The Hooded Figure

TWELVE

I forgot that I had the Stollery club today, but I'm pretty sure there's just enough time to get to Marco's Pizza at 5:30PM for my interview. I was pretty sure it was a waitressing position and although I didn't have any experience, how better to get experience, than to work?

Oh.

Never mind.

I had my resume in my bag and I told Layla all about it on the way to school. She was smiling happily at everything I said, as she usually did, but something seemed a bit off about her demeanour. As we got off the bus along with several other students, I placed my hand on Layla's shoulder comfortingly.

"Is everything alright, Layla?" I asked her concernedly, a frown on my face. She looked down at me slightly with a confused smile on her face.

"Of course it is, why wouldn't it be? My best friend has her first job interview!" She exclaimed excitedly, beaming at me, though her eyes hid a tinge of sadness. I decided that I was imagining it as we entered the school together.

"You've been working for two years, it makes an interview sound like a minor accomplishment." I smiled at her somewhat dejectedly. "For all I know, I won't even get the job."

"And for all you do know, you will get the job," she replied joyously as we arrived at our lockers. "It's all about the mentality."

As we spun our combinations, Jade came stomping over with a frown on her face and her arms crossed.

"What's wrong?" Layla asked, turning to face Jade. I opened my locker and turned my head her way.

"My hairdresser says I can't change the colour of the streaks until they fade out," Jade huffed angrily.

"Okay, that's not that bad, right?" I piped in optimistically, smiling at Jade.

"Yeah, how long will it take?" Layla added hopefully, taking a moment to pull her locker open. Just as she did, it was as if a bomb went off in her locker and tomato sauce flew everywhere. She kept her hand on her locker door as she clenched her fingers around it tightly. I blinked incomprehensibly while Jade shook her hands in disgust. I used my clean hand to wipe the sauce off my forehead, but Layla was absolutely drenched.

She shut her door slowly and turned to face us. Everyone in the hallway had started laughing and taking pictures, one kid even slipped on the sauce splatter.

"Excuse me," she said politely with a small smile as she walked away from us and around the corner. I was frozen in place, I couldn't understand what had just happened. Jade cried out frustratedly as she stomped away, but slipped on more tomato sauce.

She just laid there for a moment while shutting her eyes and taking a deep breath. When she raised her hands and covered her eyes, I finally felt like I could move. Only then, I could hear every snarky laugh and every camera flash as I approached her. My face was redder than the tomato sauce that covered it as I gave Jade my hand to help her up. She peeked through her fingers before giving me her hand reluctantly. As I pulled her up, my eyes met a black hood in the crowd who stood there solemnly.

Then, I heard a loud voice parting the crowd. "Move, move!" They barked, shoving through the students. From between the group teenagers, emerged principal Tomkins with a surprised look on his face. "Uh, w-what happened here?"

"What the fu-" I slapped my hand over Jade's mouth before she finished her sentence.

"Someone rigged Layla's locker," I finished, smiling awkwardly. I wasn't as drenched in tomato sauce as either of them were because the locker door protected me from most of the blast, but Jade had laid in the sauce too. The smell of tomato was almost overpowering and I had to wonder how much they must've used and how much it must've hurt to take that much pressured tomato sauce to the face.

"Any idea who, Ms. Carters?" He questioned while the students continued to record videos on their phones.

"Just a guess." I smiled sarcastically, thinking back to the boys yesterday. My head would still start randomly pounding along with the occasional dizzy spells. However, it was significantly less often. I noticed that there was no longer a black figure in the crowd and I frowned slightly.

"I'll see you two in my office after you're both cleaned up, I'll alert your first period teachers of your absence." With that, he turned on his heel and without thinking, he took a careless step forward and his foot slid out from under him. The crowd gasped as he fell in slow motion, landing on his back. As he hit the floor, he fought for breath, clearly winding himself.

"W-What are you all w-waiting for? G-Get to class!" He choked out, struggling to stand while trying to catch his breath. The bell rang just then and I turned to face Jade as the crowd dispersed.

"Let's go clean up," I muttered, grabbing her hand and pulling her with me. We arrived in the nearest bathroom and Layla was no where to be found. I wanted to go look for her, but the moment I looked in the mirror made me decide I had other things to worry about.

All I care to say, is that my hair is no longer brown. Jade gasped when she looked in the mirror and whined irritatedly. "Mia is going to see me like this, she's in my second period Math class!" She exclaimed worriedly, trying desperately to fix her hair.

"Mia?" I repeated, forgetting about my appearance for a moment. Jade froze with her hands in her hair and she turned to face me.

Her worried face broke out into a smile. "Who?" She asked with a masked expression. It was obvious that she was trying to hide her worry.

"Mia, who's Mia?" I asked her, wondering why she hadn't told me about this Mia person. Jade sighed reluctantly and turned back to the mirror.

"I'm gay," she blurted, unable to look at me. I tilted my head for a moment, confused. I said nothing and she looked back at me fearfully.

"Okay..?" I said unsurely, I didn't really know what to say. I didn't know why she'd hide it from me, it's not like I was homophobic.

"You're not mad or anything?" She questioned, sounding surprised.

"Mad? Of course not! Why would you think that?" I asked her incredulously, placing my hands on the counter to lean my weight on as I got a little dizzy.

"I don't really know..." she trailed off, looking confused with herself. I smiled at her kindly as I started washing my arms.

"Well, now that we've got that out of the way, we need to clean ourselves up and you need to tell me more about Mia!"