All Fear The Reaper

Chapter Eight

We've got nowhere to run
They've all got loaded guns
Please God, tell me we're dreaming

I was standing there, just watching the girl rip into Giuliana and I was suddenly overcome with and overwhelming sense of anger.
How can she think that's an appropriate way to talk to her?
So I made my way towards Giuliana and Drew and the majority of the senior class. My breath was shaky, my heart was pounding, but I was sure. I knew what I was going to do.
Mind you, I'm not a violent person, so I had no idea where the next thing I did came from. I had intended to go talk to her, I swear, but for some reason the closer I got, the more angry I became.
So by the time I was behind her, well...
"Hey bitch," I hissed, tapping on the girl's shoulder. She spun around and I punched her in the face.
The whole thing was rather I dignified. Her nose was bleeding profusely. My fist was covered in her blood, and I just kind of stood there, stunned by my own actions.
That is, until Sean started clapping. "That was badass, Toni!"
Of course, he was the only one. Everybody else looked like they were struggling not to stand and retrieve the nearest staff member, but nobody did.
There was complete silence in the gymnasium for the first time in my four years at that school. I could even hear the collective breath held by the majority of the class.
"Who the hell are you?" The girl asked through the thick streams of blood from her nose.
"I'm Toni Gunther. I'm a friend of Giuliana." I replied, still not moving or making any sort of motion to wipe her blood off of me.
"Really? Can you tell her to stop being a bag of dicks?"
"What did she do to you?"
"I'm Drew's girlfriend."
Then the collective breath was released and the chatter began again.
Drew's girlfriend?
He wouldn't.
"And you are?"
"Christie Tagarts. The cheerleader?"
That explains a lot.
Maybe you're just a pathological liar.
Maybe you're delusional.
Maybe you're right.
Giuliana turned to Drew and I took it as my cue to get the hell out of dodge.
I had a sense of foreboding as I walked up the stairs. I never liked the stairs leading to the corridor my locker was in. They were creepy, and I couldn't see around the corner.
So, of course, Anna and her lackeys took this opportunity to jump out of the shadows and commence wailing on me. Under normal circumstances, I could have flicked them off like bugs, but they'd employed a rather tall girl to join them, against whom I had no chance.
Let's just say I wasn't in good shape by the time I headed to sixth period ASL.

The class was made up entirely of seniors. We were a fairly tight bunch because most of us had been together since freshmen year. We were a very strange group of friend-like people.
The teacher was kind of like part of the group too. Her name was Mrs. Clas. She was deaf, and also really beautiful. She was married to a really cool hearing guy that would come in and play interpreter sometimes.
It was Mrs. Clas that noticed the bruises and cuts on my face and arms first.
She demanded this guy named Ryan take me to the nurse.
Now, Ryan had been held back. He should be in college, but he'd neglected to pass several necessary courses to graduate.
He was also terribly attractive.
But that's not important.
Anyway, Ryan was extremely standoffish. And he hated human interaction. You'd be lucky to catch him at any point without earbuds stuck in his ears with music blaring so loudly that the person next to him can hear it clear as day. For some reason, though, he was always polite to me.
"You okay?" He asked as we strode side by side down the hall.
"Do I look okay?" I replied, frowning at the floor.
Like, nah, bro, it's all good. I'm just rocking the pummeled look today.
"Well, I don't know how much of this you did to yourself."
Which caused me to look at him like he'd grown a second head because like hell I'd do this to myself. "What the ever-living-fuck are you talking about?"
"I noticed you cut, so I don't know what else you do."
"Are you fucking stupid? Do you honestly believe that I'd beat myself up?"
He didn't look the least bit offended. "I just thought I'd ask."
I stayed quiet. I was afraid that if I opened my mouth I'd call him something really offensive.
"Are you performing at open mic night?" He asked.
I nodded.
"Cool, I'll cheer for you. My girlfriend's performing, too."
I nodded again.
"Do we actually have a school nurse?"
I shrugged. Hell if I know.
"Well, what do we do, then?"
"She said we were having study hall anyway..."
"Computer lab?"
"I was thinking commons."
"Computer lab has a door."
I rolled my eyes. "Computer lab has a class."
"Yeah, yeah," he muttered. "There's two labs."
"Really?"
"You didn't know that?"
"No."
"Follow me."
So that's how I ended up following Ryan into the basement of the school only to find an empty classroom, but that was okay. We just threw chalk at each other for an hour before returning to class covered from head to toe in chalk dust.
But that's okay.