The Confidence of a Nerd

Chapter 2(EDITED)

Once I get to the principal's office, I see that he's waiting for me there with his arms crossed. I guess she faxxed him or something.

"Sit down and explain yourself," he starts. I've never been in this office for any bad reasons before so I'm not quite sure why he seems so upset with me.

"Look Mr. Jacobs, I'd never do something like this. When I went to Mrs. Darcy's classroom, the door was unlocked and open so I just walked in, that's all. Whoever unlocked the door must've done it but it wasn't me." I glance up at him only to hear him scoff.

"Now, Ms. Hamilton, I thought that you were different from your mother but I guess I was wrong. Seeing that this is the first thing I see you in here for, is proof of that. I know how deceitful you Hamilton's can be, your mother is the most disingenuous person I've ever met in my life and it looks like you take after her in that regard. I'll be giving you a write up and after that I don't ever want to see you in here again. Get back to class."

I scowl, opening my eyes wide at this man in utter disbelief and shock. Mr. Jacobs and my mom might have some kind of past, but that has nothing to do with me! I storm out of his office and slam his door shut, by now I'm fuming. I'm trying not to stomp but it isn't working. Every step that I take to get back to class feels like I'm stepping on hot coal and I can't move away or douse them in water.

Once I finally reach the classroom, I open the door and I see that Mrs. Darcy has moved into a regular desk. Everybody looks up at me as I come in, trying not to look as furious as I am, I make my way through the desks. I spot a girl with blonde hair and pink streaks sitting quietly in the back. I had never seen her before despite going to this school for years, so I decided to sit next to her. She seemed harmless enough and since I didn't want to deal with all of the staring anymore, I sat next to her.

"Hey, what's your name?" She asks, I was completely taken aback because I had expected her to just ignore me.

"Lia," I murmur with a shy smile, trying not to seem too shocked by the unexpected attention.

"My name is Joanna, but all of my friends call me, Jana."

Gosh, even her name is pretty, I think to myself. Slowly, I started responding to her questions more and becoming less afraid to ask some of my own.

"What's your favorite TV show?" Joanna asks, leaning forward a bit, elbows on the day and a beaming smile aimed towards me as she waits excitedly for my answer.

"Hmmm, that's gotta' be Doctor Who," I say with a nod. "It's one of the only TV shows that I can watch on a daily basis."

"We're going to be great friends, I love Doctor Who."

"Yeah, I have a feeling we will."

After class, I head to detention since that's what it says to do on the write up. I try to get there a bit early since, again, I don't really want to bump into anyone or anything. At first, I thought I would be going alone but I see that Joanna is heading into the same direction that I am. Calling her over, we walk there together and sit in desks next to each other. I thought that we were going to be in detention alone until I heard a familiar sounding laugh. Aiden walks into detention with his buddies and all three of them are laughing about something, I'm not really sure what though.

"Dude, look at her face though, it's so red!" Brian cackles as he shows Aiden the video that he had filmed of the prank they pulled on Mrs. Darcy.

"How'd you even record this? We practically had to run out of there!"

"Just left my phone perched on the window and then I picked it up first period."

Seriously!? I'm sitting here in detention for no reason when it was actually these bozo's!? This isn't fair!

A teacher who I don't know the name of walks into the room, so the three idiots finally decide to sit down and be quiet. Joanna and I start whispering to each other about Doctor Who, but we're sadly interrupted by Aiden's unwarranted attention. He stares at me with his arms crossed for a while and unsure of what to do, I roll my eyes, turning to Jana in a decision to ignore him and his stupid friends. "Hey, do you wanna hang out at the park for a bit after school? I've got work afterwards so it probably won't be too long."

"Sure! I don't have anything going on right now and I have something that I want to ask you anyway."

"What would you want to ask me about?"

"It's not anything really important, it can wait till we get to the park, I promise." I'm not exactly sure what she could want to talk to me about seeing as we've only just met but I'll definitely try to hear her out.

"Alright, until then let's make the best of the day!"

School seemed to drag on forever, every class was a dull tirade of syllabus' and stupid games that made me talk about myself to people who probably already knew my name by now. Joanna was also only in the one class with me so it wasn't like I had anybody to make the time a bit more freeing. I decided to go to the park. It didn't take very long since it was only a five minute, or-so, walk.

I spotted the girl with blonde and pink hair sitting at the swings and I thanked the Lord that I didn't walk all the way over here for no reason.

"Hey Jana," I say as I make my way over. Giving the incredibly short girl a smile, I sit in the blue swing next to her. "So what did you want to ask me, hon?"

"I'm very new to town so I could be wrong but the other day I went to this boxing ring called Adrenaline, again I could be wrong, but there was this really good female fighter that night and when I saw you in class today I immediately thought of her. You both just look so much alike. I thought maybe you had a twin or something...."

I laugh, maybe I wasn't supposed to but she's trying so hard to be considerate while asking and I don't really feel like hiding it from her.

"I don't have a twin or a big sister, it was me," I say with a laugh. "When I was old enough to work I decided to take up a job and the first one that accepted me was Adrenaline."

"Aren't you super young though, I thought that boxing was super strict in that regard."

"My dad used to be a boxing coach over there so they did it for me as a favor. My dad had been teaching me how to defend myself at around eleven or twelve anyways so it was the perfect job for me. Of course it's super hard work, but it gave me a place to relieve all of my stress and anger so I was just extremely grateful for the opportunity."

"That makes sense, but you were seriously amazing up there! The fact that you've been doing this for a while is very inspiring. I wish I could do work that I loved like that."

For a second I remember my sixteenth birthday when Max Jacobs offered me a job fighting at Adrenaline. He said he would pay me enough money to get to college, and stay there. He told me that I didn't have to use my name, for my safety. He even let me pick the name myself so I made my stage name, Rose Tyler. It's a nod to Doctor Who, of course, but it's also a mix of my dad's name and my middle name, Rose.

My vision becomes a bit blurry as I think of my dad and we're both silent for a long while.