Shattered

Fighting like a girl

"You fight like a girl!" jeered the boy in the blue jacket, punching the blond girl so she fell into the snow, rolled and lay still. The crowd around them laughed and chanted, goading on the boy and mocking the girl.

"Seriously Evelyn, why did you ever think you take me on?" he cackled as she moaned and stirred feebly.

Evelyn spat blood, wiped her mouth on the sleeve of her jacket and grimaced, "Because you're a self-centered ass, Cody, and you need to be taught a lesson." She heaved herself to her feet, bracing her hands on her knees as blood dripped from her split lip.

Cody's eyes narrowed, the crowd had grown quiet, no one insulted Cody Ross and got away unscathed. Evelyn raised her face as Cody drew back his fist and slammed it into her gut. She doubled over, gasping, and he kicked her to the ground.

"That's enough!" cried a voice from the outside of the circle of onlookers, it was a girl with dark skin and long black hair, she rushed forward and threw herself between Cody and Evelyn. "Look at the state of her!" She had a british accent, "You've won Cody, you don't need to keep beating her up. Go home! All of you!" She shouted swinging around to face the surrounding teenagers, "Why the hell do you feel the need to watch this? Why aren't any of you helping Evelyn?" No one answered her and the group quickly dispersed.

Cody threw Evelyn one last gloating look, "Like I said, you fight like a girl Evelyn and everyone knows that girls can't fight, I just proved that. You're damn lucky that Jessica was here to save your ass." He spat on the ground by her head and strutted away.

Jessica knelt down beside Evelyn, who was still struggling to regain breath, knees drawn up to her chest, and slipped her arm under the other girl's back. Helping her to her feet, Jessica asked Evelyn about what just happened.

"Cody was going on and on about how he could beat anyone in a fight, so I challenged him to one. He refused to fight a, and I quote, 'little girl'. So I started taunting him until he agreed and, well, you know the rest." Sighed Evelyn, bringing her hand to her mouth, wincing and looked at her fingers, red with blood. They walked the rest of the way back to Evelyn's house in silence.

Two days later Cody was bragging about how he was going to be in another fight after school, Jessica was the only one who seemed disapproving.

"Who are you fighting?" She asked him, collecting her books after history class and carefully avoiding his gaze.

"I dunno, actually," Cody replied, snapping his gum, "I got a text yesterday asking if I wanna fight someone at the skate park today after fourth period, they said that they're in the same history class as we are."

"You seriously agreed to this without actually knowing who it is you're going to be beating up? Or who's going to be beating you up? How thick can you get?" Jessica said in her british accent, shaking her head. Cody ignored her and left the room, not noticing that she had a slight smirk on her face.

The next day, Cody came to school with two black eyes, a broken nose and a bruise on his cheek.

"Um... Cody? What happened to you? You're a mess! Did you get in another fight?" asked Mrs Wells the history teacher, eyes widening, when he walked into the room.

"Yeah, I did." Cody replied sitting down, looking grumpy and pulling out his homework.

"The other kid, he must have been pretty good," said Mrs Wells.

"Yes, quite good."

"I take it he won?" Mrs Wells started collecting homework.

"Yeah, obviously," huffed Cody, passing his essay to her.

"Why did you get in a fight with him? If he's better than you?" Mrs Wells asked.

"Because I didn't know who I was fighting when I agreed to it, I only knew that they're in this class." Growled Cody, folding his arms and wincing.

"Oh? Well who is he? This boy who can beat the great Cody in a fight?" Asked Mrs Wells opening her lunch bag and pulling out an ice pack.

Cody took the ice pack she handed him and held it to his cheek. He turned to the girl with long black hair who had just walked into the room. "It wasn't a boy," he said pointing at her, "it was Jessica"

The End