Wicked

Chapter Four

The next day I woke up and told myself everything was going to be okay. I was going to try my hardest to be normal. If I started to hallucinate, I would just tell myself they weren't real. The mind was a powerful thing, right? I could do this. I was strong enough to kick those silly visions out of my head.

Everything with Daniel had been in my head.

I pulled on a navy blue oversized sweater, black tights with a chestnut color corduroy skirt and black Mary Jane's. It was a lot calmer of an outfit than yesterday, but it was still me. Today, I decided to French Braid my hair. I was almost out the door when I forgot my favorite black choker and my silver metal band for my thumb.

Gran was taking Dara and me to school. I was relieved, I didn't want to repeat yesterday's chaos. I wanted to ditch that memory for my mind. Erik was probably going to try and tease me about it, but I wasn't going to let him. He might be Addison's friend, but I wasn't going to continue to feel bad for him.

I clomped down the stairs, my bag feeling extra heavy today. It was filled with books that I had been trying to read, cramming the knowledge in my head. I was crossing the front yard, walking towards the car when I saw a dark figure in the corner of my eye. I froze, panicking. Should I look? The air felt chipper and I shivered.

No.

I was turning a new leaf.

I held my head high and put one foot in front of the other until I opened the passenger seat. Dara wasn't there yet, but a couple of minutes passed and she entered the car.

"You girls need anything?" Gran asked as she pulled up the curb. I had been silent the whole ride, which wasn't unlike me, but it threw off my Gran. I had always confided in her. This, this felt different though. There was something sinister that was grappling inside me. I needed to figure out a way to diminish it all before asking me Gran for help.

"No, I'm okay." I wasn't, but I was going to challenge myself to be. I clenched my fist and told my Gran goodbye. Dara didn't even bother, she slammed the car door behind her. "Hey!" I snapped at Dara.

"What?" She skidded to a halt. Something that tasted a lot like anger grabbed me. I had never yelled at Dara like that. I had never really talked to her about her attitude, but something inside me couldn't handle the way she had slammed Gran's door and ignored her. She was wearing baggy grown-up clothes again and I was just filled with immense anger.

"N-never mind. I'll see you later." I stuttered and turned towards the doors, opposite of Dara. Then, I nearly ran into a dark shadowy figure. I looked up, afraid of what I might see. Slowly, I brought my head up and the figure was gone. Great, I'm already hallucinating.

The first bell rang as I stepped through the front doors. Addison was easy to spot. Her eyes widened when she saw me. I probably looked all wild, rightfully so I was pretty freaked out. There were so many things I couldn't explain and they were piling up more and more each day.

"Hey," she said tentatively. "Ready?" I nodded. I didn't need to stop by my locker because everything was crammed inside my bag. We made small talk walking to our first class. I tried to push the dark figure out of my mind and the weird encounter with Dara. Sure, she made me upset, but I had never confronted her about it.

Addison and I parted ways for first period. I guess her first class was Language Arts and it was across the hallway. It was confronting to know she was close. I walked through the door, entering History. I immediately found Daniel sitting in the same spot. Our eyes met and he waved me over. Relief washed over me, maybe it wasn't all in my head.

He was wearing black jeans with a blue v-neck shirt. I tried not to notice how it clung to him, accenting the outline of abs. His brown hair was combed in the similar fashion as yesterday, swooped out of his face. He was very charming. I sat next to him, again.