Turned and Taken (Packed 1 & 2) Read online

  The kids were all already filing into their homerooms when Saki found the row of classes that contained hers. She stood on the outside of her row staring down the sidewalk at the mob of kids. They didn’t look friendly. Her heart pounded, and she felt herself lose her breath. She was ready to turn around and walk home if it meant not having to do this again. She was about to do it when something shiny caught her eye in the grass.

  Looking closer, it appeared to be a charm or medallion. She looked back up the row of classes to see if anyone else had seen it. No one was paying any attention. Although everyone was avoiding walking on the grass, she stepped over, squatted and slipped the metal between her fingers.

  She looked at it. It was about 2 inches in diameter, round, and had a green gem in the center of it. Surrounding the gem were a series of etchings. She couldn’t tell what they were. One of them almost looked like a dog and another looked like a human. All the ones in between looked like imaginary creatures. It certainly looked valuable.

  “Young lady,” an older male voice said, snapping her out of her observations. Saki looked up and found a dark-skinned bearded man wearing the typical teacher attire of a buttoned-up short-sleeve shirt and dress pants. “Get off the grass.”

  Saki slid the medallion into her palm and did as he said.

  The teacher didn’t wait for her to return to the sidewalk before continuing on his way. Saki followed behind him, eventually realizing they were both headed to the same place. She had hoped to make a better first impression on her new homeroom teacher than breaking a school rule in front of him.

  Waiting at the classroom door for students to enter, the teacher turned around and saw Saki. “Are you my new student?”

  “I guess.”

  The teacher conspicuously looked her up and down and offered a stilted chuckle. Saki couldn’t understand why. Without a further word, he turned around and entered the classroom. Saki followed.

  Saki entered her homeroom and found a combination of items both foreign and familiar. It had the usual things like the chalkboard and the bulletin boards around the room. However, all of it was hanging on unpainted concrete blocks. The metal pane windows were open, and two ceiling fans circulated the increasingly muggy morning air.

  The students were also a mixture of foreign and familiar. The faces and uniforms looked similar to all of the students she had seen walking to and from the school as a child. They all looked very Bahamian. The girls had braided pigtails and permed hair, while the boys looked rough, sitting in their chairs with attitude. Like everywhere else in the Bahamas, all of the kids were a multitude of shades between black and white.

  Out of the classroom of 30 people, though, two groups stood out. At the center of one of them was the bad boy she had seen in the administrative office. Saki‘s heart clenched upon seeing him again. He looked even more intimidating with one girl and three guys corralling around his desk. He had seen her enter and was staring her down.

  He wasn’t the only one with his eyes focused on her. The other pair belonged to the fair-skinned blonde boy on one side of the room. The four boys surrounding him all looked similar.

  These kids all wore designer white shirts, whereas every other student wore the cheap white uniform shirts that were sold at any school uniform store. On top of that, the sleeves of their short-sleeved shirts were rolled up, and their straight hair was slicked back. Instead of black uniform shoes, they wore beige boat shoes. All of them looked like they had stepped out of a cologne commercial.

  “Settle down everyone,” the teacher said, bringing the rabble to a din. “This is a new student.” The teacher began wading through his paperwork. “I’m sorry, what’s your name?”

  “Sakina. But you can call me Saki,” she said to the class.

  “Your full name, dear.”

  Saki looked back at the teacher, convinced that he should have known that information. “Sakina Lightbourn.”

  “Everyone make Sakina feel welcome.”

  Saki scanned the young faces. They weren’t very welcoming. She looked for an open seat. The only one was the center desk in the front row. She looked at the teacher for instruction. He stretched out his hand pointing at the seat. Saki slithered into the chair, wondering if she could possibly have a worse seat.

  Saki could feel all of the eyes in the room staring at her. She hated her mother for this moment. Why couldn’t she just have finished out her senior year in North Carolina? Or why did she have to move them in the first place? She didn’t understand any of it. But stuck where she was, it was time for her to sink or swim.

  Once the morning announcements began over the PA system, the rabble of student voices returned. She felt a sense of relief. Looking over her left shoulder, she examined the group against the wall, who had to be the cool kids. They were all good-looking, but the one in the center was especially so. He looked like a model. His face was narrow and his body was lean. He moved with authority and the other four boys seemed to hang on his every word.

  Looking over her right shoulder, she saw the bad boy and his crew. Something about them that seemed more like a gang. The one that she had sat next to in the administrative office was definitely good-looking, but in an intimidating sort of way. He stared out of the window, lost in thought. Looking closer, he almost looked worried. The longer she stared, the more he looked like he a guy with the weight of the world on his shoulders.

  She could stare at him all day. She would have if she hadn’t caught the eyes of the one girl in the group. The girl didn’t seem soulful and deep, just angry. When she gave Saki her what-are-you-looking-at look, Saki immediately turned away.

  Saki‘s heart ached, trying to figure out how she would survive. Maybe she would just give up on trying to make friends and just focus on her schoolwork. She’d always been good at academics. Class work had always come easy for her. It was everything else in life that was hard.

  Clint, she remembered. How could he do that to me? Maybe he didn’t recognize me, she thought, consoling herself. After all, that would make sense. Although she had thought of him often and had put him on a pedestal, that didn’t mean that he had thought of her since the day they graduated from elementary school. She would give him a second chance, she thought, as long as he showed he hadn’t become an asshole since they had last spoke.

  Saki loosened the grip on the medallion to examine it. It was heavier than she thought it would be, given the size. Something about it made her not want to take her eyes off of it. It was mesmerizing. She flipped it around, staring closer and saw what had to be an inscription. She leaned in trying to encipher the markings, wondering if it was English.

  “Let me see that,” the teacher’s voice said from directly in front of her.

  Saki was caught off guard. Her intention was to turn in the medallion as soon as she got a good look at it. She had waited too long.

  “It’s not mine. I found it,” she proclaimed handing it over.

  The teacher stared at it questioningly. “Where did you find it?”

  “In the grass near the end of the sidewalk.”

  “Then if it’s not yours, I’ll return it to its rightful owner,” the teacher said almost accusingly.

  This was not how Saki wanted to begin at her new school.

  The morning continued on as awkwardly as it had begun. The classes were all hard to find, and each time she was sat at the center desk of the front row. Between classes, she couldn’t find her locker. At lunchtime, she sat at an empty table in the center of the room.

  Things only got worse after lunch when she heard her name spoken across the PA system. “Can Sakina Lightbourn please report the principal’s office? Sakina Lightbourn please report to the principal’s office.”

  If Saki ever feared that people wouldn’t know who she was, she knew she didn’t have to worry about that anymore. She raised her hand, turning all of the student’s attention on her.

  Saki found her way to the administrative office. Checking in, she was told to t
ake a seat. She sat in the seat she had taken hours before.

  “You can go back now. The principal is the second door on the left,” the administrative assistant said from behind her desk.

  Saki got up and entered the hallway. She found the second door. On it was a sign that read “Principal” and another that read “Mr. Jenner.” She knocked.

  “Come in,” a thick, warm voice said from inside.

  Saki opened the door to find a small, dark-skinned bald man with tortoiseshell glasses. He was sitting behind a large desk laden with paper. It was a big office, but every inch was covered with stuff.

  Two chairs were situated across from the desk. The only person she had met since entering the school, the bad boy, was sitting in one.

  “Take a seat,” Principal Jenner said.

  Saki complied, trying not to look at the boy by her side.

  “Do you know Mr. Lafluer?”

  Saki turned and looked at the bad boy for only a second before shaking her head “no.” The boy looked away.

  “I see. Well, can you tell me where you found this?”

  Mr. Jenner pushed the medallion across the desk toward the two students. Saki leaned in to get a better look. She stared at it for a moment, considering how she could have gotten into this position so quickly.

  “I found it in the grass on the way to homeroom.”

  “Hmm… And do you have any idea how it ended up in the grass?”

  “No, Sir.”

  “Well, I understand that you are new here, so I will inform you that this was taken from my office this morning. Later on, Mr. DeMarco found this in your possession. You were also in the administrative office this morning, weren’t you?”

  “Yes, Sir.”

  “Doesn’t that seem strange to you, if you were me?”

  “I don’t know how you think, sir.” Perhaps that wasn’t the best thing for Saki to say, but it was honest. She could stand dumbing herself down for her sisters and her mother, but she couldn’t take having to do it for teachers.

  Mr. Jenner stared at Saki for a moment. Although she didn’t turn, she could feel the eyes of the boy beside her. She had gotten both of their attentions, and she liked it.

  “This is not the way to start the first day at your new school,” Principal Jenner confirmed. Saki didn’t respond. Mr. Jenner continued. “When you were in the building, did you happen to see Mr. Lafluer?”

  Saki had started to put things together. The bad boy had stolen it. Something had happened, and it ended up in the grass where she found it. Now they were in the principal office, and he was unraveling the parts. The question was, what would she do next?

  Principal Jenner was right, this was a horrible way to start the first day at her new school. She knew that whatever she said would set the tone for the rest of her school year. Saki had always been the good girl, and it had never worked out for her. Maybe it was time for her to try something new.

  “He doesn’t look familiar.”

  “He’s one of the students from your homeroom class. Doesn’t he look familiar from there?”

  “I’m new,” she said sounding exhausted. “How could you ask me if he’s familiar? I don’t know maybe. It’s just… everything is just a lot.” Saki did her best to manufacture tears. When they welled up in her eyes, she considered it the most successful thing she had done all day.

  Leaning forward resting her face in her hands, she heard Mr. Jenner leaned back in his chair. Her tears were making him feel uncomfortable while at the same time perking up the boy next to her. Saki knew that she could keep this up all day. If Mr. Jenner was uncomfortable now, she was going make sure she was released without another question asked.

  Mr. Jenner squirmed around in his seat a moment longer before speaking. “Well, I’m going to let you both go. But in this is not a toy,” he emphasized touching the medallion. “This is also school property. So if this goes missing again, there are two people I will question first. And next time it will be with the police. You understand me?”

  Saki wiped her eyes relieved to be done. “Yes, Sir.”

  “Yeah,” Mr. Lafluer said, offering as little acknowledgment as possible.

  “Good. You may go.”

  Saki got up, proud of herself. The boy next to her had to be the most dangerous guy in the school, and he now owed her a favor. She couldn’t believe her luck. Walking down the hall, she could hear him behind her. She wondered what he was thinking. Would he approached her now or later? Where could their friendship lead?

  Truth be told, he was beautiful. Maybe this one incident would turn him into her first boyfriend. The possibilities were endless at this point. For the first time, her new life looked bright.

  Saki continued back to her class paying close attention to the guy who followed a few steps behind her. When they could no longer be seen from the administrative office, she turned back toward him. It was too late, though; he had already peeled away.

  Saki watched him walk. It was sexy. It was slow and dangerous. Saki wondered what it would be like to kiss him.

  Saki spent the rest of her day hoping to run into him again. But each class felt like the last. All of them resulted with her sitting at the very front not speaking to another soul.

  She was thinking that she wouldn’t talk to anyone for the entire day until she finally located her locker room. Having lugged around her books all day, she was glad for the relief. Emptying the books from her backpack, she watched as all the other girls left the room.

  Conspicuously alone, Saki looked up in time to see a familiar face enter. It was the girl from her homeroom who sat with the bad boy. She was sure that this was how she would begin to get payment. But as one girl filed in behind the other, she began to have her doubts.

  “Oh, if it isn’t the new girl. You see her? It’s the new girl,” the angry girl said mockingly. The angry girl stood chest to chest with Saki. She was a few inches shorter than Saki, but that didn’t seem to slow her at all. “So, new girl, tell me, how did you swipe the medallion off of Lane?”

  “What? I didn’t take the medallion from anyone. I found it.”

  “Yeah, right. So you just happened to pick it up off the grass?”

  The girl shoved Saki into the lockers. Saki didn’t know what was going on. She had never been in a fight with anyone but her sisters. But more importantly, she had saved Lane‘s ass. Didn’t they realize that? Without her, Lane could be going to jail. She had done him a favor.

  “So, you gonna tell me how you took it?” The angry girl said with her three friends closing in around them.

  “I told you that I found it,” Saki said unsure of what else to say.

  “You found it, huh? Is that what you did?” The girl said pushing Saki‘s head back onto the metal locker.

  “Oww!” Saki said in a panic. What was she supposed to do? Fight back? There were four against one. She couldn’t even win against one of her sisters, and they were two years younger, though 50 pounds heavier. “Let me go!” Saki shrieked.

  The other girls, some larger and some smaller than the first, all started pushing Saki. She closed her eyes and bowed her head to make herself as small as possible. But the pressure of the fingers and palms on her shoulder, chest, and head was inescapable.

  Her body jerked from one side to the other. She was in a nightmare. Her heart raced, and as a slow groan escaped her lips, the prod and pricks got harder. They’re gonna beat me up, she thought, as she slowly dropped to the ground.

  As her back scratched against the metal of the lockers, the pushes became kicks. They didn’t start off hard. They were more like nudges reminding her they were there. When the girls didn’t get what they were after, the kicks got harder. When the first blow shot pain through her leg, she knew that she was in deep trouble.

  “Help,” Saki yelled at an unfriendly campus.

  It was at that moment that the blows got considerably harder. They all hurt now. She couldn’t keep track of them all.

  She had tu
rned herself into a ball protecting her head with her hands and her back with the locker. But her thighs and calves lit up with streaks of pain that not only debilitated but also humiliated her. She wanted to cry, but she didn’t have time. All she could do was survive, and at the moment, even that seemed like too much.

  The kicks grew and grew until they mercifully stopped. The sound of hard leather scraping across the bare concrete echoed through the room. It sounded like they were leaving quickly. Could it be over, she wondered. Had the nightmare that was the first day of the rest of her life finally come to an end?

  “Are you alright?” A familiar voice asked from beyond the locker room doors.

  Saki lifted her head and opened her eyes. She was a little dazed, but gathering herself as a wave of pain shot through her. It was overwhelming.

  She wanted so much to cry. She looked over to the open door hoping it would be a sympathetic face. She hoped it would be someone she could bury her head within and bawl. She needed, just for a moment, just for a brief sliver of her life, to feel safe and taken care of. She needed a friendly face. But when she looked up, she found only Mr. DeMarco, her homeroom teacher. He had gotten her into this mess to begin with.

  No, Saki wouldn’t give him the satisfaction to know that he and his entire school had broken her so quickly. She wouldn’t cry in front of him. Somehow she would suck it up and accept that she was alone. She had to comfort herself. No one else cared.

  “Are you alright?” Mr. DeMarco repeated.

  Saki refuse to speak in fear that opening her mouth would release the floodgates of emotion she held back. Instead, she fought her way to her feet.

  Her body screamed in pain. She winced and slowed herself many times. Mr. DeMarco didn’t make a move toward her, and she didn’t expect that he would. When she was on her feet, she turned to her locker and finished her business instead of replying.