Seasons

Chapter 3

My next class had all of the new kids in class. Every girl was drifting off into wonderland just by looking at them. They fought over closer seats and growled at each other, over petty arguments about who is cuter. I stayed in the corner, I like to be alone and to myself, it’s a better learning method to not be surrounded by drama from other irrelevant topics from irrelevant people.

The bell rang and someone took a seat in front of me, it was one of them. The interesting one, the boy who seemed cold at the touch and emotionless. The one who walked behind and pushed off annoying girls. But why would he sit so close to me? There are other desks that aren’t around me he could have chosen. For example, the window seat, the seat by the bookshelf, and there is even one up by the teacher's desk that no one sits in. So, why did he choose to sit here? Could he like maybe move? He is interfering with my personal alone time, my time alone from being bullied by Jennie and those little brats. I’m scared he will draw attention and Jennie will notice my existence again.

I wanted to say something but it was too late...Jennie had seen me looking at the boy in front of me. And the bad part is, it wasn’t intentional! I was just thinking and I happened to be looking at him. God, I am going to get it now. I watch her stand up and walking up to me with a face of annoyance, I didn’t even do anything. I looked down at my notebook and played with the corner of my paper trying to ignore it.

Jennie cleared her throat and crossed her arms. “Excuse me, is something bothering you? Are you ignoring me?” She scoffed and the whole class turned to us and went quiet watching the scene unfold. The boys stopped smiling and watched carefully. “She seems to be ignoring me.” she announced to the class while pushing me in the head. “Are you going to say something?”

I shook my head no and kept quiet, avoiding the back of the guy in front of me. He wasn’t watching, he was ignoring it. I felt a hard slap in the back of my head. “No!?” She chuckled. “Who do you think you’re talking to?” Before I knew it Jennie had pushed all my books and everything off my desk, papers scattering on the floor. I put my hands in my lap and stayed quiet, still avoiding her eye contact. I could feel her stare burning into my skin, just ignore her.

“Stand up.” She demanded. I followed her demands and stood up. “Why do you keep looking at the boy in front of you? It’s not like he would want to talk to you, no one does.” She was right, I’m avoided by everyone, why would he want to talk to me? “You are trash.” she spat in my face and I glanced over to see the boy tense up, grabbing his notebook tightly. She caught me staring and slapped me in the face.”You have no right to stare at them like that. What, do you think you are going to ever be with them? Do you think honestly think they will like you?” The whole class started laughing expect the new boys. The one who was sitting in front of me stood up and looked directly at Jennie.

Everyone watched carefully and the other new boys were on the verge of standing up as well. “Who do you think YOU are?” He hissed at her looking down at her.

Jennie had a face of shock, she was frozen. She looked at me then back to the boy, please sit down, you’ll make it worse for me. Jennie chuckled lightly and nervously. “What do you mean honey?” She fluttered her eyelashes. I have never seen her act so fake before, I mean she is walking barbie but she switched personality quicker than I can switch a light on and off.

The boy spat at her. “You need to apologize to her, she wasn’t doing anything harmful. What you are doing is wrong.” His voice was stern and demanding. The atmosphere was heavy and dense, the classroom was silent. Jennie was speechless before she looked at me and swallowed hard.

Was she actually going to apologize to me? My ears perked up and I looked away from her. The boy crossed his arms impatiently. “But you don’t understand, she doesn’t deserve it, she is the biggest bully here, she should be apologizing to me, I was just getting revenge.”

Jennies little friends smirked evilly. “It’s true she is so mean! She pushed my older brother out of a window and made a mess in the bathroom and blamed it on me.” A girl spoke up from the class. My eyes went wide, I would never do those things! What is she talking about?

“Yeah, She steals my lunch money every day and beats me up if I say no.” Lisa added.

“Yesterday…” Jennie began to speak, I could see her trying to hold back a smile. “I was minding my own business at lunch when she walked over to me, called me unspeakable names before dumping milk all over my head!” Jennie started fake crying, real tears.

My heart stopped, that’s not true! She did that to me! Why is she doing this to me? With pleading eyes I looked at the boy who was standing in front of Jennie. He growled lowly before slamming his hand on the desk. “Who do you think I am? I am not that stupid.” He spat and the room got quiet once again, Jennie looked up with frightened eyes. The boy looked at the girl who shouted out before. “Do you really expect me to believe that she pushed your brother out of a window, she is so small she would drift away with the smallest breeze in the air.”

“She is super strong!” Jennie yelled. “Don’t let her fool you.”

“Really?” He asked looking around the room and everyone but the new boys nodded their heads. “Fine, let's arm wrestle.” He sat down in front of me and held out his arm. I slowly brought my hand up to hold his with my elbow on the desk. He cleared his throat. “I’m not going to move, push my arm to the desk, with all your muscle.”

I inhaled deeply before pushing all of my strength to my arm. I pushed as hard as I could before my face turned red, he wasn’t budging. I kept trying and trying before he told me to stop. “I am the weakest one of my friends, and she couldn’t take me down, now, you deserve to apologize to her.”

“But she beats me up all the time and takes our money!” Lisa yelled trying to save Jennie.

The boy turned to me and stuck out his arm. “Hit me.” He spoke to me. My eyes widened and the air got stuck in my throat. I quickly shook my head no and looked away from him. I can’t hit him! Are you kidding me? He did nothing wrong, I couldn’t even hit a tree without feeling bad, what did that tree ever do to me?

Jennie smiled. “See she won’t do it because she hits hard.”

The boy looked at my face and I glanced back before he spoke. “It’s okay, I can take hits, and I’m almost positive you can’t do that.”

“I can’t hit you, you did nothing wrong, why should I hit you?” I said quietly.

He smiled and spoke again. “This way you can prove if you are as strong as they say you are, or else I’m going to believe that you actually do steal their lunch money.”

I stayed quiet for a minute. If I hit him I prove that I am weak, I could be ridiculed by Jennie for that as well, knowing I can’t fight back. But, I shouldn't hit him, he didn’t do anything to deserve to get hit, it’s not right. I sighed before looking down at my desk. “I’m sorry, I can’t hit you. You haven’t done anything wrong.”

The boy smiled again and pulled his arm back. “Jennie, apologize.” He chuckled.

Jennie scoffed. “But she does beat us up, she is the bully!” She yelled getting defensive.

“Do you think that this little girl could do that, she won’t even hit me after I’m telling her too, Why would I think she would do that voluntarily?” The room grew quiet and Jennie was not going to apologize. The boy sighed and smiled. “Whether you apologize or not, I think we all know what really happened. So, why don’t you save yourself some energy and sit down because you’re not going to do anything anyway.”

The room “oooh” ed and Jennie took her seat shooting fire from her eyes directly at me. I feel sick, I’m going to pass out.