The new girl - Elmax

Chapter 27 : Dyke

Lucas ran after Mike in the hall. He was very happy because the day before he went on a date with Gabrielle and couldn't wait to tell his friend. He explained him that they went to the movie theater at the mall before going to the restaurant in town, and before she left—

- "Dude!" Lucas interrupted himself, giving a tap to Mike and showing the locker at his right.

Mike turned his head and wide opened his eyes. The locker was tagged with words like « dyke », « slut », « disease », « Nature's error », « go away », and threats of death.

- "It's Jane's locker!" Mike stated. "She can't see that!"

The two boys ran to it and tried to erase it with their hands.

- "We need water!" Lucas told.

- "What are you doing?" a voice asked behind them.

They both started, turned, and tried to hide the locker by raising their arms in front of it, trying to act normally.

- "We are just...being cool," Lucas answered.

- "Then be cool on another locker, it's mine, get off it, I'm not really in the mood," Jane grumbled.

- "Why? You don't need anything from your locker," Mike intervened, feeling his arms becoming groggy.

- "My History book is inside!"

- "Pff, who needs a book in History," Lucas told.

- "You are ten years old or what!? Move!"

Jane grabbed them and pushed them away from her locker. When she saw what was written on, her heart stopped. She was living, again and again, the same thing that ruined all her schoolings. All her memories were jostling in her head. She was sad and angry, but more particularly scared. She knew this too well, she thought she had lived the worst, but she was always thinking that people could always do worse. She thought she could finish her year with no problems but apparently not! Her eyes were travelling between all the words she had heard too much and knew more than good.

Lucas and Mike looked at each other with the same sad eyes. They noticed her body shaking and the tears coming in her eyes. Lucas placed a hand on her shoulder.

- "Jane, are you okay?" the boy softly asked.

The girl detached with difficulties her eyes from her locker and turned her head in his direction, coming back to Earth. She gulped, opened her locker, took her books, and went to class without making a comment. This time, the murmurs and the looks were for her. She put her hood and her headphone to hide in her own world, like she used to do. On her way, she met Max's eyes which seemed sad. Jane had a lot of things to tell her, but not here, she was the bad person in this story.

Max watched her friend walking away from her, hiding under her hood like if she had leprosy. She would have loved to do something but what? She was lost. She joined Mike who was in front of Jane's locker. She discovered the inscriptions on it and felt her heart tensing more.

- "It's awful," Mike told.

- "I hope you are talking about (points at the locker) this."

- "Of course, I already knew she was lesbian."

- "Really? She told you?"

- "Um, yeah, at our date, I was acting stupid so she told me this to...calm me," Mike explained, scratching the back of his head. "You should have seen her eyes, it was so hard for her to tell me this, she was so scared..."

- "Oh no..." Max sighed.

- "Found it!" Lucas told, holding a bucket of water in his left hand and a remover and dishcloths in his other hand.