The Wallflower of Parkview High

Chapter Eleven

I should have known that my previous happiness during PE was too good to be true. It was pretty obvious that something was going to ruin it and make me fall all the way back to square one again.

The first thing - or person - came in the form of me getting immensely scared, wishing that a hole would open up beneath me and almost getting myself seriously hurt - for the third time.

The second I had stepped out of language arts class, I felt an immense hunger in my stomach. I knew that I had to go and get lunch if I wanted to stifle it, however, that would mean I would have to wait in the lunch line with a bunch of people I didn't know. Sure enough, as I was walking away from the classroom, I could see the lunch line, which extended past the multipurpose room that was next to it; I sighed to myself. There was a reason I asked dad to pack me lunches instead of making me wait in the lunch line. However, he always left for his job at the local 7 Eleven before I was even awake so here I was.

I slowly made my way to the lunch line; maybe if I walked very slowly, the line would die down and I wouldn't have to stand in line with anyone for an eternity. However, that feeling of hunger washed over me again and I felt that I had no choice. Dad would kill me anyways if I went home without having eaten anything at school and I didn't know how much longer I could lie to him; I already felt bad enough as it was.

When I joined the lunch line, it was thankfully slightly shorter than it was when I first saw it. I stood behind the (formally) last person in line, making sure to avoid eye contact, only looking up to see if the line had moved up. I obviously didn't think my plan through because as soon as I looked up for the third time, my heart dropped down to my stomach.

There, looking at me with a scowl on his face was that tall boy who had called me a "dipshit" and a "sissy" the other day. I was lucky I held back the gasp that I was going to emit because I was pretty sure he was going to squish my already tiny body into pulp if I so much as said one word to him.

"Well, well, well, look who we have here!" the boy sneered, a cruel glint in his eyes. I gulped and looked around for any way to escape. There were a few people who had gotten into line behind me and they were busy chatting to each other to notice what was going on in front of them - I didn't have it in me to tell them to move. There were a bunch of backpacks lining the small barrier on the right that was used to separate the students in the lunch line and the backpacks. I was sure I would trip over all the backpacks if I went that way so that was out of the question. On my left was an even higher barrier which was even more out of the question than the last.

"Looking for a way to escape, you wimp?" the boy asked. When I didn't respond, a not - so - friendly grin spread across his face and he reached for one of my backpack straps.

"S-Stop!" I gasped, and moved away slightly; he laughed.

"S-Stop!" he mimicked in a squeaky tone of voice, before reaching for my backpack strap again. I tried to move out of the way again, but this time he managed to grab onto the backpack strap. I nearly fell over when he harshly pulled on it.

"Want proof that you're a sissy? Look at your backpack!" he laughed, yanking on my backpack strap over and over again. I tried my best not to cry out in fear that he would do something worse.

"I don't see anything wrong with my-" I started to say, but he cut me off.

"Your backpack is so girly!" he scoffed.

Okay, I had to agree with him there, my backpack, which was a plain lilac color with a keychain that was a small carton of strawberry milk, would be considered to be a bit girly, but I didn't see the problem. It was my backpack after all, not his.