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chapter 2: ( friday night brawl )
❝ she's a killer queen ❞
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Much to Deena's disliking, she found herself back in her band uniform and boarding the yellow school bus filled with a mix of football players and cheerleaders. There was a irked expression on her face as she walked down the aisle, seeing a few heads turn towards her. Her eyes grazed over Beckham and Simon, the boy pulling her onto his lap as she attempted to avoid getting green paint on her face. God, how much she envied their relationship. They were perfect for each other, practically soulmates if those even exist. But here they were, living proof.
As the bus crossed through towns, the small, ran down buildings slowly turned into a neighborhood of mansions, meaning they had entered Sunnyvale. It looked perfect on the outside, but who knew what secrets were kept inside. They later arrived at Sunnyvale High, home of the Devils. Seemed fitting. Everyone was brought out to the field, the students separated based on town residency.
"This isn't how I wanted to be here tonight. I wanted to be here as a fan. Our Sunnyvale Devils and your Shadyside Witches throwing down some good old American football. Instead I find myself here as a husband, a father, as a neighbor. And, yes, mayor of Sunnyvale."
"Meaning he doesn't give two shits about us," Beckham muttered for only Kate to hear. She let out a hum of agreement before they turned their attention back to the man.
"And on behalf of all of the people in my town, I say all of Sunnyvale mourns with you. Our hearts are broken with grief." After the mayor's very "moving" speech, Nick Goode took his spot on the podium to say a few words. Candles were handed out as the lights were cut, making the atmosphere darker than it needed to be.
"My family's been in Sunnyvale for generations, and now my brother is mayor and I your sheriff. We've prospered here. And yet, I've seen you, our neighbors in Shadyside, suffer tragedy after tragedy. It's easy in times like this to drown in questions of why...Why this happened. But I know too well there are no answers that will provide relief. There's no peace found in the past. We must not fall into darkness. We must look to the light."
A scoff came from a Sunnyvale football player. "Yeah. What we should do is light a fuse and burn down Shittyside."
"Excuse me?" Beckham narrowed her eyes while turning to face him.
"I said it ain't a tragedy when it happens every week," he raised his voice for all to hear. "It's a joke."
"You stuttering sapheads are too dim to exercise your own rights, and you've got the combined vocabulary of a baked potato. You wouldn't last five minutes on our side when everything's handed to you on a silver platter." She stepped forward with her arms crossed, the football player doing the same as the other started to surround.
"You should really watch that pretty mouth of yours."
"Why? You gonna hit me?" A bitter chuckle left her mouth.
"He won't. But I will." A Sunnyvale cheerleader stepped forward beside him, a fierce glare in her eyes.
There was an amused smile on Beckham's face as she turned back to face Kate who only raised her eyebrows. "Do it, then. Hit me." There was slight hesitance in the rivalry cheerleader as she stayed still. "What are you waiting for? Hit me." Beckham let her arms drop as her smile fell into a straight line. "Maybe you Sunnyvalers are just a weak target. You don't put up a fight. All you do is throw money in people's faces to make it all go away and, sweetie, I'm not going anywhere."
A few Shadysiders couldn't help but smirk at the tension created, knowing that the girl always knew how to get under their skin. Beckham stepped closer to the girl. "What's wrong? You scared?" She bent her knees slightly, her face leaning in with a deathly whisper. "I can't wait for the day one of your townspeople's name is on the news, but it won't be the deceased. Their name will be in big bold letters with the word 'caught' right after—"
She was cut off by a harsh slap to the face, her head turning and starting to feel the burn on her cheek. Beckham's hand swung back, only this slap caused a cut along the cheerleader's face. She patted her cheek and saw the blood on her fingers.
"Trashy bitch." The cheerleader grabbed onto Beckham to shove her as hell broke lose.
A few of the footballers were throwing punches and the only thing heard was incoherent yelling. Beckham was on top of the cheerleader, punching and slapping as much as she could while fighting off the other girl's defending arms. She suddenly fell to the side as one of the guys pushed her off. Before he could do anything else, Simon suddenly ran in and hit the guy with his broom, flipping him off in the process. He started sprinting away while being chased, Beckham being helped up by Kate.
"Suck it in—!" Kate was cut off by being elbowed by one of the football players.
"Hey!" Beckham harshly grabbed his shoulder to turn him around and brought her knee up to his privates. The boy immediately fell to his knees, groaning in pain.
The fight was eventually broken up and all the Shadyside students were directed back to the bus. Kate was given an ice pack for her cheek before standing up as the bus began to leave.
"Pieces of shit!" She started walking up and down the aisle as everyone was yelling in agreement. "They think they can do whatever they want! They ruin our vigil, then go waltzing back to their mansions, like we're some reject pile that they can step on! Well, we are not the reject pile! This shit ends tonight!"
Simon stood up from his seat. "What are we gonna do?!"
"We're gonna go kill those preppy assholes," Beckham shouted back. They all started chanting out the two girls' names as they looked at each other with matching grins.
"When I say Shady, you say side! Shady!"
"Side!"
"Shady!"
"Side!"
That continued on back and forth until Deena called them to the back of the bus. Beckham, Kate, and Simon were at her side quickly, seeing car headlights staring back at them through the window. The driver was honking the horn as a Sunnyvale player was standing through the sunroof and threw a bottle at the window.
"You gotta be kidding me," Kate seethed.
"Hey, isn't that, uh..." Simon trailed. Squinting their eyes, they could see a familiar face sitting in the passenger seat.
"Sam," Deena whispered with venom laced in her voice. She went back to the seats as Simon took it upon himself to moon the car. He pulled his pants back up after they threw another bottle at the window and Deena returned with their water cooler. "Open the door."
Kate and Beckham looked at each other, unsure. Deena demanded once more until Kate opened the emergency exit. "This is definitely a good idea, right? Deena?"
She paid no attention to Kate. "On three, okay?"
"Are you sure?"
"One, two..."
Beckham stepped in, placing her hand on her shoulder with wide eyes. "Deena, your nose!" Blood was dripping down, making Kate gasp and step back, letting go of the cooler.
The water splashed onto their windshield and they watched as the car swerved on the road. It made a sharp turn straight into the woods, crashing into the tree.
"Stop," Deena yelled. "Stop the bus!"
The four quickly jumped down once the bus stopped and inspected the crash. Deena went down the hill first and the other three followed. Sam looked pretty disoriented and had blood covering around her face, mostly on the edges of her hairline and dripping down her nose.
"Okay, we should not be down here," Kate said, watching as Simon and Beckham kneeled in front of the injured girl.
"Shut up, help me carry her," Deena worried.
"We need to leave, like ten minutes ago."
"We have to clear her airway." Deena knocked down Simon's hand in irritation. "Hey! I got this. Chill out. How many fingers am I holding up?"
"Three," Sam croaked.
Simon looked at them positively. "See? She's fine." On that, Sam sputtered out blood that mostly landed on his white shirt. They immediately stood up and stepped away, in case she did it again.
"It's fine, it's fine," mumbled Beckham. She took off her jacket and placed it around Sam, going back to the girl's side. "The police are on their way now and an ambulance will come pick you and your friends up. Can you go get the first aid kit from the bus?" Simon nodded, running back.
"I'm pretty sure a band-aid won't help this booboo," Kate huffed with her arms crossed. The two girls were a bit shocked at Beckham's sudden hospitality, but it made sense after what just happened.
Simon came back with the first aid, handing the kit to her. She honestly had no idea what to do but just went with it. She moved Sam's hair back and used one of the wipes to clean off the blood, being careful around her hair line in case glass was there. It was hard to see since there wasn't any light, but she managed.
"I would offer you some water, but we ran out." Beckham glanced at Deena who glared at her. The girl turned back to Sam, her expression softening. "You feeling okay enough to stand?"
Sam nodded weakly. "Thank you."
Beckham pursed her lips and looked at Deena. "Help her up, I'm gonna check if Bert and Ernie are alive." Deena nodded and took her position beside Sam.
Beckham straightened out her top, walking over to the wrecked car. She kicked the car door twice and spoke boredly, "Are you asshats alive?" There was a slight groan from the backseat. "Okay, cool." Simon came up next to her, throwing his arm around her. Beckham slightly pushed away because of the puked blood on his shirt.
The police later arrived with an ambulance behind them. The paramedics had Sam put on a stretcher as well as the two other guys that were in the car. The four friends waited by the side of the road for Sheriff Goode to take their statements. He talked to Deena first, then Kate, a few of the football players, and Simon, who actually didn't give any details and told them to suck it. Finally, he went to Beckham.
"Are you sure nothing else happened," Goode questioned.
"Do you want to think that?" He looked up, making her let out a sigh. "The car crashed and we were nice enough to stop and help them. We could've just kept driving, but I guess that Sunnyvale kindness rubbed off on us."
Despite her sarcasm, he wrote down the information on the notepad. "Give us a call if you can remember anything else." He held his hand out with his business card.
"Not likely." She walked past him and back onto the bus.
✧ ೃ༄*ੈ✩
The next night, Beckham was helping Kate babysit with Simon. And by help, that meant the two kids were put on pill patrol while Kate ordered her two friends to help with the household chores. Beckham didn't necessarily agree with Kate's strategy of having kids sort out drugs, but she couldn't really stop her.
The were sat in the living room, Simon engrossed in a TV show while Beckham flipped through a fashion magazine. Kate walked in to see that the pile of clothes remained untouched.
"What happened to sorting this," she questioned. "Lights and darks, and watch for stray socks." She dumped the clothes from the hamper onto the table. Beckham set the magazine on her lap, not wanting to do work or even move from her spot.
"Remind me what's in it for me again," Simon sighed.
"Nope." He stood up and unzipped his jacket to reveal the same white shirt from the car crash.
"Why the hell are you wearing the same clothes from last night," Beckham asked while grimacing. "Please tell me you didn't go to work like that."
Simon threw his jacket down and huffed. "I had to work a double shift and this was all I had in the car. So, yes. Yes, I did." Beckham shook her head while resuming to her magazine, the pages covering her face.
Kate felt her pager buzz from her pocket. She walked away, not before commenting, "That's disgusting. You're disgusting."
Simon removed his shirt and threw it behind him, having it land beside Beckham. He looked back to see her eyes peeking over with eyebrows raised. She stood up and set the magazine down, walking past him towards the kitchen, her fingers grazing his bare skin lightly. Simon trailed after her as they saw the two kids sitting at the dining table with pills and bottles in front of them. Every childhood dream.
"Jesus. Put something on," Kate said while walking back into the room.
"What? Make up your mind, woman," he exclaimed.
Before Beckham could respond, the sound of a window shattering was heard in the living room. All their heads turned at the sound.
"Stay here," Kate instructed the girls, who nodded.
The three teens moved down the hallway where they heard more glass breaking. Beckham was beside Kate, their hands gripping each other's as Simon cowered slightly behind them, keeping one hand on Beckham's shoulder. Beckham may be all big talk and could put up a fair fight, but, God, did she get scared easily.
"Maybe this isn't a good id—" Simon was cut off by Kate's shushing.
Peeking around the corner, what they saw was a person in all black attire with a skull mask rummaging through the laundry. Beckham wanted to say perhaps he was the sock fairy, but now wasn't the right time.
"Hey, creeper. What the f—" The person slowly turned towards them as Beckham pulled Kate back before she could finish.
"The fuck is wrong with you?"
"It's just that Sunnyvale asshole." When they looked back, the person was gone. Kate checked out the broken window while Simon retrieved his shirt, seeing the tears in them. "Deena told me that fucker was lurking around her house, of course he came over here. I say we find the bastard and show him not to mess with us."
Beckham nodded. "Alright, but what about the Siamese twins?"
Kate quickly gathered her things and made a quick call before informing the girls that they were going on a little trip. The five found themselves walking down the neighborhood street to Mrs. Lane's house.
"Are you sure this is a good idea," Beckham whispered. "I don't think Mrs. Lane has been around children since..."
"It's fine," Kate reassured. "I doubt they'll go all psycho killer like her. I bet she'd love to have someone around." There was no turning back as they were already on the porch. She knocked on the door where a woman opened it with a friendly smile. "Hi, Mrs. Lane, thank you so much again."
"Oh, no, I'm so happy to have the company," Mrs. Lane replied as Kate give a small 'I told you so' look to Beckham.
She gently pushed the girls inside. "You're a lifesaver, Mrs. Lane."
"Well, I used to be a nurse." Her face suddenly dropped after seeing Simon's blood stained shirt. "Are you sure everything's okay?"
The two girls looked back at Simon, who quickly fumbled to zip up his jacket. Beckham plastered the sweetest smile she could. "Juice box incident. We've really got to get going, but thank you again, Mrs. Lane."
"Oh, of course, sweetie. No rush."
The door shut and they went to Simon's side. Kate smacked him on the back of his head. "Nice going, shithead."
"I forgot! It looks more like an artistic statement to me." Simon rubbed the back of his head while scrunching his face in slight pain.
"Cool it, you two. Lets just go meet Deena and end this shit," Beckham advised, her arm looping with Kate's as Simon's went around her shoulder.