Cora, Book 1, It Begins

Chapter 16, Miss Schmidt Worries

A few days later Cora was leaning against the front of their bronco chatting with some kids after school. Her group of friends seemed to have enlarged somewhat. Most every kid that walked by waved with a "Hi Cora." She made sure she acknowledged each one of them by name.  Like Greg she treated all that stopped like they were gifts. To her, they were.

Miss Schmidt noticed her on her way to her car. She drove a sharp little Triumph TR6. It was bright red and whenever she could, she would be seen driving around town with the top down and her hair flying behind her. It fit her personality perfectly. Conformist pushing the rebel boundaries. She was smart, incredibly smart. Far to smart to believe all the bullshit those powers that be preached but smart enough to know she had to exist in their world.

It was their world after all, wasn't it? The bullshit piling deeper and deeper every time one of them opened their mouths. It annoyed her, infuriated her. The Government lie, police lie, big business lie, bosses lie, its like the only way to get ahead was to be able to spill the bullshit without even a blink of an eye. The only way for her to get the stress and anger out was to hit the back-roads and crank that little Triumph of hers up until the speedometer was buried. This was one of those nights. But she had seen Cora. 

She had heard the rumours about what happened. She was worried about her. She saw a lot of herself in that young girl and she liked her. She appreciated the way she stood up for victims, always thought of others first and was brutally honest. Too honest, it was like she couldn't lie and that's a problem in this world. This world is controlled by psychopaths. An honest person didn't stand a chance.

Miss Schmidt turned and headed toward the group of kids and announced herself. "Excuse me, Cora, I don't want to bother you but could I talk to you a minute?"

The small group of kids said their goodbye's, teased Cora a bit for being in trouble again and slowly wandered off into their worlds.

"Hey teach," Cora said with a big smile after all the kids were out of hearing range.

"I'm worried about you Cora?" Said Mrs. Schmidt. "You're dealing with some very dangerous people."

"I'm finding that out more and more every day," said Cora not even breaking her smile.

"What happened with Chrissy?" Mrs. Schmidt asked. "I've heard some rumours."

"She was going to beat up Lisa so I shoved her head into the toilet and flushed it. Ummmm, maybe a couple of times." Cora responded with her typical blatant honesty.

"OK, and what happened with the apology letter to Kyle, I noticed you guys get along well now but his father called the school furious." Asked Miss Schmidt.

"I apologized," said Cora with a shrug.

"Ok let's try this another way, what did you write in the letter," asked Miss Schmidt.

"I can't fully remember ma am, I 'm pretty sure I let Kyle and his father know that I was sorry they were such assholes. Oh, and I also told Kyle's father he was a corrupt drug dealer or something like that" responded Cora with a smile. "Hey, did you know the guard at the gate of their subdivision was a WW2 flying ace. You should bring him in for History class, he's so cool."

Miss Schmidt shook inside, she momentary lost her smile. She didn't hear the part about the guard. She had to collect her thoughts for a moment. On one hand, she wanted to hug Cora for her wonderful honesty but on the other, she was terrified for her safety. How could she get Cora to be careful, is there any way of protecting her. After a minute or so contemplation Miss Schmidt looked Cora in the eye. "Listen Cora, these people are extremely dangerous, you are playing with fire. There is nothing they won't stoop to get what they want and keep it. You have to be careful. I don't want you hurt or killed. You have a lot of good to offer this fucked up world. But you have to live long enough.

Cora had lost her smile and Miss Schmidt thought she finally had gotten through to her but then Cora spoke. "Miss Schmidt, you are one of the most amazing women I know, well next to my mom."

Cora's smile came back. "I admire you, I hope as I grow I can be more like you. Someone, however, has to stand up to these assholes. They have to be stopped. The shit that went down last weekend has proven that to me. These guys go well beyond just theft, extortion and drug dealing."

"What happened?" Miss Schmidt responded with a shocked look on her face.

"Miss Schmidt, you're looking extra hot today," flirted Greg as he came up and stood between them giving her a wink with his usual big smile.

Miss Schmidt didn't break her gaze from Cora.

"Cora, we have to go to work," Greg said. "Miss Schmidt. Mom should be calling the office now. "See you when we get back. We have to fly. We have to be in Revelstoke ASAP."

Cora had already headed around to the passenger side of the Bronco, Greg climbed in the driver's side, fired it up and off they went leaving Miss Schmidt staring in wonder and worry.

"Mom says they've already prepped the Huey and loaded our equipment and supplies. The pilot will be there by the time we get there." Greg said to Cora.

"Justus" Cora asked?

"Yea, Bawg says Anubis and the pack there are reasonable so we will be able to sort things out," replied Greg.

Cora had already shoved a Zeppelin tape into the player.

"Do you think they'd mind if we put tape players in the back of the choppers?" Cora thought out loud.

"We'll have to find some amazing speakers," replied Greg. 

They both started singing along with the music.