World... Upside down?✔

Chapter sixteen

You can watch in the video someone identical to me, but so different at the same time. She's all messy, with baggy clothes and red eyes. Is she high?

It seems like she's in a backyard, at night. She has a red container with gasoline, which she's pouring over an expensive car. There are some other girls with her.

This high Amelie laughs a lot and yells to the camera:

"Caroline! Did you think you could spoil the football team to me without suffering the consequences? Ha!"

She grabs a lit match and throws it to the car. It sets on fire instantely.

The other girls in the video tell Amelie to run away and they leave laughing.

The video is over.

I look up and see Josh, who's watching with concern.

I hear someone yelling.

"Amelie! You're gonna pay for this!"

When I look back, a very angry Caroline is jogging towards where I'm standing.

Without thinking much, I start running the opposite direction, knowing what my destiny will be if I don't.

Lord, please help me to run like the wind.

I get to the gym and search for the exit but I'm grabbed by two girls from behind. They immobilize me.

Caroline is in front of me now. She knees me in the stomach, I feel a very strong pain and I run out of air for a couple seconds.

When I look up, the girl that called herself my friend, gives me a punch, and then another, and another. I feel the metallic taste of blood in my mouth.

The fins of her nose open and close. She's furious. It's just a car, why is it such a big trouble?

The girls throw me to the ground and I don't have the strenght to get up. Caroline knees down to be at my height and lifts my chin, forcing me to look at her.

"You're worthless. I thought I could trust on you, but you are no more than trash. I wanted to make you pay for what you did but I realized that you will search for that punishment on your own. You'll live and die alone 'cause you won't be able to hold any person around you for more than five minutes. I feel sorry for you." And then she leaves.

The other girls kick me a bit more until they get tired and do the same.

A while after they're gone, after I realize no one's coming for me, I start to drag myself to the changers. I do not wish to stay in school for the night.

I get there and, with a lot of effort, I take momentum with a chair and I stand up.

I look at my reflection. I'm full of blood, my left eye is swollen and it's starting to get violet, I've got cuts in my cheek and there are bruises in my arms. I raise my shirt up to see they're also in my stomach.

It's so strange to look like this, so different from who I am. I was never beaten in my reality. I feel horrible. Am I horrible? At least that's the concept they have of me in here.

What is to be horrible? Something bad surely. I think about how hard humanity has worked to not look like this, to be pretty.

From the ridiculous artifacts that were used in the past, 'til nowaday's makeup. Is it worth it?

I try to wash my face and walk slowly to my locker. I grab my bag and get out of the school to the bus stop. All of the students have left already.