Three days had passed since Mauve, Karen and Jordan had rekindled their friendship, and although the first two days were spent with simple conversation and catching up, the third day was when Karen and Jordan had decided to put Mauve on top of things and presenting her with their current problem. Even though both had decided to do that, Jordan was still unaware of the rapist's true identity, for Karen had refused to open up about that particular bit of information; to Jordan, it seemed unreasonable, since they would work together to catch that guy, and to do so, he would need to know who that guy was. However, Karen had a motive for hiding the guy's name and she considered it with the utmost importance, Karen thought of it as a promise, even though she had never promised anything.
So, while Jordan was attending classes along with Mauve, Karen was nervously biting her pencil-case while stealing glances at her cellphone; something important was waiting for her and her friends depending on how her previous text would be answered, and that made her anxious. It could indeed change the direction of their conversation today, but no matter how anxious she was and how much she desired that answer to come, the sender could not be swayed by her trembling feelings. So, she took a deep breath for the thousandth time and made an effort to focus on class. Luckily Jordan and Karen hadn't gotten into trouble, three days ago, the principal had taken into consideration their behavior history and let them go with a stern warning since indeed they were good kids, but as their principal, he had to maintain order and most of all, he could not let them walk away thinking that they could keep on making little mistakes and get away with it simply because they had such good behavior normally. It was his duty.
Because of that, Karen had decided to put extra effort into classes, so she could compensate for the principal's goodwill. Jordan on the other hand, simply continued with his usual behavior, and most teachers were very okay with that, he was smart and never caused any trouble during classes, so why would they give him any lip? There was no reason for Jordan to make any effort at all, at least that is what he thought, he believed that the principal's reasoning was solid, and since he reached that conclusion on his own, then he would be thankful and continue with his life. No one paid him any mind still and he remained mostly invisible and unattainable, his previous behavior was so ingrained in people's mind that it was difficult for them to take him as anything else now, and such was also true to his teachers, even though a couple of them had seen him interacting with Karen and Mauve. Karen did not cause such a stir, since they knew they came together to school and assumed they lived together or at least knew each other very well, but Mauve did put a question mark over their heads.
Even so, Jordan remained mostly the same guy, and no one minded trying to put their theory that he might be approachable now, into the test. Certain risks were only worth taking when there were more proof and security, and although Jordan was not dangerous, the humiliation that followed every person that tried to make friends with him was reason enough for not trying. Jordan indeed did not humiliate anyone, but the same could not be said about the people that loved to watch the show when fresh meet tried to interact with the stone-cold wall that was Jordan. But I digress.
Right before the end of class, Karen received the text she had been waiting for so anxiously, and she almost could not contain her excitement when she read the simple "OK" that was written on her cellphone's screen. She wanted to jump out of happiness; Karen had asked the girl that had been a victim to our mysterious rapist to come and talk to their little group of friends and explained to her that they would try to get evidence and get that guy behind bars, it would be a shame if she had declined, but luckily she agreed to it. To say that Karen hadn't created any expectations over it, was a lie. Despite being prepared to receive a negative, she was still rooting so very much for a positive answer, that when she got it, all her anxiousness turned into happiness.
Her first thought was, of course, that she had to talk with Mauve and Jordan, however, Jordan was still phoneless and Mauve was still unaware of their little situation; so Karen had to keep her excitement all to herself, which was a shame, for she sincerely could have danced at that moment. Be that as it may, Karen still got to make arrangements with that girl, and managed to convince her that lunchtime would be the perfect time for them to have that conversation.
It would happen.
They were finally going to get that guy.
While Karen was shaking with excitement, Jordan was brooding over his own curiosity and lack of knowledge, he roamed his eyes through his classroom trying to figure out if the rapist could be any of the guys in there, and any time he walked through the corridors, he could not help but do the same. He questioned himself on how he could have missed such a guy, having known a couple of other people that were adept at the same disgusting practice, but he couldn't reach a reasonable conclusion that did not involve him being selfish and blind. With such thoughts consuming his interest, it was no wonder that, despite being his usual mute and detached self during classes, he ended up doing worse than expected, though not that much; and his current mindset did make it easier for him to accept that he could and would be blind some times, if not most of the time.
Jordan was inspecting every face while walking to the cafeteria, and so distracted he was, that he barely registered when he indeed arrived at it. Some people got bumped by him and, seemingly awakening from their stupor, they were rudely reminded of the existence of that not so gentle giant; to the ones that turned around angrily, their anger vanished as soon as they realized their heads only reached Jordan's chest, and the ones that turned around startled, only managed to be even more astounded. But it was enough for Mauve to decide to come to their rescue, she reached out for his arm, gave those that were shocked an apologetic look followed by a tight-lipped smile, and proceeded to drag Jordan away to the line where many students were waiting their turn to pick up some much-needed food.
"What was that?"
"Sorry... I'm just distracted. Thanks, by the way."
"Yeah, you're welcome; but why so self-absorbed, Jords?"
"I've been trying to guess who's the guy... but no success so far."
"Guy? What guy?"
Jordan caught himself, he had completely forgotten that Mauve was not put apart about that girl's story and what they had hidden inside those walls. He pursed his lips tightly before giving Mauve a tight-lipped smile, his eyes more open than normal.
"Yeah, about that... I'm not supposed to talk about it with you, at least not by myself."
Mauve's face scrunched up in anger.
"What do you mean you're not supposed to talk to me about it?"
Jordan raised the hand that was not holding his tray, its palm turned toward Mauve's direction.
"I mean, I don't have all the info, so we decided to discuss it with you together."
As her face did not improve as much as he had hoped, Jordan shrugged and told her that it was something that had happened during their stranged time, so in the end, they could not tell her before, and since it was not such a nice thing to say, both, Karen and him, had decided to give it a little bit of time before dropping such a bomb. Mauve huffed and turned her back to him, she proceeded to choose from what food was available, was she happy? No, she wasn't, but she also had no one else to blame for that situation other than herself, so she sighed and moved along.
"You know, for some people that are definitely not a couple, you two do act like one sometimes..."
Mauve wasn't even looking at him, but Jordan couldn't avoid averting his eyes from her back and turning a light shade o pink. He knew perfectly well why they weren't together, something that he had worked to remember since his jealousy attack a few days back, but still, it was something he desired, and to hear from Mauve that his wish was not so far away as he thought, made him happy, yet embarrassed. He was not ready to take such a responsibility, so he had to work hard on convincing himself not to grab onto Mauve's words and go insane on Karen.
"It's just because we know about it, but even I don't know everything, so..."
Mauve did not answer, but she knew she had caused herself to be sad, and her old insecurities were trying to take a pick at her brain once again. She was, unfortunately, losing to them once again, but Jordan caught up with it, and he gently nudged her with his elbow.
"Hey, don't go back on thinking bullshit, okay? Whatever happens, no one is abandoning you, and even though you're saying that, we're not a couple."
Mauve managed a breathy laugh, before walking away to their table, closely followed by Jordan. To Jordan's disappointment, the table was empty, of course, he wanted to see Karen, but he also wanted very much to know what he had been kept in the dark about that whole rape story, and he wanted to tell everything to Mauve, so they could get on working with pilling proof up and getting that guy away from more potential victims. But, Jordan didn't have to wait for long, soon Karen was approaching the table and she wasn't alone; beside her walked a quiet and shy girl, at that moment Jordan could feel just how much she was uncomfortable and embarrassed, but Karen had a fierce yet happy glim in her eyes. The girls sat down and Karen turned to them, her left hand pointing toward the girl's general direction.
"This is Skye, and she's the girl I told you about."
Jordan's eyes turned into saucer pans, he was definitely not expecting that; he had been more inclined to believe that the girl would prefer not to have anything to do with such a situation and with what they were trying to do, beyond what she and Karen had already going on.
"Hey." She said, her voice was small and almost ephemeral, Jordan was tempted to question himself if he really had heard something, or if that had been simply his imagination. "Hum... I'm Skye Finlayson... nice to meet you."
It hadn't been his imagination, but Jordan remained so shocked that she was the girl from Karen's story, that all he was able to do was stare at her. She was truly the last person he would ever think that something so horrible could happen; Skye was tall, yet very lanky, with a ballerina built, and auburn hair tied into a loose bun, much like the ones Laura used to constantly wear.
"I'm Mauve."
Being the one that was completely unaware of the situation, Mauve made light of it and was able to interact with Skye without any problems, and after a nudge on Jordan's ribs, the boy was also able to answer and inform the girl of his name; he then cleared his throat and began eating, although not really tasting anything.
"I spoke with Skye, and she agreed to help us."
"I wanna put that guy behind bars. He's evil."
Skye said, a weird fire burning in her eyes.
"Okay, but... I know I'm the only one here with this problem, but I don't know what y'all talking about."
"Well..." Began Karen, but she was interrupted by Skye, who quickly placed her hand on top of Karen's to stop her.
"I was raped by Jonathan Wales."
Karen had indeed brought the girl there so that he could tell her story herself, but even she was not ready for the girl's bluntness; and after such a bomb was dropped the entire table fell into a heavy silence. Jordan, who had been hiding behind his chewing motions, was forced away from his tiny stupor after hearing her answer, and Mauve, who had been clueless up until that moment, felt that her whole world was spinning around her at high speed; even more so because Mauve knew Jonathan Wales, she knew him well. Suddenly she got up and darted toward the bathroom, Mauve wanted to puke but left behind herself even more wreckage.
Skye had not meant to scare anyone, but she had come to terms with what had happened to herself, she had gone through some stages where she first wanted to pretend it hadn't happened, then that it had been a lie and that Jonathan could never have done something like that to her. But, every time she saw him her skin would crawl, her heart would start racing like mad and her stomach refused to keep inside whatever it was that she had eaten; and finally, she could not lie to herself anymore. Skye ran to the person she trusted the most, her mother; and luckily for her, her mother truly did not disappoint. Unfortunately, it had been too long for a rape kit to work, but they did go to the doctor, filed a report with the police, and Skye's mother found the best psychologist she could to help her daughter go through whatever she might be feeling at such a horrible time.
And then there was Karen, the girl that reached out to her when she thought she was alone and nobody had noticed that something was wrong with her. The times she felt the worst, Karen was always an option to go to and talk it out, unknowingly they had developed a good and solid friendship over time, and even Skye had no idea how, but she was now included in Karen's little group of friends at school, the girls that enjoyed fashion, gossiped a healthy bit and also discussed their tastes and what kind of college they would go to. It was very weird, yet refreshing. But still, Karen and Skye would sometimes discuss what had happened to her, most of the time Skye was the one to initiate the conversation, but sometimes, Karen would do it if she saw that Skye was less than okay.
With time, Karen had introduced to Skye the idea that maybe they could do something about Jonathan, of course, they could not change the past nor what he had done to her, but they could try and prevent him from doing it to other people. And that thought began to slowly root itself into Skye's brain, at first she believed it was nothing but wishful thinking on Karen's part, but then she thought back that, maybe if she hadn't tried to hide there would be proof against him and then there would be a chance of getting him away from more potential victims. Then she decided that she could try and protect the girls from Jonathan, even if she couldn't do anything else, and she announced it to Karen, who agreed with her idea right away, and from that moment on they began to keep a watchful eye over Jonathan Wales.
That was how Skye discovered that Jonathan had his eyes on another girl, one that was completely different from herself, and what was more alarming was that the girl was a cheerleader. Skye failed to see how he could manipulate such a popular and strong girl, so she decided to simply watch from afar, and slowly Jonathan's manipulative ways began to sprout and produce results right in from of her eyes. Skye tried then to warn the girl, she managed to send her some secret messages, and when that didn't work, she fought her best to find a way to get some alone time with her. But, Jonathan's claws were already too deep inside her brain, and the girl dismissed Skye's attempts as jealousy for being dumped. And later on, Skye watched as the girl's personality faded away and finally as she got destroyed by Jonathan's skillful ways. It was so scary for Skye to see it happening right in front of her, and to think that maybe she could have avoided it, had she acted earlier, or maybe she could have tried harder; and the worst part was that she knew just how that girl was feeling at that moment.
She had decided to warn Karen about it, she sent a short text message and dove into herself, trying to make a decision and trying to decide whether she should remain as passive about it as she was. In the end, she realized that if she wanted to have some peace of mind again, Jonathan needed to be gone. And that was why she was sitting at that table with those people and ready to tell everyone, everything that had happened to her.
Skye would fight back and she would try her best to get Jonathan away from every girl inside of that school.