The Ugly Side of Beauty

Chapter Nine: Fear

Author's Note: Sorry I haven't been updating much but I honestly don't know how to continue this story. ><'''

Anyway, I hope you guys will enjoy this chapter ! And sorry it's so short, I'll do my best to make the next chapter longer. 

BTW, you guys are all AWESOME!!! More than 300 reads!! Wow!! Thank you all so much!!

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When I entered class the next day feeling sufficiently rested and well, Chocolate barreled into my side and I was thrown to the right. My bag flew out of my hands and I automatically reached up to keep my glasses firmly on my face.

"Are you okay?" she yelled at me. Well, Choc, I was until you basically body slammed into me and wailed into my ear. Yeah, I wasn't going to say that.

I got up from the ground, feeling a sense of de já vu. Something like this totally happened before. Jolene handed me my bag with a smile on her face.

"It was the first day of school," she winked at me. I nodded and smiled back at her.

"Are you feeling better?" Chocolate looked at me closely in the face, but I wasn't sure what she would be seeing since more than half my face was covered by my glasses. "You were absent yesterday, so we were wondering what happened to you."

"Oh, I... I had a...fever." I mumbled. Chocolate's mouth went into an 'O' shape and she nodded.

Cikgu Amir came into class and we quickly scurried to our respective seats. He started taking attendance while we chattered amongst ourselves. There was a knock at our classroom door and I saw a few kids from the Accounts class waiting by it. Cikgu Amir looked at them questioningly.

"Cikgu, kami nak pinjam kalkulator kejap." One of the girls said. Teacher, we want to borrow calculators for a while. Cikgu Amir sighed and nodded; allowing them to enter the class to ask for it.

All eyes went to Chocolate, who was already digging through her bag. There was one bad thing about the Penangites. They discriminated by class, but unlike New York, it wasn't the rich against the poor. It was the smart against the dumb.

Whenever someone from another class forgot to bring something, say, papers or a book or a calculator, the Science students would be reluctant to lend anything of theirs to them. But there was a good reason, and it was that most of the time, the things they lend usually don't return as they left. Chocolate was the only one who lent her things easily, without reluctance or hesitation.

Since I had sworn to be more like Chocolate, I went rummaging through my bag as well, searching for my calculator. I saw some guys and girls handing over their calculators because they were friends with the students of the other classes. I was relieved that I brought my calculator when I saw the relief and gratitude on the face of the girl who received my calculator.

Nick was present today and I tried to look at him objectively. I didn't think I really had feelings for him; I just had the normal human desire to attain what they would never obtain. I tried to imagine being with Nick, but the image that popped up in my head was him and Chocolate together, smiling at each other. And I wasn't jealous or envious. In fact, the picture looked so very right to me that I promised myself silently that I would try to help Nick get the daft girl.

Then the first period bell rang and our lessons started.

When we went to our usual table for recess, Dan asked me to walk with him for a while. As we walked off, I could uneasily feel the eyes of our usual group burning into our backs. We walked in silence for a while until we ended up at the school field, and I was wondering if he meant literally walk with him when he broke the silence.