Savage Love

Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Naya Santiago’s Point of view:

*At the school at 8.30 PM*

I reached school after almost 20 minutes of the train raid. After getting out of the metro station, I always have to walk for 10 minutes and then I reach school. Right now, I had just reached my school, and was walking towards the school building. It is so fun to finally be back at school!! After entering the school building, I went directly towards my locker and opened it. It was a bit dusty, so I took out my wet tissue and cleaned it, after which I put some of my things inside the locker and arranged it.

“HEY NINI!! INCOMING!!” I heard Alice, my best friend, scream and saw her running towards me. When Alice was near me, she just hugged me tightly.

“OH!! Too tight!! Too tight!!” I patted her back as it was a little difficult to breathe. Alice always gives a tight, bone crushing hug. As soon as I told her that she was hugging tightly, she relaxed and loosened, after which I hugged her.

“I missed you so much, Alli!!,” I said as I hugged her back.

“Me Too!! Come let us go to our class, and I will tell you everything about my French vacation!!” Alice said to me as she pulled me towards our class room. On our way to our class room, Alice told me everything she did in France. Actually, this summer vacation, Alice went to visit her aunt, who works in France.

A little bit of information about my best friend Alice.

So, Alice’s full name is Alice Merrick. She is our principal, Matilda Merrick's daughter. Our principal, Mrs. Matilda became our principal when I was in 6th grade. So, along with Mrs. Matilda Merrick, Alice joined our school. At first, everybody used to stay away from Alice, because she was the principal's daughter and thought she would snitch about us to her mom. But in a month, it turns out, she was a big trouble maker in the school. She is technically always in detention.

Alice is a really great girl. Many thought she would be the girl who has a hell lot of attitude, but she proved all of them wrong. She is the most fun loving, chit chatty, enthusiastic person ever. Also, she is the rebel of our high school, of course within limits.

We both became friends because she decided that she would skip class and go to the cafeteria during the class hours, with my ID card. Well, our Science teacher, Mrs. D’cruz caught her and she got the detention, and since she had my ID card, Mrs. D’cruz gave me a detention as well. Her reasoning was that I was irresponsible to lose my ID card. So, we had to spend my very first, and only one, detention together, over which we both bonded, and now here we are!!

“So, Aunt had almost convinced me to stay back in France. She had even arranged some school interviews for me. She had planned everything for me to get settled there. I was so close to accepting her offer, but then I remembered that I would not have you over there. And without my best friend, high school would be completely incomplete for me. So, I declined my aunt's offer and here I am!!” Alice said, and told me everything she did in France.

“Good that you declined the offer, else I would have come to France and kicked your perfect ass back here.” I said and laughed. Alice joined me and laughed.

“I know right!! I told my aunt the same thing, that you would come there and kick my beautiful ass in front of everyone. Anyways, what did you do this holiday? Anything special?” Alice said as she laughed and then asked me about how I spent my holiday.

“Well, obviously my holidays were not as interesting as yours. Just like all the other holidays, I worked full time at the play school. It was nice as usual. Now I even get the opportunity to babysit kids during weekdays. Nancy told me that many parents asked if I could take care of them in the evenings sometimes, at my house. They even offered to pay me an extra 50 dollars per hour, along with the fee, which is 20 dollars and if they wanted to leave the kid for the whole night, it would be 100 dollars for a day. Almost 5 to 8 parents made the same offer. So, I decided that I will be open to babysit kids at my house after 6 PM, because, by then, I will finish all the school related work and will be completely free to babysit. Mom even agreed to allow me to use our guest bedroom as a kids' room for babysitting purposes. I am so excited!!” I said, telling Alice everything.

“Damn girl!! 70 dollars an hour, that is so great!! I think I should start to babysit now!! But are you sure that you can manage kids along with school?” Alice said, and then asked me.

“To be honest, I don’t know. But I hope I can,” I said to her as we entered our class room.

“Well, also, what if the parents take advantage of you allowing the kids to have sleepovers and leave the kid at your house for a whole week?” Alice said and asked me.

“Mom and I had the same worries. So, I will only be accepting to babysit the kids from 6 PM to 8 PM and sleepovers are only allowed on Fridays and Saturdays, so the parents should inform me at least two days prior to it. If they want to have a sleepover between Sunday and Thursday, they will have to pick up the kids the next day before 6.30 AM. Nancy had made a small contract which had all these things written on it, which the parents, who wanted me to babysit their kids, had to sign. Also, if the kids damaged any of my house property, the parents would have to pay compensation for it. So, I think I am safe,” I said to Alice, and explained everything to her.

“Then that is great!! Call me if you need any help, okay!! But I will charge you. How about 15 dollars per hour of my help?” Alice said to me with a mischievous grint on her face.

“That sounds great!! I will call you whenever I want your help then!! This will be so fun!!” I said to her with a wide smile. She too was excited about this.

“Sure it will be!!” Alice said and was jumping in excitement. After that, we sat in the front corner seat near the window. We sit there mainly because of two reasons. One being me not wanting to be noticed by others and the other being Alice not wanting the teachers to ask her questions. I always sit in the fourth seat and Alice sits in the third seat, right in front of me. There are four or five more seats behind me, so I can say that I sit in the middle.

“Hey, you know I have some news actually,” Alice says to me as she turns around to face me. I looked up and raised my eyes, asking her what it was.

“Well, my mom was saying that we are having two new students coming to our school this year!! I am just wondering who those two are going to be. You know, mom is not even telling me who they are. I asked her like a thousand times!! But she would not even tell me!! I just hope whoever these two are, they are not like the meanie squad.” Alice said to me.

“Wait!! Wait!! Wait!! What 'meanie squad'?” I asked in confusion.

“Uggrr….. I keep forgetting that you think that our school does not have any bullies!!” Alice says to me as she rolls her eyes and groans. What is she talking about? Our school does not have any bullies!!

“What are you talking about!? Our school does not have any bullies. Everybody is really nice in our school.” I said to Alice, trying to correct her. She just rolled her eyes at me.

“Seriously, how can you be so naive? Our school is filled with bullies!!” Alice says and sits down facing me. She kind of looked serious, but what she was saying could not be the truth. I have been in this school since 3rd grade. I basically know all of the people in this school, and I don’t think any of these kids could be bullies.

“Alice, I have known these people since 3rd grade. I don’t think any of them can bully anyone. Like seriously, tell me one incident of bullying. I bet you will not be able to.” I said, trying to defend basically everyone.

“First of all, people change when they grow up and many students change completely after 6th grade. There are literally categories among students. And secondly, about the proof. Do you remember, Siana?” Alice said and asked me about Siana. Yes, I knew Siana. She was our classmate until last year. Her family shifted to her mom’s town in Minnesota. What about her? Siana was a really quiet girl. She was not the smartest kid in school, but I can say she was an average student, academically. I remember she was the first one in our batch to get braces and also, she had them even last year. I remember her telling me that her dentist told her that they would take off her braces once she is 18 years old. I heard that she left because her mom got a good job opportunity in Minnesota.

“Yes, I remember Siana. She left last year, because her mom got a good job in Minnesota. What does bullying have to do with her?” I said and asked Alice. By now, everyone was in the class, waiting for Mr. Thomas, our maths teacher, to come.

“Well, Siana’s mom got the job in Minnesota because she was job hunting there. And the reason for her to go job hunting in Minnesota is because Siana was getting bullied here. Trust me. This school is just like all the other schools. Just here the students have managed to keep a low profile about the bullying, which makes it hard for the teachers to get proof about the bullying. But then again, some teachers know everything,” Alice said to me and she looked really angry right now. Wow!! I can not believe what she is saying.

Was Siana actually getting bullied?

How come I had not noticed anything wrong?

Why did she not say anything ? We could have helped.

“Wow!! I … I don’t know what to say. s**t!! That is so bad!! I hope I can see her again in the future. I feel bad for her,” I said softly, not knowing what else to say.

“Yeah, even I feel bad for her. I just hope that she is safe and happy in Minnesota. I wish I knew who was the person who bullied her. But I have my suspicions on some people.” Alice said, and when she said the last sentence, she glared at the people who were sitting behind me and the people sitting behind me were the popular kids of our school.

Why is she glaring at them?