Undefeated

Chapter Twenty

"I don't want to feel like this anymore. Peter, please make it stop," I cry as he holds me in his arms.

"I can't. I'm sorry, Gracee."

"I just want everything to go back to the way it was before," I whisper.

Peter pauses before saying, "We'll never be those kids again."

His words break my heart, and I wish I could go back to a time when the serum wasn't slowly killing me, I lived at the compound with my family, and my dad, Nat, Steve, and Vis were alive.

I hear footsteps walking towards the bathroom, and Peter and I look at each other. We close the stall door and stand on the toilet seat, staring at each other as laughing voices echo throughout the bathroom.

I wipe below my eyes, hoping my mascara didn't run down my face. Peter gives me a thumbs up to tell me it didn't, and I look back at the stall door, peering through the crack. The girls are talking, checking their hair in the mirror, doing their makeup, and passing around a vape.

When they leave, Peter and I release a breath. We step off of the toilet seat, slowly opening the stall door. I walk to the mirror, Peter behind me. My face is flushed and my eyes are red. Even though it's obvious I've been crying, I look pretty. Peter smiles at me in the mirror, telling me what I already know.

I take Peter's hand as we walk out of the bathroom. The clock in the hallway shows that we have thirty seconds before class starts, and our homeroom is on the other side of the school.

We giggle as we run hand in hand down the empty halls, making it to class just as the bell rings. We take our seats in the back corner, next to Ned and MJ. Our first period is taught by my favorite teacher, Mr. Harrington. We all check our schedules, and I sigh in relief when I see that I have at least one of them in every class except for third period, when I have the medical class I signed up for.

First period is Biology with Peter, MJ, and Ned. Second period is Honors Geometry with Ned. Third period is Medical Terminology. Fourth period is AP English with MJ. Fifth period is Chemistry with Peter. Sixth period is History with Ned and MJ. Seventh period is Art with MJ.

I feel like I'm in a daze during each class. I know my friends can tell, because every time I look at them, they look concerned. Last year in school, I was always talking or reading after finishing my work, but right now, I'm not doing either. I'm staring at the wall in silence.

MJ, Peter, Ned and I have fourth lunch, so I'm starving by the time the bell rings. MJ and I leave AP English to find Peter and Ned sitting alone at a circular table. Some of our friends talk to us when they pass our table, and it makes me feel slightly better to see them again. Some look five years older, and others look the same.

This whole time, I've been eating so that I don't have to talk. But when I've finished the only decent food on my tray, I decide I can't spend any longer not asking Ned and MJ the questions I've been wanting to ask them.

"Did your families blip?" I ask.

"My dad didn't," MJ says.

"My parents didn't, but my Lola did," Ned says.

His Lola is his grandmother. I've met her before, and I really like her.

"Are you still living in your old houses?"

"Yeah," they say in unison.

I look back at the food left uneaten on my tray, listening to the conversations around me. None of them are particularly interesting.

"How about you guys?" asks Ned.

I don't look up from my tray as Peter says, "We got a new apartment."