The Hooded Figure

THIRTEEN

We were now sitting in the principals office and all I could think about was the asian girl named Mia in Jade's math class. I'd seen her around, but I didn't really know her. Jade assured me that she was the greatest girl she'd ever met.

"So, who do you think did it?" The principal asked us as he folded his hands on his desk. There were many pictures of his wife and children all over the room and a few cute drawings clearly made by young kids.

"Well," I started, not afraid to snitch on the kids who did it, but then the door opened. I turned to my left to see who came in. To my surprise, it was Layla. She was pretty much entirely free of tomato sauce and she was wearing her gym clothes.

"We don't know," she stated affirmatively, standing behind me because there were only two chairs.

"Oh? Because it sounded like Amy was about to tell me something," he prodded, looking at me pointedly, motioning for me to go on.

"Well, I-uh, I was just going to say it could've been anyone really," I covered, looking over at Layla with confusion. She was smiling confidently while Jade was looking at us as if we'd lost or minds. I couldn't blame her, I was questioning Layla's sanity as well.

The principal stared at each of us individually for about a minute before sighing and slumping back in his chair. "You girls can go," he said dejectedly, waving us off. We got up and Layla practically bolted out of there. We stayed in pace with her and the moment we were out of the office, Jade stopped her.

"What the hell was that? What's going on?" She asked confusedly, crossing her arms over her chest. I looked over at Layla as if to say, you haven't told her about Damian's thugs yet?

Layla didn't move, she just said, "I know who it is and it's better not to get them angry."

"But why are they angry with you?" I asked incredulously. Jade looked over at me suspiciously and I think she was catching onto the fact that we were hiding something from her. I felt terrible, but if Layla didn't want to tell Jade, I couldn't force her.

"For standing up to Damian the other day," she told us and Jade started to laugh.

"They're mad about that? Really? They need to get over themselves," Jade scoffed and at this point, I was pretty sure she knew who 'they' were.

"Yeah, well, I don't think they're going to any time soon," she said angrily before turning on her heel and walking around the corner. My jaw dropped and Jade's mouth was agape as we watched the empty corridor.

"Did she just..?" I asked disbelievingly, Looking at Jade. She had managed to get all the tomato sauce off her skin, but her clothes were still somewhat spattered.

"Yup," she replied, putting a piece of hair behind her ear.

"I'll see you at lunch," I said distractedly as I walked away and towards my locker. I faintly heard Jade say something, but once I arrived at my locker, I opened it and took out my binders. I shut my locker and turned to go to class, but something caught my eye. There was a piece of neon yellow paper stuffed into the top slit in Layla's locker. It was sticking out a little bit so I looked around before reaching up and plucking it from Layla's locker.

Unfolding it, I read it. Had enough yet? - D

I wasn't paying attention as I crumpled the paper in my hand and glared at the lockers. D for Damian. I wanted to cry out angrily, but I couldn't. I didn't know why they were taking this so far, all she did was stand up for Trey. Sure, she hurt his ego, but he needs to learn to get over himself if all this is because of that.

I threw the paper in the garbage and went to Social Studies in a foul mood. There was only half an hour left, but when I opened the door, Trey was on his phone. The teacher didn't acknowledge me and I was thankful for that, I don't know if I could've handled his shitty attitude.

As I took a seat in front of Trey, I didn't straddle the seat like I usually did. Instead, I sat sideways and leaned back against the metal rail. I placed my binders on my desk and pulled out my phone.

"Are you okay?" Trey asked in his unusual usual gruff voice. I looked up at him with surprise and didn't answer for a moment due to shock.

"Oh, uh, yeah," I stuttered awkwardly, so shocked by his concern. I looked back down at my phone and started typing.

"You sure?" He tried again, putting his phone down.

"Why wouldn't I be?" I snapped, placing my phone on the desk rather loudly. I cringed slightly, but maintained the facial expression I was holding.

"Well, for one," he pointed to my phone, referring to the way I'd thrown it down, "and you seemed a little... angry."

"Well, great detective skills on your part," I stated sarcastically, rolling my eyes. I heard him sigh from under his hood.

Just as I picked up my phone and started typing for the third time, he asked, "Are we still meeting up in the computer lab at lunch today?"

"We're pretty much done, there's no need," I told him, showing him my phone and the nearly finished presentation that I was working on.

"Oh," was all he said. It was hard to tell his tone of voice because of how he manipulated it. I sighed mentally when I remembered that today was Wednesday and I had the Stollery Club. I'd completely forgotten about it over the course of the morning, along with my job interview. Thinking about the interview lifted my spirits a little and as the bell rang, I thought about it on the way to Math.

**Author's Note**

Hey everyone! Man, who would have thought that SEVEN YEARS LATER I'd come back to this mess of a story. I'm currently abroad and am writing this from the airport in Frankfurt so I am going to try and publish as many of the remaining chapters as I can. A little note that if you read the book before 2020, the ending is probably different than you remember because I went a little off the rails on the editing. HOWEVER, I really wanted this book to push a healthier standard than the typical 'i'm-a-bad-boy-so-i'm-going-to-treat-the-female-protagonist-like-shit-but-it's-okay-because-i'm-hot-and-I-do-one-nice-thing-every-once-in-a-while.' 

SPOILER FOR 'CRESTFALLEN': if you read my book Crestfallen, it's very similar in that I didn't want to push that narrative. Also, it's literally called Crestfallen, please don't be that surprised ;-;