Suck It And See | A. Turner

[Chapter 8]

The weekend had gone by pleasantly well for Jade, now having found herself accepted into a new and unusual group of friends. Even that Sunday, as she locked herself in her room to protect herself from her Aunt Joy's duo-personalities, Flora's mean glares, and Charlie and Noah's continued bickering for the game boy, she spent most of her time texting with Alex back and forth, just about nothing at all. Jade felt as though she had been in a deep sleep all summer, and only now someone had the gal to shake her awake so she could enjoy the little aspects of life again.  

That particular Sunday afternoon, as Jade exited the bathroom, the wall phone in the hall began to ring violently. 

"Flora, dear!" Aunt Joy called, presumably from the kitchen, "Could you answer that, please? I'm in the oven!"

Flora however was locked in her room with loud pop music blaring from beneath the door. She probably couldn't hear her mother holler, or didn't even care if she could. So, Jade decided to be a little sneaky and picked up the phone herself.

"H-Hello...?" her eyes suddenly lit up when she heard the voice call on the other end of the line, "Mum!"

➿➿➿

Come Monday morning, Matt and Alex were sitting in homeroom, surrounded by some of their other friends as they relayed to them how the new girl had single-handedly made the biggest bully in school cry and whimper like a piglet. 

"So, Luke gets up in Al's face, and I swear to yeh he was gon' knock him farther than the bloodeh Tower a' Pizza,"

"Piza," Alex corrected Matt.

"Tha's what I said," Matt said, to which Alex only grinned and rolled his eyes, "Anyway, Al starts telling 'im to 'it 'im if 'e's man enough, when all the sudden, Jade comes running up and starts beating the snot out of Luke wif a fookin' tennis racket," the kids sitting around them were on the edge of their seats as they were listening intently, "Luke goes flyin' to the ground and Jade just keeps wailing on 'im over and over. Meanwhile, Mugsy and Bugsy, or whatever the fook their names are, came at me. But I nailed one wif a right hook and got the other in the famileh jewels,"

Alex gave him a bemused glare, "I don' remember tha' 'appening, Maffew," he said with a smirk. Matt glared back down at him.

"Yeh just didn't see it 'cause yeh was 'iding be'ind Jamie," he said with reassurance.

"Oh, okay," Alex nodded, trying to bite back his smirk.

Matthew went on, not realizing that Luke, having been passing in the hallway, had overheard his boastings. He stopped at the homeroom and stood in the doorway, watching the shorter boys gloat with the devil in his eyes.

"Just to finish off the poor loser, Jade lets him off easy. I guess she felt sorry for 'im or summat. But yeh should've seen the marks on Luke's face!" Matt roared with a hearty laugh. 

"Looked like 'e 'ad a close encounter wif a bug zapper," Alex grinned. 

Luke, starting to fume with rage, cleared his throat with a gruff grumble, "Is tha' so, Turner?" he snapped. The hilarity in the air suddenly died out faster than cell reception in a cement room, and all the students in the classroom turned around and faced the Brute of Stockbridge with sudden fear in their faces. Even with the scratches and scrapes, and the very visible bruising pattern that resembled racket netting on the side of his face, he was still barbarous, looming, and very intimidating. 

"Yeh fookers like telling stories? Well, I could tell a realleh good story too, should yeh 'ave the balls to face me wifout Wendy Darling to save yeh're arses," he growled. As he did, he was unaware of the small brunette that stood behind him with her arms crossed over her chest, glaring at his fat head.