Why Romeo Hates Juliet (51 page)

"Why?"

"Because you're smart and shy and you wear glasses, I guess. I don't know."

"That creep!" Christina was seeing red. This wasn't fair. She didn't deserve this treatment. Not from them. Not from anyone.

Jenny continued. "Mindy said Billy and Jake had to come up with a really clever stunt on you if they wanted to get in good with some of the seniors. Kinda like an initiation. Word would spread around the school and they'd be cool."

"And I would be the laughing stock?" Christina was getting madder. "What about his buddy Jake?"

"You know that story. Jake goes along with whatever Billy says."

"Yeah."

"Jake stole some official stationery from the Anderson Family Planning Clinic and they wrote you that letter. Then they made copies for everybody and Billy bought all the condoms. After you left, he picked them all up saying it was his supply for the week." Disgusted, Jenny rolled her eyes. "Then he and Jake split before Mrs. Lauder came in."

"They skipped?"

"Yeah; Mindy said she overheard them talking about going drinking under the bleachers."

"Oh really..." Christina quickly gathered her books. She was all fired up and like a volcano, about to blow. She needed to release this anger and direct it at the one who had caused it - Billy Havenwood - that big jerk! Determined, she stalked to the door.

"Where are you going?" Jenny asked.

"To tell Mr. 'Popularity, I-Can-Do-Whatever-I-Want' Havenwood off. You comin'?"

"I told old Lauder I was just going to the bathroom, but you go get him girl." Jenny smiled and gave her friend a thumbs up sign.

Christina was now on the warpath and operating on pure adrenaline.

~ ~ ~

~ Chapter 3 ~

Christina could barely make out the shape of two people crouching low in a back corner underneath the school bleachers outside by the track -

but they were there. She knew it.

The schoolyard was empty and no one had seen her. Coming closer, she could hear laughing and snickering - probably at her expense, those jerks. Creeping to the open side of the bleachers, Christina scooted underneath. She could see them now - Billy Havenwood and Jake Monroe.

They were half-sitting, half-lying down in the dirt and both were drinking from beer cans.

Christina slowly made her way towards them, clutching her books against her chest for protection. Suddenly, in his inebriated haze, Billy Havenwood finally noticed her.

"Who the hell are you?" he slurred his words.

He squinted his bloodshot eyes trying to focus on her face. Jake just sat there and burped.

"I… I…"

And that's when it happened. Christina lost her last remaining nerve and froze. What was she doing? She couldn't go through with this. It was one thing to talk about what you were going to do when you were safe in the girl's washroom, but it was another when you were actually facing them.

She was feeling weak again and her knees started to shake. Any moment now, she would faint - right in front of these bozos and be embarrassed all over again.

Billy suddenly stood up. With beer can in hand and wobbling a little, he came towards Christina.

"I know you. You're that class nerd." He burst out laughing, as did Jake. Jake, still on the ground, didn't know what was going on but if Billy laughed, he laughed.

Mortified, Christina turned to run. This had been a bad idea and she needed to get away as fast as possible. She took a few quick steps, but in her haste her foot landed in a hole in the dirt and she fell onto her hands and knees.

And there she was - on all fours - with her bum stuck in the air - right in front of them. Billy laughed harder.

"Hey, is that an invite?" he asked, as he slugged back more beer. "Because if it is, I don't do charity."

At that moment, something in Christina snapped and she could feel anger roiling through her system again. Who the hell did this jerk think he was? Slowly she stood up, brushed the dirt from her clothes and picked up her books. She turned to face Billy Havenwood and defiantly raised her chin up.

"Go fuck yourself." There. She'd said it. What a relief!

Jake drunkenly laughed in the background. "Whoa…no chick's ever said that to you before," he cackled.

Billy's eyes dangerously narrowed on Christina and his spine straightened. "What? What did you just say to me?" he demanded.

"You heard me. And I may be the class nerd, but it's better than being the class drunk like you," Christina accused forcefully.

No one had ever spoken to Billy like that before, except maybe his father. This was new territory and he didn't like it one bit. Who the hell was this little nobody telling him off anyway? Throwing his empty beer can to the side, he took a few predatory steps towards Christina. She instinctively took a few steps back.

Suddenly, Christina realized that this was not a very good place to be - alone with two drunken guys, hidden under the bleachers with no one else around. What if they…? Nobody would hear her screams or cries for help. Her courage deserted her and she took a couple more frightened steps back.

"Stay a…away from me," she stammered.

And in that instant, Billy Havenwood read her mind. So this chick thought he might force himself on her, was that it?

He laughed to himself. Why not play along and teach this little bitch a lesson? He wouldn't do anything, of course, but she didn't know that. And this might be fun. She deserved to be taught a lesson after what she'd just said to him.

He smirked at her then. "What do ya think I'm gonna do?" He asked menacingly, taking more steps towards her. "Have a little fun?"

Christina backed away even more. "I… I… said… stay away. Don't come any clo… closer." Her words came out breathy, as fear coursed through her system.

"Is that why you came to find me, for a little mid-morning action? Because baby, if you wanna fuck, I'm ready." He was leering at her now with those glazed drunken eyes of his, as he brazenly looked her up and down. "You know, for a class nerd, I gotta say you've got great tits." He slurred his last few words as the five beers he'd already had that morning took their toll on his body.

Shocked at his dirty language and frightened to the very pink-polished tips of her toes, Christina suddenly turned and ran out from under the bleachers. She could hear Billy Havenwood laughing and laughing as she kept running at full speed across the track, through the parking lot, and into the school building. She didn't stop until she reached the first floor girl's washroom.

Panting hard, Christina splashed cool water on her face. This had not been a good day but things were about to get worse.

~ ~ ~

~ Chapter 4 ~

Christina got home at 4:05 p.m. that day. After secretly slinking out of the washroom, she'd left the school and spent the day at the mall. She had skipped school for the first time in her entire life, but she just couldn't go back today and face all those people who had laughed at her.

Throwing her sweater and books on the kitchen table, she shuffled to her room, threw herself on the bed and reached behind her nightstand to pull out her secret diary and began to write about the day's events. Journaling was something that Christina had discovered the previous year. It was as if by putting her feelings down on paper, she didn't have to carry them around in her heart and mind anymore.

Putting down her pen, she let her mind wander over the day's events. She wondered if the story had already made the rounds. Did her peers know it had all been a joke? In which case, it would make her a dweeb. Or did they believe the letter and think she was a slut? Would she now have a reputation? Would everybody forget about this in a week's time and move on to somebody else?

Suddenly, Billy Havenwood's handsome face floated into her mind. What a disgusting creep! Christina remembered the way he'd been smirking at her with those arrogant, drunken lips of his and a tremor ran down her spine. And his laughter! She could still hear it playing over and over again in her head. He'd been enjoying himself at her expense. She'd never been a joke before.

Christina put her hands over her eyes, trying to blot out the images, but to no avail. She then remembered his eyes - his gorgeous, green eyes -

and the way they had leered at her. And what about those dirty things he'd said to her? Was he really going to try something? A shiver of fear ran down her back.

"Christina?"

Great, her mother was calling her. What did she want?

"Christina?" This time her mother yelled her name.

"Coming!"

Christina hid her diary behind her nightstand, got up from the bed, and trudged to the kitchen where she suddenly stopped short. Her mother was clutching ‘the letter’ in her hand and was staring at her in shock.

"This fell out of your sweater when I was hanging it up." Gabriel a whispered.

Petite and attractive but with an aura of strength, Gabriel a Matteo was the glue that held her family together. At thirty-eight, the Italian-American housewife was a great mother, but she had a penchant for the dramatic. And she didn't appreciate nonsense of any kind in others, especially from her husband, whom she blamed for everything.

Speechless, Christina could only gawk at her. Her mother always seemed to make any situation worse than it actually was. There were no such things as ‘discussions’ in this family. Everything that happened happened at high decibel and over-the-top, and this scene was promising to be a showstopper.

"I… I," Christina stammered, not knowing what to say.

"Oh my God! How could you? You're only fourteen." Gabriel a's voice started to rise. "Who's the boy?" she yelled.

"It's not true. It's a joke," Christina defensively pleaded. "There is no boy."

But Gabriel a wasn't listening as she continued. "And what's your father gonna say? I knew we should never have allowed you to go to that public school. And this boy… who is he? Tell me! Oh, I'm gonna be sick. I feel faint." She gripped the edge of the table. "Get me some water.

Quick!"

Christina ran to the sink and let the water run. She was on the verge of tears herself. "Mommy, it's not true. This guy at school…" She quickly brought her mother the glass of water as Gabriel a collapsed into a chair.

"What guy? The guy in the letter?"

"No. There is no guy in the letter. It's a lie!" Christina was now yelling loud enough to match her mother's voice.

"Oh Holy Mother of Jesus, what if you have this disease? I'm making an appointment with Dr. Marchese right away."

"No! It's not true," Christina began to cry. "Some kids at school played a joke on me and…"

"What? You mean other people know about this? Oh, saints in heaven." Gabriel a put her fingers in the glass of water and started splashing the droplets onto her face.

At that moment, the back door opened and in walked Nunzio Matteo, dressed in grubby clothes and with lunch pail in hand. He'd just finished his shift at the construction site and was looking forward to a good meal and some TV. But as he had approached the house through the garage entrance, he'd heard the shouting.

"What's goin' on here?" he inquired.

Gabriel a got up and shoved the letter at her husband. "Read this. I knew we should have sent her to St. Joseph's. This is all your fault."

Nunzio quickly began to read the letter. Christina stopped crying and held her breath as she waited for her father's explosive reaction.

Nunzio looked up at his daughter. "Is this true?" he asked quietly.

Caught off guard by his softly spoken words, she quickly regained her wits. "No, it isn't. Some kids at school were playing a joke and they thought it was funny and they sent me this letter but it's not true and…"

Nunzio held up his hand and Christina stopped speaking. He looked at her for a few hard seconds. "I believe you."

"You do?" Christina was shocked.

"I know my daughter and I know you'd never get involved in this sort of garbage." Nunzio waved the letter in the air.

For the first time that day, Christina smiled and let out a sigh of relief, but unfortunately her father kept talking.

"But tomorrow…,” he dictated, “…you're packing your things and going to that convent school in Philadelphia."

"Noooo… I don't want to," Christina wailed. Tears spurted in her eyes and she stamped her foot in frustration.

But Nunzio was firm and there was no dissuading him. "My daughter is not going back to a school with these types of people who would treat her like this and that's final." He looked at his wife and she nodded her approval.

"It's not fair," Christina sobbed, as she ran from the kitchen and into her room, slamming her door shut.

Throwing herself on the bed, she let out all the anger and trauma of the day. Tears flowed as she punched her pillow. Billy Havenwood and Jake Monroe had done this to her. It was all their faults - those jerks, those creeps, those bastards!

And within a week, Christina was shipped off to boarding school for the next four years.

~ ~ ~

~ Chapter 5 ~

16 Years Later…

Present Day

Click. Click. Click.

Christina kept snapping pictures of the eight protesters outside the Fido Dog Food Company head office building as they chanted and waved huge placards in the air. "Say No To Fido," screamed the rowdy bunch. They called themselves 'The Guardians of Mother Earth' or 'GME' for short.

A scruffy-looking, sixties throwback named Teddy, who was carrying a large sign that read 'Fido Owns Samco Oil, Samco Oill Poll utes Our Planet, Boycott Fido', ran over to Christina who was crouching down trying to get a better shot with her camera.

"Hey man, you from Streetwise Magazine?" he asked.

"That's me." She straightened up and gave him a dazzling smile.

Teddy's eyes widened with admiration. At thirty, Christina was a beauty with long brown hair framing her pretty features. The railroad tracks on her teeth had long come off her pearly whites and her thick glasses had been replaced by contacts.

At fourteen she may have been short and dumpy, but by fifteen she'd shot up to 5'6". By sixteen, she'd taken up competitive swimming and lost over 30 pounds, giving her a sleek frame. And by seventeen, she'd discovered makeup.