Hell at Rosemeadow High

Chapter 2, The Transfer Student

"Everyone, this is Amelia Parr," Miss Jones told the class. "She will be joining us this year."

Zoey felt nervous to meet the new transfer student. What if she turned out to be just like her old classmates? What if she turned out to be mean too? Zoey's anxiety level rose exponentially every second. What if she was just like the rest of her family?
"Nice to meet you," Amelia smiled as she held out her hand for Zoey to shake.
Zoey took her hand tentatively and shook it. Amelia was rather formal, but still friendly. But when Zoey realized that everyone was staring at her with a disgusted look on their faces she quickly pulled her hand away from Amelia. Zoey felt embarrassed and she just wished that she hadn't done so.
"Now that introductions are out of the way let's get started!" Miss Jones called out. "Today we're having a science project. You will divide into partners based on the assignment. We'll use a lab set so you will each have a partner. Any questions?"
Zoey raised her hand. "Yes, Miss Jones?"
"Who's our lab partner going to be?"
The whole classroom fell silent as Amelia answered. "May I work with you, Zoey?" she said. Everyone stared at Amelia in total shock. They had never seen someone willingly work with Zoey before. Such a thought made them sick. Who would willingly work with someone like Zoey? Nobody, that's who. Not even Zoey herself. But she was grateful for Amelia's kindness. It made everything a little easier. Zoey was glad that she wouldn't be alone, until.
"Sorry, Zoey will be working with Milly and Stella." Zoey almost started crying again. Miss Jones paired her up with her BULLIES. Like always, they'd probably make HER do all the work and THEY'D take the credit, because that always happens. Everybody knew that it was their idea to get Zoey's hopes up that made her think that things were going to change for her. So after Zoey's first week, everybody was already hating her.
"Hey, what did you say?" Milly asked as she crossed her arms across her chest and raised an eyebrow at Stella.
Stella didn't say a word as she stared into Zoey's chartreuse eyes with pure satisfaction filling in her eyes. Stella was content because they had successfully raised and subsequently crushed Zoey's hopes of ever finding friends. And Zoey was terrified. Terrified that they were right; that nobody would ever be nice to her. And soon, they would be right. Zoey's life was spiraling out of control. No one even gave Zoey the tiniest bit of pity. She had no one to rely upon. And her parents didn't seem to care. She felt completely alone. And for the last few months, all Zoey did was sit alone and cry while the whole world mocked her and called her a baby. It was so stupid of her to think that anyone could be her friend. She had no one. She will always be alone, and she would always be bullied.
Suddenly, Zoey felt someone standing by her side. As she glanced sideways, she found herself looking straight at Milly's evil smirk that she knew so well.
"Well isn't this perfect?" she grinned. Zoey felt a sudden rush of fear wash over her. She wasn't scared of Milly. That wasn't it at all. Even though she was dreading to see Milly, it was the other two people sitting next to her that Zoey was frightened of. It was Liam and Drew sitting opposite them. Why were they sitting there? Were they mocking her? Did they hate her too? All of these negative thoughts were swirling around inside of Zoey's head.
"So, Zoey," Drew spoke in an evil and cruel voice. "You must know that we are very disappointed in you." "Disappointed" was a complete understatement. It was more like 'disgusted.' Zoey really wanted to die because all she wanted to do was run away somewhere far, far away where nobody knows her. Where nobody cares about her. "I've been trying to catch your attention for years." Zoey looked at him. She didn't know why she did. Was it some kind of trick? He smirked at her. Zoey felt so ashamed. She wished that she could disappear just by simply turning away and pretending that he was invisible. "Oh don't worry, Zoey," he went on. "You'll find out soon enough that no one likes you, and once you are gone, you will never come back. No one will want you. Your parents hate you too. You're such a burden, Zoey. If you weren't a burden you'd probably become someone important in life. But unfortunately for you, you're just a useless burden. You're going to die a lonely, depressed death like everybody else who ends up here. Don't worry though. It doesn't matter how sad you'll feel. You won't ever be able to get out. Nobody will ever be able to save you. Nobody will ever want to stick around you anymore. In fact, if they tried they might just end up hurting themselves or somebody else worse than you."
"What's wrong with me?" Zoey whispered to herself.