The City of the Unexpected

Faith: I woke up with a start, cold sweat rolling down my bruised and dirtied face. "It was just a dream, it was just a dream," I repeated to myself, trying to calm down my racing heart. I squeezed my eyes shut, taking deep, calming breaths. I looked at the clock on my bedside table, 2:45 AM. Sighing, I laid my head back in my bed slowly, staring at the ceiling, unable to sleep. Just then all the events from my past flashed across my mind, from the empty wine bottles that littered the ground to my sister, Rose, and I huddled into balls while receiving regular kicks and punches from our parents. I closed my eyes in an attempt to go to sleep. Not long afterwards I let the calming darkness that is sleep engulf me. I woke up again at 5:45 AM. I quietly made my way to Rose's room, careful not to wake up our parents. Once she was awake we started cleaning and cooking breakfast, then immediately getting ready for school. Once we were done we rushed out of the house afraid of receiving a morning beating. Just as we closed the door our parents came pounding down the stairs. "We just made it, right on time," Rose sighed in relief. I nodded and started walking in the direction of the bus stop. Once the bus came we got in, receiving the usual nasty remarks from all the other students on the bus and looked around for seats. On the one side, right at the back were two empty seats next to a boy sitting alone. He looked up to see what the fuss was about and saw me looking at the seats. He then gestured, showing us that it's okay for us to sit there. I pulled Rose's arm, trying to get her attention and pointed at the seats. She nodded and followed behind me. Once we sat down I looked towards the boy. "Thank you. We really appreciate it," I said, nodding a thanks. "No problem. These were the last two on this bus anyways," He said shrugging. "I'm faith and this is my sister Rose," I said pointing at Rose. "Nice to meet you, I'm Jethro." I nodded in his direction and then turned to face forward and waited for the bus to stop at school. "Why are your faces so bruised?" Jethro asked, sounding concerned. "oh," I said, touching a big purple bruise on my face, "don't worry, it's nothing," I said smiling at him. He did not seem to believe me but nodded anyways, I don't know him that well but I have a feeling he wasn't going to stop asking until he got an answer from either Rose or myself, and I have a feeling he will get an answer soon. ~At school~ Rose and I were walking down the halls to the cafeteria when someone decided to be cruel and trip me. I fell face first on the floor and my eye landed on the corner of one of my books, immediately making it swell shut. I started picking all of my stuff up so I could go to the nurses office again, to get some ice when I heard something really unexpected. "HEY!!!! DUMBBELLS!!!! WHY DON'T YOU GO PICK ON SOMEONE YOUR OWN SIZE INSTEAD OF INNOCENT GIRLS FOR NOTHING!!!!! PIECES OF CRAP!!!!" I heard someone yell. When I turned I saw that it was the guy from the bus, Jethro. To say I was confused was an understatement. Jethro then turned around and his eyes widened when he saw what happened to my eye. "Are you okay? Your eyes look really bad, let me help you to the nurses office, maybe she will call you parents?" Jethro asked, grabbing my books and putting a hand on my back to help me to the nurses office, "NO!" Rose and I screamed, "uhh... We mean, that won't be necessary, it's not that bad, just a bit of ice and I'll be back in tip top shape, thanks anyways." I said smiling to him the best I could without causing any pain to my eye. Jethro gave us a wary look but nodded anyways and walked with us to the nurses office. Rose knocked on the door and opened it when the nurse told us it was okay to come in. Once she saw what happened her eyes widened, not expecting to see me so soon with another black eye, "oh my goodness! Faith! What happened? Was it your parents again? Did someone do this to you? I told you, you should report this and then everything will be over with once it's sorted out, quick, come sit. I'll get you some ice," Nurse Jackie said in a rush. We were all quiet while Nurse Jackie got some ice and put some weird cream on my eye for the swelling. Once I got the ice and the cream was properly rubbed in my me, Rose, Jethro and I walked out of her office, all still quiet, that was until Jethro spoke up. "What did she mean by 'was it your parents again'?" Jethro asked, confusion laced all over his face. "Don't worry about it, it's nothing, she was just rambling on weird things," I said rolling my eyes and looking straight ahead. I didn't have a problem lying to him about my parents being abusive. I'm used to it, that's how Rose and I lost all our friends. They got mad that we wouldn't open up to them whenever we came to school with new bruises, and they would get upset that we never wanted to hang out with them after school or that we would never invite them over. Eventually they got tired of the constant lies and declining and gave up on us and left. Since then Rose and I have not made an attempt to make any friends because we knew that the same thing would happen over and over again. So we, along with everyone else, gave up. We weren't sad about it, we were actually glad that we could get rid of the constant having to force a smile and a laugh and lie about everything being amazing and having to cover up the bruises saying we fell, we tripped, a huge book fell on us, we hit our heads, things like that. We were so relieved. But from the looks of it, Jethro is the new kid and doesn't know that we are the girls that no one wants to be friends with, the weirdos, the mess ups, the unwanted ones, but he seems like the type of person to know that but still would want to be friends with them to prove everyone else wrong. So Rose and I might have made a new friend. Awesome, back to the lying and declining, let's see how long this one will last, the others lasted 6 months. Let us see...