Recap:
Most importantly, how was Elizabeth supposed to say that, despite hating that secret wish which caused all this, she actually found herself thinking about him every waking moment?
Elizabeth felt like screaming with embarrassment even as they parked inside the school lot and walked to class, but everything that happened that morning was completely blown from her mind when she caught Annie’s eye.
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Or was she really Annie? Elizabeth stumbled out of the car, their eyes locked, one pair wide with shock and the other tired, defeated, and swallowed in dark circles. Annie let her shining image as the cute, model student of the school hit rock bottom in just a few days. Annie’s hair was tied in a sagging ponytail, her back was bent with exhaustion, and her face; just what the hell happened to her face?
It was covered in shallow scratches, the thin scabs crisscrossing her face like threads. Her lips were cracked and ripped, and a big purple blotch lay smack in the middle of her nose bridge. And her eyes; they seemed to sightlessly stare at Elizabeth’s until a flash of recognition hit them. Suddenly, without further reaction, they dimmed, and Annie emotionlessly turned away, heading back to class.
“What the-” Elizabeth heard Vincent mutter, echoing her thoughts. “Was that Annie?”
His question was never answered, for at least twenty students attacked him, all shouting over each other and hollering “you’re back!”
Elizabeth found herself also surrounded by classmates, to her great surprise, and not a single question about how she got a ride from Vincent arose. Instead, everyone was in a flurry of excitement, asking them what they had gone through.
“Did you get sick?”
“How did you survive the fall?”
“Oh my god, Vincent, if you scare me like that again, I’ll kill you!”
“Liz, your breast size shrunk!”
The guy who said that went flying into the car, and Elizabeth stomped off to class, not even bothering to see who she punched in that sea of faces.
The guy cursed as he rubbed his head on the floor, nearly trampled by students until a teacher came.
“Deesperse, yeh stoopid brats! Oh, aw awt ta hang yeh rascals by yeh tumbs for tis! Deesperse, yeh villains, deesperse!” the grizzly old man shouted as he flung his arms left and right, forcing the students to flee in case they got broken noses
“Thanks, Mr. O’Donnell,” Vincent called as the old man hobbled back to the building.
“Just daont make meh do tat agin, boy!” Mr. O’Donnell shouted angrily over his shoulder. “Geez, yeh kids’ ‘ormones just grow every year, eh?”
Vincent laughed as he hauled the guy off of the parking lot floor. “Stop groaning; you know how Liz would react to that.”
“Aw daont need yeh stoopid lectures, boy. Doant go a’sassin’ meh when yeh fell daown a waterfall an’ nearly died,” Andre mimicked the old man, as he punched Vincent in the shoulder.
The two laughed and talked about what happened during the blizzard as they strolled off to school, each catching up on what they missed over the past few days.
***
The warning bell shrieked at lazy students, ushering them off to their respective classes. Elizabeth ran to the roll call numbers, finally dressed out into PE clothes. She impatiently scanned the small group of students that talked amongst themselves on the asphalt. Elizabeth sighed in frustration. Even though it had taken her four attempts to put her shirt on correctly and three attempts to get into her simple shorts, she was still the only girl ready. What was with women and changing clothes?
“Calm down,” Vincent laughed behind her. Elizabeth whipped around with a look that could kill.
“Oh shut up.”
“Everyone else still has four minutes to get ready; don’t get all impatient by yourself, you’ll burst a vein.”
“Look, Annie always used to dress out about as fast as me! What’s taking her so long?”
Vincent’s gaze darkened. “Liz, just give up on that skank already. She’s nothing but trouble.”
“I don’t care,” Elizabeth stomped her foot stubbornly. “Annie was the first girl in ages that stood up for me, even if it was all an act!”
“She pushed you down a waterfall!”
“NO, she pushed me into the shallows and I fell into the waterfall!”
“What’s the difference?”
“All I want to know is what’s going on! If you have a problem with me talking to her, then just tell me yourself!”
“I already told you, you don’t need to know so-”
“VINCENT!!!” a group of freshman girls shrieked as they crowded around him. “OMG WE TOTALLY HEARD ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED AND-”
Elizabeth walked away as Vincent grappled with his new problem. She was hearing the same questions over and over again all morning; it was boring.
Annie, unfortunately, came out at the same time as the teacher, and as everyone took their seats at their numbers, Elizabeth noticed that nobody even noticed- or acknowledged- the fact that she was there at all. It was as if she was invisible.
When Elizabeth finally managed to get in Annie’s group for basketball relays, she completely ignored all the questions thrown at her.
“Annie?”
Annie wordlessly took the basketball from a kid with sandy hair and threw it into the hoop. Elizabeth hastily caught it on the rebound, made the basket, and followed her to the end of the line.
“Look, Annie, tell me what’s going on.”
Nothing.
“Are people bullying you?”
The line inched forward. Annie got the ball again.
“Did you tell them what happened or something? Or did they figure it out?”
***
Annie sighed as she quickly sped off to math, proud of herself for avoiding Elizabeth the entire period. The bell rang just as she got into her seat, and Andre bothered her as usual.
“So, how was PE?” he laughed, guessing what happened.
Annie ignored him. She ignored everybody these days, even some teachers.
“I was annoyed to death in science,” he sighed, pretending she replied at all. “Sometimes, it’s no fun being surrounded by a bunch of sports jocks. Sure, they’re a cool posse, but sucks when one of those idiots spills chicken blood all over your pants.”
Annie snorted with laughter for a brief second, but forced her face to look normal again. Andre watched her with a smug smile.
“Don’t you love how I make you smile when nobody else can?”
“Shut up,” Annie hissed as she graded her homework. There was something seriously wrong with this guy. She was the reason Vincent almost died; and if her intuition was correct, Andre was in love with his best friend. Of all the people in school, wasn’t he supposed to hate her most?
Andre kept going. “Ooh, the ice princess is getting mad,” he sang softly with a snicker. “Tell me,” he added more seriously. There was a pause, and Annie peaked at him through the corner of her eye after a few minutes.
Andre was sitting with his legs apart, one hand shoved in his pant pocket, the other running through his hair. He seductively smirked with half closed eyes and purred, “Do I…distract you?”
Annie burst out laughing, but the sound was muffled by the other girls in the classroom going wild for him. Annie held her aching ribs as a few tears coursed down her sore cheeks, unable to stop laughing.
She noticed some classmates eyeing her with disgust, but as Annie’s grin began to fade, she noticed Andre striking another pose, and burst out laughing all over again.