REVERSED

1 ~ Ella

'Haha that's so funny, what do you think Ella?' I vaguely heard the dim voice of my best friend.
'Ella, Ellaaa!'
I woke up from my daydream as Gaby's fingers snapped in my face.
'What's up with you lately? Youv'e been acting so weird for a few weeks now.'
As I was about to give an answer I could hear Sasha whispering, 'Like we would care.' I don't exactly know yet what true hate is but my feelings for Sasha are so far what I would describe as hate.
'Uhm I don't know, maybe I just need to sleep some more or something.' I gave as an answer at Gaby's question.
Normally I wouldn't lie to her, but I really didn't want to answer this particular question in front of all her friends. There was already enough gossip about me and I didn't want even more stories about me being whispered through the halls. As I looked at my phone I could see that there were still 10 more minutes till we needed to class again. Just when I was bending down to grab my headphones out of my bag I could hear some girls giggling behind me. At the exact moment I looked around to see what was going on I felt something wet on my back. Those bitches. As their laughter filled the entire cafeteria I could feel the tears of hatred stinging in my eyes.
'Huh what happened, are you okay?'
'Yes I'm fine Gaby I'll be right back.'
I quickly walked to the bathroom to make myself decent again. I could hear Gaby walking behind me. Of course she wouldn't let me go alone. When I felt the first tear rolling down my face I was really hoping the bathroom would be empty. I could already see the rumor forming, it would probably be something like; 'Omg did you hear already, Ella came into the bathroom crying. Like can't she just keep herself together. What a baby!'. Luckily fate was with me and the bathroom was empty.
'Ella, what happened. Please say something so I can help you.'
'It's okay Gaby, it's just you know I cry at every single thing. It's nothing. It was just a joke, not a very nice or funny joke but I guess they had some sort of fun from it.'
I said as I felt my now wet shirt sticking to my back. How much water did they even splash on me, it was so much that it would have been an entire bottle.
'Wait I'll be right back, I have a spare shirt in my locker. Give me 2 minutes.'
As Gaby ran back I quickly walked into a stall to cry more freely. They pulled some pranks on me before but never something that was this cruel. As I was taking my shirt off to dry my back off with some toilet paper I heard someone entering the bathroom. I quickly stopped crying.
'Ella in which stall are you?'
'The third one from your left.'
Gaby pushed a plastic bag with a shirt in it under the door.
'You can put your wet shirt in the bag. You gotta hurry though you know how Mr Sting gets when someone is late.'
Shit, of course. I had biology next class, I totally forgot. I quickly put the shirt on. I walked out of the stall to examine my face. My eyes were a bit red but that would be gone in a few minutes. The shirt Gaby gave me was in fact a baby blue tank top with spaghetti straps. It didn't match my outfit at all, I was more of the green and dark blue colors. I tried to hide my eyes a bit by taking out my claw clip and letting my red hair fall in front of my face. 'Better' I thought. Gaby was already gone, she had French. French was the only class Gaby really loved, she herself was just as elegant as the language French itself. I sat down in Biology just as the bell rang. I was happy, especially now, that Sasha wasn't in this class. Sadly enough her minion Inez was. I wasn't really paying much attention to what Mr Sting was saying but when the word group project dropped I was all of a sudden a lot more interested in what Mr Sting had to say. I always dreaded group projects, mostly because I had close to no friends except for Gaby. As Mr Sting continued his story someone asked if we could choose the groups ourselves. I was hoping he would say no because no one ever chose me so I had to be placed in a group by the teacher anyways. Being placed in groups already just saved me some social embarrassment.
'No Jeremy I will be deciding the groups today.'
I heard some kids in the back mumble 'Aww man not fair, I'm probably gonna be placed with a girl or something.'
'Eve with Mia and Aisha, Jeremy with Steve and Suze, Bella with Inez and Ella, Amber with Be...'
I was with Inez, fuck. Luckily there was still Bella, she was the only girl in class with me who still was kind of nice to me. The project was about seeing if compost protects carrots from a fungus. I started to collect the stuff that was necessary for the project. I could hear Inez talking to Eve about how she hated being in the loser group as she called it. Bella walked over to me and started helping me prepare the project. Bella was kind of the quiet introverted type of girl. I mostly liked her because she didn't feel the need to fill every silence. While Bella and I were almost done filling the buckets with earth and compost Inez all of a sudden started yelling at me.
'Omg you're doing it ALL wrong! You're putting in way too much earth and way too little compost. Here let ME do it.' She said as she ripped the bucket and the scoop out of my hands.
I didn't really know what to say and just let it go. I was used to people treating me this way by now. As she re-filled the bucket with earth and compost I was spraying water on the already done bucket. All of a sudden I had an idea to spray some water on Inez really quick. Right after I did it I heard a yelp. It wasn't hard to figure out that it was Inez, with her high pitched voice.
'Do you think you're funny you little moran!'
She was walking over to me with an expression that would even scare a lion. She came so close that I didn't know what to do, as a body reflex to kind of defend myself I sprayed her again, this time in her face.
'Omg you annoying bitch, this make-up isn't waterproof you know!'
As the bell rang I quickly walked away, saying a quick 'Thank you' to Bella while I walked out. I was so thankful Bella already cleaned up everything after the finished project. I would return the favor later when she was in need of something. I walked at a very fast pace to my next class, math. I wasn't very good at math. I quietly sat down in the farest corner of the room. The last tests we made were being handed out. YES, I finally didn't fail a test, it was a 6. This was the sign I needed to get, I was almost giving up on math. 'Well this shows that hard work does eventually pay off.' I thought. I looked around the classroom to look at other peoples reactions. Most of the kids in my class were very happy, but there was one kid, Lex. He looked like he was about to cry. I wanted to comfort him and tell him everything would be fine. The test papers he held in his hands were currency being formed into a paper ball. His friends didn't show him any affection either. I felt so sorry for him, there were tears forming in my own eyes. The rest of the class went by very slowly. I mostly just made some sums and overheard the most random conversations of some boys in my class.

When school was finally over I walked through the doors, the cold air blew in my face. I almost made it to my bike when Gaby stopped me.
'For real what is up with you. I get that you didn't want to tell me before, but I'm still your best friend and I'm worried about you.'
'Okay I'll tell you tomorrow Gaby, I am really tired right now and just want to go home.'
'Fine, I'll hold you to it. See you tomorrow, Love ya.'
She walked away to her own bike, sadly enough our homes weren't anywhere near each other, this way we couldn't cycle together. While I was putting on my headphones I was deciding which album I would listen to today. After a few seconds of pondering I went with Folklore by Taylor Swift. Folklore was my go to album when I was a bit sad. I quickly skipped to my favorite song on the album, my tears ricochet. While I hopped on my bike I was taken by the familiar lyrics of the song. 'Even on my worst days, did I deserve, babe.' I was already in a way better mood when I came home. Still humming, I opened the door to the garage. All of a sudden I got a feeling I was being watched. Maybe Sasha and Inez came to make me even more miserable. When I turned around I sighed a breath of relief. My mom was standing right behind me.
'Hi mom, what are you doing here already? I thought you had work till 4pm.'
She had a huge grin on her face, it kind of looked like she was planning something.
'I took off work early, I have a surprise for you inside.'
'Mom you know I don't like surprises and what would even be the occasion? My birthday isn't until another 3 weeks.'
'Just follow me Ella, you will love it.'
I followed my mom inside. She was always very excited giving other people presents. Once she even gave the friend of our neighbor a present for easter. Especially this shows she will take any occasion to give someone a present.
'Okay, so we just got a new stock in the shop and when I saw this I just knew I had to get it for you.'
My mom worked in a store with all types of crystals. She always wanted to know something new about them, for example how rose quartz was the crystal of love.
'Close your eyes and stretch out your hands.'
I directly obeyed her command. I felt a velvet box being placed in my hands. It wasn't heavy at all.
'Now open your eyes.'
As I opened my eyes I could see that the velvet box was a rich royal blue color. When I opened it I was taken by surprise. It was a stunning silver necklace with the most beautiful amethyst stones on it.
'Thank you mom, it..it's beautiful!'
'I knew you would like it honey. Here I'll put it on for you.'
As my mom was putting on the necklace I felt different. I never felt this feeling before. It was like there was a different energy surrounding me. It felt almost as if I could make the world bend for me instead of me bending for the world.
'It looks amazing on you. Wait what happened to your shirt, you weren't wearing this top this morning.' My moms voice cut through the energy like a knife.
'Oh it's nothing, I just spilled some water on mine and Gaby lent me this one.'
'Okay honey, so what do you want to do?'
'Uhm maybe just watch a movie? I really want to see The Maze Runner again.'
'Sure, I'll get it all set up. Will you get the snacks?'
I put some popcorn and chips in a bowl, on my way to the couch I also picked the sweater I was crocheting and my mothers knitting work. When I arrived in the living room my mom had everything set out, the movie and some cozy blankets.
'I'll be right back mom, I'm just going to change real quick.'
'Okay, don't take too long though.'
My mom, Cindy, was super sweet and amazing. She gave birth to me when she was just 17, quickly after she found out she was pregnant my dad left her. He was too afraid to become a father yet. Her parents and she raised me alone. Well my grandparents of course weren't happy about my mom not getting an abortion, but they still were very loving and caring over me.
I put on my sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt. I almost forgot to put on the necklace again. While I studied it even more carefully, I could see a golden shimmer in the amethyst. 'Weird' I thought to myself. I had never seen something like this before. I didn't give it a second thought. While walking downstairs I could hear my mom talking over the phone.
'No you don't understand. What? Why would she try to do that? No, I haven't heard from her in years, not since Ella was born.'