Scars || m.c AU

Chapter 3

"But mom!" I tried reasoning with her.

"No, Mary. You're going and that's final. It's not even a choice." My mother said while washing the dishes.

After a month of physical therapy, and people pestering me about what happened, the doctors deemed it alright for me to go back to school. The only problem was that I didn't want to go back.

I didn't understand why my parents wouldn't just let me do online schooling, because I'm one hundred percent sure it would save me the humiliation of going back looking how I look. I don't have a problem with the schooling, I just know people will stare and ask a bunch of questions I can't answer.

Two weeks ago my stiches were removed from my face. The doctors kept telling me that it would be barely noticeable once they were removed, but I obviously knew they were lying. In fact, it almost made it look worse.

It was more prominent now, slightly poking out from the side of my face. Before I had the stitches removed, it hurt to move my jaw most times; but now that they were removed, it only hurt on certain occasions.

"I just don't get why I need to go." I sigh.

My mother turns and looks at me before she speaks. "Mary, practically your entire life you've been indoors. You haven't really gotten the life you deserve because," her voice hitched, just like it does every time she talked about him. "Because of what we have had to endure. I'm not going to let you live the rest of your life inside just because you're afraid of what people will think about you." She says, then turns back around and continues to scrub the dishes.

I huff out a fine, then leave the room. After weeks of asking, it seems like I've lost this fight; I was going back to school.

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I sit in the car, unmoving while my mother rambles on.

"Mary are you even listening? I said you need to go in before class starts, and get your new schedule for the new semester from the office."

"Mom, I really don't want to go in." I try to get her to change her mind one last time.

"Mary, I'm sorry, but it's already been decided. We've talked about this already." She shuts her eyes, and takes a deep breath, something she always does when she's stressed. "Mary, please. Just go in, school's about to start."

I sigh. "Fine." I mutter, and step out of the car.

"Please be careful, and don't do anything stupid." My mother calls back to me as I walk up to the dark gray building. I wave back to her, and look around.

People are already starting to stare. I knew they would, so I'm not really surprised. Everybody in our town knew about the crash, and who was in it. Things like this didn't really happen a lot in my town, so news travelled fast.

I could immediately sense a change in the atmosphere as soon as I stepped foot into the hallway. People stopped and stared as I walked by, and some even whispered to their friends or gave me looks of pity. I kept my head low as I made my way to the office, and as I asked for my new schedule, I could see the other secretary looking at me out of the corner of my eye. I turn and look at her, and she immediately looks away with a red face.

"Here you go; everything is on there for you." The secretary says, and she hands me the sheet of paper.

"Thanks." I say quietly, then walk out quickly.

I look down to see what my first class is: World History.

I freeze when I realize that the class is on the other side of the building. That means I would have to walk through even more stares.

I sigh (something I seem to be doing a lot lately) and walk down the hall to the classroom. I walk in with two minutes to spare until the bell rings, and go up to the teacher.

"Ah, yes. Miss Argall, how are you?" Mr. Madon asks. I know he doesn't really care, so I just mumble a quick fine and ask where I'm supposed to sit.

"Oh, well..." He looks around the room as it's mostly filled up. "You can take a seat... ah, next to Mr. Clifford." He points to boy with weird hair, then begins to write on the board again.

I walk over to the desk near the back of the room and take a seat. The Clifford boy doesn't even look up from his phone. I've gone to school here all my life, and I didn't even know his first name. I mean, of course I've noticed him; it's not hard when your graduating class has a total of 73 kids in it. I've just never spoken to him.

He finally looks up from his phone as the bell rings, and glances at me.

He doesn't look at me with pity which is a first. He looks at me with another emotion I can't decipher, and I realize that it would probably be a good idea to introduce myself.

"Um, hi, I'm-" I was cut off before I could even really begin my sentence.

"Mary Argall. I know. Everyone does." He says glancing at the clock as he does so. He stretches out his hand, and introduces himself.

"Michael Clifford." He states, and when I don't shake his hand, a very brief look of panic crosses his face before it's gone.

I decide to be friendly, even though I'm already sick of this day, and shake his hand.

"Alright class, today we will be discussing the pharaohs of ancient Egypt." The teacher started droning on and on about Ramesses the Great, but I wasn't paying attention. Apparently neither was Michael, because he was typing away furiously on his phone.

For the remainder of the class we didn't say a word to each other, so when I went to leave when class was over, I was surprised when Michael called out to me.

"Hey Mary, wait up!" He shouted over the heads of the other students. I waited by the door for him, and when he was standing three feet away he asked, "What's your next class?"

I grabbed my schedule from my bag and saw that I had English next. "English." I reply quietly, not really sure why he's talking to me now.

"Cool, I'll walk you there." He says with a half-smile on his face. He walks out the door, and when I don't follow he turns back around. "You coming?"

I nod, still not really sure why he's talking to me. I've never really had a boy talk to me, unless they wanted something from me. After I woke up from the hospital I was pretty much convinced that no boy would ever want to talk to me, but on my first day back, a boy was offering to walk me to class. A very good looking boy, I may add.

I walk out and follow him down the hallway. We don't talk or anything, but a comfortable silence settles between us.

We reach the room, and as I'm opening the door I notice Michael leaning against the lockers on the opposite side of the hall. "Aren't you coming in?" I ask, confused as to why he would walk me to the classroom if he didn't have it.

"No, I have math next... which I'll be late to if I don't get going." He waves at me before leaving.

I walk into the room very confused. He didn't need to walk me to my classroom, especially since his class was on the next floor, on the opposite side of the building.

I shake it off though and sit down in an empty seat ready to endure the rest of the day.
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A/N Hey guys, there might me a double update today so... stay tuned!! Remember to vote, comment and share this story with your friends! Xx -M