Sing for Me

Chapter 3

When the bell rang, I took my time packing up my stuff so I could take longer and hopefully miss the crowd of people leaving. By the time I had finished packing up, everyone had left the room... except for the new kid. He had all of his stuff packed up and seemed ready to leave, but he turned around, as if waiting for me, and smiled. I blushed and put my head down immediately, my hair falling in my face. I hate any kind of interaction, it makes me so nervous. I gathered my things together quicker, fumbling the whole time and trying not to make a complete fool of myself.

"Hi! I'm-" he started to say, but I quickly slid around him and out of the classroom before he could finish.

Once outside the room, I took a deep breath to calm my nerves and then began my walk to my next class. After two more classes, school was over, but I still had detention. I hurried over to the principal's office, afraid of being late. I don't want my detention time extended.

When I got to the principal's office, his assistant told me to knock on the door. A few seconds after I knocked Principal Rogers opened the door.

"Ah, Ms Walsh," he said.

I kept my head down, not replying.

"Ok...," he said after a few seconds, "Instead of giving you a meaningless paper to write about why you're late so often and how you can do better, I thought I would give you a different task."

I raised my gaze at his words, keeping my head down. What could 'a different task' mean?

He opened the door further to reveal the boy from earlier sitting down in a chair in front of his desk.

"Zachary here is new, so I want you to show him around," he said, "You know, make him feel welcome. And then take him to football practice. After that, you're done and your detention is over."

I panicked inside. I have to show the new kid around!? And after Tiffany talked to him! He probably thinks I'm some kind of creep!

Principal Rogers must not have noticed my panicked expression because he ushered Zachary out into the hallway with me.

"Have fun!" He called as he shut his door.

I briefly look at Zachary and saw that he was smirking.

"Well, now that you can't walk away from me," he began as I lead us down the hallway, keeping my head down, "Hi, I'm Zach."

I kept my head down, ignoring him. My plan was just to walk him around campus, letting him see everything for himself without having me explain it.

"Oh yeah, sorry. I forgot you weren't much of a talker," he said.

I took a deep breath, expecting him to laugh or taunt me, but nothing came.

I looked back at him after a few seconds and he was looking at the ground scowling to himself. I took this as an opportunity to take in his features. He was a quite a bit taller than me, probably over six feet. He had defined, strong muscles but wore clothes that didn't particularly flaunt them. He had dark brown hair in a short cut and a very prominent jaw line. He's really quite attractive.

When he noticed I was looking he looked up to me and smiled. I immediately turned away, blushing, but not before noticing his piercing green eyes.

"Hey, about what that girl said in english," he started, "I'm sorry about that. It wasn't cool of her to do at all. I'm sure you're a perfectly amazing girl, talking or not."

I kept my gaze on the floor, blushing furiously. He was silent for the rest of the tour.

When we finally finished walking around the campus, I lead him to the football field.

"Thanks Harper," he said as he ran onto the field.

I looked at his retreating figure in confusion. How did he learn my name?

As soon as he had joined the players, I headed home. Julia is going to kill me.

I sprinted home to try and avoid at least some of Julia's wrath. As I reached the door, I slowly turned the handle, hoping I wouldn't get caught. As soon as the door opened, though, I saw Julia standing with her hand on her hip and an angry expression on her face. Shit.

"You ungrateful brat!" She screamed, "I've fed you, clothed you, and housed you yet you still treat me like this, coming home an hour late!"

I looked down at the floor, not responding. Though she's used to my silence, it always seemed to rile her up more.

"And your principal called. Yeah, he said you got detention. Damn it Harper, you're always such a trouble maker aren't you! You've done nothing but make my life harder since we adopted you, you ungrateful brat!" She continued to yell at me.

I still stayed silent, praying in my head that she would stop. Maybe I do make everyone's lives harder.

"Just get out of my sight and do your chores!" She yelled exasperatedly.

I continued to stare at the floor, lost in my own torturously self-depricating thoughts.

"Now!" She screamed.

I jumped and scurried off as fast as I could to do my work. Every day after school I was given a list of tasks to complete and if I didn't... well I got to go two days without food. I went to the kitchen counter and saw my list, which seemed to be longer than usual. Great, this is my payment for being an hour late: more to do and less time to do it in. I sighed internally as I began my chores.

Six hours later, I was finally done. I looked attbe hallway clock and, seeing that it was eleven o' clock, I dragged myself upstairs to go to my room, exhausted. When I got to the second floor and was about to go up the ladder to the attic, I heard Tiffany's screeching voice come from behind her door.

"I know right! She's such a loser!" She exclaimed.

I listened for a second and, seeing as I heard no one respond, decided that she was on the phone with one of her friends.

"And can you believe that hot new kid wanted to know about her, I mean, come on! She's ugly, mute, and stupid, do I need to say more!?" She continued.

I tuned her out after that and climbed up the ladder to the attic with tears blurring my vision.

'Maybe I am just ugly, mute, and stupid,' I thought as I fell onto my mattress and cried myself to sleep.