School ties

Sorry its been like 2 weeks....
Enjoy it anyway

Everything had been a success. Anna had just made a friend with a rather handsome young man. She smiled to herself in satisfaction. Even a study get together had been arranged so they could help each other with maths. It made up for that weird start to the day she’d had with Dane. As she walked the corridor to her locker for lunch she wondered what was going on in Dane’s mind.
Why was he in a gang in the first place? What did he do in the gang? Why’d he get so annoyed at me for reading “The Rising Light”?
Whatever she did, Anna only seemed to annoy Dane. Maybe that’s just the way he is….

She strolled over to locker and gingerly opened it, still in a good mood. She took one look at the locker and the mood evapourated. Not again.
Anna stood in front of her locker gaping at it in amazement. “Emo” had been written all over the walls what looked and smelled like permanent marker, her books had been smothered in honey and, at the centre of the horrid artwork, a mouldy sandwich with a note.
Anna didn’t even look at this not. She was furious. She grabbed the sandwich and stormed up to the closest bin and discarded it, throwing it as hard as she could into its dirty depths. She grabbed all her books walked with vigour to the toilets. She put them next to a basin and turned on the hot water. She scrubbed the books hard and fast, fuming with anger. “I’m so going to kill them” she said out aloud.
Anna had been so preoccupied in her own frustration that she hadn’t noticed the girl coming out of the cubicle behind her.
“Who are you going to kill, Anna?” the girl asked.
Still facing the basin, Anna grumbled “Oh why do you care? Leave me alone”
“That wasn’t very nice, Anna.” The girl said, frowning.
Finally snapping, Anna turned round. She was face to face with Mary-Anne.
Not her. Anyone but her. Anna forced a smile. She knew she shouldn’t be making enemies at the moment.
“Oh, it’s you Mary-Anne. Sorry, I didn’t recognise your voice. I’ve just had some bitch I don’t know ruin my locker for the second time.”
“That’s a shame”
“You can say that again”
“That’s a shame”
“Eeeeerrrrrgggh”
“Do you need some help scrubbing those books?”
Taken aback by the sudden kindness Anna didn’t know what to say.
“Um… yeah. Sure, thanks”
“It’s okay. I don’t have anything better to do”
Anna gave Mary-Anne half the books and they began scrubbing together. They didn’t say much, but Anna smiled weakly at Mary-Anne in thanks. She smiled back. At one point Mary-Anne took a finger full of honey and put it in her mouth. Anna looked at her in confusion.
“Are you sure you want to do that? You don’t know where that’s honey has been.”
“Wait a second”
Mary-Anne concentrated hard on the taste.
“This is ‘Busy Bee’ brand honey. It’s of a really low quality. I think I saw someone with a jar of this earlier this morning.”
“Wait a second. Are you saying you know who did this?”
“Well I don’t know their name, but I could tell you who they were if I looked at them.”
“Seriously?”
“I think so”
“If you could do that later I’d be so grateful”
“Sure, I don’t see why not”
“Thanks so much! For now we’d better finish scrubbing these”
“Okay”
Silence followed, only broken by the sound of running water. Then abruptly a thought hit Anna. “How the heck were you able to distinguish the honey from one taste?”
Mary-Anne laughed. “I really like cooking. I cook in my spare time. I have a really sensitive palette.”
“Cool. So what do you like to cook?”

Perhaps Mary-Anne isn’t so bad.


Dane’s head swirled in a surge of thoughts.
Why’d the Serpents have to come back? Shit, I can’t believe I attacked Gritz. They’ll be after me in no time. What about Anna, she won’t tell anyone will she? Crap. And why did she have to be the one borrowing “The Rising Light”? I mean HER! She sits next to me on the bus and she humiliates me in hockey, forces me to save her and then borrows the book I desperately want to read! Not that I have anytime to read it at the moment….Eerrgghh…. Think man, think!
Dane was in the quietist, calmest place in the entire school; the tree area, off the edge of the small oval. It was previously the make out area as it is quite secluded because it is between the fence of the school, a building and the trees, however since the school invested in security camera the number of students visiting the area and the number of in school pregnancies decreased. Despite its reputation, it still had a tranquil charm to it. Dane, however, didn’t notice the atmosphere. It could have been a battlefield with bullets flying past his head and he wouldn’t have budged. He was anchored in his troubled thoughts. Dane took a few deep breaths to calm down.
“Now… What are my options?” he thought.
Dane pulled a notepad out of his pocket and a pencil. He liked to think with his thoughts on paper.

1. Continue to evade the Serpents and make friends with Anna so she won’t tell anyone. The “Put a lid on it” method. Probably won’t work….

2. Join the Serpents so they don’t kill me…except I don’t want to join the Serpents…
Well if you can’t beat them, join them….

3. Move away?

4. Wait a second! What if I can beat them? Create my own gang to counter the Serpents?
Eerrrrgh too much effort….

5. Bluff that I have a gang myself? This rarely works….

6. Tell the cops? This is risky, but probably not that bad an option. Though once they get out of Juvie…

Now what to choose?