Endbury Academy✔️

Chapter 12

It was the day for Mila and I's presentation.

My stomach was in knots. I hated speaking in front of a large crowd. Sure I had no qualms with punching someone if they did something stupid or talked bad about one of my friends, but talking in front of people was a whole other ball game. For one everyone is just starring at you and you know that they are probably just bored of the subject, but you have no choice since it was for a grade. So you try to make the presentation worth their while even though you know that it's a complete bust.

Mila and I spent all last night rapidly searching last minute for other information to put into this power point. We were half-way done with the assignment anyway, so we had to basically rush to get the rest of it done. Procrastination was our middle names. We could have done this when we went out to the garden, but it slipped both our minds. Who wanted to do homework on the start of the weekend?

Now though we were feeling the heat.

I hoped what we found last night is enough to please Professor Clemons. We avoided anything too graphic with the power point, though some was hard to look over. Heaven's Gate was a doosey of a cult to read about, though it was also interesting. Not in a good way, mind you, but still interesting nonetheless.

Sitting at our assigned seats I tried not to sleep as others began with their presentations. Sure enough, a lot of people did Jonestown, though there was a good mix of other cults that went through. It was still sickening that there was this many cults in our history that was able to manipulate the innocent.

"Mila and Jenna!" Professor Clemons called once the last pair was done. Glancing at each other we stood up, slowly walking up towards the front of the classroom. The computer we were using was ready for us to use, we just had to sign into the account that we used to make the presentation.

Once we pulled up the power point Mila made sure to put it on the white-board so everyone could see with the projector. Clearing my throat, I stood on one side of the board while Mila stood on the other. "Mila and I decided to do Heaven's Gate, wanting to choose one that wasn't going to be overdone." I started and everyone quieted down, though I could see how bored the students were. "The cult was lead by..." Mila and I took turns spouting facts about this cult. It seemed like a few people were intrigued, but the majority seemed not to care less about the topic.

The presentation took us a good fifteen minutes and we were finally done. Clemons applauded us, "well done you two. Now you may be seated," she hummed, taking our place at the front of the classroom. She closed the laptop, "the rest of you will present tomorrow. That was excellent presentations, girls, well done! I hope you learned something from this assignment."

"Yeah, that all cults have kooks in them." A random girl piped up, earning snickers from across the room.

Professor Clemons cleared her throat, looking a little uncomfortable, "that's quite enough. You can use the last of the five minutes to chat," and with that she left the room, leaving us alone to do our thing.

Excited chatter erupted through the classroom as Leia and Sloan made their way towards us. "We have to present tomorrow..." Sloan groaned, not looking forward to the idea.

I just shrugged, leaning back in my seat and placing my arms behind my head lazily, "it wasn't too bad..." I trailed off when Sloan gave me a look, making me grimace. "Okay, it was bad. But if I can do it so can you!" I cheered, earning another groan from Sloan.

"I don't need a cheerleader, Daughtery," Sloan rolled her eyes at me but then smirked, "Leia might though!" She chimed, throwing her right arm around Leia's shoulders.

I blinked at that, noticing how Leia blushed at the comment. "Sloooooan," she pushed Sloan away from her, earning a cackle from the blond. She then turned towards me, her cheeks still tinted with pink, "you don't have to cheer for me if you don't want to, I'm sure I'll be fine..." Leia trailed off with a wince.

"What if I want to cheer for you?" I countered, making her blush more deeply. "I'll cheer for you both whether you want me to or not," I threatened, earning a 'whoa' hand movement from Sloan.

Mila just chuckled at me, about to say something when the bell rang. It was lunch time, which meant food! The entire classroom quickly gathered up their things, like it was a race to get out of the room. In some cases it was, but in other cases we were just eager for lunch to begin.

We started towards the cafeteria, eager to get to lunch. Sloan was telling us some gossip that had happened from her last class when we heard someone crying. Glancing at one another we walked around the corner to see a girl being bullied by two others who seemed to think they were above her.

"We told you to stop getting in our way, Cook," the taller one sneered, getting into the girls face - who was visibly trembling.

"I-I wasn't..." The meek girl squeaked, obviously scared. I narrowed my eyes at the scene, though Mila placed an arm on my shoulder to try and stop me from going over and making it worse.

The shorter girl scoffed, "you hear that, Barbara? She said she wasn't in our way!" Then the girl laughed as if that was the funniest thing she's ever heard.

'Barbara' smirked, sneering at the girl who shrunk back from the look. "Lets show her what happens to people who get in our way, Anya." Before she could do anything I had wrenched myself out of Mila's hold, marching over to them and shoving Barbara away. "What the-" she stopped short when she saw me, rolling her eyes. "Daughtery, leave us alone and let us finish what Cook started!"

I sneered at Barbara, pushing 'Cook' behind me. The girl squeaked, but didn't object to my protection. "For some reason I have a hard time believing that. Two against one is a little unfair, don't you think?" I raised an eyebrow, challenging the two so-called 'mean-girls'. "Now how about we up the anty here? Me against you two. Unless you're scared." I was bluffing, of course. The one thing to a good bluff was to act completely confident you can pull through with it.

There was a moment of silence before Barbara relaxed her stance. "Fine, you win. Come on Anya, I want pizza." With that the two girls went towards the cafeteria, acting like nothing had happened.

"Jenna, you're crazy!" I blinked when I heard my name, turning to see Mila, Leia and Sloan walking over to me. Mila's face was full of shock and awe.

"What were you thinking, trying to take on both of them?" Leia scolded me, crossing her arms under her breasts and giving me an unamused look.

"I just wanted to help!" I defended myself, making Leia soften up a bit. I turned to the girl who was watching our exchange with a mixture of amusement and gratitude. "Are you okay?" I asked, concern spilling out of my mouth. I hated seeing people get bullied for anything.

"Oh no I'm fine!" She reassured, placing her hands up in surrender. "They do that a lot..." She laughed nervously, scratching the back of my neck.

I narrowed my eyes at that. "That's no excuse. I'm Jenna, by the way. Jenna Daughtery," I introduced myself when I realized I still didn't know her name.

'Cook' smiled at me faintly. "Eliza. Eliza Cook," she introduced, glancing over to the rest of the group. "I'm sorry to have disturbed your lunch hour..." She trailed off, hanging her head shamefully.

Mila squeaked at that, shaking her head fervently. "No! Not at all! If Jenna hadn't of stepped in I'm sure one of us would have," she assured softly, patting Eliza's shoulder. Than her face brightened at a thought, turning towards us for a brief moment before looking back at Eliza. "How about you come eat with us? That way those girls can't bully you again." She suggested, making me smile at that.

"Ar-Are you sure?" Eliza stumbled, not having expected an invite. "I won't get in your way?" Poor girl must have a hard life. I wonder how often Barbara and Anya pick on her for her to be this timid, or if it wasn't just them and she was just a target.

"Wouldn't have given you the invite if we weren't sure," Sloan butted in with a smirk. "I'm Sloan, this is my twin sister Mila. The other girl with us is Leia. Welcome aboard the crazy train!" That was when we added a new member to our rag-tag friend group as we all walked towards the cafeteria, playing twenty questions to try and get to know our new friend.