The weekend had gone by pleasantly well for Jade, now having found herself accepted into a new and unusual group of friends. Even that Sunday, as she locked herself in her room to protect herself from her Aunt Joy's duo-personalities, Flora's mean glares, and Charlie and Noah's continued bickering for the game boy, she spent most of her time texting with Alex back and forth, just about nothing at all. Jade felt as though she had been in a deep sleep all summer, and only now someone had the gal to shake her awake so she could enjoy the little aspects of life again.
That particular Sunday afternoon, as Jade exited the bathroom, the wall phone in the hall began to ring violently.
"Flora, dear!" Aunt Joy called, presumably from the kitchen, "Could you answer that, please? I'm in the oven!"
Flora however was locked in her room with loud pop music blaring from beneath the door. She probably couldn't hear her mother holler, or didn't even care if she could. So, Jade decided to be a little sneaky and picked up the phone herself.
"H-Hello...?" her eyes suddenly lit up when she heard the voice call on the other end of the line, "Mum!"
➿➿➿
Come Monday morning, Matt and Alex were sitting in homeroom, surrounded by some of their other friends as they relayed to them how the new girl had single-handedly made the biggest bully in school cry and whimper like a piglet.
"So, Luke gets up in Al's face, and I swear to yeh he was gon' knock him farther than the bloodeh Tower a' Pizza,"
"Piza," Alex corrected Matt.
"Tha's what I said," Matt said, to which Alex only grinned and rolled his eyes, "Anyway, Al starts telling 'im to 'it 'im if 'e's man enough, when all the sudden, Jade comes running up and starts beating the snot out of Luke wif a fookin' tennis racket," the kids sitting around them were on the edge of their seats as they were listening intently, "Luke goes flyin' to the ground and Jade just keeps wailing on 'im over and over. Meanwhile, Mugsy and Bugsy, or whatever the fook their names are, came at me. But I nailed one wif a right hook and got the other in the famileh jewels,"
Alex gave him a bemused glare, "I don' remember tha' 'appening, Maffew," he said with a smirk. Matt glared back down at him.
"Yeh just didn't see it 'cause yeh was 'iding be'ind Jamie," he said with reassurance.
"Oh, okay," Alex nodded, trying to bite back his smirk.
Matthew went on, not realizing that Luke, having been passing in the hallway, had overheard his boastings. He stopped at the homeroom and stood in the doorway, watching the shorter boys gloat with the devil in his eyes.
"Just to finish off the poor loser, Jade lets him off easy. I guess she felt sorry for 'im or summat. But yeh should've seen the marks on Luke's face!" Matt roared with a hearty laugh.
"Looked like 'e 'ad a close encounter wif a bug zapper," Alex grinned.
Luke, starting to fume with rage, cleared his throat with a gruff grumble, "Is tha' so, Turner?" he snapped. The hilarity in the air suddenly died out faster than cell reception in a cement room, and all the students in the classroom turned around and faced the Brute of Stockbridge with sudden fear in their faces. Even with the scratches and scrapes, and the very visible bruising pattern that resembled racket netting on the side of his face, he was still barbarous, looming, and very intimidating.
"Yeh fookers like telling stories? Well, I could tell a realleh good story too, should yeh 'ave the balls to face me wifout Wendy Darling to save yeh're arses," he growled. As he did, he was unaware of the small brunette that stood behind him with her arms crossed over her chest, glaring at his fat head.
"Do go on, then," Jade's voice hollered out from behind, "I love fairy tales," the attention was suddenly off Luke and to the smaller girl behind him, carrying herself with the strength of a small army as she glared at the big bully. Luke was taken aback as she had suddenly appeared out of nowhere.
"Where the fook did you come from?" he asked with astonishment.
Jade shrugged back, "Me ma," she replied. She then slipped under his arm and entered the classroom, "And for the record, I have a five-pound textbook in me bag. I would hate to have to do that third charm thing we discussed," the smirk on her lips, plus the smug grin on Alex and Matt's faces made Luke's blood boil even faster.
He scoffed with pity, "I fink it's rather cute yehr girlfriend fights yehr fights fer yeh boys," he said.
"You fucking wish you had a girlfriend as cool as me, mate," Jade said.
"Fook nah. I'd make sure me women weren't as flat chested as you," he spat. Those words suddenly silenced Jade, and an air of uneasiness and insecurity crawled up her spine in the form of a shiver.
Matt jumped off the table like he was about ready to punch the grin off Luke's face, had Alex not held him back. Meanwhile Sasha, who was been just as keen on this morning story as the others, suddenly shot up from her seat.
"Go fook yehrself, Luke!" she snapped, "And don't make fun of another person's jewels when yeh 'ardleh 'ave any, yehrself!"
"Oh, suck my dick, Cassick!"
"'Ow yeh expect me to suck what don' exist?"
A round of shocked Oh!'s from the students flooded the air, but the only ringing in Jade's ears was the snide comment Luke had made about her breasts. Alex gently took Jade by the arm, nudging her towards the empty desk next to him as Matt kept yelling empty threats at Luke. Luckily, the teacher had walked in before another fight could break out and sent Luke on his way to his own homeroom.
Jade took her seat at the front row with Alex and Matt, keeping quiet now. Her chest had always been on the smaller size, and she had turned to the usual tissues and socks as emergency bra stuffers when she needed to. Just the concept of having larger breasts made her feel prettier, but alas, she was cursed with menial B cups that didn't do her much good aesthetic-wise or in dignity. And having them so rudely pointed out in front of her class didn't do her much good either.
There was a sudden screech of a chair and shuffle, and to Jade's surprise, Sasha suddenly came to sit beside her. She had never done that before, all the previous week she had insisted that she was more comfortable in back. But Sasha gave Jade a smile in solidarity and turned her attention to the teacher's attendance call. Alex meanwhile could only hear the blood rushing to his ears, as Luke's words also had a cause and affect on his self-esteem. And just like before, the insecurity that he had from the previous weekend came creeping on him again. He didn't need a girl to fight his fights, and he knew that. It just so happened that Jade happened to be at the right place at the right time, with the right weapon.
That was what he kept telling himself, the problem was just getting him to believe it now.
➿➿➿
Jade had remained bashfully quiet throughout homeroom and for her next two classes. She couldn't help but keep pulling her sweater tighter over her chest -- to warm herself up, she told another student. But everyone seemed to know the real reason to her struggling. In between classes, Jade was at her rusty, dilapidated, maroon red locker, exchanging books for her next class. As she shut the door, she jumped suddenly when she saw Flora standing behind it, giving her that usual miserable glower that Jade had become accustomed to seeing.
"... Hi," Jade spoke tentatively.
Flora blew past any sort of greeting, "What Luke said to you this morning was fucked up," she said, "He had no business making comments about your A cups,"
"... They're Bs, actually," Jade said, glancing down at her chest again.
Flora took her own glance and hummed, "... Right," she said, "Anyway, you want to shut him up? Because I still have a pair of bra stuffers from seventh year I wore religiously. They're still perfectly good, should bump you up to a solid E or F cup,"
"Cool," Jade said, "... You mean like a pair of socks,"
The blonde seemed to refrain from rolling her eyes, "I mean fucking silicon implants. Think of 'em as stuffing water balloons in your bra,"
Jade gave her a hardened glare, skeptical of Flora's motivations. For the entirely of her stay, Flora had acted as though Jade were only a breeze in the wind, not even there. Now here she was -- offering to help her?
"You're being nice to me?" she asked.
"Don't tell anybody," Flora said, "Since you're currently the most talked-about person in school right now, you should at least have something to back you up once your fifteen minutes is up,"
"... Excuse me?"
"Well, am I wrong?" Flora said, "Everybody thinks you're some sort of Amazon Warrior or something," she said, "Think on it. If you want a quickie enhancement, you know where to find me," and with that, she walked away briskly.