{ E I G H T } : S H R E D.
The night was cold and crisp and the sky was moonless.
So crisp that when Luthor rubbed his hands against his sleep wear sleeve, it sparked. He had some unfinished business to carry out for the Head Mistress, and honestly he was tired of being her puppet.
He had left a bunch of not so important papers at the computer room that he needed to shred. He crossed the yard and entered the building were all the classrooms were. The lecture block was so empty, it spooked Luthor being the only one inside the building so late at night.
Turning on the lights in the computer room, he set out to work.
Making sure he wasn't shredding any important papers, he scanned them one by one before putting them into the shredding machine. He liked the sound of shredding paper.
Then he came across the list of students who had had detention over the years. It was a relatively short list of thirty eight students. He bit his lips sadly as he saw Jazz Brown's name on the list. He was about to shred the paper when it occurred to him that the list was pretty important and maybe Head Mistress made a mistake joining it in the pile so he set it aside.
A sharp pain erupted at the back of his head and he found himself slumping almost immediately. He struggled to stay conscious as a pair of legs walked in front of him and shredded the detention list paper.
He reached out to grab the individual but he was too weak to stretch and his eyes kept fluttering shut.
"Next time, be a little more obedient." He heard the figure say before he passed out.
The door to the computer room banged shut.
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"You like her, don't you?" Allen whispered to Grey, whose eyes was perched on the girl sipping water like she was about to pass out.
Grey casted him a weird glance as they kept jogging round the field in white tees and brown khaki shorts, "No."
"Yeah right." Allen scoffed.
"Look, I'm just being nice to her because she did me a favor once and I owe her. Nothing more so stop trying to play cupid." Grey responded, breathing a little heavier.
"I think she likes you though." Allen pressed.
Grey stared in her direction for a long moment as she squatted and splashed water on her face, "Maybe."
"Is that all you have to say?"
"Jeez, I hate you Allen. And yes that's all I have to say, stop trying to get her in my head."
Allen chuckled, "Like she isn't there and in your heart already."
"Shut up already, you're going to get us in trouble, Mr Barnes has been giving us the side eye."
It was a cold sport morning in Bubble Academy. Everyone was clad in white tees, brown khaki shorts and trainers as they jogged around the football pitch. Mr Barnes their instructor stood in the middle of the field and kept yelling at the kids to keep going.
Until everyone was sweating, they would keep up the military training.
It was barely thirty minutes in and some students had already called it quits, Jazz included. She was at the bleachers refreshing her drained self. Moments later, she rejoined the teenage parade and caught up with Allen and Grey.
"Did you guys hear? A student was found unconscious in the computer room this morning." Jazz chirped.
"How come?" Allen asked, surprised he hadn't heard about it yet.
"The school authorities are keeping it pretty hush hush, you know Luthor yeah? My mom's little puppet and favorite grade A student. He is the one. I wonder what he was doing in the computer room so late at night."
"Why do I feel it's the same person?" Jazz visibly gulped.
"Why haven't we gone to the shed yet, Allen?"
"I misplaced the key." Allen sighed, realizing how irresponsible he sounded.
"I guess we're back at square one."
"Which is?"
"Aubrey's dirt journal."
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Cozied up under her navy blue blankets and enjoying the rest of her free day, Jazz sipped apple juice as she read through Aubrey's journal.
There was so much tea in the book.
"You've been staring at that book with wide eyes for hours, don't you have a life?" Felicity's voice boomed through the room.
"Mind your business." Jazz retorted without even looking up from the book.
Felicity obnoxiously exhaled and made a sport of unboxing her package rather loudly. She sure was a pathetic attention seeker. Jazz also began slurping her drink irritatingly loud.
Jazz gave up, "Do you have a problem with me?"
Felicity eyed her and hissed.
Sighing in defeat, Jazz grabbed Aubrey's journal and made to leave her grumpy roommate alone.
"Just so you know, my vinyl player has been fixed and it's coming back tonight, get ready."
"Anything that fixes your attitude is welcome." Jazz retorted and headed out.
She had left her apple juice but she couldn't go back.
With no direction in mind, she just allowed her feet take her. Immediately she stepped into the student yard, she heard someone call her last name.
"Allen!" She turned around sharply.
"Where are you headed?"
"Garden maybe, since it was like Aubrey's favorite place in Bubble."
"Right. Guess what?" Allen's eyes perked up.
"You've found the maniac?" Jazz smiled big.
Allen shook his head with a small smile, "Aubrey is awake."
Blood drained from Jazz's face. "Stop. You better not be messing around."
"How haven't you heard?"
Jazz sighed heavily, her shoulders sagging as they continued in the direction of the school's garden. "Ever wondered why a person like me ended up in a boarding school? Well I'll tell you, my parents don't want responsibility of me, all they care about is expensive vacations, business associates and fancy dinner parties. I guess I get in the way of their activities so boarding school was their best option. During the holidays, I visit my grandparents because my parents don't have my time, writing is a good distraction for me, I forget my little woes. So don't be surprised how I've not gotten a call from home. I doubt my parents even know their niece is– I mean was in a coma."
Allen remained silent, his baby pink lips pressed in a thin grim line. Of course he understood her, his parents used to be like that until his little sister passed away last year. People usually envied them– the rich kids– because of the glamorous lifestyle, the coziness of the beds and the forever plush cushions but what they don't know is that kids like them would literally give an arm and a leg for what the minimal life kids have.
"Sorry, I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." Jazz confessed, feeling weird.
Allen shook his head with a sigh, "No need to be sorry, I understand. I usually call Aubrey's mom through the school's landline since the incident. For the first time today she called me instead, I was certain it was either bad or good news but I'm happy it's the good one."
Jazz soured. Why hadn't she thought of calling her Aunt? In her defense she's been caught in investigation even though she had really gotten no where and instead gotten detention.
"Thank you for caring about Aubrey." Jazz muttered, managing a small smile.
"What do you mean? She's my girlfriend, Jazzy." Allen smiled sadly as he gripped Jazz's shoulders, "I miss her so muc–"
He paused and followed Jazz's gaze, because she was staring wide-eyed at something behind him. Allen's eyes travelled through the heart shaped grassy entrance of the garden and landed on two love birds, lip-locking.
Strawberry blonde hair mass... It was Grey.
Jazz quickly collected herself so Allen wouldn't notice the sadness that easily overtook her features. She cleared her throat and freed her shoulders from Allen's grip. She felt queasy and weak in the knees.
"You go on without me, I forgot my apple juice." She said and immediately turned way.
"Jazz, c'mon..." Allen called out behind her but she was briskly escaping the scenery.
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Jazz had lost track of time as she hid herself away from the world and the reality of her feelings, bawling her eyes out in the computer room. Dark circles, red eyes and messy curls, she looked rather scary as she checked her reflection on a monitor screen.
She had admitted her feelings for Grey Anderson to herself, a long time ago, and seeing him kiss that girl shamelessly in broad day light made her heart hurt and her stomach churn.
The bridge of her nose was all pink and buried in Aubrey's dirt journal. Whoever uses a white journal to store dark secrets? It was juxtaposing but that was Aubrey Simon for anyone. Sassy control freak to everyone but cute and lovely to Allen Pierce... Her boyfriend. He was privileged to be the only one who saw that side of her.
Miss Brown came across a line of Aubrey's calligraphy that sent shivers down her spine. Scrambling for her glasses, she fixed it on her nose and reread the sentence again.
Head Mistress May Anderson didn't divorce, her husband had been arrested, tried and convicted based on sexual assault allegations.
Jazz gasped.
Grey had never told her.
Well he's only mentioned that his Dad jumped ship a while ago, and now it was just him and his no-nonsense Mom.
Guess they weren't as close as she dramatized in her fantasy brain. The girl he was kissing earlier probably knew about it.
Her heart was beating faster than usual.
"Jazz."
Jazz gulped, looking up from the pages of the journal her eyes drowned in a convivial deep blue one. Her heart stopped.
"What happened to you? You look... Wrecked." Grey said through his sinful lips.
Breathe girl, breathe. Jazz tried to calm herself but it was futile.
A volcano was burning hot inside her chest, ready to explode but somehow the words that escaped her righteous lips were cold as ice.
"Stay away from me." She said grimly and stood up to leave.
Grey gripped her hand and held her back. "Heyyy, what did I do?"
The volcano bursted inside her as a bubble of sarcastic laughter escaped her lips.
"Trust, Grey. I thought we were friends!" Jazz paused, yanking her hands away, "Your parents are divorced because your dad was arrested for sexual assault! I wish I could say I was surprised." Flames spewed from her untamed mouth like confetti.
Grey was bewildered, "WHAT?!"
"I saw you in the garden today shoving your tongue down some girl's throat, don't pretend. What I don't understand is how one person can be so blind or maybe not blind just ignoring... I get your hint boy, I shouldn't have let myself like you, I regret distracting Miss Bellamy to get your attention."
"So that's what this is about?" He asked, "I'm not sorry."
Jazz bit her lower lip in attempts to hold back the dam of tears brimming behind her eyes. After bawling her eyes out for minutes unending earlier she didn't think she still had enough tears to shed over this same insanely good-to-look-at cricket.
Channeling her tears to rage, she hit him with the journal and ran out of the computer room and into the dark school yard.
Her body shook with tears as she ran in the direction of her dorm room, tears spilling down her ugly face. Grey wasn't who she thought he was all along. Guess infidelity ran in his veins but who was she to lay accusations on him anyway? He was guiltless. At least he never lied to her that he had feelings for her before she caught him kissing another girl.
And that's not what was hurting her so much.
What was hurting was that he led her on and used her feelings for him to his advantage.
Boys were so evil.
Jazz understood Felicity now.
It felt like her heart was being shredded in pieces.
All her life she never thought she could be this hurt, even when her parents neglected her emotionally. But just once she found someone who she could be comfortable enough to reveal her feelings to and be vulnerable without feeling stupid but all along he had been using her?
An ugly sob escaped her cracked lips and snort lined her upper lip.
She banged on her room door, hard, "Felicity, please open up."
The door clicked almost immediately.
Felicity gasped on seeing her roomie, "Oh sweet thing, what happened to you? I'll play some Michael Jackson."
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A/N: like triple x once said: "Love is War"
hit that star button because the plot is about to thicken and the rollercoaster just started rolling faster. I was listening to blinding lights cover by Loi while writing this chapter, what song were you listening to?
Much love, butterflies.