If you've ever had a terrible first day of school, you know by now that it always starts with you minding your own business, probably trying to navigate the large hallways until that one person destined to ruin your existence bumps into you and makes a complete fool out of you.
Only I was the one sent to ruin someone's existence.
I raced through the multitude of straggling students either trying to get to class or loitering in the hallways and bumped into some of them resulting to loud insults being thrown at me. I didn't care though, I was on a mission.
When I woke up this morning, I felt like I had dreamed up the whole events that occurred last night until I saw the date which clearly read, October 1st and then there was the fact that things seemed to be repeating themselves. I had really gone back in time.
I glanced at the clock above at the main hall as I halted to a full stop and breathed a sigh of relief, 8:15am. Now around this time a month ago was when I first ran into him, and like how it all went last time, I was determined to correct it and be in his good books.
Step one, be nice to him. Easy enough, right?
Now the reason why I was rushing to get here and currently standing by the main doors was simple, today was Blake's first day of school and I had literally ran right into him causing all his piled up books, worksheets and timetables to strew across the hallways. We had picked and tried to sort everything out together but I got the feeling that he mainly started avoiding me after because of that incidence. I planned to run into him again, this time not clumsily but to put up the front of the nice girl he first meets in this new environment.
I glanced at the wall clock, only a minute had passed. He should be passing by any second now and I reached up to sip my hot coffee from the Styrofoam cup. I hadn't had time to grab a decent breakfast from the whole weirdness of the morning so the coffee was doing both a job of filling my empty stomach and keeping me alert.
I peered at the little tattoo at the back of my hand with renewed determination. It was a small, black writing of the number 31 that stood out on my pale skin, I had tried scrubbing it off this morning when I noticed it but then realized what it was. A reminder, of just how many days I had to complete this heinous task.
A hand tapped on my shoulder, jogging me out of my reverie and Molly's familiar face appeared. She was dressed in her red and white cheerleader's uniform for some reason. Her chestnut brown hair was tied into a tight ponytail which really brought out her soft, oval face and big almond eyes.
"Ruby," she really stressed out the 'b' in my name, probably for dramatic effect. Molly quite enjoyed drama or being the centre of attention and I rolled my eyes at her to get to the point. "Where have you been? Amanda wants to see us all."
Amanda was our honey blonde cheerleading captain, the definition of a typical high school queen bee. What she wanted today of all days, I didn't understand.
"Molly, go on without me. Tell her I'll be there in-" I was saying, throwing out my hands in exasperation and hitting a hard surface. The Styrofoam cup slipped from my hands and I heard a male voice cuss loudly. I turned to meet the sight of a very annoyed Blake Johnson whose white T-shirt was currently soaked through by my hot coffee.
His books, timetables and all were scattered all over the tiled hallway and it felt like time had stopped as everyone seemed to pause to stare at this scene that was most likely not going to end well. Blake was dressed exactly like I remembered a month ago, in blue jeans and a currently coffee stained white tee, his curly, black hair stuck up everywhere and his electric blue eyes were narrowed in disliked behind his black, thin rimmed glasses. He was actually pretty good looking but that was by the way now.
I had one thing to do, just one thing and I blew it. Great going, Ruby. Even the tiny tattoo on my hand seemed to burn as he glared at me.
"I'm so sorry, I swear, it was a mistake, Blake," I apologized as I bent to start picking up his books. Meanwhile, Molly still stood behind me ogling him with her mouth probably hung open.
Some best friend.
"You've ruined my shirt! And how do you even know my name, weirdo?" Blake asked gruffly, bending down to join me in picking arranging the fallen books and I realized that I just made yet another mistake today. Technically, we just met, I wasn't supposed to know his name and I just uttered it like I had known him for ages.
"Uh...you look like a Blake," I rushed out, thinking fast to stop how he was currently staring at me suspiciously, it was bad enough that he already thought I was weird. "Also, I'm a really great guesser and I guess people's names like every time." That strained nervous laugh I gave at the end of my sentence probably did more harm than good.
"O...kay." He didn't sound like he believed me and I heard the late bell peel overheard and suddenly, all the normal school activities returned and people seemed to stop staring. We finished picking the books and stood straight, he was just a bit taller than I was and he studied the brown stain on his shirt with a frown.
"Umm...about that, let's maybe go the lost and found to-"
"Stay away from me, weirdo," he snapped, piling up his books to his chest and walking away. I noticed how adorable he looked with the glasses sliding down his nose as he walked past. I ran my hands through my hair, feeling like this task was about to get way harder than I expected.
At the end of the school day, I had finally come to one conclusion; if I thought Blake Johnson hated me in the morning, I was wrong. So very wrong.Blake didn't hate me, he despised me and it all started with a few splits by the bleachers after school. Here in this little town in the heart of Texas, football was everything, if you didn't like or appreciate the sport, you had just dug yourself a literal shallow grave with your own hands.And that's why if you were a student here that didn't like football, you were instantly unpopular. Girls, namely like me joined the cheerleaders to support the boys because if we didn't, a drastic ostracization would take place. If being yelled at by Amanda every day after school during practice was the price for popularity, we all gladly took it."Look sharp, girls," Amanda snapped, placing her right hand on her hip and stretching the left arm towards her right foot in a fl
I met the Devil on the school bus.Okay, so it would be pretty fair to admit that after smashing Blake's windscreen, I had pretty much given up on stalking him. I tried getting to him a few more times but the look he always gave me told me to maintain my lane or else.The other day in the cafeteria when he was sitting alone, quietly chewing his spaghetti and looking like a fallen god while at it, I had walked up to him with my lunch tray which consisted of only an apple and yoghurt, and sat down right in front of him. He glared at me with those stunning blue eyes, hissed and picked up his textbooks before abandoning both me and his lunch.Talk about awkward. I had kept my distance after that. And there was also the fact that Molly was super into him and had spent the past few days going on and on about how his curly hair made her stomach go all wonky. Then there was also schoolwork, it was just a repeat of everything I h
I met the devil way sooner than I had expected.When he had told me he would intervene and help me out, I didn't think it would be so soon or that he would suddenly walk in as the substitute Calculus teacher.Yes, you heard me right. There I was, biting at the tip of my Bic and wondering if by any chance, Blake was staring over at my side. This was the only class I had with him and when he came in earlier and spotted my seating position in the middle of the class, he intentionally decided to go pick the seat far end of the class, at the corner.God, that boy hated me so much and it was all my fault.Our regular Calculus teacher, Miss Simeon was running late which was very unusual and most of us were already getting all rowdy in the class. For final year seniors, they all acted pretty dumb for my liking and I dully watched, Asher Hu, one of the blonde, football jocks lob paper balls at his teammates w
The hospital stench was getting to me.After school today, my mom had called from work to ask if I could kindly swing by the hospital to drop off some files she had forgotten in the process of her rush this morning. Molly and I were about to have some sandwiches at my place for lunch when she called, I agreed and we packed up some tomato sandwiches and pink lemonade to go for all three of us.After taking the bus heading out of town and a very long hour or so, we got to the psychiatric hospital where my mom has worked as a nurse since before I was born. She appreciated the lunch we brought her and after a few minutes of sitting around and eating, I was already impatient and ready to leave. Molly, on the other hand had made herself completely comfortable on the office couch and was ranting to my mom about how she had been saving for some new designer boots that had gotten even more expensive over the weekend.Sometimes, I
The Devil was driving the cab.At this point, I wasn't even surprised to see him anymore and I felt the first signs of a splitting migraine as he continued to weave the car at insane speed not the least disturbed by the heavy rain.Molly's eyes were still closed, with her plump, pink lips slightly parted and wet hair matting to her soft face. I wondered if she had fallen asleep by her own will or that of our infamous driver. It was probably the latter."Are you following me now?" I asked."Yes." He replied without an ounce of hesitation and I didn't know whether I was supposed to be creeped out or reassured by the thought. "And I helped you out of this rain, didn't I?""Thanks," I murmured sourly. "Also, could you maybe slow down, I wouldn't want to die before my twenty-two days are up." The dark, casual tone that I used to refer to my death scared me. Had I accepted my fat
I couldn't breathe.The large hand was firmly clamped on my throat, restricting any such luxury such as breathing. I fought the hand, desperately clawing at it when she spoke. I was startled to look at the face of my strangler and discover that it was in fact a giant woman.There were no other words to describe her safe from giant. The clear hairnet she had on did nothing to cover her short, mousy brown hair framing her square jawed face which held the first bearings of a sprouting moustache. A mole stood out on her cheek and her huge blossom rose up and down rapidly as her large, frying pan sized hands continued gripping my neck."Johnson!" She yelled, and my ears temporarily went out of commission then I heard static. "This chica is what's chasing you?"I could understand why she called me chica, most people tended to do that because of my exotic looks. My dad was part Latin and part Mexican and I had his
Friday, Day 11.Things were finally looking up.Our school was no different from those typical ones we read in books; we had the jocks, the cheerleaders, the nerds, the computer geeks and the whole lot. However, the only difference was that we barely related with those that weren't in our cliques, meaning your only friends were those on the same social status as you.Our seating arrangements during lunch even showed the segregation clearly, the popular kids sat separate from the ones with no social status, it was the rule of the jungle called high school. I usually sat with Molly and the other cheerleaders at our special table outside. It was more of a school patio converted hangout for us. Yeah, the school didn't complain about it, why? Because the boys liked it, the jocks were everything.This town loved football more than anything, so these boys were hero worshipped.
Saturday, Day 12.My body was literally on fire.I groaned once again, making the girls put on those worried looks once more. Amanda, placing her pom poms down knelt beside me on the bench and reached out to feel my tummy which I was currently gripping.Her big, blue beautiful eyes showed intense worry for her fellow teammate and once again, I remembered this was why she deserved to get Darren. The thought snapped away as fast as it came when another shot of aches coursed through my system and I involuntarily yelled in pain. I closed my eyes, wondering why my body chose today to behave this way, we had a game right now, I was supposed to be out there, not acting as a liability here. I had started feeling the first bearings of pain earlier during practice earlier today but it got intense about an hour ago.It was an unexplainable kind of pain in the sense that I wasn't feeling it in just