Luna's POV
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I don't think my teacher understands how difficult this project can be for some people. The task some more asks us to paste an image at the bottom of each person, is that really necessary?
My cell phone rings and Vanessa's name pops up on the screen.
"Hey." I set my phone against my pencil case so she could see my face and I could see hers.
"Hey...how are you going with your project?" She chirps meaning she's either completed it or almost is.
I sighed, "no I haven't started it."
"What? Why not! It's already 8:30pm and it took me about two hours!"
"Can you not panic me please." I whispered.
"Well do you have an A3 piece of paper to begin with?"
"No."
Vanessa crosses her arms, "you always get your work done."
"I know Van, but a lot has been going on like I said earlier today."
"Hmm." She mutters in response.
"I guess I have nothing to present with tomorrow."
"Not on my watch."
I frown at her, "what do you mean?"
"Lucky for you, I bought a spare A3 piece."
"I can't get it done in the morning."
"Come over to my house." She offers politely.
"My dad will, but I'm not sure if my step mum will, everything goes by her rules."
"Go ask because it's urgent." She pesters.
"Okay okay, I'll be right back." I mute the phone and walk down stairs to where him and the mean bitch were spooning.
"Hey um Dad?" I began to ask and unintentionally startled them.
"Yes Luna?" He responds and I could already see Olivia glaring at me.
"I have a project due tomorrow morning and I need to get it done with Vanessa. I need to go her house."
"Absolutely not." Olivia sharply responds and untangles from the embrace.
Dad however ignores her, "what's the project."
I deeply breathed to keep my emotions in check, "a family tree."
"Well don't put me on there." Olivia snarks.
"I wasn't planning to." I spat back at her.
"Luna." Dad says sternly.
"Oops I spilled my tea." I retaliated.
"Fine you can go, give me the address and I'll take you." He finally gives in.
"No she is not leaving this house, she probably wants to leave this house to see a boy."
"You think I can be bothered doing that." I barked back.
"Enough the both of you. Olivia stop talking and Luna apologise to her."
I scoffed, "me? Apologise? After everything she's said to me?"
"I'm not playing around."
"Neither am I." Dad was being really calm which was odd.
"Luna if you don't apologise I'm not taking you to your friend's house."
I looked at Olivia who had a heavy smirk on her face. "Fine. I'm sorry. Can we go now."
"I won't tolerate your attitude Luna, you're just like your mother. Stubborn."
"Whatever. And don't talk about her." I rushed upstairs to message Vanessa that I was coming to her house and put my flip flops on and quickly sat in the passenger seat.
• • •
"Good morning class, I hope everyone has completed their projects because all of you will have about a minute to a minute and a half of talk about your family tree, then we're going to pin it around the class room."
Great. Pin it around the classroom for everyone to see.
"Eric would you like to start?" Ms Tsui rhetorically asks.
"Okay." Eric slowly gets up from his seat and unfolds his a3 and pins it with magnets on the whiteboard.
"Start from the top, then make your way to the bottom of your family tree."
"Well this is my Abuela Jane and my Abuelo Julio. They have two children, my dad John and his sister Gisella. My Auntie Gisella married a man from Lebanon, his name is Abdul. My cousins are Rana, Salma and Juan."
"That's very interesting Eric, as you can see Eric has pasted images of each person so you can see the diversity and mixing of families. Continue."
"Well it's just me and my brother Vincent, he's four years older than me. A sophomore."
"What's your mothers name?" Ms Tsui investigates.
"Oh yeah I forgot to mention that, her name is Harriet and my mum was born and raised in England; she moved here when she married dad."
"Very impressive Eric, because you went first, you can choose where you want to pin your tree in the classroom."
"Who wants to go next?"
Dead silence in the classroom. No one wanted to present.
Ms Tsui walks around the room and tension builds in the classroom. She walks towards my direction and I could feel my face flush with embarrassment.
She stands right in front of my desk and I slowly look up.
"Luna, your turn to present."
"Ms Tsui I really don't feel comfortable talking about my fam-"
"Luna, your assignments count towards your final grade." She knew I cared about that a lot.
I sighed and took my crappy A3 paper with me towards the front of the class.
When the paper was unrolled and pinned to the whiteboard I looked around the class nervously but Vanessa gave an encouraging smile. Before I could begin I saw Sarah peaking through the entrance of my classroom. I swallowed hard.
"Anytime now Miss Valderrama."
"Well I uh...this is my grandmother on my mum's side, her name is Diana but I haven't seen her in a while. This is my grandfather Patrick and step grandpa Eddie."
"You have 3 grandfathers I see."
"Yea...and Diana and Patrick had my oldest Auntie, my mum"
"What's your aunties name?"
"Dallas. Ms Tsui is it necessary to ask these types of questions?"
"Well Luna you didn't provide images like it said to in the assignment."
From my side view I saw Sarah dash away from the classroom door. Weird.
"Okay...and here are my parents Demetria and Wilmer."
The class began to chatter amongst themselves and Vanessa tried really hard to hush everyone.
"Class mute please. Luna thank you for your presentation, you may now sit down."
"Your parents are celebrities?" A boy sitting at a desk next to me asks.
Suddenly, Sarah walks into the classroom.
"Sarah what are you doing here? I don't have you until my next class."
"I know Miss Tsui but I'm Luna's friend and she accidentally left the photos for her assignment at the table we were sitting on."
"Oh that's very kind of you. Luna here's some blue tack for you to quickly stick your family photos on if you don't want to fail this assignment."
I glared really hard at Sarah and my face was burning with embarrassment, fear and anger. I quickly slammed each photo where they belonged.
"I knew it!" A girl from the class stood up and pointed.
I couldn't deal with it anymore this was stupid, I wanted to run to the bathroom stalls so Dad could come and get me.
Just making my way out of the classroom, Sarah pulls me back with her strong grip.
"I told you I could make your life a living hell. In fact to ruin it even more, I was able to get in contact with your mother and told her how much of a bully you are to me. She said she's coming down to the school."
My eyes widened, almost coming out of their sockets.
"After all she's an anti-bullying advocate, it'd be a shame that her own daughter doesn't practice her beliefs. I hope this puts you back in your place." She smirks and walks away.
I receive a message on my phone and it was an unknown number but was a screenshot of the conversation Sarah and my mother had about me on Twitter direct message.
"Luna!" I heard a yell from behind and I was stunned. Paralysed. I hadn't heard that voice in five years.
Finally managing to turn around I saw my mother storming towards me and her face was furious.
"Demi." I swallowed and I thought now would be a great time to faint, but my body wouldn't let me.
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Insta: @demi_thy_saviour
- Julz