Turned and Taken (Packed 1 & 2) (2 page)

Looking over her right shoulder, she saw the bad boy and his crew. Something about them that seemed more like a gang. The one that she had sat next to in the administrative office was definitely good-looking, but in an intimidating sort of way. He stared out of the window, lost in thought. Looking closer, he almost looked worried. The longer she stared, the more he looked like he a guy with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

She could stare at him all day. She would have if she hadn’t caught the eyes of the one girl in the group. The girl didn’t seem soulful and deep, just angry. When she gave Saki her what-are-you-looking-at look, Saki immediately turned away.

Saki‘s heart ached, trying to figure out how she would survive. Maybe she would just give up on trying to make friends and just focus on her schoolwork. She’d always been good at academics. Class work had always come easy for her. It was everything else in life that was hard.

Clint,
she remembered.
How could he do that to me? Maybe he didn’t recognize me
, she thought, consoling herself. After all, that would make sense. Although she had thought of him often and had put him on a pedestal, that didn’t mean that he had thought of her since the day they graduated from elementary school. She would give him a second chance, she thought, as long as he showed he hadn’t become an asshole since they had last spoke.

Saki loosened the grip on the medallion to examine it. It was heavier than she thought it would be, given the size. Something about it made her not want to take her eyes off of it. It was mesmerizing. She flipped it around, staring closer and saw what had to be an inscription. She leaned in trying to encipher the markings, wondering if it was English.

“Let me see that,” the teacher’s voice said from directly in front of her.

Saki was caught off guard. Her intention was to turn in the medallion as soon as she got a good look at it. She had waited too long.

“It’s not mine. I found it,” she proclaimed handing it over.

The teacher stared at it questioningly. “Where did you find it?”

“In the grass near the end of the sidewalk.”

“Then if it’s not yours, I’ll return it to its rightful owner,” the teacher said almost accusingly.

This was not how Saki wanted to begin at her new school.

The morning continued on as awkwardly as it had begun. The classes were all hard to find, and each time she was sat at the center desk of the front row. Between classes, she couldn’t find her locker. At lunchtime, she sat at an empty table in the center of the room.

Things only got worse after lunch when she heard her name spoken across the PA system. “Can Sakina Lightbourn please report the principal’s office? Sakina Lightbourn please report to the principal’s office.”

If Saki ever feared that people wouldn’t know who she was, she knew she didn’t have to worry about that anymore. She raised her hand, turning all of the student’s attention on her.

Saki found her way to the administrative office. Checking in, she was told to take a seat. She sat in the seat she had taken hours before.

“You can go back now. The principal is the second door on the left,” the administrative assistant said from behind her desk.

Saki got up and entered the hallway. She found the second door. On it was a sign that read “Principal” and another that read “Mr. Jenner.” She knocked.

“Come in,” a thick, warm voice said from inside.

Saki opened the door to find a small, dark-skinned bald man with tortoiseshell glasses. He was sitting behind a large desk laden with paper. It was a big office, but every inch was covered with stuff.

Two chairs were situated across from the desk. The only person she had met since entering the school, the bad boy, was sitting in one.

“Take a seat,” Principal Jenner said.

Saki complied, trying not to look at the boy by her side.

“Do you know Mr. Lafluer?”

Saki turned and looked at the bad boy for only a second before shaking her head “no.” The boy looked away.

“I see. Well, can you tell me where you found this?”

Mr. Jenner pushed the medallion across the desk toward the two students. Saki leaned in to get a better look. She stared at it for a moment, considering how she could have gotten into this position so quickly.

“I found it in the grass on the way to homeroom.”

“Hmm… And do you have any idea how it ended up in the grass?”

“No, Sir.”

“Well, I understand that you are new here, so I will inform you that this was taken from my office this morning. Later on, Mr. DeMarco found this in your possession. You were also in the administrative office this morning, weren’t you?”

“Yes, Sir.”

“Doesn’t that seem strange to you, if you were me?”

“I don’t know how you think, sir.” Perhaps that wasn’t the best thing for Saki to say, but it was honest. She could stand dumbing herself down for her sisters and her mother, but she couldn’t take having to do it for teachers.

Mr. Jenner stared at Saki for a moment. Although she didn’t turn, she could feel the eyes of the boy beside her. She had gotten both of their attentions, and she liked it.

“This is not the way to start the first day at your new school,” Principal Jenner confirmed. Saki didn’t respond. Mr. Jenner continued. “When you were in the building, did you happen to see Mr. Lafluer?”

Saki had started to put things together. The bad boy had stolen it. Something had happened, and it ended up in the grass where she found it. Now they were in the principal office, and he was unraveling the parts. The question was, what would she do next?

Principal Jenner was right, this was a horrible way to start the first day at her new school. She knew that whatever she said would set the tone for the rest of her school year. Saki had always been the good girl, and it had never worked out for her. Maybe it was time for her to try something new.

“He doesn’t look familiar.”

“He’s one of the students from your homeroom class. Doesn’t he look familiar from there?”

“I’m new,” she said sounding exhausted. “How could you ask me if he’s familiar? I don’t know maybe. It’s just… everything is just a lot.” Saki did her best to manufacture tears. When they welled up in her eyes, she considered it the most successful thing she had done all day.

Leaning forward resting her face in her hands, she heard Mr. Jenner leaned back in his chair. Her tears were making him feel uncomfortable while at the same time perking up the boy next to her. Saki knew that she could keep this up all day. If Mr. Jenner was uncomfortable now, she was going make sure she was released without another question asked.

Mr. Jenner squirmed around in his seat a moment longer before speaking. “Well, I’m going to let you both go. But in this is not a toy,” he emphasized touching the medallion. “This is also school property. So if this goes missing again, there are two people I will question first. And next time it will be with the police. You understand me?”

Saki wiped her eyes relieved to be done. “Yes, Sir.”

“Yeah,” Mr. Lafluer said, offering as little acknowledgment as possible.

“Good. You may go.”

Saki got up, proud of herself. The boy next to her had to be the most dangerous guy in the school, and he now owed her a favor. She couldn’t believe her luck. Walking down the hall, she could hear him behind her. She wondered what he was thinking. Would he approached her now or later? Where could their friendship lead?

Truth be told, he was beautiful. Maybe this one incident would turn him into her first boyfriend. The possibilities were endless at this point. For the first time, her new life looked bright.

Saki continued back to her class paying close attention to the guy who followed a few steps behind her. When they could no longer be seen from the administrative office, she turned back toward him. It was too late, though; he had already peeled away.

Saki watched him walk. It was sexy. It was slow and dangerous. Saki wondered what it would be like to kiss him.

Saki spent the rest of her day hoping to run into him again. But each class felt like the last. All of them resulted with her sitting at the very front not speaking to another soul.

She was thinking that she wouldn’t talk to anyone for the entire day until she finally located her locker room. Having lugged around her books all day, she was glad for the relief. Emptying the books from her backpack, she watched as all the other girls left the room.

Conspicuously alone, Saki looked up in time to see a familiar face enter. It was the girl from her homeroom who sat with the bad boy. She was sure that this was how she would begin to get payment. But as one girl filed in behind the other, she began to have her doubts.

“Oh, if it isn’t the new girl. You see her? It’s the new girl,” the angry girl said mockingly. The angry girl stood chest to chest with Saki. She was a few inches shorter than Saki, but that didn’t seem to slow her at all. “So, new girl, tell me, how did you swipe the medallion off of Lane?”

“What? I didn’t take the medallion from anyone. I found it.”

“Yeah, right. So you just happened to pick it up off the grass?”

The girl shoved Saki into the lockers. Saki didn’t know what was going on. She had never been in a fight with anyone but her sisters. But more importantly, she had saved Lane‘s ass. Didn’t they realize that? Without her, Lane could be going to jail. She had done him a favor.

“So, you gonna tell me how you took it?” The angry girl said with her three friends closing in around them.

“I told you that I found it,” Saki said unsure of what else to say.

“You found it, huh? Is that what you did?” The girl said pushing Saki‘s head back onto the metal locker.

“Oww!” Saki said in a panic. What was she supposed to do? Fight back? There were four against one. She couldn’t even win against one of her sisters, and they were two years younger, though 50 pounds heavier. “Let me go!” Saki shrieked.

The other girls, some larger and some smaller than the first, all started pushing Saki. She closed her eyes and bowed her head to make herself as small as possible. But the pressure of the fingers and palms on her shoulder, chest, and head was inescapable.

Her body jerked from one side to the other. She was in a nightmare. Her heart raced, and as a slow groan escaped her lips, the prod and pricks got harder.
They’re gonna beat me up
, she thought, as she slowly dropped to the ground.

As her back scratched against the metal of the lockers, the pushes became kicks. They didn’t start off hard. They were more like nudges reminding her they were there. When the girls didn’t get what they were after, the kicks got harder. When the first blow shot pain through her leg, she knew that she was in deep trouble.

“Help,” Saki yelled at an unfriendly campus.

It was at that moment that the blows got considerably harder. They all hurt now. She couldn’t keep track of them all.

She had turned herself into a ball protecting her head with her hands and her back with the locker. But her thighs and calves lit up with streaks of pain that not only debilitated but also humiliated her. She wanted to cry, but she didn’t have time. All she could do was survive, and at the moment, even that seemed like too much.

The kicks grew and grew until they mercifully stopped. The sound of hard leather scraping across the bare concrete echoed through the room. It sounded like they were leaving quickly. Could it be over, she wondered. Had the nightmare that was the first day of the rest of her life finally come to an end?

“Are you alright?” A familiar voice asked from beyond the locker room doors.

Saki lifted her head and opened her eyes. She was a little dazed, but gathering herself as a wave of pain shot through her. It was overwhelming.

She wanted so much to cry. She looked over to the open door hoping it would be a sympathetic face. She hoped it would be someone she could bury her head within and bawl. She needed, just for a moment, just for a brief sliver of her life, to feel safe and taken care of. She needed a friendly face. But when she looked up, she found only Mr. DeMarco, her homeroom teacher. He had gotten her into this mess to begin with.

No, Saki wouldn’t give him the satisfaction to know that he and his entire school had broken her so quickly. She wouldn’t cry in front of him. Somehow she would suck it up and accept that she was alone. She had to comfort herself. No one else cared.

“Are you alright?” Mr. DeMarco repeated.

Saki refuse to speak in fear that opening her mouth would release the floodgates of emotion she held back. Instead, she fought her way to her feet.

Her body screamed in pain. She winced and slowed herself many times. Mr. DeMarco didn’t make a move toward her, and she didn’t expect that he would. When she was on her feet, she turned to her locker and finished her business instead of replying.

Removing her books from her bag, she stored them in the empty locker. Bending to reach down each time hurt tremendously, and she hoped that Mr. DeMarco had turned and walked away. He hadn’t, though. She could still feel his heavy stare.

It was all so humiliating, the new girl beat up in a locker room on the first day. She hated the school, and she hated her life. Why did her mother have to do this to her? Why couldn’t she have just left things alone with her husband? He wasn’t a great guy to any of them, but at least everything was normal. It was safe. Saki didn’t run the risk of getting beat up in the locker room by a bunch of thug girls there. Why did her mother have to ruin everything?

Saki wanted so much to cry. Her eyes burned and her throat felt that raw feeling it had when she was about to fall into an uncontrollable stream of tears. But she wouldn’t. She was determined. Finally attaching her combination lock, she grabbed her bag, looked past Mr. DeMarco, and reentered the unfriendly campus.

Saki looked everywhere but at the kids’ faces. She didn’t know who knew what she had just gone through, but she was sure that some of them did. She couldn’t take their knowing glances. So instead, she looked to the left at the grass.

The grass was lush and green and it spread out toward the open field. It was the same field that she’d seen driving in, and kids were running track. Even at a distance, she couldn’t take their eyes, so she looked toward the building that stood in front of her.