Chapter two

Ashley shut her eyes tightly, trying to process what just happened. She opened her eyes and staring at her in the face was Claire, Alex's girlfriend. Fury burned her face bright red. 

"Who the hell do you think you are to lay your filthy hand on me?"Ashley yelled, her chest moving upward and downward repeatedly as she breathed heavily.

"And who the f**king hell do you think you are to talk back at him? Do you know who he is?" Claire snapped. 

"Does it look like I give a f**k about who he is huh? What part of don't talk to me doesn't he understand!" Ashley fumed.

"You can't just talk to........ " Claire was saying, but Ashley cut her short. 

"If you ever lay your filthy hand on me again, trust me, I'll make sure you regret it" Ashley sassed and walked out of her. 

Claire felt embarrassed. A new girl just insulted her in the presence of the whole class. She gnashed her teeth and made to pull Ashley back, but Alex stopped her. 

"Let her be, I'll show her what I'm made of" Alex whispered in her ear. 

"She's one annoying little bitch" Claire muttered. 

After the whole scenario, The students started leaving the class. They were heading to the cafeteria for lunch. Ashley was still upset. She didn't feel like going to the cafeteria for lunch, or talking to anybody. She wanted to be alone. 

Standing at the entrance of the class, she decided to take a walk around the school. She stumbled upon the school park while taking a walk. 

"Wow.... The atmosphere of this place is nice" She thought. There were concrete chairs where anyone can sit and trees all around. Ashley lowered her butt to the grass. The wind blew her hair up. She closed her eyes, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.

"What are you doing here?" A voice asked. She jerked to her feet instantly. It was a robust looking boy with big Tommy. His eyes were small, his face round and he had chubby cheeks. 

"Just looking around" Ashley made her reply short. The boy smacked his lips. 

"You should be having lunch in the cafeteria. It's against the rules to be loitering around when it's time for lunch" He took a step closer to her. He admired her beauty, starting from her curly hair, to her well shaped brows, to her long eyelashes, to her deep blue eyes, to her red lips.

"I get it, I'm leaving" Ashley retorted and made to leave, but he pulled her back. 

"Don't you wanna know my name?" he asked with a smug smile. 

"I don't care about your name! Just leave me alone!" she yelled, jerking her hand from his hold. His smile faded and his forehead creased.

"Better watch what you say because I'm a prefect and you can't talk to me anyhow" He said in a bragging manner, hoping it'll impress her. 

"I don't give a f**k!" Ashley retorted and walked out of him. 

"I'll still get you" He said to himself, smacking his lips as he watched her walk away. 

"There are more of assholes in this school than students" Ashley thought as she headed back to her class. 

She got her backpack from her locker. Unzipping it, she brought out a pack of chips and the bottle of water she kept there before she left home. 

She munched the chips, peering out of the windows at intervals. She twisted the cap of the bottle water and gulped the content down her throat. She breathed a sigh of relief as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. 

She took a glance at the timetable on the wall. After lunch, they'll be having an economics class, followed by the history class and that was all for the day. 

After lunch, students started trooping into the classroom, making noise as they moved their tables and chairs. 

Ashley's eyes trailed Alex and Claire as they walked into the class together. Unexpectedly, a girl clumsily bumped into Alex. Alex pushed her roughly to the floor. 

"Have you gone blind?" Alex shouted at the poor girl, attracting the attention of the whole class.

"Oh! It's the nerd" Claire exclaimed sarcastically.

"What do you expect?  She can only see her books, nothing else" Claire made jest of her. 

"I'm sorry, I wasn't looking" The girl apologized. 

"You think an apology is enough huh" Claire moved closer to her in an intimidating manner. She cringed and Claire grabbed her shirt. 

"Let her go" Ashley said in a command tone. She just couldn't hold it any longer. 

"You again!" Claire's forehead creased at the sight of Ashley. 

Ashley walked to the front of the class. Turning to the girl, she said, "Don't you have better things to do than apologize to these assholes huh". The whole class bursted into laughter. 

"Assholes" some of them repeated between hiccups of laughter. 

Alex was fuming, a vien popped out in his neck as he clenched his fists and gritted his teeth. 

"No one has ever stood up to him" Some of them murmured. 

"I pray she doesn't land herself in trouble"

"Hey, how dare you?" Claire raised her hand to slap Ashley, but Ashley was quick to grab her hand and pin it against her back. Clarie yelped in pain.

"My name is ASHLEY, not hey" she corrected, letting go of her hand. 

"You shouldn't let them bully you" She said to the girl, who was already on her feet. 

"Thanks"

As Ashley made her way to her seat, Claire fixed her gaze on her, fuming , at the same time, thinking of how she was gonna get her revenge. 

Mrs Smith cat walked into the class.

"Good afternoon Mrs Smith" They chorused. 

"Bring out your assignment" She said. She moved to the center of the class, her heels, clinking rythymically on the tiled floor. The noise of opening lockers was disturbing to the ear. 

"Can't they be more careful?" Ashley thought. 

"If you didn't do it, out of my class before I fish you out" She sterned. Alex did not think twice before leaving the class. Mrs Smith went round, checking the assignment. 

"Where's yours?" She asked Ashley. 

"I joined the class today……" Ashley tried to explain herself, but Mrs Smith cut her short. 

"That's not an excuse. A good student would have..... " She was saying, but Ashley cut her short. 

"There's no need for a lecture, I'm leaving" Ashley stood up. She took out some books and a pen from her locker before leaving the class. 

"That girl is rude" Mrs Smith said. Though Ashley heard, she didn't turn back. 

Ashley looked around, searching for an empty class, but there was no empty class nearby. She didn't want to go to the Library so she looked harder and luckily, she found the music studio. She pushed the door open. No one was there and it was damn silent. Just what she needed. She stepped into the studio and closed the door gently behind her. 

Her eyes darted around and she spotted different kind of musical instruments like Piano, guitar, saxophone and others. The music studio had seats like the rest of the classrooms. She settled down on the seat close to the door, placed her books on the table and started working on the assignment that Mrs Jones gave them.

Not long, she started hearing strange sounds, more like a whisper. She ignored it thinking it was her imagination. It didn't stop and she started to feel uncomfortable. She dropped her pen and listened attentively. She could hear it. Fear gripped her. She quickly packed up her books and stood up to leave. 

She placed her hand on the doorknob and pulled it with force, but it didn't open. "Shit" She muttered, trying harder. The whispering got louder and her body trembled a little. 

"Open already" Her voice quivered as she pulled the door knob with all her strength. She door flung open. She scurried out of the music studio and bumped into Alex in the hallway. The force of the contact made them fall. Alex groaned.

"What the hell..... Are you blind?" He spat, his face squeezed in irritation. 

Ashley breathed heavily, her chest moving upward and downward repeatedly. He stood up and looked at her suspiciously. He knew it was unlike her to keep quiet and she was looking very scared.

"You look like someone who has just seen a ghost" He smirked, bringing his face closer to hers. She pushed him and stood up to her feet. She picked up her books.

"I'll have my revenge for what you did in class today" His voice sounded intimidating. She wasn't even listening to what he was saying, she fixed her gaze on the music studio, different thoughts racing through her mind at the same time. 

Ashley turned to leave, now she had no other choice than to go to the school library. Taking the stairs to the third floor, she walked through the hallway, her eyes scanning around in search of the library. At last! She spotted it. Walking in, she didn't say anything to the libarian. Ashley settled down on the seat close to the window and carried on with her assignment.

She couldn't concentrate fully on the assignment. She kept thinking of the whisper she heard in the music studio. 

"Oh no! It's can't be" She thought. 

***

Ashley yawned and stretched arms. She glanced at her watch. "It's time for history" She thought. She packed her books and headed back to her class. 

She pushed the door open and strolled into the class. Everywhere suddenly went silent and Ashley started to wonder why they all went silent. 

She made her way to her locker, dropped her books and picked up the necessary materials for her history class. 

Mr Brown, their history teacher strolled in with a smile plastered on his face.

"No need to greet, where did we stop?" He asked, dropping some textbooks on the table. To Ashley, he seemed kind of friendly. 

"World War II" Annabelle, the girl Ashley helped earlier answered.