by I N Foggarty
“Wow, Nat,” Dylan chortled not bothering to contain his mirth “I’d say you’d just been served but… well, you heard the man.”
If Natalie’s looks could kill Dylan would surely have just lost his life in the most gruesome way possible. Though he would not have been the only one for both Mark and himself received a similar glower. “Whatever,” she muttered.
The moment soon passed and her attention soon returned to Anna, who had taken the opportunity to adjust one of her guitar strings.
“Excuse me, but why can’t you understand that you’re annoying everyone here.”
Anna said nothing. Instead, she simply turned her head away from Natalie and began to sing along to her tune, in a way Matt could only describe as lackadaisical. From across the table, Mark snorted under his breath. Clearly, he had found something amusing that Matt had missed.
It was subtle but a moment later Anna’s tone tightened ever so slightly and her words became less airy and more focused. Matt’s heart sank when he eventually recognised the song and he desperately began wishing that Natalie had failed to notice the shift in her tone. From his left, a hard slam sounded and the table shook as the harsh grinding noise of a chair being forcibly pushed out from underneath it ripped through the air. Snapping his neck around Matt witnessed Natalie drawing herself up to her full height, her face twisting with pure rage.
“You think I’m the witch!” she seethed. “Yea right! If anyone is a fucking witch, it’s you. The violent lameoid who bewitched Matt, forced him to go out with you and are now stopping him from doing what he wants,” she growled, “Urgh I am so sick of your shit stirring. You’ve totally ruined Matt’s chances at homecoming and now you’re going to stop him going to Raymond’s party. Like whatever gave you the right to tell people what to do when they come to the table. The only reason you are even sitting here is because he took pity on you, you slut!”
Matt stared at Natalie, her words ringing in his ears. So that explained her irritation. After the events of the previous day, he had almost forgotten about Raymond’s party. He should have known that once things settled down the subject would rear its ugly head. Though why did it have to be today? Downturn number three. That aside where on earth Natalie had gotten the idea that Anna had bewitched him was beyond his comprehension.
“Richards serves and catches Johnson off guard, who loses her cool and flails helplessly at the ball as it hits her side of the court. Richards leads two to nothing.”
Had things not suddenly seemed so serious, Matt would probably have still found Mark’s commentary funny. However, if he didn’t intervene soon things could get ugly. Natalie could be a little too tightly wound at the best of times and as for Anna… He’d rather not think about how effortless and emotionlessly she could cut through a person’s defences. He opened his mouth to say something only for Dylan to blurt something through his hysteria.
“Aww, Dude, you’re killing me here. I would totally watch sports if you were the one commentating.” Dylan quickly recoiled as Natalie shot him yet another death glare. He needed to nip this in the bud.
“Anna, Natalie. There’s no need for this to get out of hand. Let’s just all sit down and enjoy lunch together before Miss Williams descends upon us.” As he spoke Matt glanced around the room for any sign of the teacher whose name he had just invoked. Miss Williams could spot trouble brewing like an owl hunting a mouse in the midst of the darkest night. She was nowhere in sight… thankfully. Interestingly enough the lunchroom seemed to be completely devoid of teachers.
“I think Matt’s right,” Kitty ventured.
Matt brought his attention back to the table and Kitty visibly shrunk back down in her chair, probably afraid of getting her head bitten off should it linger above the parapet any longer than necessary. Though not atypical behaviour for the small mousy haired girl today her self-defense mechanism may have been warranted.
“Well, I can’t enjoy my lunch because that bitch is making such a racket that it’s giving me a headache. In fact, no actually, I take it back I could deal with the racket if she weren't singing the smell from her is enough at the best of times but I can’t take the added stink of her breath. Gross! Why don’t you go shower or something or sit near an open window you freak.”
When Natalie finished, Matt brought a hand up to his temple and slowly began rubbing it. He couldn’t believe that Natalie was deliberately trying to initiate a fight. Why couldn’t all his friends just get along with each other?
“And in one fell swoop, Johnson eliminates the pitch invaders and serves up another ball. This is turning out to be quite a match-up here folks.”
“You know Natalie, sometimes I wish I was.” When the words left Anna’s lips Matt’s face fell. She had stopped playing and had focused solely on her counterpart. He knew exactly what would happen now. Though he had no idea of what to say in order to stop it, Matt opened his mouth. Only Anna beat him to the punch.
“A witch I mean, or a freak did you say? That way I could turn you into a frog whenever you annoyed me. The only problem is that you would end up stuck like that forever. I mean no one wants to kiss you while you’re human. Why on earth would they want to do so if you were a slimy amphibian?”
Silence fell over the group for a moment after Anna had spoken and Matt looked between his girlfriend and the other girl. Like always Anna’s face had a placid look; as though she were having a conversation about the colour of an orange. Meanwhile, Natalie’s cheeks had slowly begun to match the colour of her adversary’s hair and her lips had thinned down to a mere line.
“Plenty of guys want to kiss me. I’m just not that interested in them. You’re the one guys don’t want to kiss, Anna. Too busy getting it on elsewhere,” she gasped in a sharp breath. “You’re an ugly freak who’s socially retarded and who people don’t want to even look at, let alone talk to or touch unless they were drunk, desperate or in the dark! Or all three!”
The fork Matt had been planning to use to eat his so far untouched honey and mustard chicken salad slipped from his grasp and hit the table with a low clang. Across from him, Kitty had clapped her hands over her mouth and even the ever stoic Mark looked shocked at what had just been said.
“Whoa, Nat, watch what you’re saying. I’m sitting right beside you remember. I don’t wanna get caught in no crossfire here…”
“Shut up, Dylan.” The venom with which Natalie spat her words made Dylan shift his chair sideways so that both he and it were almost sitting in Matt’s lap.
“She’s for it now,” Dylan whispered to Matt from behind a hand. “Anna’s flayed me alive for less.”
Out of the corner of his eye, Matt could see that Anna had used the distraction as an opportunity to safely stow her guitar away in its case. At least its part in the argument had come to an end.
“You’re wrong, Natalie.” The temperature of Anna’s tone had dropped significantly and her eyes looked like they had begun to ice over. “There’s one boy who wants to touch and kiss me with the lights on and generally in a high state of sobriety. Unfortunately, for you, he’s the only one you seem to have any interest in kissing. Perhaps you should try girls instead.”
“Anna, that’s not fair!” The words escaped Matt’s mouth before he even had the faintest hope of curtailing them.
“Oh stop pretending to be so oblivious, Matt. You know, as does everyone else at this table, that she’s been jealous for the past three years. I’m just surprised that it hasn’t physically devoured her.”
“Jealous? Oh my fucking god you think I am Jealous? Why on earth would I be jealous of a freak like you?” Natalie scoffed, shaking in anger.
Stunned into silence Matt’s eyes darted between the two girls. He could do nothing more as the table awaited Anna’s rebuttal. Elsewhere in the room, the raised voices had started to attract a crowd of onlookers, but there was still no sign of any teachers within earshot.
“Do I really have to spell it out?” A wicked smirk flashed across Anna’s face
. “Perhaps we should use a rhetoric more suited to your intellect, shall we? How about we travel to the world of your daydreams… Matt and Natalie sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G. First, she wants love with a dash of sensuality, but here comes Anna to bring you back down to reality.”
Matt stared nonplussed, rarely had he found himself cursing Anna’s mastery of words and her ability to rewrite snippets of songs and rhymes. In all honesty, he normally found it quite witty. However, he was usually spared a part in them. Slowly he felt his cheeks begin to burn; though he had no idea why. Though a close friend his feelings towards Natalie went no further.
Dylan rolled about in stitches once more and Mark had an evil grin on his face that told Matt that he was suppressing the urge to declare Anna the winner of the set. As for her opponent, Natalie’s face now matched Anna’s hair perfectly. At tables all around them, Matt could see that people’s attention had now fixated upon the spectacle and those that were too far away were deliberately gravitating towards them; the sound of a wolf whistle increased the heat in his cheeks.
“Yeah?” she flustered. “Well…At least my reality has shampoo and soap. You’re so disgusting even the flies won’t hang out with you. I don’t know how Matt can stomach the stench.”
“Oh back to the smell comments, what are you 12? I guess I could say it helps keep the witches away from us. I’m sure Rick would have been quite revolted when he saw that Roald Dahl was right and you were completely bald, had no toes and your true face is a decaying husk when he got your clothes off.”
Matt watched all of the colour that had built up in Natalie’s cheeks suddenly drain. Her mouth opened to say something but no audible words came out. So Matt answered for her.
“Anna. Don’t!” he said firmly, his warm brown eyes meeting his girlfriend’s cold green ones.
“Don’t what?” Anna asked in mock innocence and Matt knew he had put himself directly in the firing line. For a moment he watched as Anna’s piercing eyes studied his face, which he knew told her far more than he would have liked. Her eyes flickered to Natalie then back again.
“They don’t know, do they?” Matt did not know if her question was directed to him or to the chocolate haired girl. Anna let out a cruel laugh. “Oh, Natalie. Should I tell the rest of your friends and this wonderful audience you’ve attracted that particular little story?”
“Like anyone would believe a freak like you,” Natalie blurted out in response. Some of the venom had drained and the tone had an unfortunate note of desperation.
Though his eyes were fixated on Anna Matt caught a glimpse of Dylan; listening intently. Natalie seemed to gather herself rounded her shoulders and set her chin high before she next spoke.
“Besides everyone knows that your entire family are a bunch of crazies. Who in the world would listen to anything any of you had to say…Morgan!”
In a flash Anna got to her feet, chair skidding backwards along the floor with a sickening screech. One of the watchers must have been standing too close as Matt was sure he heard a dull, “Oww!” amongst the crowd.
“Will the pair of you just calm down. What’s the point in all this?” Matt kept his tone level but firm. If he lost his cool this debacle could soon become a three-way scrap.
“Shut up, Matt,” the pair said in unison, two pairs of eyes now glaring at him. It was perhaps the only time they had ever agreed and even then it had no hope of helping them to find common ground. Matt had to take a step away from the table, where the backs of his knees quickly hit the edge of his chair and he almost toppled back into it. Steadying himself Natalie fired the next volley.
“I suppose there was one member of your family that seemed slightly normal. Your uncle?” Matt had never seen a smile on Natalie’s face so triumphantly twisted. Almost inhuman.
At the other end of the table, he could see Anna had her fists clenched and appeared to be muttering something under her breath. By the look on her face, she was desperately trying to restrain herself. He knew defensive tactics were not the norm for her, but given Natalie’s new line of attack, he understood why.
“Then again look what happened to him. He fell off of a cliff in some remote part of the world. I bet he jumped so he wouldn’t have to come home to you and the rest of the lunatics. Or maybe he got pushed by one of them just in case he infected you all with some semblance of normality! It was probably your Mom. I saw her that day you broke the Martial Arts guy’s arm she seems the sort. A crazy Bitch!” she stopped and the smirk widened, she looked slightly hysterical now. “… but I guess what they say is true. Like Mother like Daughter!”
Anna snapped. In a heartbeat, she rounded the table and made straight for Natalie. Her crimson hair whipped back behind her head and Matt could see the look of incandescent rage covering Anna’s face and knew that if she reached her target the other girl would be seriously hurt. In what could only be described as blind stupidity and without the slightest thought for his own safety, Matt darted out from behind his chair and threw his body in front of Natalie. From the other side of the table, Mark must also have sensed the danger for he suddenly stood shoulder to shoulder with him, having somehow managed to vault the surface.
“Get out of my way!” Anna demanded as she stopped abruptly; her nose inches from Matt’s chest.
Matt had to suck in a breath to steady his resolve. “No,” he said after a pause, forcing himself to look into her eyes. From her frozen green glare, Matt deduced that had she not bigger fish to fry he would have been slaughtered.
“Now!” she commanded.
The assembled crowd had taken a collective step back though Matt knew their eyes would be transfixed by the spectacle in front of them. From beside him, Mark moved slightly to close the minute gap that had existed between their shoulders. Almost as though he expected Anna to attempt to go through them instead of around.
“Is she really worth it, Anna?” Mark’s tone was hard and reassured Matt that his friend had no intention of moving.
Matt blinked furiously, Anna released his gaze and rounded it upon Mark; he did not even flinch.
“Is she really worth defending?”
“Maybe not. But she can’t defend herself and I’m not going to stand here and watch you tear her limb from limb.”
Matt glanced between the pair, ice meeting stone. Neither budged. The seconds of silence torturously ticked by and he became increasingly more thankful that Mark stood beside him. What he had intended to do against Anna by himself only the Lord knew. She could easily have cast him aside without breaking her stride. With Mark there, he effectively got relegated to extra boy shaped obstacle. Aside from his extra muscle Mark was the only other person he knew that had enough prowess in martial arts to contend with Anna. Not that there were many other people that studied it at Woodlake.
In the end stone won, though Matt suspected that in the passing seconds since Natalie’s comment the ice had melted slightly and regained its composure. Without a word Anna turned on her heel, collected her effects and stormed out of the lunch room; the gathered spectators practically leaping out of her way as she headed for the nearest exit. The final glance she had given him had told Matt that the dispute was far from over; at least for him. Downturn number four.
When the back of Anna’s head vanished from view the typical lunchroom chatter nervously reignited and people slowly started making their way back to wherever they had come from; like nothing had happened. However, Matt knew that this would add to the murmurings from before and that for the second lunch in succession there would be few conversations that would not be about Anna.
Turning back to look a Natalie he caught sight of Miss Williams leading a downtrodden troop of what looked to him like freshmen boys passed the main entrance to the lunchroom, no doubt on route to her office. By the sheer number, Matt could only deduce that it was their antics that had left the cafeteria devoid of teachers for the duration of the argument.
The moment Natalie’s chocolate eyes met his he erupted. “W
hat the hell were you playing at?” he yelled, catching his four remaining friends and himself by surprise. Anger started to burn inside him and he didn’t like it one bit. Being a placid and easy going individual the feeling was somewhat foreign, almost alien to him. Gazing at her somewhat shaken features he knew no answer Natalie could give would placate him right now. When she eventually opened her mouth he cut her off. “Look don’t even bother saying anything just now... Just don’t.”
Without further thought, he hastily snatched up his bag, left his untouched lunch on the table and headed off for the exit Anna had taken. With any luck, he would be able to find her before the end of lunchtime. He may have entered the cafeteria a winner but he now left as the definite loser.
So much for his perfect day.
Storm clouds gather
The first thing that hit Anna was the smell. A concoction of grease, junk-food and stale sweat mixed with a dollop of teenage angst for good measure. It hung in the air like a pungent cloud of poisonous gas that refused to diffuse. Anna took in a mouthful of this grisly cocktail and had to resist the urge to vomit. The taste left in the back of one’s mouth almost as bad. She needed to get out of this humid hall of hormones and find some clean air.
In front of her, she could see the crowd of onlookers that had gathered to witness the cafeteria spectacle. Bloodthirsty bystanders, she thought bitterly, shooting a glare at the first boy that stood between her and the nearest exit. Before she had taken another step he practically threw himself out of her way and into the crowd. She was no Moses but like the red sea, the rest of the congregation parted to allow her to pass unhindered. Reaching the door Anna caught the stiff metal push bar with a sharp kick and it burst open. Outside the cold breeze hit her face and she gratefully sucked in the much needed fresh air. Feeling her oppressed senses relax she slowed her pace to a gentle stroll and picked her way between the sparsely populated outdoor tables. Occupants may have been few but that didn’t stop them staring; she didn’t care. The quiet was the only thing that mattered. Inside the constant drone of chatter coupled with the bright lights and smell had served only to intensify the headache that had been lingering like an overzealous waiter since Monday. And that had been before the fight with Natalie.