The Geek Diaries

Chapter 11

I had been trying to survive school, and even though it had been a couple of days since the rumour had been spread around, people had been avoiding me like the plague. In a way I didn’t blame them – if that had happened to someone else, I’d probably act the same. But I was sick of people looking at me like I was a disease; a dirty disease that spread rumours about innocent people. I was quite surprised because this school was a quick gossiping one, but people didn’t really care about the person who started it. Maybe it was because Victoria made me look like a lying idiot, I don’t know but people seemed to be listening to her when she said I was a gossiper who didn’t know when to stop. Either way, she made pretty much everyone turn against me, and now it was just me, alone. But it was worse than my life before the makeover – because people seemed to be believing lies about me. Victoria seemed to be stuck on making me look like this strange girl who was a bad look for the school, making everyone hate me.

    “Mom?” I asked, walking into the apartment after a rough day which included people giving me nasty looks, chucking their rubbish at me and anything that was included in the ‘teasing’ category. Maybe they thought I was meant to be with the trash. Because that was all I was. They were all starting to get to me, making me feel really bad. I knew that saying ‘sticks and stones can break my bones but words will never hurt me’ was a lie; because it did hurt.

     “Yes honey? I’m in the lounge,” I heard my mom reply. I followed her voice and saw her lounging on our couch (that she had finally bought a cover for, making it look so much better) watching Oprah. “How was school?” she asked, her eyes glued to the TV, not really paying attention to me.

     “If you mean everyone treating you like the flu, then school was great,” I mumbled sarcastically.

     “What do you mean?” she asked, muting the TV and turning to me. “What happened?”

     I shrugged, not really wanting to say anything. She’d probably just make it worse – I mean, how can I prove I didn’t start any rumour?

     “Honey, look at me,” she said, walking over to me and putting her hand underneath my chin to pull my face up to meet hers. “Tell me what’s going on.”

     I don’t know if it was seeing the worry in her eyes that her little darling was getting picked on, or if it was knowing that she genuinely cared, but the whole story poured out of me like I had been building a dam for all my problems and that dam had just broken.

     Once I had poured my whole story out to her, she enveloped me in a huge hug, cradling me in her arms like I was five again and had just scraped my knee.

     “I’m sorry honey,” she sympathised, her breath tickling my head. “Some kids can be really cruel.”

     “Yeah,” I murmured. “No doubt about that.”

     She pulled away, and looked me in the eye. “Alyssa, I know you’re a fighter. I know the truth will come out in the end, so just keep holding on.”

     I nodded; absorbing her words like my mind was a sponge. I knew that if I believed her, it would be okay. I’d rather walk the halls with my head held high than mope around making myself a sore target.

     Talking with my mom must have sparked some confidence in me, because I decided to go and visit Cassie at her house, to try and prove my innocence when nobody else from school was around to interfere.

     I don’t know why she would have to act different at school, but I was hopeful that there would be a reason why.

     I grabbed a phone book and quickly browsed through the pages, searching for Cassie’s last name – Delany. When I found it, I looked for the address then begged mom to take me over.