🌟She's Special🌟

Scrapes & Cuts

"I want to go home."
"You'd rather talk there?"
"Yeah, Starbucks is too....loud." Noah and I walked back home and I got a text.
Mom: Everything okay at Starbucks?
I left her on read and kept walking.
Jessica: Rylan asked me if  I wanted to go to Dylan's. You're going, right?
Rylan: Sweets, wanna go to Dylan's with me?
I don't even feel like responding right now. Might as well wait until I get home to respond.
"I feel a bit better," I whispered.
"That's great." Noah is too nice. He took me out just because he noticed I wasn't feeling well. He's only a year older than me but he acts so old. Maybe it's a teenager thing.
"Noah, can I ask you something?"
"What do you want to ask me?"
"How does it feel to kiss someone?" I asked playfully.
"Of all things? You know what, I can't even answer your question anyway."
"You didn't kiss Morgan yet?"
"No, we have it made it there. And, you're not going to tell Mom about this, right?"
"No, I'm not that much of a snitch. You're okay."
"I pinky promise I won't tell Mom about you either." I smiled as we went inside.
"Hi, Lucy."
"Hey you two, did you guys have fun?"
"I guess."
"Liv said she texted you, Bella. Answer her."
"I don't want to.."
"Why sweetheart?"
"Because I just don't. She's gonna question me, and I don't want to tell her anything."
"I'll tell Mom that she doesn't want to talk. It's okay Bella."
"Okay," It's kind of weird because I've never seen Noah stand up for me like this before. He doesn't usually get into my emotional problems.
"Where's Lei?"
"Napping."
"Noah, can we talk please?" We went upstairs to my room and we sat down on my bed.
"Spill it."
"I've been feeling sad about Leia and just life in general."
"Leia? Why?"
"Well, I worry about how much she loves me. I don't want her to hate me."
"But Leia doesn't hate you. She loves you so much."
"I just don't want to disappoint Mom. She's upset because she didn't get to spend time with Simon before he died. And then, school is really hard. Reading is hard."
"Reading is hard?"
"My braces, some people laugh at me when I speak. I feel dumb!"
"You're not dumb, in fact, you're smarter than I ever was in 7th grade. I just slacked off, didn't pay attention much and managed to get all 90's from extra credit. That is dumb because I could've done better! But you, you're not dumb. You're hardworking, you know what you want and you work towards it. Your one of the smartest people I know. Don't like a few snickers come in the way of that. You're better than them. Don't give in." I gave Noah a hug and smiled. That's the nicest thing he's ever said to me.
**************
Lunch (Mr. S' Perspective)
"Bella, joining me for lunch?"
"I believe so." She took out a pencil and started to do some work.
"Need help?"
"Not really." Bella gets tend of jittery around me, I don't get why maybe she's just nervous.
"Do you mind if Jess comes?"
"Not at all, sweetheart."
"What are you doing?"
"Grading the test."
"Did I do good?!" She asked with a smile.
"You certainly did. I'm proud of you."
"I needed it after that other test...I just wasn't feeling good."
"Are you coping with everything? I mean you didn't exactly tell me what it was, but I'm glad you let something out."
"I guess so. I told my therapist some things too, and she gave me some tips."
"That's great sweetheart." She smiled at me and then moved her hair from her face.
"Hey Mr. S!" Jessica came in and ran to Bella.
"You forgot your lunch, right? I brought an extra sandwich just for you."
"Thanks, sis."
"What did I miss?"
"Nothing really! Plan on telling me about your weekend?"
"Your weekend?" I raised my eyebrows and the two girls laughed.
"Don't let your mind wander."
"Well mine certainly was, you didn't even invite me."
"You guys are funny."
"Why are you always eating strawberries?!" Bella questioned.
"I love them."
"It doesn't get boring eating them all the time?"
"Not really."
"Hey, don't pick on his fruit habits! Parent-teacher conferences are next week!"
"Ohh, you're literally so admirable for eating mangoes!" I rolled my eyes and the girls continued to talk about a multitude of things. I'm seeing improvement in Bella and I'm glad she's happy now.
*********
The Trinity School (Olivia's Perspective)
"I'm really proud of your Latin grade. You're doing so much better in your languages. It's good to know more than one language honey pie!"
"Thanks, Mama."
"Who do we have to go to next?"
"My science teacher."
"Oh, is it the one you said you had to talk to?" She nodded and smiled. In a sense, I was skeptical, but I shouldn't let my thoughts wander too far.
"Olivia Benson, a pleasure to meet you."
"Steven Steerly. Let me just pull up the grades for a second so I can explain them." I raised my eyebrows at Bella, I was hoping for the best.
"Right now Bella is at a 96, one of the highest grades in this class. She worked extremely hard to get there after this." I saw one of Bella's tests that were red. She failed?
"What happened there?"
"I had a bad day." She whispered. She only gets like that when she feels guilty.
"Bella, what is it, sweetheart?"
"This might be a good introduction to my concerns for Bella. During that test, she was looking out of the window and crying half the time, and that's why she got the grade she did. I wanted to call you immediately after that Ms.Benson, but I wanted to give Bella the chance to open up. She remained silent when I asked her what was going on."
"Bella, does you crying during that test have something to do with why you were upset at home these past few days?" Steerly looked at her and I sighed.
"No."
"So then what was it because these reds can't be happening, and you've been upset."
"I've seen it too. You weren't crying, but I could tell you weren't the happiest. You were quite moody today as well." I didn't expect the conference to go like this, but I was glad that he noticed and tried to talk to her.
"I don't want to talk about it. It's nothing."
"It isn't nothing if it's affecting your schoolwork and home life."
"Ms.Benson if you don't mind, I'd like for their to be an open line of communication between us, I can update you regularly."
"That would be wonderful. Thank you so much." Bella's face got extremely red and she was boiling and ready to burst. But, if she wasn't going to talk to me I didn't have any other choice. Bella did not utter a single word throughout the rest of the conference and folded her arms.
"That was it, right?" Bella didn't answer and we left the building.
"Bella slow down." I pulled her to the side and looked her in the eyes.
"Why are you angry?"
"Because you two are just making everything worse." She started to cry and squeeze my hand.
"You guys are just making it harder for me. Don't text him!" Bella kicked the shrubs and punched the brick wall.
"You're angry, I get that. But I'm not letting you hurt yourself. Let me see your hand." Just as I expected they were bloody and scraped.
"Sweetheart."
************
My Bed (Bella's Perspective)
"Bella?"
"Yeah?"
"Feeling better?"
"Yeah, my hand hurts super bad though."
"Sweetheart, why are you angry? Tell me."
"Bella, tell me."
"I didn't want to tell you because Simon had just died. It wouldn't be fair for me to be sad when you had a better reason to be sad." Mom squinted and then gave me a hug.
"Oh sweetheart, don't ever feel like your feelings are less than. You're too sweet. You could've just told me. It's okay to have feelings, stop dismissing them."
"You that all of the time."
"Because it's the truth. You constantly think that your feelings are invalid. That isn't true. They matter, you matter."
"I just don't feel good, I get bad headaches and I just don't feel happy."
"Headaches? How often?"
"Every day, and then I just-"
"Just what?"
"I just didn't want to disappoint you."
"Disappoint me?"

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To be continued-