k-12: the shadows

♫

alexis

alexis sank into her seat, her stomach dropping as she scanned the room and realised that she had no friends in this class.

her first ever class.

with no friends.

great.

she recognised a few kids from the bus, including the group of blonde pretty girls who had thrown the note at crybaby.

alexis scrunched up her nose angrily at them when she saw them looking at her.

the bell rang, and alexis heaved a sigh before doing the same as everyone else did; reaching out into the middle of the table and grabbing a drawing and a handful of wax crayons.

just as her crayon touched against the paper, the classroom door swung open again to reveal a very uncomfortable looking crybaby. the whole class looked up and began to stare at her as the door slammed behind her.

"class. would you care to remind crybaby here of which rule she has not followed?" the teacher sitting at her desk addressed the class drily.

"when the bell rings, you must be in your assigned seat," the class echoed dully.

there was a moment of silence before the teacher looked up at crybaby again. "what, are you deaf? sit your ass down!"

"yes, miss daphne," crybaby murmured, hurrying over to the nearest seat- which happened to be right beside alexis.

as they made eye contact, the two girls smiled widely at each other.

"hi," alexis whispered.

"howdy," crybaby whispered back before giggling.

"interesting first day so far." alexis raised an eyebrow.

"i can make it better," crybaby replied. "hang out with me and angelita at recess. we want you to be our friend."

before alexis could reply with an overeager yes, the boy sat behind crybaby asked her to pass him a crayon. while her friend was occupied, alexis looked around the room again, her stomach dropping as she noticed the blonde girls from the bus giggling and pointing at crybaby.

what the fuck did they have against this girl?

the pit in her stomach dropped further as she watched the girl sat in the middle of the group, who appeared to be their leader, toss a note in crybaby's direction. this, naturally, was alexis's direction too; alexis caught the note as crybaby turned back around, and unfurled it as the other girl watched.

a simple, childish drawing of one girl beheading another, captioned
you vs me at recess.

"that's from that girl kelly," said crybaby, a little sadly. "she doesn't like me much. i think she wants to, like, rip my head off or something."

"i won't let her," alexis replied firmly, staring at the note until it was nothing but a pile of ashes in front of her.