The Gang Leader and The Street Fighter

Chapter Nine

*Esme POV*

It was hard getting up this morning after last night. I barely put one foot in the door before Chris started lecturing me about being an hour late and forgetting about Jake and Cole. Like come on, I get it, and it's only happened that one time.

So after doing a few chores around the house, I made dinner for everyone, then drove Cole to his basketball practice. Long story short, it was a busy day.

Doing the same morning routine, my family and I left the house around 7:20. Since it was early, we stopped by Starbucks. I got Jake and Cole a hot chocolate and I got myself a Caramel Flan Latte, along with bagels for the three of us.

Pulling into the parking lot, we sat in the car and ate our bagels. Once we finished I walked Cole to his class before heading to the office.

All the while students are talking about Athena's fight last night. Well today will be fun.  The day after one of her fights, some of the students get a little rowdy, you could say. I've broken up about three fights because of her last fight. But what can you do, these are stupid fights started because difference in opinions.

"Good Morning Beth." I smile at her as I pass.

"Morning Esme." She says after taking a long drink of her coffee.

"How's your morning?" I ask as I begin to file the paper work on my desk.

She shrugs, "Same old, same old. Those boys have been selling from what I hear and to top it off I heard they had detention yesterday as well as the rest of the week."

I look up at her, "Yeah I know, I took over Mr. Greens watch yesterday since he had an emergency to attend to, but a whole week? Really?"

She throws back her head and laughs, "Yeah, apparently James said something to insult Mr. Green, the others got detention because they laughed I guess, I don't really know. "

"Mmm, any way I'm heading to the copy room, do you need anything?" I ask heading towards the door.

"Nope, I'm good. Thanks." I nod and walk away.

~2 hours later~

The bell rings ending third period, the hallways fill with bodies as they make their way to their next class. I decide to wander the halls considering I have nothing to do.

"Hey, Esme." A group of junior girls say.

"Hello, Jaime. Alice. Marie." I say giving each of them a nod.

"We were wondering if you've heard from Athena lately?"  Alice says.

I chuckle, "Sorry girls, nothing. Why, is something wrong?"

Marie exchanges a look between the other two girls, "We have a free day tomorrow, and Mr. Smith decided to have a motivational speaker there."

"And we were hoping, maybe, you could talk to Athena and I don't know have a small performance here at the gym." Jaime adds.

I look between all three girls to see their eyes full of hope. "Tell you what, if you can get at least five teachers signatures, I'll see if I can contact Athena okay? You can leave the signatures with Mr. Green and I'll pick them up later."

The girls jumped up and down excitedly while hugging me, "Oh my god, thank you so much! This will be so much better than the speaker."

I laugh lightly as the late bell rings, "C'mon girls, I'll walk you to class."

Walking down the hallway, I walk behind the girls as they walk arm in arm. Knocking once on the art room, I lean against the open doorway as the girls walk in and take their seats.

"Ladies, why are you late." Mr. Duran asked.

"I believe that's my fault, Mr. Duran. I was asking them something rather important and confidential."

"Please Esme, call me Derek. And thank you for escorting them here."

I smile and shrug, "No biggie, I wasn't doing anything else."

His eyebrows raised, "I'm sure the students wouldn't mind if you stayed, that is, if you want to."

I laugh, "I would love to stay."

I take a seat at his desk and look around the room while his talking about drawing thing in 3D. I smile when I see Payton and Conner along with Danny in the back. They smile and wave before drawing their attention back to Derek.

Looking at his desk, I notice a stack of abstract artwork. Wow, a lot of the students in here are talented and although not all of the drawings here are original, the person drawing added a little something of their own.

Time passed by quickly, so when the bell rang I was already up and out the door, until someone put there hand on my arm. Spinning around I notice its Payton.

"Hey, Es." He says smiling.

"Hey, Pay." His smile turns into a grin.

"What are you doing for lunch?" He asks.

"Umm, I was just going to eat in the office." He shakes his head and links arm through mine pulling me out into the back towards the bleachers.

James was already there along with Lucas and Liam. "Hey boys." I greet as Payton pulls me to sit down.

They all say hey, then there's silence. I look to see all of them staring at me. "What?"

"We hear you're close friends with Athena." James says.

I roll my eyes, "Good God, not you guys too."

"We're just wondering if we can meet her? If you could-" he gets cut off when a friend of Mark comes up to him.

"Hey, James. Can I get a gram?"

James reaches into his pocket after looking around, "Yeah, here you go." They do their exchange and the boy walks away.

James then looks at me, "I'm surprised you didn't stop me this time."

I stand up and shrug, " I already warned you, If you want to keep selling that's you're damn problem. But you'll come to regret ignoring what I tell you." After giving him a glare I turn to the others and give them a small smile, "I'll see you guys later."

Turning on my heel, I walk to the office to take a nap.