The Secrets They Hide

I

( Satan_Incarnate_666 )

To say that Molly Hooper was tired of being invisible was an understatement. She was exhausted of dealing with the daily pain of being shoved around in the hallway without even a glance of concern her way, tired of finding bruises on her legs because her locker neighbor didn't notice she was there. The only benefit of being invisible was no one bothered her. Popular girls never teased her for her style, the known bullies never messed with her...nobody cared about her. It was annoying at first...but eventually Molly liked that lifestyle. It wasn't that bad after getting over the jealousy of seeing close friends have fun. It made school bearable, in a way. Nobody bothered her, she didn't bother anybody, and she could focus on class...and Sherlock Holmes.

He seemed so perfect; smart, good looking, passionate...Molly found herself drawn to the boy since the first day. He was in her science class, seated in the row before her. Sometimes she couldn't see the board notes because of how tall he was, though that wasn't a complaint. She already knew most of the units in the class since because of being interested in science as a kid. It was hard to be so close to someone who seemed like her soulmate and yet find herself speechless when she found time after or before class to talk to him. All she could hope for was that there'd be a science project soon, and she could work with Sherlock, as cheesy as that sounded. 

Sherlock was the only reason she hated being invisible. If she tried to be more out there this year, maybe he would've noticed her. Or maybe she'd still be sitting in class and daydreaming about it. It wouldn't be good to think about how different life could be if she wasn't invisible, it'd ruin her mental health. It'd ruin anyone's mental health to think about a better life they could have based off on one choice. Besides, life wasn't horrible. She had a great family, and they kept her from feeling lonely. She had her life planned out; her future career, her dream university, even where she wanted to live! Life wasn't horrible.

Science was her first class of the day, which meant she had loads of time before the bell rang to manage to get past the river of people. She was always the first one in the room, sometimes even before the teacher. But this time she saw someone else in the room, sitting next to her seat. She couldn't see any features of the person, their hood up and head down on the desk. Swallowing nervously and clasping at her necklace, Molly made her way to sit down. The person didn't seem to care that she was next to them, which relieved all anxiety the young woman felt. Soon others began to flood in the room, the only one she payed any sort of attention to being Sherlock. His curly hair was still out of control and he still dressed sharply, the sight of him almost making the teen sigh dreamily. The teacher came in soon after Sherlock, holding the usual messy stacks of paper and coffee mug. Most people began to quiet down as he started to plug in his laptop to project what the day's work would be. Molly craned her neck to see around Sherlock, curious about what today's work. Her heart soared at the sight of the words "partner project", before sinking at the next words; "with the person next to you".

Molly glanced at the person next to her, now able to see that it was a guy. Her heart nearly stopped when she recognized who it was. She only knew his name because there was an announcement about him. Sebastian Moran; he had been gone from school for nearly a month because of his mother's sudden death. She could remember hearing that everyone should try to be respectful and kind towards the poor boy, as he was in grief. Teachers were probably told that he'd be off, or would need more time for work. The young woman could feel her heart break at the thought of trying to do school during such intense grief. Instead of bringing that up, however, she ended up blurting out the corniest thing she could've said in that moment.

"So, I guess we're partners, eh?"