Chapter Two

I walked through the halls and felt like all eyes were on me. I kept my head down and held my books tight to my chest hoping they’d be my shield from the outside.

“I heard she overdosed last year on purpose.” I heard someone whisper.

“The stupid bitch probably didn’t know who the father was and decided to get rid of the shit.” Their friend responded.

I tried ignoring the voices hoping they were just all in my head, but I knew better. It was the same thing every day. Rumors would fly quicker than the speed of light and by the end of the day, I’d go home with a face full of tears. I had no friends, and the ones I thought were my friends turned their back on me.

A rough shoulder slammed into me causing all my books to scatter across the hall floor. Laughter filled the halls and I didn’t even bother to see the culprit. I bent down and attempted to pick up my books that people rudely kicked out of my reach.

Once I was finally able to gather all my books I hurried to my locker. I shoved everything I didn’t need inside and headed straight for class. I took my usual seat in the very front and placed my spiral notebook on my desk and began writing. It’s what I always did just so I wouldn’t have to talk with anyone.

Before I knew it, I had added another chapter and a half to the story I was working on. It was what I had wished my life could be. A loving family, a sexy and charming boyfriend, and great friends. All living the lavish life.

“Okay kids, take out paper and a pen, it’s time for your pop quiz.” My teacher Ms. Gonzales announced closing the door as the final bell rang. I looked up and noticed everyone had come into the class and was seated. I closed my book and shoved it in my shoulder bag and grabbed some paper for the quiz we were to take.

“Don’t write on the paper. Put all your answers on your sheet of paper. You have twenty minutes!” She shouted as she passed out papers. When I got my paper, I looked over the questions and began answering the ones I knew the answers to.

For homework, we were supposed to answer the odd-numbered questions in our workbook. I forgot as I ended up trying to work on my English assignment. I stayed up until my eyes felt like they were going to fall out of my head. I just hope the ones that I do answer are actually right.

As I answered a question, I felt something small hit the back of my head. I ignored it until I felt it again followed by silent laughs. It wasn’t until one landed on my arm that I knew what was being thrown at me. Fucking spitballs! I flicked one off my arm and then ran my fingers through my hair and found a few more spitballs lodged in my hair. That seemed to draw more laughs from the culprits.

“Quiet back there!” Mrs. Gonzales yelled.

I quickly shook my hand to rid myself of the saliva-filled papers and quickly answered the rest of my questions the best I could. I hate this place. I hate this place. I hate this place. I chanted in my head as I wrote my final answer.

“Ms. G, may I go to the restroom please?” I asked as nicely and as calmly as I could. She gave me a friendly smile and nodded her head. I quickly got up and grabbed the pass and fled the room. I could hear the laughter follow me as tears pricked my eyes.

I will not cry, I will not cry, I will not cry. I chanted as I hurried down the hall towards the bathroom. I pushed the door open and thankfully there was no one in there. I rushed over to the mirror and examined my hair. Luckily there weren’t many left in there. I grabbed my brush from my purse and began brushing the rest of them out.

I never understood how someone could be so cruel and hateful. All I ever did was mind my business and didn’t harm anyone. Yet one mistake ruined it all, and now everyone hates me. I didn’t do what they thought I had done. It was all just rumors and lies exaggerated to make me out to be the bad guy.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror not recognizing the girl staring back at me. She looked sad and broken, lonely. That wasn’t me, I wasn’t supposed to be this way. I was the happy cheerful one. One everyone wanted to be around, yet I’m the laughingstock of the school. Taking a deep breath to calm my nerves, I head back to class.

Hanging the pass by the door on its hook I take my seat and began copying the notes I saw on the board. Just three more classes and I get to go home. I told myself as I trudged through the math lecture.

“Alright pair up and work on pages 100 and 104.” Mrs. Gonzales shouted as she turned the screen off on the smart board. I looked up saddened at the fact I had missed the last few notes she had. Letting out a sigh of defeat I pulled my math book from my bag and flipped to the right page. I didn’t expect anyone to partner up with me so I wasn’t going to wait. No one ever partnered with me. It’s just my luck that there’s an odd number of students in this class.

“Hey, you mind if I work with you?” A voice said but I ignored it. There’s no way they were talking to me. As I continued with one of the problems a sheet of paper was placed over the page. On it were the notes from class in nice handwriting. I stopped working and looked up at the culprit and saw a guy I don’t remember being in this class.

“I noticed you missed a few of the notes at the beginning of class. You can copy if you want.” He offered.

“Um, thanks,” I whispered. I slid my desk over and turned to connect the empty one beside me. “Yeah, we can work together.”

He sat down and moved my book between us to follow along. I wasn’t sure what I should be doing right now. This was weird, no one has been nice to me in weeks.

“Do you understand this pretty well? I can try to help if you don’t” He asked curiously working out the first problem. Deciding it was best to focus on work, and not question why he was sitting here.

“Um. Yeah, I understand it pretty well. Do you mind if I take a picture of the notes I missed?” I asked as he continued on to the next problem.

“Yeah, I saw the look on your face when she turned the screen off and figured you didn’t get to finish.” I nodded my head and snuck my phone from my pocket before snapping a picture of the parts I had missed.

“Thanks.” I slid the paper back to him and watched as he slid it in between random sheets of his notebook. “You have really nice handwriting by the way,” I said with a soft smile. We sat and continued to work silently together. I didn’t mind it though; it was just nice to have someone here.

“Okay, I know it may seem like I’m talking a lot, but I just have to ask. Are you new here?” If I was a few shades lighter I knew my face would be as red as a tomato.

His smile seemed genuine as he let out a soft chuckle. “No, I enjoy the conversation. I guess you can say I’m new but I’m not fresh.” I gave him a confused look, looking for an explanation.

“I just moved a month ago. I’ve been sitting in the back of the class the whole time. I purposefully avoid human interactions, but today seemed like a day you could really use a friend.” He leaned over and bumped his shoulder with mine lightly.

I wasn’t sure whether I should accept this or not. Last year I would have jumped at the thought of him being my friend. But now, not so much. I’m just a shell of what I used to be. I need to guard what’s left of my sanity and pride.

“Thanks, it’s been rough today.”

“Mike.” He stuck his hand out in the introduction.

“Laney.” I smiled and placed my hand in his to shake.

“Number 20 is wrong.” He pointed out looking at my paper. I looked down to see what he was talking about and realized I had a few numbers mixed up.

“Oh shoot, I started with 20 but ended up with half of 21.” I laughed. Erasing the problem and rewriting it with the correct numbers.

We continued to work on the problems until the final bell rang dismissing the class.

“I’ll see you around,” Mike said with a small smile. I nodded my head and gathered my things. I quickly rushed out of class not wanting to stick around and see what torments they had in store for me.

I rushed past everyone avoiding eye contact as much as possible. I don’t think I could deal with anything else this early in the morning. But I still had a full day of anguish and terror ahead of me. I finally looked up only to see Mackenzie and her crew walking my way. Pretending not to see them, I cut down the next hall and decided to take the back steps up to my next class.

Mackenzie was like Regina George except Rylie and Hailey were just as bad. I’m sure it was them that started these rumors in the first place.

No one knew the truth and I didn’t care to correct any of them. What goes on in my life is my business. I had to stop once I made it to the top of the steps to catch my breath. Everything made me tired now, but I had to keep up a brave face and push through it all.

I rushed into my science class grabbed a lab coat from the rack by the door and took my assigned seat in the middle. Once I sat down, I pulled my notebook back out and continued writing thinking of more to add. Writing seemed to be my way of escaping this cruel world. I didn’t think I was any good but I didn’t care, no one was ever going to see this anyway. It was for my eyes and my eyes only.

Soon the other students piled into class just as the bell rang. This week we were working on different chemical reactions which meant it was going to be a fun week, fewer notes to take and more hands-on stuff.

We started with our usual warm-up work and then moved into groups of four. I was grouped with some kids that were tolerable. They were neutral grounds if you could categorize them in that way. But my ears always seemed to pick up conversations when they dealt with me. The group behind me was trying to figure out the truth behind the rumors at school.

“I heard she got a train run on her at Mitch’s party.” One girl said.

“No, you idiot she had sex with Mitch and Kaleb at Mitch’s party.” Another person whispered. I never bothered to learn anyone’s name, I didn’t like anyone that much to begin with. But what they were saying wasn't true at all.

No one knows what happened at Mitch’s party, but I do. It changed my life and I’ll always have a reminder of it.

“Rylie said she saw her outside an abortion clinic. You think she killed the baby because she didn’t know who the father was?” Someone else asked.

“I don’t blame her, who wants to have a baby looking like that?” That earned a few laughs from the group. I tried tuning them out but it was really hard when they were directly behind me. I turned my focus on the group activity as we moved on to a different reaction, writing down our observations.

Sadly, my focus didn’t last long when I felt something scratchy fall into my lab jacket. I jumped up and began screaming trying to get whatever it was out of my jacket. But it seemed they had put it in my shirt. It began crawling everywhere!

What the fuck!

I hurriedly threw off as much clothing as I could without getting completely exposed. The whole class was staring at me like I was crazy and a few others laughing at my demise. Soon we all found that it was a lizard that was shoved in my jacket.

The class Iguana, William. I believe this was the most humiliating thing in my life.