Villains in Training

Chapter Eight: Comfort in the Darkest Place

Jade sighed as she closed the door behind Quinn. It was almost 9:00pm and Bella wasn't home to stop Jade from falling further into the recesses of her own self-loathing. She'd lied to Quinn about how she and Jade first met. She told him that Bella had been quiet and reclusive, which wasn't a complete lie. However, she also told him that she never had a problem with Bella and that she and Bella were practically instant best friends. That was a lie.

Jade laid down on the couch, flipping through TV channels as she thought. She'd hoped that the sound of the protagonist in some fairytale show would stop her from once again falling into the deep dark hole in her mind, the one that Bella always pulled her back from.

It did not.

"Remember, we have a new student in our class today," Jade's teacher, Mrs. Wallbloom, said in a seemingly happy tone as she smiled. "This is Belladonna. Belladonna doesn't know everything about how we do things in our classroom, so we're going to be patient and help her adjust. That means we're going to help her feel like just another second grader. Ok?"

Everyone said "Ok," but it didn't sound convincing, not to Bella and not to Jade. That was only because it wasn't sincere.

There was something about this new Belladonna girl, something off. Everyone felt it, even their teacher. No one said anything, but it was obvious.

"Belladonna, is there anything you'd like to say to the class before we begin our morning meeting? At the beginning of the year, we shared something we did over summer break. Maybe you'd like to share about something fun you did over the weekend?"

"Um... I didn't really do anything," she said in kind of a small voice. She looked off to the side, toward the windows of the classroom, then quickly turned her eyes back to her feet. Mrs. Wallbloom seemed as if she was about to say something when Belladonna looked back up with what seemed like fake confidence. "I'm Belladonna but I only answer to Bella and we moved here because we wanted to. And Marimoor women do what they want to do."

She looked back toward the windows and smiled. Jade followed her gaze, but saw nothing outside.

What a weird girl.

"Ok..." Mrs. Wallbloom seemed at a loss for words for a few moments before regaining her composure. "Thank you for introducing yourself, Bella."

Bella nodded then sat down as their teacher continued their morning meeting. Everyone refocused their attention on the teacher, but Jade was really interested in why this Bella girl was so extremely weird. She seemed shy in one instant, then looked at the windows -where there was nothing- and suddenly started talking as if everyone should respect her or something.

There was nothing outside of those windows. Why did she keep looking over there.

Throughout the day, Bella kept having normal "shy girl's first day" interactions, but then looked at the windows and completely changed her demeanor.

It really annoyed Jade for reasons unknown to her. Bella was weird and worse, the teacher liked her. A LOT.

Mrs. Wallbloom always picked Jade to run things to the office, to do the jobs that other students forgot to do, to be her helper while she taught. But now, this Bella girl comes and everything changes. True, it had only been one day, but Jade could feel her position slipping away from her.

Good thing the other students still adored her.

Even better, they also thought Bella was weird and needed to be moved to a different class or, even better, a different school. So, at recess, they gathered and made a plan.