Dear Lottie

Chapter 13

The sleepover went quickly and the rest of the weekend did too. On monday, I hung out with Declan, but as he pestered me endlessly, badgering me into telling him what was wrong, it pained me to know that I couldn't tell him. If I told him it would jeopardize the friendship and it took 8 years to get to a place where we were just about best friends. If I was to tell him it would be like setting fire to your favourite piece of art. It would be like throwing your pride down a manhole and welding the cover to it. "Lottie!" Declan groaned, pushing at my chair. "Tell me what the fuck is going on!" I pushed him off as he clenched my arm and tugged on it, expecting me to spill everything to him in return. Of course, all he got in return was: "Nothing is wrong, I'm just tired." He didn't believe me, and I didn't blame him, it was a tired excuse for people who knew for a fact they were depressed. It had been going on for a month now, I remember exactly thirty one days ago, sitting in Krispy kreme eating cookie crunch doughnuts with Jemmy.

We walked to History like we did every monday lunch time. "Lottie, by the end of term, you have to tell me what's wrong, you promise?" I sighed and walked on, trying my best to make it look like I didn't hear him, I obviously failed to do so as he slapped me on the arm and turned me round to face him. "Do you promise?" He looked annoyed, like the fact I didn't want to tell him was hurting him and as much as I didn't want to hurt him, I didn't want to threaten the entire friendship. "Declan," I muttered as I tried my best not to cry. "I can't promise anything, I'm sorry but it...it...I can't" Declan released his grip on my arm and continued walking ahead. I hated not being able to tell him everything, and I hated the fact that he was so pissed off at me. I just had to tell myself that I had two weeks till London, and then I can let everything escape my mind and let thoughts of Declan roam free. I realised I had stood in the corridor alone, repeating the words "two weeks" to myself with my eyes shut. When I opened them, I saw two people from my year. Evelyn Ellis and Myra Swann were staring at me smugly. "You belong in a fucking asylum." Grunted Evelyn. They both laughed and swung their bags around, hitting me as they did. "Fuck yeah, you need a straight jacket." Myra took her swing, pushing me into a wall whilst Evelyn imitated a mental asylum patient in a straight jacket "Freak." She spat on me, they were taller than me, so they were more than able to beat me to a bloody pulp. They didn't, but it was sure getting that way.

Just as Evelyn took her third kick, another one stepped in. This one was Myra's boyfriend; Trey Pickett. He was large, like Bastian; not fat large, but muscle large, he was what you would call a skin head and he had size 8 Doc Martens on. It immediately got terrifying. Trey Pickett had a history of violence. There was once a year eight boy called Jesse Brown, he had freckles and glasses, typically, Trey Pickett kicked him in the stomach until he was throwing up all over the walls. Trey stood and laughed before a teacher came. He was excluded for two weeks. Another time, he beat up a year nine girl called Estela Cray, simply for being called Estela Cray. He broke two of her ribs and punched her in the face until she was bleeding from the mouth and she had lost three teeth, one of which was an adult. He was excluded for three weeks.

"Babe, what's happening?" He questioned Myra. Myra laughed and both girls turned up to face him. "She was talking to herself in the corridor." Trey laughed loudly, it was one of those one "Ha!" laughs and...fuck...it was horrifying. He gently pushed Myra and Evelyn to the side and went in to knee me in stomach, forcing me to push myself to the ground in pain. I immediately felt tears burn little holes in my face, lik my face was cold, or under oxygenated, like I was going to pass out or something. That's when he lifted his left leg and, with what seemed like all his strength, he pushed his foot forward into my eye. "Hey!" I heard from the distance. I didn't know whether I really was going mental, hearing voices, talking to myself, their words were effectively reinforced by their actions. Who ever it was in the background worked, as Myra, Evelyn and Trey left laughing. My vision went blurry and I felt around the floor near me for my bag, I knew my limp head was soon going to turn cold, and I would drop even further into the rough floor and I wanted to drop onto my bag, to avoid hurting myself anymore. As I struggled to pull my bag to the side, I heard the voice again. "Oh, shit, Lottie! What the fuck did they do to you?!" I saw the dark blue glasses, dark hair, dark eyes, contrasted clearly with pale skin. It was Eva. She was cupping her hands around my face, trying to keep me conscious. Needless to say, I was rendered unconscious soon after and taken down to the first aid room, where I woke up to Eva sitting beside me.

"Lottie! I'll go get someone." Eva left to get help, leaving me alone for two minutes. She returned with Mr. Jack who approached me with a smile. "Lottie, no major injuries were inflicted in this incident; however, you have a lovely raised, black eye. We're going to see if you're concussed or not and if all is well, you can return to lessons. I have explained to your mum that you're going to have to apply arnica to the area around your eye every night. Can we start by assessing whether or not you know your full name, your birth date, current date and your address?" I nodded carefully as I had a fairly powerful headache. "Charlotte Rose Sykes, 25th October 1995, Monday 30th June 2014 and 67 Charlotte Close, England." I muttered the entire speech due to the headache and sat up carefully. Mr. Jack handed me two paracetamol and a glass of water, which I made disappear in seconds. "Good. You aren't concussed so you can go back to the last fifteen minutes of History. I've told Miss Lynn, Mr Renner and Mrs Grimm to go easy on you. So no challenging questions for you today Miss Sykes!" His smile beamed and Eva lead me off the bed and to History.

As I walked into the room, I saw Leo sit bolt upright in his seat, blatantly shocked. I successfully identified Declan in the class too, but he didn't look up. Eva aided me to my seat next to Leo and Oliver and went to go sit beside Declan and Kitty. "What happened?" Gasped Leo, his blue eyes were wide and I saw panic in his expression, Oliver was gawping at me too, but his expression was more subtle. "Leo, can you not? I'm sure Lottie knows about her wounds and I'm sure she will explain after the lesson.. just not in it. Welcome back Lottie." Miss Lynn seemed too kind hearted to be a Miss, but never the less, she was the best and by far my favourite. She shot me a smile and got back to the lesson on The Cold War. I felt someone kick the back of my chair and I carefully turned round to see Declan confused. However, his eyes gradually opened and his lips turned down at the corners when he saw what happened. Kitty looked shocked too but Eva nudged them both, letting me turn back to my work.