Control

Chapter Six

While my afternoon with Dameon had been quite eventful, my mood was lifted. I even decided to go for a run, realising this was a much better way of spending my time rather than hiding in my room all day.

But when Monday came around, I kept my head down at school avoiding George and his friends as much as possible, although there was no evading the looks and whispers that followed me down the hallways and in the classrooms.

I raced into my biology classroom in an attempt to beat the crowd. I sighed of relief when I found the only person in the room was Kelsey. I took a seat on the stool beside her and gave her a small grin. She returned the smile and leaned in. "How are you doing?"

I shrugged, "I'm okay. Sorry I overreacted the other day. I've thought about it and I understand I wasn't seeing things clearly." This wasn't exactly true, I still didn't believe I invented what I saw that night, but all the other conclusion I came too made no sense.

She shook her head. "Don't apologise, it was a rough night." She paused, biting her bottom lip. "Has George been bothering you?"

"No, but I haven't exactly been trying to start a conversation with him." I began taking out my books from my bag and placed them on the table. "But Dameon said that he talked to George, told him to stay away from me." I prayed that George listened to him.

Kelsey nodded, "After you left on Saturday, he went over to his house and... Talked to him." She then shook her head as if shaking the thoughts from her mind. "How was your outing with Dameon anyway?"

I smiled. "It was... Surprisingly nice. Though I know he was forced into it."

She laughed, "I told him I would take his car keys if he didn't apologise." I felt a strange heaviness in my stomach from that. Kelsey must have seen the look on my face because she quickly added, "But he knew I would give them back, so it wasn't really forced." An awkward silence sat between us. "Regardless, I'm glad you guys had a good time."

Slowly students began filing into the room. A group of guys sauntered in, laughing and playfully shoving each other as they approached their seats from directly behind us. They briefly halted when they neared my table, I could feel their eyes piercing into me. I kept my head down and fiddled with my pen until the teacher came in.

"Hello everyone." Dr Normandy was a wrinkled man with large glasses that made his eyes appear three times larger than average. The class mumbled a greeting back to him. "I will be giving you back your tests from last week back," he held a stack of papers into the air, "and pairing everyone up so you can go through them together."

A collective grumble looped across the students.

He ignored the complaint and began to hand out the tests to each respective person. When he came around to me he gave me an earnest smile. "Good job, Miss Dawn." He said as he handed over my test. I looked at the top of my paper and saw a 99% circled in red marker.

"God, how are you so smart?" Kelsey was leaning over and peering at my page.

I shrugged. "What did you get?" Kelsey turned her page to face me. The number 82% was written on her sheet. "That's a good score," I said encouragingly.

Kelsey scoffed, "It's no 99%"

I heard snickers coming from behind me. "Nerd." Someone said through a cough. I clenched my jaw but forced myself to sit still.

"More like slut." Another deep voice added.

"She probably fucked the teacher for that grade."

Kelsey gently touched my shoulder. "Ignore them."