Hiding Behind A Mask | ✔

C H A P T E R T W O

Luckily for me, I was able to find my class with the help of an elderly janitor. He saw me standing in the hallway while every other student is heading to their classes, leaving the halls almost empty with me only left to wander around panicking. He was sweet enough to help me out though, with the white plain mask on, it kind of freaked him out.

I sit all the way in the back so that I'm not able to be seen by anyone, away from their eyes, away from any embarrassment.

Suddenly, someone sits in the desk that's in the other row, next to the one I'm sitting in. I pull on the hoodie, making sure that whoever this person is, does not see any part of my face or should I say, mask. I look up slightly to find that the students in my class are either talking to their friends, facing forward waiting for the second bell to ring, or they're just bored already.

The second bell rings and the teacher stand in the front of the classroom. "Hello, freshmen," she says with a big smile on her face, looking at all of us. "My name is Ms. Goodnick and welcome to English 1 honors!"

Everyone except for me said, "Hello, Ms. Goodnick..." in a bored tone.

Ms. Goodnick's big smile vanishes and turns into a frown. "You guys sound like zombies... You can do better!"

"Hello, Ms. Goodnick!" the students now spoke lively with a bit of humor in their tone.

"Thank you!" she says and began to teach today's lesson.

~ ~ ~

Somehow my four classes today went by quickly and the teachers didn't seem to care or notice my mask, which I'm pretty happy about though I still have my fake doctor's note in case they notice. The faster the school days end, the more the school days fly by.

I stand by my open locker, shoving in my books and papers from my classes inside. Closing my locker, I felt strong hands push me to the floor roughly, causing me to fall on my chin and hurt my right elbow really badly.

Well, great. Now I'm going to get a bruise...

I try to get up, using my hands to push me up, but stop to feel the pain in my elbow throb causing me to fall back down on the floor.

Students crowd around me and the other, who pushed me to the floor, making me want to curl up into a ball and cry. I look up slightly to see the crowd part for someone to pass through. It's a tall boy with dark brown hair and deep dark eyes that I noticed when he looked me in my blue glossy ones.

I watch silently as the boy clenches his fists and walk over to the one who pushed me, giving him a few hard punches on his jaw, making blood form and onto his knuckles. I hear the crowd cheer "fight, fight, fight!" as the two boys stand a close distance to each other with angry expressions.

"How could you just push a girl like that, Chad?" I hear one of them say. I believe it's the one who punched him that is taking up for me. "I know you have a big mouth that's full of bullshit, but that doesn't mean that you were supposed to do such thing!"

A deep growl escaped from who I believe that is Chad, "I didn't do it because I wanted to, Chance. I did it because someone told me to."

"And who would tell you to do that?" Chance asks when I felt someone's grip on my arm pulling me up.  I look up to see that it's the janitor, who helped me find my class today, helping me up to go to the school's nurse.

Just before the crowd parted to give me and the janitor way through, I heard Chad speak loud enough for everyone surrounding us to hear, "Saundra Brown." That name was like death to my ears.

~ ~ ~

I stand in front of the body mirror, putting mascara on along with red lipstick. I rub my lips together and smile to show my perfect white teeth and fixing my curly blonde hair. I'm wearing a white blouse, that's tucked into a pair of light blue shorts, with white buckled sandals.