Wall Street Seduction

Chapter 1: The Past

Chapter 1: The Past

"People who repeatedly attack your confidence and self-esteem are quite aware of your potential, even if you are not"

-Wayne Gerard Trotman-

***

    The sound of her footsteps were heard on the hallway, she had her head down as she passed through the kids who were staring at her with judgement in her eyes, she could hear some small whispers and those mean stares directed at her. She had no need to even turn her head to know it. She could feel it crawling on her skin.

    It will pass. She assured herself. The walk made her feel like she was walking through hell's hallway, with the devils on the side poking her with their fiery torches. Only, the devils were impressionable, mean and judge mental high school students standing by their decorated locker.

    She sighed in relief when she finally reached her class. Yet she was so naive, she thought by reaching the class, she would finally be left in peace, but no. As soon as the door was opened, everyone in the class froze with their head were turned to her direction for the wrong reasons. As if she had just committed a crime. Fortunately for her they were quick to turn back to whatever they were doing before her grand coming. Scarlett walked toward her seat, the one at the middle of the front row, her seat was placed slightly apart from the other students' seat, it was clear they were indirectly isolating her, she was always seated "alone" for the past two years, no matter which class it was. Seemed the whole kids were used to her placement. They always left that one seat on the same position for her. Scarlett put down her bag on the table and pulled her chair. Right when she was about to sit down, somebody pulled it quickly and her butt landed on the floor. It felt like all of her body weight just got pushed back to her bottom, and she might have hit her tail bone. God, it's still morning.

    She stood up and turned around to face the guy who just did it. He was one of the class clown, Aaron, the boy was the same height as her, he was a little bit on the skinnier side. He was laughing his ass off at her reaction when she glared at him.

    "That was not funny" she spat, her tone was low and deadly. Scarlett had finally gone upset. She was used to the teasing and mocking of the kids in her class, but if there was one thing she absolutely could not stand, it would be stupid childish prank. Seeing her response, his laughter disappeared and his facial expression turned into a challenging face.

    "What are you going to do about it?" He dared her. At this point all eyes were on them, she became the center of attention, everyone began to surround her and started to make bets on each other about what she was going to do next. Some said she would probably end up crying, while others made a bet that he would hit her and she would fall back once more. She was the victim there, but somehow she felt like they were glad he did that to her, as if she deserved it.

    "I could literally go blind from it" She defended herself. He raised his eyebrow and leaned in closer to her with a tormenting expression full of pride and arrogance. He was ready to fight her, and everyone was starting to cheer for him like a bunch of monkeys. Aaron clenched his fist and pulled it up toward her when another guy from the same class, Jason, the class' Vice President, and one of the less troublesome kid, came in the middle of them and pushed both of them further from each other.

    "The teacher is about to come" he spoke, trying to make some excuses to help her, the teacher was actually still outside talking with another teacher about things no one was really interested in. Aaron snorted, he might be a brat but he was not one of the rebel kids, he did not want to get into any trouble when the teacher arrived, so he went back to his seat along with everyone else. She was saved for the moment, although she would totally fight him if he did anything to her.

    "Just let it go" Jason told her with sympathy. She stared at him in disbelief, simply for the reason that no one reacted when Aaron was about to lay his finger on a girl including him, but at the same time, she was grateful to him from doing what he did, at least he did something to prevent a scene from happening, she gave Aaron one last glance before taking a seat. While waiting for the teacher to come and the class to start. She pulled out her headphone, notebook and pen. Plugging in the cable to her phone, she turned on her favorite music, setting it to the highest volume to prevent hearing any whispers from anyone and started drawing some doodles on the paper. It was what she would do whenever she needed to calm herself down, she still had five minutes before the class started, it was enough time to finish a small drawing.

    There she was, drowning herself in her own world. 16 years old Scarlett Heart was a loner, she was mostly found alone with her notebooks. She was not an anti-social, but she had some trouble getting along with the kids at her school, it was mostly because she found them too childish or full of drama, and the opposite could be said for her, the kids did not like her because they found her weird for whatever reason, since she would often talk about things they did not understand whenever she had a chance to speak. Her choice of language was deemed too "scientific" for their liking. It was due to her intelligence, she had a rather interesting mindset which everyone else did not approve of, or simply could not comprehend themselves. People have a tendency to stay away from things they could not understand.

    Still, even a stranger could tell that she was different. At that time, she had not realized that she was simply ahead of her time. It was the perfect description to describe her situation. Thus, she had to endure loneliness throughout high school because no one could stand her presence.

    To make things worse, at the time, she was the ugly duckling, she had her hair cut in a short bob which did not flatter her at all, her face was covered with nerdy glasses, she had braces on, which made her face look like the ultimate nerd, on top of that, she was fat and short with a terrible sense of fashion, she would wear baggy clothes and sweatpants every day to school which made her appear even larger. She did not have a lot of acne but she had a few pimples here and there which reduced the brightness of her face. Her appearance alone gave the kids enough reason to bully her, we all know how kids could be so mean to the physically inferior, which they would definitely regret later on in their life.

    Scarlett Heart might not be the smartest or the brightest girl at class, but she was not stupid, she was aware of what they were doing to her, these mean kids wanted to break her, but Scarlett was so much stronger than that. She would not let herself be stepped on by these kids forever. Scarlett had never been the sweet girl, she was the furthest thing from being sweet, yet she was not bitter either, she was simply herself, one who did not want to bother with other people's business.

    A gift she realized she had since an early age was the gift of people reading. She could read them like an open book, it made her completely aware of who was being real and who had a thick layer of mask on their face. for Scarlett, It was a blessing and a curse, furthermore, there was something about her gaze, when she stares at you, it would feel as if she sees through your soul, all your lies are visible to her.

    Some kids thought she was a freak because of the gift, yet God knew how much she hated the word. It was always thrown easily by people to her without any consideration of her feelings.

    One time, Scarlett was sitting on one of the bathroom stall in the girl's restroom. She was just doing her business when she heard the door freaked open along with the sound of some footsteps. Soon enough there was a chattering of a few girls from her class. At first she had no interest in listening, yet the louder they talked, it was getting clear that the topic of the conversation was her.

    "You know, Scarlett, from our class, she is such a freak" one girl sneered.

    "I know, right? I mean. She is always alone, like, of course, no one wants to be friend with such a weirdo" the other one added.

    "I heard some rumors that she sleeps around with older men to gain extra allowance, but who would want to sleep with someone like her?" Those words pierced through her heart like a glass blade, she lowered her head and clenched her hand. Tears began to fall on her cheek, yet she was covering her mouth with her hand to prevent any sound from leaving her lips as she tried to hold in her voice until the girls had left.

    She knew that these kids had no idea what they were doing, they were still living in a pond, which would eventually open up to the sea, and by then, the big fishes would be eaten by the sharks. Still, those words hurt so badly.

    I did nothing wrong

    Scarlett had always had a vision of her future, she always tried her best to remain optimistic despite the negativity which were thrown at her, and it was her biggest strength, yet sometimes she needed to cry, to let it all out. Soon enough the tears turned into anger, and the anger turned into a fuel. A driving force.

    From early on, she made a vow to herself that she would change, she would prove these people wrong and made them filled with regret for ever bullying her.

    Little did she know what kind of woman she would become.