Fearless Love

Chapter 14 Another week

I get up at three in the morning and quickly shower before walking to the diner. It takes a while to get there with my new knee injury but it is totally worth it. When I enter the diner the smell almost knocks me off my feet. Bacon, eggs, coffee and pancakes. I am starving and can not wait to order. Patty is not here yet so I order with one of the new girls. My breakfast looks incredible and I immediately start gulping it down, suddenly someone hugs me from behind. I am so shocked that I drop my fork that was halfway to my mouth and filled with nice, warm food. "Why are you here so early? Wait. How are you here this early?" I hear Leah ask me. Shoot. What is she doing here this early? "I walked. Why are you here this early?" I try saying nonchalantly. "You walked? This is really far from your house, Kate. Why did you walk here?" "You didn't answer my question, why are you here this early?" I ask her again. She spins my chair around to face her and her eyes go wide when she takes in my appearance. "Honey, you look like shit. What did they do to you? And don't even try to change the subject again. I was planning on surprising you with breakfast when I picked you up, at the bus stop, like always," she whispers to me. I just let my head drop and turn my chair back around. I take a few huge bites of my pancakes before telling her what happened. "Jack wanted to remind me of my place before he left this morning, it really looks worse than it feels. He woke me up Saturday morning. Well more like janked me out of bed. Then he made me take an ice bath for 15 minutes, which was terrible. My whole body went numb and started shaking. I got so drained from it that I just fell asleep on the bathroom floor afterwards. Luckily he left me there. The rest of the weekend he locked me in my room. Oh and I think I might have hurt my head when he janked me out of bed because I was puking all night Saturday. I was just really hungry this morning and needed to get out of the house. I would have called you to come pick me up if I had a phone. It was a bad weekend. I am also starving at the moment so if you don't mind I'm going to eat my breakfast now." She gives me another hug before taking a seat next to me and ordering some coffee for herself. "Fuck, that sucks Kate. I would've brought you food or something if I had known. We really need to get you a cell phone," she says drinking her coffee. I eat the rest of my meal in silence. "Lets get going, we don't want to be late for school, you'll already have a hard enough day explaining this to the girls," Leah says pointing at my ragged appearance. I pay the bill and get up but totally forget about my injured knee and almost trip over Leah. Trying to mask my pain and hide my limp but failing miserably, I make my way to her car. When I get in she gives me a questioning look and I know that she has noticed. "I might have hit my knee and bruised a rib when he yanked me out of bed. The rib is really nothing and my knee will be fine. Luckily he leaves town today and things will hopefully start to calm down a bit," I try to reassure her. She gives me a doubtful look before starting the car. I can see that she is having trouble accepting my news. The other girls are already waiting for us at the door and it only takes them one look at my grimacing face to realize that I had a horrible weekend. I can not stand their worried glances and decide to just get it over with and tell them all what happened, instead of waiting and just telling Sarah. Leah helps me out and after explaining to them that ice baths were once a regular occurrence for me and that Jack is finally leaving town, they finally start to calm down. I think they were ready to take care of him themselves and I would have enjoyed it if it I was not scared shitless that they might actually try. Serena almost lost it when I told them that an ice bath really was not the worst thing that has happened to me and I actually got off easy this time. She wanted to know what I would consider worse than ice baths, beatings and starvation. I did not know how to answer her without infuriating her even more and decided to try and change the subject. "Lets get lunch together, you still look a bit pale and we could all use some time relax. We'll meet up at Patty's?" Christina asks the group. It is just the eight girls that knows about my secret and I am really glad the others have not arrived yet. "Yeah, sure. I could actually do with some more food right now, lunch sounds perfect. I kind of want to avoid the cafeteria today," I tell them. My first period is history and I part with the rest of the group when the bell rings. "What happened this time?" Natalie asks me snidely. I do not bother responding and just take my seat at the back. "Ignoring me now? How mature of you," she continues. The rest of the period slowly continues with her continuously making snide remarks and I can not wait for the bell to ring. Like always that just makes the time go slower and it starts to feel like I might spend Christmas in this classroom with her. I do not know how much more I can take before I lose my temper and slap her. Why does she do this to me? Have I not been through enough torment this weekend? The bell finally rings and I quickly make my way to the next class. When lunch finally arrives I am so hungry that I can eat another two stacks of pancakes but opt for something healthier, chicken salad it is. I am done before the rest of the group has time to start eating and when I push my plate away I catch them all openly staring at me. "Are you sure you don't want to get something else? You look pretty hungry," Sarah finally says to break the silence. I give them a small smile before shaking my head. "I'm fine. Sorry about that I guess it's just a habit, I usually don't have a lot of time to eat." Then Leah bursts out laughing at me and before long everyone joins in, even me. The rest of our lunch is really nice and I finally start to relax again. Another good memory to add to my rapidly forming pile. When we return to school for the last couple of periods I am on a high. I am currently sitting in my English class and it is the last period of the day. I survived another day and there is still soccer practice later this afternoon to look forward to. "Kate, can I please see you after class?" mrs P asks me. I just nod my head and continue working on my essay. Why do they make it sound like a question? We all know it is more like an order. It is not like I can actually say no to her. After class she walks over to my desk and gives me a sad smile. "Kate, I can't keep pretending like I don't see the signs. Someone is harming you and I don't know who it is-" she starts before I hurriedly interrupt her. "No, mrs P! No one is harming me, I don't even have any real injuries at the moment." "I know you don't have any visible injuries today but I'm not stupid. You have been struggling to stay awake all day and you look worn out, you've also been losing weight really fast recently, it looks like you haven't been eating. I've been teaching you for years. There is no doubt left in my mind. I will be reporting it if you don't start telling me what's going on," she tells me sternly. I do not know what to do. After a few minutes of silence Leah barges through the door. She gives her aunt an apologetic smile for interrupting us but still makes her way to me. "Lee, dear can you give us some privacy please? I have some things to discuss with Kate," mrs P tells her. "Sorry P, I promised Kate I would always be there for her and besides, I already know everything there is to know about her," Leah tells her aunt defiantly. I can feel the full blown panic attack starting to creep up on me. My breaths are getting shorter and there is sweat pouring down my face. Please, not now. Not now. It feels like my throat is obstructed and there is no air getting through to my lungs. "Kate! Kate! Count with me, 1...2....3....4," Leah starts soothing me. After a few times my breathing finally starts to slow down and I take a few more deep breaths. I did not even realize I was crying but now I can feel the wetness on my cheeks. "It's all going to be fine. I'm here for you, we all are. Just try to take deep breaths and leave P to me," Leah says. I do not try to follow their conversation but mrs P is clearly furious when she finds out that Leah have known for all this time. She gives me a sympathetic glance every few seconds. They talk for a few more minutes before mrs P hugs us both and tells Leah to take care of me. "I told her it was all Jack and that he left this morning, she said she won't report it right away but won't hesitate in the future. She also said we weren't done with the discussion but I think I managed to convince her that it was better not to report it, for now. She has absolutely no idea of the full extend of their abuse, otherwise we would have been sitting in the principal's office right now. We need to be more careful with her she won't just drop it. Maybe it won't be that bad if she reports them," Leah tells me on our way to her car. "Are you kidding? I will have to move, my life will be ruined again! Thank you for convincing her for now but we need to try and convince her to never report it," I say. "She won't keep it a secret, she cares about you too much and besides she will lose her job if someone found out she did not report it. Lets just get through this week and see what happens. Don't overthink it for now." The rest of the week passes uneventfully. Our team is shaping up to be one of the best teams in the school's history. I think we have a really good chance of beating Emma and Alice's team. My team takes my mind off everything else and we are becoming really close, everyone except Natalie. The nightly practices with Leah has grown to include Sarah and the other girls that eat lunch with us. Michael is mostly passed out and leaves me be. For the first time in years I feel like I might actually survive high school. I even score the winning goal on Friday and attend the party afterwards. Tim is still trying to be more than friends and I might just do it.