the man with no name [anonymous fanfiction]

one

I looked up at the ceiling and all I could think about was the fact that I was now finally out of rich from them. I was glad that Mom helped me run away from them, but a part of me always reminded me that they could come back at any given moment without a prior warning.

"Honey, wake up!" shouted Mom from downstairs, not aware of the fact that I didn't get a moment of sleep in the entire night. Scrolling through messages from the past didn't help at all.

I went downstairs, dragging my feet behind me as I made it into the kitchen. "Good morning, Mom."

"You look like you haven't slept at all tonight. I thought that I gave you those sleeping pills."

"You did, but I didn't take them," I admitted, caressing Junior behind the ears as he moved between my legs. I quickly downed the smoothie that Mom got for me. "Where's Dad?"

"He got called to work early."

"Okay," I concluded, ignoring the fact that this happened too many times to count in the last few days. "I really have to go though. I don't want to be late for my first day of school."

"I wanted to drive you to school, but Dad took the car. You'll have to ride your bike today. I'll drive you tomorrow."

I nodded, knowing that I couldn't really do anything but obey. I went to my room, put on the clothes that I prepared for myself the evening before, ready to dress to impress.

After that, I looked at myself in the mirror, realizing that there were black bags under my eyes and I quickly did a neutral makeup look before taking the bike from the garage.

= = =

The school was bigger than I imagined from the pictures I saw. Mom and Dad signed me in as soon as possible, not leaving me the chance to actually get a tour of the place before.

As I walked there, I could feel the eyes on me, hoping that they didn't know who I was and everything that happened to me before.

"Hey," someone said as they nudged my shoulder. "I'm Julie. You're new here, right?"

"Yeah," I responded, hoping that my voice wouldn't crack and I would be embarrassed before I could even make the first impression. "I'm Tara, by the way."

"Cool name. By the way, I love your outfit," complimented the girl before starting to walk by my side. "You should watch out who you hang out with here. There's a lot of people that I wouldn't interact with if I were you. Like Habiba, for example. And her boyfriend."

"Okay, thanks," I answered, unsure what to do with that information.

But then, Julie stopped all of a sudden. "Habiba," she said curtly.

"Julie," responded the girl in front of us, with the same amount of emotion in her voice. Zero, that was.

"Can you get out of our way. We have to get to class."

"Who is this?" Habiba asked, then turned her attention to me. "I recommend you not to hang out with a loser like Julie here."

"Wow, you actually know my name. I thought that you just forgot about all those years when we were friends, because you sure act like it every single time we see each other."

"I didn't forget about those years. But I wish I could," spat Habiba, her voice full of disgust. I could tell how much she despised my new friend. "I wish I could just forget about being friends with such a loser."

"I don't think you heard her before, but she asked you to get out of our way. We have class to get to," I finally spoke up, getting a surprised reaction from both girls next to me.

"So you already have your claws on her. That's a shame. She was pretty enough to join our friend group," said Habiba then left them alone.

"Oh my god, you totally kicked her ass, Tara. I have so much respect for you right now, you can't even imagine."

"I meant what I said to her. We have to get to class."

The two of us started walking in the hallway and Julie showed me where my class was. Fortunately, we were together in this one but not during my second period.

I took a seat right next to her and tried concentrating on what the teacher was saying but I was way too tired to actually remember anything that the History teacher said. All the girls, including Habiba who was making out with her boyfriend just moments before, were flirting with the teacher. They felt no shame for their actions, even when the teacher pointed it out.

I quickly assured Julie that I was okay when she asked me what was up, but then something else caught my attention.

Because at that moment, in the corner of my eye, I caught a man with a mask looking through the window.