Clarissa

I woke from my fantasy at the sound of the bell.

School's over.

Hell has begun.

I slowly got up from my desk, gathered my things together, and walked out the classroom. My locker was on the other side of the school. Plenty of time to get noticed.

I kept my head down as I traveled the halls, hoping my long, frizzy black hair would hide my face.

I knew they weren't absent. I saw them this morning.

I made it to my locker with no sign of them.

Five more minutes. Give me five more minutes.

I opened my locker and packed my things. I shouldered my bag, and started heading towards the exit.

THUMP!

I was slammed back against the lockers. My shoulder ached where it made contact. I braced myself for another impact. Sure enough, it came.

THUMP!

SMACK!

My leg crumpled from being kicked. My cheek stung where I was slapped. I knew there would be a handprint shaped bruise there in the morning.

"Afternoon, m'lady." I heard several snickers at that.

"Hi, Jason."

Jason O'Conners, the most popular kid in school, and the son of the mayor. He was gorgeous, a dazzling smile, green eyes, and windswept brown hair. He wore a designer leather jacket, jeans, and sunglasses with a dark green shirt and drove the most expensive car in the universe, it looked like. Every girl in school was obsessed with him. I used to be too. I used to have fantasies about dating him. Not anymore, though. That died the moment I found out his entire bloodline was racist. And he started bullying me.

"Don't 'Hi, Jason' me. Don't you have any respect for me?"

No, you awful, horrible, sorry excuse for a human being.

"S-sorry." I stood up, leaning heavily on the lockers behind me.

"That's better." He grinned, showing off a dazzling white smile. "Now, what are you trying to hide? It better not be what I think it is."

Oh, crap.

"I-I'm not hiding an-anything."

"Oh, don't lie to me. Give me your bag."

I gripped my bag tighter. "N-no!"

His eyes narrowed, and he placed his hands on either side of my shoulders, trapping me against the lockers. "What did you say?"

I shrunk back from him. "I-I said no."

He sighed, shaking his head. "Clarissa, Clarissa, Clarissa. You know you shouldn't deny me anything I want." I braced myself, preparing for what was coming next. Jason looked over his shoulder at his posse that seemed to follow him everywhere. "You two, Collin, Nate. Hold her steady while I teach her a lesson."

The two boys stumbled over. Collin was an idiot who must have been dropped on his head when he was a baby. His black hair was greasy and his blue eyes had a dull sheen that let me know he wasn't the brightest kid in the universe. Nate though...Nate cast me a sympathetic look. I shook my head, warning him not to do anything stupid. His apologetic stare would haunt me for a long time as he and Collin both grabbed my arms, forcing me to drop my bag. Nate's grip was significantly looser than Collin's.

Jason bent over and picked up my bag. "Let's see what we've got in here." First he pulled out my wallet, and he examined it for a second before taking out the forty-three bucks that were in there and stuffing them into his pocket. He flashed me another grin while he sorted through my bag. I tried not to cry.

"Where have you hidden it, hm? I know it's in here; I saw you wearing it earlier.

Damn!

"I-I don't have it! You must've seen someone else."

He glanced back up at me, looking me over. He raised an eyebrow. "Mistake you for someone else? I doubt anyone else in the whole high school is as short and petite as you. Or as...hm, how to word it...darkly colored."

Heat rose to my cheeks. "There are other black girls in the school, y'know! Why don't you go pick on one of them and leave me alone!"

Jason laughed, but there was no humor in it. "And break off this relationship we have? No, I'm quite happy with how things are right now." Suddenly, his face split into a huge grin. My heart sank to my shoes. "Ah, here we go."

He pulled out a gorgeous pearl necklace, my pearl necklace. It's been in my family for generations. My mother gave it to me for my sixteenth birthday, just a couple weeks ago. According to her, her mother gave to her on her own sixteenth birthday. I loved it. I couldn't stand to be more than a few feet away from it, especially since my mom died in that car crash a week ago...

My resolve hardened. I fought against the boys who were holding me in place, accidentally hitting Nate in the face. Poor Nate...I'll apologize to him later. "No, put it back, it's mine, you can't have it!"

Jason's posse started laughing, while the man himself just watched me, dark amusement glittering in his venomous green eyes, my necklace pooled in his palm.

THUMP!

I stopped struggling, shocked. Jason stepped back, his arm falling back to his side. My nose was bleeding and at an awkward angle. It took a second before the pain kicked in, and I doubled over when it did. Tears streamed down my face. When I look over at Collin, he had a sadistic smile plastered on his face. I didn't even need to look at Nate to know he was struggling to keep his emotions in check. He was trembling; he wanted to run over there and beat up Jason as much as I did. Unfortunately, neither of us could. For me, because of my size, and Nate, well, he had to keep his reputation as one of Jason's 'loyal followers.'

Jason got a look on his face that made me nervous, and he pulled a Swiss Army knife from his pocket. My eyes widened, even his posse seemed nervous. They backed up a couple steps, except Nate and Collin, who were still holding my arms. Jason's eyes might as well have glowed with malice, and he tossed the knife to Nate. He caught it, surprise and nervousness written on his face.

"Cut her." Jason's voice echoed along the now long-empty hall.

"Wh-what?" Nate stuttered, fear replacing all emotion on his face.

"Cut her. Here, I'll even hold her for you." He shoved Collin back towards the group, and before I even could think of running for it, he grabbed both my arms and pinned them behind my back. Nate just stood there, looking at the weapon in his hand, horror on every feature of his face. He looked up at Jason, his glasses cracked from where I hit him, and he dropped the knife. The noise from when hit the floor echoed across the dead silent school.

"No," he said, backing up a couple steps, "No, I-I won't take any part in that."

Jason dropped me as soon as the words left Nate's mouth. I promptly sank to the ground. I'd hate to admit how much I was actually relying on those boys to hold me up, my leg still throbbing from where it was kicked.

He walked toward Nate, and Nate stumbled back a couple more steps. Jason stopped moving when he was about a foot away from the other boy. Suddenly, Jason's fist lashed out, hitting Nate square in the head. His eyes rolled back into his head, and he crumpled to the floor, out cold, his nose bleeding.

Jason walked over to where Nate dropped the knife, picked it out and walked back over to me. He held up my necklace, which was still enclosed in his fist. "I think I'll keep this, maybe sell it, or give to my girlfriend as a present." He started to turn away, before he spun back around and plunged his knife deep into my left leg. I screamed.

He slowly removed his knife from my leg, and I grit my teeth, determined not to scream again. He gave me one last smile before turning around and walking out of the school. "See you Monday, Clarissa."

As soon as he was gone I steeled my nerves and crawled toward Nate's unconscious form. The second I started moving I almost screamed again. The pain was unbearable! But I grit my teeth and kept moving, determined to get to him.

Once I reached his side I just there, panting, sweat coming in streams off my body. This whole time I had avoided looking at my leg, but with nothing else better to do, I glanced down. What I saw nearly made me pass out.

The wound wasn't that long, but it was deep. Blood was pouring out of it, and when I looked back to where I was sitting earlier I saw what might as well have been a river of blood, with a small little lake on either side. Blood was already starting to pool around me.

Nate groaned at my side and I tore my gaze away from my wound to look at him. His eyelids fluttered and opened slowly, revealing his electric blue eyes. He sat up, holding his head. "How long was I out?"

I shrugged, "A couple minutes, maybe ten. He hit you pretty hard."

Nate groaned again. "Yeah, I feel it, too. My head is pounding."

Then he saw my leg.

"Oh my God, Clarissa, what happened?"

I took a deep breath, and told him what happened after Jason knocked him out.

Nate winced visibly when after I was done. "Looks like you'll help getting home...or to a hospital."

I sighed. "Home is fine, Nate. Just...help up would you? And grab my bag."

Nate did as I asked and I prepared to start walking. He hoisted me up and I leaned heavily on him, causing him to stumble a bit.

"Whoa, there," he said, "You sure you don't want to go to a hospital?"

"Yes, I'm fine. I just don't want to get blood all over your new car."

"Don't worry about my car, Clarissa; let's just get you out of here."

"Thanks Nate, I love you."

"Love you, too," he said, kissing me on the cheek.

Nate Walker was indeed, my boyfriend. We had started dating last year, and when I had told about Jason, he immediately started buddying up with him, soon becoming one of his followers. I didn't want him to witness what sometimes would happen, but he insisted. To make sure Jason didn't go too far.

Together, we slowly made our way to his car, resting often. I could barely move without pain shooting up my body in red-hot spikes. Eventually, ever so slowly, we made it.

"Alright, in you go," Nate said as he lifted my up gently, bridal style, and placed me in the backseat. As soon as he sat me down, I think I passed out, because when I opened my eyes again, Nate was leaning over me, worry clearly defined on his face.

"You alright there, Clarissa," he asked, "You passed out for a couple minutes."

"Yeah, m'fine," I said, my words slurred, "M'just...dizzy."

I closed my eyes again and listened to Nate have a mini panic attack. Suddenly he was shaking my shoulder muttering something. I opened my eyes again, annoyed.

"Alrighty then, Clarissa? I need you to keep your eyes open. Don't fall asleep. You've lost a lot of blood, and it might be infected, so I'm gonna take you to a hospital and–"

"No," I shouted, sitting up, but immediately falling back down as black spots danced across my vision. "Just...take me home, Nate. Mike'll take care of me."

Nate paused for a moment, as if contemplating whether to obey me or not. Finally, he sighed, and said, "Alright, but if you don't call me tomorrow with an update, I am driving to your house, kidnapping you, and taking you to the hospital, got it?"

I managed a weak laugh, "Got it, now can we get moving?"

The whole drive home Nate rambled on to me about anything, Doctor Who (our favorite TV show), football, anything to keep my awake. When we finally pulled into my driveway, he was raving about how awful one particular team was.

He parked to car and went up and knocked on the front door. Exactly half a second later, my brother, Mike, opened the door.

Mike had dark skin, like me, and short, purple hair. His tattoo of a dragon was clearly visible on the side of his neck. He wore his Lakers basketball jersey overtop a black t-shirt and black sweatpants. He was also a medical student at the local college.

He and Nate talked for about thirty seconds before both came running to the car. As soon as Mike opened the door, he started listing off instructions to Nate. He looked down at me fear and worry prominent in his dark green eyes. I can't even imagine what I looked like, a gaping wound in my leg, my clothes, skin, and hair stained with my own blood. He took my hand. "It'll be alright, Clarissa, I'll fix you up, you'll be fine."

That was last thing I heard before I blacked out.