Tyler and the Valaholics: The Beginning

Chapter 9

Song of the chapter- 'New Year's Day' by Pentatonix

'The past will wash away like coffee stains'

"So you injured Bryce, eh?" one of them asks, cracking his knuckles.

"Not intentionally," I reply nonchalantly.

"Oh, that was intentional, trust me," a guy says. I remember him standing right behind Bryce as I held his hand.

I turn to him to glare at him and he immediately retreats. The guy who first spoke slams his fists on my desk to regain my attention.

"What?" I snarl at him.

"You do know the repercussions are going to get worse, right?" another among the group asks.

"You wouldn't da-"

"Oh, we certainly would. Especially now that you can't snitch to your poor dead mother, It's our reign," he cuts me off.

"Listen up, you overgrown toad stools. Nitwits like y'all won't get your way anymore because now I won't hesitate to pull out all stops. It doesn't matter if you don't either because you will be crashing down, and crashing down fast, you ungrateful pieces of-" I pause when I realize I've risen to my full height and walked through the aisle, them backing off until they've reached the teacher's desk.

I take a careful step back as I survey the scenario. The guys are spread out in a semicircle in front of me, most of them kneeling or crouching down, and  most of the class seems to have spread to the sides of the room and away from me while the teacher scuttles down and behind the desk, her eyes wide as she focuses on me, panic evident in her expression.

"You know, you guys are really lucky I'm not like you and don't derive pleasure by bullying others. Tell your precious Bryce he's lucky his 'attacker' ensured he wasn't going to lose his palm. Just remember you could've gotten into way more trouble had I not saved you," I growl as I lift my hands up like someone showing the police they have no weapons in their possession.

Infuriated, I turn around and storm out of class only to collide with someone right outside the entrance and get knocked to the floor. Rubbing the part of my head that met the floor, I get up and lift my bag before putting a hand out to help the other person up, who doesn't take my hand.

I lift my eyes from my hand to his face and recognize him to be Bryce. He holds his palm close to his torso as he eyes me cautiously. Sighing in irritation, I grasp his shoulders and pull him up to his feet before dusting off his back and putting the strap of his bag on his shoulder.

I begin to walk away when he asks me to wait. I turn around to see that he's bare inches from my face as he asks me why I didn't just leave him in pain after all they put me through. I just shrug in response and walk away, winding up at my locker minutes later.

The sight of the dent at the bottom third of the locker door brings back the memory of how it got there...

I was new to the college, having completed the previous year in another. I knew absolutely no one who walked in the same hallways I did, and I told myself I would befriend at least one person who did. It didn't help much that I had come there after a third of the year had already gotten over.

I had reached my locker door and kept my books inside in the lunch break, thinking of the cute redheaded girl who had spoken to me in calculus class. She seemed quite friendly and had even invited me to join her for lunch.

I had reached the canteen, packed lunch in hand, and immediately spotted her.

"Valerie, hey!" she exclaimed when I sat by her side.

"I'm so sorry, could you repeat your name?" I asked her, unable to recall her name.

"Cynthia. Cynthia Hill. Cynthia Jamila Hill."

"I'll be sure to remember that!" I told her as we laughed.

A blonde girl who had been observing us for a while approached us and introduced herself as Lauren Beckett and asked if she and these two girls she'd met recently called Rosaly and Natalia could join us. I looked at Cynthia who nodded in reply, excitement dancing around in her eyes.

We were so engrossed in our conversations that we were startled when two similar girls, the only difference being that one had darker brown hair while the other had lighter brown hair, neared us and sat down, introducing themselves as Rosaly and Natalia.

After some quite animated exchanges and swapping of phone numbers and mail ids, I had left the canteen ten minutes before the bell. I reached my locker and put all the paper we'd written our contact details on and carefully placed them inside a book.

I'd taken out the books I required for class and shut the door when a group of guys passed by. One of them saw me and stopped the entire group. He'd approached me and asked if 'a poor kitty had lost its way and wound up here'.

"No, I study here. Well, from today," I replied.

"You can't exist here," another guy told me.

"And why ever not?" I shot back.

"Look at yourself in a damn mirror, Angel. You're everything that's ugly!" they continued to taunt me using quite hurtful words, dissing my features, personality and even hair.

I stepped forward, attempting to ignore them when the guy who'd spoken first grabbed hold of my shoulders to stop me. When I further tried to escape, he pushed me back, apparently with more force than he had anticipated as I hit my back on the lower part of the locker door and doubled over in pain and he had cringed but returned to his nonchalant expression in seconds.

"You know what, you haven't gotten kidnapped yet because you aren't even worth that," guys who had never known me or my personality told me before they left.

A loud clanging sound brings me out of my reverie as I turn my head to observe the guys' arrival. Just like then.

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Oooookay I'm so dang sleepy!

Again, happy new year to everyone!

Hopefully see you soon even though I've got loads of stuff to do this month and the next...

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