The New Girl, Chapter 3

Am on quite a streak here...today is gonna be the 7th day in a row I'm posting. According to the archives, this has only happened ONCE before (back in April), and if I manage to post just for the heck of it tomorrow, I'll beat the all-time record! Woohoo!

"Nah, don't you fret," Jean tried to calm her as they followed the rest back to class. "They're big-time jerks, that bunch. Nobody likes them anyway."
Apparently May had just encountered the purported bullies of the class, Saras and the rest of her gang whom Jean claimed to have forgotten the names of.
"So what other stuff are they into? Or do they just act all nasty towards newcomers?"
"Huh. You'll be lucky if they don't collect fees from you every once a while."
"What?" May half-shrieked, making some of the other girls look her way. "You mean...extortion?"
"Shhh," Jean put a finger on her lips. "It's not exactly like that. They'll just borrow money from you or get you to pay for their food sometimes, that's all."
"That's still extortion. Why don't you guys tell the teachers?"
Jean sighed. "We can't. Someone tried that once, and something bad happened to her."
"What happened?"
"All right, make sure you don't tell anyone else about this," her voice became almost a whisper. "Saras and the rest are actually witches."
"Come again?" Now this was getting far-fetched.
"I said, they're witches. They practise black magic."
"So they voodooed the girl?"
"They had to take her away. The doctors said there was something wrong with her." Jean paused to add more dramatic effect. "And we never...saw her again. Ever."
Suddenly she burst out laughing and slapped May's shoulder, as if she'd cracked the funniest joke in the world. May didn't know if she should join in laughing.
"Here, have a sweet." Jean handed her a little red cube. "Don't you worry too much, you'll have a great time here."
May popped the sweet into her mouth. Ugh. It tasted horrible. But compared to Saras, Jean's weirdness, and her introverted classmates, it was the least of her troubles.