Painting The Bad Girl's Portrait

Chapter 2

"Miss Williams. Late on your first day."

Diana swallowed hard to keep from rolling her eyes. Teachers were so predictable. So cliche. Yes, she was late. Yes, it was the first day of school. Did he think she didn't know that?

"Sorry Sir, it won't happen again," Diana mumbled, keeping her eyes level with the floor. The teacher, who Diana had often seen around school but didn't know his name, let out an exasperated sigh before motioning for her to get seated.

Diana almost felt sorry for him. She couldn't imagine what it was like to spend your adulthood in high school. She couldn't for the life of her understand why anyone would ever want to be a teacher, a high school teacher at that. As far as Diana was concerned, once she was done with high school. She was done.

The teacher had begun teaching again and for the first time since entering the classroom, Diana raised her head up to get a quick glance.

She had taken the free seat towards the back of the classroom right next to the window. It was advantageous for a number of reasons: it let her remain invisible and also allowed her to stare out into nature whenever she got bored with class.

As Diana glanced around, she noticed that her English class was mostly filled with seniors like herself. Diana recognized most of them. After all, she had been going to school with the same set of people practically since kindergarten. It was a small town.

Diana was about to look away, beginning to stare idly out of the window when she caught sight of the familiar blonde hair tied up in a tight ponytail.

Julia.

There had once been a time when school had been bearable for Diana. Once there was a time when she didn't mind as much the difficulties she faced in her home life. Life was a lot easier when you had someone to share your struggles with. And Diana had someone; she had Julia. Keyword: had.

At that moment Julia looked up, making brief eye contact with Diana who looked away in a split-second. She opened her notebook and began pretending she was taking notes. But in reality, she was drawing small doodles in the margins and her mind was not at all on the lesson before her.

Once upon a time, Julia had been her best friend. They were inseparable. She was the person who Diana always went to, she could tell her anything. A heavy feeling formed in Diana's chest and she gulped as she thought back to the painful memories that she often kept repressed.

She had fallen for Julia. This was when she had first known that she was into girls. For the longest time, Diana had thought it was just an admiration, until she had grown older and been able to completely understand her feelings. So she told her. It had seemed like the right thing to do at the time. The most logical thing, actually. After all, they were best friends; they told each other everything. That was a big mistake.

"Mr Arthur, could you tell me why you're arriving half an hour late?"

Diana's thoughts were interrupted by the sound of the teacher's voice. She looked up to see Stefan standing in the class entrance. He had a lopsided grin on his face.

"Um, because I didn't feel like coming," Stefan drawled, which earned giggles from other girls in the class. Diana rolled her eyes, not in the slightest bit amused.

"Just take a seat," the teacher grumbled before turning back to the whiteboard.

Diana watched as Stefan made his way over to where Julia was sitting. She watched as he sunk into the seat next to her and threw his arm over her shoulder.

Diana watched unblinkingly for a few seconds as memories resurfaced in her head. Memories of Sophomore year and getting taunted in the hallways every day when the story of her little crush on Julia spread around the entire school. It was the loneliest she felt. It was that year that Julia had become a cheerleader, and she had taken up photography.