Moon Girl

Ten - Half A Cookie

On the way to the first class of the day, Blake and Ted joke around. Telling jokes, a little rough housing. Ted spots someone, smirks and pushes his friend into oncoming traffic. Blake and Krystal nearly collided.
"Oh, sorry." He recognized the person staring back at him. "Hey, it's you." He smiled.
"It's me." She mumbled.
"Are you free tonight?" Krystal raised her brow in response. "I mean, I was thinking we could go to the first location tonight." Slowly, she nodded. Her eyes flicked over Blake's shoulder at the figure lingering in the background. Ted has a weird expression on his face. Krystal locked eyes with Blake again. "It's okay, maybe tomorrow." He tried to play it off like it was nothing. Heaving a sign, she rolled her eyes.
"Yeah, tonight's fine." She walked away, giving Ted a glare before she disappeared. Clapping a hand on Blake's shoulder, Ted laughed.
"Am I Cupid? Am I making love happen?" Ted laughed at something Blake didn't find funny.

Why did she give me that look? Why did she turn away so quickly?

"We have a school project together."
"Good luck with that. Everyone says she's a useless partner, she refused to participate in group activities. She thinks she better than everyone else." Ted scoffed. Blake gritted his teeth but chose to ignore his friends comment.

People wonder why I am so closed off. I'm a joke to everyone. It's okay to have a good laugh once and a while at your own expense; you know, never take yourself too seriously. But being the punch line of every joke eventually chips away at you. Eats at you. Being called Moon Girl isn't funny. It's a constant reminder of what I lost. What I survived. The guilt. Oh lord the guilt, it's like shackles on my ankles, pulling me down in a sea of sadness. Some days I don't know how long I can hold on....then comes Blake.

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Krystal kept her head down and went through school as invisible as she could. For her, the school halls were a battlefield, a stage for torment. At every opportunity, she sways her hair in front of her scar. She liked to hide.

As Atticus once said; "she wore a thousand faces all to hide her own." Most people don't understand that. They think it's about hiding emotions or personality, it's about hiding your true self from the world. My true self was broken, scared and scarred.

Blake looked all over for Krystal but she never seemed to be around. He ignored his friends bulling and looked for the girl in the moon.

Where is she hiding? They say that someone who values you, will never hide you. Does that mean she doesn't value herself? If I want to pull her out of the shadows, does that mean I see more value than she sees I herself? Krystal Kamowski, where are you hiding?

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"I'm sorry about Ted." Blake sat next to Krystal. She didn't take her eyes off the scribbles she was drawing in her notebook.
"Shouldn't Ted be sorry for Ted?"
"Ted doesn't think he did anything wrong."
"Then what are you apologizing for?"
"Just because he doesn't think so, doesn't mean I don't." Krystal nods.
"Right, oh holy one." Blake sighs.
"That's not fair." Krystal slams her pencil down, making people around them flinch. Blake jumped a little, but didn't move.
"Fair? You want to walk about what's not fair, really?" She hissed. Eyes lingered on them. Blake swallowed.

Does she think the world is out to get her? I know what happened to her sister was unfair but I can't help that. I can't change that. I can't fix that. Believe me, I would give everything I have to change that, fix that, save her.

"Good afternoon class." Mrs. Greene strolls in with a bright smile. Krystal pulls back into herself and continues to scribble on the notebook.

Fair. Ha! What does Blake Hardy, the guy with pretty eyes and loads of girls falling all over themselves know about fair? He is the definition of unfair! He sits on top of the justice scales while the some of us struggle to end stand on judgment day.

"I hope you and your partners have started to plan out your projects!" She almost squeaked with excitement.
"Yay project." Krystal grumbled.
"It's really not that bad." She rolled her eyes at Blake.
"I'll give you some time to discuss your projects at the end, but right now I want to go over just a few rules."

Mrs. Greene talked for the next 20 minutes on the project. Krystal never took her eyes of the blackening circles on her page. Blake half watched her pen twirling manically and listened to Mrs. Greene.
"Alright, that's all I have. Keep working!" She clapped her hands. Krystal sighed, dropping her pen to the paper.
"Do you have any input on the project?" She shook her head. "Do you care at all?" She shrugged. "Okay, well. I guess we can talk about where to go?"
"You're annoying." She grumbled.
"You're annoying!" Blake shot back. Krystal slowly turned to face him.

What is he, 6? Idiot.... Who we kidding, that was funny but he can't know that.

I'm pretty sure I just whined at her, like a child. I hate myself.

She turned away. Blake studied her profile. The crescent that encased her eyes was on display, right in front of him. He barley noticed it.

Look at those eyes. They're beautiful. Just an endless sky of blue. She has a cute nose too. It's almost button like. And then there are her lips. They're plump and kind of look like a heart from this angle.

Krystal turned to face Blake again, she laced her brows together.
"What?" She hissed a whisper.
"What?" He recoiled. Blake's cheeks were pink.

Is he blushing? Was he staring at me again?

"Krystal?" She looked towards the head of the class. "Can I have you do something for me?" Krystal smiled.
"Sure." Blake watched her every move as she went to the front of the class.
"Can you take these to the office?"
"Yes, I can." She grabbed the stacks of paper, turned to Blake, winked with a smug grin and left.

Does no one else see the favoritism here? I call unfair! Or is everyone just afraid of the girl with the scar....babies.

"Hello Ms. Lane." Krystal set the stacks on her desk, careful to avoid all the little thing she had all over.
"Hello Krystal."
"What kind of cookies do you have today?" She leaned over the desk with a smile. Her black hair started to roll of her should like a waterfall.
"Chocolate chip." Krystal grabbed one, then hesitated.
"Can I have 2?"
"Krystal, you know the rules."
"This one is for a friend, I promise."
"And who's this friend of yours?"
"Blake Hardy." They stared at each other. Ms. Lane was trying to decided if she was lying or not. She sighed.
"I suppose, but if I find out you and Mr. Hardy are not friends or you ate that cookie yourself, you will get no more." She pretended to scold her. Ms. Lane had a soft spot for Krystal, she lost her brother when she was young like Krystal was. She grabbed a second one.
"Got it, thank you!" She scampered from the office back to class.

Krystal slid smoothly back into her seat. Without looking, she slid the napkin and cookie in front of Blake.
"Why do I have half a cookie?" He whispered to her. Krystal never took her eyes off the front of the class.

Because I ate mine and the other half of yours.

"I can take it back."
"No!" He said a little too loud. She finally looked at him, her face void of any emotion. "I just don't understand why."
"They always give me cookies in the office, I ate some to be polite, but I'm kind of tired of cookies." That was a lie. Krystals favorite dessert is cookies, all kinds.

She could have thrown this out or finished it herself, but instead she gave it to me. I think we're making progress.

"So, tonight," Blake started with a smile.