Embellished With Lies

Chapter Two

The next day, I had detention at 7:00 in the morning until 8:00, when school started. Most schools don't have a 'morning detention' option, but ours did. I only took it because I had plans with Cait after school. I didn't want to screw that up, be 'that guy', you know?

"Good morning, Mr. Kelton," Ms. Peters greeted me insincerely. She typically manned the morning detentions, and Mr. Martin usually manned the afternoon ones. Ms. Peters taught Algebra II. Most of the juniors bragged about how awesome she was, but I didn't see it. Maybe that's because I only really saw her on the rare occasion when I had detention. It was even rarer when I took morning detention.

I know what you're thinking, that I'm one of those 'bad boys'. But I can assure you that I'm not. I hate getting in trouble, I really do, but sometimes certain things need to be said.

And, if I end up running my mouth, it would most likely be in English class. And since Mr. Martin overreacts anyways, you can see how getting detention can be moderately easy.

Usually there are a couple people in morning detention, but today there was nobody.

I plopped down in a desk in the second row, leaving my backpack on the floor next to me.

It was going to be a long hour; I could already tell.

---

"Tonight is going to be fun," I told Caitlyn as we walked out of school together. "Studying, maybe watching a movie..."

Caitlyn laughed and climbed into the passenger's seat of my car. "Yeah, definitely. Especially because you get this adorable look on your face while studying."

I raised an eyebrow. "I do?"

My girlfriend nodded. "Yeah, you do. Not that you're not adorable all the time, but..."

I laughed. "Okay, you're starting to freak me out a little bit."

"Why?" Caitlyn giggled, tossing her backpack in the backseat.

I shrugged and started the ignition. "You're being extra girly today."

"Well, considering I am a girl..."

"Shut up." I hooked an immediate left and drove a couple blocks to the elementary school. "Oh, just to remind you: I have to pick up Tessa."

She grinned. "Sounds good."

I pulled into the parking lot, and Tessa wasn't where she usually waited for me to pick her up.

"Hey," I started, "I'm going to go in. She's probably at her locker or something."

I walked into the one-story building and looked around.

No sign of Tessa.

I had to roam around for a little while, but I eventually found where her class' lockers were.

Not only did I find my sister there, but also three other girls who were at least four grades ahead of her.

Tessa was against the lockers, and it looked like they were talking smack to her.

Now, usually I have a pretty long fuse, but if there's one thing I cannot and will not put up with, it's jerks.

"Are you scared, Tessa?" The blonde one began, trying to intimidate her. "If not, you should be. We could hurt you like that." She snapped her fingers. "We could completely ruin your life; stay out of our way."

I approached them. "What the heck do you think you're doing?!"

The three of them whirled around to look at me.

"Um, yeah. I'm talking to you three," I specified, even though they knew that already.

"This girl was annoying us," the fourth grade girl shrugged. "I just wanted to get back at her."

"Well," I started; my blood was really boiling now. "That 'girl' is my sister, and if you don't leave her alone, you'll have to mess with me. And trust me, you won't want a piece of this."

Instead of waiting for the three little brats to skedaddle, I grabbed Tessa's wrist and led her back to the car like the good big brother that I was.

By that time, Tessa was completely in tears.

"What's wrong?" Caitlyn asked, her eyes growing wide. "Did you fall? Are you hurt?"

I buckled her in her seat personally, as she was not in a mental state to do so, and shook my head. "No, some girls were being jerks."

I slammed her car door shut and climbed in the driver's seat, slamming my own in frustration.

I didn't talk. I didn't want to.

And nobody did for ten minutes.

"Hey, Tess, what did they say?" Cait asked some time later, turning around her seat. She tipped her large sunglasses down on her nose as to see Tessa better.

By then, we were only about four or five minutes from home, and Tessa was calmed down a little bit. "They said that I was ugly, and that I was stupid, and..."

"And... What?" I asked, briefly looking back at her.

"And... They told me that they were gonna kill me."

I slammed my foot on the breaks. Stupid, but I did it. I can't change it now. Luckily the streets weren't that busy around our neighborhood. "What?!" I exclaimed, whirling around to look at the small kindergartner in the backseat of my car.

"They said that they were going to kill me," she repeated herself.

"That's a big deal," Caitlyn told her, concern pouring out of her voice. "When did they tell you this?"

"Um, at recess, I think." She wiped her sandy brown hair out of her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. "I can't remember."

I turned around in my seat. "And you didn't tell anybody?"

"No..."

I turned back around and shoved my foot down on the gas pedal. I wanted to get home as fast as possible. I was pissed off. Mom and Dad needed to know about this immediately.

I pulled into the driveway, and when the vehicle came to a halt, I told Tessa the game plan. "You need to tell Mom and Dad when we get in there, alright?"

Tessa's eyes grew. "Why? I don't want to go in there alone..."

"I'll go in there with you, but you're going to be doing the talking, alright? They'll help; they'll fix it."

She nodded and barely whispered an okay.

I later found out that Patootie was fibbing; she didn't say a word the entire time. I had to tell every single detail to our parents.

And the whole time, Caitlyn was standing by us; rubbing Tessa's back with one hand and grabbing my hand with the other.

Mom and Dad nodded a lot, but told us that she would take care of it.

But that didn't make me feel much better.

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Hey! How is everybody?

How was this chapter? I honestly was not going to try to make this chapter this depressing, I'm just trying to develop the characters a little bit more. I don't know. What did you think?

Please vote and comment? I love reading your comments; they make my day!

Love you!

Madi 😊✨