Early Sunsets Over Monroeville

Chapter 2

Jaqueline was skipping class, her normal routine during the mornings, in one of the old broken bathrooms. They were located on the most abandoned part of the school, so no one ever bothered her. She was smoking a joint when she heard someone try to pry the rusted door open. Alert, she was ready to make a bolt for it. In her drug-induced state, the most logical thing to do was to throw a toilet paper roll at the intruder. As soon as the metal door was shoved open, the paper sailed over the head of someone she didn't recognize. "Oh," she muttered when the blue-eyed girl faced her with a small smirk on her face. "I thought you were an administrator or teacher."

The metal door shut behind Elizabeth, so she decided to lean against it. "As far as I know, I am neither." She crossed her arms over her body as she stared at the shorter, dark-skinned girl in front of her. "You seem to be having fun."

"I am. Care to join?" Jaqueline handed her a joint. Elizabeth hesitated for a brief second. Marijuana was not going to stop her fidgeting, only increase it.

"No weed right now. Any cigarettes, though?" Jacqueline rummaged through her pockets before tossing a pack at the newly found stranger. "Thanks."

"You're new. I haven't seen you before." Jaqueline sat on the toilet seat as she blew out smoke. Elizabeth, having already lit a cigarette, sat in front of the girl. "My name is Jaqueline, but just call me Jackie." Elizabeth nodded in response, too busy filling her lungs with the cigarette smoke.

"First day here. I walked out of my first class, it was annoying me." She slowly blew out the smoke. "Name's Elizabeth. I don't like this school." She glanced at the girl in front of her. Jackie was pretty, she thought, in the way that gardens were pretty. Her mousy hair was captivated in thin, brightly colored braids that framed her round face nicely. She did have a round body, but it suited her. The brown skin was flawless compared to Elizabeth's pale arms that jutted out every scar on her body. Jackie let her mind run wild in what could possibly happen in this bathroom with Elizabeth.

"So, Elizabeth, what did you do to get in Monroeville?" Jackie asked, eyeing the girl carefully. Certainly, this girl, who was all angles and high chin, could not belong to this crowd? In a street fight, her long hair would be ripped out of her scalp in seconds. She was too bony, not strong enough to survive a day in the streets of Chicago Jackie grew up in.

"Well, I remember setting someone on fire a couple months ago." Another puff of smoke before she continued. "But that's what got me to juvie, not here. And it was an accident."

"So, what did you do?" Elizabeth scratched her head in concentration.

"I don't exactly remember. I stabbed a teacher in my last school, maybe that was it." Jackie held the join in between her fingers, stopping to stare at Elizabeth.

"You didn't get arrested?" she exclaimed, her light brown eyes widening in shock. "You stabbed a teacher and didn't get arrested?"

"I didn't get caught," Elizabeth added, stretching her long legs across the floor. "But my mom heard about it and automatically assumed it was me. She didn't want to deal with another lawsuit, so she took me out of the school system. A few weeks after that, when she was trying to find a new school for me, is when I set someone on fire. I got sent to juvie for five months."

"The teacher didn't recognize it was you who stabbed them?" Jackie had heard, and experienced, a fair share of crazy things. This was beyond crazy. Almost admirable. "I got her because I set my school on fire, twice, but they knew it was me. I always talked about it."

"It was in the middle of a riot. I was aiming for someone else. I didn't start the riot, however. And in that place, once blood is shed, everyone pounds in like wolves. Some poor guy probably got blamed for what I did."