Luna Star, Part 12

Freedom High had a pretentious name and like expected didn’t quite live up to its name. Luna had hoped that they would be more lenient about absentees and instead they always seemed to bug her about coming to school. The only thing that kept them from breaking down her door and forcing her to school was the fact that she still somehow managed to get passing grades in most of her classes.

Luna though it was best to keep the fact they her parents had been incredibly strict about education when she was young, among other things. Most of the stuff had already been covered by the schooling she had already received. Luna wasn’t the best student but her parents had exposed her to repetition and harsh punishment both of which had insured that she remembered all of the stuff that she had learned.

She was almost thankful for it because it allowed her to shirk a lot of class and hand out with the other girls in the gang when they skipped out on class. However since then never managed to get as good of grade as Luna she sometimes went to school just to meet with them.

Luna arrived at school basically on time. She nodded in apologize when she reached the classroom a little after class started. The teacher gave her a frown but otherwise didn’t interrupt class. Luna took her seat at the back of the class and partially paid attention as the class went on. That didn’t work very well and she ended up falling asleep on her desk.

She was woken by someone prodding at her ribs, “Is your school desk better for sleeping then your bed. Can’t think of any other reason you would come to school just to take a nap.” There was a playful teasing to the voice.

“Hey K.” Said Luna as she flicked open her eyes and peered out at the girl in front of her. She was tall, taller even Luna and most of the other girls and even some of the boys at Freedom. She was wearing a ripped pair of jeans and a black teeshirt that had the print of a grime reaper on it.

K grinned and poked Luna a few more times, “We haven’t see your around much recently. What have you been up to.”

Luna shrugged, “Visiting graves.” Said Luna partially truthfully. Luna stretched and the sat up again. She glanced at the clock and noticed that she managed to sleep all the way to lunch break. Usually she just slept through first period when she did sleep in class, and that was only when they were teaching history or math.

“Graves huh?” K has been kneeling so that she could get access to Luna’s ribs. She straightened reaching her full imposing height. “Personal stuff then, I guess I won’t ask questions in that case.”

“Thanks.” Said Luna.

K grinned and laid a hand on Luna’s shoulder, “But if there is anything you want to talk about then you can always talk to me and the rest of us.”

“Yeah, I know. Thank K.” Said Luna.

K was obviously not the girl’s full name. The teachers all used her full name, Katherine, but K preferred to go by her much shorter nickname. K said it gave her more street cred to be know as that then Katherine. Luna had never had that problem with her own name despite the fact that her name was even less gangster then K’s.

“Hey K,” Said Luna. Every seemed to address K like that. “Do you know a girl? She is short, had pigtails, and wears glasses. I’ll looking for her if you can remember anyone who looks like that.”

“Not off the top of my head but we can ask the rest of the girls and see if they know.” Said K, “Why are you looking for her anyways?”

“She helped me find something that I was looking for but I didn’t have time to thank you before she left. It isn’t really important but I thought I would ask around. It wasn’t too far from here so I assumed she would be going to this school.” Said Luna.

“Helped you find something?” K considered it for a moment, “Well, if I see someone like that I’ll make sure to pull them aside and tell them to talk with out. Now how about lunch. You don’t plan on sleeping through that too do you?”

Luna chuckled, “No, we can get something.” The two of them left the classroom in search of something to eat. The cafeteria as Freedom was generally acceptable. Sometime they went to a place nearby to eat but K as saving money and Luna thought she was more likely to spot the girl if they were in the cafeteria.

When they entered the cafeteria they were waved at by a girl sitting at a corner table. Luna nodded in recognition and after she and K had grabbed a tray with food on it they headed over to the corner. “K, Luna, thanks for coming over and joining me. It would have been boring without you.”

The girl had short cropped blond hair. She was dressed like a normal high school girl with a skirt and a nice shirt with a heart on it. She would have probably fit in at any of the other tables if it wasn’t for the scar. It started at the bottom of the right side of her chin and ran down into her shirt. She was quite proud of it and liked wearing low cut shirts just to show it off.

“Nita, you seem well.” Said Luna as she took a sit next to her.

“As good as always. It’s usual to see you here Luna. You’ve been rather busy lately so we hadn’t see you much recently. K can attest that all the girls are getting a bit restless because you haven’t been showing up.”

“Restless? Your tough girls, you should be able to deal with everything without me.”

“Yeah but Bloody John has been moving again. He things he can just force us to do what he says and we have to keep putting him in his place. Not too unusual but he seems to have made a deal with some other gang or something. His forces have gotten much bigger and last night we fought and only barely managed to beat his flunkies back.” Said Nita.

“That is a problem. Do you have any idea who he made the deal with? It must be someone strong if he is willing to so brazenly try to do anything after what I did to him last time I faced him.” Said Luna.

“Not yet. A couple of the girls are looking into it but I told them to be careful and to stop if it looks dangerous. Apparently Bloody John was furious after the last time that you beat him.” Said K.

“Though the girls aren’t paying any attention to K’s advice to back off if it gets dangerous. At least I’m not. We wouldn’t be doing this if we were worried about things like that.” Said Nita with a smirk in K’s direction. K just shrugged it off though.

“Well, if things get violent and I’m not there then you should call me. And its not like I’m going to go vanish or anything.”

“What have you been doing anyways? You have been a bit distant lately.” Asked Nita.

“Part time job. I’ve decided that my uncle doesn’t provide enough of an allowance so I decided to made some extra money.” Said Luna.

“Luna working a job? Now that is a sight I have to see. Please tell me it is sales. The thought of you having to smile for customers gives me shivers. Where do you work.” Said Nita in an excited voice.

“Not telling. You would just come to make fun of me.” Said Luna.

Nita grinned wickedly, “Make fun of you? I would never do something like that to a poor working girl.”

Luna turned toward K and said, “Primarily I just don’t want Nita to find out where I’m working.”

K let out a laugh, “I can see why. During the summer she came and heckled me practically every day and I was just helping out my father.”

“It’s not my fault your family owns a flower store. Ah, the sight of the giant K carrying flowers and selling them to people in need still fills my evil heart with joy.”

“She still doesn’t let me live it down.” Said K.

“I remember that now. Nita had a song and everything to go alone with it.”

“Uhh, please don’t remind her.” Said K and the suddenly as if to quickly change the topic, “Right, Nita, Luna is looking for someone. What was it Luna, short with glasses and pigtails?”

Luna nodded and said, “Yeah that’s right. I told K but she helped me find something and I wanted to thank her but I don’t know who she is. I was hoping that somebody would know who she was.”

Nita grinned wildly, “This has to do with your job does it? Come on, you can tell me.”

“Not related,” Said Luna, “But do you know her?”

“Not related huh?” Nita plainly didn’t believe Luna. “Well, lets see. Short, glasses, and pig tails. That would Sibyl or at least it sounds like it.”

Luna turned her full attention to Nita. She was initially kind of surprised that Nita knew the girl. Nita did get around a lot though so it was a bit less surprising then if K had known something. “Sibyl? You know her?”

“Sure, you don’t remember?” Said Nita.

“Remember what?” Asked K.

“The big history challenge that we had last year. The teachers all got together and thought it would be interesting to have a big school wide history game. There were prizes and it was a big deal.”

“Sure I remember that.” Said Luna, “It was kind of a pain so I didn’t get all that in to it. If I recall correctly didn’t you manage to get something like third place in that?”

Nita puffed up her chest in smug superiority, “Sure did. It has been what is keeping me on the teacher’s good side despite my bad attendance record. Totally worth all the time I put into it.”

K snorted, “Time you put into it? You just have a great memory and started to pay attention in class after the challenge announcement was made. I don’t think you studied at all for it did you?”

“Nope, not at all. It just goes to show you how talented and awesome I am. Plus the three place prize included a bunch of discounted coupons to the cafeteria.” Bragged Nita. Luna remembered her bragging even more about it last year.

“Don’t get too cocky.” Said K, “If you remember, Luna managed to get third place in the challenge. Your not the only one among us who did well during the challenge.”

“Sure, says number two hundred and seventy one.” Said Nita in a gloating tone.

“Enough.” Said Luna, “You were talking about Sibyl. What did she have to do with the contest.”

“Oh, right. We a lot of attention was paid to the student council president Allan who managed to get first place. Not a lot was paid to Sibyl who managed to get second place. I remember her well because there was this big annoying presentation ceremony where they gave out the trophies and prizes. The principle even mentioned the three of us by name. You don’t remember because I think both you and K skipped out on it.”

“Second place? I guess I must not have paid too much attention to the others that won because you kept bugging us about it.” Said Luna. “So she is the same age as us then? That makes it a bit surprising that I don’t recognize her from someplace.”