A Chapter Completed

Drama in the Restroom

Monday, back to school, back to deception.

I didn't mention it before but our school was run by Davina Sanders. No, not our principal or head of the school board but rather a student. Not just any student, rather the only daughter of the school board's chairman. I know what you're going to say, that she's the usual blonde cheerleader who really needs to have a brain transplant, but trust me, Davina is quite the opposite.

For one, she's not a cheerleader, but is the captain of the girls football and basketball team. She may be a blonde but she's the furthest thing from dumb. How exactly does she control school?
Well, let's just say, she sees something she dislikes, she has it removed. If it's a person, she ensures that that persons life turns to hell. The teachers turn a blind eye as being in the chairman's good books is much more important that ensuring justice prevails.

This heartless girl's main objective in life? Control.

She tells you to do something, you have only two options; doing it, or doing it.
Crossing her is suicide.
.....................................................

I shut my locker after shoving my books in and headed to the washroom.
Splashing my face with water, I looked at my reflection. I looked worse. I hadn't got any sleep yesterday, which had just one positive outcome - no nightmares.
Still, I was exhausted. My eyes looked dead, surrounded by dark circles. I was glad that I'd grabbed my glasses that morning, which helped hide my face.

Just once, I would like to remember how being happy felt like. I wanted to know how to smile, how to feel beautiful.
I never really cared how I looked like, even before my, well, change, so I never really understood make-up, though the one time I had applied it on her experimentally, the outcome had been really good.

"Maybe, just maybe you could deceive everyone that you're beautiful," the nasty voice in me whispered.

"Of course, you're not really beautiful, but desperate times..." it continued.

My hands started shaking as I tried convincing myself that I was okay the way I was, but no, the voice overpowered me, controlled me, and I found myself digging into a bag on the sink-whose owner had probably forgotten it-for something, anything, that would change how I looked.

Minutes later, I looked at my reflection, barely believing what I could see. My lips, red with lipstick, my cheeks, heavy with foundation and my head, aching because of the tight hairdo I had made.

"See, you don't look like yourself. You don't look like Zoe and anyone who doesn't look like Zoe is beautiful," the voice taunted.

After that, I just broke down. I ripped out the hairpins yanking out several of my hair in the process, and rubbed away the lipstick. I snatched a handful of toilet paper and wiped it all over my face, smudging my whole face.

I don't know why it mattered to me at that time, wanting to look beautiful. Maybe because that particular day, I couldn't get out all that she had said the last time I had seen her.

"I don't know what they see in you! You're nothing but a fat, ugly, stupid teenager who will always live in her brother's shadow!"

"Why?" I asked no one in particular.
"Why? Why? Why?!" I yelled.
"What did I do to deserve this! I just wanted a friend, someone to look up to! Someone who understood me! Was that too much to ask?!
I'm just a kid! I don't have to be this way! I have to be out there giggling with my bunch of friends about my crush, or...or gossiping about Hollywood stars or setting up my best friend with my brother! Yet here I am, slicing my veins ever opportunity I get, starving myself, lying to my parents that all is fine, and worst of all, hating my own brother! I don't deserve this! This pain, this heartbreak, this loneliness. I don't, I don't..." I ended weakly, sinking to the floor, hugging my knees as I leaned against the wall.

Something clattered to the floor, and I looked up, hastily wiping away my tears. Seeing her standing there, the only thing that should have gone through my head should have been, "oh shit!" but at that point, I was too numb to care.

.........................................................

Davina Sanders quietly walked towards me, and sat besides me on the restroom floor.
I didn't move nor did I talk, and neither did she.
Ten minutes later I still hadn't said a word.

"You know, most students here would probably be cowering in fear right now," she began.

"Most students here don't go through what I do, hence they have it in them to actually care," I replied quietly.

"Is that so? Well, what is it that you have gone through that made you immune to me?" Davina questioned.

"Something much worse than your displeasure," I answered.

"What can be worse than my displeasure?"

I laughed humorlessly - a hollow laugh that echoed in the almost empty restroom.

"Trust me, you have no idea."

"Believe it or not, I actually do," Davina murmured so quietly part of e believed that I imagined it.

I processed her words, wondering what exactly she meant. Before I could reach a conclusion, however, she spoke again.

"Get up, we need to get you cleaned, and out of here."

I stayed seated.

She huffed, grabbed my hand and lifted from the floor as if I weighed a couple of grams. Grabbing a solution from her bag, which I presumed was makeup remover, she used it to clean my face.
After that, she ordered me to wash my face, which I did silently, and she grabbed my hair and used one of her scrunchies from her bag to tie it in a ponytail.

"Yeah, I prefer my hair down," I said, reaching for the ponytail.

One glare and a "Shut up" from her was enough for me to sigh in defeat. I was too drained to argue at that point.

"Let's go," Davina ordered, slinging her bag over her shoulder.

I almost asked where, when she answered for me, "Next stop, cafeteria."

That's when I realized that it was lunch time. And that I was going to eat lunch for the first time ever in the cafeteria. With none other than Davina Sanders.

.......................................

This won't be a high school based book if it didn't have the big, bad, beautiful blonde, now would it?
Davina Sanders, queen, more like tyrant, of the school, meets Zoe, introvert, invisible victim of depression.
Hmmm, I wonder what's going to happen in the cafeteria?
Read on to find out...