Ocean Eyes *Permanently On Hold*

one: get me out of this cavern

"Hey, slit-eyes." Cheryl Carson said loudly, giving me a hard shove and spilling my books on the floor in the process. "Ooh, nice contacts! Whoops, I forgot, they aren't!"

Her bunch of friends snickered, like it was even remotely funny. "She thinks she's so pretty," one of them whispered to another.

"I know, right? Effing Asian."

I had endured countless comments about my condition, but they weren't something I had gotten used to - they still cut to the bone, whether they were behind my back or not.

Wordlessly, I bent down and started picking up my books. I had given up on retaliating a long time ago.

"Aww, what's wrong? Cat got your tongue?" Cheryl stepped forward and kicked my books aside, scattering them further down the hallway. She walked away smugly, her killer heels click-clacking against the floor.

Her friends laughed all the harder, forming a semicircle round me, herding me towards the end of the hallway where Cheryl had just left. What was so freaking funny about me dropping my books, anyway?

Desperate to get away from the taunting, I got to my feet and started to run. I saw Cheryl distantly in front of me. She obviously didn't notice I was coming, judging from the leisurely speed she was strutting at.

For a short, sweet moment, I thought I was going to knock her down. At my velocity, she would probably be sent flying. I smiled to myself. Almost there... almost there...

Then everything went spectacularly wrong.

Cheryl hadn't been oblivious to my approach. On the contrary, she had anticipated it, reacting with lightning speed. She merely turned around and stuck her arm out in my direction, aiming towards my face.

I couldn't avoid it, it was too late to slow down, much less stop. I collided into her clenched fist, sending a brilliant explosion of bloody fireworks into the air.

Cheryl made a kissing motion with her glittery pink lips. "Want Mommy to kiss your ouchie better?"

I glared at her, nearly blinded with the tears that threatened to spill at any moment. My entire face was covered with warm, sticky blood that was rapidly dripping onto my shirt and plastering my hair to my face.

"Come on, slit-eyes, you can do better than that, can't you? Puh-leese..." She collapsed on the floor, hooting with laughter.

To say I finally snapped would be the understatement of the millennium.

_______________

"Oh. My. Freaking. God. Is that Serena Lee?"

"You have got to be kidding me."

"I can't watch!"

"Ouch. Ooh. Ouch."

"They're fucking insane, both of them."

"My money's on the Asian bitch."

"Sheesh, can't they just argue it out or something?"

The voices surrounded us, rising in an ear-splitting crescendo.

Cheryl had wrestled me to the ground and was rapidly slamming her fists into my already bleeding face. I had my hands around her neck and was squeezing as hard as I could. Her face was turning an ungodly shade of blue, but the blows kept coming.

Blood was splattering onto the floor like nobody's business. I gave up on trying to strangle Cheryl and twisted myself around, managing to get out from under her. While she was disoriented, I managed to strike her below her chin, thrusting her head backwards and knocking her down.

She was smart, though. She recovered easily and got to her feet. I did the same.
Without warning, she lashed out at me violently, throwing her weight into a punch.

I ducked and used her momentum to push her aside. She stumbled, and I skirted behind her, delivering a blow to the small of her back.

She fell backwards, her head hitting the floor. I didn't know how she could continue fighting, but she did, with the ferocity of a tiger. She just got up and kept going, seemingly impervious to pain.

I lifted my arm to protect my face from the flurry of jabs Cheryl was throwing at me. Jolts of pain ran through my arm whenever she hit me, but I kept blocking my face, waiting for her to tire.

Slowly but surely, her hits started decreasing in intensity and speed. Blinking blood out of my eyes, I managed to grab her arm and twist it over and behind her head, pinning the other one to her side.

She pulled her leg forward for momentum and the next thing I knew, she had wrenched herself free and I was left with a bleeding eye and a stinging pain on my face. God, that girl could kick.

The yells of the crowd grew louder. Most of them were actually cheering me on now. With a sudden burst of energy, I ran forward and barrelled towards Cheryl, but it was too late. She caught me in a perfect headlock. Her arms were surprisingly strong for someone so slim. I struggled and writhed for all I was worth, but it did nothing to slacken her grip.

The crowd suddenly went silent. The tension in the room was so thick you could have carved it up with a knife. Even Cheryl's friends had backed away slightly.

Cheryl herself was the first to break the pregnant silence. "Can I have a blade?"

"I've got one," someone volunteered. He or she threw it over the heads of the crowd. It landed on the floor with an audible clink.

"Kaylee, Alyssa, a little help here?" Cheryl beckoned. Two of her friends walked over, awaiting further instructions.

She whispered a few words to them. One of them - Alyssa, I think - picked up the blade and unsheathed it. It glittered wickedly. The other one - Kaylee - knelt down next to me and pulled my eyelids apart.

"You know," Cheryl said casually, as if she did this every day, "you know, you've got such pretty eyes. Shame to waste them, but you know, desperate times..." She beckoned to Alyssa to move in with the blade.

"Goddamn," I heard someone say. A girl screamed, and I swear I saw at least five people turn and run away.

Alyssa hovered the blade above my open eye almost surgically, her long brown hair dangling over my face.

"Please...no." I just managed to whisper through parched lips. "No."

"You have nice eyes," she said quietly. Emotionlessly.

The blade plunged down.

A/N I should really start making reaction videos of people's faces when they get to this part.