Chapter 90 – Raven Claws – Holly Hayfield

At some point during my explanation of the Matriarch’s takeover of the Occult Club Ms. Sampson got up and began pacing behind her desk. Now that she knew who was pulling strings from a distance she seemed a lot less concerned than before. Before, she probably felt like she was being attacked by an invisible enemy, and in a way she was. Malorie’s story getting out had more than one source, including the student council, but Ms. Sampson was now focused on this one. Like an obvious leak in the bottom of her boat, she was determined to plug it.

The difficulty in explaining Raven Keyes and the Society of Sisters was complicated by the broken friendship of Sofi and Alyssa. Ms. Sampson didn’t even pretend to care when I took the time to stress the fact that Sofi had been manipulated like a puppet. My fear was that she'd take her anger out on Sofi and Alyssa because it was the occult club that was hijacked.

"I can't believe Sofi wasn't dealt with already." Ms. Sampson said irritably. "You promised that you could handle them!"

"I did!" I nearly shouted, "Whoever this Raven Keyes person is knows how to get beneath Sofi’s skin. I listened to her speak and even I was surprised. She had the entire group of girls at their secret meeting completely captivated."

"I should have the occult club, the Society of Sisters, and any other out of control group completely shut down." Ms. Sampson said. "I've given them far too much freedom and this is how they repay me."

"You're addressing the symptoms, not the problem." I said, feeling irritable myself. "I never would've known about this if it wasn't for Alyssa coming to the student council about this personally. This matriarch woman has wrenched Sofi free of the one person that moderates her behavior. She was ripped away from her support structure and now Sofi is lost."

"Boohoo," Ms. Sampson said in mock concern.

I nearly blew up at her right then and there. It was almost like she wasn't taking this seriously. Or rather, she wasn't seeing the full picture. Sofi and the occult club just looked like the easiest moles to whack down and so she was inclined to whack them. In order to get her to see things my way then a new picture would have to be painted. I'd have to put things in a language she understood.

"Have you ever heard the saying 'A rose by another name would smell just as sweet'? Even if you punish Sofi you'll only be creating an opening for someone to take her spot. Then we'll be dealing with a new, unfamiliar antagonizer." I said. "You're focusing on a henchman when you need to focus on the ringleader. Sofi can be pacified with Alyssa's help. Raven Keyes, however, seems to be out to get you."

"It's not just her." Ms. Sampson grumbled, "She's just one of many of my former friends that have come to resent my position here at the school."

"Why is that?" I asked in honest curiosity.

She hardened her expression and gave me a serious look.

"They stupidly believe that I may have had something to do with Abby."

"It was a bad idea to fire her. That was what completely broke her soul."

Ms. Sampson huffed angrily.

"You think I don't realize that by now?" Ms. Sampson asked in exasperation. "If I could take back anything from that day, I'd take back that. That is what my own so-called friends are condemning me for. I can't believe them... And now Raven... This is a catastrophe..."

"You want to bring back peace and normality to the school?" I asked.

"Of course I do!"

“I do too," I said. "I've got a plan that'll help at least turn things in the right direction."

"Is it the new event that I asked for?" Ms. Sampson asked.

"Yes," I said. "With any luck, we should be able to raise student morale at the very least. My one condition is that you leave Sofi to me."

"Why do you care so much about that?"

"Because I know how Sofi is by now. She's a troubled girl, but not an evil girl. She can be brought back from the brink. I believe everyone deserves a chance at that, at least."

Ms. Sampson let out an undignified chuckle.

"Ha! You're still at that age, aren't you? Thank you, Holly. I think I needed that."

"I’m not joking. This is what this type of alternative school is originally meant for. We throw people to the wolves for only slight mistakes. We need to work with them. Sofi hasn't crossed the line of no-return, although she's inching towards it. I'm particularly disturbed by the fact some unknown adult is controlling her."

Ms. Sampson narrowed her eyes.

"Leaving all that fluffy stuff aside, I'll once again leave Sofi to you if you say you can deal with it. You leave Raven to me. I don't know how I'll do it yet, but I'll make her pay for this.... She's stepped onto my territory."

I nodded.

"I think my new event can help restore the school atmosphere to something less tense. I'm hoping that I can use it to reel those girls away from the matriarch."

"What is the new event going to be?" Ms. Sampson asked.

I smiled broadly.

"We're going to have a school spirit week." I said.

Ms. Sampson was pleased to hear about my plans for a school spirit week. An event lasting an entire week was exactly what she needed as a distraction from ongoing events. Although I didn't want the school body stressing over local murder also, it wasn't my main motivation. My main motivation was to lift everyone's spirits. I wanted them to take pride in their school, if they could. The school has socially improved more in the past two months than in the past decade. It was worth celebrating.

My plans for the school spirit week were immediately approved. The announcement would come on the following morning, a Friday, giving people the chance to begin thinking about it over the weekend. First we'd have a full week of preperation. Unlike the fall festival, this was meant to be more involved. Although I needed to still reform the event planning committee, they'd only be serving as directors. Ms. Sampson was giving me her own ideas as well as asking me to write another speech for her. She wasn't going to let this opportunity go to waste.

So, I decided I'd immediately get to work on my own. I went back to the student council room while I waited on my ride home. Today my mother was planning to come pick me up after she got off work. After her recent schedule change up she was able to drop me off at school and pick me up from school more often now. Although I appreciated it greatly, I still made a conscious effort to reach out to Angelica every now and then. I, like Erica with Ms. Sampson, had mixed feelings about her due to things from the past. Yet, I couldn't bring myself to throw my friendship with her away. I still wanted to check in on her well-being every now and then.

Lilith had already gone home by the time I made it back to the library. I went into the student council room and took my usual seat at the table, in front of the couch. In the past I might've treated this type of waiting time with impatience, but now I was beginning to value these moments. Sitting here with my notebook open I could look over my spirit week ideas in peace and quiet. I wasn't expecting anyone else to come by this late after school. So I was fairly surprised when the student council room door opened and Zoe stepped in.

"Hello...?" I said in a manner that unintentionally came out like a question.

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"Holly..." She said with some hesitation in her voice, "I was hoping we could talk."

I closed my notebook.

"What's on your mind?"

Zoe rubbed her hands together quietly and awkwardly stood there near the doorway. I gestured over to the couch in an attempt to make her more comfortable. She walked over in a fidgety stride that seemed uncharacteristic of her. I didn't know Zoe all that well, but what I did know about her was that she always projected a sense of confidence. Whatever she wanted to talk about was weighing on her heavily. Judging by the events of the past week I could only assume it'd be about Lilith or the Society of Sisters.

"It's about Lilith." Zoe said.

"Ah, I suspected as much." I said, "Lilith told me that you called her over the phone a few days ago and that things didn't go well."

"That's true." Zoe admitted. "I really didn't plan to go off the rails there but sometimes things just get to me."

"Would you like to elaborate on that?" I asked nicely.

Elaborating on that topic was probably the exact reason she came here. Still, I needed to ease her into it. As confident as she usually seemed, this was obviously a touchy topic for her. She looked away nervously and rubbed the back of her neck like she was still debating telling me anything. It seemed that despite making it all the way here she was still having second thoughts.

"Do you mind if I speculate a little?" I asked.

"What do you mean?"

"I suppose you're here to tell me about why you and Lilith don't get along." I said. "I had the same conversation with Lilith on Tuesday."

"Oh?" Zoe asked, her eyes lighting up with interest, "What did she say?"

"She said a few unfriendly things about you..."

"Figures," Zoe said.

"But those things were overshadowed by how she felt." I explained. "She was aggrivated after you two had your phone call and felt depressed about it the entire following day. She asked me to come to her house so that she could ask for my guidance. That was originally why I called from her phone on Tuesday."

"Really...?" Zoe asked hopefully.

"Yep," I said, "Originally she wanted me to help arrange a proper conversation between you two so that things could be repaired. The whole matriarch things sidelined those original plans."

Zoe's shoulders slumped down in relief.

"Wow, I guess that makes what I have to say a bit easier to get off my chest then."

"What is it, exactly?" I asked.

"I wanted to talk to you about why Lilith and I haven't been able to get along since last school year."

"She told me that you two used to argue all the time and drifted apart from one another."

"That's not true!" Zoe said emotionally, "Or at least... It wasn't always true."

"Then I'd like to hear your side of the story." I said.

Zoe sighed.

"The truth is that we weren't always arguing like this. At one point we got along well, incredibly well, actually."

"So Lilith was mistaken?" I asked.

"She wasn't mistaken so much as she left out the entire story. You see, there was something specific that caused the rift between us. This didn't happen out of nowhere."

She was still dancing around telling me exactly what it was. This behavior reminded me a little of Alyssa. This type of behavior was something that I expected from Alyssa however, not Zoe. I wasn't exactly losing my patience but we were working on a time limit here. I needed her to come out with it before my ride home showed up.

"I don't mean to rush you, but my mom should be here in ten minutes or so. Whatever you have to tell me..."

Zoe once again looked away from me nervously.

"I tried to kiss..." Zoe whispered.

I blinked.

"I'm sorry, what was that?" I asked to make sure I heard that correctly.

"I tried to kiss her!" Zoe said loudly.

I was taken aback by the change in volume and shifted in my seat a little. I nodded slowly as a tomato-red Zoe was beginning to cover her face with her hands.

"Right, that's what I thought you said..." I said slowly to try recollecting myself, "Well, I could see how that would definitely cause a split between you two. I'm going to assume that Lilith didn't take this well?"

"Didn't take it well...?" Zoe asked with a mock laugh, "She slapped me across the face so hard that it left a bruise! My parents thought I got attacked at school."

"Was this a sudden kiss?" I asked. "What caused you to do this? You must've had some idea about how Lilith would’ve reacted given her thorny nature."

"That's just the thing," Zoe explained, "She wasn't always as thorny as she is now."

"You're serious?" I asked after a moment of trying to imagine that.

Zoe exhaled sharply and sat up a little straighter in her seat.

"Okay, let me tell you this from the beginning so you can get a full understanding of the situation." Zoe said. "I shared several classes with Lilith before and so eventually I came to know her in passing. We hit it off when we got to talking about literature, something we're both passionate about. That day that we connected we talked non-stop at lunch, and then we talked over the phone for several hours after school."

I nodded as I listened.

"Yes, this sounds believable to me. I've seen Lilith get lost in conversation like that also."

"Right! That’s not all though. She'd constantly text me in the middle of the night, then early in the morning when I was getting up. There was a time where we would walk from school together before we went down our separate roads. It was amazing just how well we got along. It was the first time that I had been so close to anyone ever since I left my old school. It was incredibly nice."

I could see where this was going.

"There was a miscommunication of feelings somewhere along the lines?" I asked expectantly.

"I was so sure, so positive, that Lilith felt the same way I did." Zoe said intensely, "I sent every possible hint and signal her way and she seemed to respond positively. She never seemed to mind me holding her hand back then either. I took that as a sign that she liked me the same way."

This was becoming increasingly painful to listen to. Knowing Lilith, she was probably completely oblivious to whatever hints and signals that Zoe was sending her way. No doubt Lilith probably thought she was just being friendly and responded in a similar manner. Equally surprising, it was amazing that Zoe's feelings for her made it that far without coming to realize how uninterested Lilith was for that type of thing. Lilith was cute, which was part of the reason that she initially drew my attention. There was no doubt in my mind that she drew far more unwanted attention in this regard than she cared to talk about.

"So after you tried to kiss her did you two go your separate ways?" I asked.

"Not immediately," Zoe said, "I properly apologized for the suddenness of it and tried to explain my feelings for her."

"How did Lilith respond to that?" I asked.

"Lilith, she..." Zoe hissed.

Zoe flinched in pain and balled her hands into fists. She bit her lip and gave me a pained expression.

"She told me that I was a disgusting pervert and that she didn't want me to come near her ever again." Zoe managed to say. "This was even after I tried pointing out the miscommunication in feelings and how she was sending me mixed signals."

I put my palm into my face and shook my head.

"Lilith..." I said sadly, "She didn't tell me any of this..."

"That’s because she doesn't care about anyone but herself!" Zoe said angrily. "I realized that I meant nothing to her beyond being a sounding board for whatever she was reading at the moment. It depressed me to learn that she didn't care about me as an actual person."

I put one hand in the air so that Zoe wouldn't go on with her criticism.

"While I completely understand your frustration with Lilith, let's not go on talking about her this way. Remember, the goal is to create a path for the two of you to become friends again." I said.

"I know, but..." Zoe said with a grimace, "It's just so hard... She didn't just break my heart in a cruel and demented way. She treated me like I was some sort of freak of nature for thinking of her like that. It was the hardest I had ever been rejected by anyone in my entire life. I didn't understand what I did to warrant such an unfair and mean-spirited response."

I held back a sigh.

“I know it sounds horrible of me to tell you not to take it personally, Zoe.” I said in preparation, “But please, don’t take it personally. Everything you’ve said about Lilith I’ve experienced to some degree myself. She didn’t take kindly to me the first time we met, and was slow to warm up to me even after that. I had to ask myself if I was even really her friend or, like you said, just a convenient sounding board.”

“So you agree with me then! Lilith is the problem!” Zoe said.

“I… I don’t know if I want to frame it like that.” I said after some consideration. “Lilith is a troubled girl, just like the rest of us. She’s naturally inclined to be more guarded about her past given the fact that she lost both of her parents at a young age. She mentioned before that she went through a period of isolation from people her own age and has a history of avoiding class when she can get away with it. I don't want to minimize your valid pain, just understand that things aren't black and white."

"I mean, I don't disagree with that entirely." Zoe said. "It just feels wrong to whitewash her because she had something happen to her in the past. Every student at this school might be able to boast the same."

"It's funny, in a way. I was just talking to Megan about something similar. I explained to her that rising above our former selves is part of the reason we are here, ideally. Ms. Sampson doesn't seem to believe in that, probably because she hasn't fundamentally changed since she was a student here. I think, however, Lilith is coming around."

"You think so?" Zoe asked in equal bits of disbelief and curiosity.

"I think what she needs most from the both of us is a friend." I said. "She isn't emotionally mature enough for a romantic relationship, and that's perfectly fine for a girl our age. She still needs time to learn who she is herself before she can hope to dedicate herself to another person in that way."

"I guess..." Zoe said. "I still don't know if I can forgive her for the way she treated me. It comes back to my mind every time I see her or speak to her."

"She's developed into a wiser person since then." I said. "While I don't think she regards her rejection of you in the same way, I do think that she regrets the effects. She didn't know how to handle something so delicate and responded aggressively. I see now why she didn't tell me. She probably just wants to forget it ever happened."

"I don't know if that makes me feel better or feel worse." Zoe said despondently.

My phone vibrated. I started gathering my things.

"It looks like my mom's here to pick me up. Why don't we trade phone numbers so you can talk to me whenever you want?"

"I'd like that." Zoe said as she pulled out her phone.

"I'll call you tonight. I'll give you everything you need to prepare an article for the school website."

Zoe raised an eyebrow at this.

"An article about what...?"

I smiled proudly.

"I've got some great ideas ready for the next school event. I'll be announcing the school spirit week over the intercom tomorrow morning."