Chapter Six--A cafeteria fight...again--Angels Among Us/The Blessing

Sorry this one took so long, but my computer was being weird.

Chapter 6

A cafeteria fight…again

Vanessa spent the rest of the weekend thinking about what had happened. And, although she tried not to, she couldn’t help but think about Chad and how his reaction had been when she had gone to the dance with Mike. In a way, she was worried. She was worried that Chad was planning a nasty surprise for Mike that Monday. ‘But,’ she thought, ‘he knows now that I don’t care about being popular and I have really learned a lot from this experience. What’s the worst that could happen?’
However, the next day, Vanessa would look back at that question and wonder if she cursed herself. The day began stranger then normal. At first, there was an awkwardness, just for a few minutes, between Mike and Vanessa. But, by lunch, that awkward silence was gone and had been replaced by talking about what had happened and how much they had enjoyed each other’s company.

“See, Mike,” began Vanessa, “even though we didn’t dance, it was still pretty neat.”
“Yeah.” Mike said, “And don’t worry, you didn’t-.”
But Mike was cut short by Vanessa’s whisper of, “Oh, God.” Looking into her eyes, they were full of fear. Turning around, he saw them. Chad. Other large football players. Vanessa couldn’t help thinking, ‘I was right. They were planning something for us today.’
The fight that Chad began was the beginning of something horrendous. And, because Chad had brought along six of his jock buddies, Mike truly was scared. Especially since he knew the effects of the beatings personally. But, there were a lot more people this time. Not just to do Chad’s bidding, but to witness the humiliation of him.
Vanessa rose and faced Chad squarely,
“Yes, can we help you?”
Chad grabbed her by the shoulders roughly and threw her down. She hit the ground and Mike saw her wince. That was the last straw for him. No one. No one hurt Vanessa. He stood up, expecting to go and push Chad down. But Chad knew all the tricks; he sent two of the guys to guard Vanessa. Then, him, and the other four jocks advanced on Mike and started beating the hell out of him. He didn’t even have a chance to react to the previous punch before there were another six fists landed on him. But, somehow, he managed to see one thing. Vanessa was fighting with the two guys, her fists flying. She was shaking her head in fury, her long brown hair swatting the guy’s faces. But these guy’s didn’t care whether she was a girl or a boy, they treated her just same as they were treating Mike. And before Mike lost conscience, he saw them hitting her. And not lightly either. Then, everything went black.

Meanwhile, Vanessa was still fighting the two guys. But, when she saw Mike on the ground, not fighting back, something died inside of her. It was as if, suddenly, the fire that had kept her fighting strong had been extinguished. She feverishly tried to continue, but she could feel herself slowly surrendering herself to the jocks’ flying fist and angry words. Then, the world seemed to be disappearing before her and she felt herself falling.

Vanessa was the first one to open her eyes. At first, the lights in the hospital blinded her. She was confused, but then, she remembered Mike. Immediately, the sight of him not fighting and lying still came back into her head and she sat upright, ignoring the pain she felt. The doctor and her Dad tried to push her back down, but she wouldn’t go.
“Mike!” She almost screamed.
Then, she looked at the doctor, “Where’s Mike??” She asked, franticly, “Is he all right??”
Now feeling weak, she allowed the doctor to ease her back into bed. Tears were welling up in her eyes. The doctor looked at her father uneasily. Something in their eyes told Vanessa that Mike wasn’t okay. She hadn’t even realized the pain at first. And, even though it was bad, she could only focus on Mike. Then, she remembered all the thoughts she had had just two nights ago at the Snowflake Ball. That it had been all her fault that Mike had felt the wrath of Chad. Now, that feeling was even stronger deep in Vanessa conscience.
“He’s not okay, is he?”
“Honey, we don’t know yet.”
Vanessa knew that those words meant he probably wasn’t. Then, another question popped into her head and she was surprised that she hadn’t thought of it earlier.
“Dad, why am I here? Did the guys really hurt me that bad?” The doctor decided to answer this himself.
“Well, Vanessa, the results of those guys beating you are the same of an abused wife being abused by her husband; perhaps even worse. We still need to do some tests. But the damage is mostly bruises; lots of them.”
“Can I have a mirror?” she asked.
“Umm, sure.” The doctor looked slightly surprised. He signaled to the nurse. She left and was soon back with a hand mirror. Vanessa took it and looked at her reflection. It wasn’t as bad as she had imagined. But she looked worse then Mike had after the cafeteria incident. However, that opened her eyes to something. If she looked worse than Mike had, what had happened to Mike?
“Honey?” Her Dad began, “Is there anything I could get you?” Vanessa thought hard and then, something dawned on her.
“Yeah. There are these two guys at school, Chad and Max. Can you go and get them and then bring them here? I want to talk them.”
“Sure, I bring them tomorrow after school.”
“Ok, thanks Dad.” Then, Vanessa closed her eyes and tried to sleep.

The next day, Vanessa couldn’t think of anything else but the people who would be visiting her later on that day. She was trying to figure out just how to tell them how much damage they had done. She knew it would be hard, since she still didn’t know what Mike’s condition was. But, when two o’ clock rolled around, Vanessa had a pretty good idea of what point she wanted to get across when the two jock’s entered the room
“Vanessa? Are you awake?” Her Dad asked though the door.
“Yeah, are they here?”
“Yeah, they’re coming now Vanessa sat up and took a deep breath. ‘ Here it goes.’ she thought. Then, she heard Chad’s voice,
“Mr. Walters, why are we here?”
Mr. Walters replied coldly, “You’ll see.” Then, he opened the door a crack, “Ready?

Vanessa nodded and then her Dad opened the door all the way and in trooped Chad and Max. The reaction was indescribable. Chad and Max just started at her. Vanessa touched her face and said,
“So, you like the bruises that your friends caused?” Chad just stood there, dumbfounded. He hadn’t expected the results to be so shocking.
“Now, Chad, Max,”Vanessa began, “who were those guys who jumped on me?”
“Ummm….”They shuffled their feet and looked at the ground.
“Yeah, I thought so.” Vanessa said.
“What about Mike?” Chad asked.
“What about Mike?”
“How is he?”
Vanessa paused, “I-I don’t know. The doctors won’t tell me.” Vanessa avoided eye contact. Then, Chad said something that Vanessa least expected.
“Do you want me to go and see if I can find anything out?” Vanessa looked into Chad’s eyes.
Suddenly, she wasn’t afraid if Chad saw the tears that now were hot behind her eyelids. She never expected Chad to say something like that, to be thinking about someone else than himself. She nodded slightly.
“Yeah, but how are you planning to-.”
“I’m just going to tell them that I am a friend of Mike and I would like some information.”
“But that’s not going to work. Mike’s Dad can’t even get any information out of them. They won’t tell him anything.”
“But it’s worth a try, isn’t it?”
Vanessa nodded, “Yeah, I guess.”
Max whispered something to Chad, Chad nodded and then Max left. But Vanessa didn’t care. Then, Chad turned toward the door.
“Wait, Chad.” Vanessa blurted out and Chad paused near the doorway.
“Yes?”
“Thanks.”

Chad walked out of the room where Vanessa was and was hit almost immediately with an enormous pang of guilt. He hadn’t meant for the guys to do that to her. And it was almost as if he was changing from the guy who had beaten up Mike in the cafeteria only two months ago. He began thinking about the taunting Mike went though after he and Max had done they’re work at school. Now what would the taunting be like? Chad was stopped by one of doctors, who, after Chad had asked about Mike, told him that they didn’t know yet, but would let him know as soon as possible.
Chad knew that it would disappoint Vanessa when she saw that he couldn’t get any information. ‘But she was right,’ Chad told himself. ‘She even said that I wouldn’t be able to get any information out of the docs here.’ He knocked on her door and then went in.
“You didn’t get anything out of them, did you?” She asked and Chad shook his head.
“No, but the doctor said that he would let us know when they had stuff to tell us.” Vanessa just rolled her eyes,
“Yeah, that’s what he told me this morning when I asked. I think the only way to get news out of these doctors is to poke and pry at them until they give in. And that’s what I intend to do.”
Chad was silent for a minute and Vanessa could tell that something troubling was on his mind.
“Chad, is something bothering you?” Chad didn’t say anything, but just nodded. Something was bothering him. After thinking for a bit, it hit him. If he wanted this girl so much, why had he let his friends hurt her? The thought hit him like a punch in the gut. ‘How could I have been so stupid??’ He raged at himself. But, as if his mind wasn’t full enough of confusing thoughts now, something else hit him, harder than the previous thing. The reason Vanessa liked Mike was because he wasn’t making it so obvious that he liked her. And he was also acting like himself around her, instead of making himself seem better then he really was. That was what Vanessa liked about him, was the conclusion Chad derived from the mental argument he was having in his head.
“Chad, want to tell me what is bothering you?” At first, is reaction was no, but he didn’t tell her that. He was just silent. Then, he looked deep into her eyes and nodded.
“I guess I have just realized the reason you like hanging around with Mike.”
“Really? And what is your conclusion?”
Chad took a deep breath,
“Well, he- he doesn’t act like someone he isn’t, just to impress you. And I guess the reason I didn’t like him before is because he was like that. Never mind.” Chad shook his head and looked at the floor. “It sounds stupid and it makes no sense anyway.”
Vanessa sat up a little straighter and put a hand on Chad’s shoulder,
“No, you make perfectly good sense and I couldn’t agree with you more.” Chad looked surprised. He had expected Vanessa to be angry or at least irritable with him. But she was acting exactly the opposite. Then, he was suddenly filled with this feeling. He wasn’t quite sure what it was; and he wouldn’t really find out until many weeks later, while sitting in Mike’s hospital room.