An Angel Dies

Shopping Trips Are Deadly

Thank you so much to everyone who commented. I love you guys. Enjoy! This is where the plot starts pickng up!

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Bullying is a truly awful thing.

So why was I so amused by it?

Okay, in retrospect, maybe I shouldn't have played such an (awesomely) mean trick on Jordan... maybe I should have quietly just pulled her aside and talked to her about it after class, or even just shielded my paper with my arms...

Oh, who am I kidding? I would have done the exact same thing that I did, no matter how many courses of action had appeared to me at the time.

The next day after class, I visited my locker after first period, just like I did every day. A plethora of notes spilled out of it when I opened it--stiff, white, folded cardstock, all covered in horrible, positively venomous messages, all written in capital letters in bold black sharpie.

My first thought was, as I was casually sorting through the pile and sweeping it up in my book bag, Wow, I wonder how long it took this person to slip all these cards through the slots in my locker?

My second thought was, Oh, that's a new curse word. I've never heard that one before. (I grew up on the streets. That's saying a lot.)

The day before, Ashley had decided to meet up with me at my locker (because apparently that's an important milestone of friendship), and she caught a glimpse of me tossing the last card in my bag, a smile on my face.

"What are those?" She asked. Her hand twitched, like it was itching to pull out all of the nasty notes and read them.

I grinned brightly up at her and pulled the zipper on my book bag shut with a decisive yank. The mouth of the bag closed, hiding the dozens of little hate-filled notes. "Oh, just some love letters."

My first hate mail. It was actually kind of funny. I wondered if Ms. Watson would care if I pinned some of the particularly juicy ones to the cork message board in my 'room'.

"Oh, okay." Ashley popped the gum she was chewing, making the air smell like sweet strawberries. "Any idea who they're from?"

I chuckled a bit as I stood up, slinging my book bag over my shoulder. The bell rang, and we headed off to second period together. "Oh... I think I have a few ideas..."

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I have a confession.

I've been considering moving into the school library.

It's just... I've never been to a place filled with so much information! Exciting fantasy novels, intriguing science fiction, informative nonfiction... Seeing all these books, free to borrow, and laying about in abundance made my head feel light.

I might have gone a bit crazy and selected an entire armful of books of various genres. There was this little padded bench in the corner of the library, sheltered behind an utterly massive dusty wooden bookshelf. It was adjacent to a large rectangular glass window, which allowed the noonday sun to pour through the glass, tinting the edges of the pages golden and bathing everything in a magical, cheerful glow.

I'd finally found a use for study halls.

Currently, I was deeply absorbed in a thick science fiction novel, called Viral. It was a book about these teens who got infected by this virus that slightly altered their DNA, giving them superhuman abilities. I could relate quite easily, you understand.