Out Of Breath

Ms. Katrina

My eyes started to water. I couldn't breathe well. I coughed.

Jason smiles and punches me once more. "What's wrong, CRYBABY???"

HE seemed to enjoy this, but this had to end...NOW. I wasn't gonna cry anymore. I have to stand up for myself. I move my arms as fast as I can and push Jason off.

The whole class gasps as I punched him in the mouth. His lip bled. This wasn't gonna end good for him. I punched him continuously. I let all my anger out and beat him to a pulp. We rolled around, hitting and kicking each other until someone yells for us to stop this.It wasn't a teacher. 

But another student. One of the nerd girls. She had on a blue sweater, pink glasses, a skirt and brown hair. Her green eyes shot us a glare. Her hair was tied into pigtails, making her look cute instead of intimidating. She tapped her foot. She stood up and pointed at us.

"Stop this now! You won't be getting anything out of this!" She snapped, pushing her glasses up.

Jason gets off of me and walks up to her, fist close to her face. "What do you want, Harper? You just another wussy like this one." He jabs a thumb toward me.

She steps up to him anyway with so much confidence. The class watched this. Some of the others looked ready to call for a teacher if anything got out of hand.

"Jason, who do you think you are? Causing another fight!"

"He hit me back!" He replied.

"He was defending himself. And you could've stopped, but you didn't." Harper crosses her arms, glaringly.

Jason growls and stomps his foot which spooked Harper. The teacher walked in, saving us all. I thought, Why is she so late?  She should've been a few minutes ago.

"What's going on here?" She had on black heels, pink blouse, sweatpants, and her blonde hair was in a ponytail. Her blue eyes wandered across the silent room.

"Get into your seats. Class, take out your notebooks and write down whats on the board now. You two boys, follow me." She nods at me and Jason.I get up from the ground and trail behind Jason and the teacher. I stared at the ground, knowing this was a bad first day of school. Jason gave me yet another cold dead glare.

As we were near the office, the teacher turns around and looks at me. "You're new, what's your name?"

I hesitate. What do I do now?

The teacher waits patiently. I grab a piece of paper and a pencil from my bag. I wrote down.

My name is Haru.

The teacher looked at me, confused. "Are you a bit shy? Or can you not talk?"

I am mute, ma'am.

She gave me an understanding look while Jason softens his expression, but it toughs a bit. She nods. "I am Ms. Katrina, your science teacher. I'm going to let this slide for you, but don't ever do this again. Jason, this is the 15th time now."

Jason shots me a nasty look. "What?? Tsk, whatever." He looks away.

The teacher gestures for me to go back to class. I nod and walk back to class, quickly. My head bows. I got out of this one, but next time.....It won't be so easy.

------------------------

I sigh as class finishes up. Ms. Katrina calls for me to stay back. I hesitate and walk up to her desk. She looks up at from grading her papers.

"So, how are you?''

I take out a notebook and pen. I'm doing fine, why?

"High school is harder than you think. There will be more kids like Jason. But you may have some friends beside, that you have to trust. Careful, it's like a jungle here."

Thank for the advice.

She nods and gestures that I could leave. I nod as I walk out the door. I thought about what she said and sighed.

Lynx walks up to me. "Hey, how was it?"

I shrug.

"Oh, hey. Bud! It'll be fine! Just cheer up, 'kay?" She slaps on the back, comforting, but painful.

We walk to lunch and sat down at a table. She explains how her day went. It seems she got detention again, making me laugh. Lynx rolls her eyes and smiles. We laugh and joke.

Soon, Harper walks up to us. I look up as she taps her foot. "Hello. You're Haru right?" She asked. I nodded in response.

Harper sits down beside. "And you're Lynx?" Lynx gives her a 'Who else?' look.

She nods. "Well, I'm Harper. And this morning I saw how you stood up to Jason. I admire that."

I nodded in thanks. Wasn't she the one who did?

Harper crosses her arms. "So, when did you move here? I know you're new here." I count on my fingers how long I've actually been here for. I put up 4 fingers. Harper gives me a look. "Why aren't you talking? Tell me with your voice......Oh, are you the shy type? Sorry if I'm being rude." She hesitates. I shake my head and look at Lynx for some help.

Lynx sighs, "He's mute. But he is a bit shy." I roll my eyes. Harper looked surprised and asked, "No way. You're kidding." Lynx shook her head with a smile. She nudges me in the rib with her elbow and I shove her with a smile. Harper just stood there, staring.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't know." Harper hugged herself. Lynx answers, "It's nothing, dude. We're cool." She gently punched Harper's shoulder, playfully. Harper nods and turns away. "I'm gonna study, I'll see you later, I guess." I nodded even though she couldn't see. She quickly walks around. Lynx smiled and pointed at her. "What's wrong with her?" I shrug and get up at the sound of the ringing bell. Lynx follows after me. "Wanna meet up after school?" I nod.

.        .        .        .

After school, Ms. Katrina makes me stay behind for a moment. I watch her stack up the papers into an organized form. "So, Haru. How is your mom?" I give a thumbs up. She nods and stands up. "Good to hear. Now.... Look at this paper." She hands me one of the quizzes we had. I look at it. It was mine and there was a C- on it. I gulp. This didn't look good. Ms. Katrina puts on her glasses and glances at me. "So, what do you think?" I hesitate.

After a long moment of silence, she speaks up, "Would you like a tutor? Or can your dad help you?" I pause and sigh, slowly shaking my head. "Why is that?" She asks.

I write down. My parents divorced, so I don't know where my dad is.

Ms. Katrina looks at me with pity. "Oh, I'm sorry.. You may leave." I nod thanks and leave. My eyes stung as I held back tears.

-       -       -       -      -

Lynx and I eat ice cream. We were at the ice cream shop near the school. We smiled and laugh as her ice cream scoop fell.

Last thing I need was being minded of my dad.

Sometime later, we go home. I open the door to see Buddy peeing in mom's shoes. I laughed and pat my leg. He runs up to me with a bark and smile. I hug him and clean up the shoes. Walking into the living room, Buddy whimpers. I peek and see a man on the couch asleep. He wore a black shirt, blue musty jeans, dirty blonde hair, and a watch on his wrist. I gulp and grab my homework and rolled it up to use as a weapon.

I slowly walk up and poke him gently. He opens his eyes and yells at me. I whack him hard in the face, spooked. The man gets up and groans. Buddy tackles him. I throw things at him. Who was this guy?! I fell back, tripping over the small table. Mrs. Candi walked in, shocked. "Haru! What is going on?!"

I looked at her and point at the man who is now being pinned to the ground by Buddy. Mrs. Candi looks at the man and yells, "Todd are you okay?! Haru, that's your uncle!"

I stare in curiousity. Oof, big mistake. I whistle for Buddy. He rushes to me, growling at Mr. Todd. He coughs and smiles. "It's fine. I'm fine. Everything's okay."