The Abduction of Stephanie

Chapter 5

Agnes again finds herself sitting in Mr. Klein’s history class. Her bruises from that awful night in the woods where Standing Stone Creek meets the Juniata River have all but healed. The blonde clique of Stephanie’s friends sits in the back corner of the room to Agnes’s right. Melody Quinn is tall, skinny, and blonde and Agnes is often annoyed by how she is constantly popping her bubble gum. Agnes wants nothing more than to pop a bubble in her face at the moment. Melody is a cheerleader like all the other members of the clique and more importantly the best friend of megabitch Stephanie Saunders.  

Brianna Barry sits to Melody’s left wearing a white tank top. It’s clear that she is not wearing a bra, showing off the fact that she has the largest breasts in the school. Agnes can see her erect nipples trying to escape from her shirt like moths to a flame. Agnes can’t believe Brianna gets away with this and can’t help but think that she must be banging the principal.  

Raine Trinetti sits directly behind Melody. Raine isn’t tall like the others and isn’t even a natural blonde but an incessant amount of bleach has cured that problem. She is wearing a tight black halter-top cut just low enough to show off the eagle tattoo on her chest. Agnes is convinced that Raine only gets away with this because an eagle is also the school mascot. “What kind of a name is Raine anyways?” Between the tattoo and the black lipstick she is wearing, she looks more like someone who should be sitting amongst the Goth kids than a cheerleader. It is obvious to Agnes that Raine is trying much too hard to fit in.   The bell rings and Billy enters the classroom just after it. “Nice of you to join us Mr. Williams” says Mr. Klein. Billy walks to his desk with the eyes of every girl on him. Billy is tall and handsome and his muscles ripple through his tight blue shirt. The captain of the football team and star quarterback smiles back at the girls and takes his seat to next to Melody. The seat in front of Melody is empty for the third straight day, the seat of Stephanie Saunders.   Billy turns to the clique of blondes and says “Hey, have any of you seen Steph? I called her yesterday on her Birthday and she didn’t pick up. That’s not like her.” “Steph is missing. I saw her parents on the news last night” says Melody. “Missing?” asks Billy. “Maybe she ran away from this Podunk town,” says Brianna. “Can’t say that I blame her. This place is a one-way ticket to Neverland. People get trapped here, wilting away like flowers on a winters day and then after years of leading unproductive lives they ultimately succumb to their deaths” chimes in the always-positive Raine.

  All three girls were there that awful night of April 7th, 2012. No Agnes didn’t see them but she could recognize their voices, Melody’s voice altered by the gum, big breasted Brianna calling her a pancake, and Raine trying to convince the others to let her go. They were only three of the four girls that had hazed her that night all at the wishes at the fearless leader of the blonde wolf pack Stephanie Saunders. Agnes knows Stephanie is the one who violated her that night, leaving her cold and alone in the woods and one day Agnes will get her revenge.  

“Quiet down back there” shouts Mr. Klein; the old fart clearly worn out from thirty years of teaching high school students. Agnes can only imagine how redundant his life must be, teaching the same lessons year in and year out to dimwits like Stephanie and her group of plastic pawns. He probably goes home everyday, has a bowl of cereal, watches the news and falls asleep on the couch with his cat curled up in his lap, hoping it will just end already. Agnes can’t help but feel bad for the guy, after all what has he ever done to anyone but try to educate them on our sick history that all but proves religion is the cause of nearly every war.  

The three blondes are still chatting amongst themselves. “I said quiet down,” repeats Mr. Klein. They finally stop talking but are doing anything but paying attention to their aging teacher. Melody is flipping through a magazine and Agnes can see her reading an article on weight loss. Melody was thin enough, if she lost any more weight she would be anorexic. Melody holds the magazine to her face and sniffs a sample of perfume that lies between the pages. Brianna looks at her compact and applies some more of the ruby red lipstick her grandmother bought her, not that she needed any more, it already looks like Crayola threw up all over her face. Raine who is quite the artist is busy sketching a beautiful picture of Mr. Klein, making sure not to forget to draw in his horns and devil ears to go along with a handlebar mustache. Agnes can’t believe how pathetic these girls are and wishes they would find something better to do with their time.  

Agnes then jots down some notes on the branches of government, legislative, judicial, executive and begins to think how much better the world would be if she were President, but she is distracted when she sees Billy out of the corner of her eye. Billy is so handsome that it’s hard for any girl to resist taking a peek, even Agnes. “Stop staring Agnes. Get yourself together. He’s just a stupid jock. He probably hasn’t read a book in his entire life and then there was the whole frog incident.”   “Miss Bumgarner I asked you a question” says Mr. Klein.“Earth to Miss Bumgarner” Embarrassed, Agnes says “Yeah. Sorry. What was the question again?” “What are the three branches of the U.S. government? “You’ll have to excuse Agnes Mr. Klein, she was too busy staring at Billy’s junk” says Melody. Agnes turns bright red as the entire senior class bursts into laughter. She runs out of the room, holding back the tears and heads for the lady’s room. Relieved that the bathroom is vacant, she burrows into one of the stalls, curls up into the fetal position on the floor, puts her face on top of her knees and says to herself “Someday…Someday….”