Fragile

Viobela, Chaper six

Grayson High School, 8:15 Am

"I have algebra 2 with Mrs. Vasquez." she says walking through the halls aimlessly "Great we're right next to each other and turn right," I say and she makes a sharp right. "I'll see you after class Bela," she says just as the bell rings and the teachers start opening doors to their classrooms. She turns around and walks away, waiting for her teacher to open the door. Because Mrs Gonzalez had already opened her door I walked right in. There was a seating chart posted on the screen from the projector. I sigh and walk over to the left side of the room and sit down where my name is. I'm sitting with a few girls. I know one of their names, Carmen, she is pretty nice actually. I met her in middle school when she helped me do some stupid pre-algebra questions. One girl was missing from the table, I looked up and read her name in my head "Becky". Her name sounds familiar but I can't remember. Just then the teacher closes the door and walks to the front writing her name on the whiteboard. "Mrs. Gonzalez" she places the whiteboard marker down and turns around "My name is Mrs. Gonzalez, Not Mrs. G, not Mrs. Mrs Gonzalez. I will not answer any questions if you say anything but my name," she says, she's one of those teachers, she was about to start talking again but she was interrupted by a knock on the door. She turns and walks over to the door making her heels clack on the tile. She opens the door and a girl in a cheerleading uniform walks in, suddenly it hits me who "Becky" is, she's the girl who slept with my ex-boyfriend. "Sorry Mrs., I got here late," she says, looking at the board to see where she sits. I see the smile she previously had faded as she sees who she's sitting with. She turns my way as our eyes lock. I can see slight fear wash over her face as she steps closer. She sits down and breaks eye contact with me. She looks everywhere but my eyes. "Becky is it? Well Becky because today is the first day of school, I will be so kind and not give you an after-school detention, but if you're late tomorrow expect one." Mrs Gonzalez says." Now in class probably you have heard what happened to our fellow student, James," she says with a solemn I glance over at Becky, she's staring down at her lap probably texting her friends. I wonder if she knows I took that picture. "James was a good student and I know a lot of you knew him, today the counselors are offering for students to come down to their office if you need to talk to anyone about what happened." she says. I felt a tap on my elbow that was resting on the table. I turn my head to see Jenny passing a note to me, it reads

Hey Viobela, this is from Becky. I'm sorry for what happened I thought he broke up with you, could you please not show anyone that picture, if you do my life will be over

I put the note down and look at Becky, she is still not looking at me. I right back on the note

Yeah, whatever, I won't show anyone, but don't tell anyone lies about what happened or I will show everyone

I fold it up and hand it back to Jenny to give it to Becky, she reads and nods then turning back to the screen. The class breezes as the bell rings signaling for us to head to 2nd period. I quickly leave the door seeing Val already waiting for me. "Hey, how was your first class of the year?" she asks "It was okay i guess ill tell you more about it later," I say pulling out my schedule again and checking what I have next. Orchestra, my favorite class of all time. "I have Orchestra so I got to go, bye-bye Val," I say hugging her quickly and walking down the hall. I walk into the orchestra room and I see a few people sitting down and a few walking around. I don't have any friends in this class but I like the teacher, Miss Orega. Today we just went over what she expects from us now that we're seniors and stuff. I usually really enjoy orchestra but today I just couldn't focus, my mind kept going back to Marvel, I don't want him to expose me like that, I guess the only thing I need to do is keep my mouth shut and hope he keeps his shut also. I know Marvel has always been so immature but I didn't think he could ever do something so hurtful and childish to me. I didn't realize how much time had passed until Mrs Bridgers started handing out some paperwork. "Okay I hope you all liked that piece, it is one of my favorites. I am hanging out something for your parents to sign before you can get the instrument that you are borrowing from the school. If you have your own please give those sheets to me when you walk out the door." She hands me mine and I read over it, it says that if you damage the instrument you could get it replaced on your own or pay a $30 fee to have the school re-pare it. Thankfully, I have my personal violin. I love playing the violin. It's calming and soothing to me. I've played since the 6th grade. The obnoxious bell rings and everyone stands up, I walk over to the door and hand the slip back to the teacher. And walk off, I pull out my schedule from my back pocket, and check what I have next, Biology. I hate Bio. It's so frustrating for no reason. Last year I barely passed with an 80% average. This year, like last year, I have Mr Eleco. The world's worst teacher, I mean the worst, he never grades assignments and he's strict as hell. I walk into class and see many annoyed faces, one stands out, Valentina. I slightly smile and sit next to her. The Tables are set up in groups of four and I sit on her right closest to the whiteboard. "Hello there stranger, I didn't know we had this class together," I say as she turns around "Oh thank god I didn't know anyone in my first two periods," she says with her natural warm smile practically lighting up the room. "Okay class I recognise some of you all but if you don't know I'm Mr Eleco '' Mr Eleco says closing the door. I turn my chair slightly to face the teacher. Some of the students around me slowly stopped their conversations as they turned toward the door. "This year we will mainly be focusing on the topics Evolution and Population genetics." he starts as he writes the words 'Evolution' and 'population genetics' on the whiteboard I sigh internally to maintain the calmness of the easily aggravated teacher, the other students did not show the same decency. "You all can sigh now and roll your eyes but I simply do not care, for every sigh I hear I will give an extra assignment all of you need to do." My eyes widen as I hear some guy sigh and another guy hits him, telling him to shut up. "Now, I know there has been a tragic accident involving a student that went here," he says with an unfamiliar sound in his voice I'd never heard him use it before. It seems that most of the class agrees with me because everyone starts to look around in confusion. "Is he talking about that James kid?" I hear behind me and I see Val is slightly hunched over whispering in my ear. I nod and look back at Mr. Eleco "Now, your first-period teacher has probably notified you of this, but the counselors are offering time out of your first 5 periods to go see them, only, to talk about how you are feeling with what happened with... James" he pauses before he says his name. He takes a breath and continues "Now, class. You are all seniors, So I expect you to be mature about what happened." he says while walking over to his desk and grabbing a small stack of paper. "Now class, who wants to help me pass out these papers," he says lifting the papers in his hands a little higher on the 'these papers' part. I look around and see no one wants to help. A small quiet "I'll help" emerges from the deep silence. Everyone's eyes go to the back of the class where the notoriously quiet girl has her hand up. "Perfect, is that Elisa?" he asks "Yes," she says quietly. She nervously walks to the front of the class and grabs the papers from Mrs Eleco. She slowly walks around the 6 groups of 4, hanging each student a paper. "Yo can the chick like hurry up already." says some guy, I think Marvel's friends with him. Shocker. Half the class laughs and Elisa's face turns red out of embarrassment. She quickly starts to pass the rest of the papers out giving the rest to Mr Eleco, keeping one for herself. "Thank you, Elisa," Mr Elceo says as I examine the paper that was given to me. It's just a sheet that our parents have to sign saying if we get more than 7 absences in his class he will start taking off points on grades, Great. "Now class I will need this paper signed and returned to me by the end of the week." he says "Bruh what is this" the same guy from earlier speaks up. "Joshua, if you continue to be disrespectful in my class, then you can leave. I do not need to teach you and I will gladly let you fail," he says as a few students giggle, Val, being one of them. I neatly fold the paper into a square and place it into my bag. I look behind me to see Val messily pushing her paper into her bag. I lightly shake my head and slightly giggle as I turn back to the board. Mr, Eleco continues about the class and the expectations, like, "If you fail the class during the first semester expect to be pushed down into an easier class" and "Attendance will matter over almost anything else," stuff like that. I think Val noticed me getting bored because she started to lightly gather my hair from my shoulders and pull it onto my back, running her fingers through my brown hair. "You know Bela, your hair is very tangled" she whispers, leaning in close so only I hear what she says. "Yeah, I know," I whisper, turning my head to face her. Val continues running her fingers through my hair, eventually braiding it into a loose French braid. There are still about 10 minutes left until the next period, which just so happens to be lunch for me. "Do you want me to take out the braid?" she quietly questions and I nod. "Lemme see your schedule." I say and she reaches into the back pocket of her skinny jeans and hands me a white paper. I look for what period she has lunch and I notice she has "A lunch" just like me. "Perfect we have lunch together, I can walk you to the cafeteria, only if you want me to." I say "Of course I want you to, I barely know where my next classes are." I smile and nod as she finishes taking out the braid. "Okay class, I will allow you to wait by the door, only for this first week." Mr Eleco says as everyone quickly stands up. "Wow, there's only 3 minutes left until lunch." Val says getting up and standing in front of me. "Hey, you with the red backpack, are you new?" some guy asks from behind Val "Me, oh yes I am," she says turning around. "You should come to hang out with me and my friends, well show you around." he says stepping closer "Well thank you for the opportunity but I already have a friend." she says turning around and grabbing my arm. "You mean Viobela?" he starts to laugh and then continues "I get that you're new and all but do you seriously not know who I am? I'm the captain of the basketball team, I could make you popular in 5 minutes." he says as I practically drown in the size of his ego. Val smiles as the bell rings "Listen, I don't want to be popular and even if I did I would not need your help." she says grabbing my hand once again and dragging me out of the classroom. She starts to giggle as I'm left in awe, I could never talk to anyone like that. "That was hilarious. Did you see if face?" she asks still laughing, i start to smile a nod. "Okay, where is the lunchroom?" she asks catching her breath i raise my hang to point down the hall and she starts off in the direction i pointed. " I can't belive you said that to him, no one has ever talked to someone like that" i say walking beside her, "obviously someone should" she replies. The rest of the walk is short and silent, as we enter the cafeteria we are bombarded with loud conversations from every direction and the smell of cafeteria food. "Wow this cafeteria is huge compared to my old school," Val says and a slightly giggle, not that she heard it. "Are you going to eat?" Val asks and a shake my head "i ate the food here once in freshman year and it was awful, never again." i say dramatically. She smiles as we find an empty small round table and sit down. I spot Raven and Luke at the entrance of the cafeteria. I wave them over and Val turns around to see who im waving over. "Hey Raven, hi Luke," I say as raven sits down next to my opposite from Val, Luke sits next to Raven making him also sit next to Val. "Raven this is my friend Valentina, Val this is my friend Raven." I say and Raven oh so kindly adds to that "I'm Bela's best friend" emphasizing the "Best" I awkwardly smile as Val says "Noted." Val decided not to eat the food that the school provides and she wanted to share the chips I had gotten from the gas station, the bag is a good size so it lasts us more than halfway through lunch. While we ate we made comfortable small talk, we talked about random stuff really. "Hey Bela, did you see that Marvel just went live?" Ray says I shake my head as she hands me the phone as i hear Marvel say over the live "Oh yeah I had to break up with Vioblea because shes a woman loving homo, last year i caught her and Anya fucking full on making out." My eyes widen as i hand back the phone, i quickly stand up as i see half the cafeteria stare at me with some lightly laughing, my eyes fill with tears as i head over to Marvels usual hangout spot, the courtyard. Ray and Val decide to follow me as Luke stays at the table. I can hear Ray and Val ask me if thats true and where im going but i don't answer. Once i reach the court yard everyone's eyes turns to me but i don't care, i have my sights set on Marvel who just so happens to be right at the center of the group of students. "Marvel! I shout and his little posse all turns and starts to laugh "How would you like it if i went live?" I ask and his eyes widen "You fucking bitch you said you wouldn't" he spits as I reach a few feet in front of him with Val and Ray shortly behind me. I pull out my phone and start a live, almost instantly half the school joins. "Hey guys! I know you all just saw Marvels live" i say with a huge smile on my face as Marvel says "Bela don't do this you fucking whore" a single tear rolls down my face as a quickly blink away the others. "Well if anyone remembers the party that Marvel made me go to" I say as Marvel gives me a death glare, i lock eyes with him as i say "Well sweet dear innocent Marvel decided to cheat on me, not with one girl, but with two. Yes, that means Marel Christopher Rodriguez had a threesome with two girls!" i say with a little pep and marvel mutters "You fucking bitch" and try to charge at me, many gasps arise as Luke stops him I guess he finally joined me, Ray, and Val. "And if no one belives me, i have a picture" i say smiling as another tear slowly rolls down my cheek, with that i end the live and turn to Marvel while Luke is holding him with his arms tightly held behind his back. I put my phone in my back pocket and turn to Marvel, "You did this Marvel, you did this" i say and walk towards Val and Ray with Luke practically throwing him back at his not-so-happy posse. "Bela, are you okay?" both Ray and Val say at the same time, "yeah, I'm okay, saying that made me feel better." I say as Ray glares at Val from my right. We slowly walk back to the cafeteria as most people stare at us four, I see Anya in the corner of my eye but I don't look at her. We all sit back down as i place my head in my hands as val sits closer to me that before, i feel her hand rub up and down my back as i look at her with a slight smile "Its gonna be okay Bela," she says as i can feel Ravens eyes on the side of my head, we hear the bell ring, dismissing us to our 5th period, "Come on Val i think we have 5th period together" I grab my schedule out of my pocket and see that i have Statistics "What do you have?" "Same as you," she says. "We also have Statistics," Raven says grabbing Luke's arm, he nods in response. "Great we can all go together!" Val says and Ray side eyes her. "Yup," I say grabbing Vals arm. I can feel everyone's eye on me as i walk to my class. I hope my entire life dose'nt change because everyone knows everything.