Ill-Fated: Son

Chapter 2: Remedy

The young Elena Deveux tightly clutches to the straps her backpack in her hands as she walks down the unfamiliar halls of her new schoolhouse. It is her first day of school in America, having recently migrated to the United States from France a fee months prior. She was starting in fifth grade today and already she is riddled with anxiety. She little more than her shoddy recollection of the tour she and her dad took with the school her principal to guide the nerve-wrecked steps through the seemingly labrinth like halls of the school. Today, the elderly Caucasian man was nowhere in sight as the weight of her isolation grew heavier with each passing moment as she moves towards what she hopes is the direction of her history class for first period. She locks eyes with another student, a taller, dark-skinned boy with a freshly cut fade, and immediately regrets doing so as the boy alters his path to intercept hers.

    "Damn girl you fine! Lemme holla at you real quick." he says trying to sound as cool as possible.

    Fortunately for Elena, her father always planned to move to the United States. So he saw fit to teach her both French and English from a young age. Unfortunately this meant she understood the boy perfectly, and the entire situation was already beginning to induce mild panic within her. Thinking light on her feet Elena opens her mouth to speak.

    "Je suis désolé, je ne parle pas anglais!" She retorts in her native french.

    The plan was to scare the boy of with the difficulty of trying to navigate through a language barrier. Contrary to the success she expected as she had already used this plan once before, it completely backfires.

    "Ooh and you a foreign girl too? Whera ya' from and What yo' name?" The boy replies.

    Now out of options with a panic attack imminent, Elena tries a last ditch effort and attempts to just push past the boy but again he blocks her path, caressing her arm.

    "Come on baby! You'll like what you missin'."

    Elena yanks her arm from his grasp.

    "Cut it out!"

    Her heavy french accent is deeply rooted in every word she speaks. The boy just smiles.

    "So you do speak english. Why you being so difficult? I can make your life here easier girl. I'll get you anything you like."

    By this time a crowd had begun to accumulate around them and Elena  finds herself becoming more and more agitated with the surrounding spectators.

    "I'd like to be left alone please. I have somewhere to be. So excuse me."

    Elena tries a second time to force her way past him but the boy, unwilling to take being publicly embarrassed, becomes more aggressive in his pursuit, pinning her against the locker.

    "Hey come on its not a place in this building that exciting to get to! Now if you would just get with the program this could go much easier for you here. So like I said before. Whats your na-"

    That's as far as he got before he was forcibly yanked across the hall by another school age boy wearing headphones over his ears. The original boy, now obviously flustered, quickly slaps the headphone users hand away. 

    "Aye who the hell are you and what your problem man!"

    The headphone user responds by shoving the boy so hard he loudly slams into the lockers on the opposing side of the hall . Almost immediately the boy reverses his forced retreat and is eye to eye with his new adversary, the headphone user hadn't so much as changed his facial expression let alone removed his headphones. It look as if all hell was set to erupt, but the original boy doesnt make a move. Rather he couldn't make a move, as his entire body was flooded with a sudden life or death feeling, and a sense of incredible danger. He could only stand there frozen, staring into the eyes of this headphone wearing kid, simply paralyzed with fear. But the stalemate would be broken before a fight could break out, as a hall monitor who heard the commotion forces his way through the crowd.