“LETTERS”

The day until training passed without any inconvenience.

I slammed the door of my locker, locking my clothes inside. I was wearing a blue- white cheerleader outfit. Ashley was in a restroom that was next to the cloakroom. The cheerleader was standing in front of the mirror and braiding her long blonde hair into a high braid. She has been already wearing the cheerleader outfit, so when she joined me, she stood next to me and waited patiently for me to tie my sneakers. I was very impressed that a teenager who wear high heels practicly everyday, was able to perform various cartwheels and other gymnastic figures without twisting an ankle. When we left the cloakroom we joined the girls who had gathered on the square in front of the school. The day of the match was approaching and we were supposed to perform our dance routine before the game. Thats why for the last week my sister has put emphasis on longer and more demanding workouts. We were about to start rehearsing when I saw that one of the cheerleaders came to Beth with anger written on her face. The cheerleader was Lucy Lake and from the expression on her face I could deduce that she found out from her little sister what had happened in the corridor before class. ”Hurt my sister again and I will kill you! Stay away from Lisa! ” Black-haired girl screamed while hitting Beth in the face. When the cheerleading captain looked back at Lake, I saw that she had fury in her eyes. Ashley was instantly at my sisters side checking if she is okay. At the same time I was trying to calm Lucy down, trying to stop the fight before it could actually start. However, as soon as I got close to the girl, the teenager pushed me. I lost my balance and fell to the ground. Before I could get up, the girls were already fighting, pushing, screaming and hitting each other. Only a few girls tried to separate them. The rest either looked or recorded the entire event on their phones. After a while, a football team who was training on the pitch next to us, appeared at the scene. Tommy emerged from the crowd surrounding the brawl and attacked Lucy immediately, defending his girlfriend. I was terrified to see the football player straddling the African-American girl lying on the ground, hitting her in the face. Suddenly I heard the scream behind me. It was a boy with red hair and fair skin. I recognized that it was Lakes friend, Roy.

”Hey! Leave her alone! ” He screamed and lunged at Tommy, freeing Lucy. The footballers rolled over the grass. The fight continued for a few more minutes until the PE teacher, who appeared in the crowd of onlookers, stoped it.

”This is enough! ” He screamed and whistled his whistle that was hanging on a string around his neck. The teenagers froze looking at the the bald man in tracksuit. Teacher looked around. The place looked a bit like if it has been a hurricane. Tufts of grass had been torn out and lay scattered on the ground. Lucy Lake was still lying on the ground, blood oozing from her nose and cut eyebrow, smearing the girls pretty face and sticking her black hair together. My sister didn look any better. Her white and blue cheerleader outfit was green or red in several places, stained with grass and blood. The strap of the outfit was torn, and the usually pretty blonde hair was in disarray. A bruise was already forming on her cheek. Tommy and Roy were equally bruised and covered in the blood of their opponent. Me and a few other girls who were trying to separate fighting people with me, also had a mess of our hair. I felt that I would have a big bruise on my thigh tomorrow. Of our clique, only Ashley looked the same as before.

”Okay. Lucy Lake to the nurse. The rest go to the principals office. Now! ” PE teacher yelled at us and a few seconds later I was walking to the headteacher with the other teenagers.

”Hey. Are you okay? Are you hurt? ” Ashley, who was walking beside me, asked ”I have a hairbrush and a straightener in my bag if you want to do something with your hair. ” She added with a small smile.

”Its ok. I think Beth was hurt much more. She looks worse than me. ” I said looking at her face.

”You have salt on your face, ” I said, frowning my eyebrows in surprise.

”Seriously? ” She looked at me worriedly and started wiping her mouth. ”I was eating peanuts and I thought I had wiped everything off. ”

I stopped and looked at the blonde with what the ** is wrong with you? look.

”Did you eat peanuts during the fight? ” I asked with disbelief in my voice.

”I didn have popcorn. And it was such a good show, I had to eat something, ” she said with a laugh. ”By the way, I have all of it recorded on my smartphone, so you can see that Lake started it. Maybe if we show it to the principal, it will be fine and we won be punished. ” She said and picked up the pace, catching up with the rest.

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Beth left the office slamming the door, nearly slapping it in the face of Roy. My sister, Roy, Tommy and Lucy were punished and had to stay after school. Thanks to the video recorded by Ashley, I wasn punished because the director said that I was just trying to help and separate the girls.

”This mean bitch will pay for it! ” You could tell Beth was pissed. Her voice spread across the hallway so probably even students in clasroom could hear her. ”Ill kick her off the team. Shell see Im not worth messing with! ”

”Beth, I know you
e angry but itll only be one hour after school. You can do it ” Ashley tried to calm my sister down but her attempts ended as nothing as the teenagers words only irritated her more.

”You say that because you weren punished! You didn help kick her ass like a good friend would do. You just stood there and made that stupid video! ” Beth cried out with tears in her eyes as she looked at Ashley. She looked at me when she spoke the next sentence.

”Just leave me both alone. ” I watched my sister when she turned around, walked down the hall, and then disappeared around the corner. The rich teenage girl looked at me. I looked back at her and sighed.

”Maybe we should wait for her after class and than come back home together when she finish detention ” The girl nodded her head in agreement.

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In biology, I sat on a bench with Ashley. The topic of the lesson was the circulatory system. We were supposed to work in pairs and do a task on the piece of paper. Than at the end of the lesson we were supposed to give it to the teacher for evaluation. My partner knew surprisingly a lot about blood system. Ashley was just writing on a piece of paper the difference between arteries and veins when her phone, like the others in the classroom, made a notification sound. She stopped what she had been doing and picked up the device. Her eyes widened as she read the message.

”Oh ** ”

”What? ” I asked, curious what happened. ”Look, ” she said and handed me the phone. I grabbed her smartphone that was in a glitter etui and looked on the screen. I saw a dark skinned girl topless. Lucy Lake is a slut was written underneath the picture. I immediately picked up my phone, only to be sure that I also got the message like probably the rest of the school.

”You think its Beth? ” Ashleys voice was anxious. I could see that she was hoping that my sister have nothing to do with it. But I knew Beth and that when she is angry, she is ruthless.

”Yes. Im one hundred percent sure. ” I answered the blondes question wondering what my sister was doing.

”Whats Beth doing? Where did she even get that photo? ” Ashley looked at me asking questions that both of us were wondering.

”I don know. But its probably revenge for having to stay after school. ” For the next half hour, Ashley was doing our work, and I was writing to my sister trying to understand what she was doing. I was telling teenager everything I have found out, but unfortunately I did not find out much. My sister only replied that Lucy deserved what happened to her.

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I was just finishing my math homework. Ashley and I were sitting in the stands in the gymnasium and from time to time we were looking at the boys who were playing football. We decided to stay after school and wait for Beth to finish detention. We knew she was pissed at us for not helping her beat Lucy, and we didn want to upset her any more. During this hour, I did my chemistry and math homework, and Ashley, who had already done it, was browsing through Instagram. I looked at my watch and saw that our time was up. We gathered our things, the blonde took one last look at the running athletes and we headed towards the biology class where Beth was. Because the classroom was on the 3rd floor, we started climbing the stairs.

When we were on the first floor, we heard a bang. Both Ashley and I looked up but saw nothing. I felt something fall on my face. When I raised my hand to my forehead and wiped it, I saw that the thing that had fallen on it was red liquid. Ashleys eyes widened as she realized what it was. Our heads jerked up again when we heard two screams. I recognized the voices. One belonged to Tommy. The second one to my sister. We ran up the stairs. Soon the gray color of the stairs turned red. There was blood everywhere, streaming down the steps. Tommy Birmingham was lying on the stairs. As soon as I saw the bone sticking out of the boys leg, I turned around. I was terrified and the sight of the injury made me feel sick. Ashley rushed to the boy and took her pink scarf from her bag. Then she placed it on the wound trying to stop the bleeding. Roy and Lucy were also standing on the stairs besides us. Beth was crying as she sat next to her boyfriend in a pool of blood.

”Lucy, call an ambulance. Tell paramedics to come here as soon as possible. Raven, please help Beth calm down. ” Said Ashley with a calm voice while she sat beside Tommy with her hands on the wound. I walked over to the sobbing teen, trying not to look at Tommy, and hugged her.

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I don exactly remember the following hours. Everything is foggy. I remember Tommy and Beths screams, ambulance arrival, drive to hospital, long hours in the waiting room. When we arrived at the hospital, my sister began to tell the story with a weak voice.

”I was so angry. I posted this stupid photo because I wanted Lucy to regret messing with me. But then Roy got pissed. After we left the class, he started shouting at me that I had hurt his friend. I ignored him and headed for the stairs. I just had enough of the day and wanted to go home. Then Roy grabbed my hand and yanked me. When Tommy saw this, he got furious. He hit Roy. They started to push. And then Roy pushed him a little too hard and Tommy fell down… ” Beth swallowed and sobbed.

”He has a sports scholarship. And he was trying to get a scholarship in college. And now I don even know if hell be able to play football. And even if, it won be anytime soon. ” The teenager rested her head on my shoulder and began to cry. I hugged her, trying to provide support. I kept silent, not knowing what to say because the words everything is going to be fine sounded fake and out of place. After another few hours, the doctor came and let my sister come in to see the boy. While Beth was in Tommys room, one question popped up in my head. What the **? I didn know what happened, but the letter I received foretold the future. I started to wonder who the envelope sender was and how they knew it was going to happen. I stoped my reflections beacuse I noticed that Beth had left the room. The doctor told her that the boy had to rest, so she couldn stay in the room any longer.

Ashley drove us home in Beths car. We took my sister to her room and put her to bed. We left and closed the door, letting the teenager drift off into the embrace of morpheus. I escorted the blonde to the door, thanking for help. There was already a car in front of the house for which the teenager had called earlier. Before the girl left, she turned to me.

”I have a manicurist appointment in an hour. I have Tommys blood under my fingernails and I need to get rid of it. But in general, I wanted to say that you can always call me if you need help. I wish it wasn the next two hours, but even if, Ill come. I mean if you call me and you need a friend even in the middle of night, you can count on me. Same goes for Beth, of course. ”

”Thanks Ashley, ” I said with a weak smile. We hugged each other and said our goodbyes and then the girl left. I locked the door and went upstairs. I dreamed of going to bed and forgetting everything about this terrible day. However, when I entered my room, I knew immediately that this day was going to be even worse. There was a white envelope on the pillow on my bed.