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  "So, April, I think this is some quite substantial evidence that contradicts pretty much everything you said happened that day, don't you?"

  April didn't answer. She didn't even bother breaking eye contact with Alexis to acknowledge that he'd spoken. April's rudeness didn't faze McNeil, he was used to moody teenagers getting caught in a lie.

  "Mr and Mrs Hale, in light of this new evidence I don't believe that I have a choice but to suspend April for three days. This will be an in-school sus-"

  "What about her? She threatened me!"

  Mr McNeil took a deep breath through his nose, his eyes narrowing in barely contained frustration.

  "Miss Hale. As per the interviews I conducted with your classmates, not a single one of them can corroborate your claims that Alexis threatened you, and seeing as every aspect of your story has been pulled into question, I find myself inclined to believe that you are once again making up stories so as to get yourself out of trouble. Now, I think it's time I show Mrs Angelo and Alexis out. Please remain here. We have more to discuss."

  The Hales were beyond the point of caring what their daughter had to say, as Carmen and Alexis grabbed their things Alexis could hear April being berated by her parents for lying about everything. She almost felt sorry for the hell spawn.

  Almost.

  Mr McNeil opened the door for the mother and daughter and followed them out into the hall, closing the door behind him. That didn't stop April from glaring at Alexis through the wall of windows. Alexis had won both this round and the last, but the look in April's eyes promised that there would be a round three.

  "I'm so sorry that your day has been interrupted by this nonsense, and I apologise for the abrupt exit, but I wanted to save you both from what I'm sure is going to be a very tedious conversation."

  "That's quite alright Rob, and please call me Carmen. I'm just glad that you went to so much effort to find the truth rather than just punishing Alexis on that child's word alone."

  Alexis smirked through the window at April before turning her back on the conference room.

  "Yes, I really appreciate it Mr McNeil." Something Alexis had learned from watching her parents interact with people over the years, when they do something to help you, no matter how small or insignificant, you show your gratitude for that act. The more gratitude you show, the more willing they are to help you in the future. It was something very simple to grasp, but it made the world of difference in the long run.

  "Alexis, you have been a model student and I have been given absolutely no reason to suspect that what April said was true. Now, I must let you both go. Alexis, I hope to not see you in my office anytime soon." He gave her a smile to show he was joking and she gave him a small nod in return. Mr McNeil walked them the short distance back to the main reception area, and after speaking softly with Mrs Poole, bid them goodbye again and went back to the conference room to deal with the Hales.

  ◆◆◆

  Ten minutes later Carmen and Alexis were driving home. When they went back through reception Mrs Poole had told them that Mr McNeil had excused Alexis from the rest of the school day, his way of apologising for the 'inconvenience'. He was also probably trying to minimise the chances of the entire eleventh grade knowing about what went down in the office conference room before lunch.

  "Well hun, I've gotta say, you getting called in to the principal’s office gave me an amazing reason to cancel my coffee plans with your aunt. Love the woman, I really do..." Carmen trailed off.

  "But she drives you insane when you have to interact with her on your own?"

  "Mmhmm, exactly. Now, it's almost eleven, so why don't we get some brunch before we go home?"

  "Mum, I did it." Alexis didn't know why she said it, she wasn't planning on telling anyone the truth about her involvement in April's disfiguring. She hadn't even started feeling guilty about it until now, and even then, she didn't feel guilty about actually doing it. She just felt guilty about her mum thinking she hadn't.

  "And what pray tell, is it that you did?" There was an amused smile on her mum's face, and Alexis wondered how long she could keep her mum looking happy. "Lexis, you've got stalling face, what did you do?"

  "It. April's face. I caused it." Alexis watched her mum like a hawk, waiting for the anger to show.

  When her mum started talking again, there was no sign of anger or disappointment, just more amusement. "Well I don't think you can be blamed for that. I'm quite certain her parents had more to do with that than you do."

  Alexis was confused for a second, unsure what her mum was on about, she was too focused on confessing her physical violence against another person.

  "What? Mum, no, that's not what I meant."

  "Yes honey, I know what you meant, and I know."

  "You know what? I'm so confused."

  Carmen held back her laugh. She loved driving her daughter crazy. It was one of the few joys she was able to get on a regular basis.

  "I know that the further disfiguring of that girls face was something that you played a part in."

  Alexis couldn't hide the shock she was feeling. "But if you knew then why..." she trailed off, not quite sure how to ask the question without throwing herself into the fire.

  "I didn't know what was going on until Mr McNeil explained it this morning. At first I thought that maybe you were telling the truth about having nothing to do with it. Then I heard what that demon child was saying about Emilia and I knew that you wouldn't just stand by and let someone hurt a friend like that, and definitely not your best friend."

  "I tried to stay out of it mum. I swear. Em made me promise not to get involved and I tried. It was one thing when all she was doing was running her mouth, but then she actually put her hands on Em, and I wanted to kill her." It felt good for Alexis to finally get it out and to tell someone. There were still no signs of anger on her mum's face, no disappointment either. She stayed quiet for another minute, not wanting to say anything else that might provoke a negative reaction.

  "Do you feel bad that you did it?"

  "No." There was no need to think about it. The words were out of Alexis' mouth before she could even pretend to give it some thought.

  "So you don't feel guilty about sending that girl to the hospital where she had to get stitches in her face because you somehow caused her to fall and split her chin open?"

  "No, I don't. It was one thing to be saying all that crap to Em, but then she went and actually started physically harassing her. That was it, I was done. I only felt guilty that you didn't know and that you thought I was completely innocent. I don't care what those assholes at that school say or do to me, but they don't get to attack my friends and get away with it."

  They stopped at a red light just before hitting the main shopping complex, which gave Carmen a chance to look at her daughter. Alexis was looking back at her, a look in her eye that Carmen had never seen in her daughter before but recognised all too well. She didn't condone violence for the sake of violence, and she certainly didn't want her daughter going around knocking in the head of every bully at that school. But she was proud of Alexis all the same. She stood up for someone who couldn't or wouldn't stand up for themselves.

  "Good. Now, you never answered me about brunch."

  Chapter 7

  For most of Friday Alexis was able to avoid the speculative looks and whispered conversations. After all she'd been dealing with it for most of her life, what was another day? It wasn’t until after lunch when Alexis was in the library for study period that she had the misfortune of overhearing a conversation between three girls about April.

  "Talk about a double whammy, splitting your own face open and getting in-school suspension," the first girl said.

  "Bitch had it coming." The voice of the second girl sounded more familiar, but Alexis couldn’t quite place it.

  "Well yeah, she's awful but come on."

  "No, she's not just awful, she's actually the devil. You just haven't been on the receiving end of her crap."


  "She's right. God, I actually wish that April's story about Alexis being the one to make her fall had been true. Totally wouldn't have blamed her," the third girl piped in.

  "Look, I'm not saying that she didn't deserve to be punished in some way, but I just don't think that physical violence is the way to go."

  "Hun, we're not talking about physical violence, though April did start it when she put her hands on Emilia. But April fell all on her own. It was like God himself decided he'd had enough of her bullshit."

  The three girls laughed softly.

  "Yeah, I guess you're right. If anyone hurt you girls I'd be furious. I wouldn't stop at chin splitting."

  "Ahh... No! You wouldn't hurt a fly and you know it."

  Before the trio of girls could continue their argument over who was the most protective amongst them, a short bell sounded signally the end of the period. Alexis gathered up her books and brushed past the girls.

  "Oh shit-"

  "Was she-"

  "Did you kn-"

  Their guilty whispers were swallowed up by the sound of the two dozen students in the library heading to their next class.

  Unfortunately Alexis couldn't get their conversation out of her head. She spent the next fifty-five minutes in a daze, absentmindedly making notes that she would later find out was unintelligible scribble.

  Alexis' absentmindedness didn't go unnoticed by Emilia. When Mrs Lesch told them to pair up and quiz each other for the test next week, Emilia had expected Alexis to slide into the seat next to her, but when she looked behind her, her friend just sat there staring down at her text book. It wasn't even open.

  Emilia moved over to her, trying to initiate a conversation, but she might as well have not been there at all.

  In Alexis' defence, she was completely unaware of her surroundings. There was something about what those girls had said in the library. How they'd been so ready to accept that April deserved to be disfigured. That for everything she'd done and said to people, the ways that she'd hurt them, she deserved to bleed for that. The way they spoke, Alexis knew that if she had admitted to being the cause of April's injury, they would've looked up to her. Did she want that? People to look up to her because she inflicted pain on someone else?

  What if that someone else was a bad person? What if they deserved the pain?

  And when did that become her decision to make? Who said she got to decide?

  Alexis couldn't help but think about her dad and the line of business he was in. She knew that he had guys in his crew that hurt people. People that betrayed the Family. Bad people.

  Once when she was eleven, she'd snuck into the boot of her dad's car before he went to a 'business meeting'. She had no idea what she was getting herself into. At the time she still had this image in her head of who her dad was when he went to work. However, the idea in her head was shattered that day. When she opened the boot and peeked out, she was surprised to see that the car was parked in a back alley. Then when she climbed out she could see that they were next to a warehouse. She went through the only door she could find.

  Looking back, she was surprised that the door was even unlocked. Alexis could hear noises and she followed them, not sure what she was expecting to find but she wasn't scared because her dad was there somewhere.

  When she finally made her way through the maze of pallets and wooden crates, she saw something that to this day, she couldn't forget. A man, duct taped to a metal chair, surrounded by men. One of his eyes was swollen shut while blood dribbled down from a gash on his forehead into his other eye. All the fingers on his right hand and two on his left hand looked broken.

  "Tell us what we want to know Petey and we'll let you go."

  She knew that voice, it was her dad's bodyguard Ty. Whenever he came over he would bring her ice cream. She loved his hugs, he'd always pick her up when he hugged her, no matter how tall she got. It made her feel precious every time.

  "Pfft, do I look like an idiot to you dumb-fucked wogs? I know that the second I tell you anything you'll kill me," Petey spat at Ty but his blood-filled saliva didn't go far. In fact it didn't do more than dribble down his own chin. He was weak. They could've left him there in the warehouse and he'd probably be dead in a few days.

  Out of nowhere there was a bang and Petey was screaming.

  What Alexis didn't realise was that she had screamed out too. It was just a short scream of surprise, but it was enough to alert everyone in the warehouse to her presence. Scrambling backwards, Alexis knocked into a stack of crates and froze. Ty had just shot Petey in the knee. She hadn't even seen the gun but she saw the way his knee jerked to the side and the blood sprayed out.

  "Boss! You're gonna wanna come here!" Ty stood in front of the little girl he'd known since the night she was born and was at a loss. Her eyes were wide open and she was there against the boxes still as a statue. There was a look in her eyes that he couldn't decipher. He then became very conscious of the fact that he was still holding the gun.

  "Boss!" Ty didn't know why he sounded so panicked. It wasn't the first time that someone had walked into something they weren't meant to. It was easy enough to deal with. However, this was the first time that 'someone' had been the boss' daughter. Tony's whole crew knew Alexis, and they all loved her like family. She was precious to them. She was a miracle.

  "Lexis, bambina, can you hear me?" Tony went to his knees in front of his little girl. There were so many questions running through his head. How did she get here? How did she get in? How much did she see? What does she think of me now? Alexis just crouched there staring blankly ahead, her breathing was fast and shallow.

  "Ty, she's in shock. I've gotta get her home, you finish up here."

  His second in command nodded and straightened up. Taking a deep breath, he schooled his expression and walked back to the open space in the middle of the warehouse.

  Alexis didn't remember going home with her dad. She didn't remember being carried up to bed or how Ty had stood in her doorway for what must have been hours.

  The next day she pretended that she didn't remember anything from the day before. She acted like it had been any other boring school holiday's day. Her parents looked relieved, but Ty was still nervous around her for weeks after. He still brought ice cream whenever he came to the house, but he hesitated to hug her. It took her a few weeks to realise why. She'd thought that he was upset with her for being at the warehouse that day, but finally she overheard a conversation between Ty and her dad. She realised then that he was scared of what she might think of him after what she'd seen.

  From then on, every time she saw him, she showed how happy she was that he was around. Between that and her dad's reassurances that she remembered nothing from that day in the warehouse, he finally went back to normal.

  When he finally picked her up in a bear hug for the first time in almost two months, she actually let out a happy "Finally". He pretended he didn't hear it, but his hold on her tightened.

  When Alexis was eleven, she hadn't understood the reasons behind the torture that Ty was inflicting on Petey. She still didn't know what it was that he had done to deserve being kneecapped and having his fingers broken, but it hadn't changed how she felt about Ty. He wasn't a blood relative but he was like an uncle to her, even more so than some of her blood related uncles. She could've seen him kill Petey with his bare hands and it wouldn't have changed anything. She didn't feel unsafe when he was around. If anything she felt safer. To this day no one knew that she remembered that day.

  ◆◆◆

  Alexis barely noticed when Emilia shook her at the end of class. She did notice when Emilia dug her nails into her arm.

  "Ah, stop that."

  "Yeah well you were like a zombie. Except zombies tend to make more noise. I had to do something to bring you out of it. Class is over... let’s go."

  The two girls gathered up their books and made their way for the door. Alexis started to get lost in her thoughts again, trying to figure out if what
Ty did to Petey was any different than what she'd done to April. Because of this she didn't notice that she was walking straight towards someone who also wasn't looking where they were going.

  She did however, quickly learn that he was a solid wall. Most teenage boys their age were all gangly with no real muscle to them. This one however… he worked out. At least that was the observation she made as she sat on the concrete pathway, staring up at the human obstacle she would later admit, was absolutely gorgeous.

  "Shit! Are you okay? I’m sorry, I wasn’t looking where I was going."

  She saw the hand extend towards her, and for a few moments, she was genuinely confused as to why it was there.