It was the same routine, a constant cycle of never-ending pain, something the girl had scarily become used to. She would walk through the doors, her recyclable handbag held firmly to her side, and the football jocks would instantly wait to pounce on her like she was their prey. Each one would always have a slushie in their grasp, Nara had memorized which flavor each jock's favourite one was since they usually always preferred to toss the same ones over her head, and usually once it hit her lips she would have to endure the syrup flavour by licking her lips clean. Caspian's was cherry, or raspberry flavour on a good day, Cedro usually went with grape flavour that was laced with extra sweetener, apparently, the extra sugar made it sting more and grape was harder to wash off.
And Avel would always linger shyly behind all three of them, he wouldn't throw one at the St James until Caspian began to berate him for being a pussy, a word that really tugged at his heartstrings. If there was one thing the pearl blonde hated more than anything, it was his friends questioning his 'manliness', he would then send her about a thousand useless text messages on WhatsApp to make sure the contents of the slushie hadn't affected her eyes sight, he knew that she always got the worst allergic reaction to raspberry.
Nara even remembered a time when her own brother, her flesh and blood, dumped an icy, more than cold slushie all over her art homework that was for a final exam. He just stood and silently pondered, watching aimlessly as the girl wailed out in anger. Nara could take Caspian and his goons torment, but Hudson was her brother, and in another universe, he also used to be her first best friend.
But today was different, abnormal even, Nara hadn't been hit in the face with a slushie all day. Her clothes were still intact, and she had even been able to make it through lunch without someone deciding to use the back of her head as a target for their creamy mashed potatoes.
A couple of the cheerios had even stooped her in the hallway to compliment her on the lilac sunflower dress she had been wearing, the head cheerio who was the daughter of the New Directions coach took a big screenshot of it and promised she would make the look go 'viral'. Finally, Nara would have a small chance of feeling like somebody in this hell hole, a person who everybody admired.
For now, Nara had been cooped up in the dance studio practicing the same ballet routine consecutively for the last half an hour. Perfection meant everything, for every fall she took meant her going back to the tape and rewinding it again. Rachel had practically drilled the idea of always being on top in the girl's head since she was still in diapers with little to no sense of direction.
