The Badass Behind The Girl: The Choice of Love

Chapter Seven

It's been a few days since that little "clash-in" with Chelsea. Apparently, my status of the quiet and shy girl jumped up to "Badass Avie" and I'll be honest... I love it! The people that usually picked on me before all stopped and now try to get on my good side. I also found out that Chelsea was a she-wolf too but a very weak one though. I still kept to myself and stuck to my usual friends and routines. The group and I were sitting at our table in lunch talking about our little camping trip.

"I can't wait to get to camp! It's gonna be awesome." Leah squealed and I agreed.

"I know! I just can't wait to get our new camp sweaters and everything else. I haven't been there in a long time." I said while having a flashback of the last time I was there.

* * *

5 years ago

"Mom, Jake threw me wet again!" I cried as I ran up to her and hugged her waist. She looked down at me and smiled. Her blue eyes sparkling. Bending down she asked, "Do you want me to sort him out for you, sweetie?" I nodded and wiped the last tears from my eyes. She laughed and stood up.

"Jacob Tyler Thompson, you better apologize to your sister right now or you're going to get it if you don't!" she yelled at him and he paled. He groaned. "But mom! I was just playing... I didn't know that she was gonna cry." Mom shook her head at him and his shoulders sagged in defeat. "Fine." he said and came over to me and looked me in the eye.

"I'm sorry that I wet you and that you couldn't handle it." he said and I lunged at him. He missed it easily and I ran after him screaming his name.

* * *

"Avita!" Jake's, Leah's and Derek's voices called at the same time. I blinked.

"W-what? I'm sorry, what were you guys saying?" they sighed and I smiled sheepishly. "Sorry." I said again and they smiled. Jake slid his hand over mine and I looked into his eyes.

"You were thinking about mom again, weren't you?" he asked and I nodded. "You do know that she's still with you, right. She may not be in front of you right now but in your heart she is and she's looking down at you saying that that girl is my daughter and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect one. She's strong and even though she's going through a rough time, a very long one at that, she still loves whenever she can. And I couldn't have been more proud of her and of what she's accomplished and done. I love her so, so much." my eyes glossed over at his words and I blinked so that I wouldn't have a snotty breakdown with all these people around me. I smiled at him.

"Thanks, Jake. I think she'd say the same to you too. You've been amazing to me since I was born and I couldn't have asked for a more perfect brother." Jake laughed and put on a cocky grin.

"I know right!" he said and we all laughed, except for Leah who sat there with her arms crossed. Understanding dawned on me then and I smiled at her too.

"And I couldn't have asked for a more absolutely, amazingly, gorgeous, sexy, talented, smart, brave and confident perfect sister like you Leah. You da bomb dot com." I said with as much admiration I could put into my voice and she brightened up.

"AWWWW!!! I love you!" she said hugging me. "I love you too." I said hugging her back.

The next 5 minutes we spent talking about the camp and what we're gonna do even though we don't exactly know what is actually in the plan for camp. A sudden realization hit me and I groaned putting my head in my hands. Derek immediately started to rub my back and I took comfort from it.

"Avie, what's wrong?" he asked and I groaned again. "I just realized that most of my things are still at the house and I can't keep wearing Leah's clothes. Jake has practice today and Leah has some thing with her mom to do and I REALLY need to get all of my belongings out of that house." I said in a rush and it didn't help that my hoodie muffled most of my words but Derek seemed to have heard me perfectly fine because his hand jerked on my back.

Over the last few days Derek and I have become really close. In just that time we've learnt basically everything about each other and had fun while doing it. We're not a couple. Not have we gone on dates but we do hold hands now and then and do some things that normal teen couples would do. Derek also knows about my years of being abused by my father and let me tell you, he seemed calm when I told him my story but when I had finished we had to knock him out before he could march his ass to my house and kill my father.

After he woke up we explained that he never came near me when Jake was around which was a lot and the only days that he wasn't was when he had practice. We decided to leave out the part where he brutally beats me until I can't breathe and make a sound because we knew that it would piss him off and we wouldn't be able to hold him back this time.

So basically we know each other like the back of our hands and it's nice to have a new addition to the group. This past few days Jake has been living with Derek and I have been living with Leah. Leah said that her parents would be fine if both of us stayed there but turns out her brother's friends decided to camp out for the next month in the guest rooms so Jake had to stay with Derek. Not that he minded. He said rather be at Derek's rather than be 24/7 around two girls who can throw knives if they were angry. We just laughed at him.

Jake thought that it was a great idea to get us into some defense classes. Turns out that Leah and I have a knack for perfecting skills and knew almost every move ever done there (thanks to previous studying and secret meetings in places where people taught us everything about weapons and fighting.) and Jake didn't so we progressed to higher levels while he was stuck at the basics (we laughed so hard). The classes there that we did end up taking taught us how to throw knives at the most vital parts and how to purposely miss our target. Not so helpful for Jake but very helpful for us although I never managed to use anything on my father since I always blank out when he attacks.

"No problem. I'll go with you after school to fetch your things. Although I must warn you: if your dad tries anything funny with you if he's there then I'm going to loose it. Nobody and I mean NOBODY hurts you while I'm around" he said with determination in his eyes and I gulped. The only reasons why I don't fight my father fully back is because one: he's my father. Two: I'd rather not upset him more and Three: I am completely terrified of him. Four: again, I blank out.
I nodded.

"Okay, fine. We'll go together." he nodded and carried on rubbing my back. The bell rang and I moaned. "I don't wanna go to class. I have French now." I lazily said as I got up and took Derek's hand. He laughed, "Come on, Avie. One and a half days to go and then it's FREEDOM!" he shouted and people snapped their heads in our direction and giggled. Other people actually started cheering for his comment.

"SHH! You idiot! You don't have to be so loud." I whisper shouted and he just shrugged.

"I really don't care but anyway, I'll see you at your locker after school okay?" I nodded and he pecked my on my cheek. A warm blush crept up my neck. Jake and Leah laughed and made mushy faces. I rolled my eyes. "I'll be doing that to you guys when you two hook up with each other." I commented and the looked at each other, then at me, then back again and burst out laughing.

"You have ha-ha got to be ha-ha kidding me, Avie!!!!" Leah choked out and Jake clutched his stomach. Tears was streaming down his face. "Whoo! You are funny, sis. Phew!" he wiped away his tears and hugged me. "I'll see you later at Derek's, 'Kay?" he said and I nodded. Kissing me on my head him and Leah made a scene by grabbing each other's hands and walked away to their next classes. I gave Derek a 'what the hell is going on with those two?' look and he just laughed. The sound making my knees go weak.

"Don't even ask me. I'll catch you later. Get to class." with that and another kiss he left and I walked into class.
Like what I use to do before I prayed that this day would drag on so that I don't have to go home. I couldn't shake the feeling that my father was going to be home when we got there. Ah crap.