Choosing Your Battles Ch. 01

Hello, ladies and gents!

I hope that this new year has been interesting and fascinating for all of you, so far!

If you haven't notice, I've added more details to this short story. I've also did my best, when it came to revising this chapter as well.

Disclaimer: All characters are over the age of 18 years.

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"Did you hear about what The Monster had done to little Tommy Pickett?"

"No."

The voice sounded as if the owner was pre-occupied with something, as well as, was not interested in the latest gossip. There was a period of silence.

"Kimberly?"

"Yeah?"

"So are you going to tell me who The Monster is and who is Tommy Pickett?" said the disinterested voice. "And what-in the-hell happened to him?"

It was a nice, sunny autumn day in the month of October. It was a Wednesday afternoon and it was a few minutes after noon. It was on this particular day that Kimberly told Selene information on the "in's and out's" of the Payton High School's student social circle. It was lunch time for the cousins, Kimberly Pike and Selene Dennis. They were seniors at General Horace Payton High School. Being seniors meant that they had more privileges than the underclassmen. One of those senior classmen privileges was the ability to eat their lunches in places besides the cafeteria, just as long as the students remained on the high school's grounds. On this particular day, the girls sat in the large grassy area that was known as "The Quad". It was a lounge area that was built in the center of the campus. It was the most popular area of the campus. It was a favorite spot of theirs, especially now, when the weather was becoming chilly and none of the students wanted to sit outside. This hang-out spot gave them privacy.

"First, let me tell you about Tommy Pickett," Kimberly explained before taking a forkful of salad into her mouth. "He's a geek, I mean, a total dweeb. So, of course, he is a target for all of the bullies and jerk-off jocks. The poor boy is a senior and he still is the size of a junior high school kid. You haven't seen him yet, but you will eventually. You can't miss him: he's short and skinny and he has a book bag that looks like it weighs more than he does. Now, The Monster, on the other hand, is someone that you should avoid at all costs. He's a thug who likes to terrorize people. He's been that way since he's been a kid. Moo-Moo grew up with him and he told me that he was like that back then. He's a total loser."

'Who's Moo-Moo?' wondered Selene. 'Maybe I should start paying more attention to her, when she starts to gossip.'

"So..." sighed Selene. "... What did this 'The Monster' dude do to Tommy Pickett?" she asked, before taking a bite out of her roast beef sandwich.

"It was after third period, when it happened. I was on my way to my Computer class, when I saw what he did. Monster the jerk had shoved Tommy into a wall of lockers and then roughed him up for a bit. He also embarrassed him by giving him a massive wedgie in front of us. Then he picked this kid up and tossed him into one of the garbage cans that are in the hallways! He's such a fucking asshole! He just picked him up like he was a rag doll."

"Why would he do that?" Selene asked with a soft voice, which was a total contradiction to how she felt. Inside, she slowly felt her anger rise because of the cruelty that this kid dealt with.

She disliked hearing the news of some poor kid being victimized by some low-life punk. Even though she was still a kid herself, being the age of eighteen, Selene was wise to know that bullies were really cowards. There was nothing cute, funny or cool in whatever actions they choose to do. She hoped that she would never have to meet this 'The Monster' kid, because she knew that the results of their encounter were not going to be a good one.

Well, it won't be good for The Monster rather.

"Don't know," Kimberly said to her cousin while shrugging her shoulders, knocking some of her red hair off of her shoulders. "Maybe it's a case of Tommy being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don't know for sure. Whatever Tommy said to the douche-bag doesn't mean that he deserved that. But, I heard from one of my friends that Tommy had embarrassed The Monster in front of a few people. But I wouldn't put too much stock in that rumor. I learned all of this from Lisa Potter; she's in our European History Class. And she tends to make stuff up a lot. You know Lisa Potter; she has long black hair and those big green eyes. She sits behind Heather..."

At this point, Selene had tuned her cousin out. She knew that she wasn't missing any vital information, ever since it was most likely gossip that her cousin must've received from her friends. Kimberly loved to talk, so Selene knew that Kimberly wouldn't notice her lack of interest. But there were some things that she won't ever like or tolerate. Two of those things were gossiping and the other thing was bullies.

Since she was a little girl, Selene Dennis hated bullies, their actions and what they stood for. When she was a child, she was told by her father that bullies were weak and scared individuals who like to pick on people who were weaker. He also told her that all it took was for one person to stand up to a bully for it to end. Unbeknownst to her father, he had inspired his daughter.

Whenever she encountered situations where a bully bothered someone, Selene always intervened. Somehow, during her youth, her mission of aiding the more docile students had become askew. Instead of defending the weak by physically pummeling their tormentors, now she fought people because the 'gauntlet was thrown at her feet'. Now, she fought for the sake of fighting and it appeared to be a never-ending cycle: she would fight a person, who would bring her another opponent, which usually was a friend/relative who thought that they could beat her and so on and so on. The constant fighting helped Selene garner her 'tough gal' reputation.

To put it simply, Selene was the type of girl who would fight another person, in a heartbeat. Her opponent could be another teenaged girl or even a teenaged boy. It can be an adult as well. Once they 'put their dukes up', they are nothing but opponents for her. She never initiated a fight, but she always did finish a fight with her being the victor.

Just like any other tough gal, her battles did not come without any casualties. There were the obvious ones: receiving cuts, bruises, fractured bones and stitches. Selene's history of injuries could rival any professional, prized fighter's list. However, there were some negative effects that not only affected her, but other people as well. Due to her excessive fighting, she was kicked out of twelve different schools, the first academic expulsion occurred when she was in junior high school. She was arrested for fighting in public places and she even spent six months in a juvenile detention center. She had lost good friends, due to her short temper and her ability to not 'turn the other cheek'. She had lost three, after-school jobs. She also was unable to gain a quality education, because of her constant changing of schools. And after being expelled from her twelfth school, which was the sixth high school that she attended, she even lost herself a place to live.

Her mother had already reached the breaking point. Her mother was a divorced, single-parent of seven children and she worked three jobs to keep making her ends meet, which meant that she wasn't home as much as she wanted to. Due to her constantly working, she heavily relied on Selene to help around the house and, as much as her mom didn't want to admit, she needed help with some of the child-rearing for the six younger siblings. But, with Selene's constant troubles, it caused a financial strain for her purse-strings due to the court fees, lawyer fees and other bills. Plus, she didn't want her daughter's bad habits to rub off on the other kids. So, her mother decided to provide some 'tough love' to her eldest child.

The tough love had come in the form of sending her daughter to live with her older sister, Samantha, her husband Lenny and Lenny's three kids. Of course, Selene was livid and was against the idea of being re-located to another state for her senior year of high school. Her mother just ignored her daughter's pouting and tantrums and sent her down there anyway.

Her extended family lived in a small, Pennsylvania town named Point Harrisburg. It was a suburban town that had the population of fifteen-thousand people and it was a two-hour drive from the nearest city, Philadelphia. Since her arrival to Point Harrisburg, four weeks prior, her extended family members had made her felt welcome, especially her cousin Kimberly and her younger brothers, twins Jason and Kennedy. Her Aunt Sam and Uncle Lenny made sure that Selene was comfortable with everything that they provided her with. But, they did explained to her the rules and guidelines that she had to obey, in order to stay in their home. The rules and guidelines, Selene thought, were the typical rules that a parent (or guardian) would give to a child: go to school, go to classes, receive good grades, perform your chores, respect yourself and others. She was also told of the most important rule: she needed to learn how to curb her anger and stop fighting.

Selene was in school for three weeks and she was holding up to her end of the bargain. She was going to school every day and attended her classes as well. Three weeks passed and she managed to garner some positive attention from her teachers, thanks to her respectfulness, intelligence and her quiet confidence. All of her teachers were made aware of Selene's history of past misdeeds, prior to her first day at General Payton High School, so they were bit taken back by her astute, quiet demeanor. They all hoped that she wouldn't fall back into her old ways.

Selene did almost cause a stir, on one day, of her first week at her new school. On one October morning, she had shown up to school wearing a shirt that would be deemed as "provocative" by the school's administrators. It was a short-sleeved shirt that seem to have molded to her full 38D-cup breasts, her small waist and flat stomach. On the front of the shirt was a picture of a Technicolor flag and on the back of the shirt were the words "Yes I Am" in bold, black letters. Before she could make it to her first-period class, she was summoned to a guidance counselor's office for a lecture on the school's dress code. The guidance counselor, a man by the name of Peter Whitney, also explained to her that she needed to be careful with how she expressed her sexual orientation, when she was in public. Then, he explained how he had to learn that lesson the 'hard way'. He informed Selene that he wish that she would do the same thing too. Selene understood his point of view. She was aware that she was no longer in New York City, where things were more liberal. She slipped on her cardigan and spent the entire day wearing the sweater, in hope that no one saw her shirt. Before the day was over, however, everybody in the student body knew that the 'new girl' was a lesbian. Instead of being ostracized as an outcast, her popularity amongst the student body had grown enormously. So, now Selene had the reputation of being a 'hot, bald, lesbian, black chick'.

Selene pretended to be offended or indifferent by the label that was given to her, but secretly she was flattered. Back in her hometown, she wasn't considered to be a 'hottie' by her peers. No one in her gay, teen social circle considered her dark-brown skin, her 'stereotypically lesbian' shorn hairdo and 5'10 tall, body type to be attractive. The majority of the teen lesbians that she knew were interested in the same type of girls that the heterosexual, teenaged boys were ogling: fair-skinned, exotic-looking, and racially-ambiguous girls with big asses. Even though Selene did have a big ass to go along with that pair of 38D-cups and did have an exotic pair of 'bedroom' eyes, she wasn't considered a sought-after piece of trim. Every bit of sex that she did received was from adult women, who used her as a temporary toy for their sexual gratification.

Being the new student at General Horace Payton High meant that Selene did not have any friends, so for the past few weeks she hung out with her cousin. Her cousin didn't mind, ever since she knew that it made her popular amongst her peers as well.

"So, tell me more about this 'Monster' cat anyway?" Selene asked as she popped a potato wedge into her mouth.

"Well, like I said before: he's a thug and a bully. He lives in a trailer park that is on the other side of the Macarthur Bridge. Also, he has to be the oldest sophomore here at Payton High! I remember him being in the sophomore class when I was a freshman and then when I was a sophomore and then when I was a junior last year," she informed Selene. "Why do you want to know about him?"

She glanced at her cousin and noticed that Selene avoided making eye contact. Kimberly knew that her cousin had something up her sleeve. Her cousin held a glaze in her brown eyes that conveyed guilt. Then, an idea had entered her mind.

"Oh no, I don't know what you are thinking, but I know what you're planning on doing, Selene!" Kimberly shouted at her. Her voice echoed into the frigid air. "You promised Sam and my dad that you were going to be on your best behavior while you are here! Right now, you look like you're thinking about being a super-hero! Selene..."

Selene knew where her cousin was going with this conversation. She rolled her eyes, in response.

"...promise me that you are not going to do anything: no fighting or no super-hero shit!"

The tall, statuesque beauty stared at her cousin. She noticed that Kimberly was now kneeling and had her hands resting on her hips. Her hooded, dark brown eyes took in her cousin's pale face which was flushed with a pink coloring. Her brow was wrinkled as she held a scowl on her face.

Selene popped her hand up and said, "I won't do anything, I promise. I'll even give it a scout's honor". She snickered.

In response, Kimberly threw one of her unwanted sliced carrots at her and the action prompted a food fight to occur between the two girls. They ended their battle with a collapsing onto the grass while each cousin was still having fits of raspy giggles. They laughed for a few more minutes and became silent. Each teenager stared at the murky grey sky that was on display during the moment of silence.

"Were you even a girl scout?" Kimberly asked, after catching her breath.

"No, but I did received an honorary badge and sash from a neighborhood chapter after I spent a few weeks protecting them from a gang of neighborhood boys!" Selene informed her cousin while staring up at the grey sky.

"Ugh, were you always a protector?" Kimberly asked.

"Yeah, but I've hung up my cape for good. I'm retired" she joked.

"Well good, cause I like having you around here."

A month and three weeks gone by before Selene had broken her promise to both her aunt and uncle, as well as, to Kimberly. The incident occurred during one of the middle weeks of the month of December. It was a few days before the students and faculty members were going on their holiday breaks. By then, Selene's popularity as being the 'new, interesting girl' died down. But, she was still deemed as a hottie because of her pretty, peculiar looks and the fact that she was 'untouchable' for the male student population. She secretly reveled in the label and she filled out that role very well, by wearing sexy outfits' everyday to school. She loved to show off her matured and curvy 38D-25-39 ½-figure in form-fitting pants or jeans and with tops that would mold against her upper body, as if it was another layer of skin. Whenever she would catch a guy's reaction to her, she would giggle and give them a gentle but coquettish smile. And if the action occurred in one of the numerous corridors, she would add a sway in her hips as she walked by.

It was during a stroll in the hallway, when the event had unfolded. It was during her fourth period class and she was excused from her English Literature class, so she could go to the girls' bathroom. She was walking through an intersection of hallways when she heard a heated exchange between two people. At first, she thought it sounded like it was a couple who were arguing with one another. The tones of the two voices were low like in a whisper, but there was tension in each voice. But, as she listened to more of the dialogue, it sounded as if one of the people was in trouble and the other person was the creator of the trouble.

She knew she should've minded her business, but her heart wouldn't allow her to ignore the sounds of duress. Also her conscience didn't allow her to do it. Selene followed her gut instinct and decided to intervene. She listened for the voices and used them to navigate her way through the hallways to find them. Her heart pounded against her breast bone with anticipation as she strolled down the hallways. Her investigation had led her through another locker-filled corridor, a short hallway and finally into a small foyer that led to a doorway that supposedly led to the school's basement. It was an area that no one visited with the exception of the building's maintenance men. Once she entered the foyer, she was met by a scene that made her 'see red' as her anger shot up.

Selene saw two teenaged boys; one was tall enough to be a giant while the other one had the physical stature of a fifth-grader. The bigger kid had his back facing the entrance of the foyer and to Selene as she stood there. He wore a baggy mustard-colored, hooded sweatshirt; the hood was placed on the kid's head. He wore a black pair of sweatpants and a pair of black boots. The smaller kid was a curly-haired blonde, who wore thick glasses and from what Selene saw a striped, buttoned down shirt and black slacks. The kid was held up in the air and was pressed against the corner of a wall. He was suspended in the air thanks to the bigger one, who was held him by his neck. The small kid, in Selene's opinion, looks petrified with his widened, bulging eyes and his mouth agape. She could tell that he was being choked from the way the coloring in his face was a deep shade of red. She knew that she had to do something before this giant jerk-off chokes him until he was unconscious.

"Hey dick-head!" she shouted at the bully. She saw the smaller kid's eyes glance at her. Then, she noticed the bully didn't even move to see who she was. She allowed a few seconds to pass before she spoke again. "Let the kid go!" she demanded. She watched the mysterious hulking mass of a boy tilt his head to the side slightly, just like a dog that was called.

A few more seconds passed before the aggressor spoke up. He had issued his own demand. "Mind your own fuckin' business!" the shrouded figure had told her as he continued to restrain the kid by his neck.

From the first chord of his voice, a shiver dripped down her spine and she flinched. His voice sounded rough. The tone was a baritone type of voice and it had enough bass in it to have someone mistake him for an adult. Inside of her mind, Selene chalked up the shiver to being a reaction to the tension that was in the air. She re-focused on her objective, which was to rescue the kid from this bully.

Selene tossed the wooden, paddle-shaped hall pass onto the linoleum floor. The object had created a loud 'clang' noise as it landed on the polished floor. There was an echo in the hallway. "Let the kid go," she repeated. "Or else I'll do to you what you're doing to him and trust me I won't be so fuckin' kind, asshole!" she threatened.

The bully continued to hold the smaller kid up. Selene noticed that the kid's face was turning into a shade of blue. She knew that she needed to act quickly. So, she walked up to the bully and planted a strong, swift kick at his groin. Even though she wore a pointed-toe shoe, she felt the impact of her foot hitting his nuts. A sharp, loud groan penetrated the air. Then, there were the sounds of a heavy object hitting the floor, which was followed by with a shriek from the smaller kid. As she stared at the bully, she heard the kid gasp for air and soon afterwards, the sounds of the rubber soles from his sneakers scraping the linoleum as he scrambled to gather his belongings. Then, her attention was focused on the kid that was in positioned in front of her. She had taken in the new position that the giant kid was in: he was bent at the hips and was cupping his injured sex. Her eyes darted from him to see the smaller kid run out of the foyer while he held on a large satchel in his right hand.