Fated to the Sapphire Alpha

Chapter 3: Another Pain

Seeing her reminded me of my last encounter with Amanda, which was just two days ago. Back then, she made me drink toilet water, and today, she slapped me.

As I remembered, Amanda didn’t stop glaring at me. She crossed her arms over her revealing chest, which was barely held in by a hot pink tube top. I quickly prayed her chest wouldn’t pop out because I would probably vomit, honestly.

It made me wonder if the school’s dress code even applied to her.

As I stared at her clothes instead of trying to escape, she did the unthinkable. As if slapping me wasn’t enough, she grabbed my shirt with more force than I expected and tore it down, exposing my old training bra.

Unlike Amanda, I didn’t have a big chest—I was petite. She found my appearance laughable, and she kept laughing at what she saw.

I took my torn shirt and tried to stretch it around myself to cover up, but Amanda wasn’t done with me yet. She turned to her friends and said, “Sharpie and hold her up against the wall.”

Her friends smiled mischievously and grabbed me by my shoulders after handing Amanda the Sharpie.

While they held me, Amanda uncapped the Sharpie and started writing on my forehead. I would have to do something as stupid as walk around school with her ridiculous nickname for me on display.

Holding back tears, I prayed for this to end. I squeezed my eyes shut as I felt the pressure of the Sharpie for a moment on the bump from where she had hit me earlier. The pen moved down from my forehead to my flat chest, but then it suddenly stopped.

Someone had moved Amanda away, and the two girls who were holding me were also shoved aside. No time later, I heard Natally’s older brother, Nathan, speaking.

“Amanda, babe, what are you doing?”

He sounded more concerned about Amanda than about what they were doing to me.

I had to ask myself if Nathan was okay in the head. I opened my eyes, and the remaining tears I was holding back fell. The two girls let go of my arms completely, causing me to fall, and I quickly covered myself before Nathan could look at me any more.

Nathan is Natally’s twin, and it’s a sore topic for her. But right now, I couldn’t care less. I needed to get out of here, run to economics class, or ask for a jacket—my last option being to wear my PE clothes, specifically the shirt. As if he could hear my thoughts, I felt a jacket drop onto me. I let it slide on, not wanting to give Amanda any more reasons to smack me.

“Get out of here, Mishi,” Nathan hissed quietly.

Without thinking more about my options, I told myself: Screw this. I’m getting out of here to get myself decent.

I ran, but I ended up crashing face-first into Samantha. We both flew back, hitting the concrete floor, and Samantha shouted in pain.

“Sheesh, Mishi, what the heck was that about? Oh, my poor forehead!”

Samantha kept yelling while I groaned in pain. The ache radiated from my head all the way to my toes.

Despite the pain, I told myself: At least I have a thick skull that saved me today.

With all the strength I had, I asked Samantha with a groan, “Tell me you have a jacket!”

My voice was filled with pain. I was worried I would get caught by my mom after everything that had happened so far, not to mention getting in trouble with the teacher, the counselor, and finally, the principal.

While I tried to manage the pain, Samantha moved beside me, giving me her cream-colored button-down shirt made of cotton. It was warm and would also shield me from further bullying.

Taking it, I tried to give her a smile as I said, “Thank you, Samy, I needed this.”

I could see Samantha rubbing her forehead until she felt strong enough to talk to me. As she did, I noticed things were getting fuzzy. I just hoped I hadn’t caused a nosebleed from the impact—right now, that was my only concern.

Calming down and breathing slowly, I didn’t smell blood, at least for now. Samantha, still sounding pained, asked me, “Any time you feel like explaining what just happened, I’m all werewolf ears.”

Even in pain, I laughed at her choice of words. Samantha has been obsessed with the supernatural since we were kids, always relating things to being a creature of the night—especially a werewolf. She never hid her obsession.

Although, for some reason, one day she got a call from the principal. It was during school exams. I had finished early to try and get ahead in my classes, and I saw her come out of the principal’s office, followed by the Kyle Knight.

He was the hottest guy in school—the same guy Nat had been talking about earlier.

Kyle Knight is the typical teenager every girl wants. I’m still not sure if the school gives athletes steroids, but the guys are too developed, with Kyle being the main one. His tan skin and blue eyes stand out, especially when his long black hair isn’t tied in a man bun.

Every girl in school has a crush on him. Who wouldn’t?

He’s the “it” guy. He treats people fairly—at least he used to. Once he turned eighteen, things went downhill, at least in my opinion.

He started hooking up with every girl he could, and that’s putting it mildly. There were even rumors about him with much older women—including our history teacher.

Just thinking about that made my head hurt. How can someone change overnight like Kyle did? I ask myself that question from time to time, but I would have thought more about it in class if Amanda hadn’t given me other plans.

Nat had told me before that Kyle has been working alongside his dad for a long time.

Rumors that Nat heard and shared with me were that he would take over as CEO of his dad’s company someday.

Which was great for him, but it made me think how nice it must be to have a supportive family that trusts you enough to give you a job like that.

Feeling bitter about my thoughts, I asked Samantha another question to shake it off: I felt thirsty and remembered a water fountain.

As I looked around, I kept repeating to myself that if my memory was as sharp as usual, there should be a water fountain nearby.

“Can I drink water first, and then I’ll tell you?”

Samantha extended her hand, and I could see the tips of her fingers from the corner of my eye. My glasses weren’t on my face anymore—they must have fallen during our collision. I moved my hand to grab hers as we stood up.

The water fountain was right beside her. With her help, I drank as much water as I could. It was the best remedy for everything that had just happened. As I stepped aside to let Samantha drink, I adjusted my shirt to cover my bra. It had been a lot for one day, but I knew things could get worse if I wasn’t careful. I walked back to where I thought my glasses might be, but I began feeling dizzy.

After finally picking them up, I leaned against the wall to calm down and focus. I thought about what I needed to do next.

Even though I had passed my exams, my grades were still on hold because the teacher who gave me the exams was murdered shortly afterward.

For student safety, the exams were canceled. In response, my parents were furious and even demanded compensation from the school for all the time I’d spent studying outside of my regular classes.

Still, the school was merciful, saying my grades wouldn’t be affected based on the information they had and that they’d work to replace the lost material. That’s what I’m currently trying to do.

Letting out a breath, I heard Samantha finally catch her breath and ask me, “So what happened, stupid?”

I looked at her with my eyebrows furrowed until she pointed at my forehead. I quickly moved to check my reflection in the window beside me and saw the word “STUPID” written in black Sharpie on my forehead.

I groaned and tried to rub it off my skin while muttering, “f**k my life!”

As I said that, I heard Mason’s voice coming from the direction I’d just come from, and I instantly panicked at the sound. My reaction made me question why I was so afraid of Mason.

Maybe it was because every girl Mason introduced to Kyle eventually ended up in bed with him. If that’s why I feared him, then I refused to let him introduce me to his best buddy. Besides, I had a class to get to.