"Guess who it is this time?" A boy in braces laughed while looking at the girl next to him.

"Ooh, interesting. Well who could it be but our class nerd? The one who sits there all day long without a word, acting like a mute," The girl said, her voice laced with malice.

The girl sitting on her desk gritted her teeth. The fists holding the large, thick book tightened. She looked further down into her book, not looking up. She tried to brush their remarks away, but part of her knew that she couldn't. Their words would just haunt her at night.

Like they have always did.

She wished that her glares would drive them away. She tried it once, and it failed miserably. They teased her for her 'ugly' face.

From that incident onwards, she concluded it was impossible. She could only resign to her miserable fate. But it was unfair.

She knew she didn't do anything wrong to deserve something like this.

If so, why were they doing this?

Why?

"Hey you, don't tell me you're too deaf from reading? Respond, you idiot. You are already mute, please don't be deaf too. Otherwise, how can you even function in society?" The same boy kicked her chair, causing her to stumble and crash onto the ground.

"And not to mention you are just downright weak too," he coupled.

The girl winced in pain. If not for the long fringe or spectacles that shielded her eyes, they would have seen her pain.

Then, like adding salt to her wound, like her battered heart, they would just continue poking and punching out her broken heart till it has bled dry.

She didn't want them to do that.

She adjusted her black spectacles, a habit she had picked up when she didn't know how to react or during awkward situations.

Just ignore them, she thought. Don't give them the satisfaction, no.

The boy, now standing right beside her, scoffed. The girl leant in, examining her book.

"Wow nerd, how could you be this lame? A book on newts?" She took the extra effort to emphasize on the last word.

Newts.

Is reading a book on newts a bad thing? What have they even done against you? What have I even done against you?

The million questions darted around in the girl's head. She wanted to stand up to herself, but just couldn't seem to open that ugly mouth of hers. She was so pathetic.

She just sat on the dusty grey tiled floor and looked down on her book in silence. If only thoughts were tangible, she thought, they would pay the price.

Her tears were welling up, but she chose to ignore the pricking sensation in her eye.

She needed to get stronger, so that Mum wouldn't see her pain, Mum wouldn't suspect... But how? Where is the magic potion for this?

The duo laughed sarcastically. Their evil laughter resounded throughout the classroom and a few heads turned to look their way. Then, the few heads snickered along with them.

Not long after, the ignorant people in class were laughing and pointing.

The girl on the floor felt something wash over her. Her cheeks were flushed, not from embarrassment, but anger.

Why.

Why?

Why?!

"Newts?" The girl repeated, doubling back from the laughter. 

She hated this tormenting cycle. Over and over again, someone from the class would walk over and torture her. Then the class would laugh.

And the cycle would repeat itself.

Didn't they know of her dignity, torn and shredded in the worst ways possible, into unrecognizable pieces from the repeated arrows aimed at her soul? Didn't they know of the sleepless nights, that caused the bags under the eyes that everyone made fun of?

If she didn't have had the support of her friend, Nicole, she wouldn't be able to make it as far as today.

At the thought of her friend who was absent today, she felt determination spark inside her. It is time to stand upo for herself, no matter the outcome.

At least show them you are not just a bag of bones without a heart.

I have a heart, she thought with determination.

She stood up.

The wind flapped against her hair.

"Stop it, why is the whole class tormenting me? Always?" The girl shouted. She couldn't just ignore her rising urge, the fire boiling inside of her.

Now the entire class was staring at her. The teacher wasn't in class yet.

Staring at her with shock.

Oh, so now do you realize that I have a backbone after all? The girl jeered.

There was a brief silence.

She took a good look at all her classmates, frowning. Although the view was blurred from her tears, she could still make out each and everyone's faces. Faces she had been with for the past year, and yet faces she were foreign to. When she looked at them straight in the eye, some would turn away with guilt.

Which made her despise them more.

If you feel guilty, please do stand up for me. If you did, I owe you the world for your courage, but...

The girl clenched her fists.

At least, finally, the class was quiet.

Then, someone shouted, "Michelle's skirt is so dusty and dirty!" The boy pointed at the girl's white, now stained with a disgusting grey tinge at the back from the floor.

The class bellowed out with laughter.

Again.

Why don't they ever learn?

The girl could feel hot tears welling up in her eyes. She shut her eyes, but the laughter still haunted her.

Don't they know how it feels like?

She ran out of the class in impulse.

However, she still heard voices.

"Lunatic!" Someone yelled as she ran out of the class.

Why must you do this to me?

The girl wiped a tear from her eye, clutching tightly on her book.

She ran.

She ran and ran and ran out onto the courtyard, and stopped only when she crashed onto something. She fell, again.

Guess I am meant to fall and never get back up...

Now the tears were already streaming down her face in uncontrolled sobs. She didn't bother to get up.

Not until she realized she didn't just hit a wall. A pair of sport shoes stood in front of her, unmoving.

She was in the middle of the courtyard, she reasoned, why was she so stupid to assume wrongly?

So it meant that she hit someone.

Her face flushed once more, this time not of anger, but pure embarrassment. She didn't want this person to see her tears, what if it were one of her classmates? She hurriedly wiped her tears, before she slowly looked up to see the person looking at her with immense curiosity, that still hasn't uttered a word.

She saw his/her name tag first, and the color of this person's name tag showed that they were from the same level. Then she looked at him/her.

A tuff of messy brown hair with chocolate brown eyes stared at her. When their eyes met, his mouth curled onto a upwards grin. She noticed his right dimple and decided that it looked cute.

Then, something snapped inside her.

"I am sorry about that, really really sorry, I am not kidding I am so sorry for hitting you, are you hurt? Oh no, I am sorry for that! I am so so so sorry, sorry-"

The boy cut off her string of words by stretching out his hand to life her up.

The girl hesitated.

The boy must have seen her hesitation, for he reached out to grab her hand and gingerly lifted her up.

With a simple pull, she got up.

She adjusted her black spectacles.

"Do you know how many 'sorry's you have said? You are amusing." The boy talked for the first time, the grin bringing out the crinkles of his eyes.

The girl gave a little smile, but stopped when she heard the last line.

For once, she thought she had met someone who wouldn't tease her, apart from Nicole, but she was wrong.

Was she really amusing? Why did everyone look at her as a clown? She didn't want to be a clown! No, she hates clowns.

The grin on the little girls' face dropped. The boy seemed to realize his mistake.

"No, I meant it in a good way! Please don't get me wrong."

Oh.

She felt something well up inside her, she wanted to say thank you, but didn't know how.

He is nice.

She adjusted her black spectacles and continued looking down.

Due to her immense lack of friends, the girl forgot how to communicate to people. She played with her book of newts nervously.

"So, what is your name?" He asked.

Oh no, she didn't know how to reply that question.

"Mich-chel-lie Crys-stal," the girl said back, stuttering, adjusting her spectacles. It took her more than a moment's hesitation to answer.

"And I am Calvin Parkers. You can call me Cal for short." He stretched out his hand again, and this time, the girl managed to shake his hand, but shook it really awkwardly.

Cal placed his hands back into his pockets.

He was almost a head taller than the girl, he realized. Isn't that the perfect height gap?

Cal's head cocked towards the side,"I have never seen you before, but you seem nice. I guess we are from different classes hm?"

She was momentarily shocked by his words.

No one has ever called her nice before, people only jeered at her whenever they had a 'conversation'.

No one.

She thought back of any of the people who called her nice, just to be sure.

Are there even any?

Yes, no one was ever that nice to her.

She decided to add Cal to the list of nice people. To date, there would only be two people in this list, she concluded.

That was when she realized she had been dazing off. She snapped back to reality, to find that the same boy stood rooted at the exact same spot, looking at her. His cheeks almost seemed to blush a slight pink when their eyes met.

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Cal asked, with a tone of curiosity and not one of annoyance. She liked the sound of his voice, it was so soothing, unlike the annoying voices of her classmates.

She didn't answer, but kept her face onto the ground as habit. She wanted to hear his voice, and not talk. She didn't know how to reply someone nice. She felt really awkward in the presence of someone nice. All her life, only mean people had ever talked to her. She only knew how to deal with people who bullied her, and she only knew how to look down.

Look down, just look down.

"Why are you so awkward?" Cal asked again laughed this time.

She found his laughter soothing.

That was when she looked up and muttered, "Uh, uh, I don't know?"

Her voice came out as a squeak and as a question rather than a statement.

"I shall name you overly-awkward Michelle!" He suddenly declared, and she looked up from the floor in surprise.

She laughed to herself. That was the most ridiculous nickname she had ever heard. Somehow, it sounded perfect.

Cal looked at her, smiling.

"You are one interesting person. I swear, I will make you change. Mark my words."

That was when she met his eyes and really smiled with a genuine smile of her own.

"You are funny."

The two laughed, and it was one of the rare times the girl has smiled with someone all week.

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anyone reading this? :) please do let me know!