The Guardian

Chapter Fourteen

"Did you hear about Jason getting attacked?" asked one boy as Julianna passed him in the hall.

"I heard", said another. "I heard he got attacked after protecting that juvie home girl."

"I heard that, too. The pretty one with the golden hair. What's her name? Georgianna? Georgie? Julie? Something like that. The one who's so hot."

"How could you ever think that a juvie girl is hot? They're rejects."

"Yeah, but they can still be hot. And even better, they're asking for it."

Julianna walked a few steps more with her face flaming.

"There's the girl who got wasted at the party on Saturday night. Jason had to walk her home."

"He hasn't been at school for the last couple of days. What happened to him?"

"Didn't you hear? He got attacked when he was walking her home. Apparently, she tripped and he helped her up. And when he helped her up someone attacked Jason."

"Jason Tremblant? He's so nice. It doesn't pay to act like a gentleman with someone of her calibre. She wouldn't appreciate it."

Tears came to Julianna's eyes. She deked into the Anatomy class and scurried to her desk, and tried not to look over at Jason's desk as the rest of the class filtered into the room. She busied herself by reaching into her backpack and pulling out her pencil case before sliding her backpack under her seat.

Connor kicked her backpack out from under her chair and across the room. "Sorry – just dealing with the trash", he said. Twitters arose from the two girls sitting in front of Julianna as they looked back into her mortified face. Julianna got up and retrieved her backpack, and on the way back to her seat Vic tripped her. She sat down and hid her backpack under her seat again.

Mr. Jordan held the door to his class as Jason hobbled his way in on crutches. "I see that our star center has had an accident", said the teacher.

"Yeah, and it's all Julianna's fault", said Jason with a jeer.

"Whoops!", said Trevor, and he dumped his bottle of orange juice down Julianna's back. Jason grinned and gave Trevor a high-five.

"That's enough. Trevor, get some paper towels and clean up the mess", said Mr. Jordan before turning back to the class. "We have the bones unit test today, so I hope you have all studied. Please pass back the tests", he said, and he handed the stapled test booklets to the students at the front of the class.

"Sir, I don't think that Julianna should be allowed to write the test", said Brittney. "She was responsible for Jason hurting his knee."

"Brittney, thank you for your comments. However, the two events have nothing to do with each other and besides, if Julianna didn't write her test and got a big fat zero, she'd still have a better mark in the subject than if you got a hundred percent on your test. And we all know that you won't get a hundred percent. Now, unless you're asking Julianna for private tutoring, I'd suggest that you ignore Julianna and focus on your own attempts to pass this class. You'll need all your attention to get a good mark. And Brittney? I'd like to see you after class today."

Julianna flicked her elastic band a few times on her wrist before taking a test and handing the rest of the tests back to Connor behind her. She got out her pencils and an eraser, her highlighter and a ruler, trying to ignore the sticky coldness on her back. A couple of minutes later, the teacher told the class to turn over their tests and begin writing.

Julianna was just finishing her test when the principal opened the door, followed by three police officers – two in uniform accompanying Detective Asher. "Excuse me, Mr. Jordan", said the principal. "The police are here to arrest Jason Tremblant."