My Life as June

Chapter 3: It's Not What It Looks Like

2 MONTHS LATER

It's been three months since my family and I moved to Beverly Hills. I step out of Jen's car, with Lizzie and Jen trailing right behind me. We make our way through the front doors and walk down the hallway, to head to our lockers, which were quite close to each other.

       As we walk down the hallway, I study the hall carefully, staying alert at all times, and for good reasons. I take my steps cautiously, one by one, careful I don't run into anyone's feet. I grip on my backpack's strap so tight, I think my knuckles are starting to turn white.

"Why am I so precautious?" You may want to ask.

Well, ever since the slushie incident on my first day of school, I've been 'on the bottom of the food chain', therefore I have to watch out for feet being stuck out in front of me to make me trip. I have to watch out for people who will "accidentally" knock my books out of my hands. And I especially have to watch out for Asher and Fransisco and their infamous slushie-in-the face.

       No one (other than Lizzie and Jen, who I'm proud to call my bestfriends) really ever bothered talking to me, unless it was for class projects (or for making fun of me, which happened a lot) and even then, they'd usually beg the teacher to switch partners. Their loss though, because I had perfect marks. Nobody really wanted to befriend the girl who the most popular girl in school, Adrianne Collins, absolutely hates.

Not even all the ninja skills in the world would prevent me from being slushied because 2 minutes and 23 second later (yes I count the seconds in my head), I'm drenched with a blue slushie. Everybody in the hallway laughs and smiles and high-fives Asher and Fransisco for what they did. Everyone except Lizzie (who is sending everyone death glares) and Jen (who is trying to imitate Lizzie's intimidating glares but fails to do so and just ends up looking constipated). I roll my eyes at this. You people have been seeing this same old stunt for the past 3 months now. How are you still amused by all this? Stupid muggles.

My life feels like a never ending Glee episode. 2 months ago, I probably would've sprinted to the bathroom the moment the slushie made contact with my face. I was foreign to this whole thing because I was never bullied or teased before. But, I've gotten pretty used to it now. I usually get slushied once or twice a day so after a while, I decided not to dress in my nice clothing because most of them just end up getting large red or blue stains on them. I know well enough to keep a change of clothes in my locker and in my backpack now. For the first couple of weeks, my brother did everything he could to stop Asher and Fransisco from teasing me, but he just wasn't as popular as them, so he couldn't do anything. True, he was still liked by everyone in school but no one wanted to mess with Asher and Fransisco, so after a while he just gave up. Jackson is nice enough to keep this all a secret from Mom and Dad, but I see that in his eyes, he wishes he could do something.

"I see we've decided to change it up with the flavors," I say nonchalantly, keeping my chin up. I swipe my finger on my cheek and taste the slushie, "Mm, blueberry." I turn on my heel and strut over to the girls' bathroom, keeping my head held high, trying to muster up as much confidence as I can. Deep down, I wish I could just roll up into a ball and cry. I get embarrassed like this almost everyday, but I was not going to give them the pleasure of seeing me cry. Behind me, I hear Jen following me and Lizzie threatening Asher and Fransisco.

"What'd I tell you last time?" I hear her say in a low, yet intimidating voice.

"Sorry, Lzzie, we just couldn't help it. We are so sorry," Asher jokes as he gives Lizzie the puppy dog eyes, "If you want, I can make it up to you at my place tonight." He winks.