FrAcTuReD (Part One) (Completed continued in Part Two)

Chapter. 08 (Another Slight Edit)

So she was being bullied, extremely from what it sounds like. "Like what?"

"Destroying my locker, my desk, stealing my things, you know the normal clichéd stuff you hear all the time. He found it funny that I had this whole fainting issue, he thought it was fake so he kept doing it."

"Why didn't the teachers step in?"

"They didn't care." Jack looked to Charla when she spoke with such a detached voice. "The teachers never seemed to care all that much, when it first happened they thought I was faking to get out of class as well. And left me, when my Dad discovered this I thought he would murder the teachers in cold blood." she recalled his expression and how the teachers seemed to cower in fear of him. "At least that's what he looked at the time..."

"You're father's rather protective isn't he?"

"If you lost a son and your daughter was injured in a car crash wouldn't you?" she said to him matter of factually. "You know about my brother, right?"

"Yes, I heard of his death four years ago. It must have been hard for you."

Her eyes averted away. "I barely remember any of it. Doctors claimed it was due to the shock from the accident, and at times when I blackout I often get those memories to come back though it's in bits and pieces nothing complete. Like a broken mirror, shattered and fractured with missing shards that may never be recovered."

"That's a rather profound thing to say at your age." Jack admitted.

Charla glanced to her bag. "I read a lot, as you know I didn't have many friends." She smiled but it didn't seem to reach her eyes. "But I don't mind it all that much, thanks to those people I was able to read books I liked in peace. And other then some students I was rarely bothered with as you know..."

Jack merely looked at her, keeping a blank face, but inside he couldn't help but feel slightly disturbed by how dead her eyes seemed to turn. This girl has been through a lot more then I originally thought... "And your father, he knew about it, did he try to help?"

The light returned to her eyes as she smiled warmly. "If I'm honest there wasn't much he could do even though it angered him that I was being treated like this, and though it's bad for me to say it's thanks to the incidents in the city that my father brought me here to live with his younger brother and daughter. I'm grateful for it," she sighed. "I just wish he could have come with, I know now talking to Nina she would have liked to have met him. But my Dad has a business to run and there were a few times where he tells me he'll sneak away and take me out of school and go somewhere."

"He's done this before?"

Charla nodded. "I think it was his way of trying to make up for the issues that was happening in the school, but I was just happy to spend time with him."

"Well what about your mother?" Jack asked. "I'm sure she was worried about you in regards to what was happening at your pervious school."

"Pass," Charla said suddenly, catching Jack off guard. He looked at her from his notes and noticed how rigid she had become, looked as if she didn't want to talk about her mother.

"Oh, okay. Well, regards to how you're feeling you seem to be fine." He glanced at her again and saw how she was almost toying with the headphones around her neck. "You always seem to wear those even when they aren't playing anything. It must be pretty important."

She glanced to her headphones and nodded. "They are, so can I leave now?"

"Ah right, yes, yes you can. But Charla if you start feeling dizzy again I want you to come here right away, I don't care what it is I don't want to hear that you fainted in the hallway claiming your fine."