Between the Lines

Okay, time for school, that's the only thing that comes to Maya's mind the moment she stepped out of her dad's car. As he reminded her of some things, she looked at the old building that she never really saw as a school. For her, the place is more likely an orphanage than a school. Children started swarming through the entrance from excitement despite the early morning. She turned around, looking for a familiar face that she can at least talk to. A few kilometers away was her friend, Sora. She's fixing her hair while consistently making sure she will not trip on her high heels. God, she'll surely have a future in fashion, Maya thought. Sora’s the one who always has the energy. She walked around greeting people, talking to them as if they’ve known each other for a long time. Despite her jolly attitude, Sora is such a headache. She always visits the principal’s office, gets detention, and gets community service because of her ‘too much freedom’ attitude. When Sora was a few steps away, she extended her arm and waved at her. Sora waved back with a wide smile on her face, showing her white teeth. She turns to her dad, bending a little so she can see him through the car window in the passenger side, "Sora's here, see you at home? Love you!" Sora ran towards her, wrapping her arms around the lady. They both get inside the building, giggling and laughing at some jokes. When they reached the hallway with all the rusty lockers, they saw their other friend, Raven. Unlike Sora, Raven was like the bird raven. She's more reserved and secretive. Most of their classmates believe she's holding a mystery that no one knows and no one can know. They associate her more with witches. Raven likes something gore and dark. She likes giving deep meanings to things and will most likely watch you to death than help you get treated. At school, she’s not hard to spot because of her ‘very unique’ fashion that is composed mostly of black colors. Well, she got the name. Don't wonder how she becomes part of the group because no one knows either. As always, she didn’t budge when she saw her friends coming her way. She got her hands full of her art materials and bag. When Sora and Maya reached her, they both gave her a hug, deep enough for her to feel it. Then, she smiled at them. Please, smiling is not a big deal for Raven when it comes to her friends. The gore queen can smile too. “You’re early today, weird.” Sora said as she leaned back at a locker behind her. Maya offered to help Raven bring her art materials. “I can be early if I want to, why do you even care? Oh, did you lose your pink striped hair? I bet it’s in the toilet flushed by your mom who never had the sense of fashion,” she fired back. Sora snorted, “Guess you’ll know such a thing because you don’t have it either,” she responded. Raven glared at her. “Why don’t you just marry a unicorn, you seem to love the rainbow so much.” Sora was about to fight back when Maya interjected. “Fighting early in the morning? God, let me rest, will you?” she said. Sora smiled at her, “if you just let your little brain rest from thinking so many things, you will know that we’re just teasing each other. Why are you so hard today?” Maya sighed. They start walking towards their classroom. “Nothing. I’m just tired, okay? I have to stay up all night studying because I got a low grade in science.” Sora snickered. “Are you f*****g kidding me? You lost two points and you feel like a failure and study all night?” she raised her brow, looking back from Raven to Maya. “Dude, I never reached your position but I never pushed myself that hard,” Raven added. “So am I. Though I’m not as dumb as Raven, I still won’t bother thinking about minus two points! That’s just absurd.” “What’s absurd?” Behind them was the muse of the school. Mila Ivanova. The prettiest, the muse, the art of beauty. Everyone wanted her; everyone liked her. Even girls get swoon by her, but they feel jealous mostly. Men stop and watch her walk past them in the hallway. No football player never took the chance of asking her out because who doesn’t want to take their chances? Mila has golden hair, freckles across her cheeks, a slim face, long legs, and mesmerizing eyes. She’s the epitome of perfection, but the kindest one out of all. She is sometimes called the Mother Theresa of Russia because of her sweet and kind attitude. Sora extends her arms, hugging Mila excitedly as if they have never met each other for a month. She pulled her in, causing them to form a horizontal line, blocking others from passing through. “It’s nothing. Our genius here is upset because she got minus two points. She said she put herself all night studying,” Sora filled her up. Mila and Sora get along together better than Maya or Raven. They have the same outgoing energy and positivity that they don't see most of the time. Meanwhile, Raven and Maya mostly get along since they are both introverts or the home lovers. Mila tapped Maya’s shoulder, “it’s okay, Maya. Besides, we can do better next time, right? Don’t force yourself too much, you are doing great already. Setbacks happened but it doesn’t mean that you’re a failure. The world is just preparing you for a new and exciting future.” They laughed. “Here comes Mother Theresa giving us her wisdom,” Maya responded. Mila rolled her eyes, shoving the tease aside. They reached their classroom, where a bunch of different people can f**k their day up. Unlike others, the group prefers sitting with each other. Though they barely talk in class, they still want to sit beside the people they feel a connection with. When Maya’s about to get in, she felt her stomach rumbling. She was sure she had her breakfast earlier so why would she feel that grumble? She thought she might need to go to the bathroom in case she feels an unbearable pain. The girls offered to come but she dismissed them. The restroom is not far anyway so she can still catch the start of the class anytime. When she reached the girl’s restroom, she was surprised by its silence. It was weird, surely, since girls like hanging around the place, doing their girly business before classes starts. She gets in, thankful for the opposite environment outside. She was about to wash her hands when she heard a thud in the last cubicle. She looked at it but it was closed. She never felt nervous or anything but she sure does feel curious whatever’s happening in there. She slowly walked towards the cubicle looking through the small partition of the door and the floor, looking for a shadow that would prove someone is inside but it was hard to make out. When she reached the cubicle, she heard another thud but this time, Maya jumped on her feet from surprise. She hesitated to knock, and eventually managed to extend her arm. She stayed a few steps away from the door in case something bad was inside. While hesitating, the loud noise continued to distract her so she decided to knock. To her surprise, the door was actually open. It wasn’t locked so she pushed the door open. No one even Maya herself can describe her face when she saw her classmates f*****g each other inside the cubicle. She knows them both and she knows how messed up the situation is. Maya and her classmates are not really just “classmates”. The girl inside has a boyfriend that used to be Maya’s best friend and now her competitor. Meanwhile, the guy she’s f*****g with is the best friend of the boyfriend. If this news broke out, the whole classroom would turn into a ring. They both looked at Maya with wide eyes and ragged breathing. They directly fixed their clothes, while Maya stood there with her mouth hanging from the shock. She can’t move, she realized but she knows she needs to so she forced herself to turn around and walk out of the door. The good news is that it was Maya who saw them and the bad news is it’s Maya who saw them. Maya is still having a great impact on Devon-the boyfriend- despite their rocky relationship and she can just tell him what happened in the restroom. But Maya is not a talk s**t. She can just keep it to herself and pretend nothing happened, besides she was used to not giving a s**t about the world. When Maya’s five steps away from the door, the guy reached out for her. He blocked her way to the door while putting his shirt on. The girl came out and stood beside him. He directed her to go and leave things to him, which she gladly complied. The bell was about to ring and Maya was locked in the restroom with a guy who screwed his best friend’s girlfriend.