It Was A Whole Thing | Herophine

Kiddie Nemesis

Josephine

You know what I hate more than broccoli?

Hero what's-his-face Fiennes-Tiffin, that's what!

I hate him so much, I pray for his early demise each and every time I say grace with my family over dinner.

If my parents wouldn't have forced Katherine and I to move here two years ago, my life would have been so perfect back in Perth. I had tons of friends and I was famous at my old school. But all of that changed when mum and dad sat us down after dinner and told us we had to move all the way to London because of his work. Out of all the places we can move to, it just had to be this dreary city where the spawn of Satan resides, conveniently a corner away from our new house and in the same freaking (sorry for cursing mum) class as mine.

Since the first day at my new school, he had made my life a living hell. Quite literally.

I walked into the classroom, introduced myself and moved on to sit on the only vacant seat available. I took a nervous glance at the cute boy seated right behind the one I was to occupy and he smiled at me. I was giddy. Boys have started to show their liking to me back at Perth so I wasn't new to the attention but he was easily the most handsome among the boys in the class. I thought maybe this wasn't such a bad decision to move to London after all.

Boy was I wrong. Oh so wong.

Little did I know that piece of... rotten tomato would then set fire to my long hair before the end of my first day in this forsaken school. I had to cut my previously waist-length hair to a depressing shoulder-length because half of it had already been burned off to ashes.

I didn't know why he did that. I didn't do anything bad to him that would provoke him to burn me alive. I smiled at him when our eyes met, I was never rude or obnoxious since that very first day. That led me to believe that he is a psychopath and he has proven me right each and every time he played those pranks on me.

The first months, I didn't do anything but watch my back and make sure I was safe from Hero and if I wasn't cautious enough, I just cried. Thank god I found a friend in Mia. She was the only smart one who helped me when my hair was on fire, dousing it with water from her water bottle while Hero laughed on the side with his annoying gang. Since then, Mia and I became inseparable. She always looks out for me and I love her for that.

"Jo, coast is clear," she says, her voice low enough so it doesn't catch any unwanted attention but loud enough so I can hear her. Her head is peeking out at the corner of the hall while I was hiding behind the door to the janitor's room.

I tiptoe out and see the empty hallway. It's already late in the afternoon and our schoolmates have either already gone home or to their extracurriculars. Mia and I are supposed to be at Math club but here we are, acting like Russian spies. We both rush towards the boy's shower room and listen intently to make sure no one is there before we tiptoe inside. The stinking smell of feet and other puke-inducing smells hit us right smack our faces and I had to hold myself from vomiting by covering my nose with my free hand and holding my breath.

"Ew! Why do boys smell so bad?" Mia says in disgust, obviously holding her own breath.

"Because they are disgusting pigs, Mia. That's why. Now come on, before they come back from football practice." I tug at her uniform's sleeve and she easily obliges. "Which one is it?" I ask her, my eyes scanning along the rows of lockers.

"Frank said we'll know when we see it."

And there it is. The ego of this boy is as huge as Big Ben. I point to one of the lockers and Mia follows where I'm pointing at.