As he lunged forward, Tom tripped over her backpack, stumbling and trying to get his balance. This gave Lois time to roll to the side and come to her feet.
“I didn’t do anything!” Lois protested, trying to edge her way back towards the hall. He might be a little less likely to attack her if it were out in the open where the other students could see.
Technically it was whatever Ralph had done that had gotten Tom kicked off the team, so she wasn’t even lying that much.
Tom held himself up using the lockers and he stared at her, his expression murderous. “You think I’m stupid? You show up with pictures a couple of weeks ago and I’m out now. You do the math.”
Lois forced herself to avoid making a comment about Tom’s negligible math skills. In this situation it wouldn’t help at all.
As Lois edged again toward the door, Tom moved to intercept her.
“What do you think this is going to prove?” Lois asked quickly, ducking back. She had no doubt that Tom was faster than she was; she’d seen him move on the field. Although he looked like two hundred fifty pounds of dumb beef, he moved with the speed of long experience.
He was used to tackling people who were trying to get away from him. It was the only thing he was good at.
Her only hope was to surprise him, and given his anger, she wouldn’t have much time.
Lunging forward again, he grabbed Lois as she tried to hit him in the nose. He shoved her against the wall and she felt the breath leave her body all at once. She couldn’t breathe, and the fight went out of her at once.
Tom grabbed her by the throat with both hands and started choking her. “Maybe this’ll shut you up.”
Lois clawed at her throat, her mind racing, trying to recall what her Tae Kwon Do instructor had taught about this very situation. It was hard; the rising panic in her mind made concentration almost impossible.
She should have screamed. Her only fear had been that it wouldn’t be heard and that it would have enraged Tom even more. However, she hadn’t dreamed he’d go this far.
Vision darkening, Lois wondered if this was it.
He released the pressure on her neck for a moment, grinning. Life giving air brought awareness back. There was something in his expression that bothered Lois deeply. He was enjoying seeing her fear and pain. Holding back was just a way to increase her anticipation.
Memory flooded her, and she twisted, turning her throat into the web of his hand even as she ducked her chin and tightened the muscles in her neck.
Instead of clawing at her throat, she jabbed her thumb in his eye.
He staggered back, letting go of her and holding his eye.
Falling to her knees, Lois gasped for air. If she’d had the strength she’d have run for the door, but she didn’t, and she could see that Tom was already recovering. She hadn’t done more than scratch his eye.
The pleasure in his expression was gone, replaced by rage.
“You’re gonna pay for that, bitch.”
He raised his fist, and Lois found herself flinching as it came toward her face. She closed her eyes, but the blow never came.
Clark had appeared out of nowhere, and he had Tom’s fist in his hand. Tom’s face flushed red, and he pushed and pulled, but Clark never moved an inch.
Lois heard a sound, and Tom groaned out loud.
“Get off him!”
The coach was suddenly there; Lois hadn’t seen him come in. She wondered if she was going into shock. Everything seemed unreal somehow.
“What’s going on here?” Principal Hardwick asked.
“Kent here just attacked Church,” the coach said. “From what I hear, he’s got some kind of grudge against the team.”
Lois tried to speak, but couldn’t.
“That’s not what happened,” a new voice said. Mr. Johnson was here as well. Lois found herself wondering if everyone could teleport, or whether she was really that out of it.
“What do you know?” the coach said. “You weren’t even here.”
“Mr. Kent warned me this was happening, and I saw him run in here less than thirty seconds ago. He’s been with me the rest of the time.”
“So he makes up some kind of trumped up story. It just means that this was pre-planned.”
“You can let go of him now,” Mr. Johnson said quietly to Clark. “Ms. Lane is safe.”
For the first time the coach and Principal Hardwick noticed Lois. Their faces darkened; obviously they’d both come to the same conclusion Tom Church had.
“The boys’ locker room is off limits to young ladies,” Principal Hardwick said. He glanced at the coach. “Detention would seem to be in order.”
Mr. Johnson said, “From what I understand, Mr. Church pushed Ms. Lane into the locker room and proceeded to assault her. Ms. Lane would be fully in her rights to go to the police.”
Principal Hardwick shook his head. “There’s no proof of that. It’s her word against his. Tom Church is an upstanding member of the community. His parents…”
“Ms. Lane’s father is a respected physician with tied to a number of wealthy celebrities,” Mr. Johnson said. At Lois’s surprised look, he nodded slightly. She hadn’t known that he knew anything about her family. In a softer voice, he said again, “Let go, Mr. Kent.”
Clark relented finally, stepping carefully back.
“If you’ve damaged his hand…” the coach began.
“He’ll be fine,” Clark said. He turned toward Lois and helped her up.
“I’m so sorry,” he said in a low voice. “I should have come right here instead of getting Mr. Johnson.”
Although the attack had seemed to last forever, it couldn’t have actually lasted a minute of two. Lois couldn’t see that Clark had reason to be sorry for anything.
“There’s no way to prove who started anything,” Principal Hardwick said again. He had a sour expression on his face. “Let’s just get everybody back to class.”
“I’ll hold on to Church,” the coach said. “Get his hand checked out by the nurse.”
He shot a murderous glare toward Clark. Obviously, although Tom was currently suspended, he hoped to somehow reverse the decision.
Lois wondered why Tom was the one going to the nurse when she’d been the one who was choked.
“Are you going to be ok?” Clark asked.
Lois tried to speak. “I’ll be all right,” she said. Her voice was somewhat hoarse and raspy, but she was already breathing better.
Mr. Johnson led them both out into the hallway, where students had gathered. The coach was quick to disperse them.
“If you feel the need to press charges, I’ll support you,” Mr. Johnson said.
Lois was touched; that kind of support could lose someone like Mr. Johnson his job. He might not be officially fired because of it, but he’d undoubtedly be let go for some sort of trumped up reason.
As she walked down the hall with Clark and Mr. Johnson it occurred to her to wonder how Clark had known. When Tom had pushed her into the locker room, there hadn’t been anyone watching, yet he’d told Mr. Johnson exactly what had happened.
**************************
Lois closed the door and locked it. The rest of the school day had been difficult; she’d been shaken and her classes had seemed to pass as though they were in a fog. Although Mr. Johnson was sympathetic, the teachers in other classes had not been.
The story of what had happened to the team had spread throughout the school after lunch, and Lois had been the recipient of numerous angry stares. It wasn’t just the football players either; ordinary students who weren’t even involved in the program had given her vicious looks.
Her friends, who should have gathered around her in sympathy instead avoided her like the plague.
It was going to make for a very long rest of the semester if this kept on.
The only bright spot was Clark. Somehow, he always found a way to bump into her between classes, even though their earlier classes weren’t close at all. He had given her supportive smiles and murmured supportive words even when the rest of the school was ostracizing her.
He’d even stopped a second outbreak of violence. One of the cheerleaders had bumped into Lois, knocking her down, but before anything could start, Clark was there helping her up.
His reputation had only grown in the school, such that he only had to look at students and they’d back down.
Clark had even insisted on riding home with her from school. He’d checked all her doors and windows. He’d suggested staying, but Lois knew he had deliveries to make and didn’t want him jeopardizing his job for her.
She’d be fine, she’d insisted, even if she wasn’t sure. Her mother was gone, as was her father, and Uncle Mike was taking Lucy fishing for the weekend. Her friends had deserted her; she’d never felt so alone.
Clark promised to get his deliveries done as quickly as possible and then he’d return.
Lois set her purse on the table that held the telephone and she dropped her backpack on the floor. She stared at herself in the oval mirror hanging above it. She looked pale, her eyes sunken. She’d managed to conceal the bruises around her throat using makeup, but she suspected they’d only get worse tomorrow.
Was this the sort of price she was going to have to pay for her chosen career? If it was, she’d have to start paying a lot more attention in Tae Kwon Do classes.
She’d have to become a lot more thick-skinned. Being rejected by friends and acquaintances still hurt. Knowing that she had the internship helped, but it was cold comfort in the face of being rejected by everyone she knew.
Of course, her other choice had been to ignore what was going on, even though it was blatantly unfair. One of the few good things her father had taught her was that it was important for everybody to play by the same rules. This was as true in life as in sports. Stock traders, politicians, athletes…they all were held up by society and rewarded with fame and wealth. When they cheated, they didn’t just cheat the people they took advantage of. They also caused people to lose faith in the system.
The press was there to bring those people to account, and sometimes there was a lot of pressure to kill a story. Lois still remembered watching the Watergate scandal as a child, and seeing what it had done to the trust people had.
She stared at herself in the mirror. If she was going to become a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, she’d have to be willing to take more than a few bruises.
Still, she was glad to have Clark. He was proving to be a better friend than girls she’d known for years, even if she had more and more questions about him.
*****************
Lois woke with an uneasy feeling. She’d fallen asleep in front of the television, exhausted both physically and emotionally by her day. She glanced at the clock; it was a little after nine. Hopefully Clark would be finished with his route soon; she was looking forward to talking with him about some of the questions she had.
How had he known she was in trouble? Just how strong was he? What he’d done to Tom Church hadn’t been the result of some sort of martial art; he’d just held his fist like it was nothing. Lois hadn’t seen any sort of special technique, just raw strength.
Clark wasn’t a hugely muscled guy; he was well built, but Lois wasn’t sure if even a seven foot tall weight lifter could have held Tom as easily as Clark had.
Why did she see guilt on his face every time she’d seen him after the attack? As far as she could see, he’d arrived as fast as humanly possible, faster really, since he shouldn’t have known she was in trouble.
The house was dark; the sun had been out when she’d fallen asleep, and now the only light came from the flickering of her television.
Darkness had fallen outside; she could see that through a window to the back yard; not even the last streaks of sunlight remained.
Maybe she should turn the lights on; she wouldn’t want Clark to leave because he thought she’d gone to bed.
The television went black suddenly; without the low background noise, everything was silent. Lois moved as much by memory as by sight to the far wall, reaching for the light switch. Nothing.
Had there been a blackout?
She moved to the window and frowned as she realized that the streetlights were still on.
This was a neighborhood with young urban professionals; on Friday nights most of the neighbors left to do whatever young wealthy people did. It was a sign of her father’s mid-life crisis that he’d moved into this area at all; he was older than the usual inhabitants.
Maybe she’d blown a fuse. It didn’t seem likely, since Lois hadn’t had anything on except the television, but Lois had to check.
She felt her way toward the closet near the kitchen. The fuse box was there, behind the door.
She opened the door and began to flip breakers. She started with the living room; she’d left the light switched to the on position in there, so she’d see immediately if the power returned.
Nothing happened. None of the other switches seemed to make much of a difference either.
Lois left the closet and headed for the telephone.
The line was dead.
Lois frowned. Wasn’t the telephone supposed to be powered separately from the rest of the house?
It was then that Lois heard a sound from the kitchen. She froze for a moment, then moved quietly in that direction.
The possibility that her father had decided to come home early flashed through her mind, but Lois immediately dismissed it. Her father was nothing if not loud when he came home.
She turned the corner, hugging the wall and she looked into the kitchen.
It was small, and dimly illuminated from the lights outside. It had a door leading to the back and to her father’s parking spot.
Lois could see a pair of silhouettes and the door knob slowly turning.
