Am I Perfect Now?

Chapter 10

I pretended not to be phased by the comments and succeeded. That's the one thing I'm good at. I gave the girl a shy smile before turning back around to write the date in my notebook. I felt a crumpled piece of paper being thrown at me, and my instinctive thought was that it was someone throwing stuff at me for fun. I heard someone next to me clear their throat as an attempt to catch attention. I looked over and saw Jake looking at me and motioning to the paper mouthing 'open it'. When did he even get in here anyway? I open the paper and read what the shaky, almost unreadable writing on it.
Are you okay?

It read, and I responded with a fake smile, hoping he wouldn't notice it's fakness. My hopes were ruined when he mouthed, 'Tell me later' before turning towards the front of the class again.

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I rushed out of English in hopes to avoid Jake's questions, but was stopped when I felt someone place a soft hand on my shoulder to stop me. I bowed my head down as I turned around.

"Hey, Kate. What's wrong?" He asked softly. His eyes were searching my face for something, but my head focus was still on my shoes.

"Nothing. I'm fine." I respond, throwing a quick glance into his concerned brown eyes.

"I'm fine is a girl's biggest lie." He states trying to get the answer out of me. I look at him confusedly as to how he knew this. "You'll be strong and all 'I'm perfectly fine' in front of people, but once you're along, the tears will come like the Niagra falls. I grew up with two teenage sisters." He adds. The creepy thing is, everything he said is true.

"It's nothing really. I just saw some of the comments people wrote on the pictures of me and the guys and they sorta got to me. I know I sound like a little baby right now and I shouldn't take the comments seriously but I've had... bad experiences." I mumble the last part, afraid he'll ask me a load of questions. Jake's eyes suddenly widen as he registers what I just told him.

"You were bullied in your old school weren't you?" He asks carefully as if trying not to open up a healing wound. I nod in response but don't dare make eye contact with him. "That's why you moved here isn't it? A fresh start? Escape from your problems?" He investigated further, doing exactly what I had hoped he wouldn't do. I nod again to look up at his eyes that were filled with sympathy.

"You can not tell anyone. If people find out they might think that I'm already scarred and they can continue tearing me apart. You are the first person here to find this out and I trust you with it, which might not be the smartest thing since I haven't known you for very long. But I'm gonna push that thought away so please don't miss use my trust. I have had enough back stabbing for a life time." I instruct him, pointing a finger at him as I did so. To my surprise he smiled. It wasn't an evilly smile or anything that I was used to, but a genuinely sweet smile.

"I won't. Thanks for trusting me with you secret ma'am. I feel honored." He said lightening up the mood before he bowed before me like royalty.

"What class do you have next?" I ask him trying to change the topic and succeeding.

"Gym. You?" He answers looking at his timetable. I look at mine to see what lesson I have and a relieved sigh escapes my mouth as I see the lesson.

"Gym. Let's go." I say before letting him lead the way towards the school changing rooms.

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"Hello everyone. You should know this by now but for out new student Kathleen, I am Mr. Burnett, gym teacher and football coach. So to start with today, could you please split up into two equally strong, mixed gender teams." Mr. Burnett instructs us and people start scrambling to form two teams.