Lisa and Jojo: how two hearts beat as one

Prologue

"Lisa"...

Who said that? I thought to myself. "Lisa, hello?" I woke up from my daydream and I saw it was my only friend in this school, Sage. "Oh. Looks like I was lost in my thoughts again. Sorry," I said to her. Sage turns to face me and says "again" with a lighthearted laugh. "We have Physical Education soon, we should not be late," she says. "Right..." I replied. But before I could turn to her, she already left. Sage left with her boyfriend, Kael. I can't believe my only friend left me here on my own, surrounded by bullies and strange people, and... there she stood. Elsie. My nemesis. "What do you need?" I asked her. Elsie replies, "You shouldn't leave too late, because I once did and then-" "Yeah, yeah. I know," I interrupted her. "You're only wasting my time here, Elsie." Instead of leaving me she just looks and asks "would you like to come with me?" I left immediately without saying a word to her. If she's my nemesis, then why does she want to be with me so often? Our gym is located at a remote building and I have to take my bike to get there on time. I hopped on and left the school, but on my way I saw a group of bullies and they noticed me. "Lisa! Lisa!" They shout with an annoying voice. Ignore, ignore, I think to myself. "Lisa how is your relationship with-" I sped up and took a turn so they couldn't see me anymore. Ugh, I wish they would stop saying that I am in a relationship with a boy I used to know from primary school, only because we greet each other in the hallways. I have no relationship experience and nobody would want to date me here. The only people who like me here are Sage, my tutor, and the French teacher.

I arrived at the building and went to wait outside the changing rooms. When the PE teacher comes, he tells me where the boys and where the girls have to go to change. I get to the girl's room and I put on my attire. During the lesson, we're doing running. I'm not very fast, so I always end up last with all my laps. At least it's not a race, but boy, both my physical and mental condition are pretty poor. When the lesson ends, the teacher says he would like to talk with me. My PE teacher is also my tutor. He asks me if I'm doing well and I just say "yes, everything is fine". That's a lie. "Are you sure you're okay?" I force a smile and I say yes. "Okay, you're free to go", he tells me. After entering the changing room, I change back to my normal clothes and I ride my bike back to the school. Luckily I didn't see any bullies this time. Heck, I don't even know who the hell these bullies are. There are so many bullies and I only know 1 or 2 by their name, but they all know me and they all know where I live. I arrive at school and I take my route to the math classroom. I am bad at math, and my teacher knows that too well. Luckily she isn't necessarily grumpy but I know she may look down on me.

I sit down at my desk and I sit alone. First I always sat with Sage but now she sits next to Kael. Now me and Elsie are the only ones sitting alone. My tutor knows our rivalry better than anyone else and therefore we always need to explain to the other teachers that we can't sit together. My tutor also gave us a ban on seeking contact between each other. I am very happy with the ban as I can finally be left alone, but Elsie isn't. Dang, I forgot to report she tried talking to me earlier. Whatever, it's too late. As I'm starting to daydream again because of how boring math is, I hear the math teacher calling my name. "Lisa, are you paying attention?" I stutter a bit. "Elsie, can you try to help Lisa?" "No, no. That's not needed," I respond but it's too late. Elsie starts explaining what I need to do and I say "thanks a lot Elsie, you can now leave me alone". She keeps talking to me, ugh. Almost unable to control myself I shout it out. "ELSIE! Enough! Leave me alone!" As we both know Dutch I tell her "ik HAAT je!" The entire classroom is staring at me and some of the boys point to me and laugh or they make remarks. The teacher taps on the whiteboard and says "everyone, pay attention to your work". I try to survive the rest of my math lesson. After the ending of the lesson, I sigh when I realize how much homework I have to do now. I'm exhausted, why is this happening to me?

During recess, I try my best to avoid every stranger I see hoping that they don't bully me. As I'm walking around the second floor, I see kids messing around. Then I hear a loud "SILENCE!" That's the French teacher obviously. "If you're having recess you should go to the first floor, go away!" They then walk down the stairs. I try to turn around but my teacher sees me. Instead of shouting at me and sending me away she politely says "bonjour Lisa". She then asks me if I wanted to stay in her classroom during the break. Wow, I guess they were right saying I was her favorite student. 35 minutes later I hear her loudly saying "bonjour les chers eleves! Bienvenue au class de Francais!" Huh, I felt like I woke up! Did I spend my time sleeping here? Weird...

The classroom fills with students and when they sit down, the teacher holds a stack of papers. "Here are the results of your test," she starts, "I am very disappointed in most of you. The majority failed the test". She hands the tests out. "However there's one of you who finished their test perfectly with all answers correct". Some students mutter my name. I receive my test, and it was me who had all answers correct! I felt so happy! It's not the first time but I still feel happy every time. I seem to ace a subject everyone fails while failing a subject everyone aces. Sage had a D, and Elsie had an F. Take that! When everyone mentions their grades and when they indeed find out I have an A+, some kids start to call me a nerd. "You don't have a life and all you do is study", "wow we have a nerd who can say more than just oui oui baguette". They don't see the pressure I'm facing when trying so hard to keep up with my schoolwork. "SILENCE!" The teacher once again shouts. "It's not Lisa's fault that all of you are failing this year because of your French grades and she isn't!" Bam, she stood up for me! The rest of the hour I had a confidence boost. But only for that hour.

The next day, I was working with Sage on a project for science. Another assignment that's costing me so much energy. At least this project, which two need to work on, is done together with Sage. But I couldn't really focus on it. Am I having a burnout? I told her about all my sorrows and the stress and pressure I'm facing. "I must do something", I said.

To be continued.