The Rise of the Lost Princess

This was not how I thought my morning would go

As we pulled into the parking lot of the school, I stared at the building and I could feel the throbbing of the fresh burns across my stomach and thighs. I dreaded the thought of making my way through those hallways as the freshness of the stinging rang through me like hot iron against my skin. My thoughts must have been plain on my face. Alex leaned over and placed a hand on my shoulder.

"You know I can still take you home, we've got plenty of time," he said with concern etched into his face. Like staying home was an option that could honestly be considered.

"It's fine," I assured him miserably. "We both know I've had worse." Oh yeah, definitely had worse at the hands of our 'mother'. Honestly, other than the blood connection, she had no real claim to that title, at least not to me.

"If you say so." He conceded with a heavy sigh before exiting the car and coming around to help me out of my seat. His car sat so low that with the burns it was a much more difficult task than it usually would have been. They made the walk to the front door excruciating, and from Alex's hovering I was not hiding it as well as I thought I was.

Finally making our way through the front doors, the swell of voices from the other students socializing before class started enveloped us in a blanket of sound.

"I have to go to a morning meeting with the coach," Alex said, a little hesitant. "are you gonna be okay? He probably won't mind if you tag along."

"And sit in the smelly boys' locker room? No thanks, your room is bad enough on its own." I laughed in an attempt to put him at ease. He does not seem impressed. "I'll be fine, I can go head to class early. I have a few questions that I was stuck on with the homework from last night anyway." I insisted, giving him a weak smile.

He gave me another heavy sigh before offering me a weak smile of his own.

"Okay, I'll leave you to it then. See you at lunch." He walked away, greeting people as he went.

Our town is very small, there aren't a lot of kids here. So, to save money on building schools, they combined the middle and high school into one large institution of learning. Which was just a fancy way of saying that building two separate buildings would cost the city money it didn't have to spend.

Don't get me wrong, the combined schools had their advantages. Like how the classes being held at the same time meant the older siblings didn't have to give up on their extracurricular activities to take care of the younger siblings. Something that came in handy when Alex first started high school classes and I was in eighth grade. Alex could do his sports and I could browse the library and get help on my school work until he was done. It also meant that I had some protection from the bullying that would likely be an all-day, every-day affair otherwise..

Because though the small town with its combined school had its perks, they did not outweigh a glaring flaw that made it unbearable. Practically everyone knew everyone. So everyone knew of the neglect we endured from our mom, and those who didn't pity us definitely whispered about us and at times threw it in our faces. I was bullied for it more than Alex. He got into a really nasty fight his first year of high school and since then no one has had the balls to talk trash to his face. He always tried to push me to stick up for myself.

Trying not to dwell on anything negative, I began to make my way through the halls towards my first class of the day, staring straight ahead. All around me, students as young as eleven years old were chattering and laughing, and you could almost always catch the young kids stealing admiring glances at our older school mates. To be honest, I couldn't really blame them.

Surrounded by older kids that seemed so self-assured and confident was not good for the self-esteem of any preteen, sometimes it was hard to watch. I never noticed any of the younger kids staring at me like that though, not much of a surprise really. I already knew I wasn't anything special to look at.

I pushed these thoughts away, shaking my head to dispel them. As if I didn't think about how utterly depressing and lame I was even outside of my home, enough as it is. I tried to continue my trek through the school, the throbbing of my burns almost forgotten. Crossing my fingers, I prayed that the rest of the day would go by as smoothly as possible. I had already had enough for one day.

I suppose I should have knocked on wood because it only took me to turn the corner to find out that the universe had extremely different plans for my day.

There was a fight on the verge of exploding between two senior girls. I could not tell you what it was about, nothing they were screaming was coherent enough to piece together the whole situation. But that wouldn't matter at the end of it. It wouldn't matter that I was only one of many students watching the events unfold, or that I was only in this place at that time because I was on my way to class. It wouldn't matter one bit. Once the first girl pushed the second girl, I could tell she was going to fall right into me, and I had a gut feeling that she wouldn't just dismiss my presence there.

She collided with me with a force that knocked us both to the ground, and I cried out at the force of the contact with my thighs and stomach. I sucked in a harsh breath as I tried to sit up, but the girl who fell to the floor beside me was filled with rage and now embarrassment for having been knocked on her ass in front of the crowd. Her focus was zeroed in on me.

"What the f**k are you STARING AT?!" she shrieked at me before pouncing on me and holding me to the ground. The pressure of her weight on my burns was too much and I felt tears spring to my eyes. "You got a problem or something?" she continued.

"N-n-no, I-I was j-just trying to get t-" I tried to explain the misunderstanding, though I don't know why she would have thought I had a problem when SHE ran into ME. But she interrupted me.

"B-b-b-b" she mocked my stuttering. "Honestly, I don't know how much more pathetic you could get if you tried." she grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked my head back, so I was forced to look down the hall at the surprised-on lookers. I knew what she was doing, trying to embarrass someone else so people wouldn't focus on her, and she wanted me to watch because she was expecting her audience to laugh. "I am so sick of everyone walking on egg shells around you simply because your dear old daddy ran off and mommy doesn't love you anymore!"

No one was laughing like she was expecting, everyone looked on with mixed expressions of shock and fear. Which didn't make sense. I mean yeah, I was pretty scared of her right now, but from a more central standpoint, she isn't exactly threatening anyone else.

"And now what? You think you can just butt in on someone else's problems because no one would dare put you in your place? Well, think again you stupid, worthless cu-"

"Get your hands off of her, Ms. Tompson!" A loud voice booms down the hall. I see everyone jump just before she releases me. Once I'd sat up, I saw she didn't actually get off of me herself, but had been yanked up by the back of her jacket and shoved towards the lockers by school security. The head of security was glaring at her like he wanted to set her on fire while the teacher whose booming voice had filled the hall seconds earlier approached me and helped me to my feet.

"Are you alright?" he asked, but before I could answer I yelped in pain, and he didn't wait for a response. "I will get you to the nurse immediately," he assured me. "Everyone else get to class and stay there. Ms. Tompson, you are to go to the office and await my arrival." within seconds the hall was empty save for the Tompson girl who was staring daggers at me, but eventually she too made her way out of the hall. The teacher whose name I did not know lifted me into his arms and carried me the short way to the nurse.

Once we arrived at the door, he kicked it open gently and walked me into the room. Mrs. Mira looked up in shock.

"She was attacked in the hall but I have a feeling she may also have unrelated injuries." he said, shooting me a knowing look. I stared at the floor, shame-faced as he walked back out to the hall. I don't know why I had the sudden, overwhelming feeling of being a child caught in a lie. I didn't do anything wrong and my mother's neglect was no secret in this town.

After his lightly jaded statement, the nurse was very thorough, seeing not only the bruises that were formed by my first 'fight' (admittedly the lamest school fight to ever have happened) but also the burns and long healed scars from various instances I've had with my mother.

"How did you get all of this?" she asked with concerned, prying eyes.

"I'm clumsy." I said easily, but something in her eyes had me thinking she knew I was lying. I mean, honestly, I couldn't blame her for the assumption. I mean the grapevine accounts of my life weren't pretty. She turned and typed up something on her computer before turning back to me with some burn cream.

"Here, apply this to the burns. I will be right back." she stood and walked briskly out of the office.

I sat there confused but did as I was told. The burn cream gave an initial sting when it made contact with my skin, but as it spread and settled it provided an immense amount of relief. I let out a grateful sigh as the burns numbed considerably.

After that, I waited, staring at the various posters promoting things like washing your hands correctly or flu symptoms that dotted the walls. I waited so long that I started messing around and reading off the eye exam chart. Perfect 20/20, at least glasses was one less thing for me to worry about. It seemed like an eternity before the door finally opened again to reveal my brother, the worry clear on his face, his hair disheveled.

"Anita, are you alright? Someone said you were in a brawl!" He exclaimed, "That doesn't sound like you. What happened?"

"Well it wasn't much of a brawl, more like I got jumped by someone as they were about to fight someone else but decided on an easier target." I sighed and he looked at me.

"I am not sure I understand," he admitted. Reluctantly, I replayed the morning's events for him in all it glory and waited for him to laugh or be angry. What I was not expecting was the look of dread that spread across his face when I told him the nurse had seen the burns and scars. "Alex, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Nothing for you to worry about now. Do you know where the nurse went?" he asked.

"No, she didn't say." Alex looked shaken. I had never seen him like this before. He sat for a moment as a look of fierce determination came over his face.

"Wait here." He said before storming out the room. In his rush, he opened the door too wide and I saw that he was going down the hall leading to the office. My heart sank.

Did I just cause a major problem?

Were they gonna take me away?

From my mom? My brother? Everything I had ever known?