She Just Ran

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

(Anna’s P.O.V)

            The next day, I found myself back in the monotonous routine of school. I sighed audibly; I didn’t used to find school so boring. In fact, I loved it. I loved learning about new things and places, just like my mother. I was raised a free spirit. And now, here I was, a free spirit trapped by fear. I hadn’t realized how heavily I had depended on my mother when she was still alive, and I loathed myself for that fact. Now that she was de—not here, everything just seemed pointless.

            I had never been a very social person to begin with, but my mom was okay with that. She was my best friend. And now without her…life was colorless. As I thought about her I twisted the ring around my finger, wondering for the billionth time what it meant. I was so lost in thought I almost missed when the bell rang. I hurriedly packed my stuff up, and headed for P.E.

            I didn’t hate the class, but it wasn’t like I was the most athletic person around. I could play most everything fairly well. Our class headed into the gym and as soon as I entered I saw the nets. Our teacher explained that he would be dividing us into teams, the rules, etcetera, etcetera. I zoned out. Volleyball was one of the few sports that I excelled at. I wanted so badly to play to my best abilities, but that would make me stand out. I had to keep a low profile. No standing out.

            We got into our teams and were assigned to courts. I felt a little pang of disappointment that Leon wasn’t on my team. Where the hell did that come from? I wondered. I shook it off. We had an average team; most people could at least hit the ball aside from one very quiet girl in the back. I carefully restrained myself from making it obvious that I could play. We were playing a couple of extremely cocky guys, and I had to bite my tongue to keep from insulting them. They really didn’t play very well, but they all thought they were the shit.

            It was their turn to serve, and one of them intentionally served the ball so that it would hit the shy girl in the face. I saw red. The girl had tears in her eyes and they were all just laughing their asses off. I grabbed the ball and spiked it over the net so that it hit the “leader” of them straight in the nose. I didn’t hold back, and blood was gushing everywhere. I smiled in satisfaction, but quickly melted back into the crowd when I saw the teacher walk over.

            “Who did this?!” He yelled angrily. I made eye contact with the girl. She had seen me, and I was sure the rest of my team had too, but none of them said a word. After scanning the crowd of shocked faces, the teacher quickly gave up and helped Mr. Jock to the nurse’s office. As we made our way back to the locker rooms, I smiled triumphantly. I felt so good to let loose again.

            I was on my way out when someone tapped my shoulder. It was shy girl. She shuffled her feet nervously. “Um, I just wanted to say thanks. For, uh, doing that.”

            I smiled at her, she really was painfully shy. Her small stature didn’t help anything either. “It was no problem. I hate assholes like that.” We stood there awkwardly for a moment, and after hesitating I added, “Do you want to eat lunch with me?”

            “Really?” she asked, “Your friends wouldn’t mind?” I almost laughed at that, what friends?

            But just replied, “Nah, they wouldn’t care. Come on. Oh, I’m Anandra, by the way. But just call me Anna.” She smiled up at me.

            “Rhielle. Call me Ellie.” We walked to lunch in a comfortable silence, but I made sure that there was no contact between us. I still couldn’t really handle it. For some reason, I felt okay when it was just Bram, but maybe that was because he was a child. Harmless. Innocent. Couldn’t hurt me even if he wanted to. I guess that’s what it came down to, honestly.