Shadowed Strength: Shadowed Series Book One (17 page)

After spending ten useless minutes in the
girls’ bathroom trying to calm herself down, Melanie had to run to first period
to make it in time for the bell. A quick glance around the room showed her that
Jeremy wasn’t there yet. She walked quickly, with her head down, toward her
desk. She especially wasn’t ready to glance at Mr. Hughes yet.

As she sat down, she caught movement from the
corner of her eye and instinctively looked toward it. Jeremy stood in the
doorway looking everywhere but at her. He walked in and headed to the other
side of the room, to the only empty desk besides his normal seat behind
her.  Melanie saw Sissy look back and forth between them, a smile on her
lips.

Great. Now she’ll start hounding me again.
Just what I need on top of everything else.

To get her eyes off of Jeremy and Sissy, she
looked toward the front of the classroom. Mr. Hughes was staring at Jeremy with
one side of his mouth turned up in a smug grin. He turned his head and caught
her eye, giving an almost imperceptible nod of approval. Melanie dropped her
gaze to her desktop and tried not to look at him again.

He must have realized she was on the edge,
because he refrained from calling on her during class or acknowledging her in
any way. When the bell rang, she shoved her stuff into her backpack and raced
for the door, intent on escaping before anyone tried to speak to her. She made
it out into the hall and to her locker without incident, switched her English
book for math, and dashed to her second period class.

Tara tried to talk to Melanie during class,
but she pretended not to hear her whispered inquiries as to how she was holding
up. She made it through class without having to speak, then practically ran to
band. Her luck held out, and she sat down just as the director started warming
them up with some scales.

After the hour was over, Melanie lingered in
her chair. She was in no hurry to go to lunch and face the masses. She usually
sat with Tara, who sat with Chris, who sat with Jeremy. Just thinking about the
cafeteria politics was giving her a headache.  She decided to just skip lunch
and head to the library instead.

As she snapped her flute case closed and stood
to leave, the door to the band room swung open and Sissy Woods walked in like a
queen. Melanie groaned inwardly and braced herself for the verbal attack that
she knew was coming.

“So, Piglet, trouble in paradise?”

“Leave me alone, Sissy.”

“What, you don’t want to talk about it? I knew
Jeremy’s stint at slumming it with you wouldn’t last long. I’m sure he just
felt sorry for you, being so fat and ugly and all.”

“Shut up, Sissy.” Melanie could feel the blood
rushing through her veins as her anger built.

Sissy went on as if she hadn’t even spoken. “I
mean, seriously,
you
and Jeremy Stevens? Let’s be honest, shall we? He
would never want someone who looked like you. He was faking it, Melanie.”

The use of her real name, rather than the
offensive nickname, drove her point home. Melanie’s breath came in short bursts
as she dropped her backpack and instrument. Clenching her hands at her sides,
the whooshing sound in her ears intensified as her blood pressure rose.

“Shut up, Sissy. I mean it.”

“Or what? What are you going to do, Piglet?
Are you going to cry? Do you think Jeremy will come to your rescue again if you
cry? Not likely. He’s finished with his charity work and now he’ll come back to
me. Right where he always wanted to be.”

Before Sissy could even finish that last
sentence, Melanie attacked. With a harsh growl, she shoved Sissy as hard as she
could, which sent her sprawling across the floor. Before she even hit the
ground Melanie was on top of her, slapping her across the face once, then
twice, then three times. Before she could go for a fourth someone came into the
room yelling, and she felt hands trying to pull her away from Sissy as she
fought to stay and dole out more punishment.

She snarled and fought the hands that pulled
her across the room. She was shoved down into a chair and the red haze that had
clouded her vision started to dissipate. She squeezed her eyes shut and shook
her head to clear it, then looked around the room. Chris was standing beside
her with one hand on her shoulder. He was the one who had pulled her off Sissy.

Tara was squatting on the floor in front of
her, holding her hands and talking in soothing tones, trying to pull her out of
her stupor. Melanie still couldn’t understand a word she said though, because
the blood was still pounding in her ears.

Melanie looked toward the door and saw Jeremy
standing just inside, a shuttered look on his face. Sissy was in his face,
squawking like a chicken about being attacked and pressing charges. Jeremy
wasn’t even looking at her, but at the floor where Melanie had pushed her down.
After a few more seconds, he looked at Melanie with a frown on his face, then
grabbed Sissy’s hand and dragged her from the room.

“Mel. Mel? Can you hear me?”

Mel’s attention snapped back to Tara. “What?”

“Oh thank God. I thought I’d lost you for a
minute there.”

“What do you mean?”

“You weren’t responding. I thought maybe your
mind snapped. I mean, you were beating the hell out of Sissy Woods when we
walked in. What happened?”

With that, Melanie burst into tears and pulled
Tara in for a hug. Tara nodded at Chris and jerked her head toward the door,
signaling that he could leave. He nodded once and gave her the hand signal for
“call me,” then walked out the door.

“Okay, Mel,” Tara said softly pulling back so
that she could look into her face. “Tell me what happened, because I have known
you for a long time and have never seen you that angry. Or violent.”

Melanie sniffed loudly and tried to talk through
her tears. “She s-s-said I was f-fat and ugly and that I w-was a charity case
for J-J-Jeremy. That h-he was f-f-f-faking it.” She started to cry in earnest
again.

Tara pulled her back in for a hug and movement
at the door caught Melanie’s eye. Jeremy stood there, hands clenched at his
sides, his face red and his chest heaving. He held her stare for a few seconds
before slamming the door open and stomping through it.

Tara looked back over her shoulder. “What was
that?”

“Jeremy.”

“Did he hear what happened?”

Melanie sniffed again and finally got the
tears under control. “It doesn’t matter. We’re over and he doesn’t need to
protect me anymore.” She sniffed again and wiped her eyes. “Besides, I guess I
can take care of myself.”

“Oh my God, Melanie, you were beating the crap
out of her. What came over you?”

“I don’t know, Tara. It was weird. It was like
I lost control of my actions and instinct took over. I told her to shut up,
more than once, and she just kept running her mouth, saying awful things about
me and how Jeremy was gonna be hers again. I just…lost it. I shoved her down
and jumped on her.”

“Well,” Tara said with a giggle, “whatever it
was, it was awesome. She was screaming like a banshee and I think she’ll have a
permanent hand print on her face. Melanie, it took all Chris’s strength and a
little help from me to pull you off of her!”

“Well, I
am heavy.”

“Shut up! That’s not what I meant, and you
know it. It was your strength, not your weight that caused the problem. You
shoved him off of you and growled like a beast when he came back. It was so
weird.”

 “Well, I guess it was just the last
straw.”

“I’ll say. Do you want to…”

“Melanie Johnson, please come to the
principal’s office. Melanie Johnson, please come to the principal’s office.”
The interruption came through the intercom speaker in the ceiling.

“Uh-oh.” Tara hugged her tightly. “Do you
think you’ll get suspended?”

Melanie thought about that question all the
way to the office. She had just shrugged and hugged Tara again before leaving
the band room, but now the thought filled her with excitement. It was the
perfect solution! If she got suspended, she wouldn’t have to face Jeremy or Mr.
Hughes for days, maybe even a week! Then she would have some time to form a
plan and get herself out of this mess.

When she arrived at the front office, Mrs.
Hart, the receptionist, motioned for her to take a seat on one of the many
hard-backed chairs. Melanie sat down and shifted uncomfortably.

“These chairs are awful,” she mumbled under
her breath.

“What was that, Miss Johnson?”

“Nothing, Mrs. Hart.”

“That’s what I thought. Just sit tight and
your mom will be here shortly.”

“What? You called my mom?”

Mrs. Hart angled her head so she could look
down her pointy nose at Melanie. “Fighting is a serious offense and not
tolerated at this school. As soon as your mother gets here, you’ll be able to
go in and explain it to Mr. Livingston.”

Mr. Livingston, the principal, with his
comb-over and paunch belly, always tried to be “cool” with the students. He
wanted them to see him as a friend as well as an administrator. She heard him
use those exact words many times.  He even had the students call him Mr.
L.

Lame,
she thought.
What if he lets me go on a warning or after school detention? Oh, hell no!
That’s not happening!

Mr. Hughes ran after school detention. She was
just going to have to make sure she got suspended. Even if it got her grounded
in the process.

With that thought, the office doors swung open
and her mom walked in with a brisk stride. She put her hand on Melanie’s cheek
and leaned over with concern on her face.

“What happened? Melanie, baby, are you okay?”

“She’s fine, Elaine.”

“Thank you, Mrs. Hart, but I was speaking to
my daughter. Melanie, what happened?”

Her first instinct was to cry and place all
the blame, deservedly, on Sissy. But she knew her mom would fight tooth and
nail for her no matter what, so she had to tread carefully. Even if it meant
disappointing her mom, she had to get out of here for a while.

Melanie watched Mrs. Hart walk over to Mr.
Livingston’s door and waited for her to swing it open before she said, “Bitch
had it coming,” in a voice loud enough to carry into the room. She heard a
sharp intake of breath from her mom and a piercing whine that had to belong to
Sissy, as well as a summons from Mr. Livingston to enter.

She kept a mulish look on her face and ignored
her mom’s warning looks as she entered the office and plopped down into the
chair next to Sissy. At least Sissy had the good sense not to speak to her, and
even scooted her chair a few inches away from Melanie.

Melanie smirked and sank low in her chair,
refusing to let even a small thing like good posture earn her brownie points
with the principal. Her mom took the seat next to her and started the
conversation.

“I’d like to know what happened.”

“Well, Ms. Johnson, it appears that Melanie
attacked and repeatedly hit another student, Miss Sissy Woods.”

“Okay. But why?”

“She just went crazy and attacked me for no
reason!” interjected Sissy. Her voice got higher and higher on each syllable
until it cracked at that end.

“Melanie would never hit someone unprovoked,”
her mom said, defending her. “In fact, this is the first time I’ve ever heard
of her losing her temper at all, much less hitting someone. So I guess my
question is, Miss Woods, what did you do to provoke her?”

“I didn’t do anything!” she squealed. “We were
just talking and she lost it. She’s crazy!”

“Miss Johnson, what do you have to say about
it?” Mr. Livingston directed the question at her.

Melanie sucked in a big breath and looked at
her hands in her lap. She bit her lower lip and let the breath out harshly
before speaking.

“She’s telling the truth. She didn’t
do
anything.”
Stick as close to the truth as possible, Mel.

“Melanie,” her mom pleaded, “I can’t imagine you
doing this for no reason. Please tell me, baby. What really happened? You don’t
have to be scared.”

Melanie shot a quick glance at her mom,
sending her a silent apology, then focused her attention on Mr. Livingston.
This was do or die time. She could
not
endure detention with Mr. Hughes.
Her only option was suspension.

“Sissy is a total fucking bitch to me all the
time. She threatened to steal my boyfriend, so I gave her what she damn well
deserved.” Every person in the room gasped and in the silence that followed,
Melanie added for good measure, “And I’ll do it again if she so much as looks
at Jeremy, or me, again.”

“Suspended for the rest of the week!”

Those were the first words her mother had uttered
since Melanie’s prolific outburst in the principal’s office. They were home and
walking through the front door when her mom shouted those words and threw her
purse on the couch. She turned and with hands on hips, sent Melanie a death
glare that would melt a lesser man into a puddle. It usually melted Melanie
too, but this was too important.

She lifted her chin slightly and responded in
a firm voice. “Sorry, mom.”

“You don’t sound sorry,” she said, throwing
her hands into the air. “I just can’t believe this. You don’t have a violent
bone in your body, but somehow, some way, you burst into a rage and beat
someone up over a boy? Whom, by the way, you’re grounded from seeing.”

“That shouldn’t be a problem,” Melanie
mumbled, but not quietly enough. Her mom heard her.

“Why not?”

“We broke up this morning.”

“What!? What do you mean, you broke up this
morning?”

“I broke up with him.”

“Oh, God, I’m so confused,” her mom mumbled.
Then louder, “Teenagers! If you broke up, then why were you fighting over him?”

Melanie decided to go with the truth on this
one. She was already suspended, so she could at least be honest with her mom.
She sat down on the couch and motioned for her mom to take the chair.

“Mom, Sissy Woods constantly bullies me and is
an all-around horrible person. She really did deserve it.”

“What does she do to you?”

“She calls me names and says terrible things
about me all the time. Today, for instance, she called me fat, ugly, and said
that Jeremy was only with me out of charity. That he was faking his feelings
for me and that he’d be back with her in no time.”

Melanie could see the anger physically
building inside her mom. Her face was turning red and her breath was coming in
shorts bursts.  Mama Bear was coming to the surface. Melanie needed to get
this back under control.

“Mom,” she started, but was interrupted.

“Melanie, why didn’t you say all this to the
principal?” Her mom sounded stern. “Why were you so disrespectful and flippant
in front of him? I know I didn’t raise you to act like that.”

“Mom, I’m really sorry,” Melanie said
contritely. “I’ll write Mr. L. an apology letter, I promise. I was just so mad,
I couldn’t control it.”

It sounded like a good excuse to her ears, and
her mom seemed to be buying it. She couldn’t let her know that she was
trying
to get suspended. Or she’d have to explain why.

Her mom’s shoulders slumped in defeat and she
looked like she might puke. “I understand, baby, but you’re still grounded for
the week. No going out, no visitors.” Her mom stood and gave her a wry smile.
“I’ll let you keep your phone though. I’m not a complete monster.”

Melanie stood and hugged her mom tightly.
“Thanks, mom. I knew you’d understand. I love you.”

“I love you too, Mel, always. No matter what.”

As Melanie turned to head to her room, her mom
put a hand on her arm to stop her. Melanie glanced at the hand on her arm, then
up at her mom’s face.

“Hey,” her mom said softly, “your birthday is
coming up in what? Three weeks?”

“Um, yeah?” Melanie was confused. This was so
far out of left field. “Why bring it up now?”

Her mom’s eyes got a little misty. “Oh, I
don’t know. I was just thinking about how much you’ve grown and that you’ll be
turning seventeen soon. Any ideas on what you might want for your birthday?”

“I hadn’t really thought about it, but I’ll
let you know.”

How weird,
she
added silently to herself as she climbed the stairs to her room.

As soon as she closed the door behind her, her
phone beeped in her backpack. School ended for the day about twenty minutes before.
Assuming that it was Tara, she pulled it out and threw her bag to the floor.
She fell backwards onto her bed and punched in her passcode to unlock the
screen. She was right.

“
Hey slugger. U still got txt privileges?”

“Yeah. I can’t leave or have anyone over,
but she let me keep my phone.”

“Heard u got suspended for a week. Lucky.”

“I know, right?”

“Did u really call Sissy an f*ing B right
in front of Mr. L? And your mom???”

“Who told u that?”

“Sissy is telling everyone at school what a
psycho u are. When I heard what u said, it made me LMAO!”

“Well, she had it coming.”

“Totally. U ok?”

“Yeah.”

“I mean about J.”

“Yeah, I’m ok. Might take a while for me to
get over it. I gotta go. Mom’s calling.”

“K. Bye.”

“Bye.”

Maybe I’m getting better at it,
she thought.

That little white lie hadn’t made her feel too
bad. She just needed time to think. She needed to come up with a plan. As she
had that thought, her phone beeped again.

Unknown caller: 912-555-8782

“I would kill to have seen you hit her.”

Melanie’s nostrils flared and she gnashed her
teeth together. She did not want to engage with him right now. She should have
turned her phone off, but she was too afraid of what she might miss. What if he
threatened her friends again? She decided to wait and see if he’d keep texting
without a response.

“I know you’re there, Melanie. I saw you
using your phone five minutes ago.”

Melanie sucked in a huge breath and shot her
gaze toward her window. The curtains were open. It was still daylight outside,
but someone with binoculars could have seen through the window from the woods.
She jumped up and ran to it, scanning the tree line. She didn’t see anyone.

“Don’t worry, Melanie, I’m gone. I couldn’t
have you call the cops and get caught staking out your house, could I? I use
this burner phone that no one can trace back to me. I rent a different car in a
different name every time I get the urge to watch you, which is very, very
often.”

“Leave me alone!”

“Oh no, my beautiful girl. I will have you,
like I should have had you that night. Did you hit Sissy as hard as you hit me
when you were trying to fight me off? Oh, God, what it does to me to think
about that.”

Melanie started to tear up, but she pulled her
anger close to her and used that to hold the tears at bay.

“
You will never touch me again, asshole.”

“That’s right, darling, fight it. Fight me.
You know just how I like it.”

“Don’t come near me again, or I’ll call the
police, proof or not.”

“Don’t you threaten me, little girl. I have
ways to get to those you love. Speaking of which, nice show with Jeremy today.
I don’t know what you said to him, but he really believed it. I watched him
agonize over you all day long. It was highly entertaining.”

“You bastard.”

“Tsk, tsk. No calling names, that’s more
Sissy’s juvenile style. Enough texting for now, though. I know you got
suspended. Such a pity, but your absence will make my desire for you multiply
exponentially. Good night, good night! Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I
shall say goodnight till it be morrow.”

Melanie dropped her phone with disgust and
paced her room. She strode over to her window and scanned the woods again.
Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, she jerked the curtains closed and laid
back down on her bed.

She had to come up with some kind of plan. She
wasn’t going to be able to pull off this lie about not loving Jeremy to his
face again. Being suspended gave her some time, but she knew the next time she
saw him, the truth was going to come spilling right out of her. She loved him
too much to hold him at arm’s length.