SUNNYVALE

(12) KNOW YOUR ENEMY, ESPECIALLY IF SHE'S CUTE

If there is one thing one must know about Crystal Dunn, it is that she hates everything that is even slightly and hiddenly racist, homophobic, or just hateful overall ; in other words, there was nothing Crystal did not dislike about Eastside. 

As she was doing her usual morning run near the Black Forest - the Forest that delimitates the Eastern and Western parts of town, including a tiny river - Crystal was listening to her usual music, being Black American rappers with strong lyrics about racial injustice in the USA. Either way, it was one way to say that Crystal was angry and needed to run in order not to explode with anger. 

The past few days, she spent them in detention at school, or partying in order to forget that her dear friend Lindsey Horan died a horrible death - and Crystal was convinced that her death is due to someone from the East. Just as this thought crossed her mind, Crystal lifted her eyes toward the sky, a tear rolling down her eye.

Needless to say she hadn't seen the girl bursting out of a short turn, and that they bump into each other so hard that they both are ejected to the ground. As soon as Crystal looks up, she even regrets meaning to apologise.

"Watch where you're going, moron."

Shelina Zadorsky frowns, her hand on her nose, that is now bleeding. 

"Hello to you too, Crystal" the brunette sarcastically answers, quite angry. Before the other girl can say anything, she adds: "How was detention?"

Getting back up on her feet, Crystal puts her earphones back on her ears, and starts running again. 

It takes her a few seconds to realise that the other girl was chasing her, visibly calling her, but all Crystal heard was the sweet sound of American rap.

She abruptly stops, as Shelina does the same, out of breath. 

"What do you want?" Crystal aggressively asks, removing her earphones at last.

As she wanted to eye-kill the girl, Crystal was suddenly held back by a weird feeling: Shelina's greyish eyes seemed to be honest and genuine when she states:

"Sorry, I'm such a bitch... I was meaning to ask you how you were doing?"

"Well" Crystal lets out, sassily rolling her eyes at the other girl, "until I bumped into you, my day was pretty good, thank you. I won't ask you how's yours, before your entitled ass must've had a pleasant morning, right your majesty?" 

"You'd be surprised" Shelina chuckles, smirking. As Crystal was about to run again, the Canadian insists: "But seriously, what the sheriff did at that crappy building y'all call school wasn't okay at all, so I wanted to check on you."

Crystal frown, truly confused. 

"Why do you even care, Zadorsky, uh?" she then asks, rolling her eyes again. As the brunette stands there in silence, Crystal adds: "I mean, you're Eastside High's queen, the star cheerleader respected by everybody on both parts of town: why would you care for the daughter of a drug addict and a renowned criminal, uh ?"

Shelina shakes her head angrily.

"Well, you're surely making it hard to care at all, so just... forget it, 'kay? Sorry to have bothered you, bye."

As the brunette turns around and is about to leave, Crystal sighs and closes her eyes, calling her out:

"Shelina, wait - I'm sorry, I'm just not used to anyone other than my friends asking me how I am doing. Actually, nobody had thought about asking me lately, so... I'm fine, I guess."

Quite surprised by this change of situation, Shelina nods. 

"Uh, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to have all of your friends grounded too - I just couldn't stand the way he was openly discriminating you, and-"

"You're so weird, Zadorsky" Crystal concedes, quite amused. 

Looking away and setting her jaw, Shelina immediately follows up:

"Anyway, if you ever need someone to talk to - not that I think you're alone and need someone - just know that, although I am not the dream candidate, I'll always answer if you text me."

With that said, she takes a piece of paper out of her pocket and quickly writes her number on it, before handing it to Crystal, who frowns. 

Before she can say anything, the Eastsider is gone already, running away in the forest, leaving Crystal deeply confused. 

That chick's fucking weird. The fuck, she thinks to herself, before running again.

***

Walking around in the Eastside was making Tierna uncomfortable - thankfully enough, since she was rather new in town, people did not know she was living in the Westside yet, so she was smiled at in the streets, probably thought to be just a visitor from a city far away. So the brunette did not have any problem to find Lavelle's, the classy coffee shop owned by Rose Lavelle's parents.

As soon as she approaches the establishment, Tierna spots Abby, leaning against the walls right outside, checking her phone. 

When Tierna reaches her, the blonde rolls her eyes, puts her phone back in her purse, before grabbing Tierna's arm and leading her away from curious eyes - Abby couldn't be seen with a Westsider by one of her classmate, otherwise it would be suspicions : after all, she hated everything and everyone related to the Westside. 

Once they are out of sight, Abby releases her grip and lets out:

"You're late."

But Tierna wasn't in the mood of fighting with the girl, so she only settles:

"Listen, Dahlkemper, I ain't here to play your stupid games: I'm here to discuss what happened to us before training..."

"This has happened before" Abby immediately indicates, setting her jaw. As Tierna's eyes go wide, she quickly explains: "I was with Sam Mewis in the school's halls, and the same creepy voice called her name - but the rest of our friends hadn't heard shit, neither felt the earthquake."

"Just like our coaches didn't believe us about the earthquake on the locker rooms" Tierna says, frowning. 

Abby seems freaked out. 

"How come only some people can feel the earthquakes and see things? And why did my eyes start to bleed and become red? I mean, it doesn't make any sense" she blurts out, in her head.

"Look" Tierna interrupts her, knowing that Abby was the kind of person to get lost inside her own mind, "I can see only one solution: we gotta dig deeper."

"What do you mean?" 

"We need to search the archives, so that if something like that happened before, we'd know and have some informations about it."

"Alright" Abby agrees, nodding her head slowly. After thinking for a moment, she just says: "We always have a few hours free between classes and training, so maybe we can meet at the library after class ?"

Tierna nods.

"Good idea."

"Good" Abby lets out, not impressed, "we start tomorrow, then."

Tierna nods again, as the two girls part ways: if only they did know then in what they would get themselves into...