Ms.Bully

2

I look in the mirror splashing my face with cold water. I look down, it's still not gone. Damn it how I'm supposed to go to class like this. I could just go home early... and save myself the embarrassment. It is a Friday...fuck it. Fuck school.
I slide open the window of the bathroom throwing my bookbag through it. After landing on the ground outside I brush my pants off and walk to the bus stop.

As stupid as it sounds, I skipped class because of a boner. I don't know what's wrong with me. This has never happened before. I have never been attracted to anyone like this before. Someone so...unapologetically fierce.

I'm at home now. I'm kind of hoping I'll get sick over the weekend so that I don't have to go to school. Because school equals Annabella, and Annabella equals some kind of weird power dynamic that I'm not sure I'm ok with.  I'm starting to learn how she gets what she wants. I've been thinking about this a lot. Maybe it is better that I am a loner. All I need is my peaceful boring life to stay the way it is.

I spent the weekend playing video games and occasionally checking my bruised balls with a handheld mirror. I for damn sure wasn't going to tell my father. Throughout the weekend I had made an excuse to avoid school. Thank goodness, my dad is barely home during the day.

"Beep beep beep beep bee-" I slap my alarm. I forgot to not set it for today. Since today is the day I decided not to go to school. I take a shower and get dressed. As much as I would love to stay home all day I got to go somewhere. My dad comes home for lunch and I'm not planning on getting caught. I slide my wallet into my pocket and walk out the front door.
The first thing to do is to go to the movies. There shouldn't be anyone there on Mondays, perfect. I buy my ticket and watch some horror movies. Yep, I watched it during the day because I'm a chicken. The movie was good but too short. Next, the arcade. I don't usually play ski ball because I get angry. I tend to lose and end up spending most of my tokens on it.  I remember when my dad would bring me here and we would have intense ski ball battles betting on who would score the highest. I would have done laser tag but a class of middle schoolers had a field trip to the arcade and I'm quite tall and wasn't planning on squashing any children. I end up getting a bunch of candy after cashing in my tickets. I pocket the candy as I follow the GPS on my phone to an ice skating rink. It's been a while since I got to do something I liked. I steady myself as I push against the wall. I feel myself drifting away from the wall wobbling ever so often. In about an hour or two, I'm feeling like an expert. It's as if every time I ice skate I forget how until my legs finally remember how. Eventually, I grew tired and hungry. I decided to turn in my skates and start walking back home.
I take out my pocketed candy chewing a few pieces as I walk down the street. "Leon?" I hear my name called I turn to see someone I thought I'd never see again. "Raul? I thought you moved." I confess as I watched the man run up to me. He pulls me into a hug. "Aw man you don't know how good it is to see a familiar face." he breathed he let go and I watched as he smiled and huffed in relief. "What happened? I thought you were moving back to New Mexico with your mom." I say looking around to see if he was with her. He chuckled and scratches his head." Well, that didn't work out. I hated it there so I moved back to live with my father." he smiled. I nodded my head "Um...do you want to have lunch or something?" I ask awkwardly. He looks down at his Fitbit. "Yeah, let's catch up," he said excitedly.
Raul used to go to school with me and we used to be close friends but his parents were going through a rough divorce and he went to some town in New Mexico, for a year to live with his mom he has been back for about 2 months. He hated life in New Mexico so his mom let him live with his dad because she wanted him to enjoy school. "So how have you been?" he asks taking a bite out of his sub sandwich. "I've been ok," I say lowly. He finishes chewing and sets his sandwich down. "Aren't you supposed to be at school?" he asked rating an eyebrow. "Yeah, but it is fine. No one will notice." I shrug.
"Don't tell me you're being a loner again," he complains. I shrugged again "Come on man, do better." he says patting my shoulder. "You know I'll be coming back to school tomorrow," he says, sounding quite excited. I lift my eyebrows a bit in surprise. "Oh ok, I'll see you in school then. I got to get home before my dad gets off of work." I say looking down at my phone and checking the time. "Ok, see you tomorrow." he waves as I walk out of the shop.
I make it home before my father does. I change my clothes and go to sleep.
When I wake up It's time to go to school. I'm sure my attendance can't take another day of me being absent or the school will call my dad.

I take the bus to school and It takes me about 15 minutes. I press the button to be let off. I walk onto the school's campus. I usually come incredibly early because I tend to get lost. I make my way to the library before class starts.
I take a seat at the table taking a book out of my book bag.
One of my favorite books is Wishes, Kisses, and Pigs. I used to read this throughout elementary school. I read about 5 chapters before it was time to go. I pack up my things. I walk to my first class to see guess who just sitting at my desk. Anna- fucking -Bella was sitting in my chair with her feet up chatting with her classmates. I slowly walk to my desk when I'm finally in front of her she looks up at me for a moment before going back to talking.
"Um...Bella, I think that's his seat." one of her friends says. Annabella looks down at her phone "Really? But it doesn't seem like it since he wasn't here yesterday." she acts clueless. "Anabella please get out of my seat," I plead lowly fidgeting. She gets up and rolls her eyes before pushing past me to her desk. 
"Class we have a returning student," Ms. Hawk says grabbing my attention as I sit down. I look towards the door to see Raul walking in with a big cocky smile on his face. He waves at me as he walks in I give him a small wave back. "Hello I'm Raul and I haven't been here for a year but it's nice to see some new faces," he says before taking a seat at a desk in front of me. He turns back in his chair. "Morning, Leon." I smile softly. "Hey," I say back awkwardly. I wasn't used to morning greetings or looking people in the eye. He turns back around as the teacher starts talking. All during class, I could shake this anxious feeling or maybe I was just happy to have my friend back but finally, after 3 hours It was finally lunch time.

Raul turns around and scoots his chair around to sit right by my side. He starts pulling out a large container of food. "Since I know you so well I packed us lunch. I know you don't eat a lot so here," he said opening the large container. I put my hands up "Thank you but this is too much." I reason but he shakes his head laughing "No no this is for me. This is for you." he said pulling out a smaller container I feel relief wash over me. I nod my head and thank him. Raul was genuinely good at cooking. After actively participating in multiple sports he became extremely passionate about what he put into his body. Unlike me who usually only consumes tea and morning rice milk and the occasional dinners that my father makes. What? They taste good.

"Are you going to play Badminton this year?" he questions as we walked down the hall to our next class. I shrug "I don't know, what sports are you planning on playing?" I reply walking a little faster. He looks up thinking for a moment before smiling mischievously. "You know what? I might just become a manager of a team." I look at him raising a curious eyebrow. "For what sport?" I ask moving to the side as someone pushes past me. "Girls volleyball team, volleyball butts hit different," he assured. I chuckle a bit shaking my head at his shameless thoughts. "Aw common you could be the assistant manager or something," he says as his arm drapes around my neck. He continues to talk loudly down the hall until we reach our next class.