The devil's heart - Joseph Descamps Mixte 1963 [ENG]

Chapter 3

Voltaire High School - 1963

     Once lunch was over, the news of the ruthless and frenzied diatribe Lorene threw at some of the boys spread throughout the building. Much to her displeasure, whose smooth and delicate image had been torn apart from the moment her hand had seized the tray. Before going back to class, she locked herself in the bathroom, breathing ragged and mind racing. Between Michèle and her, the idiot who got his lunch flown away would get a particular interest in revenge. She could feel it in her bones, the sword of Damocles held on top of her head that came with this icy smile was engraved in her memory. She had to be flawless today ! Not yesterday, not tomorrow. Exactly. Today. She had betrayed her father's trust and acted like a common brute. What would uncle Jon say if Mr. Bellanger called him ? The tears started welling up in her eyes but the bell rang. She had to get out of here and apologize to the ill-mannered boy with glasses. Her reputation, her very name couldn't be defiled by something so insignificant. She was risking more than her dad's simple damning monologue if her behavior was off limits - there was so much to lose if her integration at the school failed... The others didn't need her help. She has to learn to focus on her future first.
     Once in the hallway leading to her English class, she sighed deeply and smiled. She had to hold on until the end of the day. Everything would be fine. Her apology would be accepted, her classmate would forgive her - she intended to flutter her eyelashes innocently, look down with a sad pout to make him pity her in a manly way he was probably good at. After all, it was such a strange and disturbing day for a poor damsel who knew nothing about that town. Her smile grew, certain that the mistake would be fixed by tonight. She hurried, late by a couple minutes. However, one of the eleventh grader she had seen on the courtyard earlier this morning irrupted in her classroom. Intrigued, Lorene even wondered if she hadn't
picked the wrong one. She heard screams and as she ran inside, distress grew inside her. She was wrong for hoping that high school wouldn't be a jungle. Lorene saw her opponent from lunch jump on their elder schoolmate and take a violent punch. A silence, time stops. Lorene threw her bag on the first table she saw without thinking and tilted towards the imbecile who was holding the left side of his face while moaning. She ordered him to show her his face but he suddenly noticed she had kneeled in front of him to help him out, thus pushed her away with his free hand. Hadler seized it, much to the wounded's surprise. This girl had a lot of nerve !
« Stand up, lay on me so I can take you to the nurse's office. »
Her confident tone low-key reassured him. This stuck-up woman was keeping her cool this time ?
« Go ahead so I can push you down the stairs and pay you back. »
Barely touched by the pathetic menace, the young lady took him out of the room and met Mrs. Bellanger coming the other way, who got told about the fight by Pichon. Her husband and her took it from here. Mrs. Giraud, who had left her class to assist the English teacher, asked Hadler, covered in blood that wasn't hers, to go get cleaned up followed by Laubrac. Once at the nurse's office, she was shocked to see Michèle was also here, dressed in man's clothes.
« Are you hurt ? Please tell me they didn't dare to raise their hand to you ? » asked the butcher's daughter.
- No, I'm just trying to check if there's another change. Luckily, he didn't get enough time to stain the bottom of my dress. Lorene washed her right hand, which was also stained with blood.
« This boy got him good.
- Who ? »
Laubrac started a detailed description of the said boy, and Michèle gradually started to shake.

     Latin class this afternoon was dreary. The shadow of the event was on every student's face. Magnan was playing with the buttons of the shirt she had borrowed, Palladino wasn't smiling anymore and Hadler was trying to hide the bright red stain on her dress under the jacket Laubrac had been kind enough to lend her. The sunlight was coming through the window and warming up the young English girl's troubled heart. How to explain her state ? What if her friend's brother was risking expulsion ? What would happen to Michèle ?
     Everyone was relieved to go back home. The girls said goodbye to each other, not knowing if they would be authorized to go back to school tomorrow. Lorene dragged her feet. She had notes from the classes Descamps had missed, doubting his mates had done the same. She had to go to his place and give it to his parents. Mr. Bellanger had congratulated her for her behavior while giving her the address. She went on her way, strolling through the streets and enjoying the orange glow proper to the sunset. Her hair danced in the wind. Once she was in front of the house, Hadler knocked and waited. She tried again before choosing to slide the sheets one
by one under the door, praying they wouldn't step on it when coming back from the hospital. The consequences of this fight got heavier by the second. She had a knot in her stomach going to school this morning, and it's in a similar state that she was going back to her uncle's house tonight.