Life Within Crystalfort: Our Story Continues - Part One [COMPLETED]

Chapter Eight

School was over. Fearleading practice was done for the day. I walked to my locker, my eyes scanning the hallway, making sure I didn't run into Deuce. Clawd stood by my locker.

"What's wrong?" He asked as I got closer. It was a question that he fully expected me to answer. I shrugged.

"Nothing's wrong. I promise," I said, set my fearleading uniform in the bottom of my locker. I shut my locker and spun the combination lock to re-lock it. He crossed his arms.

"I know about the incident with Deuce, Laura. Would you just explain? I need to go to casketball and I can't do that knowing something went down," I could tell he was worried, and it's the only reason I told him anything.

"I asked him if we could talk about Cleo. I didn't say anything specific, just that I wanted to talk. And then he raised his voice and started yelling at me because he had already payed for Cleo's mistakes. I was scared," Clawd stood there and waited for me to finish my thoughts." "But, his eyes," Clawd stopped me.

"You saw his eyes?" I nodded.

"Through his sunglasses. Anyways, they were black and red. Like, something was burning inside of him," I paused, not knowing what to say next. "He's broken, Clawd. He needs to get rid of the weight on his shoulders," he nodded. He wrapped his arms around me and held me close.

"I'll talk to him when he wants to talk," he said, kneeling down to my height. "I'll meet you in the cafeteria after practice. I'll take you home whenever they let us out of here," I nodded. He kissed me on the cheek and then stood up. I turned around and headed for the cafeteria after he was at the other end of the hallway. I never liked being the first one to walk away. It felt weird. I walked into the cafeteria and sat down next to Clawdeen and the rest of the ghouls. Cleo sat at the far end of the table. I made eye contact with her and slowly patted the seat next to me. She shrugged and stood up, walking over to me and sitting down.

"What'd you guys think of practice?" She asked. She actually wanted our opinion on how she was doing. Something seemed off.

"I liked it. Sweet and simple. More practices like that, and we'll be good to go," Frankie said, her bolts sparking. Cleo looked at me, wanting my opinion. I shrugged; seemed to be something I was really good at.

"It was a nice practice. I liked it. Maybe we should do some short practices where we just stretch and run. And then we'll do some longer ones where we practice stunts and cheers," I said, letting another shrug take over my shoulders. Cleo nodded.

"Alright, if we have school tomorrow, we'll do a stunt and cheer practice. Does that sound good?" Cleo asked. We all nodded our agreements, not wanting to make Cleo angry. I had a feeling that when she did get mad, she'd lose her mind.

I glanced up at the clock. 3:40. Clawd would be out of practice at four. I scanned the cafeteria, looking for Abbey. I had a promise to keep. I spotted her by the soft drinks, no doubt freezing whatever she was drinking.

"I'll be right back," I said, standing up. I walked over to Abbey. She put the lid on what looked like frozen cola.

"Want one?" She asked, her Russian accent hanging in the air. I shook my head.

"No thanks. I need to ask you something," she cocked her head to one side and started walking towards a table, where we sat by ourselves. "Someone here really likes you. Uh, he says that you're really cute and wants to know if you two could be a thing. Sound good so far?" She shrugged. I didn't want to tell her who this person was if he didn't have a chance with her.

"Who is it?" She questioned, taking a bite out of the frozen drink in her hand.

"Burns."

"Heath? Funny fire guy?" I tried my best not to laugh at the brokenness of the sentence. Still, I nodded my head. "Tell him "sure". He's kinda cute."