Alison Harold

Chapter 6

It was unexpected. And she disliked unexpected occurrences. Jace Myers, the idiot, he was in this school. She'd thought she only had to deal with Drew, but Jace? He was a whole different story combined.

She'd attended Duende Elementary for merely one month. Jace and his buddy George had made her stay in that school not so fun for her. At a certain point she'd gotten fed up with their treatment towards her so without thinking she'd retaliated by stabbing them with a fork during lunch time; Jace on his shoulder and George on his thigh. Things got nasty at the time. Even her parents couldn't sway the disciplinary committee to avoid her getting expelled. The case had been a heated discussion among parents and staffs and she'd nearly been sent to juvenile detention but somehow her parents had pulled some strings to avoid that. The incident had been swept under a rug and no one spoke about it after every possible punishment had been avoided and then Alison went back to homeschooling like nothing had happened.

She sighed and then took a huge bite from Mrs. Stewart's homemade cookie. She'd skipped breakfast and lunch. Right now it was 7pm and everyone had gone to the dining hall for dinner. She wasn't prepared to face the crowd she might meet there so she chose to eat alone.

Someone suddenly walked into the dorm and when she looked and saw Drew she feared this encounter wasn't going to end well.

"Is this where you spent your dinner time yesterday? And breakfast today? And lunch?" Drew walked and stood next to Alison's bed, looking down at her in disgust.

Alison didn't respond. She stuffed another cookie in her mouth and stared straight ahead refusing to acknowledge Drew's presence.

"Alison Harold!" Drew yelled indignantly.

"What do you want?" Alison asked quietly.

"You should be in the dining hall. No one skips meals around here."

"In case you haven't noticed, I'm having my meal," Alison returned.

"Cookies? Doughnuts? Cupcakes?" Drew scoffed. "I really don't care what you eat in a day. Have your meal in the dining hall like every other person."

"I don't want to," she said frankly.

"What?" Drew's face changed from shock to irritation. "You know I have the authority to punish you if you don't do as you're told, right?"

Alison searched her head for a comeback that could hopefully save her from Drew's threat. When she couldn't come up with one, she laid back in her bed and pulled her duvet over her head. She could hear Drew breathing angrily at having a new student defy her orders.

"You're asking for trouble," Drew said. "And I promise you, you'll get it." She left the room shortly.

Alison came out from under her duvet and sat up. Why did she feel like everyone was out to get her? Her parents, Jace Myers, Drew... she really hoped the list wouldn't get any longer. She swore if everyone just left her alone then the world would be at peace. She took out her notes and text books to do a little run through on what was taught today. She was just nearly done with studying when her roommates came in from the dining hall.

Alison ignored the girls as they walked in, whispering to themselves.

"Wow, she really skipped dinner today too."

"And breakfast...lunch too."

"Why isn't she getting punished though? I'm telling the housemistress first thing tomorrow because if it were one of us, we'd be getting scolded for skipping meals."

That last one was Wendy. Alison looked up at the girl and she held her head up high and walked by. Hopefully, she wouldn't have to add Wendy to her list.