A Different Way

chapter 5

Xailendra bolted out of the classroom before anyone else could.

She wasn't able to focus on her class today because her mind is preoccupied with the tests that she almost failed, her anxiety is peaking and is making her overthink about the possible outcome of this terrible mistake she's made.

She wandered around the buildings of her school and she found a spot where nobody probably explored yet, so she dropped her bag and got to punching the wall behind the building.

This was one of her bad hobbies, it happens everytime something, or just anything considerably bad happens to her that she built up over the years.

As she punched the wall, tears started flooding her eyes which, believe it or not, she didn't even noticed not until it fell on her cheeks.

Crying made her feel weak. She hated feeling weak. She hated not being able to control how she feels sometimes, it got to a point where when she feels angry, she just breaks down and becomes a big crying mess.

"So that's where the cuts and bruises came from."

Xailendra jumped a little when she heard that voice, realising its from Jesy. She sniffles and wipes her tear flooded eyes and gives the older girl a blank expression.

"You don't mind if I continued punching walls, do you?" The girl didn't even wait for an answer and just continued to punch the walls again.

"I don't," Jesy says as a matter of factly.
"But I think your knuckles do."

She walked up to the girl who was still punching the walls. Once she was close enough, she grabbed both Xailendra's hands gently to stop her from her actions.

"Want to tell me what happened?"

Xailendra tried to tell her what happened this morning. She told her about how she might lose her scholarship that she worked terribly hard for. She told her everything with tears still in her eyes.

"They do scholarship programs?"

"Yeah. But only for like, five people every school year. So it's a big honor to be studying here right now. Also why I'm panicking over a single test that I failed. Gosh." Xailendra says breathlessly.

Jesy patted the girl's back lightly. "Don't worry about it, yeah? It's only the start of the school year, you've got a lot of time to improve. Now, young lady," Jesy says and lifts the green-eyed girl's face up. "Keep your head up, darling. No need to fuss about it. Go eat something if you haven't eaten yet. I'll see you in my class soon."

"I'm not in the mood to eat right now," Xailendra sighed.

"What d'you want to do, then?"

The girl mumbled 'I don't know' under her breath and once again sighed. She sat down on the concrete floor in silence. Jesy copied her and stared at the wall.

"You know, there's this play that we're gonna do. Auditions actually starts next week," Jesy said. The girl just said a faint 'mhm' as a response. "I'm actually gonna announce it later, today."

"What play are we doing?"

"I'm not supposed to tell you that yet," The teacher said.

"Oh." She said.

"It's Hamilton." The teacher blurted out. "Don't tell anyone though."

"So, basically, the other kids don't know what play are they signing up for?" Xailendra asked, confused.

"It's their way of doing it here," The woman shrugged. "I don't know how kids are still interested in theater, really."

"Why'd you tell me, though?"

"I dunno, maybe you're interested in auditioning? I'd look forward to hearing you."

"How can you be so sure that I can sing? Hamilton is like, a musical right?"

"You look like you can sing," Jesy said. "And plus, most Mixers can sing, you know? I just assumed."

Xailendra laughed lightly. "You made your point. I guess I'll audition, then."

"There's the smile," Jesy said, proud that the girl is already smiling after what happened earlier. Jesy takes a look at her wrist watch and saw that it was almost the end of their break. "I'll be waiting at the auditions. Anyways, looks like it's time to go. See ya later."

"Yeah. See you too."

Both girls went their separate ways. Hours later, at Xailendra's last period, she entered the theater classroom where her teacher saw her and smiled. Jesy once again felt proud when she saw that the girl she met a few days ago looked okay. She's never felt prouder for her.

☆。*。☆