Chapter Two

Brook Hope

I need to stop reading so fast, knowing Benjamin he's going to be late and I don't want to sit here forever again.

Dreading every movement, I let out a low sigh as I put the bookmark back in place. Almost immediately there are high heels clicking in my direction with much too high voices following.

Coincidence? I think not. She knows bothering me while I'm reading is a dangerously useless endeavor.

"Well, if you'll look who it is." Their leader, the bitch of campus herself, the mayor's daughter, Madilyn, shrieks at me with her glass shattering intervals. "Our little river, hand over the homework you did for us last night." She laughs as one of their new wannabes steps forwards to take it from me.

I raise an eyebrow as I look at the open hand.

"You didn't give me your papers last night." I informed her as I look to the rest of them, "So you're going to have to find a way to do it yourselves."

"Excuse me?" She shrills as she looks down at me, "I am the Mayor's daughter, I could make your life hell."

"Really? Could you?" I stand, easily towering over her even though she's in heels, "Please do. I would like to return to my homeland." She blinks as her brain has to recalibrate or something. I scoff and shake my head, "Let me make something clear here, I only did your work whenever you handed me papers. And even then it was only done so that I could try to keep my Dad home. But you don't have that power. In fact, you don't have any power."

She opens her mouth to retaliate and I put a finger to her lips as I lean down. With her pastel pink dress and frilly white lace, her hair all done with pink highlights, and her nails fake as a horse's wings, she honestly looks good enough to pull it off if her personality didn't ruin it for her.

Oh, you did not just think she was cute. Brook Hope I swear to the ever loving God above you're going to die by my hand.

Shut up, me, I'm trying to make a point here.

"Your power comes from your Daddy issues, not from yourself." I straighten up and slide my hand back into the pocket of my ripped jeans, "Come back to me when you have an offer you can back up." I turn on the heel of my fabulous combat boots and head over to my spot to wait for Ben again.

"I'll make sure he dies!"

Her words make me pause. I know she's grabbing for any strand here to regain power in front of her friends, but there's really only two people I care about in my life - both male.

"Alright, I'll bite." I turn back around with a smirk, "Who?"

"Your father, or, guardian I should say. Everyone knows he's not your real father." She crosses her arms over her chest, looking smug. "I'll make sure he gets relocated to downtown."

My mask slips into place as I try to process things under the radar.

Every family with a cop in it would fear these words, they would beg their loved one to retire immediately. And most of them do. Downtown is where the Bloomed are, and that's not the best place for any law enforcement. The Mayor himself said that he regretted letting things rise to this level of chaos in his city.

The Bloomed have taken over, most of it is ruled by the Shadows; literal creatures made from darkness. And although the famous Light Bloomed has been trying to hold him back, he's risen to a level of power that's just too much for anyone to handle - and he's not alone.

"Did you hear me?" She drawls, "All these low life have their head so far up my ass I'm not sure they can hear me anymore." Her group laughs as she smiles triumphantly.

I grit my teeth in silence as I look away, the touches of brown in my vision show my hair has fallen out of the beanie.

      "It's not like he's even your real father, I'm not sure what the big deal is here."

The wind picks up something chilly as I turn again to see them shiver a bit and move closer together with their jackets. I don't feel it, I never have felt the cold. The image of them burns away until a single color has blinded me to them.

Red.

    "Oh yeah, because you've got such a great example yourself." I spit back, "How much makeup does your Mom need nowadays? Two, three entire kits worth?" There's a collective gasp as her posse begins to mutter and gossip to themselves.

Do you see that, Maddie? One sentence is all it took for me to turn them against you. Why can't you see that they aren't your friends? They never were!

    "You take that back!" She demands while her fists clenched up, "Take it back before I make you regret it!"

     "Oh, what are you going to do, break my nail?" I hadn't realized it, but a group was forming around us. They laughed with Madilyn's so called friends - her posse beginning to fade in with them so they wouldn't be associated if she lost.

Freshman year was the first year Madilyn was allowed to go to public school, her mother having kept her with her for most of her life. But things had gotten worse at their household during that election season, I imagine the mother knew it would be best to send her love away for the day.

Nobody would talk to her. When people saw her coming they would hastily walk away, and those she could corner would break down crying. Everyone except for me and Ben. We didn't care much that she was from a family of higher power, and she was grateful. We were her first true friends, and probably her only ones she's had so far.

But she found something she wanted more than friendship: Popularity. She worked her way up the ranks, and whenever the friendship became a problem she easily dropped it in favor for 'new landscapes' and 'bigger plans.'

She lets out a cry and throws back her fist as she lunges at me, the fury of a territorial beast in her eyes.

Why? Why are you doing this?

She's seen my matches with her cousin in tournaments, I've won every single bout. She knows my hand to hand combat is one of the best in the state, at least. But here she is, charging me.

I can't be your stepping stool anymore Madilyn. You've used me enough that you should be able to reach higher by yourself, get to the highest shelves without needing me.

    She was in slow motion as I saw the tears flying off of her face, the pain she was trying so hard to keep together. Her determination to make her public image better than everyone else's. However, that's not what my heart saw. My heart saw the friend that I used to laugh with, that I used to have tea with on those stupid plastic chairs, that I used to love for who they were.

No more.

I sidestep and watch as her momentum carries her past me, her first in front like she's about to take off into the sky. I put my foot out. She trips. Her speed was used against her as she slides on the smooth marble to crash into the brick railing that marks the sidewalk from the grass, and she lays still.

For a panicked second, I feared that I had knocked her out, sent her into her mind where she wouldn't ever return. But, then she puts her hands below her and hoists herself up. First, on her hands and knees before she staggers to her feet. The students on that side gasp when they see her.

Why. What have I done.

    "Mad-"

    "Shut up!" She barks as she rounds on me, "Just- Shut up!!" Her lip has split open, running down her face in parallel with her tears. The side of her head is bleeding and ruining what had been a pretty nice hairstyle. I bite my tongue and look away as she takes off running towards the nurse's office - the crowd parts for her as she goes.

After the action is over, they dwindle away until it's just me left to pick up my bags and move. I'll have to stay close enough that Ben could see me on his way up, of course, but I can't stay here.

     "Brook." The voice makes me pause as I turn to face the pair of eyes I hadn't wanted to see right now. And they told me that they had seen it all. "It wasn't your fault. She charged you, you were just doing what had to be done. You didn't even throw a punch."

    "I edged her on, Ben. I shouldn't have opened my mouth, it would've been better if I had just-" He cuts me off as he grabs my shoulders to make my look at him, although, he makes sure that it's his eyes before he spoke again.

    "Just what? Done her physics homework? Written four new essays? You shouldn't have even started that to begin with. I know," He continues as he sees me open my mouth to protest, "I know that it started as a favor when we first met. But we are nearing the end of our Junior year, Brook. She hasn't been our friend for almost two and a half years."

I let my shoulders relax as I bent my head foreword and simply let my forehead rest against his chest. We stood there for a moment as he wrapped his hands around my upper back, it was nice. Calm, I dare say.

    "We need to get to class." I mumble, barely auditable as I didn't want to really admit it myself.

     "You know just how to ruin a moment, don't you." He grumbles before releasing me and waiting until I looked like I was going to be alright before he let me lead the way.

    "Moment? You wish." I retort playfully as I lightly nudge him, my father's bet from this morning echoing in my head. "You'll have to try harder if you're going for one of those."

    "Oh?" He sounds intrigued as he speeds up to walk side by side with me, "And what would trying harder include, exactly?"

The bell goes off at this exact moment and I smile innocently as he rolls his eyes, both of us having had this happen too often to say the line anymore.

Saved by the bell.

Without another word, we both turn and race for our classrooms.