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~+~ Author's Note ~+~
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Hi... actually planning to finish this one. Hope you guys like it!! Comments and votes are enjoyed and appreciated! <3
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~+~Third person POV~+~
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School
Six
Cruel
Hours
Of
Our
Lives
A simple acronym that Billie and many others used to say as a joke in middle school before she realized the truth enlaced in those six words. It was the moment that high school slammed her in the face (quite literally) that she discovered this truth.
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~+~ Present day ~+~
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"What happened this time sweetie?" The nurse says to the short girl after handing her an ice pack for her newly bruised jaw. This was a regular occurrence for Billie, and there was no way in hell that she would tell the kind nurse about being slammed face-first into a locker.
Instead, she sat there silently, remembering where snitching had led her in the past. She shuddered at the unpleasant memories attempting to flood her brain.
"Silence isn't going to get you anywhere hun, was it those girls that are always picking on you?"
"I'm fine Mrs. T, I just tripped and fell." Billie mumbled quietly in a small voice, blowing a bothersome piece of hair away from her face.
"Sweetie, you know just as well as I do that you did not trip and fall into a locker yourself. Whoever did this to you should face consequences."
Again, she was met with silence. Billie really did appreciate how much care the nurse displayed towards her, but figured it was useless. They will never stop.
By "they" Billie meant just about anyone that knew of her. She was different, and in small town high schools, Billie quickly learned that different was bad. She was an easy target for rude comments because she didn't fit in and more-so because she simply didn't fight back. In fact, she often gave bullies exactly what they wanted... an emotional response.
Even worse, the bullying multiplied tenfold after a rather unfortunate event occurred. And as one might imagine, rumors and gossip are always very quick to spread in small towns...
but we are getting off track here.
The point is, Billie was quite miserable to say the least. A good day for her was one with only a few ugly side glances or whispered comments. People who didn't wish to bully her, still avoided her, treating her like a plague... an untouchable foreign entity that was to be avoided at all costs. In a sense, she was comparable to the cheese touch, because being associated with Billie only placed a target on a person's own back.
It wasn't like she could just switch schools either. Richmond High School was the only one in the area and her parents couldn't afford to move. In a sense, she was stuck.
The nurse sighed, realizing she would not be getting a direct answer out of Billie any time soon. Her heart ached for the girl any time she saw new bruises littering her once flawless, pale skin. "Are you able to return to class right now?"
"I think so." Billie responded, attempting to ignore her brain's urge to regress.
Mrs. T's office was a safe space for Billie. She was informed of the girl's coping mechanism of age regression and held no judgement towards her whatsoever. Other teachers were usually close-minded and tended to lack the ability to understand certain things that were not average. So, Billie would often go to Mrs. T's office any time she was feeling small.
"Alright, I'll write you a pass for 3rd period, just please try to stay out of any trouble this time for me!" the nurse teased in an attempt to lighten the mood a little.
Although it hurt her jaw to smile, Billie managed to give a small one as she grabbed the note from the nurse's hands. "No can do Mrs. T. Wherever I go, trouble is sure to follow." Billie responds in a joking yet somewhat defeated tone as she leaves the room.
It was true. Trouble did follow her, except the only person that was ever harmed by the "trouble" was Billie herself.
Third period happened to be Billie's least favorite class: gym. Not because of gym itself, but because of Tiffany and her "friends". Tiffany is the self-proclaimed popular kid of the school. In Billie's mind, she is delusional and most people secretly dislike her. Yet, her parents have money and because of that, people tend to fear her. In addition, her closer "friends" mindlessly do absolutely anything she asks of them, constantly searching for her approval.
To make matters annoyingly worse, she despised Billie more than anyone. In fact, she was the root of all of Billie's problems to be honest. The story behind Tiffany's hatred towards Billie is quite sad and petty, but boy did she truly have it out for the girl.
~~~
"Alright, settle down class. Today we have a new student. Blaire please introduce yourself." the gym teacher says in a rather uninterested voice, looking down at his clipboard. A dark-haired girl subtlety rolls her eyes at the notion of introducing herself after he already had for her.
She raises her voice, with a bored expression, and repeats her name without adding any additional information. Billie can't help but stare a tiny bit. She has never seen someone as beautiful as the girl in front of her.
Blaire glances around the room at her new classmates and notices the short, blue-haired girl staring, appearing to be lost in deep thought. Blaire locks eyes with her, displaying a small smirk on her face.
Busted
Billie immediately breaks eye contact, a small red blush spreading across her face. She looks down and begins playing with her rings, avoiding looking back up at all costs.
"Alright, we are going to continue playing soccer. New kid, you'll be a team captain for today along with..." He quickly glances around until he makes his decision. "...Tiffany. I have to go grab some papers. There better be two teams in here by the time I get back or else everyone will have to run laps."
Billie mentally facepalms at her realization that gym class is going to suck with Tiffany as team captain. She never makes anything easy... ever.
Tiffany seemingly forces an overly enthusiastic smile onto her face as she stands up at the front next to Blaire. She extends her arm out and greets her saying "Hey Blaire! My name is Tiffany and—"
"anddd are you going to pick someone or? ..." Blaire responds, lacking any desire to converse at the moment, and more interested in avoiding extra exercise.
Billie bites back a laugh as she sees Tiffany's shocked face. She awkwardly places her hand back to her side and responds "Oh, uh you can go first then."
Okay, maybe gym class won't be as bad as I thought.
Blaire glances around quickly before her eyes land back on Billie's who, once again, immediately looks downwards at the eye contact.
"Okay thenn... you." she says, pointing at Billie. The girl cautiously looks back up, curious of who Blaire chose, and notices the direction that her hand is pointing towards.
The blue-haired teen quickly looks around to see if there was anyone else that she could possibly be pointing at; however, she quickly discovers that she was standing alone, as per usual.
"Me?" She asks, more to herself than to the girl clearly pointing at her. Tiffany looks just as confused as Billie does, if not more. She was never chosen first for anything. In fact, she was usually chosen last. Tiffany often made sure of it.
"Who else?" Blaire asks in a playful tone, much nicer than the tone used towards Tiffany moments earlier. Unlike everyone else, Blaire thought Billie's different mannerisms and appearance made her stand out in this small, boring town.
She also thought her avoidance of eye contact was quite cute, although that thought was quickly swept away and hidden in the back of her head as soon as it made its presence. More so, Blaire was sick of people like Tiffany; she had seen a lot of girls like her in previous schools.
Hyper-aware of the stares, Billie hurriedly walks over to Blaire and stands next to her, returning her glance to her rings as she resumes playing with them, a nervous habit she had developed over time. "Hey, you good?" Blaire quietly asks her while Tiffany begins to choose another person for her team. Billie looks back up at Blaire and again she is reminded how her rings are so much safer to look at because they do not have eyes. He rings don't have the ability to judge her.
"Oh- yeah, yes I'm fine." Billie responds, struggling to hold eye contact, often instead directing her glances to other random details scattered around the gym.
She wasn't great at holding eye contact with anybody, yet it felt ten times harder with the new girl. Billie strangely felt like Blaire could read her jumbled emotions with a simple glance.
"Are you sure you want to choose Billie? I mean look at her. You seem so normal and she's so..." Tiffany suddenly remarks with a face of pure disgust, trailing off at the end for added emphasis. Billie's eyes snap up at the comment and she looks up at Blaire nervously.
There were a couple of snickers heard around the group, and Billie could feel her eyes begin to water. She was quite sensitive and honestly hated that aspect of herself. She would feel her anxiety levels rise any time that she found herself tearing up which would often make her need to cry worse.
Blaire immediately glares at everyone, causing any rude comments to subside almost instantly. She rolls her eyes at the response and redirects her attention back to Tiffany. She replies "How about you shut the fuck up and continue choosing the next person. I chose her because I wanted to. You have a problem with that?" Blaire eyes Tiffany threateningly, almost daring her to say anything else. Tiffany just scoffs, unsure of what to say. She settles on saying "Whatever."
"That's what I thought."
Billie uses her shirt to wipe her eyes before any threatening tears are able to fall. Nobody had ever defended her like that before. She wasn't sure how to feel. Surprised? Happy? Relieved? She didn't know, but she certainly was no longer upset.
Crisis averted.
Without any further interruptions, the two team captains continue picking people until there was nobody left to pick.
~~~
For the soccer game, Billie and Blaire end up both being placed on defense. Blaire is genuinely good at defending and Billie is good at... getting distracted.
She notices a small grasshopper on the ground and all of her surroundings were forgotten at once. She sits down on the field and gently picks up the small creature, admiring its features.
Blaire notices the girl sitting down and taps her shoulder, whispering "What are you doing? Did you forget about the soccer game going on?".
She mentally scolds herself for sounding a bit too brash for her liking but was genuinely curious to hear the answer.
Billie looks up at Blaire innocently and cups her hands carefully around the small bug. She walks off the soccer field and places the creature in a spot that she deems more safe. Blaire runs after her, in confusion and curiosity, until she sees the little guy.
"I was saving him, he could've gotten hurt." Billie says in a serious tone.
Blaire quietly laughs at Billie's actions and gives her a small, genuine smile afterwards. Billie was used to being laughed at; however, Blaire's laugh was a lot different. She wasn't making fun of her, she was simply amused by her actions. Billie determines to herself that she likes Blaire's laugh and smiles back in return.
An idea strikes Blaire and she says "We should name it."
Billie's eyes instantly light up at the suggestion and she bounces up and down, unable to contain her excitement inside. "Yes! Yes! We should! Wait. What should we name it?"
Billie's over-excitement at the simple suggestion warms Blaire's heart.
"How about we name itttt... Blue."
"Why Blue? It's a green bug." Billie asks in confusion.
"Because a pretty, blue-haired girl saved him from harm's way."
Billie's face immediately reddens at the compliment.
She had experienced a lot of firsts today but being called pretty was her favorite event so far. She was never called pretty by someone who wasn't family, and, therefore, never felt 100% pretty. Billie half-assumed her family just lied to her in order to make her feel better about her appearance. But hearing it from a kind-hearted girl like Blaire made her genuinely feel pretty for that short moment.
Unable to form a proper response, Billie resorts to playing with her rings once again. She occasionally glances up and makes eye contact with Blaire's intimidating yet soft brown orbs, only to smile to herself and look right back down again.
The sight was quite adorable.
Though, of course, lovely moments never last forever.
"HEY!! What the hell are you guys doing over there?! You let the other team score!!" a boy suddenly yells from the field.
Billie flinches in fear at the sudden outburst and immediately sprints back to her defensive position on the field. Blaire just rolls her eyes, flipping the boy off. She walks in the same direction as Billie, slowly making her way over there.
Then, a very uneventful soccer game resumes.
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~+~ Author's Note ~+~
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2287 words // First chapter! Yay! How are you guys feeling about the characters so far?