I'm Dating a Vigilante

Description
16-year-old Jen has moved into the Bluewood school district.

Chapter 1
Jem

I exited homeroom, buried within a stream of unfamiliar faces. Somehow, I managed to find my way to the room on my schedule marked as "study hall." Once inside the room, I hesitated, glancing around the room looking for a place to sit.

I finally settled on a desk towards the back. The only person sitting at the table was a girl with long, sea-green hair, and dark, forest-green eyes that were fixated on the cracked phone in her hands.

I sat down in the seat across from her, and dropped my backpack on the ground next to me. She glanced up at me, nodded slightly, then looked back down at her phone.

"So... What happened to your phone?" I cringed internally at the stupid question.

She didn't respond, and continued scrolling.

I sighed, and rapped my knuckles against the desk, mentally kicking myself for the stupid question. After a little while, she looked up at me looking mildly amused. She glanced at me, then back at the screen as she typed something.

HELLO

"Umm...." I looked at the phone, and back up at her face, "Hello?"

She tapped out something else, and the automated voice came again;

I'M GOING TO ASSUME THAT YOU HAVE MOVED HERE RECENTLY AS I DO NOT RECALL SEEING YOU HERE LAST YEAR. IS THIS STATEMENT CORRECT?

"Um. Yeah. My family moves around a lot. My dad's in the army, and so we never really stay in one place too long. Usually I end up moving in the middle of the school year, but luckily this time it's at the beginning so...." I trailed off, ending my babbling thoughts. This girl didn't want to know about my life, she just wants to get back to whatever she's doing on her phone. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

She smirked then asked,

WHAT IS YOUR NAME?

"Jem," I answered, relived that I wasn't being too annoying.

THORN, she responded with her own name.

"Cool," it edgelord, I thought but didn't say that last bit.

Thorn smirked slyly, but didn't respond. Instead, she went back to her phone.

"Whatcha doing?" I asked, curious.

She didn't answer, so I took that as an indication that the conversation was over.

I sighed, and looked over my schedule, thinking about the rumors that I'd heard in homeroom about how some of the teachers here assigned homework on the first day. ON THE FIRST DAY. It astonishes me how cruel some people can be.

I pulled a pen out of my pocket, and spent the rest of the period drawing some type of an octopus creature on the back of the schedule. I'm not really sure - I was mostly just dragging the pen across the paper.

The bell eventually rang, and when it did, I had to cross the entire length of the building to get to my next class. I understand that it is probably difficult to make schedules for hundreds of students, but would it really kill whoever was in charge of that to look at a map so we don't have to cross the entire school between every single class?

At lunch, I was approached by a group of girls. They were overly nice, and offered to let me sit at their table. I did, used to this charade. They wanted to know who I was, and which group I was to be sorted in.

At first, they ignored me. After a bit, though, the focus turned back to me.

"So, what were you doing with Thorn in homeroom?" asked a blonde girl who I think was named Maria.

"What do you mean?" I looked over at her, confused.

"I saw you talking to her," Maria continued. "Why?"

"Ummm. I sat at the table she was at, and I decided to start a conversation. What's the problem?" I glanced around, confused.

"What's the problem?" another girl - whose name I definitely didn't know repeated. "The problem is that no-one talks to Thorn."

"Okaaaaay." I said, still confused. Not really wanting to know the answer to my next question, I asked, "Why?"

"Why?" Maria repeated. "Because she's a lunatic. Everyone says she's a murderer, and that's why she doesn't talk. They also say that's why she wears gloves at the time."

I glanced around the crowded cafeteria again, this time finding Thorn. We made eye contact, and she waved briefly, a slight smile on her face. I looked back at the others at the table, "You wouldn't happen to have anything to back this up, would you?"

"'Course not," said another girl waving around a French fry, "She was careful to cover up the evidence, but there has to be a reason why her girlfriend died like that."

I waited, not wanting to be baited into the pronoun game, but eventually gave in asking, "Like what?"

"Her last girlfriend was found stabbed. It was a little over a year ago, and still, no-one knows who did it, and Thorn was the last person to be seen with her." It was a fourth girl who said this.

Why couldn't just one person talk, and the others wait? Did they have a hive mind or something? I would never understand high school girls. A bit of an ironic statement, I know, but still.

"But do you actually have any real basis for this?" I asked, skeptical.

"Yeah, Thorn was the last one seen with her," it was Maria talking now, "Of course she did it."

"Ok, sure. Can we talk about something else now?" I asked, not being subtle about trying to change the topic.

"Yeah," it was the third girl. The conversation shifted to makeup - of all things - and it was clear to me that this gossipy group was made of people I was not particularly interested in getting to know.

Chapter 2
Thorn

The bell rang, but I didn't leave the room - I had a study hall first period in the same room as homeroom. I was on my phone, scanning through the local news. I kept scrolling, but couldn't find what I was looking for, I almost felt like breaking something in frustration, when I felt a slight vibration on the table.

I looked up to see an unfamiliar face in front of me. It was likely a new student, they had long hair dyed purple, and wore an oversized jean jacket on top of a tight black shirt. I exited google, then opened my voice app.

I typed out the simple message of, HELLO.

She hesitated then said "hi" back.

I nodded slightly, typed out a dumb message about how I could tell she was a new student. Though the pre-recorded words were choppy, they always sounded so formal. I liked it though.

I focused on the movements of her lips, and watched as she launched into an explanation of how she moved around a lot. I smirked as she trailed off nervously.

Realizing that we didn't know each other's names yet, I asked WHAT'S YOUR NAME?

Jem is her name. I like it. I didn't have anything else to say after that, and went back to Google. I was still angry about the lack of information on most of the sites, but luckily The Daily Rag was on my side with an accurate depiction of recent accomplishments by "The Surgeon." Its nice when credit is given where it is deserved.

At lunch, I noticed Jem get snatched up by the popular girls. Whenever there was a new girl, they snatched them up before they could even find their feet. I felt a bit bad for Jem, but not enough that I was going to help her.

I tried to follow the conversation, but it went to fast. At one point, I saw Jem look over at me, wide-eyed. I gave a little wave - suspicious about what they might be filling her head with.

Chapter 3
Jem

At the end of the day, I ended up with homework in Geometry, and Global. Yay. Teachers truly are horrible people.

The bus I selected to ride was nearly full of other students and miscellaneous persons by the time I boarded. I managed to find an empty seat towards the middle, in which I quickly sat down. Just before the diver closed the doors and took off, Thorn climbed on, and sat down next to me.

"Why are you here?" I asked a bit rudely after about a minute of her staring at me.

Not breaking eye contact with me, Thorn reached into the kangaroo pocket of her dark green hoodie, and pulled out her phone. She looked down at the screen, and when she looked back up at me the automated voice said, ITS A BUS. I HAVE PLACES TO GO.

"Ok." That made sense, I reasoned. It was just a coincidence that they were going towards the same general direction. I knew that what the girls at lunch had told me was probably just nonsense, but I was nervous nonetheless. I mean, It was unsettling information - true or not.

Chapter 4
Thorn

When the bell rang, I was finally free from the horror that is high school. As I exited the building, I noticed Jem in the crowd. She climbed onto one of the busses, and for some reason, I decided to follow her.

I climbed onto the bus, and sat down next to her. I slung my backpack around so that it landed in my lap.

"What are you doing?" she asked me.

I shrugged, not really knowing myself. It was still kinda early, but there was a variety of more productive things that I could've been doing.

"Can I ask you a question?" she asked.

You just did I thought. I nodded my head.

"Why don't you talk?" she asked.

I didn't respond. I could've gotten the pen and paper out of my pocket, but this made me seem more mysterious. At least, I think it did. I was aiming for a cryptic vibe, and the information she'd received earlier really helped.

Eventually, she had to get off the bus. I stayed on, and got off at the next stop. I headed down the street awhile, and went back to the area where she'd gotten off. After a little while, I saw her walking towards an apartment complex. After she went in, I turned around. After a little while, I crossed the street, and headed towards a bakery I knew nearby.

When I walked in, Carol, one of the employees recognized me. "Hey, Thorn, how's it going?"

I shrugged.

"Cool." She responded in her overly cheery voice. She removed a chocolate chip cookie from the display, and headed over to the cash register. I handed her money for the cookie, and she gave me the cookie.

I left the store, and bought a water from a vending machine. After I finished my snack, I wandered aimlessly around the city for a while.

When it it started getting dark, I ducked into an empty alleyway. I hid behind a dumpster, and slung my backpack off of my shoulder.

From a hidden interior compartment, I pulled out a pair of black gloves, a pair of slim night vision goggles, and a surgeon's mask. I removed a hair tie from around my wrist, and pulled my hair back into a single ponytail. I slid on the gloves, and goggles, then finally secured the mask around my face. I stood up, securing the backpack on my back, and around my waist with a clip on the straps. I pulled the hood to my hoodie over my head to help further obscure my face.

I carefully came out from behind the dumpster, and headed towards one of the building walls that helped make up the alleyway. I reached out a hand to the wall, and with the help of the micro grippers on the toes of my sneakers, and the pads of the glove, I was soon scaling the wall.

After I hoisted myself onto the roof, stood up, and looked around at the bustling city below me.

Chapter 5
Jem

I stepped off of the bus, and headed down the street to my apartment. I was proud of myself for not getting lost in this new city. True, the apartment building was a short distance from the bus stop, but I have a really bad sense of direction.

Once I got to my room, I sat down at my little desk, and started to work on my homework. I decided that I might as well work on it first to get it out of the way.

I was finishing up when I heard my mom come home. She had Chinese takeout.