A Question of Innocents , Chapter two

Since I have received so many views of chapter one I decided to put up chapter two. Please, please rate this if you read it. Thank you.



                                                Chapter Two


    After going home to shower and change, Lexa Marshal appears at the kitchen door to her cousin, Jesse’s, house. “You’re late,” her aunt scolds as she sets a plate of fried eggs and toast in front of Lexa.
    “What’s a matter? Did you over sleep?” Jesse asks.
    “Actually, I have been up since five-thirty,” Lexa answers as she begins to eat.
    “I tried to call. Why didn’t you pick up?” Jesse asks.
    “Wasn’t home. I went for a run over the north side,” Lexa replies.
    “Was…did your dad?” Jesse begins.
    “No, he was still passed out when I left. I just couldn’t sleep.”
    Lexa and Jesse were first cousins, but ever since the death of Lexa’s mother, the girls had grown to be much more like sisters. Jesse’s mother, Sonya, was married to Barbara Marshal’s older brother, John Boyles. Sonya and John had talked about taking Lexa in after Barbara was murdered but David never would hear of it. Besides, with John in the Navy he was away for several months at a time leaving Sonya to try to scrape by. Working full time as a checker in a local grocery store barely earned her enough money to keep a roof over their heads and provide for her own daughter. Even so, Sonya had always welcomed Lexa into their home. She did what she could to help her niece, like making sure Lexa had a decent breakfast in the morning before going to school. In many ways, Lexa felt more at home in her cousin’s house than she did in her own home. At least she wasn’t afraid of getting hit when she was there.
    Lexa goes to the refrigerator and grabs a carton of milk. “Come on, Lex, we better get to the bus stop,” Jesse says.
    Lexa opens the carton and gulps down several mouthfuls of milk before her aunt yells at her to use a glass. “No time, we got to run,” Lexa says as she puts the carton on the table rather than back in the fridge. Jesse grabs two book bags from beside the coat rack and tosses one to Lexa as they head out the door.
    They walk the three blocks to the corner where the bus is scheduled to pick them up to take them over to North Valley High. Just as they turn the corner, they see the bus about to pull out, so they run to catch it. The driver sees them and stops to let them on. “I told you they would be late. You own me five bucks,” Becka says as she holds out her hand to Nancy waiting for her money.
    “I don’t know why I ever bet with you. You always win,” Nancy says as she gets the money out of her purse and hands it to Becka. Lexa and Jesse sit down across from them.
    Shayla leans over the back of their seat to whisper in Lexa’s ear. “Maybe later,” Lexa replies. Jesse shakes her head and laughs.
    Shayla Hunter was a beautiful girl. She had long jet-black hair; piercing blue eyes and a figure that would make any guy stab his best friend in the back for a chance to be with her. Shay knew that she looked good and she worked it to get what she wanted from people. She loved to play games with people’s heads. It wasn’t just guys, though. Shay was bisexual. She liked having sex with guys but she loved making out with other girls. For the past year “Hunter,” as Lexa called her, had been trying to seduce Lex into going out with her. It wasn’t that Lexa wasn’t interested. The truth was, she found Hunter to be very attractive. She just wasn’t interested in getting serious and she didn’t want to mess up a great friendship by screwing around together. Besides, Lexa was never quite sure how serious Hunter was when she came onto her. Lex knew Hunter liked to play around. She had seen Shay get guys so messed up that they couldn’t even remember their own names, but then she would laugh about how pathetic and weak those guys were. No, dating Shay would just have been way too much work as far as Lexa was concerned.
    “So what do you think it will be like?” Nancy asks out of the blue. It is obvious from the blank stares that her friends have no idea what she is talking about. “Oh, come on, it’s the first day of a new year, in a new school,” Nancy says. Nancy Warner wasn’t exactly what you might call a nerd, but she was far more interested in school than any of the other girls were with whom she hung out. Both of her parents worked full time but there was little hope that they would ever be able to save enough money to send Nancy to a good college. Her mom waited tables in a diner and her father worked at the loading dock of one of the factories down near the dock. Although these were decent respectable jobs, the Warner’s were not exactly going to get rich. Like most of the families that lived on the south side of Campbell, the Warner’s basically got by week to week. There wasn’t much left over after paying the bills and buying groceries. Nancy saw getting a good education as her only way out of the south side of the city. She had been dreaming about going away to a big Ivy League school since she was nine years old. It didn’t surprise her friends that she would be excited about the first day of classes, even if they didn’t share her enthusiasm.
    “I still can’t believe that they couldn’t find some other solution rather than to force us to go North Valley with those stuck up snobs,” Donna says.
    “Maybe it won’t be so bad,” Becka says as she shuffles a deck of playing cards.
    “Planning on finding a whole new flock of pigeons to fleece?” Lexa asks.
    “Hey a fool and his money…” Becka says with a smile. Rebecca Knight was notorious for her gambling on the south side. While Nancy dreamed of getting a scholarship and going to college as a way out, Becka planned to buy her way out of the hellhole she lived in. She was forever involved in a poker game, hustling pool or working on some new con to make a fast buck. Becka always told her friends that she wasn’t about to leave her destiny up to chance. She would make her own fortune and when she finished school she was going to move out to California, never to look back.
    Lexa is lost in her own thoughts about the various ways she and her friends planned to get out. They all had their own idea about how to go about it. The one thing they all had in common was the fact that they each desperately wanted out of Campbell for good.  When the bus turns the corner, the North Valley High School comes into view. “Holy shit!” Jesse exclaims.
    Lexa stands up to look. Outside the school, there are dozens of police officers and security guards. There are reporters and cameramen from all the local television stations and newspapers there. On one side of the entrance, Lexa sees protestors with signs with things like, “Our tax dollars, our school” and “Keep your trash on your side”. These people, mostly angry parents, are not happy about having their kids forced into sharing their school with the students from the south side. They may be yelling about higher taxes and issues like overcrowding, but Lexa suspects it has less to do with the issues than it did with the fact that many of the students from south side came from low income homes and broken families.
    There had always been problems between the two groups of students in the past. These outward displays of open hostility and prejudice are only going to make things worse. Unfortunately, it is the parents themselves who are fanning the flames of future clashes between the two varied social groups. “Why are they doing this?” Nancy asks.
    “Because they hate us,” Shay answers simply.
    “We didn’t ask to come to their school in the first place,” Donna mumbles as she reapplies her black lipstick.
    Jesse notices Lexa’s hand slowly inching back toward her jacket pocket. “Don’t,” Jesse whispers as she reaches out to stop her cousin from retrieving the knife she always carries with her. Lexa Marshal had learned the hard way that when people got angry she usually ended up being the one who got hurt. In her world, adults didn’t just scream, they hit.
    The bus door opens. Security guards line a path on either side to allow the students to exit the bus and get inside the school. Cautiously, the first few guys get off the bus. As the students step off the bus, they are immediately bombarded with shouted comments from both the protestors and the reporters. Outnumbered and boxed in, the south side students begin to realize just how difficult it is going to be for them here at North Valley. No one wants them here, not the parents, not the teachers and certainly not the students who live on the north side of the river.
    Lexa and Jesse are just about to the door of the building when they hear the unmistakable sound of glass shattering behind them. They turn around to see half a dozen guys fighting. Someone had thrown an empty bottle from the crowd that just missed one of the boys from south side. Shay reaches back out the door and grabs Lexa by the collar of her jacket. “Come on,” Shay says as she pulls Lexa inside.
    “See, I told you. They are all the same. A pack of smelly animals just looking for trouble,” one nearby female student says to another.
    “I hear that they will do it with anyone who asks them to, the sluts,” the other responds.
    “You know I hear that about the girls at North Valley,” Shay says.
    Sidney is standing on the landing watching everything through the window. Caitlin Weatherly and her friends, Heather Peterson and Jade Mathews, are nearby watching as well. “Do you believe this? I have never seen anything like it before,” Sidney says in amazement.
    “I know it’s incredible! I’m surprised that those scumbags had the nerve to actually show up,” Caitlin says.
    Sidney shakes her head and goes back to watching the police arresting the boys from the south side who were involved in the fight. “Why aren’t they arresting Tommy and his friends too? He’s the one who started it all by throwing that bottle,” Sidney says.
    “Arrest Tommy? Whatever for? If you ask me he should get a medal,” Caitlin says.
    “Yeah, a medal like they give soldiers for going above and beyond the call when fighting the enemy,” Heather says.
    “They’re just kids…like us,” Sidney says.
    “They are nothing like us, they’re dirty little thieves and streetwalkers who would just as soon cut your throat as look at you,” Caitlin says as Samantha walks over to join them.
    “You tell her, Sam, she’s your sister. Maybe she will listen to you,” Jade suggests. 
    “Sidney you can’t get all bleeding heart over these animals. The first chance you give them, they will turn on you like a pack of wild dogs,” Caitlin says.
    “I swear, Sid, sometimes you can be so naïve,” Samantha groans.
    “Maybe I just don’t like to assume the worst about people. I mean do you even know any of them…personally?” Sidney asks.
    “God, no! Who would want to?” Caitlin laughs before walking away. The others follow Caitlin to her locker, leaving Sidney alone with her thoughts.
    The bell rings and the doors to the classrooms swing open. The hallway instantly becomes a slow moving mass of bodies, each trying to make their way to their next class before the bell rings again. “I can’t believe how crowded it is,” Sidney says as she inches her way down the corridor with her next-door neighbor and friend, Renee Roberts. Unlike the rest of Sidney’s friends, Renee is quiet and nonjudgmental. She is a shy girl, to the point of being painfully so. Renee doesn’t have a lot of friends and finds it uncomfortable to be in the midst of so many people. Clutching her books to her chest with both arms, Renee struggles to keep up with Sidney as they turn the corner and head down the stairs.
    They reach the bottom of the stairs and try to make their way toward their next class. As they finally reach the last hallway, some students who are rushing in the opposite direction accidentally bump into Sidney. She drops the books she is carrying and they splatter halfway across the hall. “That’s just perfect, thank you. Thank you very much,” Sidney moans in frustration. She bends down to start gathering her things. Suddenly, a hand reaches out for the same book she is reaching for. Sidney looks up to see Lexa Marshal crouching down in front of her.
    “I’m sorry, I didn’t see you,” Lexa says. “Are you okay?”
      “Huh, oh yeah, I’m good,” Sidney sort of stammers as she tries not to stare. Sidney can’t help herself, though. She is mesmerized by the intensity of Lexa’s blue eyes. She has never seen anyone who had eyes quite that color. The only one who came close was Caitlin Weatherly, but even her eyes didn’t have this almost hypnotically iridescent quality to them.
    “Are you sure that you are okay? I mean you didn’t hit your head or anything did you?” Sidney shakes her head slightly to break free of the mental hold Lexa has cast over her with her eyes.
    “She said she’s fine. Come on, Lex,” Jesse urges.
    Lexa ignores her cousin and continues to help Sidney gather up her books. She stands up and hands the books back to Sidney. Sidney takes them slowly, reluctant to allow the moment to end. “I…I’m Sidney Lauren,” she says.
    “Yeah, I know who you are,” Lexa replies with a slight smile.
    “What is going on here?” Caitlin asks as she comes across the scene.
    “Huh? Oh nothing. I just dropped my books and she was helping me pick them up,” Sidney says.
    “Make sure she didn’t steal any of them,” Jade says with a chuckle.
    Jesse steps up to Jade defensively. “What is that suppose to mean?”
    “Oh, that’s right. You wouldn’t steal books. That would mean that you actually knew how to read,” Heather says.
    “Listen here, bitch,” Jesse begins.
    Lexa reaches out and grabs her cousin by the arm to stop her. “Let it go, they’re not worth it,” she says. Lexa half pulls Jesse down the hall away from the snobby girls. She glances back over her shoulder at Sidney as they go into one of the classrooms. Lexa can’t help but notice that Sidney was also looking back at her.
    “She’s cute don’t you think?” Lexa asks.
    “Who?” Jesse asks. “Ah, hell no! Don’t even think about it,” Jesse warns.
    “What? All I said is that she’s cute,” Lexa replies.
    “Okay, so she’s cute, but she is also Mayor Lauren’s daughter, so just don’t go getting any ideas,” Jesse says.
    “Yeah, I know…but did you see her eyes? She has these incredible deep warm brown eyes that came alive with every hint of a smile that touched her lips. Oh and those lips…” Lexa sighs.
    “Snap out of it,” Jesse says as she smacks Lexa up the back of her head with her hand.