That Goth Chick

Chapter 1
Jaime and Becky

Chapter Description: There's some things that you just don't mention

Chapter 1: Jamie and Becky

“Ugh did you see what she was wearing?”

“I know right? It was so lame. I, like, can’t believe she thinks that’s in.”

“That style, like, totally died in the 80’s.”

Jamie could hear the group of girls talking loudly behind her as she walked down the school hallways after her class. She thought that by the time college rolled around people would stop acting so childish.

But they didn’t.

Becky Sinclair and her posse of look-alikes tortured Jamie since sophomore year of high school. Jamie and Becky had once been friends a long, long time ago back in the forgotten years of first and second grad. They used to have loads of fun together watching movies, going to the park, playing with Barbie dolls, and doing all the typical things that girls do with one another at that age.

But like everything time never stands still, and as the years passed, the girls drifted apart. New friends were made, life got in the way, and by the end of middle school Becky and Jamie weren’t speaking to each other anymore. Not from some fight or falling out, but their lives had traveled in different directions.

It wasn’t until high school that things turned from bad to worse for their relationship. When Jamie had started high school her parents were killed in a car accident leaving Jamie’s older sister in charge of her. Jamie fell into the typical “goth” stereotype. Rightly so, after all the death of anyone’s parents would be enough to let one’s inner fears and angers spill out.

Unfortunately, Becky had drifted in a different direction and was now a member of the “prep” clique in school. Of course, being in such a clique meant that Becky now had a reputation to maintain, and when Becky not only failed to stop her friends from picking at Jamie for the death of her parents but played along in agreement that Jamie had marked Becky with irreconcilable hatred.

The problem was that Jamie had never been the type to attract a large amount of friends, and her reputation as one of the “goth girls” of Juniper County High School didn’t win her many popularity votes. So when Jamie confronted Becky (who was surrounded by her usual troop of bubblegum-blonde cronies) about how insensitive and cruel she had become, she fell victim to a prank organized by the Bimbo Brigade a few days later.

Jamie thought that Becky had probably bribed one of the jocks with sexual favors to get him to post signs of Jamie around the school. The posters were of Jamie’s Freshman yearbook picture with the photoshopped additions of a baby’s bonnet, a pacifier, and large years streaming down faux-freckled cheeks. A caption read “Feed The Creepy Crybaby”

Jamie lost count of how many people in the following few months approached her shoving baby bottles filled with milk and orange juice into her face making mock-baby coo noises. And every time she ripped one of the posters it seemed as though four more popped up to replace it the next day.

It continued that way for about two weeks, until the jock in charge of hanging the posters was caught by the principal and suspended for a few days (much to the jock’s pleasure, because it again boosted his popularity level)

The worst part of it all was that Jamie didn’t have many people to reach out to except her sister, and she became more and more secluded.

So this kind of public humiliation continued into college. Now she was walking down the hall holding her Suicide Silence backpack, head down, looking out through dyed black bangs from behind black eyeliner, listening to the sneers and usual comments from whom she called, “Becky and The Bimbos”. Jamie had developed a shell to counteract the sneering and jeers in the passing years. She was almost at a point where she could tune them completely out. But today was different.

“Hey Jaime-Wamey!” she heard Samantha, the redheaded girl on Becky’s left shout out through the hall, “Do you know what day it is??”

Jamie’s hand, which was pressed against the exit door of the East Campus Communications Building, froze. Not with fear or humiliation, but with a seething terror.

Samantha spoke loudly again making sure that the whole hallway was filled with her voice, “You know what day it is, don’t you Becky?”

Blood was pumping through Jamie’s ears so hard she was half expecting other people to hear it and start dancing to the beat.

“I sure do!” Becky said.

Jamie’s grip on the door tightened.

But Becky continued. “Isn’t today the day ma-ma and da-da went bye bye, widdle crybaby?”

And before Jaime could register what was happening, the next thing she knew, she was on top of Becky, scratching and punching at every inch of bare skin she could see. Jamie didn’t even realize that hot tears were falling from her eyes

What seemed like either a millisecond or a millennium later, Jamie felt herself being pulled off of Becky by someone strong. Something was being pushed into her mouth, something was being pulled around her head. Her eyes, shrink-wrapped with tears and bleeding with black eyeliner suddenly popped with a bright flash.

Then she was being dropped onto the floor and she heard the sound of school security guards yelling and shouting.

The next few hours felt like a blur to Jaime. According to the security tapes that the head of security showed Jaime, Jaime had “attacked” Becky only to be pulled off by a very large football player that she recognized as Becky’s boyfriend. Then, her heart sank even further as she watched the security tape playback the footage of another jock shoving Jaime’s own hand into her mouth and then quickly tying a large Halloween baby’s bonnet onto her head. Then, to top it all off, Becky’s friend had pulled out a cell phone and snapped a picture Jaime at that moment.

Jaime knew what would be happening the next day.

The security guard questioned her as to what happened.

Jaime cleared her throat which was hoarse from all the yelling and screaming she had apparently done. “Four years ago my parents died. She thought it would be funny to rub that in my face.”

The security guard looked at her. The expression on the guard’s face was confused and somewhat skeptical. “She thought it would be funny to mock your parent’s passing?”

Jamie avoided the gaze of the man in front of her. She was pissed at the world and she didn’t care who knew it.

“Yeah, because people are fucking disgusting. This isn’t the first time he has done something like this.”

“Well,” continued the guard, “I can understand you reacting like that. And she had obviously planned this seeing as how this… uh… prop,” she gestured to the bonnet which was lying on the desk between them, “was so readily used. But we can’t have fighting in this school.”

And as a small tear welled up at the cherry which had been placed on top of this whole mess, Jaime said, “That’s right. Throw the book at me when that bitch gets away with some horrible shit”. And she grabbed her bag and stormed out before the guard could stop her.

To be continued