Strong Enough

Trying to Hide

You know what? I'm done with it. Over. Through. I will never love, only work hard to achieve my goals. I rehearsed to myself sternly for the thousandth time, mentally preparing myself as I paused outside school. I strode in with my head tucked down, hands firmly grasping the straps of my backpack.

"ABRI!!!!!" I hear my best friend, Raya, shriek. I break into a grin and fast-walk over to her.

"Keep it down, your drawing a lot of attention to us!" I giggle once I get to her.

"Oh, who cares what they think, I haven’t seen you since like, august!" she exclaimed as she engulfed me in a huge bear hug.

"Raya, I just saw you like a week ago!" I gasped and wriggle out of her grip so i can try to find my new locker.

"THAT’S TOO LONG!!" she shrieks again.

I look at her sideways then, noticing how beautiful she is for the millionth time since I first saw her, which was a while before she realized I was a person in her class and became friends with me, since no one really notices me. She has long legs, and always manages to have this perfect, golden brown tan, whereas im always pale as a sheet. She has short soft golden hair that falls just over her shoulders in a wave of curls.

Me ever being as pretty as she, is about as likely as a dog with flippers and scales. That would look weird…how would it walk? Maybe it would have gills so it would swim, AND regular lungs so it could waddle on land. How do crabs do that? Or turtles? Or is it certain species that can only live in water or on land and then they can just hold their breath for a long time? Maybe they have super lungs. They should try scientifically putting those in a swimmer, then that person would win for sure… but if they did that, then they would need a lot of volunteers and would have to make sure it’s safe. Then they could test it, and everybody would win, except there would really be no winners, because in order to have a winner you have to have a loser and if they are all winners then technically they are all losers…

"ABRIELLE REGAN CHRISTOPHER!!!" I hear Raya scream in my ear, startling me out of my thoughts.

"Jeez! Why did you just scream my name OUT LOUD! Nobody except you and my parents know my full name! Not even my sisters or brothers! I’d like to keep it that way!" I whisper to her, panicked as I glance around, realizing there are no people in the hallway. "Where did everybody go?" Raya glanced around, confusion written all over her face.

"I don’t know, they were all here a second ago, but they’re gone now…I’m confused..." she said, faltering a little on the last part and looking around, distressed.

"You’re always confused!" I laugh, also glancing around worriedly. I thought back to when she yelled my name. I did feel the warmth in my arms and heat flow through my fingers. Did I make them disappear?! Crap, I thought I told myself I’m done with this stuff!! I thought to myself disdainfully. Well, she did yell most of your name... at least she doesn’t know the rest of it, but then again…

"Girls! It’s the first day of 11th grade and your late to your first hour class!"  some teacher yelled from the end of the hall.

Oh, thank goodness, I didn't make them disappear! I thought in relief. Then the teacher's words finally registered.

"Crap, we’re late to class on the first day!" I yelped, looking to Raya worriedly. "Do you know what that means?! It means we'll get detention! Then everyone will call us delinquents, then we'll eventually live up to that name by cutting class and getting bad grades then breaking the law, then we will go to jail and-" but Raya cuts me off before I could finish my telling of our futures.

"Abri, calm down! The more you ramble the later we’ll be to class! Lets just come up with some excuse while we are walking there!"

Okay, what can be a liable excuse that will make sense? We couldn’t find the classroom? No, everyone knows where their classrooms are. I hurt myself? No… why can’t we just tell the truth? I voice that thought aloud.

"Oh, yes, and then we can ditch and get ice cream!"

"No, im serious! Can you say it though? I don’t really want to go out in front of people…staring at me…" I give her my best puppy dog face and she rolls her eyes with a teasing smile and says," Sure, but you know we'll both be in the same amount of trouble..." I smile at her gratefully and take out my schedule to see what i have first hour, and she does the same.

"I have chemistry first hour! Yes!" I exclaim with delight, being what I am makes it really easy to do 'potions'. So naturally, it's my favorite subject.

"So do I! What teacher do you have? I have Mr. Summons. Gosh, I HATE chemistry! But if i'm in it with you, then i'll be ok with it." Raya exclaims. She then proceeds to grab my schedule out of my hand, and when I try to get it back, she lifts it up high above my head, taking advantage of my shortness...as many people do. " YOU HAVE HIM TOO! YAAAAAY!" she shrieks.

"Raya, calm down. Lets just get to class, and get it over with so we only have two hours 'till we have to go to lunch, I'm hungry," I say with a sign, grabbing her wrist and dragging her down the hallway to find our classroom.

When we walk into the classroom, everyones eyes immediatly snap to the door, as if the door has some kind of radar thingamajig that makes them look at the door if it opens, and also looking at us like we murdered somebody just because we are a little late. I can fell my cheeks flame up. I look to Mr. Summons, waiting for him to kill us with one of his prodding rod things or something worse, like sending us to juvie.

"Do you girls have an excuse?" I try my hardest not to look at the class, but i see something shining out of the corner of my eye.

I turn my head slightly and look harder. Is that...? Crap, they've found me!! I feel myself starting to panic, my hands start sweating, my heart pounding throughout my skull. Then, without warning or any thinking things through, I flee the room. Not even glancing back to see the confused stares I feel burning holes in my head. I hear footsteps pounding behind me, and run harder, fearing its him, or one of his henchmen.

"Hey, you! Girl! Stop!" A boy's voice yells from behind. I falter a little. Who is that? Usually Oru uses the same henchmen, and the person behind me doesn't have the same voice as any of them. I know that, because he kept me imprisoned for... I don't know how long, there is no way to tell time down there. All his minions always had masks on, too, so the only way I know them is by their voices.

So naturally, the boy collides into me at full speed because he probably didn't think I would stop, and I fall flat on my face. Well, almost. I stop myself and put my arms down so the stranger wouldn't get suspicious. Then he gets off of me, and I stand up, ignoring his offered had and a little shaky from holding him up.

"Jeez, you should've been paying more attention," I grumble, turning around. When I see him, I freeze for a second. "Are you new to this school?"

"Yea, how did you know?"

"Well, i'm the type of person who stays in the corner quietly, where nobody notices me, but I notice them and everything else." I say mysteriously, trying to be creepy so he would leave me alone.

"Ok... well I was just wondering why you ran out of the room like that. I mean, you were standing there with that cute little blush, then all of a sudden you froze, and ran out of the room."

Blushing, I look at him again. He was taller than me, as normal, and had brown eyes with short choppy hair. "So you were curious enough to FOLLOW me, and run after me? Why?"

"Well... I was curious." I look at him a little closer. There's something about his expression that is...not right.

"You're lying." I state. When I see his slightly startled face, I know I guessed right.