My Christmas Miracle

Chapter 29 - The Clouds

Cassandra

The rest of the day went by in a blur, so I couldn't really remember it that well.

While I was crying in the bathroom, I realized that I was faced with two options. #1: keep crying in there until it was time to go home or #2: suck it up and head over to history class as if nothing had ever happened.

Though one was the easy way out and the most tempting decision, it would add on more negative attention to my already unwanted, growing pile so reluctantly, I was forced to choose two.

I shuffled out of the stall and took a good look at myself in the mirror.

Boy, was I a mess.

My eyes were red and sore from weeping so much and had begun to puff up. I didn't even try to clear away the dried up tear stains that had solidified on my face. There was no point anymore.

The bell finally went, semaphoring the end of lunch so sniffles, snotty-nosed and all, I plodded out of the bathroom and into the multiple bodies that flooded the halls.

That definitely was one of the hardest walks that I had ever taken.

The people who I had previously thought were my friends couldn't even look in my direction, while kids I had never even seen before flocked around me, bombarding me with questions that quite frankly, I didn't feel like answering.

All I could do was breeze past them all.

I was so out of it that I didn't even realize when I reach the door. Stepping inside, my history teacher, Ms. Rivera, was grading her last classes work while the few students sitting in their seats were all preoccupied with whatever it was on their phone screens. Unlike how some older teachers who would rebuke such an act, Ms. Rivers was young, in her early twenties at the least, and didn't mind it too much.

Miss Rivera glanced up at me and flashed a short, but sweet smile my way. "Good afternoon, Cass," she greeted, her Latino accent extremely distinctive in her tone.

I was too drained to even try and grin back. "'Afternoon" I purled back, soon spotting a seat at the very back of the classroom and descending in.

Burning holes in the desk with my eyes, distraught and beside myself after the whole situation, all of my thoughts circled back to the same, million-dollar question: what would happen next?

Dread filled me; The feeling similar to when you pause at the tippy top of a roller coaster. Holding your breath and waiting for it all to be over.

"Cassandra?" Ms. Rivera's voice pierced through my thoughts.

"Yeah?" I responded wearily, finally paying attention.

"Are you ok?" She asked. "You seem to be, how you say, up in the clouds today." Ms. Rivera pointed to the ceiling and chuckled at her own joke but no one was laughing with her.

Everyone was too busy turning around in their seats to look at me. I was sure they all knew what was up with me, I mean, they all did witness it happen for themselves.

Right then and there, I prayed that a hole would open up in the ground and conveniently swallow me and my desk whole. But nothing of that sort happened.

Instead, I had 62 eyes fixed on me, waiting for an answer.

I gulped visibly as my eyes fluttered back onto my desk and I sank down in my seat.

"I'm good," I muttered, almost inaudibly.

Ms. Rivera raised an eyebrow at me, a little bit more concerned. "Are you sure?"