Toziette (Henry Bowers)(English version)

Chapter 16

Chapter 16

After that, Jane did not see Henry again, nor did she hear from the rest of the gang. It was a relief not to have crossed paths with Patrick and although her nightmares had not subsided, she was more reassured when she had to leave her house.

She still avoided the places where she was most likely to meet him, so she avoided the main exit when she did not know if the gang had skipped lessons, or, like that noon, the dining hall. She spent all her breaks in the open classrooms and took the opportunity to work.

That afternoon, she had planned to review her English class, and finish her book on Gone With the Wind. She just had time to crack open her locker, to retrieve the books she needed, when a hand slammed the door shut, the metallic sound echoing in the empty hallway. She jumped as she turned to the owner of the hand to face Henry who didn't seem to be there for a simple little talk. His face was closed, he had a scowl and seemed ready to jump on the first comer to get over his bad mood.

His gaze was the same he had on Bill's birthday.

It was a Monday afternoon, shortly before Henry and his friends tossed her in the trash.

She had spent the whole of Sunday afternoon baking cookies, the recipe was relatively easy, but she had never been good at cooking, to be honest her mother had been reluctant to let her cook on her own, fearing that she would set the whole neighborhood on fire, a fear totally exaggerated, since Jane had only burned four out of the ten batches made this afternoon. She had also confused sugar with baking soda, making one batch inedible and forgetting the flour in the others.

Of all the batches, only one was successful.

The last batch was perfect, all the cakes were in an acceptable shape, she hadn't attempted extravagant shapes and just baked round cookies, the color was right, and she hadn't forgotten or confused any other ingredients. If we listened to her father's words, Maggie had to worry, because the competition with the new generation was going to be difficult.

He added, however, that only Maggie had achieved perfection in baking and that she would have to work her whole life if she was to match her.

Jane had then taken over an hour to decorate them, drawing flowers and "16" with the frosting and even managed to write "Happy Birthday" on one of them, a difficult task since the cookies weren't very big and that writing with a pastry bag was not the easiest thing in the world, far from it, she had hardly made patés and had hardly put any everywhere. All with Richie on her back, who gently laughed at her and who had insisted on having the right to taste. Since her father had the right, why not him?

At the end of the day, she was finally done, a bit late for her mother's taste, who had urged her out of the kitchen so that she could make dinner. She had put the less ugly cookies in a pretty cardboard box that she closed with a beautiful ribbon. Bill was one of her brother's best friends, and she was very close to him too, she wanted everything to be perfect, and everything would be, she would give him the box at lunchtime and Richie would give him the present he had planned and Bill would be happy.

Nothing could have gone wrong, and it was with a light heart that she went to her locker the next day to pick up her gift and headed for the dining hall.

But not everything went as planned.
He was waiting for her.

Leaning against a locker not far from his, Bowers was waiting for him with his friends, a glint of hatred in his eyes, his face scarred. One of his victims had surely retaliated and had given him a nice black eye. She was not paying dearly for the victim in question.
In fact, she didn't know, and she will never know whether he was expecting her or just any potential victim, but it was on her that it fell.