The girl behind her smile

- 6 -

An update for the old readers, 

I've decided to remove Estelle as a character from this story as I realised that she would not play a significant role. For new readers, she was the younger sister of Eliza. I felt that her being younger than everyone else in the story was more of a hinderance than help. Instead of trying to come up with a plot that was inclusive of her, I am able to focus on the ones I have right now and develop the plot in a much more efficient way. I have removed her from the previous chapters and changed the prologue slightly, if you want to check that out. Sorry for messing the storyline up a bit, but this book is still a working progress.

Thanks for your support!

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ELIZA

After the brawl between Jasper and Ezra, I had managed to steer clear of him completely yesterday, sadly this success can only last so long, as I have a double Maths lesson with him tomorrow, and only God knows what that would entail. 

The bruising on the side of my face has decreased considerably, but it was still visible nonetheless. The small cut across the other side of my head had also become scarce, no longer needing a covering of any sort. Of course when Riya had found out she was ready to take on Jasper in a one-on-one match to bring me justice. I, being the most head straight of the pair, talked her out of it, reminding her of the repercussions she would face if she ended up with an expulsion.

Mum had been more understanding than I expected her to be, of course she was disappointed, but probably more distracted by our physical state to really say much. She had already been ringed by the school so she wasn't surprised when we reached home on Monday, bruised and battered.

If it were up to me, I wouldn't have told her at all, she was already in bad shape after recent events, her heart, quite literally, wouldn't be able to handle more.

Eli was surprisingly angry, more so than mum was, he helped us ice our bruises and tended to our cuts, but the whole time his eyes held a silent rage. I wasn't entirely sure if it was directed to us for engaging in a fight or to the assailant for hurting us. This was a new side I had seen to him. After I left, Ezra had stayed back to talk, I had lingered only long enough to make out that they were conversing about the fight.  

Returning back to school on Tuesday was a whole other topic, we had been the talk of the town, and the constant glances I was getting really started to irk me. I just wanted all of this to be over, I had barely gotten used to the pity stares last week, and now to add to that list, new glances of curiosity. 

I sit down at my desk, and fold my arms on the table, bringing my head down to cover my face. A few moments pass by and I hear shuffling near me, I stay in the same position, guessing whoever it was by my table would move along. I don't want people to bother me. Soon the shuffling stopped, and I could sense they were sat next to me, I sill payed no attention.

I feel a light tap on my shoulder and I bring my head up out of curiosity, "Are you alright there?" 

My eyes widen in shock, "Y-yeah, no, I'm fine!"

It's him, the guy I bumped into last week!

"Oh?! It's you! I didn't know you were in the same year as me!"  I say in shock, weakly pointing my finger at him.

He gives a small smile, "Yeah, I'm Zayn, not many people know me, I moved to live here only a few weeks ago."

"I'm Eliza , but nobody really calls me that, just call me Izzy, how come you weren't in this class last week?"