One of the Bullied | ✔

Chapter 10 - Jean

On Monday I'm greeted by what could be considered as a pleasant surprise.

"There's an exchange student coming."

Instead of the normal routine of bullying the Zerd, people are whispering other things down the corridor and in front of the lockers. No one even looks at me, let alone says anything.

When we go to our first class, Mr Sivan has a message for us.

"At the start of second period we are going to be joined by an exchange student from France. He is a boy, he's seventeen and his name is Jean." He looks up towards me. "Zoe, seeing as you're the only student here with fluent French behind you, you will be in charge of him for this first week as he grows accustomed to the language and the school."

I go a bit red at the sudden attention, and more as the whole class fills with groans and moans about the new boy being trusted to the Zerd.

"Now, sit down, everyone, and - ASHLEY PUT AWAY THAT PHONE!" The class drags on, and I find myself slipping out of it without the aid of a book. I'm daydreaming about the new boy. Will he even speak any English?

For once, I'm the first out of the class. I ignore the laughs and comments, heading straight to the lockers where we're supposed to get our first glimpse of the famed new boy.

He's not alone. When I get there, his back is to me, but the French teacher, who's talking avidly to him, sees me and waves me over.

"This is Zoe. She'll be your teacher for these few days." She accentuates the teacher bit and I smile. The boy turns towards me as Madame Pellier keeps talking. God. This boy is something.

"Salut." He says, offering his hand to me. "Je suis Jean. Jean Thibaud."

"Oh- I mean salut. Zoe." I say, trying to snap back into French. Pellier smiles at me before taking her leave, and almost immediately I'm shoved out of the way by the blood-thirsty girls who've by now seen this guy and his hotness.

"Bon-jour Jean." Caitlyn says in her very worst French, coming very, very close to him. He takes a step back, looking somewhat disgusted. And she doesn't say Jean the right way, like Jan, she says Jean. Like a pair of jeans. It sound stupid.

Luke steps up to him, clapping him on the back. "Welcome, dude. You better make sure you stay well away from that..." He glances dismissively towards me. "Thing."

It's at this point Jean shoots me a worried look and it's at the same point I realise he doesn't know ANY English. This is not good. I smile back at him, nervously.

"You don't speak English?" I ask him, but I can imagine the answer, and I'm dreading it.

"No, I came here to learn." He glances at the crowd, who are now fully glaring at me. "What are they saying?"

Caitlyn glares at me. "You better not be slagging me off, you bitch." She looks back up at him. "I'm Caitlyn. She's the Zerd. You stay away from her."

I cough to smother a giggle. "They don't like me much." I explain to Jean. "Let's go, we'll be late for our next class."

"I don't have lessons the first days." He says.

"So what are you going to do all this time?"

"Uh, learn some English, I guess."

"How?" I ask with a small smile.

Caitlyn gets pissed, shoving me out of the way and decides to give it another go. "Hey, Frenchie. You shouldn't even be looking at that thing. You can talk to me instead."

"He could if your brain was big enough to house some basic French." I answer. It's seconds before Luke is on me, grabbing the front of my shirt and slamming me against the lockers.

"Listen, you bitch. Don't you think because you can speak to Jean here in another language you're up a level from us. It's probably the first time you've ever talked to a boy, anyway. Get a grip on life and leave the poor guy alone." He says softly and slowly. "Don't you dare think that because of this you're smarter or more important than us." His final words are warning before he lets go of me.

Even though I don't want to put up a show right now of all moments, I pick my stuff up and turn my back on everyone, keeping a steady pace down the hallway until I turn the corner.

Then I start running.

I don't care where. Away from them.

Normally I deal with this kind of thing fine, but my back hurts and I'm sick of hearing I'm worthless and I'm less than them and I'm nothing. Just because I could do something better than them. I sink down against the wall in the empty music classroom, burying my face into my hands. The teacher isn't here on Mondays and no one uses it.

Maybe it's different now, because I finally got a chance to half make a friend, to have someone I can at least maybe talk to or study with, and they still had to take that away from me.

The door opens slowly and someone comes in. I don't look up, but I hear someone kneeling in front of me.

"Zoe?" Of course he would come now. "What just happened?"

"Nothing." I wipe my face quickly, standing up and picking up my stuff. He stands up in front of me. "It's normal for me."

He's quiet for a minute. "I don't have to stay here all day." He says thoughtfully. What? "Because my English isn't up to scratch. I can leave for the first few days if I want to. They don't want me feeling too uncomfortable." He pauses again. "Do you want to come with me?"

Everything inside me freezes. No. It'll just make everything worse. "It's okay."

"Okay, to be honest, I need your help. My parents are visiting this weekend and they want me to have made friends and stuff. And speak English."

"If I leave now everything will be worse for me."

"Please." He says, and I can see he's being honest, he needs and wants my help.

"Okay. But I need to ask for permission at reception first."

His smile lights up his whole face for a moment and I find myself smiling along with him. "But seriously, are you okay?" He asks me, the worry dampening his smile for a minute.

"Let's get out of here." 

A/N - So, everything is changing. For the better? Perhaps. We'll see soon enough. Let's just hope Jean doesn't turn sour as soon as his English improves... Next chapter on Tuesday or Wednesday. Until then.