This was the end of a normal day for me. The end of a normal day in Maslow High School.The end of one misery signified the beginning of another.As I walked home, a group of kids who were eight or nine followed me behind every day. And today was no exception.I just kept walking, without an atom of care, focussing ahead. Today was bad. Vince actually hit me today, a first. Every day, Vince threatened to hit me, and today he actually did it.Some sticky stuff hit my face, and I stopped to look at it.Bubble gum, chewed bubble gum.I looked to find the usual group of kids standing in front of me. Apparently, they were not too happy that I wasn't acknowledging them today." Who are you staring at?" I asked.They all roared with laughter and looked at each other." I told you she was funny?" A young boy whispered loudly.I squirmed my way through the wall of children, and they tugged and pulled my hair as I made my way.One of these days, I was going to go far away, without letting anyone
I felt a hand tugging and pulling me as a voice I recognized kept talking to me. "Perez, Perez," it was Barbra again. "Oh, hey, I must have gotten dizzy," I replied as I pulled myself back to oblivion. The lesson was awful, as usual. After toying around for an eternity, the teacher moved to the worst part of the lesson. "We will be competing to reach the other end, in groups of nine people each to see your progress in all the lessons we have been having," she announced. "Fuck it," Barbra hissed next to me. But at least the swimming lesson was better than the French class. Here you could lazy around for a whole lesson as you pretended to listen or do the things the teacher said."Do you have a personal history with that teacher, because whatever she did there was pretty intense, I mean why would anyone go to all that length to defame and do all that to you?" I asked."Never mind, it's in the past now," I lied. I noticed heads around me turning to look at something. We followed su
As soon as the class was settled and the terrible math teacher was in the middle of delivering his boring speech, the door flew open, and Vince walked in without any apology or atom of care. He was intentionally late because he always wanted to make an entrance. Honestly, he knew how to steal attention because the world seemed to stop as he bounced towards his seat.Was I crushing on my bully? Hell no, I was just noticing some facts that were too obvious. To be honest, he was the epitome of teenage cool, something straight from Hollywood, in his own world. Something even I wished I could be. Sasha walked in closely behind. She looked so happy and was trying to hide a smile and grin. If you knew a female who had been freshly sext and dickmatized, then it was Sasha.As usual, Mr Thomas was enjoying all the drama. He was a very unusual teacher, from coming to class late, giving out one sum and falling asleep right in front of us to spending countless lessons cracking jokes and telling s
My mama and papa used to express their love in special ways when we used to live together. They would scream out of love, father would break the coffee table out of love. Their love was special, it was another dimension of love that not many people understood. How could I pretend to be surprised when Edrin pushed my head on the locker yet i had been accustomed to that all my life. Vince was right, I’m a village soldier, I’m stronger than Bruce Lee and I can’t start giving up right now when I’ve come so far, when I’ve survived all the violence. All I wanted right now was to go to the edge of the world and scream at anything. The clouds, the horizon. It was the universe’ fault that I was so ugly. I was breaking inside and it was happening fast. I didn’t care about lunch break and all the food that was inside the cafeteria. The bullies could have it all, everything, my lunch, today I wouldn’t give them the satisfaction of snatching my lunch, pouring water inside my food or anything. I
I took each step with caution as I tightened my grip on the rock. The world was such a hollow place, full of soulless people. No window was left for humanity or care inside the people around me.Nobody seemed to see or care, to see past the layers of fatness and outside demeanour that makes their day interesting every day. The world was rotten, and it would be better if it crumbled down and suffocated all the heartless souls inside. The voices were closer, and my resolve to kill them was even worse. Perhaps after today, after I've killed and injured a soul, they would notice I wasn't such a big joke. They would finally remember me as a decent human who only wanted love, who wanted someone to look at her like she really mattered. I stopped abruptly and almost got a heart attack at the sight in front of me. Why was the world so unfair? Vince was zipping up his trouser as a young girl with her back turned towards me was struggling to pull her stockings up. The rock on my hand almost fel
I never thought someone like Sasha would be word and emotion perfect like she was today. She just seemed too perfect to me, too good for that. Her steps came closer to the spot where I was standing before she finally came fully into view. If I thought she was broken and crying, that was a big underestimation. She had her composure together, head held high, as usual, only a small sign that she might have been crying. “Hey,” I attempted a greeting, throwing one of my best smiles.Her pupils dilated for a second, probably in disbelief. Then her eyes began to dance around my whole frame. She looked at my legs, waist, chest, stomach, hair, everywhere except my face. Her expression was disgust and disdain, with her mouth curved upwards. “You are trying to pat a snake with your bare feet?” she asked, still eyeing me with a face mirrored in disgust.I looked down to confirm what would have pissed her so much in my body. “Your face, I can’t look at it, it might pop up in my dreams and give
More than half of my life has been spent trying to prove that I'm also human. The other parts have been spent crying in locked spaces, weeping under basements, pretending to be okay, trying to fit in. Trying to convince the universe that I'm worth it only for it to throw sand and lemons back. I swear I love the world; I love my classmates, including Vince, Ryan, Sasha, and Edrin; I like them too much. But they don't love me back; Love is a strong word; they don't like me back. I like Maslow High school. The problem is that it doesn't like me back, never has. A part of me had always thought that if I walked alone if I moved on my own lane, did me such that all my failures were on me, no one would care, no one would notice me and my insecurities. The bullies would forget that I existed, perhaps find new victims or be saved if there is such a thing as saving. Being a lone soldier didn't make me invincible. It made me more visible. It was as if I was always walking with bright red light
Science class again. I couldn't be happier. I've always been fascinated by the numerous theories about plants and animals. The cool experiments. Except that my fascination and love for science never gave me a good grade. I've always loved science, but it didn't love me. One particular term, I spent more hours studying that subject every day, and I still came last. As soon as the science test was placed in front of me, all the knowledge I had gained during the term disappeared and returned to where it had come from. If there was anything that I feared more than earthquakes and caterpillars, it was the word pair up with a partner and work together. The famous phrases of the science teacher. His face always got evil when he was about to say it. Which teacher was too lazy to teach and paired up students daily to teach themselves.That wasn't all; he always paired up people who came from parallel universes. How the hell does someone decide to partner the brightest student with the dumbest