Evie sat beside Michael in the study section of the school's library during period two on Friday. It was extremely quiet, the supervising teacher happened to be Ms Spears, who was every student's least favourite teacher. Spears believed strongly in bringing back the cane and handed out detentions for breathing too loudly, so nobody was about to break the silence of that little room. The only noise was the scratch of pen on paper or the clack of the keyboard as someone typed on their laptop, and every now and then some kid up the back would daringly tap his pencil across the surface of the desk a few times, earning a sour look from the hunched over old crone in the padded armchair up the front of the room. Evie was trying to figure out how to put what she was thinking onto the page. She was practising an essay for their next topic in english. Michael passed her a note;
Eves, ask your dad if you can sleep over tonight...

She skimmed his sentence and looked up at him, confusion written all over her face. She dipped her pen towards the paper and scrawled
What? You saw what happened when you knocked on the door. What do you think he'll do if I want to go for a sleepover at your place??

She glanced up at Ms Spears. She was surveying the room grouchily, searching for a student participating in wrong doing. Just at the right moment, that kid up the back rapped his pencil repeatedly on the desk again.

"Boswell!" The teacher crowed. Evie slipped the note to Michael, who scribbled something back quickly and passed it back to her. He bent closer to his work.
Tell him you're over at Bree's. I'll just come in the car and pick you up to take you to my place.

Spears was scanning the room again now, and the kid who had been tapping his pencil coughed a couple of times.

"Detention, Boswell." Came the cracked old lady voice,

"What?!!" The boy exclaimed, "why?"

"For being- disruptive." The teacher pursed her lips and wrinkled her hooked nose.

"Aww c'mon! I coughed!"

"You were tapping the desk, Boswell. I expect to see you at lunch time, in here." She sounded like she was getting angrier.

"Ms Spears!" He protested,

"You be quiet now, you little brat, and you come back here at lunch, you hear me?" She demanded,

"Don't get your fuckin' hopes up." The kid muttered, but she heard,

"Why you- I am disgusted. I ought to wash your mouth out with soap- this is just what I've been saying. We need to bring the cane back, you'd not have such a potty mouth if it were beaten out of you!" The crone rambled, and lastly she added, "you are on detention for a week." Boswell, as she had called him, was wisely silent all of a sudden.

"Excuse me Ms Spears?" One of the girls in the row behind them stuck her hand in the air.

"Yes, darling?" The old woman's smile was oversweet and she cooed in a voice most people reserved for puppies and babies.

"Those two were just passing notes." She told her,

"Truly?" The woman turned her devil gaze upon Michael and Evie. "Then you two can join Boswell for a week of detention." She said cheerily. Michael and Evie glanced at each other, horrified.

"On what misbehaviour?" Stammered Michael.

"Cheating." She smiled down at him.

"What will we be doing?" Evie called out,

"That is for me to know and you to find out, Miss Starr. I suggest you get on with your work, before I add another week." She smiled. Evie did as was 'suggested' and put her head down.

Old bat.

Michael scrawled in the corner of his page, and elbowed Evie gently to get her attention. He thought he heard her snicker very quietly.

After study, they made their way out onto the playground for their recess break- the only break they would be having each day for a week. Michael led the way and they disappeared behind the canteen, as usual. Connor was already leaning against the wall, smoke between his fingers.

"Hey, Mike, Evie. What's been happening?" Connor greeted,

"We just scored a week of detention with the crow." Michael said, using the nickname the students had so affectionately given her.

"Oh, hell. What did you do?" Connor asked, taking a drag on his cigarette. Michael pulled his own smoke out of his pocket along with his lighter and lit up.

"Passing notes during study." Michael explained,

"A week for that?" Connor exclaimed,

"Yeah. Every lunch time for seven school days." Michael frowned deeply.

"That's bullshit." Connor stated,

"Yeah, man." Michael responded.

"And that Dean Boswell guy got it too, because he was tapping his pencil on the desk and then coughed." Evie added, tapping her foot in an agitated fashion against the concrete.
At lunchtime...

After an hour of English, Michael made his way outside and around behind the canteen block to have his cigarette and skip out on his detention. Evie turned up outside the study hall, because she didn't want to get into more trouble then she was already in.

The crow turned up only a minute later, and gazed hungrily upon her only volunteer, for that's what Evie felt like as the old bat slowly turned the key in the lock to open the study room door. Upon the desk at the very front of the classroom was 3 pairs of rubber gloves, a dustpan and brush and 3 butter knives.

"You are to scrape the gum off the undersides of desks, Starr. You are free to go when every single desk is clean." Ms Spears smiled evilly at her, Evie cringed and picked up a pair of the rubber gloves.

"Pity you're the only one that turned up. I was going to have the other two help you, but I suppose you will do." She told Evie cheerfully.

Evie began her task, and quickly learned that gum was harder then she first realised and she swore that the next asshole she saw sticking gum to the underside of their desk would be forced at gun point by her to scrape all of the gum off that desk with their teeth. Obviously, this was an empty threat. Evie didn't own a gun or know where to get one, but that's how she felt as she attempted to chip all of the gum away as quickly as possible so that she might have some portion of her lunch. She could only hope that Michael and that Dean Boswell kid got sorely punished for not enduring this.

Evie was on her last peice of gum when the bell went for maths. She stabbed at it twice more and it fell off into the dustpan. The crow sidled towards her and smirked crookedly.

"You are dismissed, Starr. I expect your presence on Monday. Or else." The demon woman snarled, making a cold shiver run down Evie's spine. She was pretty satisfied that Michael would pay for his not turning up. She walked as fast as she could out of there before the hag changed her mind about letting her go, and made her way to maths class.

"Nice to see you." She snapped, flopping into her seat beside Michael,

"Wow, what did she make you do?" He seemed stunned by her attitude,

"I had to scrape the gum from the underside of every table in the study room- with a butter knife!" She glared at her desk. "And the next person I see putting their gum there will have it shoved up there ass by me personally." Evie added angrily.

"Ha!" Michael laughed once, smiling broadly. "You missed out, you know."

"What do you mean?" She questioned as she dragged her excercise book out of her bag.

"I mean there was a fight in the quad and you were scraping gum off desks so you missed it." Michael told her gleefully,

"Aww what?!" She whined, "who was it?!"

"Janie and some younger kid. She kicked his fucking ass too." Michael chuckled,

"What? Why didn't you tell me sooner? Where is she? Is she home?" Evie said very quickly,

"She's suspended. " that was enough for Evie. Her father would have beaten her to a bloody heap by now and left her for dead. Fuck.

The class couldn't have been slower. Evie stared straight ahead, her hands in fists. When the bell finally did ring, she hurried to get her bag packed up and get to the bus. Michael dropped into the seat beside her.

"Babe, chill." He murmered as the bus jolted into motion.

"Chill?" She stared at him, incredulous. He looked back at her, grabbed her hand and rubbed comforting circles on her skin. When she didn't calm down, Michael put an arm around her shoulder and pulled her close for a hug. She melted into him, but it was impossible for all tension to leave her body.

"It's gonna be okay." Michael's soft voice soothed her.

When the bus stopped, Michael leaned down and kissed her softly.

"Now remember to ask your dad about sleeping at Bree's." He said,

"Bye, Michael."

"See ya, sweetie!" He replied calmly.

Evie walked inside to an oddly silent house. She made her way slowly from room to room, waiting to find her sister in a mess on the floor. She had made her way through almost every room so far, and still had not found her. She was starting to really worry, when she heard her father's gruff voice from behind her, which made her freeze.

"Looking for something?" He taunted. Evie turned, her father dropped her sister, and she bolted to catch her before she hit the floor. Making it just in time, Evie lowered her gently. Janie's right eye was puffy and bruised black, her skin was broken in places and bruises covered her body. She had a split lip and her torn shirt hung from one shoulder, barely intact. Janie wasn't wearing pants or a skirt, or anything at all on her bottom half. It was bear and stark blood had made its way down her legs. Janie was sobbing.

"I hurt everywhere, Evie!" She gasped,

"I know, I know!" Evie was crying too. "What has he done?!"

"He beat me- alot- kicked me down the stairs, then he grabbed me by the hair and dragged me to his bedroom." She cried into Evie's lap,

"Oh, no- tell me he didn't-" Evie trailed off, fearing the very mention of it.

"No- no." Janie shook her head. "It wasn't him, Evie."

"Then who-" there was a deep chuckle from behind her, and she turned to see a massively built man standing there wearing nothing, penis standing erect.

"You stay away from her!" Evie exclaimed, placing a hand gently on her sister's shoulder.

"And what would you do?" He asked, Evie felt herself being lifted away from Janie, and her father held her arms behind her back. She swore, and kicked at him to no avail. She felt the cool bands fasten around one of her wrists, meaning he'd handcuffed her, and her father easily dragged her back towards the door, where he latched the other cuff to the handle. Evie couldn't watch. She shut her eyes, but she could still hear her sister screaming and crying, the big man's grunts and her father's quiet encouragements as he masturbated in the corner to his own daughter's rape.

When they finally finished and the big man was taken downstairs by their father, Evie opened her eyes, which were blurry with tears.

"Janie?" She called out quietly,

"E-Evie!!" She sobbed, "I hurt so bad!" Those words only made Evie cry harder.

"I know- I'm so sorry!" Evie cried

"Why?" Janie questioned, "y-you didn't do this" she stuttered

"No. But I couldn't stop him." Evie explained sadly.

"It is not your fault!" The bleeding girl insisted. She lay on the floor, hair sprawled out beneath her and the inside of her legs covered in her own blood, some of it dried. She was spent, covered in bruises and blood, and yet she found the strength to comfort Evie. Janie struggled to sit up. She turned toward Evie, beaten and bloodied.

"Sometimes I feel like I can't go on, I'm suffocating, almost." She placed a hand on her chest, "but then I remember that without me here, that bastard that we call a father would have nobody left to torture except you, Evie; and I remind myself of all the good times you and I had, and it gives me the strength to get up again." Janie confessed, "maybe all I'm good for's a punch bag, but I should at least be a good punch bag."

"You're so much more then that, Janie!" Evie exclaimed. Janie shook her head,

"Just hug me, sister." She scooted towards Evie, and Evie pulled her into a gentle, yet firm, hug.

"I love you."

"I love you too, Janie!"