You Can Change

Chapter Two

Chryss dragged herself to school again the next day. Cedric had wounded her physically but he hadn't even touched her mentally.

Of course, her mother had freaked. Chryss' mother was the overprotective type. But Chryss insisted the bruises were paint, and her mother was passified.

Well, she definitely had her suspicions, but Chryss had tried not to make any signs of pain, and her mother had been more or less convinced.

After a night of tossing and turning, dreading the next day, Chryss wasn't ready for her mother's interrogation again.

But thankfully her mother had left for work early. She'd left behind a touching note saying how much she loved Chryss and to look after herself.

Chryss really hoped she could. But if she had to stand up to Cedric again to help another poor child, then maybe she would get injured.

She passed by a new street on the way to school, having taken a different route. She heard shouting and paused.

"GET OUT OF THE HOUSE, YOU DISGRACE!" someone shouted, and someone was kicked out of the biggest house.

She almost doubled over in shock when she saw Cedric.

"Fuck you!" Cedric yelled back at whoever had kicked him out. His eyes landed on Chryss and his expression changed to confidence.

"Not going to try again, are you?" he asked.

"What's that about?" Chryss motioned to his house and the yelling inside.

Cedric's eyes darkened, but he didn't answer. Of course he wouldn't. She was the girl he beat up the previous day. Why would he answer to her?

But he did answer. "Just some bitches who need to learn their place."

Chryss stared back at him, annoyed. "Your language is atrocious," she said.

He smirked. "What, got a problem with my swearing?"

"A very big problem," Chryss informed him through narrowed eyes. He swore like, every two sentences! What was that about?!

"Well, too bad for you, because I don't care," Cedric said and marched on.

Chryss followed him. "That isn't very nice," she snapped, but he only laughed.

Cedric snorted derisively. "Nice," he spat on the ground, causing her to jerk away from where he'd spat, "No one here is nice, Chryss. Do you live in Fairyland? Going off to meet another one of those girls with sparkly wings?"

Chryss blinked. "I'm glad you think I look young, but I'm certainly not that short."

Cedric shook his head at her. "Don't you recognize an insult when you hear one?"

"I hear what I want to hear," Chryss told him.

Cedric snorted again. "Claptrap. Nonsense."

"What you do with your life," Chryss said, panting as she kept up with his long strides. "It isn't very meaningful."

"Try living a meaningful life with my idiotic parents," Cedric muttered. "They argue every single fucking day and don't care if I'm there or not."

She winced and almost told him to mind his language again but eventually decided against it. She didn't want him to hate her.

She walked next to him in silence, but he turned into the next street to meet Brandon and Jorgen, and she decided to take her leave there.

"Chryss!" one of the girls in class called.

Chryss looked up. Who was that? Margaret? No, her hair was plaited. Then it would be Malina, but she was sick.

"Marcy?" Chryss asked uncertainly.

The girl brightened. "Yeah! You remember me! I'm Marcy, and my favorite color's pink! What's yours?"

Chryss thought back to the calming ocean and sky and responded, "Blue."

Marcy nodded enthusiastically. "I love blue too, it was my favorite color when I was six, but then a couple years a-"

She cut herself off abruptly and walked back to her seat, sat down, crossed her arms and pretended to read.

Chryss knew why. Even without seeing Cedric, the frightened whispers that went around class were a dead giveaway.

"Cedric. Got some more kids to rob today?" she asked casually, pretending she hadn't already met him that morning.

His gaze flashed with surprise but not anger. "Well, of course," he said, flashing her a smirk. "I have to get my money from somewhere."

"How about a little honest work to cut through the monotony?" she asked.

He watched her curiously. "Are you trying to get beaten up again?" he asked, and Jorgen cracked his knuckles loudly.

"Maybe, maybe not," Chryss said airily.

Cedric was still watching her coolly, but his two cronies were looking excited, raising their huge fists and pointing them at her face.

Cedric glanced at Brandon and Jorgen, then at Chryss, and shrugged. "Best to beat her again," he said promptly. "You have to learn your place, Kristen."

"It's Chryss," she snapped back, earning herself a look that said do-you-think-I-care? from him before his goons pounced on her.

She was as beaten and battered as yesterday, new purple-black bruises surrounding her body and her eyes. She narrowed them at Cedric.

As soon as he left, Marcy came forward to help. "That was really brave of you, Chryss," she murmured, "but you shouldn't do that anymore."

"What do you mean?" Chryss asked. Not stand up to the world's biggest bully?

Marcy's friend, Lavera, stepped over, frowning. "It's just that people who defy Cedric tend to get injured, very, very badly," Lavera explained.

"I've had worse." Chryss remembered the time she'd broken her arm. Now that had been agony.

"Well, he's gone easy on you these past two times," Lavera said grimly. "Last time Norman stood up to him, Cedric broke both his arms and a leg."

Both his arms and a leg?!! Chryss started. Breaking one arm was bad enough, and it had been her non dominant arm.

But losing a leg and then not being able to hold crutches because of his two broken arms? Now that was just terrifying.

Lavera and Marcy saw her expression and nodded. "Now you understand," Marcy said somberly.

"But he'll keep stealing from the younger kids," Chryss pointed out.

Marcy exchanged a glance with Lavera and they both shrugged. "What's ten or twenty dollars compared to losing your limbs for months?"

"Those kids are starving," Chryss said, her voice going up and octave. Didn't they sympathize?

Again, Lavera shrugged. "We all did at some point. There used to be another bully called Vikanov, and he was worse than Cedric. We've learned to live with Cedric."

"Vikanov was way, way worse," Marcy assured Chryss. "Cedric leaves you alone if you haven't got any money. Vikanov stole possessions."

"Oh." Chryss hadn't realized Cedric might be considered a good bully in their eyes.

"Yeah. Cedric isn't perfect and bullying isn't ideal, but... We've faced worse," Lavera said. "It's better to just leave him to his own devices."

"Right," Chryss said. She turned her eyes to where Cedric had disappeared from the classroom, her eyes narrowed.

But would she be able to leave him to steal from his inferiors?