•••
•••
Jane fiddled with her navy, patterned circle skirt. It was starchy and uncomfortable but Yvonne insisted that she wore nicer clothes to school. Taking a good look at herself in the mirror she smiles at her reflection. Dropping it before going back and changing her maroon sweater to a yellow one.
"If you don' come 'ere and eat somethin' you're not eating until lunchtime!" At the sound of Yvonne's commanding tone, Jane threw her tattered copy of Charlotte's Web into her book bag and ran downstairs. Her parents were already sitting at the table, Alan looked exhausted. His eyes were dark and sunk in, his coffee had about enough sugar in it to cause diabetes. The thing Jane noticed was how his eyes dragged across the newest edition of the paper.
"Good morning, sweetie." Jane leaned down so her mother could kiss her on the cheek before taking a seat next to her father.
"Good morning," Jane said finally, setting her bag on the floor next to her. Contrary to the belief of her friend, Jane was a morning person. She enjoyed the quietness of the sunrise and the lack of people that stood around in the streets. Large crowds made her anxious and she was never a people person. She preferred to keep to herself in her little bubble, except for adults. She quite enjoyed a civilized conversation about politics or economic welfare. This could also be the reason she only had one friend.
Yvonne placed a bowl of Frosted Flakes in front of the young girl who nodded thanks and the small family ate in comfortable silence. When Jane finished she kissed both parents and Yvonne goodbye and she headed off to school. The school was a short walk, a couple of blocks opposite of the auto shop. She had been walking for five minutes, doing her usual routine. She was saying her greeting and good mornings to the neighbors when she heard shouting. Immediately, she turned to the direction of the noise and followed. Her eyes widened as she saw the source of the racket.
"Damien, what the Hell are you doing?!" She yelled. The boy straightened himself at the sound of her voice. A light blush dusted his cheeks but he didn't let go of the colored child's collar.
"You obtuse blunderbuss are you deaf?! Let the poor kid go!" Snapping out of his trance, Damien gave the fuming blonde a slick smile. Jane and Damien had known each other for a long while, his mother Angela was in the book club that Wilma hosted. He was hopelessly in love with Jane. At the very mention of Damien, Jane filled with abhorrence. Needless to say, their relationship was one-sided.
"Come on doll, I'm just teaching him a lesson. When I'm done I'll walk you to school." Jane scoffed and faked a smile.
"I have perfectly good legs and can walk myself, however, if you don't let that boy go in the next three seconds you won't be able to say the same thing about yourself." Damien contemplated her offer trying to find a way around it. Jane, though angry, offered a sorry look to the boy in Damien's grasp. He couldn't have been more than seven or eight, the same age as Officer Brandon's baby girl but that wasn't what irked Jane the most. It was why Damien was beating the child up.
Segregation was a problem all over the United States. If Jane could, she would take part in every single march and movement. She had been to a couple but got sent home for the possibility of violence.
"Go on a date with me," Damien proposed. Jane rolled her eyes in annoyance.
"Look, baby, we have an obvious connection and-"
"If I say yes will you let him go?" Damien quirked his brow in affirmation. Despite Jane's loathing for her classmate, she didn't hesitate at the opportunity for the boy to let go.
"Fine, leave. We can go over the details at lunch." Damien smiled and threw the boy to the ground before turning to leave.
"See you at noon babe!" He called out. Jane waited until Damien disappeared behind the corner before rushing to the boy. The boy flinched as she reached into her pocket but relaxed when she pulled out a handkerchief.
"Are you alright?" Jane asked, wiping away blood and dirt from his small face that, would soon bruise. He only nodded with a small sniffle.
"Can you tell me what happened?" The boy nodded again.
"I bumped into him, I didn't mean to. I just..." There was a pause as the small child's eyes filled with tears.
"I'm so sorry," Jane started but the boy cut her off.
"It's not your fault ma'am. You shouldn't be sorry." Jane was taken aback yet intrigued.
"Can you tell me your name?"
"Davey." Jane repeated the name in a whisper as she cleaned the last spot of his face. Her eyes caught the watch on her wrist.
"Well Davey, you are very brave. Here," she places the pale yellow handkerchief in his small hand, "keep it as a reminder of how strong you really are. Let me know if Damien gives you any trouble again, okay? I have to go but I'll see you soon." Davey's eyes widened at the gift. He never had anything this fancy before, nor had he met a white person as nice as the teenager. Jane helped him off of the ground and they went their separate ways.
•••••
By some miracle, Jane had arrived right on time, taking a seat between Sandra and Darla. Darla looked at her friend from the corner of her eye. She turned, looking at the teacher whose back was to the class. When she was sure that the teacher wouldn't turn back around, the raven-haired girl smacked Jane in the arm.
"What in the world was that for?" Jane whispered, rubbing her injured arm. Darla gave her a look with wide eyes.
"Did you promise Damien that you'd eat lunch with him?" Jane rolled her eyes at his name.
"He was beating up some kid in an alleyway, Darla. And I never said I'd eat with him, I'll probably be in the principal's office before we get the chance," she explained. Her friend looked back at her, unconvinced.
"What are you going to do?"
"You'll see. It's not going to be good, but it will be beautiful."
•••••
By the time lunch had rolled around, Jane had more time to reflect on what she was about to do. Both her parents held up at work because it's Monday. Monday also means Yvonne is at the store and is out for most of the day, this leaves Ed and Earnest. Jane had hardly ever acted out before, much less in school. She had no idea how this situation was going to play out but she did know Ed or Earnest were the ones to pick her up. It would turn out better than any other outcome. Ed and Earnest spoiled her, usually, she wouldn't take advantage of this, but it was important.
Damien sat at a table, surrounded by his friends as they laughed at whatever story he was telling them. When his eyes met Jane, they lit up and he whistled at her. Jane handed her lunch box to Darla and marched towards him.
"Hey, baby. I was just telling about that boy nig-" He cut off with a swift punch to the nose. The loud crack that came from the impact caused the student's eyes to glue themselves to Jane and Damien. The boy flew to the ground clutching his, now broken, nose. Jane exhaled a shaky breath and walked back the Darla, taking her lunch box she muttered a thank you. The twelve-year-old girl walked herself to the principal's office and opened the door.
"Hello, Ms. Jane, what brings you here?" The secretary was a nice lady who wore colorful clothes. Her sister was also the librarian so Jane had gotten to know both of them very well in her years at school.
"I need to speak to Principal Crawford," she muttered. The secretary furrowed a brow but shrugged it off, placing a finger on the intercom.
"Hi Dan, Jane's here to see you." There was a small pause before he answered.
"Send her in." The secretary pointed Jane into the direction of his office. She dragged her feet until she finally reached the tall door, giving it three quick knocks.
"It's open!" Jane took a deep breath before slowly pushing open the door.
"Hi Mr. Crawford," she dragged out.
"Hello, Ms. Clark. What seems to be the issue?" Jane averted her eyes to the ground.
"Well.."
"Well, what?"
"I'm pretty sure I broke Damien Humphreys's nose," Jane trialed off. The principal started to choke on his drink that he had taken a sip of right as she said the news. When one of his star pupils entered he had suspected that it was to give him a note from a teacher. Not that she had gotten herself in trouble. Jane watched him in awkwardness with a sheepish look.
"Usually a teacher escorts the student to the office," he said after calming himself. Jane looked away again.
"None of them were out yet so I just... walked myself." Mr. Crawford buried his head in his hands with a deep sigh. He tried to find a reasonable way to discipline one of his favorite students.
"In this type of situation, I would have to suspend you for three days along with after school detention for the remainder of the week," Jane nodded along, her eyes still glued to the ground.
"However, considering this is your first offense I'm letting you off with a warning and sending you home." Jane let out a sigh of relief. Just as she had hoped. Mr. Crawford was an academic person and because Jane had the best grades, it brought great advantages to their school. Something Crawford was grateful for.
"Who should I call to come pick you up?" Jane pretended to ponder for a moment. She didn't want to let him know that she had already thought about it and planned it out.
"I guess the Auto Shop." Crawford nodded, picking up the receiver.
"Go on and get your things," Jane nodded and went to leave but he stopped her again, "grab a candy on your way out." Jane smiled.
•••••
Just as Jane had suspected Earnest had come to pick her up in his teal Hudson Hornet. Jane sat in the passenger's seat waiting for some type of scolding or disciplining. But it never came.
"That's a pretty nasty bruise on your knuckles," he said, breaking the agonizing silence. Jane scrunched her nose, looking down at her hand and sure enough, it hued purple.
"Yeah..." Earnest chuckled as he pulled the car into the auto shop's parking lot.
"Why'd you punch him? I mean, you must've had a reason, right?" Jane sighed and threw her head back onto the headrest.
"He beat up a little kid for bumping into him. I caught him on my way to school, the only way he'd let him go was if I agreed to go out with him so I said we'd talk details at lunch. During the day I weighed my options and the consequences for punching him didn't seem that bad but I wasn't going to do it." Earnest looked over at his great-niece with a knowing look.
"What changed?"
"He started to call him slurs." Earnest only smiled and unbuckled his seatbelt.
"You did a good thing." She was too much like her grandmother for her own good.
•••••
They stayed at the auto shop for a while after their chat, drinking tea in silence. Each of them with a book. The calm silence made Jane feel much better about the whole ordeal. She had managed to help the little boy and gave Damien what he deserved, even if it was against her moral compass.
By the time Earnest had dropped her back at her house, Yvonne still wasn't due back for another hour. The school day was almost over. Jane took the time to clean up around the house, hoping to take a workload off of Yvonne. Other than that, there wasn't much else to do. Jane walked around the house before throwing herself down on the couch and closing her eyes.
She awoke to a loud ringing throughout the house. With a light groan, she rolled off the couch and answered.
"Clark residence, may I ask who's calling?"
"Jane it's Darla." Jane swallowed a yawn and wrapped the phone cord around her finger.
"Oh, hey."
"Okay, what you did today was totally unexpected and amazing but..."
"But what Darla, we don't have all day."
"So you know Sandra?" Jane scrunched her nose.
"The Sandra who has been in our class since the beginning of time? No, no I don't think I do," though her tone was sarcastic, it went over Darla's head. On her end, she stared at the wall for a second before realizing.
"You're cranked, you know that?!"
"Thank you," Jane retorted in a bored tone.
"Anyways," Darla started, "I think I like Sandra." Jane scrunched her nose, again.
"Yeah, everyone does. She's very sweet."
"No, Jane! Like, like, as in the way we're supposed to like boys," Darla whispered.
"So you're... a lesbian?"
"Yes!... No, I don't know." Jane sighed with a laugh.
"Okay from that, you are very, very gay but I don't know what to tell you, Darla. Because our oh holy 'land of the free, home of the brave' is still trying to deny deserving people of their rights. You saw the paper about that flower couple getting stoned near death at that beach. That doesn't mean I don't support you, I do, really. You just need to be sure that Sandra's a dyke before you say anything about it. I would hate to see you get hurt, you're like, my only friend."
"I only tolerate you because our moms are in the book club together."
"Okay, I'm trying to give you my love and support but I will not hesitate to bash your head in with a dictionary."
"Right, sorry."
"But I'm just saying she was totally checking you out in English."
"Wait, what?"
"Okay look, I get why you're making this a big deal but you didn't punch Damien Humpfrey in the face at lunch," Jane said with a sigh.
"Damn how did that go down? I never saw you come back."
"Earn picked me up and I'm not in trouble. He told me I did a good thing. But violence is hardly ever justified. Even for Damien." Jane knew what she did was wrong, even though it was justified. The only person who she didn't want to deal with was Yvonne, she knew she would be getting an earful from her later. The situation made her think. If she hadn't punched him in the face then she would be forcing herself to go out on a date with him but she had punched him. Which was for the better anyway but it still didn't make it right. The ethics of the situation would be something she would understand when she was much older. Just not then.
The clicking of the door made Jane freeze.
"Darla I gotta go. Have fun with your... predicament."
"Wow, thanks Jane. Bye!"