Book 1: Awakening (The VIth Element Series)

Chapter 28: Alex

"You did what?" Jasmine replied, her mouth agape after I had told her about hitting Vanessa, although she looked significantly impressed.

"I know right," I retorted, still bubbling with adrenaline. "I still can't believe I actually punched Vanessa and wiped that snooty smile off her face."

Jasmine threw me a delighted smile.

"Girl...I'm so proud of you," she said, throwing her arm around me. "You're undeniably living up to the badass quality of your name."

I laughed, pleased that her thoughts matched my own. Nevertheless, Miss Crotchet, who had been lenient in letting us talk in Music so far, had had enough.

"Girls!" She said sharply, raising her eyebrows. "Unless you're talking about your composition, which I doubt very much, you need to stop your current topic of conversation, however exciting it may be and focus on your work."

As soon as she had reprimanded us, Jasmine and I apologised abruptly for disrupting the lesson. Both of us liked Miss Crotchet a great deal. Therefore, we did as she had instructed us to do. Even so, we both knew that this conversation was far from over.

The moment the bell went for second period, Miss Crotchet came over to us and gave me the permission slip she had promised.

"Thanks," I smiled up at her, after she had finished. "And we're both very sorry for disrupting your lesson."

Jasmine nodded her head in agreement, but Miss Crotchet just waved us off.

"I accepted your apology earlier," she replied. "All the same, just remember to keep gossip outside my classroom in the future and enjoy reading that file."

Once more, I thanked her again for the permission slip, before Jasmine and I headed off towards English together.

The two of us resumed our conversation.

"So...how hard did you hit her?" Jasmine asked me, eager for the full low-down, as we walked along the corridor.

"Pretty hard," I replied, smiling. "She'll have a huge bruise like I did over her right eye by now I reckon."

"I wonder if she'll go to the medical ward," Jasmine added, "if it's that bad?"

I shook my head.

"I doubt that very much," I answered. "She'd rather suffer than give me the satisfaction of degrading her ego even more than I already have by visiting such a place."

Jasmine nodded.

"I suppose you're right," she finished up by saying. "Still, I can't wait to see your handiwork."

As it happened, Jasmine didn't have to wait for long to see Vanessa's mammoth bruise, for she was actually in our English class. When Vanessa saw me sitting at the back of the classroom, she threw me a heated glare, which looked funny as her right eye was beginning to close up, before she sat in a seat over the other side of the room, sulking.

Jasmine nudged me.

"Blimey. I didn't think you'd hit her that hard!" She gawked at Vanessa, along with others in the room, causing her to go bright red. "You really gave her a right hander there."

The instant Jasmine had finished talking, I threw her a grin. However, to be honest, when I saw how much Vanessa was being subjected to whispered mutterings, gaping and giggles, I suddenly felt awful.

Sure, she had been really unkind to me since we had first met.

Sure, she had called me unpleasant names.

Sure, she had hit me with the netball.

All the same, knowing how much the comments going around stung, as I had been there, done it and got the t-shirt, I felt extremely guilty. This guiltiness was further heightened when our teacher dismissed Vanessa early because, despite her protests, he was not happy with how bad her bruise was rapidly becoming. Thankfully, her pride meant that she refused to tell him how she had gotten the bruise in the first place. Still, as she spoke, I lay back further in my seat, wanting the ground to swallow me up.

Shame flooded my heart. 

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AN:

Well there you go. Sometimes violence isn't always the answer as Alex has found out. Where does this leave her with Venessa? What about her other friends?