Our Broken Souls

Chapter 9

/A/N/X/I/E/T/Y/ /S/U/C/K/S/

Mal's POV

I blink a few times. Wow that flash was blinding.

"Perfect!" Says Fairy Godmother.

Carlos rubs his eyes and Jay looks offended. Evie is in some sort of daze.

"What's perfect?" Ben says from behind me.

I jump slightly and see the dashing prince smiling brightly at us. Or at least he is trying. His face is pale and his eyes reufse to met any of ours. I can tell something is up.

"Well for the school news of course!" She happily replies.

Nooo please don't put my face on a piece of paper so everyone can see. I want to complain but decide against it. Ben and her talk and the four of us sneak off to Evie and I's room. I start to paint with some paints that Jay stole. Shh that's a secret. He also managed to retrieve some paper. I quickly sketch out the scene in pencil on the canvas. I then paint the canvas with a thin coat of water before mixing several floors together to make many tints and shades. I pull my hair back and start to paint. I start off with the background. I blend into the many shades of red, yellow, and orange making sure that my painting was nothing less than perfect. I fan it off and wait for it to dry. I then add in the trees and hill over top of that. I sigh contently proud of myself. It looks exactly like the sunset from last night. I sign my name at the bottom of my painting so no one else can take ownership of it. Evie squeals and picks it up hanging it up on the wall.

"It's perfect Mal!" She says in an excited rush.

"Eh I guess that it's okay." Carlos retortes.

I roll my eyes.

"Don't listen to him Mal. It's amazing." Jay says.

I blush slightly and look at the ground. I mumble out a thanks. I was very proud of myself. A rapid knock on the makes us all jump. Belle pokes her head in.

"It time you guys started heading to school."

I just nod my head and start heading over to the door. No way in Tartarus was I going to disobey this women who has already given me so much. Evie follows behind quietly. Jay and Carlos exchange a glance at one another obviously hesitant. I nod at them encouragingly. They follow behind.

"Oh my. I don't quite remember putting that beautiful painting in this room." Belle says confused.

"Oh. That's because Mal made it today!" Beams Jay smiling.

"Yeah! We even watched her paint it this morning after breakfast." Evie squeals.

I blush and look down at the floor.

"Mal... you are extremely talented. I think we should get you into the art program." Belle says.

I look up at her with wide eyes. My heart skips a beat. Is she being serious?

"R-really?!" I breath out.

She nods and I squeal. Well that was embrassing. But hey I was excited!

"Now lets get you guys to your first period classes!"

None of us argue. We follow after her and earn many glares from multiple students. I look down at the ground.

"I would appreciate it if you guys would treat our guest with the upmost respect. Thank you very much. Not get to class before you wane yourself an infraction." Belle says sweetly.

Whoa. They give eachother a nervous glance and briskly walk to class. She isn't one to mess with. I smile slightly. That was the first time anyone has ever stood up for me. She gives us each a schedule and tells us briefly about where each classroom is. Belle hands me a signed piece of paper and tells me that I can change my PE class out for Art. I head to my first period class which was literature. I sit in the back of the classroom in the corner. I doddle on the corner of a piece of paper that the teacher gave us at the beginning of class.

"Hello Mal." Ben says from beside me.

I jump and look up him. He has a mischievous grin on and he is sitting next to me.

"Ph: Hey Ben." I say a little too excited. I blush and he wiggles his eyebrows at me. I shake my head and go back to drawing. I'm currently in the middle of drawing a rose with water droplets collected on its petals when Ben gasps and grabs my paper.

"Whoa. Mal... this is amazing.! It looks so real." He gawks at my paper and I blush.

The teacher walks in and introduces herself. I tune her out most of the class and draw. When a book is placed on my desk my head pops up. The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is sitting on my desk. Mrs. Manning explain how each quarter we have to read a book and we will have a packet full of question to answer. We are assigned to read a chapter today. Some days we will have to read some days we might have to do vocabulary. She suggested that we don't go ahead just in case when we had a class discussion we don't spoil anything for anyone. She hands us a packet as the bell rings. I hug the book to my chest and swiftly walk out the door. I head to my locker and grab my books for the next two classes. In the morning we have four classes. We then has a spilt period. Half of the students go to lunch first and the rest go to study hall. Then the people who were in study hall go to lunch and the lunch students go to study hall. I'm heading for science class right now. I walk into the class room and trip over something. I squeal and fall flat on my face. I look up to see Audrey smirking at me and all my classmates giggling.

"Have a nice trip Mal?" She mocks.

Tears threatening to spill over but I stand up and glare at her. I retrieve my books from the ground.

"What did I ever do to you? I want to know what gives you the the right to treat me like dirt. I'm sick and tired of everyone thinking of me like that! My whole life people act like I'm nothing. I may not be much but hey im at least something. I'm really trying!" I scream.

"Oh shut it. Like any of us actually care." She replies.

My hands are in fists at my side.. I look away and sit in the back of the room fuming with anger. The class has grown silent. My ankle throbs as does my ribs. I fell hard on both of them. If they weren't broken before they must be know. My chest and ankle both feel inflamed. Dots dance around in my vision and I take a shaky breath in and out. It's really starting to get hard to breath. I rest my head on the table.

"Mal? What's wrong?" Ben says.

His face is right next to mine. His eyes are full of worry.

"My ribs... ankle... hurt." Is all I get out before the room suddenly turns back and I'm falling.