✮Ｓｔｅｐｈａｎｉｅ✮

CH.8: CROOKED PATH

"Oh, thank you, Arthur, it's very needful of you to state the obvious," sarcastically, I implied.

"Plus, I saw one of Nicole's giggle buddies with the same rat in a cage yesterday," he said. "Hmm, I could use one of these for my science experiment."

I heaved a sigh of devastation and got prepared to pick up the dead rat. The gloves didn't go to a waste after all.

"Stephanie, this has to stop. You have to show Nicky you are not weak and dumb and go tell on her to the principal so she can get suspended and learn her lesson," Arthur said, pretty earnestly.

"But, I don't want her to get suspended because of me, I'm not like that."

"What you are not like is a wimp, so show her that and shut her down once and for all."

"I just got here, Arthur. I can't get anyone into this much trouble. Trust me, if I keep ignoring her, she'll eventually stop."

"Come on, Steph, what are you afraid of? Well, I warned you."

When Arthur was done talking, he helped me take care of the disgusting locker and my books.

                    ***
Like what she earlier did wasn't enough, I got sprayed in the face by Nicole with something like a pepper spray but softer. "That'll teach you not to mess with me. Oh, and since you love yellow so much, you wouldn't mind being the colour itself," Nicole said after spraying me on the face.

I screamed aloud and struggled to get to the bathroom; I heard a feminine voice say, "come, let me help you."

I had no idea about who it was but I cared more about getting the stuff off my face. The person took me to the toilet by my hand and helped me wash my face gently. When I eventually opened my eyes, I found out that it was Bianca—one of Nicole's minions. I became even more perplexed.

"You are welcome," she said and walked away.
All I kept thinking was that maybe the girl wasn't really like Nicole. In few minutes, I walked down the hallway and once again, I became the laughing stock of the whole school.

What is it this time?

Just immediately, Mrs Kayla walked by with her head slightly bent to the side like she was trying to see through me.

"Darling, what happened to your face?" She asked.

"My face?"

"Yeah." Mrs Kayla pulled out a mirror from her purse and showed it to me. My face had suddenly become all round yellow!

"Oh my God!" I exclaimed and that was when I got Nicole's message—turning me yellow! The girl used water mixed with dye to wash my face.

Nicole was mad at me for getting her into trouble but it had gone too far. I explained what Nicole had been doing to me and how much I had been fed up. Mrs Kayla took me to the principal's office.

The bumming part of everything was how the principal misregarded my complaint and didn't keep to her word. She claimed that detention was enough for Nicole at that moment. Even as Mrs Kayla tried to stand in for me, the principal breezed past every complaint. So, I stopped worrying about her and decided to face more crucial stuffs, like my life.

                       ***
After school that day, I got prepared to meet Dale at his house by 6pm. I earlier spoke to my mom on phone and she didn't sound much interested in anything I spoke about.

Often, I wondered why they chose to have a child together when they weren't ready to be parents. I usually got all I wanted from them—every materialistic thing, but never really got their attention. They lacked parental responsibility.