The Bully's Princess

Chapter five - Trouble with the Bully

Mrs. Henrietta judiciously worked on the exercises of each student at her temporary desk, while Daniel stood by her side, holding each notebook she marked. She was so focused on her work that the rest of the class made good use of their time by laughing and passing papers to each other. The whole class was a rowdy mess.

Peter sat serenely in his seat, quiet. He stared at the blistered skin on the back of his hand. He kept the hand out of view. Anna slipped a piece of paper in front of him. He gave her a questioning look. Her flirtations were really out of it.

She tweaked her eyes at him, her smile flirtatious. Flipping open the paper, he was dumbstruck as his gaze slid to Dahlia, sitting next to him. Dahlia’s frame was animated into a mummy, with her name written boldly on it. It was drawn so artistically, he had to give kudos to whoever Anna must have forced to draw it. He knew it was definitely not Anna, she had no single talent on her.

The real Dahlia was copied exactly, she had her body wrapped like a wooden cushion, more or less like a miniature mummy. She had sweaters and neck scarves tied around her like a solidified fortress. He could agree that it was cold in Westernside, but Dahlia was extremely shut out of air. He wondered how she takes her breath in that thing. Not that he cared, but he would rather care for himself first before any other person.

He threw Anna’s paper on Dahlia’s desk, provoked, Dahlia’s innocent face peaked up at him from the heavy sums she was busy calculating. Her face was red and her eyes had lost all colour, they were white. She looked almost sick. Her lips were pale and devoid of any colour. It must be the lack of lipstick, Peter thought. All the other girls had bright lips due to their makeup; Dahlia probably didn’t wear any.

Peter watched as her face struck a glorification of horror when she took the paper with her free hand, her fingers trembling as she connected the drawing. The drawing did justice to her appearance and extremely exaggerated it. She was given a clown's nose and a fish tail. The drawing was so horrific.

Her lips began quivering. Peter was amused. The transition was so swift that he wanted to call her out for it. The girl was so good at acting.

"How could you?" She asked, tears slipping down her face. She held out the paper in front of him, irate. Her eyes were filled with fire now. The anger was there and Peter was determined to drag it out of her.

"But the paper is not lying; that’s the way you look." He whispered, laughter ringing in his voice as Mrs. Henrietta’s eyes rose up at the increase in noisemaking. He stifled his laughter, enjoying teasing Dahlia.

"My mum dressed me this way because it is cold and I do like it" Dahlia retorted, fighting back. Peter loved the way she reacted. Perhaps he was going to get a little action out of her today. They barely ever said anything to each other, yet they knew each other’s world.

Anna was the one to quip in now and she was not quiet. "Your mum dresses you? How old are you? Five?" she shouted for the whole class to hear. She and her friends burst into laughter, Peter could not stop himself either. Marilyn surely outdid herself with this. There was a limit to babying a grown up teenager.

"Anna, one more noise from you and the Kicthen chefs will be glad to have you wash their plates." Mrs. Henrietta's stern voice rang out, restoring instant order to the class.

That was enough to shut Anna’s mouth but not her body gestures or the damage she had caused.

Peter gaze did not waver, he watched fascinated as her eyes teared up with water. He began to feel irritated. Her fighting power had died out so swiftly, he had thought she would have sparred longer with him but she gave in so quickly.

"I am asking because I am curious, does your mum really dress you? " He mocked, moving close to her, his face not far from hers

Dahlia gave him a hard glare, her fire returning. "At least I have a mum to do that for me" She murmured underneath her breath.

The stiffening silence in the air made Dahlia look up. "I said that out loud?" She asked timidly.

"Sorry," she mumbled, trying to take his hands. Peter flung her hands off his. His mood turned sunny. He would make her pay for that word. She was just a spiteful, hateful girl. She pretended to be sweet and kind yet she hated him just like the others. He would be glad to rip off all of those her façade.

"Peter, I didn’t mean it" Dahlia tried again. Her throat suddenly parched, she reached for her water bottle underneath her chair. But it was missing.

She turned round to see Peter with the bottle. He emptied the water bottle into an empty lunchbox Anna provided from nowhere. The two of them were over-the-top with their dislike of her. Dahlia’s cough grew more serious as she saw that. Her throat was so dry, she needed a relief badly. The incessant cough caught Mrs Henrietta’s attention who yelled Peter’s name first, without listening to any backstory involved.

"Peter, what’s going on with Dahlia?"

"I am not Dahlia’s caretaker, Mrs Henritta. How am I suppose to know?" came the reply

"I never said you were" the teacher exclaimed exasperated. Dropping her pen in pure irritation" She is your seatmate, you are responsible for her. You moron"

"That’s such a name to learn from our teacher. It is against the school rules. Principal lancester forbade it" Anna piped in. All other students began murmuring.

"Anna" Mrs Henrietta called, making the class go quiet.

Peter watched the Dahlia, she was queit now, it seems her coughing had just been a ploy to get him in trouble. And that trouble was really going to come to her when he gets his hands on her, not even her mother’s big sweaters would be able to save her from the cold he would inflict on her.

"Dahlia, follow Daniel to the Kitchen, They should get you a distilled water to drink. You can tell them I asked them to give it to you"Mrs Henrietta said to Dahlia warmly, her voice softening

The whole class roared into murmuring. Mrs Henrietta was never this nice to them. She was a mongrel in her own skin. several little pieces of paper hit Dahlia as she left the class to Mrs Henrietta’s chargrin

"Who threw that? Are you all deaf?"

The whole class maintained a decorum now.

"Peter"

"It wasn’t me" Peter shouted angrily, defending himself.

"Don’t you raise your voice at me? come out and solve this exercises for your fellow students" Mrs hernietta called holding out the textbook. Everyone open your textbook to page 67. This exercise has been taught in class countless times, well, some of you just have to be blockheads like Mr Peter Blythe here. He successfully failed an exercise majority of the class scored well above average. It is students like you that make my teaching rate go down."

"I don’t understand the text" The whole class burst into laughter. Peter sent them a glare making them all go quiet.

"No, Peter. The problem is not text. The problem is you. If you put half your mind to the text you would understand it. The exercise is not so difficult. Surely everyone understands Oral English. We make these sounds everyday, so why won’t you just get this registered in your brain?" Mrs Henrietta shouted.

Peter clenched his fist, the textbook burning a hole in his hands. He would so throttle dahlia and that her fake persona. She got him in this s**t.

"If you don’t get your act together in this school. You will end up just like your drunkard father. A waste of space to society. And if you make my ratings go down this school year, I will personally recommend your expulsion from Edron Academy and no school outside Westernside will take you ever. You can take that from me. "

Peter kept his mouth shut. His whole body ached. He knew she meant every word she said. Principal Lancester had done it before and he knew he had involved other teachers to carry out that plot. They got him to stay, and they could also get him out of school. It was like his whole life was a game of chess being played by Adults who cared nothing about his state of mind and future. He only had himself to reply on.

The whole class went mute at the series of arguments. Expulsion was a term, no student in Edron took lightly. They knew their escape from WesternSide depended on how well they performed since the world was judged on Education Qulaification.

"It will be in your best interest to explain to the whole class how you did your exercises Mr Blythe. The sentences and words are right there in your textbook. I do not have all day." Mrs Henrietta’s stare could bore a hole into Peter’s head as he stood there with the marker in hand. His hands dancing on the board. He wrote nothing down.

Mrs Henrietta’s patience thinned to the highest maximum. She checked her time, her class would soon be over. Next was lunch break.

"Does anyone want to help him?" Mrs Henrietta threw at the class, they all looked away, each pretending to be busy with flipping books and picking something off the floor. Her gaze landed on Anna who bent her head immediately

"What is this?" Came Mrs Henrietta screeched voice." Did you all copy the assignments? Get ready for a test in the next class. And I will make sure I record that for your mid terms. " She said angrily gathering her textbooks and markers muttering angrily to herself

"Can I try it ma’am?" The whole class heaved a sigh of relief as Dahlia and Daniel walked in. Dahlia held a half - bottle of water in her hands. Her eyes lifted to Peter’s unsmiling handsome face, she wondered how humiliated he must feel. She wondered just how much of his life story the people of WesternSide knew. Her family saw a knew side of the Blythes, that would change their opinion of Peter.

Dahlia walked forward, Peter gave her a lookover. She was as white as ever. He smirked. His smirk was wiped off as Mrs Henrietta turned a crossed look at him, he gave Dahlia the marker he was holding immediately and stepped back.

Without much ado, she did all the exercises and the did the correct transcription of the sentences and words in the textbook. Mrs Henrietta was amazed. The rest of the class looked at her with admiration and envy. When Dahlia was done, She looked up shyly at Peter and mouthed a tiny ‘sorry’.

Mrs Henrietta’s praise and applause cut off the class’s rapture of Dahlia as they stared at her in awe. Daniel had a wonderful smile on his face, Maria was not so happy as she could feel tough competition coming at her. Dahlia did not miss any of the exercises, she had failed two, which automatically place her score below Dahlia’s and she would not succumb to a sickly yellow fish.

"You are such a good student Dahlia. The perfect type of students I need in my class, not empty brains." She smiled as she said these words. Dahlia stiffened at the jibe thrown at Peter, but he was nonchalant to the insult.

Mrs Henrietta left the class with Daniel in tow, her favourite entourage. It would have been Dahlia, but she knew she could not make Dahlia carry her textbooks, Principal Lancester will have her head cut off.

Dahlia dropped the marker on the teachers podium and walked to her seat. She stopped to greet Maria who smiled at her as she passed her.

She had just sat when the Lunch bell rang, she looked up to discover Peter had left the class.

A paper was thrown at her head, making her sit straight. She knew it was Anna and she would do anything to get out of that girl’s cluctches. She bent her head holding her bottle water so tightly afraid to raise her head

"Are you deaf? I am calling you" Anna shouted. Seeing she was ignored she stood up and came to stand infront of Dahlia who was fast running out of energy. She had over assured her mother she would take her medications when she got to school but had skipped it instead. She needed to get food and fast, she was feeling lightheaded and weak.

Anna dragged her neck tie raising her head to meet her scornful gaze. Maria intruding saved Dahlia.

"Anna back off. Go find your lover boy, Peter"

"Oh my, do you want him? I know you ahve always had a thing for him. You are just hanging around that puppy Daniel. I can assure you he is very good in bed. You must like him so much, because I am sure you are not really protecting this glorified mummy here. " Anna challenged, liking her lips

Maria shut her mouth. While Dahlia processed the information in her head.

"Not everyone is a manwhore like you, Anna. Get that into your head, maybe It will help you live life better." Maria defended herself after regaining her composture.

"Come on, let’s go. Dahlia quickly accepted the offer of help and escaped Anna.

When they got to the Cafeteria. Maria offered to go pick up the food while Dahlia remained sitted. Dahlia thanked her profusely. She stood up as Maria left and headed for the restroom to take her drugs, that would be best to save her from prying eyes. The last thing she wanted was for people to start pitying her health status. she was at the front of the restroom when a familiar scent she has come to recognise so well, enveloped her. Covering her mouth with his bloody hand. Dahlia gave a scream but her fragile strength was no match for Peters who was dead set on her making her eating her words. He just planned on finding out what was so special about her that she was favored by all adults. When he was so hated by them.

They stayed there, staring deeply into each other’s eyes as they saw in each other’s eyes, the yearn, the solution to each other’s anger and pain. Peter gathered her closer in arms, forgetting for a second that he had sworn to make her days in Edron Hell.