She hid behind the bush, shushing the kids nearby who were eating ice cream and gaping at her.
"Look away!" she whispered, and the kids tried to look the other way. Jian peeped from the top and saw the man searching everywhere for her, but didn't see her yet. Jian sat back again, and tried not to move as much as the man walked near her hiding place.
She closed her eyes, and started counting to 100. On the 84th, one of the kids poked her in the shoulder and she opened her eyes.
"Were you hiding from the guy with the thick eyebrows?"
Jian tried not to giggle, and nodded. "Do you see him?"
The kid pointed at the far end of the park, "He went that way, ma'am"
Jian peeped and saw the disappearing back of her brother, Josh.
"Thanks, kid." Bestowing her best smile, she stood up and patted his head. "I owe you one. What's your name?"
"Justin" the kid replied, gazing at her in awe. "You're pretty."
Jian reward him with another smile, before walking to the opposite direction.
-----
Jian sat on the grass and look at the horizon, she's in big trouble now. Josh found out that she had been skipping class for half the semester, and she dropped out of school last week. Had she been home earlier, she would've intercepted the letter from her school that was delivered by mail this morning. One look at Josh storming out of the house, and walking to the direction of her school was enough to get herself from direct firing sight. She thought he saw her ran away from him, so she sprinted to the park and hid to her favorite hiding place, the bush in the playground, near the slide, where lots of kids can cover her.
She could never tell Josh what she's going through, how the bullies and mean girls, lead by Alicia, keep ganging up on her because she chose to be friends with the least popular girl in class, Jamie. Jamie who writes amazing poems and plays piano, the only person whom she can talk to without getting weird gazes because some of her ideas were out of this world. Jamie, who just a few months ago, was diagnosed with leukemia. And left her all alone again.
"I wonder how you got friends like Jamie, who thinks being sick is a privilege to wave around her so she could get special treatments." Alicia stopped her from her tracks and had her minions blocked her exit. They had cornered her into a stairway while she was going down to her next class.
The world suddenly became darker around Jian, and before she knew it, she lunged at the smirking face of Alicia, who screamed at her.
It was a few minutes before they got untangled, her with a torn blouse and Alicia with a bloody nose and few scratches on her face.
She was reprimanded, and was sent home. Alicia called her father, who was apparently one of the board members of the school.
Long story short, she was in big trouble.
She sighed and decided to just let her brother cool down for a few hours before going home, knowing how much misery she would give him. So she sat there and took out her cellphone and ear pods, pressed play and closed her eyes, humming to the wind. She sang along with the song, confident that no one's around.
Who would ever want to hang out in a cemetery, right? She thought. They must be mental.
She never noticed another pair of eyes boring through the back of her head, obviously enthralled by the way he intensely gaze at her from afar. He was about to walked closer towards her, when a voice suddenly called out from somewhere.
"There you are!"
ESTÁ A LER
The Songwriter and The Singer
Outros génerosSongwriter Paulo met his match with stubborn singer Jian when they were made to collaborate in order to save their friend from his failing business. Unfortunate events keeps unfolding whenever they get together, until they were stuck on an island...
