again when I passed by their door, so I made a mental note to avoid coming home early.

The moment I walked outside and closed the door behind me, I was startled by an uproar of maniacal laughter; when I whirled around, I saw Johnny sitting on top of the van from the previous evening and laughing his ass off. I immediately scowled and covered my face with one hand, taking in a deep breath of air and slowly letting it out: I was trying to keep my cool and not blow up on him for sleeping in front of my apartment like a stalker, but the moment he opened his mouth and started talking past his laughter, I almost lost it anyway because of how much he pissed me off.

"A-a schoolgirl?!" he guffawed, laughing so hard that he rolled off the hood of the vehicle. "Oh, damn! Are you fuckin' serious?! You actually got a schoolgirl fetish?!"

No, you idiot, I'm an actual schoolgirl, I silently thought, flipping him off yet again before I smoothed my skirt and started walking towards my school. Johnny continued laughing at me even as he got in the van and began trailing me like he had the previous evening; I felt my irritation increasing when people started staring at him, and in turn at me since he was still shouting questions at me. Eventually I gave up and bolted across the street, running straight over to the van and throwing the door open before sliding inside. After I'd slammed it shut, I pulled my Academy brochure out of my bag and held it up with a fierce glare.

"Stillwater Academy for Girls," he read aloud, eyebrows shooting up. "Damn... I never would have guessed you were in high school like me. I thought maybe you were still in Middle School, or even Elementary school, because of how tiny you are."

I immediately sent a glare to end all glares his way and looked out the window, ignoring his presence until he pulled up in the parking lot; several of my classmates started staring at me in surprise when I jumped out of the van, mostly because Johnny leaned out the window and waved goodbye in a very loud manner before speeding off to God knows where. That day, needless to say, was exhausting and extremely unbearable... mostly because I was mentally exhausted.

"Miss Evergreen, wake up!" somebody shouted, snapping me out of my reverie; my head instantly snapped up and I tensed, red-violet eyes glittering with alertness as I faced her teacher's glare. "How many times do I have to tell you not to sleep in my class? This is the third time in a row you've put your head down!"

"I finished the work you handed out, so by all rights I'm allowed to put my head down," I quietly retorted, narrowing my eyes in irritation when the rest of the class started sniggering. Everyone already knew how many times I had been reprimanded by this particular teacher: every other teacher seemed to love me because of my grades, but Mrs. Kingsford was never satisfied with my class performance. She seemed to take it personally that I put my head down only in first hour. The truth is that I'm holding no grudge against the class or the teacher: it's simply difficult to listen to the woman's soothing lectures whenever I get a migraine. I looked around the classroom and felt annoyed when I noticed three other students actually sleeping in class and snoring on top of it… unlike me, since I was only resting.

"Are you listening to me?" Mrs. Kingsford demanded.

"Of course I am," I murmured, using my bangs to hide my large amethyst eyes. "I always do, Ma'am."

"Very well," Mrs. Kingsford retorted firmly, straightening up and pointing to the board imperiously. "Then you can tell the class the answer to that particular question, am I correct? If you actually did the work, you should know the answer... so this should be an easy task for someone who can finish all her work in ten minutes."

I was just about to ask 'what question?' when I realized that it probably wouldn't be the wisest answer. My half-hidden eyes darted over the question and I blinked when I recognized it; flipping through my notebook, I found my finished work and quickly read out the answer I had scribbled down a few minutes ago. I shot a quick glance at the teacher after I was done, but the woman appeared far from satisfied: personally, I found it to be a little ridiculous… considering the fact that I was the only person in her class who ever bothered to do the homework. Instead, the teacher glared at me for a long moment, almost as if she thought I had copied the work from someone else. Then she swept away, rapping her ruler on tables to wake the other students up: I felt rather triumphant to have beaten a teacher.

However, I instantly sank back into her chair with a soft sigh of relief.

I hated being the center of attention: having everyone stare at me had always been an unsettling feeling.

Luckily, there were only ten more minutes until the end of the period… and when the bell finally rang, the whole class erupted into a flurry of action. I allowed myself to be pulled along by the stream of students to the cafeteria, listening to the swirl of gossip and the loud teasing. When I finally made it to the cafeteria, I quickly joined the line and grabbed nothing but a carton of juice since I was eager to remove myself from the jostling crowd of sweaty girls. I found it exceedingly annoying to be surrounded by other people who were constantly letting out shrill and earsplitting noises in order to converse about hundreds of meaningless topics.

"Well, look who's finally arrived!" one of the girls standing behind me sneered, grabbing my shoulder and forcefully spinning me around. "It's the albino!"

"Can I help you?" I asked in a monotone, refusing to let any emotion break through my mask.

"We heard something interesting this morning," one girl commented with a grin. "We heard you're dating Aisha's boyfriend."

"E-excuse me?" I asked, blinking in stunned shock for several moments. "I… I'm not dating anyone, and who the hell is Aisha?"

"You can't tell me that you don't know about our school idol!" another girl laughed. "That guy you showed up with, Johnny Gat, is Aisha's boyfriend!"

"Ugh... that's gross," I retorted in disgust, struggling to retain my composure when I realized that everybody around us was listening: Aisha was probably one of the most popular girls in the school, so someone as 'lowly' as me should definitely not have been kissing her boyfriend. "You're sadly mistaken: we're definitely not dating each other, and he's lucky that I didn't slap him for kissing me yesterday. The stupid idiot's been stalking me ever since last night."

"I know Gat wouldn't date a weirdo, but kissing someone as ugly as you? That's something I understand even less," the first girl scoffed, blocking my path out of the cafeteria. "You'd better tell Eesh you're sorry, Freak, 'cause she's madder than a hellcat."

"I don't have to explain myself to anyone! It was Johnny who kissed me, so he can be the one who explains what happened," I hissed through gritted teeth, glaring at them with a threatening expression. I made to walk around the girls but had only taken two steps when someone stuck their foot out and tripped me. Since I was only a foot away from the door, I found her face quickly coming to meet the metal handle. By the time I had braced myself for humiliation and a bloody nose, I was startled to see that I was hovering only a few inches above the handle: my carton of juice was being held by someone's delicate hands. Quickly finding my feet, I looked up at my savior and blinked rapidly in surprise: she was at least two feet taller and her pixie-like black hair was swept off to the side. Her dark skin and slender build was well-known throughout the whole school, and her slanted, exotic brown eyes were so cold that they could have frozen hell.

"Aisha," the girl who'd tripped me stuttered, sounding fearful. "Hey, girlfriend, what's up?"

I lowered my eyes and looked away, feeling extremely unsettled: Aisha herself had come to my rescue. The half-Japanese black girl was a senior in her final year of high school, and she was famous on the basketball team because she had won the state finals four times in a row. On top of that, she was already a published singer, so she was relatively famous in the adult world as well. I was two grades below her and known only by my teachers and a few distant classmates.

I hesitantly straightened my black school skirt and fixed the tie on my school shirt, shivering a little despite the warmth in the cafeteria.

"What's going on here?" Aisha asked in a mock polite voice, eyeing the girls with calm danger; her hand was still on my arm, and I tensed a little from the dislike of being touched by other people. The girls stumbled over their words as they tried to come up with a good explanation.

"You heard the rumors, right?" the first girl spoke up, making the African beauty narrow her eyes. "It's like, she kissed your boyfriend, Johnny, and even showed up with him in his van this morning! So, we thought somebody should get mad at the freak and get some revenge for you… that's all it was, you know?"

Aisha, however, didn't give the reply a second thought.

"I don't need ignorant people like you to fight my battles," the girl stated coldly. "Johnny tried to fight Emily yesterday, and the two of us were never dating."

"Wait, what?" another girl scoffed. "But, you two are always together! We thought you were... you know... "

"We're childhood friends, so scat," Aisha ordered, dark brown eyes turning dangerously hard; they all obeyed in an instant, rushing through the cafeteria doors only a split second after she gave the command. Then the girl turned her cold expression on me and I involuntarily flinched, quickly diverting my gaze to the ground with my shoulders tensed; however, I was startled when the older girl pulled me into a hug and laughed gently. "Don't worry, kiddo... Johnny called me before first period and explained everything that happened yesterday. I'm in the Saints, too, so from this day forward we're sisters in arms! I'm completely aware that you did what you had to, as well... Johnny can be a real pervert, but he's a good guy, so don't let those idiots get to you."

I kept my mouth shut when the girl ruffled my hair and walked off, heading through the cafeteria doorway. I followed her, but just before I left the room I paused and looked over my shoulder: several people at nearby tables were staring at me, so I quickly ducked my head down before hurrying around the corner.

The rest of the school day passed in a blur, since nothing eventful happened afterwards.