Bully (In Edit)

Chapter 7

Morning is a cruel thing. It always creeps up on you just when you find yourself in deep sleep, and rips you away from your bed. It certainly did that to me the next morning.

I awoke to my battered alarm clock, and was immediately greeted by a wave of aching pain running over my cheek. Crawling out of bed, I stumbled over to my mum's dresser and looked in the mirror.

A monster looked back at me.

I groaned with despair, and flopped back into bed. How on earth was I going to hide this from my dad, Alex, and the teachers at school? It was literally going to be impossible.

I now resembled on the outside what I was told I am on the inside - at least it was fitting.

As I lay, staring at the cobwebs on the roof of the attic, one positive thought popped into my head. At least Ben won't come near me with this face - he'll be spared from Alex.

Slowly, I got to my feet again, and pulled out my pitiful collection of makeup - I was going to need all the help I could get to try and even lessen the impact of my beautiful black eye.

***

Because of my prolonged getting ready time, I was running late when I started doing chores for my dad. That consequently meant that I made it to school late, hence dodging the Alex bullet for another morning. I can't say I was sad that morning about being late.

As soon as I was able to get into school, I slipped into biology, as usually heading to my bench at the front. Once seated, I turned my attention toward the teacher.

"So as I was just saying, this project makes up a fairly significant chunk of your coursework grades for your exam - please take it seriously! You have a week to plan your experiments on photosynthesis, one lab session to carry them out, and then another week to write up your analysis."

My interest was captured - I loved engaging in practicals, it provided a long term distraction, and could be genuinely interesting, especially if you gathered abnormal results that you then had to explain.

"You are required to do this project in pairs," the teacher, Dr Kale continued. That was not what I wanted to hear.
"I have already allocated the pairs, there will be no switching, I don't care if you get along or not - all I need from you is a project worthy of an A*."

With that, he turned to the computer, and pulled up a word document, which contained a list of pair names. I scanned the list, before spotting that I was paired with a girl named Eloise. I was pretty sure I knew her face, but still, the idea of talking to, let alone working with, someone I had never really come across before wasn't particularly pleasant.

I felt someone tap on my shoulder, and turned around, finding myself face to face with Eloise. Eloise was an outstandingly pretty girl, with Raven black hair, a soft face, and a body that most girls dream of and aspire to.

"Hi, I think we're partn.... Oh my god," Eloise faltered, her eyes fixing on the new addition to my face. "What the hell happened?"

"Nasty incident with the door, I'm Emma," I mumbled, grabbing her hand and shaking it. After this, I quickly sat down, and started mumbling away about photosynthesis projects.

Sure, it wasn't the best introduction ever, and I'm sure by now you're aware that I'm not blessed with social skills, or fluent language. However, looking back now, I can pinpoint that one meeting, that one moment even, as one of the most important moments of my life.