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"Chester, Chester, child molester. Fine as wine but won't be mine." A young woman around eighteen years old began to chant behind her.

"My beauty is too old for him to behold." A second young woman around the same age chimed in with a snicker.

"Although I'm a dime, I wasn't born at the right time." A third girl a little older than the previous two sang and laughed. She was clearly trying to fit in with the younger two girls as they were younger and more popular on campus.

"Dear Chester only dates ones who are jail bait, and that is truly a crime." The first girl chuckled again, as the man to which they were referring, walked past her desk tense, and slammed down into his seat.

Katie could hear the chant through her head phones but, ignored the petty young women behind her who were saying it. They snickered and giggled at their own ignorant taunting of the man two rows ahead of her in the computer lab.

Aiden Lawrence. He was by far the sexiest man on campus, in her opinion, but he was as mean as a rattlesnake—especially, to her—and, if the rumors were true, he liked his women much younger than her. She was about fifteen years older than his current girlfriend, who had just turned eighteen, and he was three years older than Katie was.

Katie cranked up the volume on her iPod to drown out their pettiness and smiled as her favorite song came on. Her long, thick curly hair hid the fact that she had head phones in during class. She rarely listened to the instructor's lecture. It was difficult to understand anything he had to say due to his ultra-thick foreign accent and broken English. She simply wrote down whatever he wrote on the white board, which was everything that came out of his mouth, or set up her Mevo and live streamed the class on the class group page he had set up on the school website. She never missed a class and he didn't mind. The group was locked to anyone that wasn't registered in the class.

"Settle down! Settle down!" She heard Dr. Gnapor attempt to call the class to order. She popped one bud out of her ear and pulled out her iPhone to tap into the camera. Then she tuned him out for the most part as she monitored the lecture through the phone while the sounds of those such as Lorde, Linkin Park, and Muse blew through her ears.

As the hour wore on, she could feel eyes burning into her from behind, as well as, from random spots in the class room. They all knew she was live streaming to the group page, so she ignored them. No one's face was ever on screen apart from Dr. Gnapor. She picked up everyone's questions and comments though. So, she usually edited out unnecessary junk when she got home but, her next class was cancelled so, she would go to her favorite hiding spot in the library and edit the video then repost it.

After class, she waited for the room to clear before she went up, thanked Mr. Gnapor, and then packed her camera and tripod up.

With her backpack on her shoulder and her iPod blaring in her ears once more she moved through the throngs of kids nearly twenty years her junior to the Wi Fi area of the library to set up her gear. She shut down her iPod and plugged into her laptop, so she could load the video from the Mevo and edit it.

It only took her about twenty minutes to edit out the stupid chant, the sound of people snacking and snickering, feedback from other devices and other crazy static. All that was left was the lecture. Dr. Gnapor didn't like for you to ask questions in class. He wanted you to post them in the comments under the video and he would respond to you, so the sooner she got the video edited the better. As soon as she had it edited and relaunched to replace the live video, the questions started posting. She wasn't interested in the questions though. She had studying and research to do for another class. So, that was what she spent the next hour and a half doing.

A dull buzzing against her ankle let her know that she had to check in with her parole officer. It was the reason she kept to herself and avoided too much interaction with anyone. When she was seventeen she had been in the wrong place at the wrong time and witnessed something she shouldn't have. Instead of her getting treated as a witness, and protected as a minor, she was arrested for the crime and tried as an adult. Her court appointed attorney did nothing to try and prove her innocence so she spent the last fifteen years in prison and the next five would be spent on parole. She was supposed to be set free given that the maximum for second degree murder was fifteen years and she had done her full time but, she was given five years of parole because she had spent the entirety of her time in solitary confinement with no contact with the outside world other than healthcare visits and one intense visit from the victim's daughter.

She managed to graduate high school before the trial ended but, she wasn't allowed to participate in the graduation ceremony and she was stripped of her title as Salutatorian. She lost her college scholarships before the trial even started so, even if she had won her case she wouldn't have had the money to attend school.

She took a deep breath and went to the library desk. The school Librarian was an old friend of her father's and knew her situation. She called her parole officer from the school library phone to verify that she was indeed at school. Officer Morgan was an old classmate of hers and went out of his way to help her. He was one of the few people that believed she was innocent and a victim of social status in their community in the beginning but, even that had changed.

"Hey, Baby Girl," He said, calling her by her child hood nickname. "You done with class?"

"It was cancelled. I sent you a text." She said, in her soft husky voice. "I've been in the library studying and editing the video from last class. I'm going to head home now, if I can get Momma to come out and get me early."

"Don't call Mrs. Q. I'll come on and get you. I'll pick you up in front of the library." He stated and hung up.

She blew out a steady breath and handed the librarian, Anna Kingston, the receiver back. "Thank you. He's coming to pick me up." The older woman smiled sympathetically.

She went over to the station where she had been sitting and gathered up her things. She gave Mrs. Kingston a small smile and discretely wiggled her fingers as a wave good bye before she made her way to the sitting area just off the library porch. She sat on a solitary bench, with her iPod blasting in her ears waiting for Officer Morgan to pull up. She wondered if he would arrive in his POV or his state issued car. Both of them screamed 'I'm a cop.' She smiled a little at the thought of Chad Morgan going to school for criminal justice and then the police academy, and then becoming a police officer and then a parole officer just in time for her to get out of prison. It had to be difficult for him to make that switch. He had been dead set on being a doctor. He had even gotten into medical school.

She felt a tap on her shoulder and glanced up frowning to see who had approached her. She was startled to see a very angry looking Aiden Lawrence glowering down at her. She reached up and pulled one of her buds out of her ear and waited for him to speak. She never spoke to anyone outside of teachers and school administrators or staff. She felt it was better if she didn't interact.

"You and your bitchy little friends can't stop harassing me, can you? "He growled down at her.

She must have had a confused look on her face because he kept going, "Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about, Princess. You sit in the back of every class I have with you and come up with these asinine and immature taunts referring to my relationship with K'ressa. Who I date and what we do is none of your fucking business!"

At that moment, Chad pulled up in his black F-150. POV. "Hey, Baby Girl!" He called out of his window, over the rumble of his motor. "Everything okay?" He asked, stepping out of the vehicle, and walking over to take her things.

Chad was not the same kid he was fifteen years ago. Back then he was skinny and geeky and as self-conscious as they come. Now he was buff, confident and sexy as all hell. When he walked toward them he moved like a panther but, Aiden didn't take a step back as he approached. He was in no way intimidated by Chad's arrival even though Chad was still wearing his badge on his belt and had his gun on his hip, making sure to exert his authority.

She didn't smile or greet him, she simply nodded, and stood. She glanced at Aiden curiously and frowned again. There was nothing she could say to him. He had made up his mind, just like everyone else had years ago. She shook her head and walked with Chad to his truck, leaving Aiden standing there glowering after them. She had learned from her experience that arguing with people was a waste of time. They were going to believe what they wanted anyway.

Once they were pulling out of the school parking lot, Chad asked. "What did you do to piss Aiden Lawrence off?"

"I didn't do anything. He only believes that I did." She said, quietly. She knew Chad had been second guessing his belief in her innocence since she had been out too...maybe even before then. In either case, her sad response silenced him for the rest of her ride home.