The Wrong Choices

1. I'm daydreaming again..

Probably when you were staring at her hair.

"Have a seat." She gestures to the hard, plastic chair beside the one she is sitting on.

I put my blue backpack down and sit nervously, turning my head to look at her. She slips off her glasses, putting them in a case decorated with flowers.

She looks at me intently for a while. I try to look anywhere but her eyes, "What's wrong, Lilli?".

I'm taken aback. I was expecting her to scold me for doing bad in tests, tell me to try harder. "Sorry?"

"There's obviously something wrong with you. You're even more. . . withdrawn than usual. So what's wrong?" She looks at me worriedly. She has remarkable powers of observation, I must say. I'm tempted to say 'PMS' but somehow I think she will see through that.

All I can manage is an awkward "Um.."

I'd love to spill the beans, tell someone exactly what's keeping me up at night but something's stopping me.

She sighs, standing up. "I think you should talk to someone. I would like to make an appointment with the school counsellor for you, but you have to agree."

Counsellor?

"Um, I guess." I stutter, my cheeks going red again.

Shit. Why did I just say that? I mentally slap myself for, once again, not thinking before I talked.

"Great!" she smiles, "I'm glad."

I stand up and hastily walk to the door, turning around to thank her. I can't see the school counsellor helping me really, but I never even thought about it when I said yes.

I hit myself on the side of my head. "Idiot", I hiss to myself.

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I found my hiding place about two years ago, by chance. I was skipping class, I can't even remember why, I told someone to tell the teacher that I was sick. I was sitting under the stairs, reading a book where I thought no one could see me, when he stopped beside me, panting.

I snorted, trying to hold in a giggle. "You won't be laughing when Miss Grainger finds you." he said, "follow me, nerd girl."

He was tall for his age, he had dark blonde hair and light brown eyes. His skin was lightly tanned. And follow him, I did.

I could hear Miss Grainger's heels clicking in the distance as we ran down two corridors, coming to a stop in the cafeteria.

"My name's Leonard. Call me Len." he said, smiling sheepishly and holding out his hand.

"Lilli." I stated, shaking his hand and returning the smile.

He then strutted away, down the corridor towards the sports hall, as I stood in the cafeteria, wondering where to go.

"You coming or what, nerd girl?" I looked up to see his head popping around the corner. Hesitantly, I walked after him.

"I'm gonna show you my hiding place, nerd girl. You obviously need a better one."

"My name's Lilli." I said, definitely.

"Yeah, whatever, nerd girl." he teased.

"Twat", I retorted, badly disguising it as a cough.

He laughed, he sounded like a girl when he laughed, a fact which I repeated to him.

He rolled his eyes.

We were just past the changing rooms on the bottom floor.

"Ah. Here we are." He opened a door that I had never even noticed before. Inside was an empty room, about the size of a janitor's closet. "There used to be showers here, I think", he said, pointing at the badly filled in holes in the floor. He sat on the floor against the wall and looked up at me. "Sit down, nerd girl, I don't bite."

So I sat, and I'm sitting there now, my earphones tuned to almost full volume and I'm gobbling my pasta salad that I made last night. I retrieved it from my locker as soon as I got out of maths class.

My friends will think that I went to my aunt, Sandra's house for lunch and Damon, well, I doubt Damon would care if I went to Peru and ran around naked with the locals.

I like being alone every once in a while, anyway. The hustle and bustle gets to me and I need to get away, I'm glad I never told anyone about my hiding place and I never will.

I remember what Miss Edwards said to me.

Shit.

Why could I not just say no? Now I'll have to go to a stupid counselling session with some weirdo.

It's still annoying me how she figured it out. Could she have noticed the bags under my eyes? I shake my head to myself, no, no, that's what concealer is for.

I don't want to go home tonight, I realise as I think about how tired I am.

I flick open my phone, searching for my aunt's number.

Me: Can we stay with you tonight?

I hope she'll be okay with it because I want Bella to have a whole nights sleep. It's obviously not healthy for an eight year old to be getting only five hours of sleep.

My phone buzzes.

Sandra: Sure, I'll tell your mum.

I breath a sigh of relief. If I could live with Sandra, I would, but I can't put that burden on her, especially since she's almost seven months pregnant.

I close my lunchbox, stuffing it into my backpack. I lean against the wall, shutting my eyes and I don't even try to stop myself from falling asleep.

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