Strings

Chapter Two

So, the rest of the week went by fairly normal, the boys in my class making fun of me, and the three 'Charlie's Angels' (believe me, there is nothing angelic about them) bullying me. Until Friday.
Now, I'm normally happy about Fridays, cause it means the weekend is near and I can get out of this torture chamber this principle calls a school. But, I forgot that we had swimming. Luckily, the teacher sent out an email the day before to remember to bring our bathers and whatever else we needed.

I'm not a strong swimmer, but I'm not a weak one, so I was somewhere in the middle. And, lucky for me (hint the sarcasm) one of the boys that has been bullying me, didn't have their bathers, so he was sitting on the side, yelling at me through pretty much the whole lesson. And, of course, to my luck, my asthma started to play up.
I ended up on the side of the pool, hardly breathing, without my asthma puffer, a stupid boy sitting next to me asking repeatedly if I drowned, and went on anyway to tell everybody that yes, I did drown when no, I had a major asthma attack.

So, there was that, and then there was this.

After we got back to school, I was at my locker when guess what I heard. The click of higher-than-normal school shoes heels, and the jangle of forbidden bracelets on wrists. I sighed, before turning around to see, you guessed it, the three girls standing there looking at me with a smug look on their faces, hands on hips.

"Yes?" I asked them, being as polite as possible, when God knows that I'm refraining myself from strangling them.
Bree looked down, and smiled, though I could tell it wasn't genuine, because it didn't reach her eyes.
"A wittle birdie told me that you had a wittle oopsie in cwass today," she said in an annoying baby voice.
"Yeah, it's called and asthma attack." I looked her up and down before studying the others. She glared at me, before signaling the others to back away. She took a step closer to me, leaving me with nowhere to run as my back was already pressed up against the wall. Bree's dirt colored eyes locked into my dark chocolate ones, before saying, in a voice I could hardly understand as she spoke, "You better watch it you little slut, or you never know, your life could get worse." I don't know how it could get worse if it's already terrible, I thought watching as their shadows moved in sync with each other. I turned around, quietly muttering to myself, before I heard an odd sound behind me. It kind of sounded like an injured kitten. As I turned around to investigate what it was, something slammed into me, and I fell to the floor, writhering in pain as the right side of my head throbbed. I opened my left eye slightly to see Jade walking away witn a grin on her face, before high-fiving the other two girls.
I waited until I saw the go around the corner before I let out a muffled groan. I somehow managed to get myself up into a sitting position, my hand covering my head. I didn't dare look at it, as I knew I would most likely faint from the sight of the blood in my hand. I could already feel how much there was, so I knew there was going to be a lot.

Suddenly, I heard footsteps and tried to stand back up, but with my head injury, as soon as I tried, I fell back down, feeling really dizzy. I looked up with fear in my eyes to sees a boy standing at the lockers, staring at me with confusion in his eyes. He wouldn't'know who I am, I remember thinking. I was just a random girl laying kn the floor wafting being punched in the head, trying not to cry. But I knew who he was. Jai Bradford, the most popular boy in year seven.

He continued to stare at me while I was trying to stand up,before realizing he should probably help me up. He walked over carefully, while, me being me, slid away from him, knowing he probably didn't want to help me anyway. But as I felt his hand on my shoulder, I slowly lifted my head, brushing my hair away from my face with my left hand, and looked into his eyes, seeing something other than hate, which I was used to. It was weird. I couldn't quite pinpoint it. I was staring into his grey colored eyes, my head snapped up as I realised he said something.
"Wh-what?" I asked, me not ally facepalming myself for my idiocy to stare. I expected him to get angry at me like most people would, but instead he laughed. To say the least, I was really confused at this point.
"I said," he started, catching my attention, "take a picture, it lasts longer." I managed to form a weak smile, before wincing in pain and clutching my head a little tighter. Jai's face turned from happy to concerned as he realised I was still injured. He held out his hand to help me up with, and I gingerly took it, wanting to be careful encase he was only joking and decides to pull it away at the last second. Believe me, having that happen to you many times sucks.
"Can you stand?" He asked me quietly. I nodded, then realised it was a bad idea as my head was still sore, so instead I managed to form a small "I think so."

He looked down at my head, before softly grabbing my arm and helping me walk, just in case. Luckily for us, it was the end of school, and there was nobody left except the teachers who were in their offices. "Where are we going?" I asked Jai, looking around to see. He chuckled slightly, before gently tugging in my arm to let me knowwhich way. He lead me to the right, near the end of the school, where an old rusty shack that I guessed was the storage room stood. As Jai opened the door for me, he turned on the light so we could see. There was nothing much in there. Just a sink, a few boxes, a cupboard sitting above the sink and couple of chairs scattered around the place.

Jai led me to one, and sat me down, making sure I was okay, before going over to the cupboard and rummaging through it, looking for something.
"Whatcha looking for?" I called from the chair, slowly bringing my hand in front if my face to see how much blood there was. A lot was the answer. I felt myself getting queasy and put my hand down, looking back up to see Jai standing above me, a cloth in one hand and a weird looking spray in the other.

He keeled down on my right side before going back and getting a bucket of water and bringing it over to us. He looked into my eyes, warning me that this would sting a little, so I closed my eyes and curled my hands into fists, ready for the pain.

20 minutes later

"There. All done." Jai said, turning away from me to out the things back. I let out a sign of relief, my head feeling a lot better. He wasn't kidding, it really did hurt.
"Hey Jai?" I ask, wondering something. "Where did you learn all of that stuff?" I asked, referring to the medical thingy that he just did for me.
"My mums a nurse." He replied, his back still turned to me. My mouth formed a silent o, and I facepalmed myself. How could I be so stupid to not realise the obvious. I looked up to see Jai standing over me, his arm offered to hell ,e up again and his mouth in a slight smile, almost like he was trying not to.
"How do you know my name?" Jai asked me, as though he knew nothing at all.
"Who doesn't?!" I replied. "I mean, you're like the most popular boy in year seven! I bet you don't even know my name." I added under my breath. Unfortunately, he heard the last bit and looked at me weirdly.
"What is your name anyway?" He questioned, continuing to stare at the strange girl that is me sitting in the chair in font of me. I sigh. Finally! I thought.
"My name's Veridia." I told him, finally grabbing his hand. As I stood up, I realised just how mush taller than me he was. It was like a head and a half! I swear, my shortness will be the death of me.

Jai seemed to realise what I was thinking, before grinning and standing up even straighter, making him almost two heads taller than me! I huffed, and walked out the door, hearing Jai's footsteps coming along behind me.
"Ate you sure you're in year seven? You don't seem like you should be." I asked him, walking along the stone footpath to go back to my locker and grab my stuff. I heard him chuckle behind me, before he relied with a "yeah, I'm sure."

As we got to my locker, Jai asked the question I was dreading.
"So, who's meant to be picking you up?"
I sighed, before replying with "my mother, but she never shows up cause she's never actually home." He looked shocked at my sudden outburst before replying with a small oh sounding noise.

He went quiet, and as I finished collecting my stuff, I turned around and saw him staring at the ground, mumbling things to himself. I went to walk away, before I decided I better thank him.
"Thank you Jai for your help. See you later." I started to walk away before I hears him calling my name.
"Veridia! Wait!" I turned around to see him standing up and look me in the eye.
"Do you want to come back to my place for a little while?" He asked, giving me a strange look.
"Yeah... I guess." I replied, and walked off into the direction he was going in.