Unwanted Touch

Chapter 10

Chapter 10: Questions

I anxiously chew on the end of my pencil.

The classroom is silent except for the sound of pencils on paper and the nervous shuffling of students. I look down at my half completed test sheet and bite my lip.

It would be fully completed if I could stop thinking about the piece of paper I found yesterday in the photo frame. It's been all I can think about for the past 24 hours. And it's killing me.

All I know is that my mum wrote it and it has my name on it, along with something else about a bicycle and a queen of hearts . The queen of hearts is a playing card, obviously.

But what has a playing card got to do with anything?

Did we play a game of cards once and that was a card someone needed to win?

Shouldn't I remember that if it was so important to write down?

What about the bicycle? I've never even owned one.

Am I even supposed to know what it means?

My mum was always the creative and mysterious one. It would be typical of her to write down riddles for me to find later.

So why hadn't I found it before now?

It seems weird that she would put it there and not at least point me in the right direction to find it. She loved playing games, but she wasn't very patient. She would have given a clue if it was taking me too long to find it.

So maybe she put it there right before she died?

The bell blasts into the classroom and I flinch to attention.

"Please hand your tests to the front." Our teacher announces.

Oh Fudge!

I shamefully hand my paper forward and bow my head as I quickly exit the classroom. I shove my things in my locker with panic as I think about my incomplete test.

That is the second incomplete test I have handed up today.

I'm in so much trouble.

Before heading to the cafeteria to meet Quentin, Aaron and Chris, I head to the bathroom.

I push open the door to the girls bathroom and lock myself in one of the stalls. A bunch of girls come in after me, laughing and chatting loudly.

"I was wondering the same thing!" One exclaims.

"I know! What seventeen year old girl has no female friends and hangs out with a bunch of guys all the time? Maybe she's a slut?" Another says.

I stop breathing. They're talking about me.

"What's with her and those gloves anyway?" One girl asks.

"I heard that she killed her mum when she was a kid and had to be homeschooled because of the guilt and depression."

Along with my breathing, my heart has stopped in my chest.

That's what people think about me? And they believe those rumours?

"Yeah. She's such a freak." A girl says as they all exit the bathroom and laugh away.

I unlock my stall and go to the sink. I look at my tear stained face in the mirror and sniff my runny nose.

After a few moments, I pull myself together and try to look normal as I head towards the cafeteria.

"Hey Princess." Q smiles up at me and pulls out a chair beside him.