"Why don't you do everyone a favor and get the hell out of here!" A teenage boy yells, shoving me against a metal locker. A loud slam is heard as people keep on walking down the halls chattering about.
"You know, I would love to!" I say, pushing myself out of his grasp, clutching my backpack's handle tight, "But guess what, I have classes to take. Get used to it asshole!"
He extends his hands with a shit-eating grin and pushes me to the ground. His brown hair roofing his sinister eyes. Connecting white tiles to a backpack and the back of my head. Better yet, a shoe rams my stomach repeatedly as he seems to get stronger with every strike. People walk past us like it's none of their business and some people miraculously are just watching with their phones pulled out. I cover my stomach with my hands quickly to absorb the damage to my vital areas. Exhaling as my eyes veer off towards the ceiling, fixating my sights on something else. Watching a new girl quickly walk along in a tank top and short jeans.
I probably deserve this from talking back. Geez, he's such a loser!
"Aww, what's the matter?" He says panting, "Not so tough now, right?" He says, staring down at me with drops of sweat dropping off his face. Hearing his breathing loud and clear. He brings me up, holding my head looking intently with his dark brown eyes giving that same shit-eating grin.
Jesus fucking Christ! Can he just go away? His face is just a beauty... What should I do? It's so bright my eyes burn from how hellish it looks. If people only had a brain...
He pulls back his fist again before he looks over his shoulder, looking at his friend who called his name for like the tenth time, "What?! I'm busy!"
"Kisame! Class is about to start!"
Kisame mutters a few curses under his breath before shoving me off saying, "I'll deal with you later, you sorry excuse for a human being."
Isn't THIS a great way to start the first year of middle school? Get beat up by an asshole and not have the guts to punch him square in the face. Great job, Misheru. Aren't YOU special?
A loud ring is flown everywhere around me, can't even differentiate the difference between the school bell or from the beating. Leaning against the lockers and my fist collides with it hard. My head follows the same motion several times, "Stupid. Stupid. Stupid!" I mutter. With one final slam, I leave the area leaving a smear of blood off his locker and a small dent. Taking a deep breath, I walk towards the bathroom. Staring at my bruises and specks of blood on my right palm.
Great. I'm going to be late on my first day.
I glare at myself at the reflection in front of me. The brown dark long hair and rough landscapes on my face before splashing it with water. Disgusting. Water rushing down the drain with bits of red flowing down with it. Sometimes sorrow could be that way, but the sounds of the water help clear my mind at least a little. I grab a sharpie from my backpack and draw a smiley face on the mirror's edge. Draw another deep breath and head down the hallway. Alone like always.
I watch my black sneakers tap across the floor, enjoying the silence, and close my eyes. Nothing. What bliss. A clatter of books sounds in front of me as my shoulder bumps someone walking opposite from me. I quickly look around. It's the girl from before! Class books across the floor as she collects them in a hurry. She pulls back her short yet longish, black hair to be able to see clearly.
It looks like I bullied her! Shit! Maybe I should help pick her books. Don't want her day ruined by ME of all people.
I kneel and collect the math book. Scrambling to collect another, "I-I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"
"It's alright." She says, a soft, gentle voice exuding from her lips. "Don't worry about it." She gets up and lets out a sigh. Clears her throat around three times before looking at me with a warm smile across her face, putting her hair behind her ear, "Uh, if it's too much trouble. Would you mind helping me with something?"
Air seems to escape from my lungs just from her hazel eyes alone. She seems taller than me and purple strands stand out of her hair separate from the rest of her hair. A small string pulls my lips out and high a tiny bit as I extend a hand, pulling her up, "Yeah sure. What can I do for you?"
"Well, I'm looking for the Art class. It's room two oh three." She says as she pulls my hand and stands holding her books close to her chest, "I'm kinda new here."
My cheeks give off a fuzz-like buzz from right to left. I loosen the grip of my backpack's strap a little. Her eyes glow bright and for only a moment, every horrible memory wipes clean from my mind.
"Oh I'm going there as well, we can go there together! " My vocal cords strain for a moment and give out a cough before snapping back to reality, "I mean... If you want."
Wait a minute... What the fuck did I just say? Most importantly, why the hell am I blushing?
"Of course!" She says and reaches her hand out, "By the way, I'm Daniela. Daniela Kimura. What's yours?"
I go to touch her hand and the muscles pull back, before grabbing her soft, peach hands again. My pitch squeaking high, "Mish—Ahem. Misheru Nakamura." I rub the back of my neck, rub my arms and ask, "S-So... Are you new here?"
That's a stupid question to ask. Of course, she's new here! Why does everything that comes out of my mouth now is the stupidest thing! And she said it a few moments ago!
"Yup." She says with a nod. Her eyes lock onto mine as her face gets closer, "Are you alright?"
"Y-Y-Yeah! Why do you ask?"
"Well. Uh. You have bruises across your arms." She says. Her eyebrows wrinkle upwards as she looks into my face, "And well... your eye is a little black."
I jump back a little to get some distance and feel my bruises. Can't hide them with this shirt. Should've thought about that before heading here in the first place.
Another one like this? I should just walk her to class. Maybe she'll ignore it.
"Oh, that? It's nothing."
"But—"
"I just fell when I was home this morning. That's all."
Daniela pokes my cheek and narrows her eyes down at me, "Are you sure—"
I grab her arm and pull her down, hopefully shutting her up and avoiding her from touching me, "Okay, we're here, but since we're late we need to sneak in."
"Ooo. Sounds fun. Let's do it!" She whispers.
*******
I open the door slowly, seeing the teacher write on the erasable, whiteboard. The room has paintings of different kinds across the walls and on top of counters. Square, tile floors spread out across the floor with four sets of wide tables connected in a U formation with chairs behind them. The class paid attention to the board and their sketchbooks. Awards are on top of his metallic, wooden desk with binders upon binders atop the wooden surface. Placing soft steps ahead of me, looking out for the teacher to turn his head. So far, so good.
"Hey, Misheru!" A boy raises his voice from the silent listening. "Come here! I saved you a seat!"
Are you fucking serious right now? Now there's more trouble.
I give out a heavy sigh, glaring at him. Crossing my arms, rubbing an invisible headache off my forehead, "Unbe-fucking-lievable." I mutter.
The teacher turns around and fixes his glasses with another glare staring down at me, "Ah, so my two missing students finally arrived." He says strolling towards his desk and opening up the roll call notebook, clicking down his pen. "Daniela, since your new here I'll let you go off this time. As for YOU Nakamura," He pauses and looks up at me for a second before continuing to write down, "You're going to start coming late again like last year? You know what happened because of it."
Is this probably gonna happen again this year? Yeah. Probably.
All of the other classmates chuckle and murmur towards one another, but Kisame is loud and clear, "Yeah Misheru, remember?" He says, snickering a laugh. His friends following suit.
"Kisame! Behave!" The teacher yells. "You have JUST as many problems as Misheru! So I expect BOTH of you to improve this semester!" He rubs his eyeglass handle and cleans up the fog covering the glass.
"Yes, Mr. Jones." I answer, turning towards Kisame and he copies me, mockingly.
Stupid prick. Okami needs to STOP doing that.
I take my seat and elbow Okami's arm harder than most times whispering harshly, "Hey. Next time. Don't give me away."
"I'm sorry." He says and chuckles a bit, "But I can't make any promises." He veers his eyes beside me and looks right back at me, "So, who's the new girl?"
"Her name is Daniela. I bumped into her on my way here."
"Hello!" She says and waves her hand. Okami waves back.
I take my sketchbook out and copy down the drawing the description written on the board, "Let's talk later. I'm not in the mood for another lecture."
Okami nods and whispers, "Okay."
*****
Bells ring for Art, English, and Math as the sun glows above the swarming humans walking about through the hallways and across the school center. Walls spread wide before crossing and intersecting with another in three levels down. The heat beats down upon me as clouds begin to gather for the early afternoon. A shop opens inside down at ground level selling all sorts of food for a price. I walk down under the shade towards the cafeteria. Wide plastic tables spread across an otherwise empty lunchroom with chairs covering both sides of the edges. Okami takes a tray as I wait with my lunchbox in hand. The food isn't that bad, it's good. Delicious. Smells of rice and beans flow around the lunchroom as my stomach churns and growls as my eyes peer around looking for an empty spot. Daniela is found in my usual spot against this zoo of humans.
Hope her day is going better than mine. Maybe I should make sure she's doing alright.
Inline, I tap Okami's shoulder with my elbow and flick my head towards her location, "Let's go over there with Daniela."
"Alright. I'll be there in a sec. Go on ahead." Okami says while he gets salad on his tray.
We approach the empty area of the table where Daniela is sitting and I place my lunchbox down, pulling out a chair, "'Hey Daniela." I say as I take out my potato chips and soda, "How's your day going?"
Daniela looks up at us after a slow bite of her rice and beans. A glow radiates out of her as she chews slowly, basking in the food's flavor. Her flower-scented perfume wafted in the air. Maybe she likes someone. It isn't new. Spring is arriving soon. "It's going pretty good actually! Everyone I have run into has been so nice to me."
Phew. One less worry to think about. Wait. I was worried? Should I have been? Weird.
After a bit of chatter about homework and tricks about the school, Daniela walks off to get an item. More perfume? I forgot. Before HIS voice rings out from the doors, "Guess who's here fellas!"
Oh, come on! He can't leave me alone for ONCE in his miserable life. Or better yet, ALL his life?
"Hey look, Misheru is making friends!" Kisame says. He walks over to Okami and squats down grinning his usual shit-eating grin. After he whispers to Okami, he turns vigorously towards him eyes widen open leaning back as he chuckles. Kisame walks over to me and spills the soda over me, "Oops. My bad."
I wanna punch him so bad. SO freaking bad. But I just can't. Why can't I do anything? So useless.
A loud thump strikes my ears as a slam of a tray hits the floor. I turn to see Daniela standing there with a smirk on her face and Kisame kissing the floor. He covers his nose and turns around as everyone laughs at him.
Serves him right.
"What are you all laughing at?" He shouts as he glares at Daniela and me before backing out of the cafeteria, "This isn't over. YOU HEAR ME?!"
Daniela sits next to me and tilts her head to look at me filled with bubbly goodness, "Hey. Are you okay?"
I pull the little strings of my mouth with a smile, but let go, head hanging low, "Yeah, I guess..." I turn towards her and back to the table, "Uh, hey."
"What is it?" She asks. Her soft-spoken voice calms me down, creating that fuzzy feeling across my cheeks again.
I turn to face her, "W-Why did you do that?" Lifting and squishing my eyebrows close looking at her, "Now he's going to bother you of God KNOWS what!"
Daniela slowly radiates a smile and says, "Well. It's pretty simple why I did it." She stands and strikes a pose like a little miss sassy, snapping her fingers in a Z formation, "No one hurts or bothers one of my friends and gets away with it!"
Bubbles upon bubbles of laughter erupt from the bottom of my lungs and she turns to me once again after those "amazing" modeling skills, "Now. Let's go to Music class." She says and twirls around walking towards the door.
I double over from sheer laughter, wipe some of the soda off me, and walk behind, "Yeah, let's go." As she exits, I lower my head and mutter under my breath, "I just wanna go home already."
Okami places his hand on my shoulder, "Hey... You okay?"
Enough with that stupid question already! I swear if someone else asks me if I'm okay I'll just leave school right here, right now! I'm tired of today.
I answer with a heavy tired tone, "Yeah. I'm fine."
"Come on! I know you're lying so spill the beans already." He pats my shoulder and smiles. His other hand scratches the back of his neck, "And um, sorry I wasn't any help when that happened."
I sigh and walk off, "Forget about it. You helped me a lot when Daniela wasn't in this school. So, don't worry about it.
*****
The sky returns to its orange-like, pink color as the stars begin to appear with the moon climbs up. City lamps turn on as shadows elongate down the sidewalks. Looking through a window down the street, waiters and waitresses serve customers. Families laugh and play around having a good time. Alone at last. I stare up at the clouds floating around, strolling down towards my house. Letting out a deep breath, placing my hands in my pockets listening to my music playlist on low volume.
"Wait up Misheru!" Daniela says.
I turn to see Daniela running towards me. Taking out one earbud I say, "Daniela? What are you doing here?"
Panting, she holds onto my shoulder sweating buckets, "Well—Well your house is in this street, right?"
"Yeah?" I answer glancing down the street. What about it?"
She smirks and pats my back again and says, "Well that means we live on the same street." Walking forward ahead of me, Daniela looks at the sky with a smile and breaths in deeply immediately shivering. She turns to me, looking at me in the eyes once again, "So... Maybe we can walk home together?"
That fuzzy buzz crosses my cheeks like an unexpected breeze. Time seems to slow down; nothing can be sad around her. All my bad moods wash away in a blink of an eye.
Okay. WHAT the hell is going on? Pull yourself together. It's just a walk home. Friends do it all the time. Besides you used to do it with Okami when he lived close by you as well! So, what's so special about walking home with her?
"Yeah, sure. I don't see why not." I answer after shaking my head a bit.
"Yay! Let's go then!" Daniela shouts and wears her famous smile.
On our way home, we chat about different topics. Music mostly. Drawing second and guitar playing as well. We have similar tastes in almost everything! Upon arriving at my mother's house, we say our goodbyes and I head straight to my room and hug the blanket tight.
Finally! Home at last!
Posters of bands stick across the wall; a desk sits across from my bed with drawings and a sketchbook spread wide open. I finish my homework and study material for the tests next week. My eyes sharply veer towards a bent page at the back of the music notebook. Eyebrows lift as a closed smile escapes me. Small hiccups of laughter softly exit as well and I mumble to myself, "So THAT'S what she wrote on here during music class that she told me not to look."
I get ready for bed, grab my phone off my desk, and lay down.
Misheru: Really? THAT was what you were writing?
Daniela: Hey! Be grateful! Now you can text me whenever you're bored XD
;-;
I laugh and smile, the screen starts to take my field of view. Nothing else, but the screen and her name on the top of the messaging app. It's like my only focus... is HER.
Misheru: Blah, whatever, I have known you for only one day and I already know you're a dork. Anyways goodnight :P
Daniela: And I know you're a nerd so? xD boo you sleepyhead ;-; goodnight.
The screen light fades to black along with the rest of the room, losing its color.
What are these feelings I'm having around Daniela? Emotions I haven't felt before, I don't understand them. This can't be that one emotion everyone brags about right?
I turn about in my bed, left and right. Staring at my phone beside me, shaking my head.
Nah, no way!
I pull the blanket sheets over me with burning cheeks, curling my back forward and bringing my knees up. My heart beats faster the more I picture her in my mind.
It can't be, right?
Set down my glasses on the bedside table. And slowly, fall asleep.
______________________________________________________
A/N: Hey guys I hope you like the first chapter! This is my first book and I'm really excited to see how it goes! (: anyways feel free to recommend me something, comment or vote! See ya in the next chapter! (⌒▽⌒)