Once he was out of view, I let the smile slip from my face. There was no one to pretend to now. It was almost a relief not to have to pretend I was fine. Walking towards the entrance of school, I pulled my sleeves down over my hands and wrapped my arms around myself. Just keep your head down. Not long until school is over for six weeks.
The bell rang, signalling the start of the school day just as I got inside the old red brick building. My form room was at the end of a corridor that seemed to stretch on for miles. I walked quickly to avoid being caught up with the people still loitering around. Taking my usual seat next to Hannah, I rested my arms on the desk.
Mornings were the hardest as there was still so much of the day to get through. Hannah smiled at me, and I returned the gesture. We weren’t necessarily friends, but she was the closest thing I had in school. She didn’t judge or treat me any differently. I just didn’t think she knew how to act around me most of the time. I liked her for trying though.
“School sucks,” she grumbled, tucking her dark black behind her ears. Completely agreeing with you, I thought glumly.
“Oakley, what did you do last night?” One of the boys shouted from the back of the classroom. I recognised his voice as Luke Davis, one of the biggest idiots of the school
“Sorry, I didn’t quite hear you.” The room erupted with laughter, and I rolled my eyes. Original, Luke.
“Ignore them,” Hannah whispered, squeezing my arm sympathetically.
I smiled at her, and then sighed in relief as Mrs Yates walked into the room. With a quick greeting, she flipped the register open and pulled the lid off her pen. Like with everyone else, she called my name but looked up at the same time, knowing she wasn’t getting an answer. There was never any pressure from the teachers on me to talk: they made sure everything was as normal as possible wherever it could be.
After the register was called everyone chatted, waiting for the bell to ring for the first lesson. “Ready for maths?” Hannah groaned the question as the bell chimed. Nope. My expression mirrored hers. Maths wasn’t my favourite subject, and today was a double lesson. “Do you think we’ll ever use anything we’ve learnt in maths in the real world?” she mused.
Most definitely. Although probably not ‘Jimmy left the station at nine in the morning, Jenny left at nine-thirty their stations were fifty miles apart, what time do they pass each other?’ questions.
I had most lessons with Hannah. We sat together through them all, but she spoke to her two other friends more, unsurprisingly since they actually answered her. That was okay with me though. I preferred to do work to pass the time.
“Good morning,” Mr Spice greeted. “Pass these around and get started.” He handed Georgie, who was sitting at the front, the stack of papers and went to sit down.
The class seemed to drag on forever. For the whole two hours, we all worked from the sheets. It was almost like doing a test. Boredom is actually going to kill me. I flipped the worksheet over only to find another one.
Finally, the bell rang, and it was time for the first break of the day. Stuffing my pencil case into my bag, I mentally planned my route to the next class. Helen, Laura, and Tina peered over their shoulders as they walked towards the door, snickering. My heart dropped a little, but I tried not to let them get to me. It wouldn’t be long before we would leave school and I wouldn’t have to see them again.
Heading straight to my third lesson, I kept my head down, hoping to go unnoticed. I took the longer route to my next lesson because there was usually less people around.
The sun was even brighter than when I left home this morning, and as it shone in my face I cradled my hand over my eyes to create little shade. Suddenly I slammed into someone that was walking around the corner. Gasping, I stumbled back.
“Sorry,” a deep voice said. I looked up and stepped back again. I felt sick as Julian grinned back at me. His smile wasn’t a friendly one, more like one from a predator that had just caught its prey. “Oakley,” he said, in what he probably thought was a playful tone. Not now.
I gulped and straightened my back to try to look more confident than I was. Look him in the eye, I ordered myself.
“Miss me over the weekend?” Julian took a step towards me, and I wanted to run. Running wouldn’t help me at all though. I needed to be strong. Raising my head, I continued to stare him right in the eye. I wasn’t sure where this was going.
“Miss Farrell, Mr Howard, get to class. Now!” the head teacher, Mr Simmons bellowed. I sagged in relief and scurried off to biology, refusing to look back at Julian. I just wanted to make it through one day without anything bad happening.
At lunchtime, I walked to the exit to eat outside of the school grounds. Just as I was about to reach the front door, an arm shot out, stopping me from going further.