Her breakthrough

Meeting him

Anastasia woke up very early the next day, wanting to leave the house before her mother entered the kitchen, because she knew she would have to pass the kitchen to the door.

She prepared for school quickly thinking about how unlucky she already was on the third day of school.

She tiptoed out of her room, made it to the kitchen but was half surprised to see her dad waiting for her.

She stood straight smiling sheepishly like she had been caught stealing meat from the pot.

"Why am I not so surprised you are here father?"

"Because we both know each other well my dear."

Frederick moved to his daughter, kissed her cheek before leading her to the table in the center of the kitchen.

"You have about fifteen minutes before your mother comes down," Frederick told her as he placed a plate full of pancakes,egg and honey.

Anastasia's heart beamed with joy seeing the food in her front especially after accepting she wouldn't eat the morning and probably suffer bullying cause she would have to eat lunch.

"Thank you so much dad. Thank you." She told him sincerely grateful for her food.

Frederick nodded and Anastasia gulped the food hungrily.

She had always loved pancakes and spaghetti.

They were the only foods she would eat even if she didn't have an appetite.

Anastasia finished her food quickly,kissed her father goodbye and left the house.

She got to the bus stop waiting for the bus and decided to put on her earphones.

She blasted the music on loud because she wanted to drain her thoughts.

The bus approached and she got in. She greeted the bus driver who asked why she was quite earlier than usual but she just covered it with having a report to finish in school.

Because she was early, there were a lot of free seats. She sat on the last seat at the back, not wanting to have to move for anyone.

She arrived at school as usual and went straight to the library to bury herself in books.

She had determined to avoid looking directly at any face that day.

She heard the bell and went to class , where she buried her head in her textbook not listening to the announcements the teacher made and didn't realize a new boy had sat down beside her.

Lunch came and Anastasia hurriedly went to the library. She looked at the shelf wondering which book to start next as she had finished her former novel earlier in the morning .

She settled on a romance novel wanting something to lift her mood.

She sat down in her usual spot against the shelf on the floor and opened her chosen book. She was on the fifth page when her brain told her she might never be the girl in the story.

She closed the book, placing it in her laps before staring into space.

She didn't know how to question her mother anymore. Her sister didn't even acknowledge her presence except for the glares she gave her.

She sighed and hugged herself,not wanting to cry in school, lest she drew attention to herself.

She continued reading her book and was ignorant of the eyes which had been following her.

Lunch break ended and she left the library for class. Class ended for the day so slowly probably because she wanted it to end quickly. After all time never supported her.

She went to work, got flirted with by guys who probably didn't know she was an outcast in her school and she left for her home.

She had taken the turning to her home when she saw her mother on the front porch sitting and taking a smoke. She decided to wait till her mother entered to avoid any confrontation .

For a brief moment, Anastasia wondered if her mother was waiting for her. But she immediately waved the thought, knowing her mother didn't love her enough to do that.

Her father came out and was talking to Isabel but she kept ignoring him. Then Frederick started yelling.

From her father's shout, she realized her sister wasn't home and it was already late.

Anastasia knew Rochelle would definitely be with her boyfriend but her father didn't know that.

Her mother gave a nonchalant attitude so she knew Rochelle might have told something. After a while of Frederick shouting, Isabel stood up angrily and went in.

Frederick placed his left hand on his hip, while rubbing through his hair with his right hand .

He gave off a frustrated sigh.

Anastasia decided to come out from her hiding spot at that moment.

Frederick sighted her as she stepped on the lawn. He immediately went to give her a hug. "Hey dad, is everything okay?" Anastasia asked immediately, feigning ignorance of what just happened .

"No ,not at all. Some of your sister's clothes are not in the room. It seems she's not coming home today or even tomorrow. I tried calling her but she kept cutting the call and finally switched off her phone." Frederick breathed out.

'Wow, it seems to be worse than I thought,' Anastasia thought to herself.

"I'm sure she's fine dad, she's probably just at her boyfriend's place."

"Her boyfriend? Isn't she too young to have a boyfriend? She's just sixteen!."

At this point , Frederick's worry increased greatly.

Anastasia hugged her father in an attempt to calm him down.

" Don't worry dad, she's definitely okay. Also if mom isn't bothered that means she's definitely fine." Anastasia said as she hugged him.

Frederick immediately drew back looking at Anastasia.

She wondered what had happened before she realized her slip of tongue.

Frederick's look grew from worry to sorrow. "You saw all the argument, didn't you?"

"Yes dad. But that's just okay." Anastasia told him , trying to reduce his obvious disappointment in himself.

Frederick nodded and they both went in. They ate together, waited for an hour more in case Rochelle decided to show up before they went to sleep.

The week passed and Rochelle didn't show up at home.

Anastasia had tried to look for her in school just to be sure she was okay but saw her only twice.

Thursday came and Anastasia prepared as usual.

She was about to leave the house when Rochelle came in, dressed like an absolute prostitute and drunk.

Anastasia was so shocked to see her. She was literally only wearing a bra and pants.

Isabel immediately went to her daughter, helping her to her room.

Frederick was shocked and Anastasia could see him trying to hold back his tears.

Anastasia knew he would want to be alone because he couldn't do anything, because Rochelle never listened to him, only to Isabel.

He faked a smile as he saw Anastasia come closer to him.

She kissed him goodbye and he only smiled at her without saying anything.

Anastasia had a sorrowful mood till she got to school. She immediately went to her safe place as she had about an hour before class started.

It was about ten minutes after she had sat down that she inhaled one of the most divine scents she had ever had.

She looked up slowly and the first thing that she saw was the knees folded opposite her.

She kept moving her face slowly, not sure if it was just a random person or one of her bullies.

She finally looked at the person's face and realized she had never seen the person before. 'Is he a new student? Or is he in another grade?' Anastasia wondered to herself.

She looked at him not realizing she was staring. He had ocean blue eyes , pink lips that looked so so soft. His face was free of any blemish. He had a bright healthy skin. His muscles, bulging through his shirt even though his shirt wasn't tight. She really wanted to jump him and….

Anastasia shakes her head , wondering why she was having so many delusional thoughts.

She then remembered no one would actually like her talkless dating her because of the most beautiful girls in school hating on her.

She hurriedly stood up , returned her books and left the library, not hearing the guy call for her.

As she stood outside the library door ,she convinced herself she did the right thing running away before she was laughed at by someone who she just met and was already heavily crushing on.

She decided to spend her remaining free time in class, bracing herself in case she ran into Marina and her friends.

Luckily for her, she got to her class without bumping into any of her bullies.

But sadly her seat was full of marker writings. She sighed sadly and tried cleaning her seat but realized it was written in permanent marker. She touched it and saw it was dry and sat down since it wouldn't stain her dress.

She removed her textbook for the first class.

"Hi."

Anastasia heard someone say hi and it seemed like the person was talking to her but she shrugged it off as a mistake until the person tapped her.

She looked up and she was shocked to see the boy she met in the library.

"Hi," he repeated.

"Hello," Anastasia said, unsure if she should be talking to him and already counting how many times he would talk to her before the other members of her class will tell him not to.

"Hi , I'm Raven. I came on Wednesday."

"Wednesday?!" Anastasia asked shocked as she didn't notice the seat beside her was now permanently taken.

'Have I been so deep in my mind?' , she wondered.

"Yeah," Raven replied, laughing sheepishly.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't realize, I guess I was so caught up in my world all day," Anastasia rushed out before remembering she hadn't told him her name. "Oh , I'm sorry, I'm Anastasia."

"It's so nice to meet you, Anastasia. Can I call you Ana?" " Yeah ,sure."

'After all I'm called different things' she wondered.

Just then the teacher came in and they both focused on the class or so Anastasia thought …