Letting Go

Chapter 3

Being in school left an unsettling feeling in my stomach. It felt like everywhere I looked, people were staring at me and judging me. My heart was beating erratically and I was moments away from sprinting back home and locking myself in my room. Being here made me feel hazardous. Maybe I was just over thinking and this is just all in my head; but I knew there were people looking at me. There are always people pointing and laughing in my direction. There hasn't been one day in my life where I would walk out in public and people weren't saying things behind my back. Even people who have transferred here from a different state or even country, which didn't happen very often, some how find out about the childish, but hurtful names people from grade school called me. Some even have come up to say the nicknames to my face in public when I would go to the grocery store or library.

Just a little over to the left, there was a group of guys surrounding this one girl who was in the middle. All of them were turned towards my direction, and the girl in the middle smirked at me. She had light brown skin, and had very dark brown, almost black wavy hair. Her body looked very petit and skinny, a little too skinny for liking actually.. even so, she had very nice facial features. She has these big brown almond shaped eyes, her nose is small, and her eyebrows look very full and nice. They looked a bit thick, but they suit her face well. Now that I think about it, she looks very familiar.

I didn't realize I was staring until I heard them start laughing. Of course they would... They pointed at me while laughing and the girl in the middle of them just stared at me while smiling almost cynically.

One of the guys furthest from the girl bellowed, "Isn't that Fart Cart?"

I felt the color drain away from my face. The guys started laughing more and the girl spoke up now smirking.

"What was that rhyme again? Cartier stinky air?" She laughed, then flipped her long blonde hair over her shoulder while still looking in my direction.

I didn't know what to say or do, I shouldn't have come to school. Goosebumps appeared all over my skin and my hands that were in my pocket started shaking. I tried making clenching and unclenching my fists to calm myself down, but my heart felt like it was going to burst out of my chest. I wanted to run away and just let my legs take me anywhere far away from here. No matter how hard I tried, my legs wouldn't budge and I stayed rooted in my spot not even making an attempt to defend myself. I know shouldn't be reacting like this, there just stupid-silly rhymes, though they still got to me. The people who supposedly considered my "peers " have made sure that I will never forget the names they would make for me, no matter how dumb they are. The only thing that's missing is that usually they start to get physical right after they tease and pick on me.

As if those guys read my mind, they started to approach me with a smirk on each of their faces. One of the guys even went as far as to crack his knuckles, and that's when my eyes went wide. Finally my legs started to give and I slowly walked backwards, backing away from them. A part of me was hoping that I was just being paranoid and they were going after someone near me and that's why they were walking in my direction. It's terrible to think like that, but I don't think I can handle all this on the first day of school. Suddenly, my back hit against what I thought was a wall, but it felt too warm to be a wall. I looked up and saw something that proved my suspicions right. Behind me was Elson and he the expression on his face told me the he was not the happy Elson that was walking with me this morning. I knew that much.

He looked right at the guys and wrapped his arms around me. Shock and a bit uncomfortable, my initial reaction was to push his arms off me, but he just tightened his hold.

His voice was low, but it was still very forceful "Do not even think about touching her."

I wasn't the only one who was in shock when I saw that the guys in front of us stopped and looked at Elson with a shock expression.

"And who the hell are you?" One of the guys in the middle demanded. He had light green/hazel eyes, lightly tanned skin, and he had dark brown messy hair. His eyebrows were okay.

Not responding to the guy, Elson unwrapped his arms around me and instead took my arm and dragged me away from the guys. When I looked back, I saw that guy take a step foreword, probably to stop us, but the blonde girl stepped from behind him and placed her hand on his shoulder to stop. Now I know who she is... Avianna. At first I didn't recognize her because her was almost black and last year her hair was blonde. She is not the kinda of person you want to befriend, unless you want to spend the rest of life being treated as less than garbage. You will basically be living the life I have now.

Shaking my head from my thoughts, the bell rang and Elson was still dragging me. I didn't tell him what class I had, but he seemed to know where I had my homeroom. He sat me down in the back corner and sat next to me slamming his bag on top of the table. The class looked more than half empty and the teacher wasn't even here yet. I looked over at Elson to thank him, but he was already looking at me. Immediately I looked away and used one hand to cover the side of my face. Even though I couldn't get the words out, I silently thanked him in my head.

"You're welcome"

I wiped my head back towards his direction with my eyes wide. All he did was grin at me and started laughing. Even though I knew he was laughing at me, wasn't the kind of laugh like how the guys from earlier were laughing. His laugh was more heartwarming, it almost made me want smile or laugh with him.