A life less ordinary ||~~Elax/Elmax~~||

Super fun school time part 1

"Class, we have a new student joining us this year. El, could you stand up and tell us a bit about yourself please?"

El stood slowly, encouraged by the form teacher, Mrs Jones, nodding and smiling. "Uh, m-my name is El Wheeler, umm..." she stuttered, unable to think of anything else to say that would sound normal.

"Ok, uh, where did you move from?" asked Mrs Jones, trying to help. El opened her mouth to say something but closed it again, shaking her head slightly. "Ok, well, I'm sure we'll get to know you throughout the year" Mrs Jones said, not wanting El to feel any more uncomfortable than she obviously was.

El sat down quickly and hung her head low, she felt stupid and that she had ruined everything already. Max leaned over and put her arm around El's shoulders, "it's ok El, I basically had verbal diarrhoea when I started and the teacher made me tell the class about myself." El looked at her and smiled as Max pulled her closer into a side hug.

They were allowed to chat for the last 10 minutes of form, and whilst doing so a couple of the other students made their way over. "So, El is it?" asked the girl at the center of the group. El looked up at the blonde, blue eyed girl in front of her and nodded, smiling nervously. Max sat back and watched with a bad feeling in her gut, this was Amber Davies, most popular girl in their year. "Wheeler?"

Again, El nodded.

Looking at her deputies and smirking, she turned back to El and said "no wonder you sounded like such a loser with frogface for a brother."

El didn't know what to say so just hung her head low and turned back to her desk, staring at her hands in her lap. Max jumped to her feet and, getting right in Amber's face, said "shut your fucking face, we all know the only reason you're popular is that you like 'spending time' with the senior boys."

Amber's face reddened immediately, "I don't know what you're talking about" she protested.

Realizing that half the class were now watching their exchange, and not wanting to be publicly associated with her step-brother, she leaned over and whispered in Amber's ear so that no-one else could hear "Billy says to stop calling, he's had what he wanted, and you weren't that good." Leaning back to see the effect of her words, she saw barely contained tears in her eyes and shock on her face. The bell went and she and El gathered their bags, as they left for their first class of the year, Max glanced back and felt slightly guilty. Amber was in tears and surrounded by her friends comforting her; whilst she didn't like Amber, she hated Billy, but seeing her make fun of El meant all gloves were off.

"El" Max said as they reached the corridor, "don't let her get to you, some kids can be horrible, but most are ok...some are even awesome" she finished, coughing, looking up and pointing at herself.

El shook her head and giggled. "Thank you, Max" she said smiling, giving her a brief hug.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~*

El was naturally gifted at many of the subjects. Her trained logical mind found math easy to grasp, science too once she learned the facts. The subjects she struggled with involved interpretation. Whilst she could memorize important dates and whole passages of text for history, similarly for English lit., she had no frame of reference, no life experience to aide in the interpretation of events and the meaning behind the words. She became very frustrated with herself, unable to understand why she couldn't do it. And she still had a lot of catching up to do, and spent much of her spare time in the library, reading up on the subjects she struggled with. Despite her advances and the fact that she'd passed the entrance exam, she was still behind her peers with reading and writing, and took longer to get through every piece of work.

She was also having trouble with school life in general. Her friends had become so used to her quirks and insecurities that they didn't even see them anymore, she was just El, but the other students made no such allowances. Whenever El didn't know something that people thought of as general knowledge, or understand something that anyone of her age should, they either rolled their eyes and shook their heads at her or, worse still, mocked her openly. Every day she went home feeling belittled and frustrated, bordering on angry, at both herself and the world in general. She wasn't happy. She hated school.

The only person who seemed to be able to motivate her enough to even just to go to school was Max, she never left her side when there, subtly explaining things as best she could, trying to rebuild her confidence as it was knocked down. El was the only one who stopped her from beating the crap out of everyone that hurt her, "if you are made to leave school because of fighting, I'll be alone" she told her.

It didn't go unnoticed by her friends and family, but they felt powerless to help, hoping that it was just settling in issues, that things would improve gradually. The boys also supported her, but they barely shared any classes.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~*

One lunchtime, a couple of weeks into the school year, she was quietly studying in one corner of the library, slowly making notes for an English assignment. She didn't hear the librarian being told she was needed by the principal, she didn't hear the group of girls approaching, the first thing she did hear were the remarks about her work, "oh my god, have you seen her writing? My 5-year-old sister writes better!" "Yeah, I haven't drawn pictures like that since kindergarten."

El looked up and saw Amber and her cronies. "What do you want?" she asked defensively. She felt exposed without Max, she knew they couldn't hurt her physically, but the years of psychological abuse she suffered in the lab hadn't served to make her stronger, quite the opposite, she was vulnerable to such attacks and bitches like Amber could pick up on that vibe from a mile away.

"Where's your girlfriend?" Amber asked smirking.

El frowned, not understanding the question, and shook her head.

"Oh God, Amber, she doesn't even understand" her friend Trudy said, laughing at El's ignorance. El clenched her jaw, fighting the urge to hurl them across the room.

"Your girlfriend, Max" Amber explained, "I'm surprised you're not making out with her somewhere" she continued, laughing, the others joining in. Seeing El's continued confusion, Amber rolled her eyes, "oh for fucks sake, you're too dumb to even know how you're being insulted. Let me spell it out for you, ok? Max...dresses like a boy in those jeans and hoodies...acts like a boy with that stupid skateboard of hers...and she just loves hanging around with you" she said salaciously, "well, I'm sure even you can work out the rest" she finished with an evil look on her face.

"Later freak" they yelled as the left the library.

El sat there for a few minutes, their words playing over and over again in her mind. She could just about take the hurtful comments about her work, she knew it wasn't that good, but to hear the things they said about Max hurt inside, they'd found a raw nerve, exposed, and didn't hesitate to attack it.

*~~~~~~~~~~~~*