The Night We Met

Chapter Eleven: Presentations

A/N God I love this chapter

Salem had managed to put her project off for three more days. Finally, Mrs. Plantouli said she had to present, so she did. 

Salem walked up to the podium in the front of the English class and set her essay on the stand. "The Salem Witch Trials were from February 1692-May 1693. Today is March 21st. The Salem Witch Trials were 327 years, 10 months, and 27 days ago." She looked at her teacher. "Why are we learning history in school today?" she asked. 

Mrs. Plantouli straightened her posture. "So it doesn't repeat itself," she replied simply. 

Salem chuckled and wetted her lips. "So it doesn't repeat itself," she repeated back to the class. "I have been in this town since I was fourteen. I'm seventeen. For three years I have been harassed because my mother was Wiccan and my name is Salem." She glanced down at her paper before looking back up at the class. "That's discrimination. I've been beaten up for this too. That's a hate crime. Guess what?" she asked. "You can get up to ten years in prison for committing a hate crime. However, that wasn't the law back in 1692, was it? If you were accused of people a witch, you were burned at the stake, right?" she tested. "Wrong. Few were actually burned at the stake. If a woman was accused and found guilty of witchcraft the punishments included but were not limited to being drowned, hanged, starved, pressed, and walled in their own homes. The burning came from Germany and Scandinavia. Although those were a drop in the fucking ocean compared to Salem and all of Europe." 

Students in the class were shifting uncomfortably in their seats and Salem looked back down at her paper and smiled a little. 

"Now," she continued, "in January of 1692 a girl named Elizabeth, who was nine, started having fits. She screamed and threw things across the room. She also said weird things and twisted her body into inhumane shapes. The local doctor said she was possessed. Paranoia raised and more and more people were being accused of working for the devil or being a witch. They believed witches were these evil things that walked the Earth as Satan's servants. The first person who was hanged was an old woman named Briget Bishop. Some tests to see if someone was a witch included, but yet again were not limited to the swimming test, which was when stones would be tied to a woman's feet and thrown into the water. If she floated, she was a witch. This came from baptism and someone was working for Satan the water would reject them. Another was when Witch-hunters had often stripped their subjects and publically examined them for signs of an unusual blemish that witches were said to receive upon making their pact with Satan. This "Devil's Mark" could supposedly change shape and colour, and was believed to be numb and insensitive to pain. Of course they were just birthmarks or moles." 

She flipped her page. "Now, let me ask you all one question. Every day you say you want me burned at the stake or hung for being a witch, but if we are going back to the old ways, I deserve a trial. Who here would be willing to tie a rope around my waist and stones to my feet and throw my body into the water to see if I'll float?" she asked with her eyebrows raised. "Who here is willing to have me strip so I'm stark-ass naked and examine every inch of my body for a devil's mark?" 

The class was silent and Salem stared at them. She smiled. "So you all will spew your bullshit but won't follow through with it?" she asked. "Or you just can't face the facts?"

Jessica stood up. "You're just saying this because Mrs. Plantouli is right there and we can't do anything. I bet if we were alone and it was just the students you wouldn't be spewing this shit. I heard what Teresa said to you and you did what she told you. You're nothing but a pussy."

"Did she also tell you that Tobias came by my apartment last night?" Salem asked. "And spent the night... in the same room as me?" She scoffed. "Jessica, you're nothing but a dog with his tail between his legs when his owner chastises him for pissing on the carpet. You are all bark and no bite and as the second someone says something back to you, you spit and walk away."

A few kids in the class chuckled and the teacher sat in her chair with her arms crossed and her mouth set to a firm line as she watched Salem and Jessica. 

"Fuck you, Salem," Jessica spat. 

A ghost of a smile was at her lips. "Oh, I bet you would," she said. "And you would like it too."

"I'm not a faggot!" she yelled. 

"I wouldn't have been able to tell with that hair and the way you said you were going to fuck me," Salem laughed. "Tell me how you're going to do it. Are you a top or a bottom?"

Jacob snorted. "Bottom for sure," he chimed in. 

Jessica shot a glare at him and stormed from the classroom. Salem took a deep breath and stared back at the class. "Now that my presentation is done, does anybody have any questions?"