Virgin Mary

|3| The empress is dark

"Miss me?"

I ignored her snarky remark as best as I could.

She leaned in closer to me.

"What's your name, boy?"

I didn't know whether to answer or not. I looked at Sakura and her eyes pleaded me to answer Nicole's question. I kinda froze. That's what I usually do when attractive girls talk to me, which is usually almost never.

"I think I asked you a question." She demanded.

"Ethan Reed."

She then sat back and looked forward in thought.

We spent the rest of the lesson feeling nothing but awkward tension. Okay, I was the only one feeling it, I don't know what she felt because she casually sat there, observing her claws.

Soon I got distracted arguing with myself on which superman movie is best.

A few minutes out of the lesson she turned to me and with the utmost casual tone, she dared to tell me these words.

"Okay, here's the deal. You're my b***h now, you got it?"

"What?" I said almost choking on her words.

"Shush." She shut me up with her fingers on my lips. "I'll make it known to everyone during lunch." She donated a cynical grin right before walking away.

I looked to Sakura. "What the heck did that mean?"

"What?"

"She said I'm her b***h now."

"Eek!" She let out a high pitched sound. Everyone in the almost empty room looked at her.

"She said that?" Her face faded colour. "You, my friend, are in deep s**t. I'm talking knee deep."

She said before she carried her army backpack out the door.

I didn't understand why, but I had a feeling that she was right.

___________________________________________________✍️

I was dreading every passing minute because of what Nicole had said.

I'll make it known to everyone during lunch.

I was still confused but I knew that nothing good would came out of it.

I remember how I shivered when the bell rang for lunch. I was scared to step into the cafeteria, even though there wasn't any sign of her anywhere. I know because I checked multiple times.

"Feeling rattled?" Sakura compassionately stated, looking at my distressed expression.

I nodded.

"Good, you should be."

"What's her deal?" I said, but anxiously looked around to make sure the empress of darkness wasn't around.

"She does this every year. She often chooses someone to do her biding for her."

"Like a slave?"

"Yeah, that's a nice way to put it."

"But why me?"

She shrugged. "Nobody knows for sure. It's always been like this."

"I think I should report her, I'm spooked."

"Ethan, please. Around here, she's the law."

"I think I'm going to cry." I said clutching my stomach.

"Yeah. Like that's the smartest thing to do right now."

"Stop with your sarcasm and help me."

"I'm afraid there's nothing I can do. There's nothing anyone can do. Sorry buddy. But some advice, the more obedient you are, the better you'll be treated."

"And that means?"

"I mean if you're on her good side, you get privileges. All access hallway passes. Free food during lunch that's actually edible. General good treatment from both teachers and students. Respect."

"That doesn't sound too bad."

"But that has only worked out well for one person. Kevin Cooper, he really had it going for him. But after that, everybody that came after him since then..."

"It was horrible right?"

"Yep. It always starts out good for them. But after a semester, or a month, sometimes even a week, things go bad."

"So I'm basically dead meat?"

"Yeah, but not at the moment I hope. Remember that she's a bully."

I shiver.

"Just do as she tells you and you'll be fine, trust me."

"Sue, what are you doing here in here? Trent brought his special Sloppy Joe's." A short tomboy girl called for her.

"Yay!" Sakura quickly squealed.

"Oh, hey dude." The tomboy girl greeted. "The name's Dylan."

"I'm Ethan." I say before they set for the table. "But you can call me dead." I mumbled the last bit.

I sat over with Sakura's friends. I was way too uneased to enjoy lunch or to even comprehend what was happening around me.

All I could see was Nicole, sitting in what I suppose is the popular kids section.

She continuously rolled her eyes at Chase, probably from all the dumb things he was probably saying.

I looked at her busy black tee that had a wild disease-stricken dog on it.

I looked at her long tar black hair, that fell in ruler straight lines down her shoulders. Although it was strictly straight, it still had volume and a shine to it.

Her face was pale and her cheeks were reddish from the late summer heat.

I looked at the curl of her eyelashes, and underneath them lay impressive hazel Brown eyes. One of the most impressive eyes made known to me.

For a moment, I forgot about my fears and I just observed her. Her movements, her gestures and I thought...

Wow, this girl is a stunner.

She caught me staring, I was a second too late to look away and when our eyes met, it's like she'd remembered our appointment from hell.

She stood up and began walking in my general direction.

No she's not walking towards me. There's so many things she could walk too, the wall behind me, the trash can...

Oh forget it, she's obviously walking towards me.

My body was set to a panic. She was heading towards me. I didn't know what to do with my hands or my elbows. I wondered why the room was hotter and suddenly, she picked me up my the collar. An evil grin drawn on her face.

"Okay, listen up assholes." She shouted through the noisy cafeteria which immediately turned pin drop silent.

"Look at this face right here." She groped my hair. Hard. My eyes stung from the pain and I tried hard not to shed tears. Not while everyone stared at me. "He's my b***h, you all hear that?"

She continued with grabbing me by my hair, staring right at my pain ridden face. I was embarrassed that she looked at me straight in the face when my face was that shade of red.

She smirked, and she let go of my head.

She walked slowly up back to the table, looked back at me offered me a smile that was forever etched in my mind.

A crude...

Horrendous...

And utterly evil smile.