THE PAINFUL TRUTH

Chapter Thirty Six- Keep your head up high

Stella's POV

"This feels like déjà vu," I sigh.

Harry's car is parked in front of the gates. The gates of Minehead Academy. My school. It feels like I haven't been here for a decade when actually, it's only been a few weeks. The human mind loves to play tricks on you.

"Déjà vu is the mind's way of letting you know that you are in the right place at the right time," Harry says, smiling.

I return the smile.

Here goes nothing!

The sound of the car door opening echoes in the quiet street; Mrs Barry had arranged for me to arrive at school earlier so that I could have a better chance of settling right back into the routine without any 'disturbances'.

"Bye, Harry," I say.

"Have a good day!"

I need that!

Approaching the school gates, I stop walking when I hear my phone vibrate. Taking it out of my coat pocket, I can't stop a grin from spreading on my face. It's a message:

Harry: Keep your head up high :)

When I finish reading it, I turn around to where Harry still has his car parked; he's beaming at me. I've smiled so much since I got out of bed this morning that my cheekbones start to ache. I turn back to the gates.

Harry can protect me outside the gates. However, once I step inside, he can no longer do anything for me. Yes, there are the teachers but they can't be watching constantly, not when there are hundreds of students. It's just me, myself and I.

The song by Bebe Rexha and G-Eazy plays in my head and I bet that I look like a lunatic...but it's too early to be caring about what other people think of me. When I'm inside the building, I climb up the stairs that look like the steps have doubled since I've last been here.

On one flight of stairs, I bump into one of the cleaners half-heartedly mopping the stairs. She has grey hair and countless freckles covering most of her face; on top of her plain black clothes is the yellow apron every cleaner that works in the school has to wear. When I go pass her, she pauses her work to stare at me.

Unsure on what to do, I give her a small, nervous smile, which she responds with a dirty look. Surprised and embarrassed, I quicken my pace up the stairs.

For the remainder of the stairs, I try to figure out what the reason behind the dirty look was.

It was just my imagination!

But was it?

If not, it was just miscommunication.

Miscommunication? The lady was oozing disapproval and disgust.

What at?

Does she know what every student and every teacher in this school knows? Does she know about my past? Do all the cleaners know? Do all the staff members(that aren't teachers) know?

Or...

I could be wrong. It could be that her face wasn't expressing disgust or disapproval but anger instead. The lady doesn't know about my past but could know that I was somehow linked to the graffiti in the toilets. She could have been the person who had to clean it up and mistaken me for the person who just made her job ten times worse.

Stop being so paranoid, Stella! She was probably just irritated because you ruined the only part of the day she isn't surrounded by demanding children!