Rose Petals

Prologue

(Warning: This story includes topics related to depression, bullying, abuse, and suicide. If you can't handle those topics, please read one of my other stories. Thank you! Enjoy~)

The bell rings and students start flooding into class.

I shuffle my papers and read through the notes I made the previous night. When the second bell rings indicating class has started, I adjust my glasses and look up.

All the students are looking at me with questionable gazes. "Good morning class. My name is Nate Silverstone and I'm going to be your teacher for the next few weeks." The class started whispering to one another and I couldn't help but smile to myself.

"You might know who I am, but for those of you who don't, I am the counselor or whatever the school calls it." I spoke up and then turned around to the board. I picked up one of the markers and drew a game of hangman. I drew 5 lines at the bottom then turned around.

"Any guesses?" I asked the class. They looked so confused. "I promise this will all make sense when we get into it, now any guesses?" I shortly explained then a boy in the back of the middle row raised his hand. "Yes?"

"The letter F?" I drew the head. Another student raised her hand and I pointed at her.

"B?" I wrote the letter B on the first line. Another student guessed 'A' and I drew the body.

At the end of the game nobody won. I put the marker down and skipped to the front of my desk and leaned on it. I looked over the class. I looked over at the finished game of hangman and then back to the class.

"What do you see?" I asked them. They were silent for a moment and no one raised their hands. "Come on, guess. Anyone!" I said. They all looked around.

"A finished game if hangman?" Someone asked.

"Yes but look deeper. What else do you see?" I asked.

"The word isn't finished."

"Yes that is true, what do you think the word was?" I asked, tapping my fingers against the desk.

He didn't say anything. No one did. I jumped off the desk all of a sudden and picked up the marker. I wrote the rest of the word onto the board and then turned around so my body was covering the word.

"One more guess. Anyone. Just say it."

"Birch?" A student in the front row guessed.

"Good try but no." I moved and uncovered the word. Right as I did so the same boy from earlier, back middle row shot his hand in the air. I nodded towards him, telling him to speak.

"Bully? I don't understand. What are you trying to say?" He asked.

"Whats your name?" I asked.

"Evan." I looked down at my watch then looked back up to the class.

"What im trying to say is hangman isn't just a game. It's a story. It has a moral. The moral is just by saying the wrong things you could end someones life just in the blink of an eye." I explained. "Class, this was just the introduction. The first chapter of the story will start tomorrow."

The bell rang and I smiled. "Class dismissed." I spoke and everyone hesitated for a second but got up and gathered their stuff. This is going to be a painful next few weeks.