Shadowheart

Chapter 2

Dahlia manages to reach her school, on foot, exhausted, and losing her lunch money for a bottle of water she managed to buy from a gas station. She walked inside, and immediately ran for her classroom. When she got in, every one of her classmates turned their eyes at her, so did her teacher.

-"Dahlia, do you know what time it is?"

-"I'm sorry, miss Rutherford, the bus just left and I..."

-"Well you could have gotten up early" Rutherford glared at Dahlia.

-"Yes, I know, but I had breakfast-"

-"Breakfast, huh? Well it must be a banquet as you need that meat on your bones."

The other students laughed, but Dahlia's eyes have saddened.

-"You sit outside for the rest of the hour, don't bother coming in here today, got it?"

-"Yes, miss Rutherford..."

-"Now what's that I keep telling you"

-"Be tardy, times get hardy..."

-"That's right, now get out of here"

Dahlia stood there, looking at her seat, then someone shouts out.

-"Get out of here girl!"

Dahlia opened her mouth, but decided to not say anything, and she left her classroom. Closing the door she sits next to a nearby trash can. She grabbed one of her notebooks containing her drawings, and she decided to do something new with it. Footsteps are heard in the empty halls, and comes a young man with black, semi long hair, a fit body, stubble facial hair and dark colored eyes looking around the halls. He finds Dahlia sitting next to the trash bin. As Dahlia glanced at the young man, she closed the notebook and held it tight.

-"Hey, what are you doing here?"

Dahlia silently stares at him.

-"You know you can't be here at this hour, class time."

-"I know... But I've been kicked out."

-"Really? What for?"

The young man approaches Dahlia. As he did, Dahlia held her notebook tighter against her.

"What do you have in there?"

-"It's nothing..."

-"It's clearly something, let me see that."

-"No... Please don't..."

-"Alright, I see... Well I have to be going. But hey, you'd better not be seen on the halls on class hours, cause hell, teachers got no chill nowadays."

-"Yes.... I understand..."

The young man looked in her eyes, realizing that she is having a hard time at the moment, so he backed off from her and went on his way.

-"Take care of yourself girl."

She looked at him as he left. She rarely heard someone ask her take care of her herself. She felt strange, but slightly better.

The bell rang and she stood up, following with her class towards the next period. She went ahead as she was worried about being late again.

English class was up. As Dahlia sat down, Kyle, the one sitting next to her, started picking on her.

-"Should have dropped your bag, you could have run faster."

-"And that poofy hair too!" Zeke, his friend said, and they both high fived.

Dahlia, noticeably upset, lowered her head to focus on her textbook. When suddenly, a piece of gum was spat at her book. Kyle and Zeke smirked. As Dahlia looked at them, Zeke spit on her face. Dahlia was quickly angered, and she stood up grabbing her book. The teacher looked at her and shouted

-"Dahlia! Get back on your seat, this isn't... What were you going to do with that book?

-"Sir... These guys just-"

-"Just what? Dahlia. Life is full of distractions, don't pay attention to them."

-"But they spit gum on my-"

-"Then clean it off! And you two, eyes on your books."

Dahlia sat down and opened her book. The gum has spread all over the pages since she closed the book to hit Zeke. Dahlia raised her hand.

-"Mr. Brookland... I need another book, there's gum in this one."

-"Back to class, Dahlia"

-"But sir, my book..."

-"You wanna go to the office?"

-"No sir...."

Dahlia shrinks into her seat, and Kyle and Zeke grinned after the teacher scolded her.