The Happiness Project (An Axl Heck Fanfic)

Chapter 1

Today began like any other day. When I arrived at school this morning, I didn't think that anything special would happen today. I thought everything would be the same as usual, with the same things I always went through. But I was wrong.

This morning, I walked through the gates to my school, and I made my way across the car park, like I did every day. The air was cold, as it was the middle of winter, and I was glad that I had both my school jumper and blazer to keep me warm. It was almost 8:45, which was the time that I had to be in school by. I went through the entrance at the front of the building, and I walked faster, trying to arrive to my form room on time.

I went up the stairs to my form room, and when I finally got there, I walked into the room. The bell went as I removed my bag from my back and sank into my seat at the front of the room, feeling relieved that I wasn't late to school.

The form tutor came into the room, and she sat down at her desk before opening the register up on her laptop. Then she looked up at the class.

"Okay, everyone. I'm going to take the register now. Please be quiet, and only speak during the register if you are answering your name." she told everyone.

Then she began to call out everyone's names.

"Victoria?" she called.

"Here." I made myself say.

I heard laughter from the table behind me, and I instantly knew they were laughing at me.

"Wow, I actually heard Victoria talk!" a boy said, laughing.

I didn't talk at school. It was because of a disorder I had, and I'd been like this for as long as I could remember. It made a lot of things that would be simple for most people into difficult tasks for me, but I'd learnt to cope with it.

Because I didn't talk, I was bullied a lot at school. Whenever I didn't speak to people, they always automatically assumed that I was ignorant or that I hated them, and it was just horrible, because they were judging me without even knowing anything about me. People constantly made fun of me and talked about me in front of me as if I couldn't hear them, and it hurt.

I shouldn't have cared about what the kids at my school thought of me, because they were all just awful people. They were all disruptive, badly behaved kids who did illegal things all the time, and they didn't care about their education at all. They were all the same, and most of the time it seemed as if I was the only person in the school who behaved and actually cared about doing well in school.

The teachers at my school were just as bad as the kids. They didn't teach us properly, and they just told us to go on our phones in lessons most of the time. They just sat there checking their Facebook accounts and drinking Coca Cola, and we didn't learn anything. I wanted to get a good education, but I was scared that I wouldn't because of the way my school was.

I sighed, and half-listened as the teacher talked about the values of the school, and I turned to look at the clock on the wall, waiting for form to end. When the bell finally went, I picked up my school bag, put it on my back, and I left the classroom.