The Illusion Of Truth

New Friends?

Chapter 7
Shai
From everything I've heard, the first day at a new school is the worst thing ever. I had to get a ride from Godric, he came to my house this morning, pounded on my door until I opened up, thankfully no panic attacks, eric visits or uncontrollable yelling inside my head. Just regular annoyance. He practically forced me to come with him. As much as i want a normal life, and i want to live, I'll ever believe it's going to be fine. I put my earphones in and tried to calm my nerves, but no such luck. The beat of the music rang through my ears, but I couldn't get the volume loud enough. I closed my eyes and tried to get the nerves out of my head. I thought about my first day at school, my mum talking the day off to take me. The tears in her eyes as I ran off to join the teacher... heat rose in my chest, my neck, and my checks. My breath got quicker, sharper. "Shai, Shai. Stop!" Godric voice came through over the music. My eyes popped open, pulling the ear phones out of my ears. My eyes widening when I see smoke coming from the engine. "Are you sure we shouldn't wait a little longer" I say through a shaky laugh. He gives me a worried look. Then looks back to the engine. He'll probably give me a lecture about not giving up. But he gets out of the car and leaves to check up on it.  I pop my head out the window. "So I guess we'll have to go home." Wishing he'll say yes, dreading he will say no. he doesn't look up but I hear him mumble something about not getting my hopes up. He messes around at the front of the car for little bit before coming to my window. "Your choice, we can wait until next term and work on your training, or we can go and see how it goes." His eyes are gentle I know I should give it a try, but a nagging voice in my head won't go away. I look at him again, I can see he wants me to say yes, but the second voice in my head is whispering to tell him to shove it. But i need to do this. "Okay, let's go."                                                                        ***
The havoc I was picturing isn't what I saw. The halls were empty and clean. The lockers were clean and new-looking. Godric must have noticed my shock because he was laughing. Laughing. "This is one start of the week just wait." We started walking down the long hallway and Godric reaches for a golden door. "Ready?" Godric asks, not sure whether i'll turn and run. I nod and wait. He knocks and soon and tall lady with black hair greets us. She is familiar with Godric; a warmth I don't have with her. When she turns to me, I put on my nicest smile and pretend not to notice that she and Godric had the moment. "Hello I'm Miss Kate, welcome to Dane bank." I put on my nicest smile which I practiced in the mirror all morning. "Hi I'm Shai, nice to meet you." She gave me a quick up and down and stepped away. She looked sideways to Godric and gave him a look, he just nodded and looked back at me he tried giving me a smile but I looked away, unfortunately, has confidence made me ill. MS Kate broke the silence. "Will you take seat?" I don't know why she asked the question, it's not I had much of a choice, though, Godric thought he did. He stayed standing as Ms Kate took a seat behind her desk. She cleared her throat, and waited for me to sit before speaking. "shay, I understand you don't have the proper information to enrol here but I've been able to make a deal with the board." I don't know if she was doing it because she thought I was slow, but she had a habit of talking really slow. She nodded towards Godric and smiled a bit, it was a fond smile but not exactly one a teacher would give a past student? Did something happen there? I really didn't care.  "So, Godric tells me you have a place to stay so you don't need to stay on campus. But I'll need to get you to do a few test to see where you're at.
                                                                                   ***
I read the piece of paper in my hands, walked down the halls, slowly to my class room. As I turn the corner, I see the door, it's big and silver, like everything else around here. I feel like I'm zooming out and the door is getting further away. I blink and shake my head. I needed to get a hold of myself. I raise my hand to knock to find it being pulled away, I'm too shocked to scream yet a hand comes over my mouth. I push myself away and spin around. There stands a total mirror image of Godric except it's not. There stands Eric, and for once I don't feel the hatred I would normally feel towards him, it's more a scared and anxious feeling. He didn't share my feeling, which was obvious by the smile he wore on that pretty little face.
"What are you doing here?" I asked in a hushed voice. I couldn't believe this. I couldn't believe he would do this. "What am I doing here? What are doing here? Victor finally decide one of us were good enough for school?" The mention of Victors name got me pissed off. Not only does he intrude on my privacy, he mentions that asshole in the same sentence. "One, don't compere yourself to me. Two, Victor is NOT my dad, so he can't tell me what I can and can't, he's not the boss of- ""Oh, my god. You sound just like him." His hands were clenched at his sides. What was up with him?how was he here? I had so many questions."Well, he's the one who put you in the mind prison. So don't take this out on me. This is not my fault." "This is all your fault. If you didn't come into the picture Victor wouldn't have sent me into the brain cell and I'd still be getting on with my life. It's nothing but your fault." His voice had risen and I had to fight not to yell for him to be quiet. He went to open his mouth but I pulled him into the room across from us. "Can you shut it? You're going to get us in trouble." I moved away from him. Than a thought made its way into my head. "How are you out? it's not like there's a door you can just walk out of." He gave me an annoyed look. "There is actually. You helped me through." I was beyond confused "Remember when my lips touched yours?" My fingers immediately flew too my lips and the tingling sensation was back. "Your really want to know?" he whispered again. I hesitated in answering this time. His eyes dipped from my eyes to my lips, then back up. I felt his hand pull me forward and then his face was closer, soon i felt his breath fanned over my face. Then his lips touched mine ."The kiss..." I said barely above a whisper. "Yep. The kiss." He said louder than I would have liked. "oh, god. Shut up.""Oh yes, because getting into trouble on the first day would be terrible." I signed and began to turn away when his voice stopped me. "Why must you try to run from everything?" This made me stop."I run from everything? You don't even know me. No one even knew you still existed. And by the look looks of, well, everyone, no one wants to. So how about you get off your high fucking horse and take a look at yourself." I didn't wait to hear his reply. And turned the corner to my first class. Seeing how I got high scores in all my example tests, I was put I high level classes. The principle thought I was cheating. If I wasn't for Godric's smooth taking, I wouldn't be here. Not that I want to be. Godric thinks that I need to re-introduce myself to real life and not spending every spare second in the gym. At least there I can let my energy out into something that won't blow up a car. Walking into the class room everyone turned to look at me. Obviously turning up in the middle of class is still as humorous as it was three years ago. But these laughs were empty of humour. They felt like they were judging me not joking around. Looking at my timetable I looked at the front of the class to find the teacher. "Is this English extension, are you Mrs Grace?" I gave her an apologetic smile but she didn't look like she cared much."It is, I am. But your late. Find a seat and copy what's on the board." Not saying anything more she turned back to the board. These students must have been major suck ups because they were all filling up the two front rows, writing quickly. Sitting in the back row, I got a book out and wrote down everything that was on the board.
Through the class I got plenty of stares and whispers started when anyone did. I guess new kids weren't a common thing around here. Walking down the halls, I tried finding my next class. I had advanced maths. I wish I made less of an effort so I didn't need to be in such a high levelled class. Is it possible hate something you great at? If so, I do. I hate being able to add equations in my head. I hate the fact that the numbers and angles make sense- even though that makes no sense. Maths was in D block, which was on the other side of the school. Sighing heavily, I began my trek to maths class. I got out the map that the school gave me and got even more confused.
Looking own at my map that made absolutely no sense, I turned a corner only to run into a hard chest. Before I could fall, a pair of hands reached around my waist and I was brought back up into a standing position. The hands strayed for a while. As they left my body I looked up to see I was supposed to be thanking. The boy had stunning brown eyes, a rich chocolate colour, dark hair, and looked like one of those guys who girls begged for attention. Not to make any assumtions, but, withe amount of effort this guy put into his outfit, i don't think girls is the team he bats for.  He smirked and I cleared my throat and took a step back. "Umm, thanks." I must have seemed like such a jackass, but he didn't seem fazed. Now that I stepped back I could see the girl behind him. I felt awkward, thinking it was his girlfriend until I started to see similarity in their facial features. Especially their eyes. Siblings. The dude must have realised I noticed the girl's presence because he stepped back and let her step forward. and for the first time they spoke."Hi, for one. My names Tailyn, like tay- lin, and this is my sister Tai." "Yeah, I could tell. Your eyes are similar" He just smiles and Tai waves and steps further forward so now she's basically right in front of me. "Hey, I'm tai, pronounced like "Jai", but with a "T" so as anyone with eyes can tell, your new." She was so out with it. Loud. I liked this girl."Uh yeah. I'm Shai, like "May" but with a "Sh". I'm actually lost. Could you tell me where D Block is?" they didn't even think twice about it. "Sure. We're headed that way anyways."

                                                                         ***

Thankfully Tailyn and tai, snuck me into the class, telling me "to avoid awkward situations" whatever that meant, I'm sure I was going to be thankful. We were in English and the teacher was blabbering on about Shakespeare. I might have only just woken up coma a few weeks ago, but I learnt all about Shakespeare before. (something I thought might impress my parents. It did not.) So even though it was extremely dull and completely boring, I put my hands up for every question. I was surprised I remembered this much, but I wasn't complaining. I got all kinds of looks from the class and I teacher looked quite impressed. Note to self: be less of a nerd.
The class went by fairly quick and I managed to avoid people, apart from a few glances. "Hey, you want to have lunch with us?" Tai came up beside me and gestured to her brother. Tailyn gave her a wave and turned to talk to the person on the other side of him. "You don't mind? I won't be intruding?" I didn't want to make anyone upset by me being there. "Positive, you might actually bring a little excitement to the group. But I should warn you about Mer-" Tai was cut off by a high pitch squeal "Hey, everyone! Guess what?" Tai  and Tailyn turned around first and the guy next to Tailyn and myself turned next.  Before us stood a skinny blond, preppy person who looked like she belonged on the cheer squad. Tai let out a sign before rolling her eyes and asking what. "I hear there's a new guy starting. And apparently he's really cute. But he's older than us. Hey, tai, what's with the..." her voiced faded out as her eyes moved to me and a look of confusion washed over her. "Who is this?" her voiced fell a few notches, if it was meant to scare me, she was wrong, i was tempted to offer a cough lozenge. Tai turned to me and smiled. She put her hand on my shoulder then turned back to the blond standing with a look of confusion and irritation on her face. "This is Shai. She's also new." Tai seemed to enjoy showing me off. "Shai, this is Meredith." The blond known as Meredith studied me a little longer and then looked back at Tai. "She's not sitting with us. I don't think she'll fit in." just what I was afraid of. "Oh, shut it Meredith. You might like to think you do, but you can't control everything. She's my friend and she'll sit with us if I want her to." With that, she grabbed my arm and pulled me away. "Fine. But if she sits with you," Meredith paused, and we turned around. "You do not sit with us." I felt Tai stiffen, but she smiled. "You know what, Meredith? I would be honoured to never sit with you ever again." I put her arm around mine, and pulled me through the school doors. I smiled and laughed as we made our way out.
I looked at tai, and smiled. I barely knew this girl, but I felt like i did. I could tell that took alot, and i was proud that she did. "What was all that about?" Tai stopped at a table and sat down, I followed suit. I placed her bag on the table, and pulled out a book. "Meredith Bell, rich, popular, and my step sister-" Wait, Bell? "Hold up Tai. Bell, as in Veronica Bells Daughter? As in little Miss 8th grade?" Please tell me she's joking. "You know, Meredith? How?" Tai looked like i just told her i was related to the queen. "We went to school together. Before I went... away." I couldn't tell Tai about that yet. "She made my high school life a nightmare. Turned everyone against me. Eventually even my parents."  I looked away from her, afraid I'd let out my pain in front of her. "I haven't seen her since 8th grade."  When i was sure I wasn't going to fall apart, i faced her again. "But you, your new to me. Your her step sister?" yay, subject change. "Yes, her mother married my father for business reasons, but we had to look like a real family. So we all moved in together. I was her... personal assistant i guess you could say. I guess she got bored when you left. The people i hung out with, were the people she hang out with. I wasn't aloud to have friends, my only purpose was to make sure her and hers were happy." She looked at me, she was smiling but it didn't reach her eyes. "But now your here, and maybe now I can have me and mine. Maybe." Looking at her, i saw myself. She is in my shoes. She knows pain, to be left out. Id try to make that better. "Tai, I've been looking for you. You left pretty quickly." Tai looked at her brother, and her face and lit up. "And then there's my brother. He kept me from completely falling." Looking at Tailyn, i thought of the twins. They were my net. But now that net has torn. That lunch, i spent it with Ty and Tailyn. Which i discovered where also twins, only lived here for three years, and were about as popular as me. Tai was bi and was a social outcast even more now, and Tailyn only had a few friends because he was gay. I've never had a gay friend, and now i had one and a half. I bell went about 20 minutes later, signalling the students to go to class. "I'll see you later. Tailyn will show you too class." She said, and basically skipped off to class, so childish, yet so grown up."Okay" i turned my head to see Tailyn fumble with his bag. "You good?""Yeah, come on, our we'll be late." He smiled, and it was genuine, like he was excited to get to class."Lead the way, oh wise man." We walked back into the hall way, when i stopped. "Could we stop at a Toilet?""Yeah, this way."

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