For Nevermore Season 1

fists curled into balls, her lip twitched, and she could feel the rage stirring deep in her gut. An inhuman growl fled her lips as she turned toward Vicky, then ran at her screaming, knocking her cell phone to the floor, and punching her hard in the face.
    “Becca’s not here to save you this time,” Vicky screamed, rubbing the splotch of crimson on her left cheek for a second before shoving Noella back and into the lockers. As Noella fell back, Vicky jumped her.
    They fell to the ground, swinging, scratching, and kicking as the girls around them shouted, “ FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT!!!”
    The crowd receded, giving the girls room to roll around on the floor, as an evil trinity of Vicky’s girls held Mako’s arms and kept her from jumping in or stopping the fight.
    But no one was holding Coach Carla, who rushed at the girls and pulled them off one another and split them apart. Coach Carla tossed them each toward opposite lockers, and yelled at the other girls to get to class.
    Vicky had a nasty bruise on her left cheek, and a good scratch right next to it. The back of Noella’s head throbbed where Vicky had landed two punches, but other than some hair pulling, Vicky hadn’t hurt her too bad. If there was a winner of this fight, it was Noella by a landslide.
    Though, whatever pride she felt at getting a few good hits in faded when she saw Coach Carla’s eyes.
    Coach Carla gave Noella a sympathetic look, and Noella wasn’t sure which stung worse — the look of pity, or the look of disappointment which followed. Coach Carla sent them both to the dean’s office.

    **

    Noella was silent as Dean Dinnen read her the riot act, and simply nodded when he asked if Coach Carla’s story was true. Per school policy, Noella was sent back out to the office to wait for her parent or guardian.
    Vicky’s mom appeared just before sixth period, petting the back of her daughter’s head and showering her with baby talk, while shooting Noella the evil eye as if to say, “How dare you hit my precious baby?”
    Noella had to wait until 45 minutes after the final bell for Josie and Randy to show.
    Josie’s eyes were bloodshot and leaking, though it probably had a lot more to do with her near-constant sneezing and rattling cough than the call from the dean. If anything, Josie seemed sad and slightly hollow, silently sorry for the life of misery Noella was forced to endure. But there was also a look of relief when the dean told her about the fight. Noella wasn’t sure why, but the dean failed to mention what started the fight — an almost repeat of the incident, which must’ve been a huge relief to Josie.
    If Josie had compassion in her eyes, Randy had whatever the opposite was. She had gotten in trouble and wasted his time, and despite his morning advice, he would damn well make Noella pay.

    * * * *

CHAPTER THREE

    Silence cloaked the inside of Randy’s cruiser as they drove home, nobody saying a word, yet saying much in glances out the window, to one another, and in the rearview mirror.
    Randy dropped the girls off in the driveway with barely a breath, then backed his cruiser into the street, and hit the gas like he was mad at the pedal. “Great,” Noella said. “When he doesn’t say anything, that’s when he’s really mad.”
    “Everything will be fine,” Josie said, fishing in her purse for the keys, then turning to Noella. “He just needs time to cool off, that’s all. It isn’t easy leaving the station, then getting back into the groove of his day. Let’s just clean the house and make a nice dinner for when he comes home. Everything will be fine,” she repeated as if saying it twice would make it true.
    “Yes, of course” Noella nodded, “we must make sure everything is perfect for the King.”
    “That’s not fair,” Josie said, opening the front door. She turned back to Noella and gave her a helpless look that flooded Noella with guilt.
    Noella followed Josie into the house, then tossed her backpack onto the couch. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I’m not trying to hurt your feelings, Jo. I know you love Randy, but you deserve better. He’s mean to you and makes things hard on us. And he’s going to make things worse for me, like he always does.” Noella bit her lip and tried not to cry, like she always did when saying the same things her aunt refused to hear.
    Josie looked Noella in the eye. “You know how he is,” she said. “It always passes. You just have to be patient. He’s a good guy,