Hope

Chapter 3

        I wake up to my alarm clock, as usual. I get up and look at my face in the mirror. My immediate reaction is to put my hand up to my mouth, shocked from what I see.
        The complete middle of my face is bruised. My nose is the shape it usually is, only it's different shades of purple. I pull my hand down, sighing.
At least my hair looks ok right now, I thought to myself. I plug in my straightener and get changed. I look back at my face again. The last thing I need is attention drawn to myself.
        I start straightening my hair, checking my calendar. Friday, that's ok in my book, I think to myself. I finish straightening my hair and go to brush my teeth.
        I go gentle when I brush my teeth, my whole face hurting. I rinse my mouth and go downstairs, slipping on some shoes and grabbing my backpack. I head to the bus stop.
        Emma's eyes widen as she sees my nose.
        "It's that bad?" She exclaims loudly.
        "Shhh, you're practically screaming," I said, frowning slightly. "I got punched hard, I don't know what to tell you," she said, yawning.
        "I know you texted me that it's broken, but that's a bad break man. You should get it checked," she said, examining it.
        "I don't need to get it checked if we know it's broken. It's not worth wasting the money, it's in its right shape anyways so it'll heal fine," I stated. We didn't have the money even if I wanted to get it checked up.
        The bus came and we got on, sitting down in the same seat. We both put our earbuds in our ears. I played the playlist that I had put together for the bus, consisting of the music that got me through the day.

---

        "Alright, we're going to start off the year with a group project," our first period teacher says, earning moans from practically all of the students.
       "And I'll be choosing your partner," he added with a smile. That got louder groans from all of the students. I sighed, not wanting to cause any attention to myself, even though I had many glances at my nose.
        The teacher picked up his list, starting to read off the names.
"Abby, you'll be with Julia," he said, earning squeals of glee from both of the girls. "Kayden, you'll be with..." my heart stops. Don't be me, don't be me, please something go right in my life for once. "...Olivia," he said. I let out a silent breath of relief, glad that the most popular guy and girl wouldn't be my partner.
"Asher, you'll be partners with Riley," the teacher said after that. My heart dropped into my stomach. That's not much better.
I look over to Asher, a giant scowl of disapproval on his face. He's going to argue that he wants to be alone anyways. He does that and wins every time, which is good for me too. But to my surprise, he doesn't raise his hand. He sits there in silence, not arguing or saying anything. What the heck?

•••

"Asher, you'll be partners with Riley." My eyes widen and my scowl deepens. No, no, NO. I'm working with the biggest freak in the school, and now has a broken nose. This is dumb, this is so dumb, I think to myself.
Wait a minute, she's the biggest dork. She's like, smart. I won't even have to interact with her, I'll just make her do all of the work and be done with it. I don't raise my hand, I don't argue. I'll take that partner.
After the teacher finishes reading off everyone's partners, he starts to explain what the actual project is.
"I'm sure most of you will like what this project is. We haven't taught you anything yet, and I don't expect you to remember much from last year. So it's not about smarts," he started off, some of the students listening now.
Well there goes my stupid plan, I might as well argue when he's done talking.
"This project will be about ranking in the school. I want you to make me a social hierarchy of the students in this school. Not their names, just label them. Some examples," he said, grabbing and expo marker and popping the cap off. He began writing, and saying what he was writing as it appeared on the board. "Jocks...cheerleaders...nerds..." he said. "Don't just say 'popular people', describe them," he said.
He grabbed a stack of paper, and began passing out what looked to be the rubric and the rules.
"This is also about expressing creativity, so bonus points to the one that looks the best," he said. "I want to break these barriers, and see all of your opinions. This is your one opportunity where a teacher won't yell at you for labeling people. You'll see in the end why I'm doing this," he said.
"Now go get with your partners and get started, we will have today, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to work on class with this," the teacher added.
I groaned and grabbed the stupid rubric, crumpling it slightly as I did so. I marched over to Riley, seeing a terrified look on her face. I started walking more calmly.
I sat in the desk beside her after the other person got up.
"I guess we have to work together," I muttered to her. I started reading over the rule. "What?! We have to write a stupid essay on why each of the different cliques are seen as better or worse than one another? This is dumb," I said aloud.
I looked over to her, surprised at what I saw. I actually saw her face, her hair pushed back. Her nose looked terrible up close. Her eyes were showing that she was agitated, probably with the choosing of partners.
"Listen, we both hate this. How about I just do the work and you do whatever your stone cold heart desires," she said to me, looking me in the eyes for the first time. I barely hear her speak, let alone so aggressively. I stared at her, in awe of what had just happen.
I could practically see the realization of what she had done flash across her face. She shook her head, making her hair fall back into where it normally was.
"Sorry," she mumbled beneath her hair.
"What did you say?" I said, grinning, since I knew it would tick her off.
"I said sorry, you asshole," she spat at me, luckily not loud enough for the teacher to hear her. I knew she had passed her breaking point, with everything happening. I shouldn't have done that.
"No I didn't-" I was cut off by her pushing het chair away from her desk, and standing up.
"I'll just do it, with the zero time I have free. I know you don't want to be seen working with a freak out of school hours, it's too bad for your precious reputation. I'll be back," she said, storming her way over to the door and out of the classroom, towards the restroom.
She noticed. Of course she's noticed everything wrong I do. I do care about my stupid reputation, and I don't want to be seen with her anyways. It's her own fault.
I make my own way over to the restroom, turning to go into the men's way. I stop when I hear something. I back up, but not into the girl's bathroom. I've heard this sound twice now.
She was crying, again. And it was because of my stupid mouth.

•••

I stormed my way into the bathroom, locking myself in a stall. I broke down again, hitting my head against the door.
I don't have time for this. I work after school Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, and Sunday. Two jobs on Mondays and Sundays, and one on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday.
         I wipe my eyes, going out of the stall. I look in the mirror, knowing there's nothing I can do about my blotchy face and puffy eyes. I sigh and walk out of the bathroom, seeing Asher standing there, holding his phone up to me with an evil grin.

AUTHOR'S NOTE:
Seven reads? That's so freaking cool!! Thank you so much if you made it to hear, I honestly didn't expect anyone to read this. If I make any mistakes, be free to tell me (not rudely).  I write these between midnight and 4am, so there's going to be something wrong.  Thank you!!!!