And She Became Queen

Chapter 18: Facing The School Bitches

Two Days Later...

I applied a little foundation on my face to cover up the the maps of beatings and bruises on my face. No one would notice if the face is well overed. Well, I know no one miss me in school. Maybe a couple of teachers for being their favorite student. I left my drunk uncle at home today. His snore that filled the room still angered me. I remembered the first time we met. It felt as if I saw my dad through him but that was an illusion. It turned out to be a big fat lie. An even if he was like the devil in my life, my dad would always be an angel. They're just direct opposite and I wonder why I'm being treated this way. Maybe it's because I'm not his biological daughter. Maybe...

And sometimes, I wonder if he had something against my parents. He despise them so much. I wonder why.

Staring at the road, I wished I would just get hit by a bus. Instead of waking up with the birds twittering, I wished I could stay in bed, feeling the sorrow burning down the last part of me. And maybe, death would finally come to visit me.

Anyway, I got into the public bus that was already filled with passengers. I held myself to the pole and watched the driver as he steered the wheels along the busy road.

The bus stopped at the front of the school gate, I quietly joined other students but I noticed some actually whispering. Staring at me with weird glances but I turned a blind eye to them. Right now, I didn't care what other thinks of me.

Just then, my eyes caught my long time friend and seat mate, Amber Feldman. She glanced over at me but I smiled at her She gave me a dagger luck as our eyes met.
'Did I do something wrong? What's her point exactly?' I rolled my eyes at her and walked into the class.

Mr. Brown, our literature teacher was already in class. To my surprise, Noah was already seated. My heart skipped over its ribcage and then back to its position as our eyes met. Somehow, I didn't feel comfortable around him. I never felt confident enough to face him till now, I just took a seat and pretend to be alone.

I noticed the serious expression on his charming face but I tried not to look.

"Why didn't you come yesterday? He asked.

"And why do you care? " I fizzled with my eyes, focused on Mr. Brown.

"I missed you." He mumbled in an hushed tone. I couldn't help but to turn to him this time. And his grey eyes were fixed to mine.

"Okay class," Mr brown started by clearing his throat. Noah and I looked away, focusing on the lecture.
"As we all know... a novel is an invented prose narrative of considerable length and a certain complexity that deals imaginatively with human experience, usually through a connected sequence of events involving a group of persons in a specific setting." Mr. Brown paused and wrote NOVEL in capital letters on the board.

Just then, I noticed Noah jotting some words based on his explanations. I couldn't help but to wonder how he changed overnight. A small smile formed on my lips as Mr. Brown continued.

"However, the novel is a genre of
fiction, and fiction may be defined as the art or craft of contriving, through the written word, representations of human life that instruct or divert or both. The various forms that fiction may take are best seen less as a number of separate categories than as a continuum or, more accurately, a cline, with some such brief form as the anecdote at one end of the scale and the longest conceivable novel at the other. By now, you all have plenty of time to finish reading 'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee, 1960. One good thing about this novel is, it won a Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and the next year, it was made into an Academy Award-winning film. Harper Lee, believed to be one of the most influential authors to have ever existed, famously published only a novel. Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird was published in 1960 and became an immediate classic of literature. Can anyone tell me what the major lessons from this novel and what it symbolizes?"