"Wow, hardcore."
Jessie looked up in surprise. A boy and a girl stood above her. Both about twenty, but maybe older. Two faces stared back at her. One looked indifferent, somehow cold, and almost dead, while the other had such a wide psycho grin that the same panicked shiver that she had felt at Bibi's raised baseball bat immediately ran through Jessie's body.
"I hope that leaves a mark and she finally behaves better."
The grinning face grew a worried crease in its brow as it pulled Jess back to her feet. She didn't even notice that she had fallen. In general, it was only now that she seemed to remember how to stand, see, hear and, above all, think properly.
"Thank you," the girl mumbled embarrassedly into her red pigtails. "But who are you?"
"Travellers on a noble mission." "We want to accomplish noble things," came their answers. "Edgar, Bubble's big half-brother." "And I'm Colette! Very happy, Jessie!"
Edgar and Colette. Somehow like black and white. Not only because of the colour of their hair and style of clothing, but also internally, the two seemed to fully represent their respective colours.
"How do you know my name?" Jess asked, puzzled.
"Oh, I'm on the student council here and support the high school, especially in the management of the library. You get a lot of things there," replied Colette again with a creepy grinning cat face. "Like, for example, that certain people simply can't accept that other sexual orientations exist."
"I can only apologize for my half-sister's behaviour," Edgar added. "Bubbles doesn't want to understand that there is more than black and white."
Wow, the right person said that. Almost everything about the older boy was dark and in the gothic punk style, only his enormously large scarf stood out from his appearance, and it was striped in black and white. Colette was pretty much the opposite appearance. Light jeans, light blue hoodie, pale skin, and white hair. Dark and light. Black and white.
The school bells rang again to signal that the five-minute break between classes was over. Jessie had to hurry because math was known to be one of the subjects that was never cancelled. Teacher conference or not! And a math teacher who didn't assign homework and excused latecomers could practically be equated with the tooth fairy or unicorns. People would never know if they really existed.
"I have to go! And thank you for..." saving me from a crazy woman who has hated me since she first saw me and whose anger towards me has apparently doubled now that she thinks I like girls!
What was actually the reason for that? Bibi was known for bullying students, but it had always seemed to the redhead that the baseball player had a particular grudge against her. But why?
"No thing. "I just still can't believe that I still have to reprimand her." Edgar sighed and turned to leave.
"Oh, and Jessie," Colette stopped the redhead, who was also about to sprint to the classroom: "Let me know if something worthy of fan fiction comes up here, now that you've come out! I'm a passionate skipper and always open to new stories!"
Something fanfiction worthy?! Jessie was happy when she finally got through this never-ending school day. Heal as much as possible, if possible. Luckily, after the math lesson it was finally the end of the day, and she could go home.
At least that's what she thought.
***
The girl stood there, stunned, staring at her bike. Someone had stabbed her several times, slashed her tires, and then hit the entire vehicle with a furious blow. Probably with a baseball bat, so dented as the poor thing was now crouched in his bike stand, looking pretty worn out.
"I'm telling you; Bibi and her stupid gang are 100% responsible for this!" Meg was seething with anger. You could tell that she was on the verge of destroying something herself, so Jessie was already taking protective measures put her bike, or at least in front of what was left of it. "Now she's clearly gone too far! This is property damage, by the golden cactus! You should report the bitch! Because of that and because of dangerous aggression, hurtful words, intimidating threats, attempted violence, terrible clothing, cheating in sports, harassment by the debating club and..."
The rest of the ranting monologue flowed past Jessie like the rushing river along which she had cycled so carelessly and unsuspectingly this morning. But she was able to forget about cycling for now.
What was wrong with her? The fact that Bibi despised her as Little Miss Perfect hurt her, but after two years it was nothing new. However, the fact that the baseball player suddenly treated her with such hostility, bordering on bullying, was new and really frightened Jess.
What had she done to the black-haired woman?
Certain people just can't accept that there are other sexual orientations, Colette's words rang in her head.
Was it because Bibi thought she was a lesbian? But how was Jessie supposed to make it clear to her that that wasn't the case without Leon hearing it?
Why did she just say that in first place? What was she thinking?!
"Here, swing up with me."
Puzzled, Jess looked to the right, where there was a silver moped. She only recognized the person sitting on it and holding out a helmet because strands of pink hair peeked out from under their mirrored visor.
"T-Thanks, but I can't leave my bike here."
Voices sounded behind her: Crow Leon and Spike were coming straight out of the school building.
"On the other hand, it's chained up and can't drive anymore anyway."
Jess quickly took the helmet, put it over her head and sat behind Penny on the moped, who fortunately drove off straight away so that the boys could no longer see her.
"We'll see about it tomorrow, Meg." Glad that the helmet hid her face just as well as Penny's helmet did her face, Jessie waved goodbye to her friend, who raised her hand in silence and slightly astonished.
"Thanks Penny."
"Anytime, we lesbians have to stick together after all."
Instantly, Jessie's face turned red, and she was doubly glad to be wearing the helmet. Although it was unusually large so that she was constantly on guard not to bump into Penny's, it smelled good and completely forgave her face. How she hated how her cheeks always took on this discoloration so quickly and the colour was barely different from the tone of her hair. She also hated the fact that almost every unpleasant occasion brought tears to her eyes.
A good jolt went through the device and Jess tightened her grip on Penny's stomach in shock.
"Sorry, I completely missed the speed bump," Penny admitted contritely.
"No problem," the redhead replied, but didn't loosen her grip again.
Safe was safe.
"Where do you have to go?"
Agreed. Penny didn't know where Jessie lived. In fact, the two weren't even friends. Jessie felt uneasy when she realized that she was riding on a stranger's motorcycle. Was Penny even allowed to ride a motorcycle yet? No, wait, she was older than Jessie, at least a year. And she was nice and always helpful. It wasn't a mistake to trust the pink-haired girl.
"We must go along the river, under the cherry trees and then at some point we turn left. I'll let you know when."
"Understood, Little Red Riding Hood, then keep holding on. Just to be on the safe side, of course, I'll be more careful now."
Pale pink petals were still raining down from the magnificent, gnarled trees on the riverbank as the motorcycle drove along the river road. Suddenly Jessie felt so tired and drained that she wanted to close her eyes. She might even have done so if she hadn't had to be vigilant to guide Penny down the right path.
Far too quickly they reached the narrow-terraced house apartment where Jessie lived with her mother.
"Man, stupid place. There is no bus passing here that you could take. I'll just pick you up here tomorrow, so you don't have to walk all the way to school, okay? Ask them to take repair kits or whatever they need to repair the battered riot case. Bibi should pay you for the damage, but knowing her, she won't confess to the crime in a hundred years. It's sad that there are still people like that."
Jessie was least worried about her bike. Deep down, she was actually happy that it needed to be repaired and that she could once again spend hours tinkering with it. Even the challenge of welding the dent from the baseball bat hit sparked little sparks of anticipation in her heart and she was able to repaint it at the same time. She was such a little nerd!
But Penny didn't seem to mind. They were only vaguely known classmates, but the pink-haired girl wasn't afraid to tell someone her opinion. She didn't care at all what people said about her because she liked girls, and she helped you without expecting anything in return.
Maybe she's more than the rumour mill says, Jessie thought to herself.
"T-Thanks Penny. That's really nice of you."
"No problem, Little Red Riding Hood! See you in the morning."
"See you Monday morning!"
For Penelope it really came naturally to help others without expecting anything in return. But this time she would get something in return!
Wait, did she just stutter?!