Pursued (Completed) ✔️

Chapter 2 Her attitude

Just another day in teenage hell.
I don't understand that some people think there are actual teenagers that like school.

There are days when it is nice to be able to escape your house and go somewhere you know that your friends have to be as well but that only counts if you have friends. I only have one sorta friend and he's not always at school. The rest of his group, I think, just put up with me because he told them to. I have no illusions about our friendship, it isn't much.

There are days when the mind numbing flow of information they try to drown us with is broken up with something a bit more fun, if you like sports. Thankfully I do like sports and today I hoped that Adrien would be at school.

I got in the car after waving my dad off, he was already in the field inspecting the crops we had in. My brother had taken his dirt bike and gone to Dirk's place five minutes before I walked out.

When I arrived at school I felt a smile curve my lips. Adrien was standing near the trees with his friends. I stopped to really look at them and agreed with the general opinion that they were all, boys and girls alike, gorgeous. I was too grateful for his continued protection to ask if I was right but I noticed a clear difference in hair color between the people in the group. Adrien and Camille had dark brown hair but Bobby, Shane and Emily had very light blond hair, Dean and Megan had pitch black hair, David, Otto, Jack and Sasha had light brown hair that turned lighter in summer. I had the theory that they were like family colors. If I was right Adrien and Camille had an older brother that finished school last year with with two others and the first lot to leave school left the year before that. Only David, Otto, Bobby, Adrien and Camille were in my year. We would be done with high school by the end of this year and I couldn't wait to escape.

Camille noticed me as I approached them and she immediately asked how I was doing. I could answer two ways.. I could tell her that someone had sprayed something nasty in my locker the day before, Susan had tried to trip me, again, when she dropped her bag 'accidentally' in front of me as I walked past her in the hallway and one of the guys from the football team had purposely hit my shoulder that hard when he walked past, that I had a nasty bruise to prove it.
I could say that I'd worked my butt off helping dad to bring in today's vegetables before cooking a huge amount of food so that the older veggies wouldn't go to waste. We supplied the meals to a bunch of people around three towns, people that couldn't cook for themselves for whatever reason. They paid what they could spare and that paid for supplies for the next load of meals. I worked my butt of for those meals and we didn't actually make money with it but the smiles were worth it when we showed up with them.

I didn't tell her any of that.
I just told her I was doing fine.

"You alway lie to me when I ask how you are doing." She snapped quite unexpectedly. Adrien put a steadying hand on her shoulder and started to speak. "Don't assume she is lying sis."

"We all know she is! And look at her, she looks exhausted!"

"Look Milly_" He started but I cut him off, sick and tired of everything I snapped back at her.

"Yes Camille, I lied to you. I always tell you I am doing fine. Would it be better if I told you I was bothered all damned day yesterday and that I'm tired and worried today and sore from working my butt off? What would that do? Huh? Don't you snap at me for being polite. I'm not like you. I don't wear my heart on my sleeve but I respect that you do, I don't ask you to change. So just..Respect the fact that I say I am fine, even if it is a lie. I don't even know how you would know it is a lie but you are right, it is and if that is a problem then just don't freaking ask next time because I will keep lying. I Am Freaking Fine! So There! Suck on that and go snap at someone else."

They all gaped at me with their mouths open until Adrien slung an arm over my shoulder. "Yeah Milly, suck on that!" He chuckled as we started walking into school with the others a few steps behind.

I should have known that he wouldn't let me off that easy.
"Soooo, when were you going to tell me who has bothering you?" He asked softly with an edge of steel that told me he would not let this go.

I tried to shrug off his arm but another load landed on my shoulders instead. I flinched in pain. "Yeah? Is there something you need to tell us?" David asked in the same tone as Adrien and David both removed their arms making me let out a small sigh as there was no pressure on my bruise anymore.

"I don't need to tell you nothing. I don't ask you guys why you just disappear on random days, all of you. I don't ask where you've been, what you done. I don't ask a heap of stuff that I might want to know, that everyone would be dying to ask, so if there is something I don't want to tell you, you're just going to have to live with it David." I rotated my arm a bit to ease the pain.

"You're awfully fiery today, Juliette." David said, still speaking quietly in that don't argue with me tone.
"And you are awfully nosy David."

"We can't protect you if you don't tell us what is happening J." Adrien said.

The bell rang and I weighed my options. I chose to just make my way to class instead of answering them, leaving them behind on purpose as they went to get their stuff for class.

Susan smirked when I walked in alone. She had to know that Adrien was at school and I walked in alone.

"Is he finally sick of being your knight in shiny leather?" She taunted while the other students laughed.

"Are you still that obsessed with me that you are keeping track of who I walk with and when?" I asked her sweetly. She turned red as the class now laughed at her and went 'oooh'

"You are such a pathetic bitch Juuls, you've seen what happens when they aren't here to protect you and it can get much worse if you don't watch out."

I simply smiled. "My brother is in hospital, in a coma. As you so kindly remind me every damned time that Adrien isn't here, my drunk no good mother left us. I have no friends to hang out with when Adrien isn't here, you already made sure of that. What the hell do you think you can do to make my life worse? I'll always have my brothers and my dad that love me, I'll always have something to smile about. Do you?"

It was a low blow, everyone knew her family was hardly ever there, we lived in a small town. Her family had money to waste but the screaming matches at their place were legendary and her brother had left without looking back the moment he was old enough to join the army.
An eerie silence fell over the classroom. I normally just put up with everything quietly.

"You b!tch!" She spat as she rose from her chair.

"Is there a problem?" A new voice asked from behind me.

She sat back down and I proceeded to my place by the window as the teacher walked in with Adrien, David, Bobby, Camille and Otto on his heels. There was a palatable tension in the class but nobody said a thing now that Adrien had positioned himself at my side. He gave me a cheeky grin when I looked at him and winked before looking back to where the teacher was explaining the importance of accurate measurements.

The day had only just begun and already I wanted it to end.