Emily - Seven Months Ago from June

For almost four months, I had never seen Rachel shed a single tear. Not even when we're watching Lion King and Scar sank his claws into the back of Mufasa's paw, turning Simba into an orphan from that very moment. I cried at that scene, but Rachel had always been the strong one among us—no matter if it was something serious that happened in real life or if it was just watching touching movies like this one—she held back her tears and hugged me instead. I knew she was trying really hard not to cry when Simba's hope crushed into a million little pieces the moment he watched his own father fall from the cliff because she was really quiet, biting her lips and taking a deep breath when Simba crawled under his father's arms, only hugging me tighter after that.

I had never seen her cry. She had always been a warm light bulb, lighting up my day and everyone else's around her, but now, the light inside her washed away as another stream of tears poured down her face.

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"Hey, losers," a blonde girl with an overdid rebonded hair—Vicky—called out to us while we were putting our plates away after lunch. "What is that thing you're wearing?"

"I think it's a potato sack or like, some kind of old granny's outfit," another blonde—one of her sidekick who we never got her name—said with this very fake girly voice.

Rachel and I rolled our eyes. They were one of those mean girls group every high school seemed to have, we called them "The Overdoers" since all of them overdid something about themselves.

"Oh look, they're deaf too," Vicky said, a corner of her lips curved upwards as she glared at us.

I growled under my breath and crossed my arms in front of me. "Are you done yet?"

"Yes," Rachel chimed in, doing the same with her arms as we exchanged glances. "Because we have places to be other than being near people like you."

"Oh, my god! She can hear!" Her other sidekick—a brunette, I think she was Cindy or something—said with wide eyes and mouth, trying to act like she was surprised but in reality, she looked more like Annoying Orange with that overly orange tan she had. I had no idea how she still had a tan in December, I mean, who gets a tan in December even if it was a fake tan?

Vicky, clearly mad at us talking back, narrowed her eyes at us. "Obviously, no. I haven't even talked about how your hair is a mess of curls, making you look like you have tiny heads with an overgrown bush on top. Especially you, redhead, have you gone mad with the curlers?"

"At least her hair has volume," Rachel said and adjusted her backpack, slightly jerking her head towards the cafeteria's exit before walking away.

"Hey, living stick, I have a question for you," Vicky called out from behind.

I couldn't have forgotten about that look on Rachel even if I wanted to. Vicky's sharp words had never affected Rachel a lot. She always had a way around those snide remarks, slamming the doors in her mind shut before those words could do any damage to her, and yet, this time, it did.

Rachel stopped short at the words "living stick", sucking in her breath as she stared at the ground in front of her with tensed muscles.

"What do you see when you look into the mirror every morning? Do you see a colourful straw with all those things you're wearing? Oh, wait, maybe I should first ask you if you could even see yourself in the mirror, you know, being that tall and bony," Vicky jeered, eyeing us with a smile as her sidekicks snickered beside her.

Rachel's eyes began to water as she took short quick breaths, her eyes still staring at the same spot in front of her.

"Rachel?" I put a hand on her arm, positioning myself in front of her to get a better look. She bit her lips and pressed her eyelids together, forcing a stream of tears down her cheeks which then made their way to her chin. She wiped them off hastily with the back of her hand, a soft moan escaped her lips as she swallowed.

"I don't have all day to wait for your answer, stick figure," Vicky called out again, popping a gum into her mouth when she was done.

Another moan came out from Rachel. She sniffled, walking away without a word, picking up pace as she did. 

"Rachel," I called out, but she just kept walking, disappearing into the crowds after a few seconds.

I think they just broke a record. I couldn't believe how they could make someone that was so full of sunshine cry.

"Great job," I deadpanned, glaring at each of them before heading off to find Rachel.

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I dug up the second packet of tissue papers from my backpack and shoved it in front of Rachel. I found her sitting on a bench in the school's indoor gym, balls of tear-soaked tissue papers lying beside her.

"Do you want to talk about it?" I asked as Rachel blew her nose in another tissue paper.

She nodded, wiping a new stream of tears as she did. "I'm sorry I left you alone like that," she said, her voice quavering.

"Oh, Rachel," I sighed. "Why are you apologising? I don't care about that, I just want to know if you're feeling better now."

"Not really," she sniffled. "Did you know that I was a dancing straw in my last year of middle school?"

"What?"

"My so called best friend started calling me names when I had a growth spurt. She ganged up with another girl who she swore she wasn't going to be friends with because she was a bully to animals. But somehow, she was friends with her after I grew an extra five inches. She made jokes that weren't even funny in front of the whole class, calling me a giant who'll never stop growing," Rachel blurted, fresh tears pouring down her face.

"She's just jealous, like the Overdoers."

"But she was my best friend! And the Overdoers, why can't they just shut up?"

I scooted nearer, putting my arms on her shoulders. "Forget about them. You still have me. And you know what? I give you the permission to shave my head bald if I ever do something like that to you."

She chuckled. "Are you sure? You'll look horrible without your mess of curls," she said and gave me a small smile, pulling another piece of tissue paper to blow her nose again. 

"Hey, this isn't a mess of curls," I protested and ruffled her curly blond hair—I wished I had her curls, they don't make her hair looked as big as mine did, but she had always said that not everybody could pull off a hair like mine, and yet it looked perfect on me—as best as I could before she stopped me. "Now that is a mess of curls," I pointed at her hair, trying to suppress my laughter at the sight of her hair.

"You cheated," she said with a laugh. She took the last piece of tissue paper from me and wiped away her tears.

With her tears finally receding, I smiled. The cheerful Rachel is back. Almost.

"Gosh, you look terrible!" I laughed after inspecting the aftermath of her crying. She did look terrible with her red puffy eyes and her tear streaked face. But somehow, she still looked like that sweet and beautiful girl I had always known. I stood up and started to gather the wet tissue papers from the bench. "Let's go get you all fix up before class starts."

"You better fix my hair too—"

"Freshie, is that you?" a voice called out. 

Rachel and I simultaneously turned towards the voice and found two boys walking down the bleachers towards us, a few footballs and stacks of colourful plastic cones in their arms.

"Ha, it is you!" A boy with messy blonde hair shrieked, waving at us—or rather, Rachel—with a football in his hand as he tried not to drop the other football that was under his armpit.

Rachel waved back, a brighter smile appearing on her face but a frown replaced it after a few seconds as she scrunched her eyebrows. "Oh my gosh, not now," I heard Rachel whined. Turning to me with an urgent look on her face, she fixed her hair in three quick combs with her hand. "Do I look okay?"

"No, not really," I said and slowly shook my head. What is going on? I dropped the gathered tissues back to the bench anyway, helping her to fix her hair before the boys stopped at the row of seat we were sitting. 

Standing beside the blonde-haired boy was a boy with medium length golden brown hair. He was staring back and forth between the three of us, in his arms were two stacks of plastic cones, which the left stack stood liked the Leaning Tower of Pisa with the top cone leaning against his face.

"Hi, freshie! Thought I never find you again. Haven't seen you since the first day of school," he paused and studied Rachel's face, making her blushed a little. "Are you okay? Is everything okay here?"

I turned to look at Rachel, unsure of what to do. "Yes, we're okay. And hi, haven't seen you since then too," she said, obviously embarrassed that he noticed her crying.

"Erm, guys?" The brown-haired boy called, the other stack of plastic cones threatening to fall too.

Rachel and I straightened each stack as the blond-hair boy threw both footballs that he was holding onto the ground, kicking it as hard as he could towards the gym floors below.

"Thanks!" The brown-haired boy said after the two stacks of cones was balanced again. "So, who are you?" He turned to the blond-haired boy. "Who are they? And how on earth did you get to know this two beauties without me?"

The blond-haired boy laughed. "I'm not that lucky, I only met one of them, the blondie, on the first day of school. She was lost," he gave Rachel a smile and stretched out his hand. "Before I forgot, name's Ben. And he's Finn."

"I'm Rachel," she shook his hand. "And this other beauty you were talking about is Emily."

"Nice name you girls got there," he said and shook my hand too.

"I would like to shake hands too, but," Finn said and gave an exaggerated sigh. Then, as if remembering something he started whispering to Ben.

"Okay, so Finn and I aren't sure what was wrong before we came here and we know it's a bit too early to ask this since it's a month away from now, but do you girls want to come to this New Year's Eve party? It'll be at my place," Ben said after a few exchanged whisperings between Finn. He glanced briefly at the used tissue papers on the bench and back at Rachel and I. "You know, just to get rid of whatever made you unhappy."

Rachel and I exchanged glances and I shrugged, nodding at her with a smile.

"Erm, okay," Rachel said.

"Cool," Ben cheered. "And can I have your number? I'll text you the details about it."

"Uh, yeah, sure," Rachel dug around her backpack—still sniffling a little from her runny nose—and got out a purple post-it note. "Here," she said after writing down her number. "Our classes are about to start soon, so...uh,"

"Oh, yes, sure. You guys better go now if you still want to clean up a bit before class," Ben said and gave Rachel a wink. "Looking forward to the two of you at New Year's Eve!" 

"I would wave the two of you goodbye, but," Finn said, hugging the stacks of plastic cones tighter and gave another exaggerated sigh like the one he did before.

Rachel and I laughed as Ben rolled his eyes at him, waving at us before turning back to help him carry a few of the plastic cones.

After they had gone down to the gym space, I focused my attention back on Rachel.

"What?" She looked up from collecting the balls of used tissue papers when she noticed me staring.

"Nothing, just waiting for an explanation on what just happened," I shrugged, joining her with the tissue paper collecting job.

"What else do you need me to explain? We met once when I couldn't find my class, which was why I was almost late."

"Go on," I urged as we threw all of Rachel's tears into the trash can right outside of the gym.

"What?"

"You keep telling me about a boy with blond hair who you met on the first day of school who also happens to have sparkling blue eyes, I saw all of that in him just now. And the way you acted when you saw him...is he the one you have a crush on?" I said, smirking at her as we headed to the washroom.

"Oh, come on, give me a break. I just cried, remember?" 

"Especially because you just cried. He made you smile in such a short time and said yes to a party," I paused as I glanced at her. "You never said yes to a party, not even those mini weekend ones."

She sighed as we made a turn into the washroom. "Yes, he's the one. But please, shhh" she said as she placed her forefinger in front of her lips.

I laughed. "Sure thing, but let's just concentrate on getting you back to a representable state after all that crying."

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Little Note:

So what do you think about this chapter? And if you were to choose a guy, would you go for Ben or Finn? xD By they way, who loves The Lion King here? *puts up hand*

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this chapter and if you do, maybe give it a vote and share it with your friends? And don't hesitate to leave your own opinion too so I can make improvements. :)