Chapter 10 | Blue Face
1063 Words
One way I had adopted to make this whole shared bathroom business work is waking up early to have my bath. I already knew Kane was not obsessed with punctuality the way I was so, it worked pretty fine. By the time I heard the shower running, I was usually already finished dressing for school.
However, that morning, by the time I woke up, I saw I had missed my alarm. And the shower was running. Still, I knocked on the door to let Kane know to hurry. He didn’t.
I was trying to pick out my uniform for the day when I heard my bathroom door come open.
“The shower is yours,” Kane announced.
He was standing in his underwear, a black vest and black boxer briefs. I kept my eyes on his face. A cocky grin spread across his lips and I wasn’t sure if it was because he noticed my discomfort or there was something else.
“Don’t be long. The bus won’t wait on you,” Kane said in a very cryptic tone then turned around and walked back to his room.
After a week in school, my mother still hasn’t sorted out the whole situation with the driver. The two in-house drivers were already occupied with Reginald and Willow. So, either a new one was employed or I’d have to carpool with one of the two. I wasn’t looking forward to that so, I thought I would stick with the bus till I could find another solution.
I locked all the doors as soon as I walked into the bathroom and hopped beneath the shower, set to speed-up my entire bath process.
Kane was already gone by the time I exited the house with only a slice of bread in my stomach. I was still avoiding the cafeteria so, I had tucked an energy bar into my side pockets just in case I got hungry.
This time, the bus was late and I had to wait another ten minutes at the station before I finally saw the long vehicle pull up to the curb. I huffed, unable to hide my irritation as the driver opened the doors for me. She sent me an apologetic smile but I didn’t return it. By the time I got to school, I knew I would be a sweaty mess.
I had P.E that morning. It was my first time and apparently in Oak Bridge, they took sports seriously. So seriously that Wednesdays were dedicated to it and other extracurricular activities. Like club meetings. I’d really hoped it was something I could avoid but there was a roll call for every session and offenders were severely punished.
We were supposed to change into our sports wear in the locker room but I was so self-conscious about the size of my body parts that I went into the toilet instead. It was a tight squeeze but I managed it. By the time I came out though, I saw that my sports wear was a little tight.
“Seriously?!” I groaned. This day could not get any worse, I thought as I shrugged into my blazer.
It was an awkward look but there was no way in hell I was walking out of there looking like I shopped in the kiddies department. Little did I know that I had more stuff to worry about.
At first, I didn’t notice the stares. Then, I went outside to the field and it seemed like the whole world had stopped. Everyone kept straining their necks to look at me as I walked to find a seat. I mean, wearing a blazer over the sports wear couldn’t be that bad could it?
“Oh wow, you really do know how to make the headlines…”
Samantha’s mocking tone behind me almost threw me off the bleachers.
“Ugh, not you again,” I whispered, looking away from her.
She cackled. “You better be lucky I’m the one to tell you the truth. At least I’ll be nice about it. Leila might not be when she writes the article in Friday’s paper.”
I snubbed her. This was just another tactic to get me to join their stupid magazine society. I was simply not interested. Let them publish about that for all I care.
The coach called for those not on any sports team to come sign off on whichever team they would join. You didn’t have to be a competitor but it was important that you identified with one at least.
I quickly moved so that I could get away from Samantha and her clique. Their laughter followed me all the way to the field where the coach asked me a question that left me stupefied.
“Why in the world is your face blue?”
The coach pulled out his phone and stuck it in front of my face. I gasped. My face was blue and so were my hands. And it seemed like being under the sun was making it worse.
I groaned and stormed off the field. The coach called after me, saying that I still had to sign off on a team. I didn’t look back as I ran away.
“Yeah, go hide away blue face,” someone shouted and it seemed like everyone had heard. The whole field erupted in laughter.
What the hell was it with me in this school? Could I not catch a damn break?! I fought the tears that stung the back of my eyes as I ran to the bathroom where I furiously began to scrub at my face. Whatever the chemical was, it didn’t seem to be coming off.
I tried to think about what must have caused it but nothing came to mind. I was yet to replace my old cosmetic products because I hadn’t found the time to go to the supermarket, so it seemed a little odd that I would suddenly have this reaction.
Then I remembered Kane’s smirk that morning and I knew immediately that he had done something to my facial scrub. Sure enough, when I finally gave up on washing it off and walked out of the bathroom, Kane was standing right there with a grin on his face.
“Told you not to be long.” He laughed then turned away as someone called his name.
- Writer
