Rival

I'm such a social outcast

The last new student was me...and I obviously wasn't the kind of person they expected.

Even I got curious and stood up straighter to show the teacher I was paying attention.

The door opened and the girl entered, side by side with the principal.

She was an obvious brunette though in the light her hair looked bright red, emphasizing the color of her skin, which was quite pale.

Her eyes were bright brown, staring across the room with alertness.

"Hello, you could call me Bom, nice to meet you," she sounded confident of herself, her smile revealed a bright set of perfect, white teeth. She was obviously part foreign...like me.

Some of the boys whistled. It took all my forces not to gag.

"Please welcome Bom with a warm welcome" Mr. Parker said sharply. He was our harsh teacher who would never take an excuse. If you cause a disruption in the class, you would go straight to detention. He looked around the class and seeing the seat next to me was the only one vacant he sent her to sit beside me.

"Hello," she said coolly, her smile looking sheepish as though she was embarrassed.

"Hello," I said shortly. She didn't seem to notice my indifference towards her. Or she just didn't care? She shrugged and plopped down on the seat next to mine.

It felt weird to have someone sit beside me after such a long time. It reminded me how unsocial I was. But I hastily got rid of my thoughts and turned my attention back to the teacher. To receive the best mark in the finals I couldn't spare but miss a thing.

The girl next to me...Bom didn't seem so laid back either. The moment the teacher started class and wrote on the board the concepts of math formulas, she took out some paper and wrote down notes. They weren't messy either. It was neat and filled with useful information. Secretly I was impressed.

After class we had science. It wasn't long until a crowd of people surrounded Bom and started to give her a warm welcome to the school. They started asking her if she needed any help or wanted to hang out together at lunch and recess. One guy even asked for her number, which she laughed and took as a joke, but the boy seemed oddly disappointed as she turned him down.

Only I remained far away from her. Once our eyes met each other and I could swear there was curiosity in hers. She probably wanted me to pay attention to her as well. I felt disgust tower inside me. It was cruel how attention, looks, and popularity mattered so much in school. This girl would be the same, and in just a week she would be unrecognizable from the rest of them.

At the end of the day Bom was getting more attention then she probably should have. Of course I never took any notice of it but the other students seemed to be fascinated by little things she would do. Like...volunteer in class. Apparently this showed how compassionate she was. They congratulated her ability to speak clearly in front of a crowd, which our L.A. teacher forced out of her. From third block she pulled my attention from my science worksheet to herself when she handed her lab in before anyone else. Something bubbled inside me and I knew at once it was shame. But nothing made me feel horrible as much as it was in gym.