The Jewels; Mother of Pearl (#ABA2017)

Chapter Sixteen

Lola ran on for a long while, she stopped before a small pond or some sort of mini lake. She kneeled before it, her breath heaving; she put her whole body weight on her arms despite how wobbly they were. Her arms collapsed beneath her several times before she just placed her shaky hands under her knees.

When she managed to calm down, she ran her fingers through her hair and squeaked a whimper as she felt the uneven locks varying from long to short.

Lola took in a shaky breath as she pulled at the longest strand she had, she couldn't see it though. Lola looked to the water and slowly leaned over the pond to look at her reflection, in the circles of the water, she saw what may have been a face, with skin that seemed fragile and eyes that seemed dull and tired, but what shocked Lola the most was the ugly hairstyle, there were hair strands that were too short to lay on her head properly and ended up sitting up, there were some locks that fell onto the edges of her forehead and there were others that fell past her ears.

Lola watched as the reflection became distorted when something had dropped into the water. She only realised it was her own tears when she saw the reflection crying.

She wiped her cheeks as she as sobbed silently, she could feel anger bubbling in her at her own stupidly of even going to school in the first place, how she couldn't do anything, how all she could do was run away like she's always had to.

She hugged her knees and stared unblinkingly into the water before her, it reflected the trees like a perfect painting, it caught every single detail, even the birds that flew past under the canopy.

This brought little hope to Lola as the insults continued to build up in her mind. It was as if someone next to her was saying them to her slowly and over and over again. Lola looked next to her, but was only blessed with the company of a small dragonfly.

She watched as it zipped away quickly.

Lola looked to the pond again, there were a couple of lily pads and reeds growing on the sides, there seemed to be a small little stream that connected to it from somewhere else in the forest. The pond itself was actually quite large.

Lola found the reflection she looked at ugly and repulsive, and put it on a photo and send it to everybody in the school and any form of life Lola ever had would be over.

Lola scrunched her face into an angry sneer as she started cursing in her head, wishing that she could get a photo of Jasmine and humiliate her somehow. Find out some sort of dark secret Jasmine had.

Jasmine's arrogant face and her even more arrogant friends kept popping in Lola's mind until she snapped. She let off a loud high pitch scream, no longer caring if anything heard her, Angel or animal.

She had a full tantrum. She screamed to the top of her lungs, plucked at the grass that surrounded her and even uprooted some of the reeds, she kicked the ground, she punched the surrounding, and she continued to curse herself until her sobbing took over her tantrum and she just kneeled there with her head resting on the itchy grass.

She stayed like that for a long time, this time with no hair to hide her face or her shame. She gritted her teeth the whole time and tried desperately not to cry. When Jasmine's face came back into her mind, she got up, picked up the biggest rock and threw it with a loud screech and an even louder splash.

She pulled at her remaining hair as she continued her tantrum with angry muttering and her eyes playing the part of a water gun, she even found herself softly hitting the sides of her head.

She soon squatted before the pond again and stared at it, her anger soon turning into pointless humiliation of being so childish.

She stared at her eyes reflecting from the water, she was surprised by how clear her eyes seemed, they weren't puffy or anything.