Friends are just known enemies

Chapter 1

I get off the bus and walk through the gates of hell. Well, the front door of my school, but where’s the difference?

Immediately after I enter I get angry stares and some insults are shouted in my direction. What a great way to start this day. I get to my locker on which the word “BITCH” is written. It’s been there for about two months, nobody bothered to remove it because they would just do it again.

And there they come: Jason Miller and his friends. Jason pushes me and I hit the door of my locker face first. They just keep walking, laughing and shouting “loser” and “freak”. I never did anything to them, they just hate me because of…well, nothing. But I’ve gotten used to it.

I get my books and go to my first lesson, Spanish. I only notice the blood dripping down my chin when someone yells at me, telling me to kill myself somewhere else. Now I feel the stinging pain in my lip, but I just shrug it off and wipe the blood away with the back of my hand. Pain is a thing I’ve gotten used to as well over the years.

I walk to the table in the back, an unhelpful attempt to avoid the bullying. Slowly the other students come in too and I don’t get any more insults (which is surprising actually). Fortunately Jonas isn’t in this class, but pretty much everyone in the school hates me so it doesn’t really matter.

Now the insulting and the stares start. Then Mr. Brandon comes in. He’s an old, quite strict teacher with a surprising amount of hair considering his age.

“Today we start with some repetition. Entonces Elisabeth, conjuga el verbo comer en el subjuntivo presente por favour”

I told him a hundred times before that I don’t want to be called Elisabeth. But he (and nobody else for that matter) ever respects this. He looks at me, but before I can say anything, the sound of an opening door interrupts me. A boy walks in and Mr. Brandon glares at him like he just murdered someone.

“Sit down” He says, looking as if he was thinking of ways to kill the boy already. The boy scans the room for a seat and this seat happens to be next to me. I moan, I don’t want anyone sitting next to me, but he already comes over. He’s tall, with short brown hair and dark blue eyes.

“¿Quien eres?” “My name is-“ “En español” He seems confused and turns to me. I sigh and whisper the sentence to him. He smiles at me thankfully and repeats.

“Me llamo Marco y soy un estudiante Nuevo” Mr. Brandon just nods and his glance rests on me again. “La conjugación”

Shit, I was hoping he forgot about that. It’s not that I don’t know it, I do, I just don’t like talking in class. So I just narrate the forms down monotonous and he smiles. I think I’m his favourite student, simply because I speak Spanish better than anyone in this class.

“How do you know this?” Marco turns to me, apparently impressed. I just shrug, “Had some Spanish speaking friends”.

The lesson is over fast (fortunately) and like always I walk out with everyone glaring at me. I don’t really know why they all hate me so much, sure I look different than them but why does that mean they have to hate me? I just dye my hair black with purple and blue strands and wear mostly black, I didn’t try to kill them.

Suddenly, Marco comes up beside me and says: “What have you done to them?” I just shrug, I wish I knew. Marco just keeps talking about what classes he has and how we have the same ones, but I’m not really listening. I’m just drifting away in my mind (which mostly consists of song lyrics) until I trip over something and fall.

I feel someone grabbing my arm, trying to stop me from falling. It only results in me crashing into his legs and Marco ends up lying on top of me.

I look up and find Jonas and his friends laughing at us. Marco blushes and stands up quickly, while they shout “The freak found a boyfriend!” And things like that.