CHAPTER FIVE: MARY MARGARITA

So far so good, Angelica was the only friend I had made since I arrived at BCC. I knew I had to make a few more at least from my department. It won't be easy I know but I have to do something, anything, so I can get the drama of last night out of my head.

Sianna set out the next day to seek new friends. She'd try to start up conversations with persons sitting next to her, at her front and even behind her during lectured but they never really seemed to be interested. She slowly began morphing into her former ways but she stopped herself. Then a girl approached her.

"Hey, I saw the way you almost murdered that boy, what's his name again?" she asked

Sianna was confused and happy. She had mixed feelings. Number one, someone finally walked up to her without her walking up first and this complete stranger knew Luca Castaigne as 'a boy'. She didn't even know his name! Sianna was filled with various emotions that she forgot someone was talking to her

"Cool girl to earth, cool girl to earth, are you there?!" she asked waving her hands in the air trying to bring back Sianna's attention.

"Sorry, hi!" Sianna apologized happily after she had jerked back to reality

"You scared me, I thought you were paralyzed" she said, hitting Sianna on her shoulders

"Did you just call me cool?" Sianna asked surprised as they began walking the halls

"Duh, you almost killed a so-called god! That even makes you a god. I am at your service ma lord" she said, then curtsied before Sianna.

"You like violence huh?"

"I am violence"

They both paused. Then they laughed

"So, what's your name?"

"Sianna, Sianna Morris, you?"

"Mary. Don't gotta last name and don't ask me why"

"Got it"

"But you can call me Mary Margarita" Mary turned to Sianna and then smiled

It was very evident that Mary and I were suffering from the same thing; poor parental background. When she smiled at me, I saw pain. The same pain I felt before. Her life was no different from mine.

Sianna's life was quite different from Mary's. Mary was a troubled child. She had both her parents to take care of her. And for violence, yes, Mary was violence. She had gotten expelled from several high schools she was sent to for various reasons. But the one that seemed to grasp the mind of her parents was when she nearly killed her principal…..

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There she was, sixteen-year-old Mary, staring at a painting hung on the wall in her guidance and counsellor's office.

"What do you see in that painting Mary?" Divinity; the guidance and counsellor asked sternly

"What do you want me to see?" Mary replied calmly

"Answer the question Mary" Divinity ordered

The painting contained a woman with a dagger that dripped blood in her hand and her right foot on the chest of a man who looked like he was begging her to forgive him.

"Feminine dominance" Mary finally answered smiling

"What?" Divinity asked confused

"I mean look at it. The man is barely in pain" she answered as she stood up pointing at the painting

"He was stabbed" Divinity stressed

"Look at her eyes. She clearly does not want to kill him. But he had defiled her. So she must no buts. The blood on the dagger represents compensation, for all the troubles he had caused her. The look on the man's face represents victory, that yes, this time he was the one begging for mercy and not her. Her foot on his chest represents an assertion of power. And her face….her face says it all. Feminine dominance"

All that Mary said left Divinity in shock as she sat agape. She took a deep breath, cleared her throat and continued.

"This painting is a clear description of murder. A psycho painted it in the asylum before killing a guard and thereafter, herself. Mary, do you go for therapy?" Divinity asked as she sat Mary down on a chair while she sat on her desk.

"Bullshit!" Mary exclaimed angrily.

"Mary, there's no need to make a fuss about all this" Divinity suggested trying to calm Mary down

"They make you say things you don't wanna say. I don't like those people"

"You don't have to go there Mary, you got me" Divinity assured Mary whilst they hugged.

Divinity was the only person keeping Mary in sync with the real world. Even her parents no longer understood the type of person their daughter was. Mary had learned to confide in Divinity. She told all her secrets to Divinity. Although sometimes Divinity could be such a 'mum', Mary still confided in her.

Not until one day, the principal sacked Divinity. He felt she wasn't doing her job right. She was getting too friendly with the students, and he didn't like it. When Mary heard of this, she became furious and went to the principal's office. She barged in and confronted him

"Why did you do this to me?!" Mary asked furiously

"Do what?" the principal asked very confusedly

"Divinity, bring her back, bring her back to me, I want her now!" Mary ordered

"I'm afraid I can't Ms, go back to class, now!" the principal demanded

"There are a lot of things you should be afraid of sir" she suggested coming closer to him

"Stop! Get to class! What is wrong with you!?" the principal demanded to know. He began calling for help. But before security could arrive, Mary had already stabbed him multiple times with a ballpoint right on his neck. After that, Mary went to a corner of the office and sat there sulking. The security men later arrived and quickly rushed the principal to the hospital and detained Mary.

Security cameras were absent so Mary could forge a story to make it look like it was self-defense. Luckily, the principal was alive but he lost his hearing and voice. Mary was scared. She did not want to go to jail. She had to think fast and smart. Suddenly, she had her excuse.

"He met me in the hallway. He said he wanted to see me. I wondered why he couldn't announce it on the PA. So I went. We were all alone, no one else. He asked me how my studies were going and I replied. Then he told me something real strange. He told me that he loved me. I was shocked. I couldn't believe my ears. I told him I didn't love him so he got angry. He dragged me to his front and tried to do things to me. He touched me in places that made me uncomfortable. He had such a firm grip on me. I tried to remove myself from his wicked grasp but I couldn't. That was when I sighted the ballpoint, and now, the rest is history" Mary said wiping tears off her cheek.

According to California's self-defence laws, a person cannot be charged or found guilty of murder or a violent crime if said action was done to protect oneself or another person. However, the conduct should be judged as "reasonable under the circumstances" and seeing as the victim was still alive, she was free to go.

Mary still had to change her school. Start a new life, without her parents. It was hard and rough, but she got by working at a bar. She made one of the meanest margaritas, hence the name. She later went to the same high school as some familiar name, and that was when she changed, for the better.