That One Year

Chapter 5

“You’ll do great, Beth,” Louise comforts me. “Don’t let anyone bother you.” She gives me a warm smile and reaches over to pat me on the shoulder.

How comforting.

“Thanks, Louise,” I politely say, and tighten my already iron-grip on my bookbag. 

With shaky hands I open the door and step out. My brain quickly decides it was a bad idea as anxiety overwhelms me and I notice a few of my new peers staring at me. Their eyes, like daggers, were baring into the ‘new girl’ and I immediately feel ill at ease.

Fight or Flight; I’ll choose flight.

I turn around to get back in the limo, but it was gone. 

“Fuck.” I mutter. 

I look for Angela, and I find her flirting with a boy across the yard. His back is to me, but I can see Angela fluttering her eyelashes and throwing her head back when she laughs. I roll my eyes.

“Aye! Who’s she?” I suddenly hear a boy ask behind me.

“I reckon she’s new,” I hear another one mutter.

“She looks…different,” A girl comments, and heat rushes to my cheeks.

I whirl around and catch a crowd of people studying me, all huddled together, making assumptions about who I could be.

My blood boils and something rose in me, something that I’m not used to.

“Hey!” I snap. “Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”

One of the girls frowns, and another rolls her eyes.

“Oh no, not another one,” I hear a boy with greasy hair mutter.

“Another what?” I snarl, coming closer. “Another American?”

“Sorry, sweetheart. You aren’t all you’re cracked up to be.” A girl with braids scoffs, looking me up and down, judging me.

“Yeah?” I laugh. “Well you aren’t either.”

Oh god, why was I saying this? This totally isn’t like me-

“Alright, mate, I’m gonna give you 5 seconds to take that back.” The girl walks straight up to me and breathes in my face. I can see every imperfection on her face, and the smell of her hairspray makes me gag.

“Or what.”

At that moment, I’m thrown to the ground. My mind starts to spin, and right as I regain sense of what’s happening, she begins punching me. A force of a thousand bulls hits me square in the jaw, and I scream out.

“Serves you right, you fucking slag.” She mutters, her blue eyes filled with rage.

I begin to lose consciousness as she hits me again, and again, and again, and I wonder why no one is helping me. I can hear snickers in the background, and a few people are chanting, “Fight, Fight, Fight!”

Something snaps inside of me, and I gain a second wind.

Before she can give me another hit, I knock her to the ground and roll on top of her. She struggles, but I easily pin her down and give her a taste of her own medicine. The girl screams as I begin to hit her again and again, but I ignore it. Giving a pitiful effort, she tries to break away from me by headbutting me, but I tug on her long hair until some of it rips into my hands.

"You bitch," she snarls in my ear, like a snake slithering to its prey.

Every second seems to go by in slow motion, and I block out the world as I focus on this girl.

Every punch I let out releases some of my anger, but at the same time, the sane part of me is wondering why I’m even doing this. Don't I know that my reputation is forever in the dumps? Don't I know that I’m probably going to get in a lot of trouble, and this is only my first day? Don't I know that any chance I had of making any friends is now diminished?

But unfortunately, the fire inside me is fueled by the hatred that I’ve received since I’ve gotten here, and this girl is just my punching bag.

I begin to slow down once I notice that her face is bleeding and tears are gushing down her face. I stand up slowly, in a daze at what I had done. This was totally out of character for me.

“Oh god,” I gasp, as I look down at my bloody hands. I gingerly touch a tender spot on my face, and I feel my own blood dripping down my cheek and plopping onto my shirt. 

I turn around and face the entire school that had now gathered around me, and tears form in my eyes

as I realize the trouble I was in.

"What have I done?"

All of the students were shocked, a few were laughing, and I noticed some boys had their cell phones out, recording the whole thing.

I was forever going to be known as the “new girl who picked a fight  on her first day".

I catch ahold of some of the comments swirling around in the air:

“Shit, did you see that?”

“Mary looks awful!”

“Who is that girl? Is she new?”

“I bet a million pounds Headmaster won’t let her see the light of day again,”

“Beth!” I hear a girl scream from a distance, her voice full of anger. I see Angela push through the crowd and stomp over to me.

“What did you do to her?!” She yells, shaking my shoulders. “You’re so god damn stupid, you know that?”

I just stare at her face; her eyes contorting into slits and her hair becoming a mass of snakes. The monster shakes me over and over again, screaming, but I can’t hear anything. 

"What the-"

I feel an immense pain in my head start to absorb every part of me and any strength I had left began to diminish. Everything stops as I collapse to the ground, my head rolling onto the concrete and body trembling.

The last thing I see is two boys kneeling beside me, fear present on all of their features, and then everything goes black.

{A/N: gasp. what. did. just. happen.? litle ole beth got into a full blown fight? and she blacked out? i can't believe this. beth, I did not make you to be a ruthless bully. anyways, I apologize about the delay, I know, I know, I'm supposed to upload every wednesday. I just wasn't feeling that great this week and I was having trouble writing. So I have to thank my wonderful friend, Kirstin, for editing some of it, because I obviously cannot form correct sentences whilst having a migraine.  So, I hope everyone liked it...if you do, a comment/fan/vote is extremely appreciated! I love you all! Until next time... xx Hannah}