Episode 4.
1875 Words
I held my cheeks, feeling dazed and shocked at the same time.
"This is just one way to let you know that I will not tolerate you going around and spreading your infection!!"
"Queen, please pardon her!" The second lady who followed her said in a mock tone.
"Today is just your first day, but you've caused nothing but havoc!"
I felt tears flow freely down my face, so much that I couldn't even see properly.
"You..." She let her words trail with a finger pointed towards me.
"If you want to ever enjoy your life in this school, I want you to avoid Jason, with everything you have."
"Wh...who is Jason?" I couldn't even speak out. My voice was already croaky.
"He is none other than the person you stained with ketchup. Don't stand there and act like you don't know. Low lives like you should bury themselves in shame when people like him are passing by.
Gosh, I can't even believe that you actually touched him."
I think I understood what she meant now.
"I... I'm sorry, it was a mistake. I'm really..."
"Shut up!!" She thundered, and the whole class became silent.
"This is the last. The last warning. I will literally kill you when it next happens".
That day after school, I managed to leave the classroom first and, while I was outside, I saw lots of cars and trucks, all belonging to students.
It was almost as though everyone here owned a vehicle because there were a few cars parked even outside the gates.
I bowed my head while walking because I kept getting the same stares I'd gotten in the morning. All spelt disgust.
Would I ever be accepted here?
I should just quit today.
I suddenly hastened my steps because the walk to the gate seemed longer than I could imagine, and I just wanted to get out of that place.
I'd walked a distance close to the gate when someone blew their car horn loudly at me and I jerked in shock, so hard that I fell down.
I heard laughter and chatter before I could lift my head.
Why was I always made the center of attention every time?
The vehicle that honked at me was about to move when it stopped abruptly and someone came out. He didn't seem to be a student because he wore a casual outfit.
He looked tall with very dark hair and a pointed nose.
"Are you alright, miss?"
"Y...yes. I'm okay"
"Do you want me to help you up?"
I stood up as fast as I could immediately I heard that. The only times people ever offered to help me, they ended up doing something mischievous just to spite me.
"No. Thanks."
"I hope you weren't injured?"
I heard the car honk and I guess whoever was in there was probably running out of patience.
"Yess. Thank you so much".
"Here. My card. I want to make up for the embarrassment. Could you reach out to me as soon as you're settled?"
I was going to shake my head and walk away when he quickly grabbed my hands and shoved the card into it, then he jogged back into the car and drove off.
I wasn't able to see whoever was in the car because it was all tinted.
How was I supposed to call him when I didn't have a phone? Besides that, why would I call a total stranger to compensate me for the life I was used to? I shoved the card into my bag and walked quickly, ignoring the stares I got from students.
"Dad!!" I ran into his arms the moment I got home.
"My Ariel"
"I am done. "I don't want to sing again. "I don't want to dream big again. "I am tired, weak, broken." I loved how easy it was to talk to my father. He made me feel so safe talking to him ever since I was a child.
"My Ariel. What's wrong? This isn't what we planned?"
"Yes, but now I've changed my mind. I will go back to the metropolitan school in our area. I am tired of Tonny College. Going there in the first place was a disaster, a mistake that never should have "
Dad held me in his arms without saying anything while I soaked his shirt with my tears.
Tears were not enough to express the pain in my heart.
When I became calm, he took me to a seat and we both sat down.
"Tell me. Who hurt you?"
"Everyone. I hurt myself by being there, by ever desiring to be there".
I saw dad's eyes dim with concern.
If I didn't know his age, I would have concluded that he actually looked very old with the way his brows were etched with worry.
"Were you bullied again?" I couldn't answer, so I kept crying instead.
"No. Not that. I felt very uncomfortable today. "The whole place was different from the world I am used to, such that I was wishing our lives would change as well." I noticed how the expression on his face changed from worry to smiles.
"You, silly. Didn't I tell you that one day, you'd become a global sensation? With this voice of yours and with the proper training, you'll be at the top before you know it."
I rolled my eyes when he winked at me and I let my eyes brighten up with a smile.
"Come, give me a hug" I smiled widely and leaned in to hug him. Bless the day this man became my father.
JASON'S POV
Andre was never going to stop being a jerk.
First, he had to waste my precious time in the name of saving a weird girl. Then we are home and won't let me breathe.
I was glad that he was thoughtful enough to come drive me from school, but I was beginning to regret it.
Seeing myself in a uniform was more sick because he wouldn't stop laughing at me.
"Shut up!!" I yelled and threw my shirt at him because his mockery became unbearable.
Andre was my father's brother's son - my cousin, who lived in Australia with his dad. He had a pure Australian Accent and was bred there, but due to his father's investment over here, he had to keep coming once in a while, and he could swap between the accents.
Just like me, he has been in control all his life and has been following sequences since he was little.
I sometimes felt his pain because his father happened to be harsher than mine, and he was raised under very strict conditions and literally lived a military life.
It was astounding to know how jovial he was even after growing up under such a man like his father.
"I can't believe you almost killed someone today..."
"I almost killed?" I scoffed.
"You couldn't even come out to apologize. She could've been injured."
"I don't fancy such a show of silliness"
"You mean apologizing to a person you almost hit down is silliness? "If you had let me drive like I insisted, it wouldn't have happened like that."
"Thanks for indirectly reminding me that I no longer have access to all my cars, courtesy of dad's wanting me to be in that school."
"Hahaha. Funny" he added dryly, and I rolled my eyes.
"I came across this crazy, weird person today"
"Hmm. I see", Andre added, rolling his phone in his hands. He was clearly not interested.
"She was somehow tall, and I didn't even get a good glimpse of her..."
"Okay?.."
"She had ketchup smeared all over her face, hair and body and reeked of dried foods. If I wasn't sure the school was well secured, I would have said that a mad woman gained access to the school."
"That's crazy"
"I know right. She bumped into me, and you can imagine the scene it created when I found out that my shirt was actually stained."
"The city's sweetheart walks around in a stained shirt" he says with a fake American baritone accent.
"You're crazy!"
I stood up from my cozy white couch and walked towards the washroom, but Andre's voice drew me back.
"What about Sally?" I turned to him like I'd just heard an abomination. Actually, it was an abomination.
Andre was one cousin I had always confronted, and he knew very well all that had happened between Sally and I.
"She's good. Living her life"
"I learned you are both still together. I thought you had told me otherwise?"
"That's the point, man. We've been done for about seven years or more now, but she still doesn't want to move on.
You don't know how traumatic it was for me to find out that I would be attending the same school as hers. She kept trolling me, and she won't stop posting rubbish on her wall about us."
"That's crazy"
"Yeahhh"
There was this untold silence for about thirty seconds.
"If she's still on your neck, then can we look for something to keep her off?"
"Something like what? It's not very easy to keep off someone like Sally. You don't know her."
"I might not know her, but I know that you're getting a new girlfriend in the midst of her claims, and it's enough to bruise her ego and keep her off for some time."
"No. I don't want any girlfriends. The impact of the first one I got is still living with me".
"Don't be silly. "We can always find an arranged girlfriend for you. He adjusted a bit and cleared his throat.
"Someone who we can pay for, and make to sign an agreement to act like your girlfriend for only some time." I looked at him like he was beginning to make sense.
"This would have made sense but for the fact that no lady would want to have something like that to do with someone like me and not try to get a permanent position. "Seems like you forgot who I am", Andre rolled his eyes.
"That's more reason we have to find someone who doesn't seem like it. Someone who might need your presence to stay relevant. "Like a lady who isn't known and has nothing to lose if you both get done with the deal", I looked at him and raised a brow.
"By this, you mean I should look for someone with a low social status to act as my girlfriend?"
"Yeah. "She won't charge too much, and, additionally, you have no idea how embarrassing it would be for Sally that you left her for someone who doesn't even have a class up to her standard!" I placed a hand under my chin and rubbed it in deep thoughts.
"I think I like the sound of this. It shouldn't be a problem for dad since he has not specifically said anything about the kind of lady he wants me around.
But, the problem is, who will I go for and how do we convince her?"
I'll be around for about a month. Leave the search to me", he said slowly, with his phone still rolling between his fingers.
Hmm. Weirdo.
- Writer
