Daisy in a Meadow

28 - Distance

Heather sized me up and down before crossing her arms. "You wanted to talk?"

"Yes," I calmly replied. "Look, this whole feud we've got going on is stupid. Frankly, I've got way too many things going on in my life to add a petty rivalry to the list. Could we just agree to put all this bad blood behind us and go our separate ways?"

There was a moment of silence, before Heather began to emit a cruel, loud laugh.

"This isn't a rivalry, silly little Daisy," she smirked. "For you to be my rival, you'd have to be my equal, and we are not equals. In fact, you don't even compare to me."

I frowned. Heather Addams had two parents who loved and supported her. Heather Addams had tons of guys who kissed the ground she walked on. Heather Addams was captain of the cheer team. Heather Addams, with her perfect blonde hair, and her perfect arched eyebrows, and her perfect nails that she could always afford to get done, and her perfect slender height. She was the feminine beauty ideal.

I couldn't imagine what I looked like right now. My grey, baggy clothes. My curly hair that was probably all messed up from running during PE. My humongous eye bags due to the fact that I hadn't been getting much sleep lately, too busy with school and work.

She's right, you don't even compare, my inner conscious snidely whispered.

"You know, I've been watching you, Crazy Daisy," Heather said.

My eyebrows furrowed in confusion, before a gasp of realization escaped my lips. "It was you!"

A proud smirk from her confirmed my thoughts.

"Wow, you have the nerve to call me crazy, and yet you've been stalking me?" I laughed in disbelief. "Wait till the boys get ahold of this one."

"You won't be telling the boys anything," Heather ominously said.

"Oh, yeah? And why's that?" I scoffed.

"Because if you say a word to the boys, I'll tell them what really happened to your father."

I froze. No.

"That one shut you up real quick, didn't it," Heather's eyes glimmered in evil delight.

"Please," I whispered. "I haven't done anything to you."

"Except you have, bitch," she snarled. "You stole Elias from me."

Now I was purely confused. "Wh—Elias? That's who this is about?"

"Don't play dumb! The moment he transferred to this school, I knew he was going to be mine."

"You had a boyfriend!" I exclaimed in disbelief.

She completely disregarded what I'd said. "God, he was the hottest guy I'd ever laid my eyes on. When he got made captain of the football team, that only confirmed what I already knew—me and him were meant to be. And yet, no matter how many times I wore makeup for him and did my hair for him and giggled at the things he said, he only had eyes for one person—you!"

Clearly Heather was sick in the head, because there was no possible way in this universe that Elias would ever like me. Besides that, she clearly didn't know him as well as she thought. With all the things going on in his life, he certainly didn't give a crap about how much makeup a girl wore, or if she giggled at his jokes.

"Let's just get one thing straight," Heather's voice dropped to a dangerous whisper. "You are nothing compared to me, and you never will be. So stay away from the boys, or I'll tell them exactly what happened to your father. Then they'll finally know why people call you Crazy Daisy."

I shakily stepped back from her. No no no. This wasn't happening. I couldn't have the boys finding out.

The walls of the changeroom began closing in on me, and my vision began to get blurry. Feeling desperate for some fresh air, I stumbled out of the changeroom.

"Woah, are you alright?" Chelsea reached out her arms to steady me. The moment she got a good look at my face, worry coated her features. "Uh oh, what'd she say to you? I knew this was a bad ide—"

I pushed past Chelsea and began to run out of the gym. I felt bad about it, but I knew the waterworks were gonna start any moment now, and I couldn't afford to have anyone see me like this.

As I charged through the hallways, tears uncontrollably began to stream down my face. I hated this. I hated how mean girls still had the power to affect me. Once again, I was reminded that I was weak... incapable... useless...

Apparently I was clumsy too, because in my haste to get out of here, I hadn't been watching where I was going and I collided into a firm body.

"Woah!" a familiar voice exclaimed. Any other time, I'd be happy to run into Malcolm like this, but a pit of dread formed in my stomach once I realized that he, Andre, and Elias had seen me.

"Sorry," I quickly murmured, wiping at my face.

Elias, ever the analyst, was the first to realize something was wrong. He immediately jumped up from his casual lean against the lockers. His abrupt action caused Andre and Malcolm to notice as well.

"Hey, are you crying?" Malcolm protectively asked, pure worry etched onto his features.

"What's wrong, Flower?" Andre gently questioned.

Elias remained silent. Unlike the other two who regarded me with softness, Elias looked purely murderous. Not at me, though, but rather by the fact that someone had clearly hurt me.

"I'm fine," I snapped.

Malcolm, who had just been reaching forward to hug me, recoiled at my sharp tone. "Hey, I may not be the smartest compared to you three—"

"Agreed."

"We know."

"Definitely not."

Malcolm gritted his teeth at our responses. "As I was saying, I may not be the smartest compared to you guys, but I can definitely tell when something's not okay with you, Daisy."

"Yeah, talk to us," Andre insisted, looking sad. "Did someone say something?"

"Because if so, we can jump them," Malcolm nodded.

"Not funny," Andre frowned.

"I wasn't joking."

I began to walk away, but to my avail, the boys followed after me, as if they were my warriors.

Malcolm reached out to grab my arm. "Where are you going? We have class—"

"Gosh, you're so annoying. Just leave me alone!" I shouted.

I immediately regretted it when I saw the look on his face. He looked like a kicked puppy—a golden retriever, to be exact.

Although, I knew I'd done the right thing. I'd created a raft between the boys and me. Heather had won.

With that, I turned around and slowly walked out of the school, feeling all three of their eyes trained on my back.

*****

QOTD: gossip girl or gilmore girls?
AOTD: gossip girl, it's my fav show!

Sorry if Daisy's behaviour in this chapter frustrated you, but don't worry it'll all make sense.

Love, Emmanuela

03/09/2023