Strawberry Punk- Chapter 00

Fragaria

Seona glanced at the clock on the wall. Another forty-seven minutes exactly and then she was free to go back home. She wondered what she would do when she got there. Cook dinner and look after mum I suppose, As usual. It was the same day in day out. Make sure mum was comfortable and had something to entertain her, go to work, cook meals for the customers, go back home and look after mum. There was never any change in her life. Okay so there was the occasional comment from a punk cussing her about being a strawberry punk but that really wasn't all that interesting. And she didn't really have all that many friends she could hang out with and have fun with either. Okay so there was Fleance, but he rarely had time to hang around with her. Too busy with work and fending off rival punk gangs and all.

She had heard he was a sort of bodyguard for the leader of a punk gang. Seona had asked many times who the leader was but the only answers she ever got from him was that he was Fleance's best friend, a strawberry punk hater and that she wouldn't want to meet him. Eventually she gave up trying to find out more about this leader character and simply contented herself with Fleance's company.

Seona looked through the doorway when she heard bell tinkle, indicating she had a customer. Mrs Wavier, the grouchy old lady from up the road. She was a regular at the café.

Seona stepped out of the kitchen and walked over to the wrinkled old douche bag, already scribbling the order she knew she would receive from her on the notepad.

"Hello there Mrs Wavier. What can I get for you?" She asked politely.

"I want a black coffee with milk and a slice of the strawberry chocolate cake. And be sure to hurry up."

"No problem." Came the practiced perky reply from the strawberry blonde haired girl. She tramped back through to the kitchen and set about preparing the coffee as quickly as possible just as the little old lady had told her to do.

Finally, after two more customers, Seona was permitted to leave. She swung on her coat and stepped out of the café, waving a friendly goodbye to the girl who had just started her shift. She turned around and began the longish trek back home. It took about half an hour on foot and ten or so minutes by car or bus. But Seona never bothered with getting to or from the café by vehicle. Firstly because she didn't have a car, secondly taxis were too expensive for her and thirdly she couldn't be bothered wasting her money on bus fares. So to get home she had to go by foot.

Seona turned into an alley way and stopped short. There about half way down the narrow lane stood a group of bulky people. They were smoking and drinking. Seona could hear their raucous, slurred laughter and began to back out of the alley. These were not people that strawberry punks wanted to get involved with. The so-called "proper punks" shunned and made life as hard as possible for strawberry punks such as Seona. So far Seona had been quite lucky with her punk encounters. They had only ridiculed her and made rude gestures. But she had seen what this particular group had once done to a fellow strawberry punk like her. The unfortunate man had been in hospital in a coma for the past two months and was still there.

Just as Seona thought she would get away from the mohawked punks with out trouble one of them of course would turn his head to look at her. She recognised him but didn't know his name. He obviously could recognise that she was a strawberry punk by the way she was dressed. He spoke loudly to his comrades and pointed at poor petrified Seona. The rest of the gang turned to look at her. She saw wide, ugly grins spread across their faces as they propelled themselves away from the wall and began to advance on her.

Seona stood there in trepidation as her nerves froze and her blood turned to ice. Finally her brain convinced her body to start moving again when she registered that they were less than three meters away. Seona turned around on the spot and bolted away from the advancing punks as fast as heavenly possible. She ran to the end of the lane and veered left into a different alley.

To her horror there were more punks in front of her. She fleetingly wondered if they were from the same gang as those behind her, but the thought was quickly pushed away when she heard the footsteps of her pursuers. The second punk gang only noticed Seona when they turned to see whose footsteps they were hearing. Seona glanced behind her to see where the followers were. Looking forward again she saw the second punk gang had not yet reacted. There was still a chance she could get past them without getting caught. Wasn't there.

If she did get caught on her way past she would get beaten up. If she stayed where she was she would get beaten up as well. So it didn't make much difference whether she gave it a go or not.

Seona willed her legs to move again just as she was passing the punks someone grabbed her collar from behind. Seona was pulled back harshly and choked on her breath. The next thing she knew she had been slammed against the alley wall and was surrounded by the two, now merged into one, punk gangs. Then a fist connected with her temple and she crumpled to the ground, curling up in a little defensive ball.

It felt like an eternity that the steel capped boots made contact with her body and vital organs, when the beatings abruptly stopped. She peeked up from under arms that were curled around her head protectively.

Seona was unsure if what she was seeing was true or if the beatings had just made her hallucinate, but unless she was very much mistaken the punks were fighting against each other. Then Seona saw one figure she actually recognised and smiled. Fleance's foot long Mohawk was really unmistakeable. Seona's vision began to go red as the blood from her temple started to drip into her eyes. The last thing she registered was a black haired punk advance on her and Fleance shouting something that sounded like 'Void' then she slipped into blissful darkness.

When Seona came to her senses once more the first thing she registered was the fact that she was laying on an unfamiliar sofa and that her head felt like a swollen and cracked egg. The second thing she was aware of was voices.

"Who the hell is she Fleance and why for Fk's sake did we have to bring her back here? She's a freaking strawberry man. And a mashed one at that. What would Hunter have thought? Huh?"

"I told you Void. She's called Seona, she's a friend of mine and she's a very nice person."

"I don't care how nice she is I don't want her here in our base."

"Oh come on Void. At least wait till she's recovered and then I'll take her home. Alright?"

The third thing Seona realised was that she was falling off the sofa. She shrieked in alarm before hitting the ground. The talking stopped at the sound of her voice and then she heard footsteps.

Fleance's good-natured face peered over the top of the sofa.

"Ey. Whatcha doin down there?" He asked grinning.

"Um…I don't know?" she asked. Unsure of how she should answer that question. It wasn't as though she wanted to be on the, considerably less comfortable than the sofa, ground.

"Here. I'll help you up." Fleance walked around the sofa to Seona's side and pulled her up by the wrists. Her set her down on the sofa once more and plopped down next to her.

"So tell me. Why did you choose to have punks beat you up?"

"I didn't choose for them to beat me up! They attacked me!" answered Seona, slightly flustered at the rather unusual accusation. Who on earth would choose to let them selves be beaten up? She certainly wouldn't.

"Alright. I'll rephrase that question. Why were the punks creaming you like custard?"

"Because I'm a strawberry." She answered in a meek tone.

"I'm not surprised they decided to beat the st out of you. I probably would as well if Fleance weren't friends with you."

Seona turned to look at the owner of the voice and immediately regretted it when her head began to spin sickeningly. She blinked to focus her vision and stared at the man with the black hair. He was the one who had approached her during the fight, Seona remembered.

"Seona. I'd like you to meet Void. The leader of the gang I belong to. Void. I know I've already told about ten times who she is but this is Seona a friend of mine. Now can you please be friends?" Fleance looked hopefully at void. Void stared back at him before opening his mouth to utter a solemn,

"No." before he turned away and tramped into a different room slamming the door behind him on the way.