Anonymous Writers (Book #2)

Part III - The Rabbit Hole

The days that followed that disastrous afternoon went terrible. Nessa could barely walk through the corridors without being sentenced to that terrible guilt, fear, anger and irritation that everyone had this horrible misunderstanding about her.
When Mr Mathew had been sacked, the reasons given to the students and to many teachers, was because he had attempted in killing Vanessa Orville. Now the students had somehow learnt about the reason behind why he wanted to kill Nessa, and were assuming that it was because Nessa had initially killed his daughter - Natalie Verona.
Somehow the rumour had just spread around so nicely, Nessa didn't even notice where it started from and in no time, it was all around the school.
In those days, Nessa ironically wished that her old friend Bibliophile was still there. At least before he had turned evil, started threatening her with scary notes and revealed his true identity and intentions, he had been a very kind, understanding and wise person who had listened to all her problems and offered solutions to them - meaningful and useful solutions, unlike:
Nessa: I can't stand the students in my school. They think I have killed Natalie. They keep whispering around me, talking about it all the time. What do I do?
Bibliophile: well, why don't you cut your ears out so you wouldn't be able to hear their talks and then cut your eyes out too, so you wouldn't be able to see them whispering around you.
Nessa: thank you Bibliophile! That was very useful.
During study hours, Nessa tried to distract herself from the whispers, giggles and the reactions, through tardy means such as doing homework, taking notes, actually listening in class and basically being constantly engaged in some work.
Not that it stopped her from losing her temper; Nessa had already beaten up two students - and one of them had been a girl (which was risky, since girls got more affected by physical violence than boys).
She shouted at students almost at a daily basis, kicked, threw books and cursed as many people as possible. Nessa didn't welcome any company around her; consumed her food stash all by herself and moved into one of her frequent states of depression.
Things became even worse according to Nessa, when she was called into an official soccer practice session - exclusively only for the team members.
"Hey Vanessa!" Nathan greeted at her entrance, and everyone turned to look at her. "Good news for you; we finally have a soccer match, scheduled on the first week of February."
"Really?!" Nessa exclaimed, her dull mood from the day's occurrences now replaced by a new kind of an excitement. Apparently she had also forgotten about the time when Edmund had hinted on an upcoming soccer match.
"Oh, yes. We are playing against St. Aldertree's; the match is being held in Sheridan, and even though Aldertree kids are easy competition, we need to work real hard." Nathan addressed his audience, who seemed to vigorously agree with him.
So with few questions and answers exchanged, the group commenced into a hardcore soccer game. Nessa, who usually felt pretty small when she played with her team, tried to play fierce - kicking the hardest, being the fastest, even adding unnecessary moves just to look graceful and agile.
"Hey chick, this is soccer, not ballet cum gymnastics." A blonde guy shouted at her at one point of time.
Nessa grabbed the football from her neighbouring players, and very promptly kicked it at the guy's nuts. "Sorry! I didn't quite catch you! Could you repeat what you just said?" Nessa inquired sarcastically.
Many chuckled, and Nessa's insulter backed off, muttering something unintelligible.
When they were all finally done practicing soccer, the boys started leaving. The coach accused Nessa of having kicked one of the balls to the woods many days ago, and ordered her to bring it back.
Making a sour face, Nessa jogged off to the woods. Edmund looked like he wanted to join her - and probably talk about things, but Nessa knew that he would probably talk about the rumours related to her and Natalie Verona, and it was pretty much the last thing she wanted to talk about.

Many bad things had happened in these forests. It was where she had first sighted her worst highschool enemy: Titania Cross. It was where Mr Mathew had tried to kill her. Especially after the latter, Nessa didn't have a mind to visit the woods, but now . . . .well, it was an obligation, thanks to Coach.
Before Nessa found the football, she sighted a very strange kind of a lizard, a tree bark that vaguely looked like a sullen owl's face, and a rabbit hole hidden under snow.
Out of curiosity, Nessa put her hand inside the rabbit hole - probably to see how long it extended down below, when she found a . . . .box; she pulled it out immediately. Maybe there was a trinket inside; trinkets would be very helpful on days when she was sulky and bad-tempered all the time.
The box she had found was bigger than a matchbox, and more sophisticated than one - beige in colour, with gold ribbons that bordered the lid.
It might've been a jewellery box to keep small chains or earnings in. Nessa opened it to see a piece of folded paper. Well, now that she had come so far, she might as well unfold the paper and check out its contents. So without much care or discretion, Nessa read:
Dear Adaline,
I don't know how you dealt with what I had told you in my last letter. You never replied. But in case you think I am fooling around, playing a sick evil prank on you, well, you're mistaken. Because every single word I told you was true. Hell, you can even summon me for a face-to-face talk and I shall prove it to you that what I had said was true.
You can see then, both how much we look alike and the honesty inside me. I am your brother, Adaline.
I am your mother's son. The same blood runs down our veins.
I'm sorry if you feel disappointed that your brother isn't as proper and prim and handsome as yourself. But I have a good heart - one that especially extends out to my little sister. And that far exceeds attractive looks.
Please say something, Adaline. Your lack of a reply hurts me. I can't bear writing while knowing that you are ignoring me and my letters.
I will always be there for you - with you.
-J