Hiding Behind A Mask | ✔

C H A P T E R O N E

"Annie! Are you ready?!" Mom yells from downstairs.

I stand in front of a mirror, looking at myself. I'm wearing black leggings, a dark gray sweatshirt, and a pair of all black converse. Taking up my backpack off the floor, I pull the straps over my shoulders. I stare at my blue eyes, at how watery they look and I'm not even at school yet. I take the hair tie that was on my wrist and use it to pull my hair back into a low ponytail.

"Annie?!" Mom yells, again. "If you're not down here in two minutes, I'm coming up!"

I walk over to my bed, take up the plain white mask and put it on. Walking over to my bedroom door, I take one last glance at myself in the mirror.

I hope no one notices me, I thought to myself as I open the door and leave.

I walk downstairs. I see my mom walking back and forth in a hurry, grabbing the things she needs for work. She glances at me and stops right in her tracks.

"Annie?" she asks, staring at me in shock. She then asks very slowly, "Sweetheart, why are you wearing a mask?"

I didn't answer. I just stand there, looking at her.

I wish I didn't have to go to school. It's not that I don't like school, it's just that seeing my old friends that backstabbed me is the worst feeling ever. I thought they were my friends, well, they proved me wrong. What they did to me, haunted me every day and night. Still does.

"Annie," I snap out of my thoughts and look up at her. I can see how watery her eyes are getting, how worried she looks. "Please talk to me," she says, but I still didn't say anything.

I pull out my phone to look at the time. School starts in twenty minutes! I quickly walk past my mom and out of the house. The light breeze blows through my blonde hair as I ran to the car. I open the passenger's door and got inside. As I close the door, my mom opens the driver's door and got inside. She starts the engine and drives off at almost full speed.

~ ~ ~

"Have a great day at school, sweetheart," Mom says with a small smile before I close the door and start walking away.

I pull the hoodie to my gray sweatshirt over my head before I got any closer to the school's entrance. There are not many students outside, maybe a few that are kissing, but other than that, they're all inside.

I take a deep breath before opening the main door to the school's entrance. As I start walking down the hallway, all eyes were on me. Some were whispering- "Who's that?" "Who wears a mask to school?" "I never knew our school has become a masquerade ball...?" "We have a crazy kid coming to our school." "Maybe I could bang her." I shuddered at what the last person said.

I look to my right to see three people I hate the most on this planet called Earth. Sandra Brown, the main one who ruined my life. Lindsey Gardner, the freak who came up with the idea to ruin my life. And last but not least, Amy Taylor, the dumb one who just follows behind them as the pretty girl in the group. We were all friends but now, I regret ever calling them friends.

"Who's that?" Amy asks after blowing her gum and pops it.

"I don't know... A new kid?" Lindsey says, twirling a strand of her hair. She looks over at Sandra, who's staring at me as I walk along. "Do you know?"

"No, and I don't care," Sandra says with her arms crossed. She stops looking at me and turns to face her friends, "Stop looking at her!" The three of them stop staring at me and start to chatter amongst themselves.

I pull the hoodie, more like force, over my head so that I could block out everyone's eyes. I stare at the floor as I walk along, not looking at anyone, but I guess that was a bad idea when I bump into somebody's hard chest. I stumble back a bit.

"Watch where you're going, loser!" I hear a boy say, laughing. "Come on, guys," he said and shoves past me. About two other boys shove past me, but there seems to be another that hasn't left.

The boy stands there just looking at me. I stand still not knowing what to do, whether I should walk away or something. But there's one thing I know not to do and that is not to look up nor say anything.

"Chance!" the same voice yells from down the hall. "Are you coming, bro?"

I feel the boy's gaze off of me. He clears his throat and yells back, "Yeah, I'm coming!" He walks past me but didn't shove me, he just walks by me like any other normal person.

The bell rang indicating that it's time for everyone to get to class, but I don't know where my first class is! I internally scream at myself.

I'm going to be late for class on the first day back to school!

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A/N:

So this is the first chapter. Yay! XD I'm so excited to continue with this book.

Please leave your thoughts on this chapter in the comments section and vote if you like this chapter. Thank you!! :)

- Tanya <3

P.S. I know this chapter was short. I'll try to make the others longer! :)